DwarfCast 157 – Re-Disc-overy: Series 1

62 comments on “DwarfCast 157 – Re-Disc-overy: Series 1”

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• Ooh can’t wait to listen to this :D

  Do you have any plans to do a podcast or article about the 10th anniversary of Series X? Or have we run that one into the ground at this point? :P

• Two Dwarfcasts in the space of a week! Lovely stuff.

• 

• It was going to be three, but Jimmy Nail hated us so much he’s blocked the release of his interview.

• Listening to this currently and a thought occurs …

  A similar question has been asked before but in a different vain so bear with

  Do you think, had it not been for all of the additional material that we’re lucky to get with Red Dwarf thanks in part to the DVDs – i.e. the behind the scenes, the documentaries, all of the access we have as fans to the creation of the show, the continued use of studio audiences, the continued creation of documentaries – that you’d still be as engaged with Red Dwarf and putting as much effort into G&T etc as you do now.

  For context, it’s been asked “would you still be fans if you hated the recent episodes” and the answer was resoundly, yes and we’d still be doing G&T.  But is it all of the bonus content that helps keep a) the community going and b) the drive to create content yourselves and by extension, for us as fans and visitors to this site to keep coming back.

  Because, it’s easy to say you’d still be fans and still watch the show and talk about it.  But if you/we/us only had the episodes, wouldn’t conversation and motivation run dry a little bit.

  Had the Red Dwarf DVDs basically just been 6 episodes with a few trailers and some photos thrown on as extras you certainly wouldn’t be making this series of Dwarfcasts.  So had we not been spoiled with so much access to the making of the show and everything else would we all still be here now, would this site and this community still exist?

  Put that in your waffle tray and toast it!

• Nice idea. The DVDs were a big deal for me, as I’d only just got around to buying the old videos off eBay, thanks to them having been removed from circulation around the time I would have started buying them, and not having thought to record any off TV until series VIII, so this was the first time I was going to own more than a few scattered episodes.

  The gaps between each substantial release were about right to give me time to immerse myself in each run and build anticipation for the next one, a bit like I was watching and taping the original broadcasts. Series 1 initially had a sense of roughness about it (knowing I had to wait ages for Kryten, Starbug and everything), but I grew to appreciate it so much, and Me2’s still one of my top episodes. That might not have happened if they’d released basic packages once every month or so like they did for the Star Treks.

  Looking forward to having time to listen to this!

• Absolutely lovely stuff, as ever! A series we never knew we wanted. Looking forward to the others.

  I bought some films in a three for £20 offer when I was shopping for my first year of university. My parents had bought me a laptop with a DVD drive and the increased quality plus smaller storage space meant they were more appealing than VHS. I ended up dropping out and reapplying so I had a year to kill. It was about the time of the series III DVD launch that I bought the first three series all together. I’d probably read about it on TOS and thought it would be a good way to kill a few hours. Still incredibly fond memories of that time, watching the originals for the first time in years, spending hours going through the different extras and Easter eggs. What an amazing thing these DVDs were! I think the next one I bought was the DVD Orbital had done for their album The Altogether, and that made use of the multi-angle function, different takes of music videos on different angles. The menus there were like a maze, more hours spent finding little secrets and oddities hidden throughout the disc. 

  I noticed recently that none of the three DVD players in this house even have an angle button on the remote. Amazing how such a versatile (literally) technology was watered down and streamlined so quickly. It had such potential and within a few years it had just reverted to ‘main feature + 20 minute behind the scenes bonus’. 

  Obviously some of the shows have come out as deluxe editions, like Blackadder, The Young Ones, The Fast Show, etc., I’m sure this would have happened to Red Dwarf even if the basic white cover versions had come out in 1999. 

  To be honest, though, every DVD was a disappointment after those initial purchases. I think my next few were Men Behaving Badly which had outtakes hidden behind an interactive quiz section which was a novelty that got boring very quickly. 

  There were a few other comedies that put some effort in: The League of Gents, Look Around You, Spaced and Chris Morris’s stuff all made the most of the format, through menus and extras, even if they weren’t as extensive as the Dwarf ones. But by the time I’d got to Father Ted, Blackadder, Black Books and so on, I realised that few to no special features was the norm. 

