Red Dwarf: Complete Series I-XIII Box Set Review Reviews Posted by Ian Symes on 9th October 2025, 09:38 It doesn’t feel too long ago that I was reviewing the last Red Dwarf box set, but it turns out that was six and a half years ago; we’ve been through a global pandemic, four new Prime Ministers and even a new monarch since then. There’s only been one new episode of Red Dwarf broadcast during that time, but there is one very big difference between the 2025 box set and the 2019 one – the original BBC run and the Dave era are now joined together in one glorious whole. This is of course how it should be; despite the change of broadcaster, it was always a continuation rather than a reboot, and given that UKTV is now wholly owned by the BBC’s commercial arm, there should be no barriers to the reunification of Red Dwarf. So it makes sense to replace the Series 1-VIII-only box set with a newly-released Every Episode Ever box set in the shops; there’s no guarantees that all episodes will be available on iPlayer indefinitely, and so anyone who doesn’t already own physical copies of the shows can pick them all up with one convenient purchase. But what about those of us who already have the 2019 box and all the individual releases between Back To Earth and The Promised Land? Is there any incentive for the hardcore to part with their hard-earned cash, other than completism? Other than the extra episodes themselves, is this box set a significant upgrade on the previous one? Read on to find out… This article is mostly illustrated with screengrabs from SML Creative’s unboxing video, because they’ve got much nicer lighting than me. The Packaging My overall opinion on the look hasn’t changed much since the initial reveal; I still think it’s an improvement on the last box, but that it falls short of actually being good. Granted, the tweaked silhouettes work much better now that more identifiable character detail has been added (thanks in no small part to G&T regular Dave posting his own edit in the comments, which one might strongly suspect was the inspiration for the changes made, given that they are near identical), but I still feel it could do with something more striking from a distance. In person, the red of the logo blends into the background too much, especially on the spine, but it does catch the light nicely when the angles are right. Irritatingly, it comes with a flimsy piece of paper attached, stuck on to the box with little blobs of that sticky, bogie-like glue. With the box coming wrapped in cellophane, this serves as the back cover, containing the blurb, a Series V-era cast photo, technical details, certificate, barcode, etc. But within a couple of minutes of removing the cellophane, mine was already looking slightly tatty just from sliding the disc booklets in and out, and within a day it had completely detached itself. I think you’re supposed to remove it, but the problem is can’t store it neatly inside the box, as basic physics dictates that it’s slightly too big to go inside the thing it previously wrapped around. Stripped of its papery skin, the rear cover is just a stylised picture of Red Dwarf from a distance – admittedly much better than the ones that graced the previous boxset, given that it has a complete ram scoop. I dislike the current trend of equating minimalism with good design, like how limited edition subscriber covers of magazines are usually just the regular cover with the text removed. For me, there’s more merit in crafting something that contains all the relevant useful information and still looks good, and I vastly prefer the look of the false paper cover to the actual box cover. And there are many interesting things to note about the detail-packed version, even down to the choice of picture – they’ve gone for the Series V cockpit shot, but the variant with Kryten doing a serious face, rather than the more commonly used silly face. We get the Baby Cow logo here alongside the GNP one, whereas it’s GNP only everywhere else it’s seen. The blurb is the familiar official one that was also used on the 2019 set, but they’ve missed out the word “machine” at one crucial point, and so it describes Lister as a “chicken soup repair man”. I’m not sure chicken soup is something that can be fixed. Most interesting of all though is a little disclaimer buried in the small print, below the picture credits and copyright notices. The additional material in this release was originally recorded between 1988 and 2020 and reflects the broadcast standards, language, and attitudes of the time. Some viewers may find this content offensive. I wonder whether that’s a standard blurb they add to any releases of older material, just in case it’s relevant, or if they had something specific in mind. There’s certainly a few candidates that we’ve spotted during our Re-Disc-overy series. Interesting that it limits this warning to the extras though, as if there’s absolutely nothing in the most recent episodes that may cause offence. Anyway. Within the outer box, you’ve got two big thick disc booklets, which each have their contents listed on their spine, and one character’s silhouette on either cover. The disc housings themselves are sturdy, with both the upper and lower disc on each sheet being