Thoughts on the Series XII Flipside Cover?

[Renegade Rob]

Over this past weekend, I’ve been processing the reveal of the Series XII flipside cover. As someone who likes consistency but also wants each series to have their own identity, I’ve been trying to figure out how I feel about the color. The pale red bunkroom and pale blue Starbug cockpit made perfect sense for X and XI, but the fact that the Science Room for XII, despite being an obvious choice, still nags at me a bit, so I’ve created this post more as a sounding board to help me work out how I come down on this very important issue.

I really want each series to feel like it’s own distinct entity with its own identity, and up until now, they have. But let’s face it: the military blue Science Room XII cover is a little close to the ocean blue of the Starbug cockpit XI cover, so that’s 2 pale-blues in a row. Granted, they’re slightly different shades, with XII having more than a dash of light purple. But it’s the equivalent of making Series IV the officers Bunkroom and Series V the old III-V Science Room: same color scheme because of similar production design. If they had made XII yellow with the new Science Room at Yellow Alert, that would’ve been great. Or they could have, as I thought they might do, made XII pale-green with the Starbug 19 interior and echo the pattern of the original 6, so that a Series XIII cover would be even paler beige and so on.
As it is, two light blues in a row, leaves me a little cold.

But then I did some more thinking about the cover (What better way is there to spend a Sarurday night?), and the thought occurred that part of XII’s identity is the fact that it’s of a pair with XI. Thet were commissioned together, written together, share sets and even moved scenes, and were basically filmed together. This sort of was one long series split over two, more than possible any pair of series before. Now true, XII is, give or take a Timewave, way better than XI overall, as almost certainly it built off the momentum established by XI to be more bold and confident.

In that light, it makes some deal of sense to have XI and XII be similar colors, because much of their identity is the fact that they’re intrinsically linked. Like those weird quasi-two-parters from Series 9 of Doctor Who. So I think I’m coming down on the side of “I get it and can live with it” but would have preferred something a little more distinct.

Thoughts?

[bloodteller]

yeah

[International Debris]

Until BtE gets re-released with a reversed cover I’m having all my Dave era ones the ‘correct’ way around. So… yeah.

[Renegade Rob]

That… actually makes a lot of sense.

[Rubber]

Right but it still has all four of them rather than just Rimming and Fister like the others which is completely aaaaarrrrrggggghhhh.

[bloodteller]

back to earth didn’t have just Rimming and Fister on the DVD cover

[Rubber]

Is there a reversible BtE cover?! Show me!

[Rubber]

Although I imagine it will be calling itself ‘Red Dwarf IX’ or some such thing.

[GlenTokyo]

I made this one a while back, but it’s for Region 1, and I can’t remember if I finished the Region 2 one before I had a technical laptop shitting the bed issue</img>

[International Debris]

I’ve seen a few BtE ones, but getting a nice printout, cutting it, putting it in a purchased DVD case, and then storing the other BtE case somewhere else is a lot more effort than bitching about a lack of official one here.

[bloodteller]

well Back To Earth isn’t really a full series, is it? so it wouldn’t have the normal cover to match all the others.

what i usually do to get around it is have my I-VIII and X-XI DVDs on my shelf all neatly next to each other in a row, and then i just chuck Back to Earth elsewhere on the shelf, usually sandwiched between Ghostbusters and Bottom Live 5.

[Renegade Rob]

At some point I scratched my Series III DVD and had to order another one. So what I ended up doing was putting my BTE discs in the old Series III case and switched out the cover with a Series IX cover I made on photoshop. It’s not perfect but it does the trick, seamlessly connecting 1-8 with X and beyond.

[Ben Saunders]

Do you think they’ll ever do a Just The Shows II eventually, and will it contain BtE?

[International Debris]

what i usually do to get around it is have my I-VIII and X-XI DVDs on my shelf all neatly next to each other in a row

You have a shelf of Red Dwarf DVDs that go I II III IV V VI VII VIII X XI? You are sick.

Do you think they’ll ever do a Just The Shows II eventually, and will it contain BtE?

I reckon after XIV we’ll get a Just The Daves box.

[Rubber]

Home made covers ????