  For years I’d had a list of upcoming albums in a notepad file on my computer, with release dates and everything, so I knew where my money was going, and I’d be down at my nearest record shop on a Monday to buy them. For a few years that expanded to include comedy DVDs. I think there was an all-encompassing thread on Cookd & Bombd that I checked regularly. I’d be down at Virgin straight after uni on a Monday morning to buy the next series of One Foot in the Grave. I get the feeling not many others were doing that. I genuinely really miss those days, the excitement of owning a series I’d not seen before, or for ages. 

  I’d never gone into the background of the show before. Until the DVDs I wasn’t a Red Dwarf nerd in that way. So Launching Red Dwarf was my introduction to the history off the show. So it was amazing viewing for me, even though it’s obviously been improved on in the intervening years. But yeah, it has a special place in my heart as a way in to fandom, really. 

  I loved the commentaries when I first got the DVDs. Just the idea of the cast talking in such depth about every episode was utterly incredible. It wasn’t until I listened to the Bodysnatcher ones that I realised how much better they could be. 

  Reading about Six of the Best was very revealing, because that being used as a commentary baffled me at the time, as they don’t actually reference what’s on screen. Ever. 

  I always found Easter eggs by going through the feature/chapter numbers manually with the remote. 

  There is a cynical side of myself that thinks they did the partwork spine so they could guarantee people would actually buy VII and VIII. 

• There is a cynical side of myself that thinks they did the partwork spine so they could guarantee people would actually buy VII and VIII. 

  I didn’t care, but when I gave the set to a friend before leaving the country a few years later, I bought them VII & VIII in a sale for the sake of their shelf (after opening them to watch the documentaries and any other extras I cared for).

• Better than that “here you go, all six series of Red Dwar“

• The gaps between each substantial release were about right to give me time to immerse myself in each run and build anticipation for the next one

  Agreed

  I was 15 in 2002, and remember being beyond excited for the Series I DVD, for many of the same reasons the guys said on the cast: the sheer futuristic-ness and possibilities of the format. The fact that it would be the originals, naked and unvarnished, when it did indeed seem like Re-mastered had irreversibly replaced series I-III. The novelty of a new Dwarf release when the series had effectively been 4 years dead at the time (an age to a teenager).

  I also owned no DVD’s, or anything to play them on. I’d never been much of a gamer (owned an N64 with maybe only half a dozen games, that were nevertheless well-played and loved), but I saved up for a PS2, with the dual purpose of being able to play Pro Evolution Soccer and DVD’s. The latter desire was very much driven by the release of Series I, which was the first DVD I bought, along with League of Gentlemen Series 2 (my spot-on Papa Lazarou impression was the envy of my friends. Possibly).

  The memory of how/where I bought it is lost to the mists of time, but I certainly got my money’s worth.

  Whenever I watch anything from I-VI now, I’m always hearing snatches of the cast commentary in my minds ear. Possibly a reflection of the quality of the show, but I didn’t enjoy or revisit the commentaries for VII & VIII much at all. The expanded roster, as well as a level of apparent disinterest from certain participants, left it feeling a bit muddled and tedious.

  Maybe I was also suffering from extras-saturation a little, the sheer volume of bonus material we were getting by that point could almost be described as overwhelming. Not that I should complain one iota about all the marvellous content that Ellard et al slaved to bring us.

• Fantastic idea. While I wasn’t into Red Dwarf when this DVD came out, I do still have strong nostalgia for the first time I got the DVD and devoured all the episodes and the special features (which would have been my first exposure to anything about the making of the show at all), so this was great. I’m already looking forward to the next one of these.

  And it’s worth it purely for the appreciation of THE MAN, THE LEGEND, Peter Ridsdale-Scott.

  I assume you won’t always be picking the main behind the scenes documentary for commentating, but when it comes to Series X, surely you won’t be able to resist doing a 2 hour ‘We’re Smegged’ commentary.

  Re the Japanese dubbed episodes, I know for sure they were cut down, because at one point I got curious about the Japanese Series 1-8 Blu ray set, and read some of its Amazon reviews (auto translated). There were quite a few Japanese fans who were annoyed about how the episodes were uncut now, but they didn’t do any new dubbing, so it jarringly switches between Japanese voices and English voices with Japanese subtitles.

