Series X US Re-release

[thomasaevans]

Series X has been re-released in the US on DVD from ‘BBC Archives’ (Interesting name). Virtually the same artwork. The previous release has been out of print for some time apparently.

[Katydid]

For some reason, the American release of Series XI has a “The Complete Eleventh Series” label on it but Series X and XII don’t. Even more confusing is XII, which uses the same template for the cover as XI but has no “Complete Twelfth Series” text.

It just seems utterly bizarre to not just not label them correctly but to label ONE OF THEM correctly but not the others. Normies getting into Red Dwarf probably don’t have a fucking clue what order the show goes in between that and BtE / TPL not having series numbers.

[Flap Jack]

It’s not just the US releases that make this mistake either. The UK DVD/Blu ray release of Back to Earth didn’t have “The Complete Ninth Series” on its cover, as we all know it should.

[Dave]

For some reason, the American release of Series XI has a “The Complete Eleventh Series” label on it but Series X and XII don’t.

Well they wouldn’t, they’re the tenth and twelfth series.

[Warbodog]

Are normies not up on their Roman numerals I-XII? Selectively skipping numbers doesn’t help, but it’s just like having to know the order of any unnumbered film series or where The X-Files films fit in-between the seasons.

I can imagine 90s kids being on the lookout for an elusive ‘IX’ video and not realising until later that it’s just BTE that they already have*, but that shouldn’t be an issue noawadays with an excessively detailed Wikipedia page and things.

* If it had existed, Dave.

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

There is a bit of an issue sometimes with specials that they’re not listed chronologically with the metadata of the series so you reach the end of a series, then have to come out of it and search the special separately. Doctor Who used to be the worst for that, but at least now on iPlayer everything runs in order.

And I’ve run into the issue where the Battlestar Galactica movies aren’t even hosted alongside the series so you can’t enjoy those at the same time.

Things have gotten better on that front, but with a show like Red Dwarf that is hosted across different streaming services, it shouldn’t be the case that you have to have IMDB or Wikipedia open to know what to watch next.

[Ridley]

For some reason, the American release of Series XI has a “The Complete Eleventh Series” label on it but Series X and XII don’t.

Well they wouldn’t, they’re the tenth and twelfth series.

They’re on The Promised Land steelbook.

[Flap Jack]

Yes, if your primary method of watching new series Doctor Who is via digital versions on Amazon or iTunes, that is pain.

Then again, even the DVD range fucks you around from time to time. Christmas specials are only included on the next full series box set if they share a Doctor, but for Time of the Doctor they force you to either double dip on 3 other Matt Smith Christmas specials or double dip on the series 7 finale. Still irritated about that.

[Warbodog]

I was thinking of BSG, I think a lot of people have tripped over the miniseries and start out confused at 1×01, since it’s classed as a different production.

With TV spin-offs and cinematic universes, you’d want to keep track of release orders and what seasons were parallel to each other for broader continuity.

That’s why I don’t think it’s especially an issue for Red Dwarf (so far), especially as there’s barely any continuity to worry about if you do get it wrong. You could assume you missed a series even when you didn’t.

[Dave]

I was thinking of BSG, I think a lot of people have tripped over the miniseries and start out confused at 1×01, since it’s classed as a different production.

I did that with the DVDs. I foolishly started with Season One Episode 1, thinking it would be the first episode.

[GlenTokyo]

I think the shrinking appeal of physical copies means that the people that really like Red Dwarf enough to go and get or order the physical discs, will know what they’re after, and just be a little miffed at inconsistent labelling, but won’t miss out on any episodes.

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

I was thinking of BSG, I think a lot of people have tripped over the miniseries and start out confused at 1×01, since it’s classed as a different production.

The number of times I have seen people have to state “start with the mini series”, it’s mind boggling that that has to be said. You could easily miss the first two episodes and jump straight in after the set up.

I think the shrinking appeal of physical copies means that the people that really like Red Dwarf enough to go and get or order the physical discs, will know what they’re after, and just be a little miffed at inconsistent labelling, but won’t miss out on any episodes.

Are the DVDs even sold this way?! I have the blu-ray boxset that includes EVERYTHING but I’d have thought a “complete season 1” DVD would include the “mini-series”. Do you have to buy that separately?

I think luckily I have seen it in some places have the mini-series pushed as episodes 1 and 2, but it’s really pot luck what the streaming service decides or how a torrent is packaged etc.

[GlenTokyo]

Are the DVDs even sold this way?! I have the blu-ray boxset that includes EVERYTHING but I’d have thought a “complete season 1” DVD would include the “mini-series”. Do you have to buy that separately?

