Recovered Scenes

More Trash Unearthed - by Andrew Ellard

30 January, 2004

Why are we so fascinated by deleted scenes? It's the extra I always head to first on a new DVD, and I imagine I'm not alone in this. The moments film and programme makers excise from an edit give tantalising hints about how the process works.

Editing, like any other artistic decision, is a subjective thing. One man's key character moment is another man's boring, explosion-less space-filler. As an example, check out Austin Powers in Goldmember - as someone who loves Magnolia, I would never have cut the 'What's It All About, Austin?' musical number that appears, separately, on the DVD. But how many would agree? Not the filmmakers, anyway...

What the deleted material here shows is that Red Dwarf IV was a series with a lot of story going on. Plots were becoming massively more detailed, and as such very few scenes were easy to remove, yet something had to go to keep the show to time. We have a lot of cuts - lines and moments - but, technically, only one fully 'deleted scene'.

Camille

1,2,3	Three snippets of dialogue all trimmed for time: asteroid spotting, Hammy Hamster and Rimmer's vid-call to Lister.
4	More Lister and Camille, showing the character's similarity to Kochanski.
5	With Mike Tucker in the blob suit and no on-set music, Kryten slow-dances Camille around the floor.

DNA

6,7,8,9	Four clips trimmed from the early scenes for obvious reasons - time, quality of jokes and some not-very-special effects.
10,11,12,13	The various reactions of the Dwarfers to the DNA machine are further illustrated by these cut lines.
14	A longer look at the curry monster, including an extension of the Jaws-inspired climax.

Justice

15,16,17	Three brief exchanges from early scenes, all trimmed for time and pacing.
18,19,20	Three extensions to the Mind Probe scene.
21,22	Kryten's opinion of Rimmer's impending trial leads directly into an outdoor sequence - removed because it so obviously resembles a park in London.
23,24,25,26	Four trims from Rimmer's trial, all cut for time.

White Hole

27	An awful 'time dilation' video effect of Kryten and Rimmer moving up a corridor led to this scene being stopped sooner rather than later.
28	A final gag from the "What is it?" scene.
29	Making his case for planet pool, Lister gets the chance to fully catalogue his abilities.
30	Presented without video effects, this is the full version of Lister's pool fantasy.

Dimension Jump

31	A longer version of Ace's scene with the Padre, played by Danny, which ultimately took longer to get the same point across.
32	Proof that the Moneypenny-esque Mellie - played by Hattie - had her own "What a guy" moment.
33	Removed before bluescreen work was completed, Ace's farewell scene includes the continuation of a running gag.
34,35,36	Three snatches of dialogue trimmed for time.
37	The original ending to the episode was removed when it didn't work on either comedic or logical levels. The kippers, which would have fallen straight through Rimmer, were intended to halt in freeze-frame.

Meltdown

38,39	Two cuts for time made as the crew prepared to use the matter paddle.
40,41	A longer encounter with the hopelessly fake dinosaurs, followed by more time with Elvis and Pope Gregory's waxdroids.
42,43	Lister and Cat experience further terror in their prison cell.
44,45	Kryten's further discoveries about Waxworld are followed by more battle footage - including the death of Stan Laurel.

Once again, I have my own favourites. The park scene in Justice - the only full scene excised - is fun, and Danny and Chris have a great time with fake laughter as the Padre and Ace, but the fuller version of Ace's take-off scene is the absolute top-scorer, neatly undercutting the poignancy of a hero's departure with a running gag (and no, I'm not going to ruin it here).

Finally, a note on the one deleted scene that didn't make the cut. As many fans will know, Tracy Brabin was originally cast as Camille, but her scenes were re-shot with Craig Charles' then-beau Suzanne Rhatigan. Suzanne better met the writer's concept of 'Kochanski Camille', apparently fitting the slightly re-jigged notion of the character more appropriately in style and form.

Tracy's scene, with identical dialogue and including shots of Lister that did make the final cut, was unable to be cleared for use - not a huge loss, though, when we have the bizarre alternate ending for Dimension Jump and additional abuse from Pope Gregory!