  Japanese DVDs and Blu rays are stupidly expensive, by the way. That Series 1-8 set costs like 3-4 times as much as the UK version, and it doesn’t even have any extras. There was a small part of me that thought it might be a fun bit of Red Dwarf merch to own, but not at that price. I know it’s technically the only way to see Red Dwarf Remastered in HD, but still.

• I always count my blessings, looking at BBC DVDs from the early 2000s. That first release of The Young Ones and that compilation of Not the Nine O’Clock News especially. We could’ve so easily had the BBC just knock out Remastered on DVD with the only special feature being interactive menus.

• Kudos to Andrew Ellard for the releases and November 2002 was a great time to be buying DVDs. I think the first I’m Alan Partridge DVD was issued in the same month and a lot of people seemed to be starting to realize the potential of including extras and audio commentaries.

  During that whole period, I remember buying so many DVDs that featured stacks of bonus features (Marion and Geoff, Human Remains, Knowing Me Knowing You, Coogan’s Run, Phoenix Nights etc.) and I still have a huge feeling of nostalgia for all of them.

  It’s absolutely true, though, that the people involved with archive BBC releases often didn’t approach things in the same way. I recall John Sullivan saying that he and Gareth Gwenlan agreed to record commentaries for some Only Fools and Horses episodes, but then nobody called them back. A lost opportunity.

  It’s fortunate both that Andrew was involved, and that GNP was a fully operational company at the time. Possibly the only positive to come from the whole movie saga is that Red Dwarf was considered to be an ongoing concern and there was a motivation to provide fans with quality releases.

  I remember going to Woolworths to buy that first DVD and it was an exciting moment. I was not going through a good period in my life and there was something hugely comforting about being able to rewatch the episodes and to listen to the warm cast commentaries. I was also momentarily thrilled to see that a Rob and Doug commentary was included and, for a few seconds, thought that they’d reunited to record it (I inserted the disc before reading the booklet or any other info about the release). Now, of course, we can look back and say that it’s a shame that there weren’t any new writer/director commentaries or a lengthier documentary, but it was a great release at the time.

• It’s absolutely true, though, that the people involved with archive
  BBC releases often didn’t approach things in the same way. I recall John
  Sullivan saying that he and Gareth Gwenlan agreed to record
  commentaries for some Only Fools and Horses episodes, but then nobody
  called them back. A lost opportunity.

  It’s still quite shocking that Only Fools and Horses – surely the King of British sitcoms – to this day has only ever had a bare bones release, repackaged into various boxsets every few years. I’m sure that the Christmas Specials blu-ray release last year is the first time the Jolly Boys’ Outing has been released unedited.

• It’s still quite shocking that Only Fools and Horses – surely the King of British sitcoms – to this day has only ever had a bare bones release, repackaged into various boxsets every few years. I’m sure that the Christmas Specials blu-ray release last year is the first time the Jolly Boys’ Outing has been released unedited.

  Last year, I think, was also the first time that the broadcast version of A Royal Flush was issued. The DVD version had been a much shorter edit with audience laughter added.

• So get that lovely red box off your shelf, remove the dust from your ageing DVD player and join us

  Listen to the Dwarfcast while getting the disc(s) out.

• On the subject of the Japanese versions, I think that many British references were cut entirely or were just intentionally “mistranslated” with foreign language broadcasts. For example, the Cliff Richard reference was cut and Lister’s comments about Pot Noodles were translated into something entirely banal (presumably because cup noodles are genuinely hugely popular in Japan).

• It’s absolutely true, though, that the people involved with archive

  BBC releases often didn’t approach things in the same way. I recall John
  Sullivan saying that he and Gareth Gwenlan agreed to record
  commentaries for some Only Fools and Horses episodes, but then nobody
  called them back. A lost opportunity.

  It’s still quite shocking that Only Fools and Horses – surely the King of British sitcoms – to this day has only ever had a bare bones release, repackaged into various boxsets every few years. I’m sure that the Christmas Specials blu-ray release last year is the first time the Jolly Boys’ Outing has been released unedited.

  Is there anything in the bones of how Fools was made that would make an interesting package though? And would there be a big enough audience for it?

