John’s Newsround – 12/6/06 News Posted by John Hoare on 11th June 2006, 23:34 Two updates on TOS this week. Well, last week. First is news that the Czechs are getting hold of extrasless VII – originally due to be released on June 14th, it’s now been put back to August due to “difficulties with the animated menus”. Hmmm – even without extras, it’s a struggle to get eight eps on one disc. A two disc release, perhaps? More entertainingly, there’s also UMD Smeg Ups cover and menu designs, and a release date – July 10th. I’m still not keen on the idea of buying anything on a format other than DVD at the moment myself (just rip DVDs for all your portable viewing needs – you did buy them, after all) – but I suppose sales will be the ultimate judge of whether the release was worth doing or not. At least effort has been made to not simply duplicate the DVD releases directly. (The more I think about it, the more I’d like to see this material released on DVD as well – it’s just far more satisfying viewing than how it’s presented on the main DVD releases.) Interestingly, the VII Smeg Ups (originally released on the Xtended vid) are also on there – presumably, the VIII smeg ups will be included on the Smeg Outs release, due in time for Christmas. Also interestingly, the merchandise section of the main feature has been edited out – with a new voiceover from Robert added to give up-to-date info. Presumably the edit without the competition details will be used as well. Anyway, it’s good to see that it looks like they’re going with the original video’s 15 classification, rather than editing it for a 12 like the recent DVD releases (presuming that the classification on the cover art is correct) – and a brave one from a marketing point of view, considering it’s for release on a console. (There’s nothing on either Smeg Ups or Smeg Outs that I think deserves a 15 certificate anyway – and the 12 certificate was around for video use in time for both releases. But that’s a whole different discussion.) Apart from that, there’s really not much going on in the world of Dwarf at the moment. The only other thing is that Fifth Dwarfer Tony Hawks has revamped his website. An Flash-based navigation system, an ugly design, and pointless sound that gets in the way of what I’m actually listening to at the time? I’d prefer chicken. A pity, because the content is pretty good – if you’ve not read it already, you have to see Skate Mail. Nyah, amusing! (A free drink at DJ from me for the first person to get that last reference.)
There’s nothing on either Smeg Ups or Smeg Outs that I think deserves a 15 certificate anyway Yeah, I’m not sure why it was a 15, either… particularly as all the worst swearing is bleeped out!
>I’d prefer chicken. That’s actually a pretty under-utilized quote, considering how you can apply it to almost anything.
> A two disc release, perhaps? Actually not – they’ve crammed them all in. (It helps not to have a lot of menus and audio tracks to fit on, obviously.) Any change in picture quality isn’t immediately apparent – though I suspect for Just The Shows Vol. 2 we’ll spread the eps over two discs per series. > Presumably the edit without the competition details will be used as well We did, in fact, also take the competition out. But the “to the gills” outtake WILL be included. The Smeg Outs has been similarly treated to replace the merchandise stuff with new Bobby VO and no comp. The second version of Ups (I think; I’m losing track a bit) had a dodgy edit which, oddly, nobody had spotted – Kryten’s doing his top-ten countdown and there’s a dissolve, FROM Kryten TO Kryten, hiding the fact that one of the numbers has been cut out. This was (again, I think) to lose the old merch stuff. So that edit’s not in this edition, cos we have the website ref instead. Which means there are now THREE different edits of the Smeg Ups – and yet no G&T article listing the differences in mind-numbing detail. For shame! :-)
> I’m not sure why it was a 15, either… particularly as all the worst swearing is bleeped out! BBFC policy as-was included most F-words to be rated 15. (Aside from some single uses, based on context, that rated 12.) Although you can’t HEAR the beeped-out swearing, the lip-synch is clear for everyone to see. (And was something we had to pixilate to get a 12 on the IV DVD.) I don’t think the original beeps were done for the certification, though. More to preserve the ‘nature’ of Red Dwarf, its tone. Extreme swearing has never been part of the show’s vocab, and I suspect Doug wanted it to stay that way.
Is that some reference to the other ‘Hawkes’ who wasted many minutes of my time trying to search the Dwarfer Hawkes…shouldn’t be allowed….
