On The Flipside

The alternative DVD cover.

12 October, 2012

A couple of weeks ago, we showed you the cover of the upcoming DVD and Blu-ray release of Red Dwarf X. It's a lovely cover, and we think it'll look great adorning any shelf. But that's not to say it's actually going to be taking pride of place on the shelves of every single fan that buys the set. Because, you see, we weren't actually telling you the whole truth.

Sure, if you walk into your local DVD emporium of choice - or indeed click on to your non-local website of choice - then the "poster" version of the cover is the one you'll see first. But peel off the cellophane, carefully remove the sleeve, and turn it over... and you'll find something else. To be precise, you'll find this beautiful thing:

Click image to enlarge

Yes, in a move guaranteed to delight those of you who get especially OCD about matching spines on your shelving units, Red Dwarf X on DVD will ship with a reversible cover, with the alternative side being a design that faithfully matches the previous eight regular series releases. Just about every notable detail from those original DVDs is replicated here - from Lister painting on the back, to "The Entire Tenth Series" and the classic Rimmer/Lister combo on the front, just about the only difference is the replacement of the BBC logo with that of 2entertain.

As for the spine, you'll note that the choice of character featured is an... interesting one (you'll be aware of their identity if you watched last night's trailer for Lemons) - and no, it doesn't feature the first chunk of a new eight-part spine logo. We did consider it, but we thought predicting all the way up to Series XVII was tempting fate a little too much...

Click image to enlarge

The alternative cover is only available on the standard DVD release - the Blu-ray will just feature the standard cover design (after all, a "classic"-style Blu-ray still wouldn't match the original discs due to its differently-sized case!), while - for obvious reasons - the exclusive limited edition DVD steelbook that HMV have for sale also won't be reversible. And as you can see above, the discs themselves will match the "standard" cover rather than the alternative.

And yes, don't worry, we can hear you all shouting "What about the menus?" at us from here. We'll have more info on the content of the DVDs soon...

Red Dwarf X is released on DVD and Blu-ray on 19th November.