Red Dwarf complete seasons 1-XIII box set 6th October

[Grazey1]

Red Dwarf: Complete Series I-XIII Blu-ray


A radiation leak wipes out the crew of the mining ship Red Dwarf leaving one survivor - chicken soup repair man, David Lister. After three million years in suspended animation, Lister emerges to find he is the last human being in the universe. But he is not alone.

Join the crew across all twelve series and The Promised Land special in this collection packed with cosmic misadventures, classic moments, and smegging brilliant extras.

Includes:

Series I
Series II
Series III
Series IV
Series V
Series VI
Series VII
Just the Smegs
Series VIII
The Bodysnatcher Collection
Back to Earth
Series X
Series XI
Series XII
The Promised Land

32 discs listed

Release date: 6 October


Zavvi’s twitter says: Every episode of Red Dwarf has been remastered for this complete Blu-ray boxset!

[robsinden]

I wonder if this will have any material outside of the existing Series 1-8 box set and the individual Blu-rays for series 9-13

[Yautja_Warrior]

Originally Posted by robsinden

I wonder if this will have any material outside of the existing Series 1-8 box set and the individual Blu-rays for series 9-13

It would be nice to get some new bonus features but I'm not expecting anything new. It will still be great to have a complete (for now) set.

Curious if they will ever actually get around to making 1 more season or another TV movie or whatever, feels like forever since the last one now.

[robsinden]

Originally Posted by Yautja_Warrior

It would be nice to get some new bonus features but I'm not expecting anything new. It will still be great to have a complete (for now) set.

Curious if they will ever actually get around to making 1 more season or another TV movie or whatever, feels like forever since the last one now.

I'm kind of hoping there isn't so I don't have to double dip!

[nacthenud]

Wonder if this will be region locked

[The Hornets]

Originally Posted by nacthenud

Wonder if this will be region locked

The issue for most US buyers would be it is 50i content rather than a region locking issue on BD.

If they replicate the earlier release of the first 8 series, then the extras discs with be R2 PAL DVDs which will stump many US customers.

[Yurakucho]

Wasn't there going to be a new series this year?

[darrellmaclaine]

Interestingly, there has been a slight change of direction for this new set compared to the 2018 version. This edition contains:

8 x Blu-rays of series 1-8 (2018 discs)
10 x DVDs of series 1-8 bonus features (original 2002-2006 discs repressed)
1 x DVD of Just The Smegs (original 2007 DVD repressed - not included on 2018 version)
4 x DVD of The Bodysnatcher Collection (original, long out of print 2007 box set repressed including 18 Re:Mastered episodes and extras, all commentaries, and material exclusive to the original box set - this replaces the bonus Blu-ray from the 2018 set which tried to recycle its content in weird ways)
9 x Blu-rays of Back To Earth, X, XI, XII and The Promised Land (original releases repressed)

If you don't have the original releases, this is close to definitive as long as you are aware that 15 out of 32 discs are DVDs authored two decades ago. However you will still be stuck with the terrible "colour correction" on s1-8 which tries to see the original lighting and colour design of the show as a 'fault' to 'fix', and has several completely stupid re-grading errors, so you may want to grab the 'Just The Shows' DVDs if you want masters which are arguably better if you value much better colour integrity over slightly worse encoding. Also, all the extras on the 1-8 Blus are literally ripped from the DVD files meaning eg the commentaries are transcodes.

Originally Posted by Yurakucho

Wasn't there going to be a new series this year?

No, it's as axed and over as Doctor Who is. This is essentially a capstone edition.

[Yautja_Warrior]

Originally Posted by darrellmaclaine

If you don't have the original releases, this is close to definitive as long as you are aware that 15 out of 32 discs are DVDs authored two decades ago. However you will still be stuck with the terrible "colour correction" on s1-8 which tries to see the original lighting and colour design of the show as a 'fault' to 'fix', and has several completely stupid re-grading errors, so you may want to grab the 'Just The Shows' DVDs if you want masters which are arguably better if you value much better colour integrity over slightly worse encoding. Also, all the extras on the 1-8 Blus are literally ripped from the DVD files meaning eg the commentaries are transcodes.

Curious about Zavvi saying they are newly remastered for this set. Did they really redo them and maybe fix some errors ? Or it could just be a mistake.

