The Difference

[Blisschick]

I am elated and very disappointed in the same breath. I feel like I’ve been robbed.

I finally got around to getting a Series I DVD yesterday. I had heard that for the DVD releases, the original episodes had been “doctored”, and that most loyal fans that had been with the show since the beginning hated the changes. I discovered that for whatever reason, the DVD that Netflix has been showing via Instant View is the “New and Improved” edition (cough) and that my DVD is the original shows, unaltered, uncut, and infinitely better that the “New and Improved” (cough) version. It has a certain 80’s sitcom authenticity that I find indescribably nostalgic and quaint.

Seriously, who the hell thought fixin’ what ain’t broke was a good idea?

Topic

[Ben Paddon]

Grant Naylor Productions and BBC Worldwide. Ultimately it paid off, and helped sell the show in international territories that hadn’t given it a second look before. The show became remarkably popular in Japan as a direct result of the remastered versions, to the extent that Japan got a DVD release long before we did.

Ahhh… research.

[Seb Patrick]

Hang on a minute. Are you seriously telling me you were watching the Remastered version of Dwarf for all this time? For four years? Oh ho ho ho! Whoa, that’s a classic that is, that’s a classic.

[redhead85]

> The show became remarkably popular in Japan as a direct result of the remastered versions
> Ahhh? research.

Is the use of italics to highlight the point or a stylistic visualisation of your smug grin as you pat yourself on the back for being right ?

*EDIT: Ultimate irony? My italics tags won’t work. Mwaha.

[JamesTC]

>Hang on a minute. Are you seriously telling me you were watching the Remastered version of Dwarf for all this time? For four years? Oh ho ho ho! Whoa, that?s a classic that is, that?s a classic.

I got the remastered 1 and 2 when they came out as a birthday present, I had III, VI and VII on proper VHS, IV and V taped off the TV. Had never seen 1 and 2 until then.
I do prefer the “original” but I always look upon the remastered as the original.

Had never seen the original till the DVD release, shocked at some of the cuts.

Speaking of cuts, I was listening to the CD release of Red Dwarf Radio Show and at one point I rememer from the cassette (unabridged and radio show) and the book that Rimmer says on getting to the exam in negative ten minutes “Well, you’d have to be Dr Who” but the CD just stops at “Well”. Can anyone shed any light on that?

[Blisschick]

Re: research…Didn’t care enough really to dig that deep (at the time). I was too busy being incensed at being deceived and deprived.

>Hang on a minute. Are you seriously telling me you were watching the Remastered version of Dwarf for all this time? For four years? Oh ho ho ho! Whoa, that?s a classic that is, that?s a classic.

*hanging head in shame* Yes. *sniff*

I don’t still don’t have II, III, and VI. Hopefully, I’ll get lucky and find the others in original form, but given that all my others are remastered, I’m not holding my breath. At least it explains why the cellophane was stuck to the spine of the case now…who knows how long that DVD had been occupying the shelves.

I see the VHS tapes for sale all the time, but haven’t put serious thought to buying them because most are used and I don’t know that I want to pay full price for a media that’s on it’s way out like 8-tracks.

[JamesTC]

>I don?t still don?t have II, III, and VI. Hopefully, I?ll get lucky and find the others in original form, but given that all my others are remastered, I?m not holding my breath.

IV wasn’t remastered (I assume that is what you meant by VI). It was planned along with V but when it didn’t do that well it was put on hold and they still haven’t made it.
I think the inside of the VHS case said that you should look out for Series IV and V in the future.

[Blisschick]

No, I meant VI…I have IV. I was buying them sequentially backwards for some strange reason I can’t remember. I saw VI on the shelves a year ago, and now for the life of me, I can’t find it anywhere now except in a boxed set or on Amazon, but I can find all the others. Weird. Just picked up Series I yesterday because I had the opportunity and thought that if I can’t find VI, what the hell, I’ll get what I can.

[Seb Patrick]

This would probably be a good time to plug an old article, anyway: http://www.ganymede.tv/indepth/re-hamstered

[Andrew]

> the DVD that Netflix has been showing via Instant View is the ?New and Improved? edition

Not sure if it’s just how I’m reading it, but it sounds like there’s a little confusion on what, exactly, is out on DVD.

The American, Australian and UK DVD releases of individual series are all in their standard, original form.

What’s on Netflix, by the sound, isn’t anything to do with DVD. It’s episodes sourced from the original American tapes used, I guess, for VHS and/or PBS broadcast. In America there’s been no DVD release of the remastered editions.

There is a boxset in the UK – The Bodysnatcher Collection – which has all three remastered series and various other gubbins.

> I don?t still don?t have II, III, and VI. Hopefully, I?ll get lucky and find the others in original form, but given that all my others are remastered, I?m not holding my breath.

This is confusing me, too, for some reason! Series I to VIII on DVD are ALL in their original form, and readily available online. Only one to three were remastered, but none of those have had individual DVD releases.

Am I missing something?

[Ben Paddon]

Netflix have Red Dwarf: Remastered on their “Watch Instantly” service, which has always puzzled me somewhat. And all of the episodes have a “RedDwarf.co.uk” banner added to the bottom of the screen during the end credits.

The discs that they mail out for I-III are the original versions, however.

I’ve been meaning to write an “American Watchers’ Definitive Guide to Red Dwarf”. I have a rough draft of it somewhere…

[Blisschick]

No, Andrew, you’re not missing anything. There’s just massive confusion on my part as to what I’ve been watching. As Ben pointed out, Netflix is showing the remastered versions, which are the only ones I’ve seen of I-III (never the originals). I was confused because I thought all the DVD’s were remastered. Had I done any kind of research, I would have known better. I just thought it was VHS that hadn’t been.

[Jonathan Capps]

Why *is* Rimmer’s “Mc” reinstated in the remastered version?

[Andrew]

> Why *is* Rimmer?s ?Mc? reinstated in the remastered version?

I suspect it was initially accidental. When the remastered was mixed afresh from the original source audio, the ‘Mc’ was there with likely no reference to it needing to be removed in the audio logs (the change likely having happened in the main edit of the episode in ’88, rather than in the dub).

Of course, the nature of the legalities of such references – and awareness of them – has changed a bit since that time. It was originally dropped due to the legal concern, but since then it’s become clear that referencing a product for the purposes of comedy isn’t necessarily a problem (and “less meat than a McNugget” is only a simple truth – it’s not a joke about the brand of nugget, just a point-making comparison). Not sure if anyone spotted its reinstatement once the audio was restored, but I’m thinking it probably was caught at that stage – and if so, it was probably easier to grant it a pass than it had previously been assumed to be.

[Tarka Dal]

Well it’s to make up for the Tardis they airbrushed out of the cargo bay scene isn’t it?

[JamesTC]

>Well it?s to make up for the Tardis they airbrushed out of the cargo bay scene isn?t it?

Doctor Who and the Airbrush of Death.

[Andrew]

> Well it?s to make up for the Tardis they airbrushed out of the cargo bay scene isn?t it?

?

[JamesTC]

He is refrencing the TARDIS model that only actually appeared onscreen in ‘Demons and Angels’ which isn’t remastered.

[Author]

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