Red Dwarf X [DVD]

I have a confession to make. I really did not like Back to Earth at all. I disliked it so much I have only watched it once.
This time however a lot of the problems I had with Back To Earth mainly it being a series of barely connected skits masquerading as a story and it frankly not being funny, are not the case here. I watched the whole 6 eps on Dave and my wife bought me this box set for Christmas.
Trojan starts us off in fine style. There's a distress call and it turns out to be from Rimmer's brother. As Rimmer prepares to cover up his staus to seem more impressive, Lister is just trying to buy an automatic drink stirrer from automatic call service.
Fathers and Suns sees a new ship computer Pree appear at the same time that Lister has been trying to forge a father/son relationship with himself by getting blasted on Gelf hooch and leaving messages for himself. This idea is a very new twist on something that was set up a few series ago. The comedy is genuinely being created out of SF concepts.
Lemons sees accidental time travel dump the crew in the Holy Land just at the same time as there's a man called Jesus. Is this Life of Brian territory? You'll have to watch for yourself.
In Entangled Lister loses badly in a poker game, has he lost both Rimmer and his life?
In Dear Dave, a long lost mail pod offers a letter rom an Ex-girlfriend now long dead, telling him he may be a father.
Rimmer's troubled childhood is revisited in The Beginning and it may hold the clue to defeating a band of simulants.

The episodes split into ensemble pieces or episodes centered on Lister or Rimmer. Cat based episodes have traditionally been found difficult but possibly future series could base something around Kryten. Holly and Kochanski are not present.

The stories work as good environments to base the comedy in and there's plenty of good comedy here. There's a running joke about a moose in Trojan that works each time and more subtle comedy as using the human race as a metaphor for relationships. Lister says that he misses his race but Kryten feels they were never good enough for him and he knew they'd always break his heart!

Performances are right on the money, indeed you'll be surprised to hear in the documentary that Craig Charles was recovering from flu when he recorded a Lister centred episode. You would not know it from his performance.

It's not the aboslutely best Red Dwarf ever but I enjoyed them all very much. They stand up along with many of the original episodes with only Entangled not gelling too well.

The feature length documentary has the benefit of being made concurrently with the show. If you think that means that it's just like a be true to your school rally, think again. It's painfully honest about the problems in getting the show made on time and all the more enjoyable for it.

There are several points where it nearly got canned e.g. bad effects shots & the prints failing on quality control.

We see how some effects were achieved in studio, learn that Etangled had no ending when shot in front of the audience and that the cast favourite is Lemons.

There are no commentaries for the episodes (there probably wasn't time) but the deleted/extended scenes can be enjoyed with or without Doug Naylor's commentary.

A great package supporting a highly enjoyable series that any moderately big fan of the boys from the dwarf will enjoy.

Fitting as it would be for a show that over 20 years ago had a 1st episode called "The End" to conclude on one called "The Beginning", it's not enough and I want more!

The new series of Red Dwarf is an utterly fantastic return to form!!

For me it is almost, ALMOST, as good as anything they have ever done and I would say that the laughs themselves are amongst the biggest the series has produced.

This time the series has done the right thing and gone back to its roots; Red Dwarf was never really about the locations or the special effects, it was about the marvellous interplay between the motley crew and I am simply over the moon that the writers have concentrated on that once more.

This series has always had that rare thing, true chemistry between its leads and I am pleased to report that it is better than ever.

The makers clearly know how to press all the right buttons and nolstagia plays no small part in the success of this latest outing; the music, the shots of the ship travelling through space, the sets, the costumes and even the credits would not look out of place in the 'prime' episodes some twenty years a go (my God that makes me feel OLD!!!).

The stories are very good, the script is excellent with one joke after another and many of them are genuine belly laughs; a good example that made me laugh out loud came in the episode 'Entangled' (episode four) when during the introduction Lister starts a 'fire' and then tries to put it out, it was simply brilliant and 'classic dwarf' as they say.

Although the cast have aged they have aged pretty well, with The Cat in particular appearing almost like he hasn't aged a day in some scenes (I'm not including Kryten because he cheats!).

The full episode listing is:

1. Tojan
2. Fathers and Suns
3. Lemons
4. Entangled
5. Dear Dave
6. The Beginning

This is the first full series of Red Dwarf since 1999(!), with only 2009's 'Back to Earth' Red Dwarf - Back To Earth - Director's Cut [DVD] [2009] to keep us going in the meantime.