[flanl3]

You have a shelf of Red Dwarf DVDs that go I II III IV V VI VII VIII X XI? You are sick.

You like a show that goes I II III IV V VI VII VIII X XI XII? That is sick.

[Pete Part Three]

This goes up to XI.

Ah, damn. XII now.

Joke ruined.

[Flap Jack]

Back to Earth being the only main series DVD spine that doesn’t match is a constant, very mild annoyance, but I still prefer to use the reversible covers over the standard ones. And I can’t countenance putting Back to Earth at the beginning or the end of the row – it’s just not chronological!

In theory I agree with the “Back to Earth isn’t a proper series” idea, but in practice Dave/GNP insisted on calling the next series of Red Dwarf “Series X” so there’s no good in trying to argue that BtE isn’t Series 9.

Random thought: for those of you who have it, where do you put The Bodysnatcher Collection on your DVD shelf?

[Dave]

Back To Earth definitely *is* the ninth series of Red Dwarf, speaking literally.

It’s just not called “Series 9”.

(Or “Series IX”.)

[bloodteller]

>Back to Earth being the only main series DVD spine that doesn’t match is a constant, very mild annoyance, but I still prefer to use the reversible covers over the standard ones. And I can’t countenance putting Back to Earth at the beginning or the end of the row – it’s just not chronological!

just bung it on the other end of your shelf, maybe?

[International Debris]

As ever, the French DVD of it calls it series IX. Therefore, it’s IX.

[si]

Random thought: for those of you who have it, where do you put The Bodysnatcher Collection on your DVD shelf?

My RD DVD shelf:

#RedDwarf DVD shelf. Eagerly awaiting new arrivals. #RedDwarfXII pic.twitter.com/CJnCfvdykW

— Si (@bromley001) November 10, 2017

[International Debris]

I enjoy X, but four copies?!

[si]

I like shiny things.

[bloodteller]

where’d you get the US Pilot dvd?

[si]

It’s a VCD that someone copied for me. Not great quality. Drew the sleeve myself.

[flanl3]

Is it really series IX? Apart from the fact that it’s not, it’s not really even a series. If somebody asks me about the seasons of BoJack Horseman, I’m not going to go “Well there was season 1, the second season which was the Horsin’ Around credits, then season 3 which was the Christmas special, then the fourth season which they called season 2 and the fifth which they called season 3, then finally the sixth season which they called season 4.”

Not everything has to be a season, and I am permanently annoyed with whomever designed that French cover.

[Dave]

It is literally a series of three episodes. So yes, it is the ninth series of Red Dwarf. But that doesn’t make it ‘series IX’.

[Ben Saunders]

I thought calling it Series X was a meta joke because I’m BtE Noddy calls Series IX the “best series ever”, and it would be funny if we never got to see it…

Except he actually calls Series Ten the best series ever, which is a complete and total utter fucking shambles and I don’t know what they were thinking

[bloodteller]

no he doesn’t

[cwickham]

The series before Back to Earth was VIII and the series after it was X. Therefore, Back to Earth is IX.

[Ben Paddon]

One day – some far off distant time way into the future which I hope to live long enough to see – people will stop arguing about whether or not the ninth series of Red Dwarf episodes should be called “series nine” or not.

[International Debris]

it’s not really even a series

Dictionary:

a set or sequence of related television or radio programmes.

It’s a fucking series.

Miniseries probably works, but it’s still a series. Sherlock series are only three episodes long. Series 1 & 2 of The Thick of It were only three episodes long.

[International Debris]

Anyone baffled by BtE being a series shouldn’t look at the episode listings for A Touch of Frost, they’ll get ill:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_A_Touch_of_Frost_episodes#Episodes

[Ben Saunders]

Oh fucking hell, ignore my previous post, he does actually say “season nine” was the best season ever, hence the joke does work.

I’m putting it down to the Mandela Effect, because I definitely heard him say “ten” on the docco.

Also what kind of prick says “season” when referring to a British show and actually being British himself

[Dave]

Imagine my confusion some years back when I started watching the new Battlestar Galactica from the start of season 1, and soon realised there had been a previous series before that, which I should have watched first.

