Xtended Revisited: Back in the Red Features Posted by John Hoare on 12th May 2015, 19:17 Welcome to the thrilling climax of Xtended Revisited - for which we turn our eyes away from material first released on a scruffy VHS in 1997 as per our first three parts, and instead turn to a nice shiny DVD release from 2006. And what we have here is a rather different proposition. The story behind-the-scenes of Back in the Red is oft-told: planned originally as a one hour special to open the series, due to timing and budgetary reasons it ended up being split into a three-part episode. Doug was never happy with the result, and when the VIII DVD came along, as well as the broadcast episodes being included, the opportunity was taken to create a brand new edit - combining all the episodes into a single part, and adding some dialogue scenes which were cut from the broadcast version for reasons of time. And thus Back in the Red Xtended was born. Read more →
Xtended Revisited: Duct Soup Features Posted by John Hoare on 6th April 2015, 12:11 Welcome to our continuing series Xtended Revisited - taking a look at the differences between the broadcast and Xtended versions of the popular science fiction comedy series Red Dwarf. This time, we take a look at Duct Soup - an episode which not only contains problematic gender stereotyping, but also portrays Lister as a homophobic little shit. You know the drill by now. Each section is transcribed, with Xtended material presented like this, followed by any technical notes, and then my opinion as to whether the extra material works or not. (Predictions on a fucking postcard, please.) Let's get to it. Read more →
Xtended Revisited: Ouroboros Features Posted by John Hoare on 24th March 2015, 20:09 In Red Dwarf VII, three episodes are represented by two separate yet equally important versions: the original broadcast episodes, and extended versions released on VHS in 1997. These are their stories. This must be some kind of record for G&T. Eight years ago, I wrote an essay detailing the differences between the broadcast and Xtended versions of Tikka to Ride, with the promise the rest of the episodes would follow. I thought it was about time to follow through on that promise. I may not be fast, but I get there in the end. I THINK HOLLY SAID THAT IN AN EPISODE OF RED DWARF. So, we turn to Ouroboros Xtended. As before, each relevant section is transcribed, with Xtended material presented like this. There then follows any technical notes on the sequence, and finally my opinion as to how well the additional material works. If you've hung around on this site for longer than five seconds, you can probably guess what my opinions are likely to be, so please feel free to skip those bits if reading me rant on about VII makes you want to come round to my house and smash my head in with a golf club. Read more →
Xtended Revisited: Tikka To Ride Features Posted by John Hoare on 18th March 2007, 08:19 It seems odd, given our ludicrous obession with the minuate of obscure production details, that we haven't really covered the Xtended episodes. Maybe the ghost of Ian turning into a gibbering wreck after dissecting one episode of Remastered hung over the whole idea. Let's fix this, shall we? And let's start at the very beginning - with Tikka To Ride Xtended. A word about the format of this article - each excised section is transcribed, with Xtended material presented like this. There then follows any technical notes on the sequence, and finally my opinion as to how well the additional material works. Read more →