I wouldn’t think that a complete Season 1 would include a separate mini series personally, not if it wasn’t broadcast at the same time or very, very, shortly after, so if I was aware of said mini series I’d assume I’d have to purchase it separately. They should probably do an ‘everything’ Red Dwarf boxset though. Maybe they’re just waiting for the cast to retire.

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

Are the DVDs even sold this way?! I have the blu-ray boxset that includes EVERYTHING but I’d have thought a “complete season 1” DVD would include the “mini-series”. Do you have to buy that separately?

I wouldn’t think that a complete Season 1 would include a separate mini series personally, not if it wasn’t broadcast at the same time or very, very, shortly after, so if I was aware of said mini series I’d assume I’d have to purchase it separately. They should probably do an ‘everything’ Red Dwarf boxset though. Maybe they’re just waiting for the cast to retire.

It’s fine if you know, but if like Dave you pick up series one and then find there’s actually episodes that come before it, it’d be a bit annoying.

[Dave]

Are the DVDs even sold this way?! I have the blu-ray boxset that includes EVERYTHING but I’d have thought a “complete season 1” DVD would include the “mini-series”. Do you have to buy that separately?

On the initial release (that I bought) certainly the DVD boxset didn’t have the miniseries. I sat down to watch it and within about ten minutes realised I had to go order a separate DVD.

[Ben Paddon]

Every release of BSG Season 1 I’ve owned – and I’ve owned three from both the US and UK – has included the miniseries, starting at disc one. Am I missing something?

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

Am I missing something?

No, but Dave is.

[Dave]

Every release of BSG Season 1 I’ve owned – and I’ve owned three from both the US and UK – has included the miniseries, starting at disc one. Am I missing something?

I’m sure there have been other editions that included the miniseries too, but like I said, the version I unwittingly bought didn’t.

I can’t be sure from memory but I think it was this version.

A quick google seems to indicate that the initial season one DVD boxset for Region 1 included the miniseries, but for Region 2 it didn’t and you had to buy the DVD of the miniseries separately.

You must have had a later version of the UK set that bundled the miniseries in too.

[pfm]

Anyone else wish they had made more of a thing of ‘head’ Baltar?

[Nick R]

I’m sure there have been other editions that included the miniseries too, but like I said, the version I unwittingly bought didn’t.
I can’t be sure from memory but I think it was this version.

A quick google seems to indicate that the initial season one DVD boxset for Region 1 included the miniseries, but for Region 2 it didn’t and you had to buy the DVD of the miniseries separately.
You must have had a later version of the UK set that bundled the miniseries in too.

Yeah, I first watched BSG via DVD rentals from LoveFilm*, and remember renting the miniseries and season 1 separately. (And later I had to be careful when to add Razor to my rental list. I don’t think I ever watched The Plan.) I later bought a cheap second-hand copy of season 1, and it was the edition in your Amazon link that didn’t include the miniseries.

* RIP LoveFilm; long live Cinema Paradiso!

[Warbodog]

I don’t think I ever watched The Plan.

You’ve already seen most of The Plan if you saw the series. The new material was mainly unconvincing bending of continuity jigsaw pieces to pretend there was a big picture, like the ‘What year did “The End” take place in?’ thread done seriously.

But still more worthwhile than the rest of the franchise milking turned out to be.

[Dave]

You’ve already seen most of The Plan if you saw the series. The new material was mainly unconvincing bending of continuity jigsaw pieces to pretend there was a big picture, like the ‘What year did “The End” take place in?’ thread done seriously.

Yeah, it was a bit of a disappointment in the end wasn’t it?

[Warbodog]

I’ve just gone and made the same mistake with Babylon 5. A few episodes into the famously long-form plotted TV novel, I found out I’d skipped over the pilot movie.

I go back on what I said about checking wikis and things, because of the inevitable spoilers, even from seemingly innocuous things like cast photos/details. Worse would be asking for guidance and getting someone’s insane personal viewing order.

Unrelated post from the Red Dwarf subreddit:

I watch most of series 7 and 8 because of continuity errors when that doesn’t happen. First, I watch Tikka to Ride extended then imagine that the Infinity Patrol arrive and declare the timeline redundant due to the universe still sorting itself out, and everyone being sent back to the point where it all began, only with a few differences, to which I was the remasters versions.

Then I skip back to Out of Time, switch to the deleted ending and, because the timelines converge, everyone now thinks that the series 1 Red Dwarf was the one they were using. I then replace Tikka with Identity Within, then proceed as normal, skipping Duct Soup and Beyond a Joke to maintain consistency with the other series.