  We’re lucky that Red Dwarf is quite geeky (especially in production), has a geeky fan base, and the DVDs were produced by a massive geek for that fan base – even if they obviously wanted a wider audience to buy them.

  given most other sitcoms are – rehearse for a week, record on two sets in front of an audience, repeat – I can’t see there’s enough there to give similar treatments to them as Red Dwarf. And the general audience wouldn’t care enough for it even if there was. Best you could hope for is a documentary on how David Jason fell through a bar. 

• It’s only in writing his name out I realised David Jason shares a name (kind of) with David Jason Frank, the original Green Power Ranger. 

• Is there anything in the bones of how Fools was made that would make an interesting package though? And would there be a big enough audience for it?
  We’re lucky that Red Dwarf is quite geeky (especially in production), has a geeky fan base, and the DVDs were produced by a massive geek for that fan base – even if they obviously wanted a wider audience to buy them.
  given most other sitcoms are – rehearse for a week, record on two sets in front of an audience, repeat – I can’t see there’s enough there to give similar treatments to them as Red Dwarf. And the general audience wouldn’t care enough for it even if there was. Best you could hope for is a documentary on how David Jason fell through a bar.

  As Only Fools and Horses has had numerous books issued, documentaries made, supporting cast member tours, conventions arranged etc. I think it’s fair to say that there absolutely would have been an audience for special edition DVDs. 

  You seem to be suggesting that learning more about how an audience sitcom was made would be of no interest to people. You’re probably lucky that John Hoare is no longer a member of the team here. ;)

• I think there’s a point to be made in that OFAH was probably more likely to sell well as a bare bones release than some other shows, given its popularity with casual viewers. Truth is, I’d imagine Quinn’s point is probably a similar stance to the BBC’s. 

• For die hard fans I absolutely recognise there’d be things to learn about how OFAH was made, but (and this is pure speculation) it can’t be to the same degree of interesting detail as Red Dwarf.  Red Dwarf has models and special effects and episode specific music cues and episodes filmed at cowboy ranches in Kent.  I just think there’s probably more story to tell because of the sort of show it is.

  And as Debris says, the vast majority of people watching a standard audience sitcom aren’t going to care much for extras that much.  An interview here and there might draw them in but I can’t imagine details of what stage in what studio was used and where the cameras were analogue or digital is going to matter to anyone other than John Hoare frankly.

  Coincidentally enough, I decided to buy Lee and Herrings Fist of Fun as, being rather inconsiderately born towards the end of the 80s I was a little too young for it at the time and haven’t seen it.  Those DVDa (and downloads if you choose that option) come with a ton of extra material that Lee and Herring put together to go on the DVDs, almost to the level Ellard went to for Red Dwarf

  There’s studio rushes of the recordings, pilot episode, commentaries, scans of scripts and other hard copy material.  It’s like they rounded up everything they could find and included it.  But they financed that release themselves I believe and would have wanted to give value to sort of people that might want to buy 12 episodes of a short run oft forgotten mid 90s comedy show.

• Great idea for a new Dwarfcast series, and a very enjoyable first episode. 

  My relationship with the DVDs is a bit of an odd one as I was in the slightly earlier era of fandom where I’d seen all eight series several times over by that point and had for years had them all on VHS (in a combination of official releases and off-airs), and I had also lost interest in the show post-VIII and didn’t really have space in my life at that point for any kind of fandom.

  So while I was aware of the DVD release, for various reasons it wasn’t as exciting to me as (say) when Series 1 first came out on VHS, which for me was the feeling of a fresh glimpse at the past that I guess the DVDs brought for some people.

  In fact, I don’t think I ever checked out the DVDs until years later when I picked up the I and IV sets at the same time and was surprised by how much they had to offer (Andrew Ellard really did a fantastic job with these) and eventually completed the whole collection.

  But even then I’m not sure I’ve watched them exhaustively – in fact, I know I haven’t checked out every extra feature on these discs (I certainly haven’t listened to all the commentaries), so these revisits will be a great guide to what I might have missed.

  All of which is to say that weirdly it’s a point in Red Dwarf history that I don’t have a contemporary nostalgic connection to, despite it being a major part of the show’s development – and arguably it played a key role in sustaining the kind interest in the show that would fuel the eventual Dave revival – so these Dwarfcasts are going to be a great way to put it all in historical context and get a feeling of what it was like to experience these DVDs as they were coming out (so please don’t be tempted to edit out the more personal contemporary reminiscences as those are really great to hear).