easy to remove, even with fat fingers. I do have some quibbles with the distribution of the discs within the two booklets though. The 32 main discs are split into two equal batches of sixteen, but the problem is that Series VII and VIII have three discs each instead of the standard two. So the first booklet has space for the first seven series with one slot spare, which is why they’ve put Just The Smegs in between Series VII and VIII, when it would otherwise make more sense to go after VIII. This is probably the most elegant solution to that particular problem, but it creates a further one – because the second booklet starts with a three-disc set, it means that all the subsequent even-numbered sets are misaligned. So the first page has Series VIII discs one and two, the second has Series VIII disc three and Bodysnatcher disc one, then the middle two Bodysnatchers, then the last Bodysnatcher disc and the Series X episodes, then the Series X extras with the Series XI episodes and so on. And you can’t even rearrange them yourself to a more pleasing configuration, because every disc is numbered 1-33. In all fairness, I don’t think there is a perfect solution to this dilemma. An alternative would have been to make the two books different sizes, and have the first be 18 discs of the BBC era, then 14 discs of the Dave era plus Bodysnatcher and Just The Smegs. But if they had done that, there’d probably be people complaining about the lack of symmetry, so you can’t really win. There’s only one thing for it – make two more series of Red Dwarf so that the next boxset is perfectly balanced. The Booklet Twenty pages, each listing the full contents of a series/special’s worth of discs. It all looks very smart, there’s no obvious errors that I can see, and they’ve got rid of the confusing differentiation between “Extras” and “VAM” that was present last time round. The only oddity I spotted was that there’s a line in the contents of the Easter Eggs disc (which we’ll come to later), which just says “The Bodysnatcher Collection”, despite there being nothing from The Bodysnatcher Collection on that disc. Perhaps a hangover from the fact that almost all of that disc’s content was on the separate Bodysnatcher disc last time? Of course, in an ideal world I’d love for there to have been a specially written introduction from Doug and/or Rob to start the booklet, and for it to be illustrated with photos and artwork from the last 40-odd years. That was never going to happen in this day and age, but what we’ve got instead is perfectly adequate for what it is. No stickers or leaflets this time round, for the record. The Discs The external design this time round is completely identical across the discs, unlike the minor variations that were applied to the last boxset. And as for the contents of the discs… well, they’re the exact same discs that featured in the 2019 box-set and/or each individual series release. That means that yes, the episode selection menu for Series 2 calls the third episode “Thanks For The Memories”. The version of Marooned used here is the one without the certificate-bending Starbug shot after the credits. But thankfully, the Series III and V discs are the reissued versions, which means that each and every episode plays in the correct frame rate. All of the Dave era is also cloned from the original releases, so we can safely say that there is not a single new thing across the thirty-two main discs of this boxset. The Back To Earth disc still contains the now charmingly out-dated guide to setting up your Bluray player, which combines well with the weblinks on the Series 1-VIII extras discs to really disorientate anyone who works through this set sequentially. This also means that there’s an unprecedented amount of different fonts, logos and company names in the autoplaying pre-amble across this release. Never mind the fact that the episodes were broadcast over a period of 32 years, the authoring in this set spans 23 years itself. There’s a curious yet totally expected footnote concerning Just The Smegs. For its initial release in 2007, the original VHS masters were edited to remove details of competitions that had long since expired, and the merchandise section was updated, with a new voice-over from Robert Llewellyn over contemporary shots of the Red Dwarf website. Personally I wasn’t keen on the edits, but I understand why they did them – obviously you wouldn’t want to release something with such out-dated information. Obviously. In this box-set, the Just The Smegs disc, like all the others, is the same as the original release. You can categorically not buy Red Dwarf merchandise from TOS in 2025. As of today, the only product visible on the site is the previous box set. However, we are pleased that Just The Smegs is included this time, along with the full version of The Bodysnatcher Collection, with the Re-Mastered episodes and amusing text track thrown in. We’ve always been resigned to the fact that we’re unlikely to get any new bonus material in this current era of home media budgets, so at least this release has (almost) absolutely everything previously released on shiny disc, bundled into one package. Easter Eggs Disc Except, what’s this? The mysterious thirty third disc. Like the