In The Edit

Cutting to the Chase - by Andrew Ellard

3 June, 2005

With Red Dwarf's VII and VIII both going out in three disc sets, one would think the production could breathe easy, safe in the knowledge that there's more than enough space on the discs for everything we could want to include.

Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Despite one disc of each series being entirely devoted to bonus material - documentaries, featurettes, outtakes, deleted scenes - the sheer bulk of what we have to talk about means that some extras are going to have to slide to the episode discs.

So what's the cause of this peculiar spreadage? Unfortunately, it's just too damn early to reveal many of the surprises in store - including one that will knock your week-old socks off - but one of the basic reasons is simple mathematics. Eight episodes means more interview material, and more deleted scenes.

And while the pressure of deleted scenes is taken off Series VII somewhat by virtue of the Xtended episodes being included, Series VIII is chock full of the buggers. Well over an hour of material, in fact!

VII has its own Everest to climb, though. This is the series where (in no particular order), Rob Grant quit, Chris Barrie left (temporarily as it turned out), Chloë Annett/Kochanski joined, Ed Bye returned and the shooting style changed completely. That's a lot of stuff to get on the record - and that's before we cover the major issue of the model/CGI effects.

Both series documentaries - Back From The Dead and The Tank - will eventually run at around 90 minutes each, which is 10-15 longer than previously. Some of this is also due to having more episodes to discuss, too - although Series VIII's doc will contain Back in the Red and Pete to their own segments, rather than split the discussion between the multiple parts.

Another interesting aspect of the edit is the new 'feature-length' version of Back in the Red. Aside from joining the various parts together, Doug Naylor has isolated four brief Deleted Scenes which, due to their quality (having been cut for time) are now to be incorporated into the new edition.

There's obviously a great deal more to talk about - including one DVD extra that will surprise many and hopefully impress everyone - but right now we have to return to The Shed and select bluescreen backgrounds for our interviewees. Danny John-Jules in front of a wardrobe, maybe...?

More DVD details will follow soon...

Series VII is due out in the UK in November 2005. Series VIII is expected in February 2006.