  Looking forward to more!

• Also, re. Lee & Herring’s mocking of Red Dwarf, I remember going to see the Fist Of Fun late-90s tour and buying the show programme and being really disappointed that there was a gag in there slagging off RD fans (something along the lines of describing a twattish person and concluding the description with “…and I probably like Red Dwarf”) – even if it was meant as gentle ribbing, I remember feeling disappointed than one of my favourite shows would be so mean about one of my other favourite shows in that way.

• For die hard fans I absolutely recognise there’d be things to learn about how OFAH was made, but (and this is pure speculation) it can’t be to the same degree of interesting detail as Red Dwarf.  Red Dwarf has models and special effects and episode specific music cues and episodes filmed at cowboy ranches in Kent.  I just think there’s probably more story to tell because of the sort of show it is.

  And as Debris says, the vast majority of people watching a standard audience sitcom aren’t going to care much for extras that much.  An interview here and there might draw them in but I can’t imagine details of what stage in what studio was used and where the cameras were analogue or digital is going to matter to anyone other than John Hoare frankly. 

  Well, obviously not, but nobody suggested that those kind of details would be included and nobody suggested that any Only Fools and Horses DVD would be given exactly the same kind of treatment as Dwarf. But Special Edition DVDs absolutely would have sold had they been put together while some of the key figures were still alive to contribute.

  Anyhow, as this is a Dwarf board, I will get back on topic. It’s interesting that the 2002 article on the official site mentions, “a separate commentary with Doug and – hopefully – Rob, directors and other crew members.” The one big missed opportunity from the Series I to VIII DVDs.

• I think it’s easy to look in from the outside of the fanbase and say “eh, it’s just a ‘standard’ studio audience sitcom, surely there’s not much to talk about anyway, bare bones releases are fine”, but Only Fools And Horses obviously still has a huge number of dedicated fans who would lap up all that trivia, even if the subjects mostly pertained to the writing and performances and such. If there’s an audience for TV documentaries about the show, there’s an audience for more full fat DVD releases (or at least there would have been when the DVD market wasn’t close to death). It wouldn’t have to be as much content as for Red Dwarf anyway. There’s a full range between everything and nothing. Even just deleted scenes and outtakes would have been a deserved step up.

  On the subject of OFAH, Stewart Lee may have lightly jabbed at Red Dwarf as being a primary interest of nerds, but at least he didn’t mercilessly roast it like he did with his “Del Boy fell through the bar, and Trigger made a face” bit.

• If there is going to be a full fat release of Only Fools and Horses, they should get on with it pretty sharpish, before it becomes as unmarketable as The Complete Jim’ll Fix It or The Animal Hospital Collection.

• On the subject of OFAH, Stewart Lee may have lightly jabbed at Red Dwarf as being a primary interest of nerds, but at least he didn’t mercilessly roast it like he did with his “Del Boy fell through the bar, and Trigger made a face” bit.

  The sketch that follows that whole bit is great.

• 

  We are talking meme of the week 

• Ah, happy days. And Play.com (Gawd bless ’em). Like a surprising number of people, this was the first DVD I ever bought, before I actually had a DVD player, and had to watch on my little brother’s PlayStation. And that sense of joy, of it arriving (on the Saturday, of course), then retiring to the bedroom for the afternoon. Can’t remember whether I started with Cast Commentaries or Launching Red Dwarf – probably the latter, actually. 

  As far as the DVDs being the core and the start of this little fan community of ours goes – it all goes back to BTLi (Christ, I feel so old and nostalgic) and though I can’t remember precise threads, I can imagine how we and the young Smegmeister must have been raving about our new shiny discs that November. I’m still big on physical media – I still buy CDs over downloads, and my DVDs are generally displayed on shelves rather than stored in boxes. So receiving a new RD DVD was an amazing feeling.

  Interestingly, I first met Danny at Dimension Jump earlier in 2002. And when he says that he missed his trip to the series 2 launch, similarly, our trip from the coach station to the hotel was delayed by Danny’s luggage not arriving in Coventry until an hour after Danny.

  I always found Easter eggs by going through the feature/chapter numbers manually with the remote.