I still have to watch Epideme, but the plan is to watch Back in the Red Extended, Cassandra and Only the Good, with the alternate ending, then proceeding onto the revival.

[Ian Symes]

If you’re going to go to that effort, you’d be better off taking the “Nine Years Later” caption from the start of Back To Earth, and just watching that in place of any episodes you want to skip.

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

I’ve just gone and made the same mistake with Babylon 5. A few episodes into the famously long-form plotted TV novel, I found out I’d skipped over the pilot movie.

I go back on what I said about checking wikis and things, because of the inevitable spoilers, even from seemingly innocuous things like cast photos/details. Worse would be asking for guidance and getting someone’s insane personal viewing order.
Unrelated post from the Red Dwarf subreddit:
I watch most of series 7 and 8 because of continuity errors when that doesn’t happen. First, I watch Tikka to Ride extended then imagine that the Infinity Patrol arrive and declare the timeline redundant due to the universe still sorting itself out, and everyone being sent back to the point where it all began, only with a few differences, to which I was the remasters versions.
Then I skip back to Out of Time, switch to the deleted ending and, because the timelines converge, everyone now thinks that the series 1 Red Dwarf was the one they were using. I then replace Tikka with Identity Within, then proceed as normal, skipping Duct Soup and Beyond a Joke to maintain consistency with the other series.
I still have to watch Epideme, but the plan is to watch Back in the Red Extended, Cassandra and Only the Good, with the alternate ending, then proceeding onto the revival.

Fucking hell and I thought we were boring.

Also, I tried Babylon 5, can’t remember if I had the movie or not to start it off? I assume so I just torrented the lot in one go but … I really really struggled and stopped at around episode 5 or 6. For a show made in the era of TNG and DS9 etc, it really felt like it was made a decade earlier. Wanted to like it because I’d heard so much good stuff but couldn’t get past the production.

Even the scripting and the names/titles of things sorta all felt like someone writing sci-fi for the first time.

[International Debris]

The first series is pretty patchy, and yes, it’s definitely smaller budget than the Trek of the same era, but it’s really worth sticking with. The third and fourth seasons are some of the best TV sci-fi ever made.

[Warbodog]

I find the whole 90s aesthetic charming, it’s just some of the acting I have to get past.

[Jonathan Capps]

Also, I tried Babylon 5, can’t remember if I had the movie or not to start it off? I assume so I just torrented the lot in one go but … I really really struggled and stopped at around episode 5 or 6. For a show made in the era of TNG and DS9 etc, it really felt like it was made a decade earlier. Wanted to like it because I’d heard so much good stuff but couldn’t get past the production.

If you have the time what with the millions of other shit there is to watch these days, I highly recommend to give B5 a chance beyond the first season. It doesn’t just get good, it’s gets fucking good.

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

I hear what everyone is saying … I just loathing having to watch hours and hours of shit TV on the promise something gets better.

But maybe I will again try at some point soon, I have precious little else on at the moment.

[Jonathan Capps]

I mean, season 1 isn’t shit. Not unless you believe those lying early 2000s comedies.

[Ian Symes]

Before lockdown, I worked in the same offices as Martin Trenaman. Every time I saw him, I was desperate to yell “Babylon 5’s a big pile of shit”.

[Rudolph]

With the Babylon 5 pilot movie, I really don’t think it’s essential to watch. All the important stuff it brings up is brought up in the series proper done a lot better.

Watch it as a curio, but it doesn’t really add anything.

[GlenTokyo]

Disclaimer: I’ve never really seen Babylon 5

[Warbodog]

Neither had Simon Pegg, from what I remember of the audio commentary. It was just a good target to bring out the cult defensiveness and nothing personal.

Never realised that was him from The Inbetweeners.

[Ridley]

Stargate SG-1’s better anyway.

[RunawayTrain]

Stargate SG-1’s better anyway.

Whoop! Though funnily enough my box set doesn’t contain the original film … (I don’t remember off the top of my head how much ‘Children of the Gods’ explains for the first-time viewer.)

[International Debris]

SG-1 doesn’t come close to Babylon 5, but it is a <i>lot</i> of fun.
I’d almost recommend not watching the Stargate film, though, what with it having entirely different actors and some pretty different concepts, and being really, really, really bad.

[Hamish]

I rate the first season of Babylon 5 a lot higher than most, and it becomes only more impressive when you learn what Michael O’Hare was dealing with at the time.

[Warbodog]

Stargate was my Star Trek replacement after DS9 ended. I thought the early, naive years were loads of fun, but I got less interested around season 5/6. Then I moved on to Farscape, which was the most entertaining epic sci-fi sitcom until Moffat/Smith Doctor Who came along.