standalone Bodysnatcher disc from the last box set, this is packaged separately in its own little cardboard sleeve, and as the name suggests, in contains all the old Easter Eggs that were previously included on the episode discs of the Series 1-VIII DVD releases. This content has been ported from the aforementioned Bodysnatcher disc, along with the blue-tinted version of the menu. But also, there is actually something on this disc that’s previously unreleased, as the headline feature listed on the back of the cardboard sleeve is “THE AA ADS”. Unfortunately, this is technically inaccurate. Because you will recall that there were two AA adverts: Stellar Rescue and Smart Breakdown. This disc contains three versions of the former, clocking in at 20 seconds, 40 seconds and 60 seconds, and zero versions of the latter. Other than The Promised Land, Smart Breakdown is literally the most recent Red Dwarf material to be broadcast, and it’s nowhere to be seen. Why? Is there a reason why this specific advert couldn’t be released while the other could, or is it an oversight? I’d have thought that if you could dig out one, you could dig out both. They were probably stored in the same bloody folder. I’ll be honest, before I even put the disc in, I was expecting to moan about the AA radio ads not being included too, but I didn’t expect one of the actual telly ads to be completely missing. And while the inclusion of this alongside Re-Mastered and Just The Smegs makes this an almost complete collection, there is also the omission of Beat The Geek to consider. Okay, it’s not the greatest achievement in Red Dwarf‘s oeuvre, but it is a DVD that exists, and is therefore easy enough to burn off and stick in. And then you’ve got the things that could have been included in an ideal world, where time and budget exists, that would have been nice to include alongside the AA ads for real completism. It could have been a real treasure trove of an archive disc if there’d been the money and inclination to dig up the likes of Danny’s appearance as the Cat at the 1998 Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, Norman appearing as Holly on Tomorrow’s World, Robert as Kryten for YouTube’s Geek Week, the Whatever You Want episode, Red Christmas, the BBC Serious About Comedy ads… I could go on. Not absolutely everything from the archives would be clearable for home release, and it’s never without some amount of cost attached, but Doctor Who: The Collection has multiple hours of newly-released old stuff on every single release. Can we have a little bit of that too? And what about The First Three Million Years? A special three-part series of documentaries, broadcast five years ago and seemingly completely forgotten about since, not even available to stream. I’m not going to fault this box-set for not including any of this stuff, as that was never its remit – it was always going to be a relatively inexpensive (to put together, at least) compendium of existing releases. It’s just that to go to the effort of including that one extra previously unreleased thing, and then to cock it up by only including half of it, offers a frustrating glimpse at what could have been. But like I say, that’s fantasy land. Let’s get back to reality, and the question of whether this box-set is a tangible improvement on the 2019 effort. It is, quite easily. Simply including both eras of the show is an automatic win, the addition of Just The Smegs is a significant bonus, and the whole thing looks a hell of a lot better aesthetically. But is it better enough to justify the cost if you already have the individual releases? Not in the slightest. It offers precisely 120 seconds of material that isn’t already on our shelves, and it’s not even that pretty a box to gaze at. This is a package that has been put together in a largely competent manner, but that’s about all you can say. A fair job. It’s not really for us, though, is it? Those of us who have already spent their hard earned money on gathering all of this material separately over the course of a couple of decades. But imagine seeing this through the eyes of somebody who didn’t pick up the old DVDs as they were released, who’s only watched the show on broadcast TV or streaming. Imagine having this much material delivered to you all in one go. It’s an unbelievable collection of supremely high quality extras, and it’s a testament to the original DVD ranges – and the work of people like Andrew Ellard and Nathan Cubitt – that enough of this stuff exists to easily fill 33 discs. £80 for all of this material is well worth it… if you don’t already have it in a series of smaller boxes, of course. Maybe one day there’ll be an ultimate edition that contains enough archival treats, and possibly even new extras, to make it a must-buy for the hardcore fans too. That would require a investment from BBC Studios to contract someone with the Ellard-levels of expertise needed to pull it all together, and the home media market is simply not as high a priority as it was 20-odd years ago, when the original DVDs were being made. Ultimately, your average G&T reader is not missing out on anything if they give they skip this one, but for what it is, it’s probably the best we’re going to get any time soon.