  Oh, I did exactly the same in later years. :D

  EDIT: After typing out all of this comment, I found a post on my own blog which contains the review of the DVD that I wrote myself 20 years ago… 

• If there is going to be a full fat release of Only Fools and Horses, they should get on with it pretty sharpish, before it becomes as unmarketable as The Complete Jim’ll Fix It or The Animal Hospital Collection.

  I’ve clearly missed something here. Dare I ask?

• I’ve clearly missed something here. Dare I ask?

  David Jason admitted a couple of years ago to being a bit of a pest and a letch on the Only Fools and Horses set.

• I remember seeing a convincing satirical mock-up of a generic vanilla BBC series 1 DVD cover from the time that exactly matched how I’d imagined it myself (that Rimmer and Lister salute pic photoshopped on a white background), don’t know whether it was on G&T or elsewhere in the diaspora.

  The appeal of Play.com for me as a poor teenager was just saving a couple of pounds (so the casual discussion about buying a second copy as a backup was a bit painful!) Getting it early was a nice bonus, but being a Saturday it did mean I could spend the morning working through the extras before taking it round my Red Dwarf liking friend’s house and marathoning three hours of episodes. That was a tradition as far as series III or IV.

• I remember seeing a convincing satirical mock-up of a generic vanilla BBC series 1 DVD cover from the time that exactly matched how I’d imagined it myself (that Rimmer and Lister salute pic photoshopped on a white background), don’t know whether it was on G&T or elsewhere in the diaspora.

  https://www.ganymede.tv/2004/01/you-jammy-goits-2/

  I’m afraid it wasn’t even Photoshopped, it was MS Paint on a college library computer.

• 

• Thanks, I only searched through the 2002 archives so couldn’t find it. Still accurate, but I may retract ‘convincing.’

• https://www.ganymede.tv/2004/01/you-jammy-goits-2/

  I’m afraid it wasn’t even Photoshopped, it was MS Paint on a college library computer.

  *follows link*

  Personally, we’d have firebombed the fuckers.

  Ah. And that’s why we love G&T so.

• Thanks, I only searched through the 2002 archives so couldn’t find it. Still accurate, but I may retract ‘convincing.’

  The main hoo-hah around the quality of the DVDs only really started from the III release. 

• I think the double whammy of this DVD release and stumbling across G&T at the same time was what kept me in Dwarf fandom for the next twenty years. (You’re free to consider that a bad thing).

  Quite the effort by Andrew and the team, and one they subsequently bested every few months.

  Can’t say I’ve ever revisited the cast commentaries (frequently irritated by the fact that Doug appears to be in the building but nowhere near a mic). However, Launching Red Dwarf and the Deleted Scenes were gold dust.

  I’m inclined to stick up for Drunk, if only because it could act as a trailer for the future DVD releases for the more casual buyers.

• I’m inclined to stick up for Drunk, if only because it could act as a trailer for the future DVD releases for the more casual buyers.

  This is a good point, at the time this was by far the highest quality versions of the post series 1 clips we had.

• After twenty years I’m still puzzling over the following question: What position was held by Gordon Bennett on board Red Dwarf? He is mentioned by Holly as one of the dead crew members in the Japanese dubbed episode, along with Petersen and that lot.

• The DVDs undoubtedly went from strength to strength but Series 1 is still one of my favourites, partly for nostalgic reasons but also simply because it has some of my favourite bonus content. Just having a clean version of the space walk music from Confidence and Paranoia is kinda hard to beat, and while Launching Red Dwarf is of course less polished than the later docs, I never quite tire of hearing stories about the genesis of the show. Craig’s story about his wife’s reaction to him auditioning for a sitcom is one of the funniest I can remember, and Peter Ridsdale-Scott is one of the very best interviewees. I didn’t have Six of the Best so the Rob, Doug and Ed “commentary” was new to me too.

  Given all the good stuff on the other TLoG discs it’s a real shame the anniversary specials from a few years ago got such a vanilla release. We’ve been lucky to get what we have on the Dave era Dwarf discs. 

  I haven’t listened to the commentaries in years but based on what was said about the cast’s recollections of Noel Coleman on the DwarfCast, I wonder whether they were thinking of the original Gandhi waxdroid actor. Istr he was replaced due to genuine health and safety concerns, ie they thought he might peg it if they made him do press-ups in the cold.  

