DVD Roundup – 22/2/07 News Posted by John Hoare on 22nd February 2007, 09:34 No more Remastered news yet, I’m afraid – but a couple of releases you might be interested in. First up is Series 1 of Hyperdrive, due for release on 7th May. That is an impressive set of extras – cast and crew commentaries, a making of, a tour of the set featurette, deleted scenes, a video diary, and a photo gallery. The real shame about this release is that it doesn’t look like the pilot episode has been included. It starred Mark Gatiss as York, and Sanjeev Bhaskar as Henderson (and not Omid Djalili as SFX claimed) – and was directed by Armando Iannucci! I didn’t like what I saw of the resulting series, but I’m desperate to see that pilot – I’m sure it’d be absolutely fascinating, as pilots usually are. A look into what could have been – and with two main characters recast, it must have had a very different feel to the resulting series. We can only hope that Play don’t have the full extras list… but to be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me if it isn’t on there. And that’s a pity. The series has been an oddly long time coming for a DVD release these days, considering it was broadcast in January 2006 – I expected it late last year. It’s presumably scheduled to coincide with the start of the second series, which has been shot, and is currently in post-production. According to Wikipedia, it’s is due to be broadcast in April. And if you’re wondering why I’ve resisted the urge to be hugely rude about the show so far, it’s because I only watched the first episode of Series 1, and I fully intend to give it another go. Although I have to say, it’s a rare comedy show that grows on me – I usually know whether I like something within the first five minutes of the first episode. When it, you know, actually makes me laugh. Oh, bollocks. And I was doing so well. Moving on – and thanks to Sam Moore on the Webboard, who points out that Back In Business is out on DVD on the 19th March. It looks like a pretty good package – although deleted scenes aren’t mentioned, but that could be just Play being rubbish – and I’m especially intrigued to know what the “poor man’s process commentary” is. Calling it a Special Edition is stupid though – because there’s no standard edition release. And yes, I’m going to keep banging on about that. We’ll probably have a review next century. Oh, and Play – I listen to my own music when browsing the net. I don’t want a bloody film trailer starting up obscuring my wonderful playlist of Girls Aloud tracks, every single Tomorrow’s World theme, and old Radio 1 jingles. THIS COUNTRY.
I watched the first episode, most of the second and kind of looked in on a couple of others but it just seemed to get worse rather than better. They probably can’t include the pilot because it’s a different cast (and because there’s a good chance it’s ten to twenty times better than the series). Even if they’d included the pilot I still wouldn’t have bought this, I would have waited for someone to upload it on youtube… *mwahahahahabwehehe*
There could be rights issues with the Hyperdrive pilot, I guess. But creators often seem to worry more about pilots – Whedon is adamant that the Buffy pilot will never be released on DVD. I can see why people get worried about releasing them, and understand it – sometimes you want to make your mistakes in private – but it’s also extremely annoying, because it wouldn’t hurt anyone’s career! The one pilot I’m *desperate* to see is Hippies – it was a version of Hippy Dippy Hippies, but it was completely reshot for the series… I didn’t know Bachman had been in Hyperdrive. He’s *fantastic* in Mitchell & Webb though (“I know what it means…”), and I saw The Wicker Woman performed as well, which was brilliant. He’s great.
Yeah Bachman is really funny, and great at stealing scenes from M&W. “That’s the other thing about me, apart from knowing about the cricket.”
It did seem a bit dodgey when I watched the first episode of the series, but it grows on you. The British in Space was done so well, I’ll be buying the DVD.
BTW, was the pilot one of those that 6 (?) pilot shows in a season the BBC2 did a couple of years ago? I seem to remember them showing a pilot for a different show each week and one was sci-fi oritentated but I can’t remember much about them.
Nah – the pilot never aired. I don’t remember a BBC2 SF pilot – but I do remember one Channel 4 did for a Comedy Lab. It also featured Eldon, and was RUBBISH.
I’ve looked everywhere for that pilot! And even the fan forums never even comment about it! I feel it must be lost forever….
Captain V, it was called. It also featured Matt Lucas, who was yet to become one of the two laziest men in the world.