they’ve missed out the word “machine” at one crucial point, and so it describes Lister as a “chicken soup repair man”. I’m not sure chicken soup is something that can be fixed. Chicken soup? Repair, man!
Lovely write up. Thanks Ian. I don’t have the 2019 release so I am considering this so that I do have 1-8 on blu-ray. But I’m in no hurray as I’d probably only ever watch those versions of the episodes once. £80 is a bargain though, for the consumer that doesn’t have any of this, all things considered. £2.42 a disc. What’s the total run time including things like commentaries. You’d spend weeks going through it all. I still think it looks quite smart and sleek. A huge improvements over 2019 and as you can’t really pick an design from the previous releases to copy, this route is fine. It’d look smart on a shelf I’m sure. im more baffled as to the exclusion of Three Million Years Later than I am the inclusion / exclusion of the AA Ads. How did they get one of those and not the documentary. That’s a real shame imagine if they’d included the ad bumper in memory of Seb too that would have really rounded it off.
Thanks for the review, Ian! (Or should I say, for your sacrifice?) And earlier than expected too. The exclusion of Smart Breakdown is, well… Of course these AA ads being on the Easter eggs disc wasn’t exactly an opportunity to unearth some rare treats from deep within the archives – they’re literally on YouTube right now. But that makes it all the sillier that they failed to include half of them. At least it would have preserved them without the video compression.
> At least it would have preserved them without the video compression. what Ian doesn’t tell you is that it’s a phone video recording of someone’s computer screen opening up and watching the videos on YouTube, and not even in full screen.
Thanks for the great review and link to a great unboxing video. And the news on the AA ads. Which is all I need to see at this stage. I never bothered with the last box set on release, just like i never bothered with just the shows, or the anniversary sets etc. Or the bluray of any of the dave era. At the time i didnt have blu ray. I completed the normal dvd range. Got them signed across many DJ’s I guess the disc problems with the previous blur ray also put me off. I may get this box some day. Now that i have blu ray sets of the young ones, blackadder and hitchhikers. Couple of direct questions Ian. 1) In your opinion is this set a win for bringing back all four discs of the bodysnatcher DVD set into commercial availability? what was the second hand availability of this set like in 2025? Because didnt it get expensive and rare? 2) Does the removal of the back bit, remove the title off the front of the box set? or is I-XIII underneath still? Im not the biggest fan of XIII and i liked the back blurb that said 12 and movie better.
I bought a copy of Bodysnatcher Collection off of eBay in 2023 for £48.38. Plus the seller threw in the individual series 1-8 DVDs which is why I have two copies of those.
I think I got my copy for around £45, and counted myself lucky because at the time I could only find very few copies online, and many of them were listed for way more than that. Right now though, CeX surprisingly still has some copies, and they’re going for £30. The price may have been influenced by so much of the exclusive content being on the 2019 set. But even if the old Bodysnatcher set isn’t impossible to find, it’s still good to get more copies out there. And it is kind of funny that this new set contains Series 1-III on both DVD and Blu-ray, and the DVD versions are the ones called Red Dwarf Remastered.
Great review Ian. This sounds like it’s exactly what I expected it to be, although it’s hilarious that they’ve managed to only include one of the AA ads. Having said that it mostly sounds pretty good and I’m glad that previous mistakes like the faulty III/V discs from the previous set have been corrected. I won’t be buying this for £80, but I could see myself being tempted to spend, say, £50 if it goes on sale – if only to reduce the clutter of having all the various individual DVDs and Blu-Rays taking up shelf space. I’ll obviously have to hang on to Beat The Geek on DVD for now though.