[International Debris]

it becomes only more impressive when you learn what Michael O’Hare was dealing with at the time.

I’m glad I didn’t see it until after his death, because I would have been really annoyed about him leaving before it all got explained. The whole thing is really tragic.

Stargate was my Star Trek replacement after DS9 ended. I thought the early, naive years were loads of fun, but I got less interested around season 5/6.

I think the first series is pretty naff, suffering from the kind of generic sci-fi stories that most first series tend to, but after that it gets pretty good. I think it lost a little something around the time Daniel left and never quite recovered, although I do like the Ben Browder & Claudia Black series at the back end. Speaking of…

Then I moved on to Farscape, which was the most entertaining epic sci-fi sitcom until Moffat/Smith Doctor Who came along.

Yeah, an absolute gem and one of my all-time favourite shows.

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

I used to really enjoy Farscape when it went out when I was in my teens. But twice I’ve tried to re-watch it since and I never get to the end of series 1

[Warbodog]

To skip the growing pains, you could start from episode 16 or the 19-20 two-parter if you don’t need much backstory. Then if you still don’t like those, probably forget it.

I did find that it was less amazing when I watched it again five years ago. Probably more my taste changing than any fault of the show.

[GlenTokyo]

I hated Farscape when it was on, just couldn’t get on with it. During the first Covid lockdown though I was looking for stuff to watch and Farscape popped up – series 1 is great, but I lost interest during series 2 because it just seemed like they threw the dynamics from series 1 in the bin and did something else.

[Jonathan Capps]

it becomes only more impressive when you learn what Michael O’Hare was dealing with at the time

[RunawayTrain]

I think it took me 3 tries to get into Farscape, I have no idea why, but once I did, I was gripped! Absolutely brilliant. You forget the puppets are not real people quite quickly, they’re so well done. I haven’t watched it for a while though other than the odd standalone ep, simply because I haven’t had the emotional energy. (Same with DS9.)

I rewatched series 9 and 10 of SG-1 recently but wasn’t in the right frame of mind to start from the beginning, and am currently going through Atlantis – for some reason that’s a lot easier to pick up, maybe because it’s from an established universe and they pretty much know what they’re doing from the start (in terms of gate travel, anyway!).

[International Debris]

I struggled a bit with Atlantis. I think I just find Space Vampires a really, really uninteresting choice of enemy. I probably got halfway through the second series before giving up. Annoyingly, although it doesn’t come close to Arrowverse level, there are a handful of things in Atlantis which do have an effect on SG-1, so I remember a couple of times when I realised I’d missed something.

[Jenuall]

Farscape lost me around the time Scorpio (is that the bad guys name?) ended up inside a chip in Chrichton’s head or whatever it was. Actually that may not be true, I think conceptually that was interesting at first but it seemed to drag on too long if I recall rightly

[Hamish]

I’m glad I didn’t see it until after his death, because I would have been really annoyed about him leaving before it all got explained. The whole thing is really tragic.

Just imagine having to film an episode like “And the Sky Full of Stars” when you actually have been hallucinating on set.

[Warbodog]

I was enjoying B5’s classic sci-fi allegories until the ‘pro-Earth’ anti-alien violence arc made it as escapist as watching This Is England. I don’t know how old-school sci-fi viewers/readers handled Cold War parables week after week. Good show, anyway.

[Jonathan Capps]

I was enjoying B5’s classic sci-fi allegories until the ‘pro-Earth’ anti-alien violence arc made it as escapist as watching This Is England. I don’t know how old-school sci-fi viewers/readers handled Cold War parables week after week. Good show, anyway.

“We can’t act the Universe’s policemen, Senator!”

*winks to camera*

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

I was enjoying B5’s classic sci-fi allegories until the ‘pro-Earth’ anti-alien violence arc made it as escapist as watching This Is England. I don’t know how old-school sci-fi viewers/readers handled Cold War parables week after week. Good show, anyway.

The same way we do now? Plenty of drama and sci-fi reflect the world we live in from our perspective and we either roll our eyes at year another poignant piece of TV or nod along enthusiastically and agreeingly

[Ben Saunders]

Plenty of drama and sci-fi reflect the world we live in from our perspective

Yeah and it’s really tiring. More in the way it’s done, though. In the 60s you could happily ignore that A Private Little War was about Vietnam if you really felt the need, but there’s no escaping it today. And conservative rhetoric is so tiresome that I sort of don’t want to be constantly reminded of it by whatever TV I’m watching. I’ll watch shit form the 80s where at least I’m somewhat distanced from the events they’re allegorising.