[si]

Who was it – Craig? Doug? – who suggested that series ten should be subtitled ‘The Hunt for Series Nine’?

[Seb Patrick]

>Also what kind of prick says “season” when referring to a British show and actually being British himself

Every Doctor Who fan for twenty-six years, for a start.

[Ben Saunders]

It’s seasons of Classic Who, but series of New Who, and of Red Dwarf. I’m not sure why old Who is in seasons, might have something to do with The Sixties, either way hearing “season” is just one of those things that really grates with me, like people calling films “movies”… which is another thing Red Dwarf does. It’s just so American

[flanl3]

a set or sequence of related television or radio programmes.

Looking two lines later in this google definition lists “program” and “show” as synonyms, so this definition quite literally does refer to a whole show, not a British season equivalent.

Seeing as I don’t think this is getting resolved unless Doug himself speaks on it, I do have an interesting other question: what would we be fighting about if the first series after BtE had been entitled series IX?

[Flap Jack]

That’s a fine shelf you have there, Si. Mine goes Series I-VIII, Beat the Geek, Bodysnatcher, Back to Earth, Series X-XII (i.e. strict release order). I figured that BtE already screwed up the spine continuity, so why not?

On the subject of BtE, if Doug wanted the name of the first full Dave series to complete the joke of there being missing series, he should have called Series X “Series XI”. But he lost his bottle!

Of course if the first Dave series was Series IX, then we would have all been happy to regard Back to Earth as a wholly non-numbered special. But that isn’t what happened.

Yes, this is definitely important enough to warrant lengthy discussion.

[Ben Saunders]

My DVD shelf goes Just The Shows, BtE, X, XI :(

[International Debris]

Look at this loser ^^

[Ali Green]

My DVDs are ordered I-VIII, X-XII, BtE, Bodysnatcher, Beat The Geek. My OCD still isn’t happy about putting BtE out of running order but I hate it so much that I don’t even consider it canon.

I had the same feeling about the XII DVD being so similar in colour to XI, my way of accepting this is that XI and XII were both filmed back to back, but I really would have preferred a different colour perhaps the yellow alert science room or something with a pale green in keeping with the I, II and II colours.

Also no mention of Norman being on the spine for a second time? I would have much preferred it to have continued the pattern of having a guest star on there, Talkie Toaster or the M-Corp lady maybe? Also I believe this is the only spine with black writing which is just bloody annoying compared to the rest! Very tempted to flip the reversible covers for X, XI and XII to the main covers so I can put I-XII in chronological order!?

[Lily]

I don’t have a shelf as I’m sorta homeless, but this is my box

View post on imgur.com

[Dave]

Ooh, you need to get the SPACED boxset for the third disc. It’s worth it.

[Lily]

In hindsight I should have curated that a little more before posting. I’ve not even watched the second disc of Spaced – only watched the first few shows and didn’t really ‘get’ it. I had to rummage through another box to find Beat the Geek, another disc that’s never been out the box.

I seem to be the only one leaving X and XI with their original covers. I didn’t like the way the pattern was repeating, BtE causes a break anyway, and I feel the Dave era -isn’t- the same as the original DVD releases so there’s no point in even attempting to be cohesive.

[si]

My RD:USA cover.

The cover I drew a few years ago for my crappy VCD copy of the #RedDwarf USA Pilot. Note the felt-tip's faded a bit now. pic.twitter.com/bIOEzmcv89

— Si (@bromley001) November 16, 2017

Ooh, you need to get the SPACED boxset for the third disc. It’s worth it.

The 2010 Dutch boxsets have a new commentary track. Which is nice.

Groovy Spaced collection. pic.twitter.com/KAcncYQqJM

— Si (@bromley001) November 16, 2017

[Ben Saunders]

Yeah Lily, seeing them all together like that, I-VIII definitely look like one cohesive unit, and adding to that would just make it look a bit awkward, with the Red Dwarf logo all off to one side. The spilt makes sense, honestly

[bloodteller]

you’re right i suppose- the way i have my DVDs lined up means the Red Dwarf logo is off to the left, which will only look even more weird once XII’s dvd comes out

[Author]

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