2) Seen a different video that answers my question 2. The back page goes underneath and covers the title I-XIII on the front cover. When this page is removed its the same front title I-XIII underneath so the visible line the overwrap causes in online pictures is eliminated then on your shelf. I probably would remove it and lay it inside a red dwarf book to keep it.
I want to buy this but importing stuff to America is suddenly way more expensive for some reason. Then stick to American shows filmed in Canada you traitor.
Thank you for this forensic analysis. I was going to buy this having not bought the previous box set due to disc issues fear. But I do have all the DVDs (including Beat The Geek) so I’d really be buying the new packaging and the AA ad. I wouldn’t ever get rid of the original DVDs because I like the covers! So given the AA ad section was fumbled it just fell off my list of purchases. I’ll wait for the anniversary 12” red vinyl super box set once some hip and happening dude works out how to encode video on vinyl because it just looks warmer.
I was going to buy this having not bought the previous box set due to disc issues fear. But I do have all the DVDs (including Beat The Geek) so I’d really be buying the new packaging and the AA ad. I know some of the choices were controversial, but it is sad/funny how many people count “they converted the episodes to HD” as just a complete non-entity when it comes to the value of this set and the last one. They also made it quicker to play a particular episode, because you no longer need to go through multiple sub-menus with long unskippable animations between them… is that anything? Plus if you only have the Dave era on DVD too, those episodes were filmed in HD to begin with, so the visual improvement is pretty significant.
I know some of the choices were controversial, but it is sad/funny how many people count “they converted the episodes to HD” as just a complete non-entity when it comes to the value of this set and the last one. Yeah, despite a couple of nitpicks I think that overall the HD conversion was done pretty well, and it’s the best the show has ever looked (without being a revelatory upgrade).
I can see the argument for HD visuals are better for people who still have broadly functioning eyes but mine are so rubbish I can’t tell. Same goes for big shiny audio setups – I just can’t hear the improvements over my rubbish headphones anymore and I know that’s an “I’m getting older” problem. I do agree that the early DVD menus are an irritant after the first use and whilst Dwarf is streaming I just use that instead but it’s nice to that as long as I have an exercise bike to power my TV and DVD player I will still be able to watch Red Dwarf.
I can see the argument for HD visuals are better for people who still have broadly functioning eyes but mine are so rubbish I can’t tell. Same goes for big shiny audio setups – I just can’t hear the improvements over my rubbish headphones anymore and I know that’s an “I’m getting older” problem. That’s fair enough!
My eyesight is fine and whilst I recognise the value of higher quality images, Red Dwarf is naff, old, dirty and grainy … and I like that. It adds to the overall feel of the show. I’m not particularly bothered about clearer images. If I bought the blu-ray set it wouldn’t be to watch The End in cleaned up HD
Look you’re all Red Dwarf fans moaning that… what? At most you’ve bought VHS (you old buggers), then DVD and now Blu ray, (or this could be your second blu ray box). That’s four times at most, then. (ok so it could be as much as 6 pushing towards 10 if you are such a smegging completist you’ve got versions of “just the shows”, UMD, individual blu ray collections and steelbooks or DVD’s boxed together.) But 10 is still countable on Kryten’s non spare hands. I’m a Madness fan ok. I’ve got their hits compilations fourteen bloody times. And that’s 14 iterations of album title, not the number of formats. so times that by three. This Christmas they are out again, on varied LP disc volumes, picture disc and enough coloured vinyl variations to satisfy a pride march. So don’t tell me it’s Madness to buy Dwarf more than once! Dog’s Milk it Doug You’ve a way to go yet.
