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Red Dwarf Series 1 - 8 Boxset BD [Blu-ray] [2018]

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Even though I enjoyed seeing another episode of Red Dwarf, I felt let down about the whole Cat interaction thing that I was hoping to see. I would say that if you want to see it, don't get your expectations up based on "the promise land" title and just take it as another show from the series. Considering this is an analogue SD show I really don't see the point of this. Upscaling a more recent show, shot using digital cameras is one thing, but for a show well before DVD even came along...? I don't see the point of it.

What do we make of this? SD upscales? Or have the BBC commissioned proper HD restorations? I thought the show was shot on VHS, or was it film? The set collects the entire BBC-broadcast run of Red Dwarf, with the episodes painstakingly restored and upscaled into high-definition - with colour grading, sound enhancement and all manner of other tweaks and loving touches that show off the original episodes in their best possible light. You can read more about the restoration process here, but just to reiterate, we're not changing the content - this isn't Remastered, it's original-flavour Red Dwarf, just... better looking. It reunites the original cast of Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat) Robert Llewellyn (Kryten) and sees the return of Holly (Norman Lovett) the much loved ship's computer. Three million years ago... David Lister, a vending machine repairman, was sentenced to eighteen months in suspended animation for smuggling his pregnant cat aboard the mining ship Red Dwarf. While Lister remained in stasis, a radiation leak killed the rest of the crew. Safely sealed in the hold, the cats evolved into humanoid form. The cats now roam deep space in a fleet of their own... Strangely, though, the true highlight of this disc isn’t the lost stories, but rather the original assembly of the very first episode, ‘The End’– it seems about two-thirds of the opener was reshot at the end of recording for the first series, so this is a fascinating look at an alternative start to Red Dwarf, with some very different takes and dialogue, as well as some much better jokes and performances. Perhaps as fans are so familiar with the version as transmitted, this is why it feels so fresh and vibrant, like a missing episode in its own right, as there’s more than enough to set it apart from what actually ended up on screen, including deleted material. In fact, it’s startling just how much better some of the jokes work, and it could be said that this is actually a far superior version of the pilot, as it comes across as being more worthy of being the default version of the episode. Now that we're into December, the release of Red Dwarf Series I-VIII on Blu-ray - marking the first ever HD release for the BBC era for the show - is happening next month. So as an early Christmas present, we thought it'd be nice to give you a bit more information about what exactly you can expect to find on the whopping 19-disc set - as well as an explanation of what's been done to the episodes themselves...I guess it comes down to whether, for you, forty quid is a good price to pay for a chunky box, the convenience of having everything in one place, and a slightly better viewing experience than what you’ve already got for just-about-most-of the episodes. So buy it if you want, but don’t feel like you’re hugely missing out if you don’t, and for goodness sake, don’t replace your original DVDs with it. You can’t even say “you might as well get this if you haven’t got all the individual releases”, due to the encoding errors on Series V resulting in three episodes ending up less watchable than a duplicated off-air VHS. Oh boy, where to begin? This is comfortably the largest Red Dwarf release ever, containing not only 71.2% of all episodes ever (or Series I-VIII, as most people refer to it), but all the extras from the original DVD range, including The Bodysnatcher Collection. Not only that, the episodes have been restored, upscaled to a high-definition resolution, and given what’s been officially referred to as an “extensive” colour grade. It’s a release that was rumoured for a very long time before it was finally announced, and one that’s only now arriving some three and a half months later than the original release date. You need to be honest or you can’t be fair. It’s like when the XI release came out – had we not condemned the paucity of extras we wouldn’t have then been able to commend the XII release for rectifying it. And defending the 1-8 box against its own flaws does well-mastered SD Bluray releases (like the Doctor Who sets and something exciting coming in October that hasn’t been announced yet but I am creaming my jodphurs over) a huge disservice. Depending on their most recent broadcast, both "new" and "Classic" episodes of Red Dwarf sometimes appear on the free UKTV Play on demand service! Mine is the first link ,i added a slight picture sharpener during the encode as i found the DVD footage a touch blurry,also added some color correction but this can be a bit of a minefield to get 100% correct.I looks good on large screen TVs(considering the source).You say the second is clearly worse and i agree but i was not going to say that here,maybe now you understand my frustration with this release.I consider myself a bit of a sci fi geek and have done this sort of upscale many times with lots of golden oldies,ive said before and will say it again that i can not believe iam the only one to have tried this,i will please ask other members to show there results.

The original Series I and II releases didn't feature full episode-by-episode making-of documentaries the way the later series would - a consequence of being the inaugural, "test the waters" releases. But amid the wealth of content that was still assembled for them, there was time for this lovely short documentary telling the story of just how Red Dwarf made it from initial concept to screen. Fun fact: we're now further away from the production of this doc than it was from the broadcast of the first episode...The only possible excuse I could imagine is that it was a space-saving measure – which doesn’t make any sense but would at least mean somebody was _trying_ to do their job and messed up as opposed to just not doing it in the first place. One of the key elements of Red Dwarf's success over the past three decades has been the musical contribution of legendary composer Howard Goodall - and in this half-hour documentary, Howard gives us a peek behind the curtain of his composing process, as well as treating us to some bespoke performances of the classics! Although The Promised Land isn't technically another "series", we couldn't let the tradition of Dave-era Red Dwarf having specially-designed reverse covers that match the original Series I-VIII releases go uncontinued - so we're pleased to confirm that yes, you shelf-matchers will indeed be able to flip the cover (DVD only) to retain that classic mid-2000s BBC styling! Each individual series release up to and including The Promised Land is also available in the USA/Canada (Region 1) and Australia (Region 4). These regions have also released some bespoke compilation sets of earlier series. There are also country-specific DVD releases of earlier series in Japan, Spain, Portugal, France, Poland and the Czech Republic. Yeah, I felt very similarly, which is why it took me this long, but I just couldn’t fully quiet the voice in my head reminding me that thiese were the best quality versions of Red Dwarf 1-VIII.

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