DVD Roundup – 3/4/06 News Posted by John Hoare on 3rd April 2006, 02:15 Hmmm. I have work at 8 o’clock. I also have an apprasial – a main feature of which will be that I keep being late. I DON’T KNOW WHY. Two bits of main DVD news on TOS this week, then. The first is a report from the VIII launch event, with lots of lovely photos. I would have gone, but unfortunately I’m not DOLE SCUM. The other bit of news is something that’s come rather quicker than I expected – info on future Dwarf releases! The one we could have predicted is Just The Shows: Byt… erm, Volume 2, coming this Autumn. I wonder what they’ll do with VII/VIII – eight episodes a DVD would be a bit of a stretch quality-wise. More unexpectedly (although there has been the odd hint on the Webboard) – Dwarf is also making an appearance on UMD – Smeg Ups in June, with Smeg Outs before Christmas. Interestingly, there have been reports that some companies are reducing their support for the format (see the Wikipedia article), even though 2 entertain seem to be embracing it – but, then, DVDs didn’t take off as fast as people thought they would, with one particularly smug friend of mine declaring it a dead format just before it really took off. Despite this, it’s not really a format I can see going anywhere – most people won’t want to pay for the same things twice, and most people interested in watching things on the move will just find a way of ripping their existing DVD collection, or buying something slightly bigger to watch their DVDs directly. Still, credit to GNP and 2 entertain for releasing something relatively new for the format – I’m sure people with PSPs are thrilled. I’m just not one of them, and am not really likely to be. Most interesting of all, and completely unexpected, is the news about a Red Dwarf quiz DVD. To be produced in the next few months, and apparently with a “killer concept” for the format, I’m rather more excited about this than some people seem to be. DJ quiz night is always brilliant, and the team option especially has the prospect of lots of DRUNK ARGUMENTS. This has the potential to be great fun. Perhaps some people were hoping for an announcement of the Remastered series with loads of extras – but, reading between the lines (or, indeed, just reading the lines) – if this sells well enough, that will follow. So cough up when it comes along, even if you hate the idea, eh? Oh, and any ideas for what could be done for the 20th anniversary, mention them below. I’d love another Red Dwarf Night – if only to show all the stuff that’s difficult to clear for commercial release…
I flippin’ love the quiz DVD idea. Andrew’s very good at writing difficult questions (as we’ve seen with the TOS quizzes) so I can imagine this getting rather challenging.
Would the BBC be arsed with another Red Dwarf Night? I think the best thing that we could wish for is a new series starting on the 20th anniversary, or a TV special. I think if this happened the BBC would be up for making a big deal about the anniversary. From what Doug says on the VIII DVD, the time where he will make a decision regarding Dwarf’s future is almost upon us. If the movie never happens it’ll be a REAL shame but I think there’s a good chance we’ll get TV Dwarf in the next couple of years. I wonder if it would be possible for Doug to adapt his movie script for a TV special or series. Obviously if the start of the movie was going to be a reboot of the Dwarf story (crew dies, stasis, holograms, Cat race etc.) then all that would have to go and the rest of the plot somehow scaled down for TV. I bet it would kill Doug to do it, but if the script’s good it would be really bad never to see any of it.
(Posted without Typekey because it seems not to be working for some reason) Andrew has said something interesting on the Webboard: “The quiz may have more going for it than you currently think…or maybe it’ll be stuff you don’t care for.” Idea: possibly some extras-style material could be the reward for getting the quizzes correct?
“Idea: possibly some extras-style material could be the reward for getting the quizzes correct?” Souper!
Idea: possibly some extras-style material could be the reward for getting the quizzes correct? Hey, good idea. Maybe that’s where they can put some of the more obscure stuff that don’t really warrant a release anywhere else (ie the stuff from the “Future Extras” that probably wouldn’t be released)