Updated list of copies of Future Echoes I own: * Original VHS * Six of the Best VHS * Re-Mastered VHS * Original DVD * Free VCD given away with DVD Review magazine in 2002 * Re-Mastered in The Bodysnatcher Collection * Just The Shows boxset * 20th Anniversary boxset * Upscaled Bluray (2019) * Upscaled Bluray (2025) * Re-Mastered in The Bodysnatcher Collection again (2025)
Releases of Future Echoes that should exist, but don’t: * LaserDisc * PSP UMD * VideoNow * Game Boy Advance Video * HD DVD * Super 8 Film Reel * Floppy Disk Collection * Betamax * Preloaded on an iPod Nano * Zoetrope * Ultra HD Blu-ray
Releases of Future Echoes that should exist, but don’t: * LaserDisc * PSP UMD * VideoNow * Game Boy Advance Video * HD DVD * Super 8 Film Reel * Floppy Disk Collection * Betamax * Preloaded on an iPod Nano * Zoetrope * Ultra HD Blu-ray * Media Player demo video with Windows 95
Future Echoes I own. Doug Naylor Test Production DVD Original DVD x2 Remastered VCD (China) Remastered on BodySnatcher DVD.
Updated list of copies of Future Echoes I own: * Original VHS * Six of the Best VHS * Re-Mastered VHS * Original DVD * Free VCD given away with DVD Review magazine in 2002 * Re-Mastered in The Bodysnatcher Collection * Just The Shows boxset * 20th Anniversary boxset * Upscaled Bluray (2019) * Upscaled Bluray (2025) * Re-Mastered in The Bodysnatcher Collection again (2025) + Several versions of the novel you probably have and the Smegazine adaptation.
GBA Video, objectively the greatest physical media format, feels left out by your omission. I would never omit GBA Video! But BBC Studios definitely have some serious questions to answer.
I once owned 11 different versions of an album by my favourite band. Some were musically different to each other (it’s arguably the single most confusing album release of all time, I have an hour-long video about it here for the 0 people interested), but eventually I’ve scaled that down to four versions. There was a time in my life when that completionism was really important, but I actually feel happier having moved on from it, because there are far fewer niggles, little things I feel like I should own. These days I won’t buy anything unless I know I’ll actually use it.
I’ve just finished watching series one on blu ray. I just put in disc 2 and it’s remarkable how much better the raw effects footage looks on DVD.
These days I won’t buy anything unless I know I’ll actually use it. I agree with this in principle, but then I see a copy of the absolutely staggeringly abysmal port of Sonic 1 for the GBA on eBay and I think “Man, it would be so funny if I owned that.”
Stripped of its papery skin, the rear cover is just a stylised picture of Red Dwarf from a distance Twenty pages, each listing the full contents of a series/special’s worth of discs. It’s not my fault all the ghosts and monsters and aliens live in Vancouver. I was just there a month ago for a wedding. No aliens or monsters that I saw. The Coquihalla was on fire though. And two people leapt off BC Ferries immediately after. I must be a negative influence.
Not long now before Ian will be able to add Future Echoes to his collection in its purest, rawest form:
Personally, I’m waiting for EA Sports to include Future Echoes as a Windows Media Player file on the disc for a PS1 game. Which admittedly might take a while.
On this go through the set I’ve noticed for the first time that in the episode Polymorph just after Cat calls Rimmer an idiot and the two heatseeking bazookoid spheres turn around and head back towards them there is a crew member just standing there in a white T shirt to the left of the frame. I don’t know if this is a result of up scaling or if the bloke was just always there.
On this go through the set I’ve noticed for the first time that in the episode Polymorph just after Cat calls Rimmer an idiot and the two heatseeking bazookoid spheres turn around and head back towards them there is a crew member just standing there in a white T shirt to the left of the frame. I don’t know if this is a result of up scaling or if the bloke was just always there.
Triangles and diamonds in shades of gold, crimson and burgundy just isn’t a visual aesthetic that springs to mind when thinking of Red Dwarf.
Is there a promo code that means I don’t have to pay import tariffs? Yes, the code for that one is VOTEHARRIS but it unfortunately expired a while ago.