As much as I love Red Dwarf and have done so since I was in my early teen's I was highly doubtful of this new series when it was first announced by the channel 'Dave', sure 'Back to Earth' had its moments but the 'magic' had pretty much gone and in all truth it hadn't been the same since series six in 1993 for me, but much to my surprise and delight this new series is everything I could have wished for and more, much much more!

This, the tenth series of Red Dwarf, will sit proudly on my shelf alongside the others, and I am pretty confident that on this performance there will almost certainly be more to come.

The set contains two discs and the sleeve on the DVD case is reversible;, the alternative cover uses the same design as the existing releases and thus fits perfectly in the collection; I think this is a fantastic touch and other companies should sit up and take notice!

Disc one contains all six episodes and they look and sound fantastic; the episodes come with an English soundtrack only, likewise with the subtitles.

There is no audio commentary track with the episodes on this release, unlike previous seasons, I'm assuming this has something to do with the short time since its production and release.

I think this is made up for with the superb 'making of' documentary on disc two; it is entitled 'We're Smegged' and with a running time of just under two hours it provides a huge amount of information as well as a fair few laughs.

Elsewhere on disc two there are deleted scenes from each episode; these come with audio commentary and there are a total of thirty minutes of them.

Finally there are the 'Smeg Ups'! There are tweleve minutes included and as always they are very funny.

A great series, a suprising return to form and a worthy entrant in the Red Dwarf cannon.

Now where the SMEG is my remote?! I want to watch it again!!!

I have to admit feeling a little nervous at the return of my all-time favourite TV show (by some distance) following three disappointing series (though to be fair, Seven never had a chance without Rimmer and 'Back to Earth was always going to rile with its brazen self-indulgence). However I am more than delighted to say that the boys are well and truly back in town!

Series 10 effectively follows on from Series 8, with the four crew members - without Holly - back to being deserted in deep space - the rest of the crew having scarpered from 'Only the Good''s corrosive virus. Its never explained as to how they 'got out of that one', but there is a hilarious and self-deprecating tease at the end of Episode 6. And right from the start one can appreciate the true essence of the show. Gone are the extraneous characters from 8 that ruined the sense of isolation and forced companionship that makes Red Dwarf. The boys are alone, isolated, getting on each others nerves, and the results are hilarious!

Indeed, the throwback to earlier 'Dwarf' is imprinted on all the episodes...'Trojan' and 'Entangled' could be straight from Series 6, 'Fathers and Suns' smells of 'Queeg' from Series 2, and 'Dear Dave', with its entirely on-ship setting, is Series 1 through and through.

Despite the similarity to earlier 'Dwarf', Doug has introduced an interesting new writing style to the agenda - Red Dwarf has traditionally been written around a single plotline per week - the guys get into a fix and get out of it - not much happens alongside. However several of the episodes incorporate the use of 'B' and sometimes 'C' subplots - in particular 'Fathers and Suns' and 'Dear Dave'. Occasionally this backfires - the payoff to the 'Chinese Whispers' subplot in 'Fathers and Suns' is weak and the ending to 'Entangled' is unclear and feels rushed, a by-product of trying to fit too much into half an hour. But the formula pays off outstandingly in 'Dear Dave' (along with 'The Beginning, the Series' high point) in which four sub-plots come together as a beautiful denouement in true 'Fawlty Towers style!

The jokes are nearly all razor-sharp, and the performances from Barrie, Llewellyn, John-Jules Charles and the guest performers exemplory. Craig Charles' acting has improved no end since Coronation Street - witness the brilliant 'dad to son' talk in 'Fathers and Suns'. But its Danny John-Jules as the Cat who steals the show - although used as a joke-cracking tool rather than a central character (as usual) he is simply side-splitting through all 6 episiodes!!

Of course there are imperfections - as mentioned earlier, trying to cram too much into half an hour affects the quality and delivery of both the plot and some of the jokes. Kryten is particularly under-used this time around, and - again because of the weight of material in such a short space of time - plot inconsistencies abound. For example in 'Lemons' why did they get transported back to earth, and why didn't Kryten have an attachment they could have used to power the remote? Explanations would have satisfied the more pedantic among us, but one has to take these flaws with a pinch of salt with Dwarf - it's not Star Trek.

Imperfections aside, Red Dwarf X is an outstanding return to form. Not quite at the level of Series 4 to 6 but well up there with 1 to 3. The open ending leaves the possibility of an eleventh series, which apparently will depend predominantly on DVD sales. So you know what to do...