• I haven’t listened to the commentaries in years but based on what was said about the cast’s recollections of Noel Coleman on the DwarfCast, I wonder whether they were thinking of the original Gandhi waxdroid actor. Istr he was replaced due to genuine health and safety concerns, ie they thought he might peg it if they made him do press-ups in the cold.

  I haven’t actually listened to the Dwarfcast but from the commentaries it certainly sounds like they were recalling two separate people – Noel Coleman had not been well before filming (though I forget what/why exactly, it’s been a year ir two since I last listened) and the Gandhi actor was indeed replaced.

• After twenty years I’m still puzzling over the following question: What position was held by Gordon Bennett on board Red Dwarf? He is mentioned by Holly as one of the dead crew members in the Japanese dubbed episode, along with Petersen and that lot.

  Gordon Bennett is actually the full name of the computer aboard the Scott Fitzgerald.

  Fun fact, Holly’s second name is actually Hop. It’s just a coincidence that the device he creates allows them to metaphorically hop too.

• Doesn’t Chris or Danny say that the original Gandhi was so frail, he had to be helped out of the car by two people?

  I had a Google and got the name Alex Tetteh-Lartey for the original Gandhi. Apparently he died in 1996 aged 64. I know it was thirty years ago, but it still feels weird for him to be as fragile as they say he was, but in his late fifties.

• Japanese DVDs and Blu rays are stupidly expensive, by the way. That Series 1-8 set costs like 3-4 times as much as the UK version, and it doesn’t even have any extras. There was a small part of me that thought it might be a fun bit of Red Dwarf merch to own, but not at that price. I know it’s technically the only way to see Red Dwarf Remastered in HD, but still.

  Yes, media in Japan has always been much more expensive than in the rest of the world. It’s why music releases always have bonus tracks that you can’t get anywhere else – to discourage people from buying cheaper imported releases. 

• Loved this. Ah the good old Play.com days. I vividly remember getting Series VI on DVD alongside Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater one Saturday. What a day.

  Before the DVDs I had seen very little of Dwarf. My friend had III Byte One which was my introduction to the show. We watched it over and over again. I then stumbled upon the first two series on VHS in charity shops and devoured them but everything else came bit by bit really. I bought III on DVD first, moreso because I was getting into the format rather than Dwarf, and picked it because Byte One had been so good but as a young teen I couldn’t afford to buy any more for a while and so ended up consuming the show by catching the odd episode on Gold or otherwise devouring the show through the short clips available on TOS. A very strange way to watch a show which ultimately meant that I’d seen the best bits from most of the episodes before I saw them in their entirety.

  From VI onwards I was buying the DVDs on release and purchasing each one really was an event. The comprehensive nature of each release and the hype that surrounded them certainly got me far more invested in Dwarf than I otherwise would have been and they’re probably the thing that led me to this site. Andrew Ellard probably doesn’t realise how much he did for Red Dwarf fandom.

• Appears to be problem with the mp3. It’s only 16:59 long. Same when using a podcast app.

  Cappsy reminisces about the inclusion of the original trailer and then it cuts out.

• Well fuck, you’re right. Surely it can’t have been like this all this time?

  Digging out a backup now.

• Should be fixed now.

• Magic! That’s fixed it.

  My memories include my dad, knowing I liked Red Dwarf, throwing a Promo DVD of Series 1 at me when I was a young teen that came free with DVD Magazine. I’ve still got it and was going to create an ISO file of it to share here, but I’ve just discovered it’s actually a VCD (I must’ve watched it on a computer back then and never realised).

  It contained Future Echoes, the funeral deleted scene, about 5-10 minutes from The Launching doc, and a clip from the Japanese version of The End. Off the back of that I then pre-ordered from good ol’ Play dot com (may she rest in peace) and that was that: hardcore fan ever since.

  I’ll shut up now as I’ve just found a YouTube video showing it off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF7W86dRVzk

• I lament the decline of DVD and Blu-Ray, personally.

  Environmentally, streaming cuts back on storage, postage etc. But I always feel that you’re at the mercy of external factors: what if the streaming service removes a series you love or an episode of that series for a variety of reasons? You’re still paying for the service.

  The huge benefit to physical media is that you can watch it when you want to watch it, although it’s not quite as portable as a streaming service accessible on other devices.