[Thunderleg]

Originally Posted by darrellmaclaine

Interestingly, there has been a slight change of direction for this new set compared to the 2018 version. This edition contains:

8 x Blu-rays of series 1-8 (2018 discs)
10 x DVDs of series 1-8 bonus features (original 2002-2006 discs repressed)
1 x DVD of Just The Smegs (original 2007 DVD repressed - not included on 2018 version)
4 x DVD of The Bodysnatcher Collection (original, long out of print 2007 box set repressed including 18 Re:Mastered episodes and extras, all commentaries, and material exclusive to the original box set - this replaces the bonus Blu-ray from the 2018 set which tried to recycle its content in weird ways)
9 x Blu-rays of Back To Earth, X, XI, XII and The Promised Land (original releases repressed)

I wish the beeb would learn about SD on BD. This seems slightly absurd.

[SoundableObject]

Originally Posted by Yautja_Warrior

Curious about Zavvi saying they are newly remastered for this set. Did they really redo them and maybe fix some errors ? Or it could just be a mistake.

Zavvi have clarified it was an error.

This will almost certainly be a repress of the following discs:

Disc 1-18 - Series 1-VIII (10xBR, 8xDVD)
Disc 19-20 - Back to Earth
Disc 21-26 - Series X-XII
Disc 27 - The Promised Land
Disc 28 - Just the Smegs (DVD)
Disc 29-32 - The Bodysnatcher Set (4xDVD)

A brilliant and comprehensive collection if you don't have any previous release but nothing new either.

My thinking is it will be one of those horrible big clamshell boxes.

[darrellmaclaine]

Originally Posted by Thunderleg

I wish the beeb would learn about SD on BD. This seems slightly absurd.

All the master tapes for the Red Dwarf extras from 2002-2007 are all junked, every last one. Only the MPEG encodes on the DVDs survive. So this is the only way of doing it.

[Yautja_Warrior]

Originally Posted by SoundableObject

Zavvi have clarified it was an error.

This will almost certainly be a repress of the following discs:

Disc 1-18 - Series 1-VIII (10xBR, 8xDVD)
Disc 19-20 - Back to Earth
Disc 21-26 - Series X-XII
Disc 27 - The Promised Land
Disc 28 - Just the Smegs (DVD)
Disc 29-32 - The Bodysnatcher Set (4xDVD)

A brilliant and comprehensive collection if you don't have any previous release but nothing new either.

My thinking is it will be one of those horrible big clamshell boxes.

Fair enough, I didn't see their follow up post but good to get the correct info.

It's definitely a comprehensive set for fans and as a big fan who owns all the original dvd releases, including The Bodysnatcher set and the 1-8 Blu-ray set and later seasons, I'll still gladly pick this up to have everything in one set.

If nothing is missing and of the same quality, it will at least give me a little shelf space back, as I can sell off the 1-8 set and the last few seasons on Blu-ray.

[Yurakucho]

It seems a new series was going to be shot in Nov 2024, but Craig Charles did an interview with the Radio Times in January suggesting budget problems. Apparently it's difficult to get TV shows made in Britain now. In the minds of the BBC, Doctor Who and Red Dwarf are both sci-fi shows, and therefore as Doctor Who has bombed, so will Red Dwarf. The BBC will ignore all the, ahem, other factors that destroyed Doctor Who...

I swear in an old Matt Smith episode I heard the line "Well, here I am, the first gay man on Mars. I'd better phone my gay husband and tell him the good gay news."

Remember, the BBC are the people who thought "Fog of War" in Robot Wars - that is, filling the arena with smoke so no-one could see what was happening - would be a great addition to the show.

[SoundableObject]

Originally Posted by Yurakucho

It seems a new series was going to be shot in Nov 2024, but Craig Charles did an interview with the Radio Times in January suggesting budget problems. Apparently it's difficult to get TV shows made in Britain now. In the minds of the BBC, Doctor Who and Red Dwarf are both sci-fi shows, and therefore as Doctor Who has bombed, so will Red Dwarf. The BBC will ignore all the, ahem, other factors that destroyed Doctor Who...

The BBC don't make Red Dwarf. At least not the publicly funded side. They haven't since 1999. Dave would be the people commissioning it.

