Fun, Fun, Fun in the Sun, Sun, Sun...

Well, I've now finished watching through my latest DVD acquisition: Red Dwarf Series 1. I love Red Dwarf. It's funny, funny stuff, with good characters, a fun premise, witty dialog, and some very clever writing. More than that, I think one of the reasons why it still holds up so well more than a decade later is that there actually is more to it than the jokes. Despite its silliness, many of the stories were interesting and original enough that they could have worked perfectly well even without being played for laughs. (And I'd say that's true even in the early days of the show, when it had more of a straightforward sitcom sensibility and less of the traditional sci-fi feel it developed in later seasons.) And although the show was not infrequently known to play pretty loose with its own continuity (especially when it came to Kochanski), it still showed an attention to detail many more serious SF shows might have done well to emulate, making both the Red Dwarf itself and solar system it's left behind feel very much like real, lived-in places. I like that.

The discs themselves are pretty cool, too. This set features all six episodes of the first season, in their original form (which I personally much prefer to the later versions with the snazzed-up FX, anyway). And there's lots of extras. All the episodes have commentary tracks featuring all four cast members. Those might be a little disappointing if you're hoping for a coherent discussion of what it was like to film the series... or a coherent discussion, period, really. It's mostly a lot of joking around, some very disjointed reminiscing, and lots of making fun of people's hairstyles (something that, as far as I can tell, these guys never do get tired of!). It is kind of amusing, though. The first episode also features a bonus commentary track by the writers and director, though they're not actually commenting on the episode itself, just talking a lot about how the series got onto the air in the first place. Then there's an entire second disc full of extras. Some of these are more interesting than others, of course. The deleted scenes were all clearly deleted for a reason, but the outtakes are great. And there's something oddly fascinating about seeing the premiere episode dubbed into Japanese. (Actually, two main things struck me about the Japanese version. One is that, even when he's "Yowww"ing and "Owwww"ing in Japanese, the Cat is still really, really cool. The other is that apparently Holly's cockney slang simply doesn't translate, and whoever was responsible for the dubbing refused to even try. Very weird to suddenly hear "Gordon Bennet!" pop out in the middle of a stream of Japanese.) There's also a half-hour documentary featuring interview snippets with the actors and pretty much everyone involved in the series on the production side. Personally, though, I think my favorite extras were the longish extracts from the audiobook version of Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, in which narrator Chris Barrie manages to pull off some truly uncanny impressions of his fellow cast members.

Oh, and for anyone who might have or plan to get this particular DVD, be sure to hunt down the easter egg on Disc I. It takes you to another interview with the show's creators, which is well worthwhile if only to hear them reading out the utterly appalling newspaper review of the first episode.

Now I really do need to go out and get Season 2...