[International Debris]

To be fair, Babylon 5 gets very, very heavy going in places. It has a reputation – to some – of being a bit of a cheap, naff, lightweight show, and yet it’s one in which we watch Earth turn into an Orwellian state.

[Katydid]

Is Blake’s 7 worth watching beyond the first couple episodes? I really enjoyed the first two but it has a reputation for totally abandoning its original premise and turning into a shit knockoff of Doctor Who almost immediately.

[Warbodog]

There’s good stuff in there eventually, especially for its time (it kind of does Star Trek’s Best of Both Worlds cliffhanger a decade early and Avon might be one of the best characters in sci-fi), but plenty of bad to sit through if you’re a completist. Like persisting with the entirety of 1980s Doctor Who, it’s an exchange of your time that could be spent on more worthwhile things in your list.

[Warbodog]

B7 defaults to more of a Star Trek rip-off that occasionally plagiarises Star Wars for an episode. Sapphire & Steel was the Doctor Who knock-off and the slowest thing I’ve ever sat through (though I just let it play in the background after a while).

If we’re collecting numbers-based series, The Prisoner is a good vintage show that doesn’t take forever. It’s not in space though.

[Hamish]

Like persisting with the entirety of 1980s Doctor Who, it’s an exchange of your time that could be spent on more worthwhile things in your list.

[Ridley]

Big Finish has a Blake’s 7 if you’re into that sort of thing.
And Sapphire & Steel.
And Doctor Who.
And Stargate.
And The Prisoner.

[Warbodog]

Babylon 5 did Future Echoes with a Parallel Universe pay-off… so I can pretend that excuses gushing about it here.

Bloody hell, Babylon 5 gets satisfying in the middle. Especially catching up with the long-teased future echoes and being gifted a whole load more. If you’ve got your story all plotted out, what better way to show off than jumping all over the coherent timeline? I can’t remember shouting at the screen so much since Heaven Sent in 2015.

Then there’s the gritty underbelly that gets way too upsettingly/depressingly real at times, depending on your life experience and personal worries. And the twisting character journeys (mainly for the aliens, who are the interesting ones from the start).

It’s made me lose some respect for juvenile favourite Deep Space Nine, but I don’t want to get too conspiratorial about ALL of the similarites beyond the blatant origins, since they were written against the same background and a lot of it’s playing with classical archetype faff anyway. Either way, that outlier in the Trek franchise makes more sense now.

[Jonathan Capps]

Bloody hell, Babylon 5 gets satisfying in the middle. Especially catching up with the long-teased future echoes and being gifted a whole load more. If you’ve got your story all plotted out, what better way to show off than jumping all over the coherent timeline? I can’t remember shouting at the screen so much since Heaven Sent in 2015.

This is what I remember standing out when I first watched it year ago. No other TV series before or since scratched that same itch of presenting this coherent longform story, it really is incredible at times.

[Kris Carter]

Bloody hell, Babylon 5 gets satisfying in the middle. Especially catching up with the long-teased future echoes and being gifted a whole load more. If you’ve got your story all plotted out, what better way to show off than jumping all over the coherent timeline? I can’t remember shouting at the screen so much since Heaven Sent in 2015.

This is what I remember standing out when I first watched it year ago. No other TV series before or since scratched that same itch of presenting this coherent longform story, it really is incredible at times.

War Without End was an absolute fucking belter.

[Hamish]

Having just finished a Babylon 5 re-watch to the end of Season 4, one thing that has always bothered me is how after months of President Clark’s propaganda about Sheridan being under the control of malign alien influences, no one makes a single comment about how he shows up to Earth with the backing of an Alien armada, or how the White Star ships are almost exclusively manned by Minbari crew.

They do at least state several times that humans should be leading the battle, but G’Kar and Londo getting the League involved could very well have caused more harm than good. Especially when this is followed by Delenn’s show of force with the White Star ships not long after when announcing the creation of the Interstellar Alliance to the new President.

Actually, maybe Clark had something of a point after all?

[Warbodog]

The station becoming a shining beacon of multiculturalism in response to xenophobia has been one of the more heartwarming messages to lighten all the gloom.

[Hamish]

The station becoming a shining beacon of multiculturalism in response to xenophobia has been one of the more heartwarming messages to lighten all the gloom.

That’s the journey the audience gets to see, but looking at it from the optics of someone on Earth who has been watching ISN for months, then Clark’s propaganda suddenly appears to become prophesy. Probably just a consequence of how condensed Season 4 was, but it feels like everyone just hand waves that away.

[Author]

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