Getting TV made in general is difficult at the moment. The money just isn't sloshing around for it. A shame as The Promised Land got great ratings and the whole cast were ready with a script for another special. Hopefully it can still get off the ground in the second half of the year for airing next year. It will have to find a new studio because Pinewood no longer do TV.

[Trekkie313]

Originally Posted by darrellmaclaine

All the master tapes for the Red Dwarf extras from 2002-2007 are all junked, every last one. Only the MPEG encodes on the DVDs survive. So this is the only way of doing it.

How?

[SoundableObject]

Originally Posted by Trekkie313

How?

I think there is a bit of crossed wires in the discussion.

The SD on Blu-ray material being queried originally is the actual episodes from Series I through VIII. They have all been upscaled and colour graded to mixed results. I'd argue that Series I-VI do all benefit to varying degrees. Series V and VI in particular are a great upgrade in my book. Whilst VII and VIII vary from being no upgrade to even softer than the DVD.

The original tapes for the bonus features for the majority of the DVD range were lost, so they opted to include the 8 original DVDs for the bonus features in the Series I-VIII BR set. These are also likely what they are including here.

[GreatUncleBaal]

Originally Posted by Yurakucho

It seems a new series was going to be shot in Nov 2024, but Craig Charles did an interview with the Radio Times in January suggesting budget problems. Apparently it's difficult to get TV shows made in Britain now.

That sounds a bit odd, as the rights were in dispute until the end of 2023 and Doug Naylor said in an SFX interview December 2024,
the earliest there would be a series, would be over two years away, as everyone had commitments and nothing was even written at that point.

[The Hornets]

As noted it would be the BBC’s commercial arm making this hence why in recent time the new shows have been on Dave and not the regular BBC channels.

The problem with shows like this and Doctor Who the BBC now need co-production partners to fund them and cover a significant part of the budget. Hence why recent Doctor Who has been made with Disney.

Plus Scifi is a hard sell for broadcasters given costs and why it’s pretty much only the deep pockets of the US streamers funding it. Star Wars on Disney+ and Star Trek on Paramount+.

For the BBC it’s much easier to make the cozy crime shows as they sell fantastically for them internationally. They’re even reviving shows like Shakespeare & Hathaway which was long since considered dead by the cast but coming back. They need to show that on Alibi to get pay TV money here plus sell internationally. It won’t unlike the early series go on BBCOne for a very long time, if ever.

[darrellmaclaine]

Originally Posted by SoundableObject

The SD on Blu-ray material being queried originally is the actual episodes from Series I through VIII. They have all been upscaled and colour graded to mixed results. I'd argue that Series I-VI do all benefit to varying degrees. Series V and VI in particular are a great upgrade in my book. Whilst VII and VIII vary from being no upgrade to even softer than the DVD.

I think in terms of visual quality the Blu-rays have the edge if only homeopathically, but what they've done to the colours I find unforgivable. The whole look of the show as lit by John Pomphrey is supposed to be hot gels making the scenes look like comic books or heavy metal album sleeves, and driving back from that seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of the aesthetic from the colourist. Then there are mad errors like trying to 'fix' the skin colour of McIntyre - an actor painted to look pale! - so the background goes pink...

Originally Posted by SoundableObject

Getting TV made in general is difficult at the moment. The money just isn't sloshing around for it. A shame as The Promised Land got great ratings and the whole cast were ready with a script for another special. Hopefully it can still get off the ground in the second half of the year for airing next year. It will have to find a new studio because Pinewood no longer do TV.

They missed their window with it. There was a point after Dave lost Taskmaster when they were looking to recommission Dwarf, but Naylor's operations are ramshackle at the best of times and the litigation didn't help (completely avoidable too - all Rob Grant wanted was to be able to write for and co-produce the show again as his contract dictated, and to re-employ people like Ed Bye, decisions all the fanbase would have been behind). I think Dave were also aware that The Promised Land was yet ANOTHER Naylor production that had gone seriously off the rails - illness meant that Lovett had the flu during the first recording, the second recording was delayed, and Llewellyn was very ill throughout all of it meaning major rewrites as the episode was supposed to kill off Kryten who sacrificed himself to save the crew, ending with the original series 1 lineup sailing away into the distance.

They also had an open invitation from Phil McIntyre Entertainment to do a live show about 10 years ago which everybody was up for and that Naylor just dropped the ball on massively.