  Streaming Red Dwarf is vanilla; there is no access to special features or commentaries. I know BBC Store was an experiment in owning non-physical media and it didn’t take off. Fair enough. I’m in a minority here, I suppose.

  There’s just something wonderful about owning something tangible. It’s especially true when I look at something as sublime as The Bodysnatcher Collection.

  I don’t think physical media will die out completely; I remember the decline of vinyl and now that’s a trendy retro market for some (including me).

  There’s room for both physical and streaming, in my opinion.

• I lament the decline of DVD and Blu-Ray, personally.

  Environmentally, streaming cuts back on storage, postage etc. But I always feel that you’re at the mercy of external factors: what if the streaming service removes a series you love or an episode of that series for a variety of reasons? You’re still paying for the service.
  The huge benefit to *good* physical media is that you’re not beholden to external factors and you can immerse yourself in everything that comes with it, although it’s not quite as portable as a streaming service accessible on other devices. Look at the Alien Anthology blu-ray set as an example of that. Streaming Red Dwarf is vanilla; there is no access to special features or commentaries. I know BBC Store was an experiment in owning non-physical media and it didn’t take off. Fair enough. I’m in a minority here, I suppose.
  There’s just something wonderful about owning something tangible. It’s especially true when I look at something as sublime as The Bodysnatcher Collection.
  I don’t think physical media will die out completely; I remember the decline of vinyl and now that’s a trendy retro market for some (including me).
  There’s room for both physical and streaming, in my opinion.

  EDIT: Damn, fucked that up. Very tired today. But I hope the second post makes more sense 🤪

• I still by DVDs of series I’d be sorry to lose, or want special feature of. Although they’re becoming less extensive these days. 

  I’ll rip them and put them in Plex so I can stream them anywhere still. 

  I use streaming for throw away stuff. Most shows I’ll watch once. Films I’d have never watched had it not been so easily available. 

• There are definitely benefits to streaming. As Quinn says, handy for throwaway stuff.

  For something that has a huge amount of series, the “vanilla convenience” of streaming is great. I’ve got Star Trek: TNG on blu ray, and sometimes it’s handy to use Netflix just to watch an odd episode without having to see which episode is on which disc.

  But, again, how long before TNG leaves Netflix in the UK and is taken up by another new streaming service that’d require payment? Not parting with the blu rays.

• Agree to all of the points about streaming / physical media.  Streaming is equally no use in a powercut (no WiFi), even for ripped copies of the full physical media.  I do like having digital copies of things I rewatch but that requires storage space which tech is not designed for nowadays, and physical media is less convenient or portable.  So they each have their uses and their inconveniences.

  The day Netflix loses the Star Treks would be the day I no longer subscribed though (if I didn’t already share a subscription … shh).

• Agree to all of the points about streaming / physical media.  Streaming is equally no use in a powercut (no WiFi), even for ripped copies of the full physical media.  I do like having digital copies of things I rewatch but that requires storage space which tech is not designed for nowadays, and physical media is less convenient or portable.  So they each have their uses and their inconveniences.

  The day Netflix loses the Star Treks would be the day I no longer subscribed though (if I didn’t already share a subscription … shh).

  In the US, all the Star Trek’s have been moved to Paramount+. Yes I share a subscription with my parents but no doubt that’ll be squashed before long too.

• So rather coincidentally, I have a bit of a tradition of watching my favourite film at Christmas and I’ve had to dig out the blu-ray as I’ve recently moved and haven’t got my new desk yet so haven’t set up computer/NAS with all my media on. 

• I have a bit of a tradition of watching my favourite film at Christmas…

  You tease.

  Thanks for reminding me in time that I’d forgotten to listen to AFI’s vaguely Christmassy The Art of Drowning, almost breaking a tradition since 2001.

  Half-way through a shorter tradition of reading a Dickens Christmas story each year before I can rank A Christmas Carol the best one in 2024.

• It’s Backdraft. I always watch that and Die Hard every Christmas. 

• Really looking forward to when you guys get to the Bodysnatcher Collection.

• I didn’t buy this until a couple of years later, but around this time I did have the Free DVD that came with DVD Review or another magazine that had The End on it, although I don’t think I actually watched it.

  Sadly November 2002 is right around when my local Woolworths closed down :(

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