The Bodysnatcher Collection is considered to be the final catch all release of Red Dwarf on DVD, carrying both the remastered three seasons and some important extras that were never made when the main season releases were being produced or were considered lost to time and rights issues, some possibly for good.
Before I delve into what I consider to be the highlights of this release, I'm going to talk about the remastered episodes and frankly, they're a complete load of Smeg and not worth your time, the only reasons they were done to begin with was so that the show could be bought in markets like Japan and to try and secure funding for the doomed feature film project.
But why do I smegging hate the remastered episodes, well its simple really: The alterations, the changes made to the original episodes kill the feel of them and alter a lot of the original timing to the point that it no longer feels like the show its trying to remaster to begin with.
But the irony of this project is twofold: first, it's highly unlikely that without these episodes I wouldn't have become the Red Dwarf fan I am today as those were the episodes UKTV aired on New Year's Eve 2001/2002 and the second I will now begin to talk about in more detail.
Disc 1 - Bodysnatcher:
Disc 1 of this 4 disc set contains 4 items but they're very significant ones and each deserves attention so let's get smegging to it.
Bodysnatcher - The Lost Episode: This was the very first episode written for the series by Rob and Doug all those years ago and it was the one that also never got made due to not having an ending to it and most likely being too expensive to produce given some of the scenes described in the story.
This is presented as a storyboard version with all the vocals done by Arnold "Smeghead" Rimmer himself Chris Barrie, Barrie was an impressionist before getting the part of Rimmer on the show and his impersonations are for the most part very good, his impression of Craig Charles is spot on the money as is his impression of Norman Lovett but he doesn't quite get Danny John Jules right as it lacks the manic energy he brought to the part but then again no one else can play that part so I won't hold it against Chris at all.
The script also has some lines that later made their way into future episodes such as the "Lemming Sunday" segment and the finale of Rimmer in full dress uniform, there is also a full length audio version of this story with a lot of the trims made for the storyboard version restored.
But the other main audio option is a new audio commentary track by Rob and Doug themselves, yes at long last Rob and Doug are reunited and boy does it feel so good, there's no hint of any animosity between the two of them and they rattle off stories like old pro's, this track is an absolute delight and it's just wonderful to see Rob back in the fold if only temporarily.
"The Beginning" Documentary on the making of Series 1: Done in the style of the other making of doco's on the later seasons of the show, The Beginning is simply a terrific watch with almost every key player involved interviewed to tell their side of the tale.
And speaking of Rob Grant, he finally appears in a making of doco on a series of Red Dwarf and it's such a joy to see him here as well telling his side of how this first season went through the trials and tribulations of getting made.
There are a number of great stories to be told in this doco such as the original actress who played Kochanski (Alexandra Pegg who was in Letter to Brezhnev and a Liverpudlian like Craig), the technician's strike that very nearly killed the series and caused Pegg to be unavailable when production recommenced, a look at each of the 6 episodes and the various stories regarding Producer Paul Jackson.
The Beginning is a really nice doco and I was very glad to see that one was made for the first season of the series but if I have a complaint and trust me it's a VERY minor one it's that I wish it had gone for another 10-15 minutes and included an interview with Peter Risdale Scott, the then Commissioning Editor at BBC Manchester who pretty much got the show made plus Chris does an impression of him when he's Brannigan the ship's psychiatrist in Queeg, still this is a minor complaint as it's a great doco.
"It's Cold Outside" Documentary on the Making of Series 2: But if one was good, then two must surely be great and like The Beginning, It's Cold Outside looks at the making of the second series of the show.
Again nearly all the major players are there telling their production stories regarding location shooting, a look at each of the 6 episodes, Norman Lovett leaving at the end of the season and the originally planned opening episode for Season 3 to be titled "Dad" and why it was never made.
It's Cold Outside like the Beginning is a great doco on the making of the second series and I am really happy that one was made for both seasons as having gone through the other doco's on the later season sets, it felt like a real shame to me that one was never done for the first two series, happily that happened and both were more than worth the wait.
Another thing that both of these doco's made me think about was just how important Rob Grant was to the success of the show, he seemed to have a real feeling for the characters and the comedy and those elements went missing when he left though happily the new season RDX recaptured it the best and I am very grateful for that.
The End - The Original Assembly: This is the original cut of the pilot episode from 1987, containing material that appeared on the deleted scenes of the 1st Season DVD as well as new material never seen until now.
To be frank I felt this was horrible, there were very few laughs, Craig and Chris were still finding their feet and the audience just didn't know how to respond to what they were watching and I can't blame them as a lot of the scenes fall flat on their face, thankfully a large chunk of this show was reshot and became the good opener we know it as today.
Rob and Doug also provide a commentary track for this rough version of the pilot and even they seem to feel uncomfortable with this initial footage, still they provide a great track and RD fans shouldn't miss it.
From there you get the other three discs containing the remastered episodes as well as some more neat extras which I'll go into now.
On the first disc you find the remastered Season 1 episodes but you also find this cool extra:
Still Galleries: Here are 4 still galleries which cover both the original making of the episodes and the remastered effects work, the first three are a real treat as they cover rehearsals (some of which were done by Chris Barrie), the Behind the Scenes production and Snapshots, galleries were done for the latter two on the later seasons of this show and it was a real treat to see that happen for the first two seasons.
On the second disc you find the remastered Season 2 episodes and has the bulk of the extras that I liked on it:
Deleted Scenes: Two previously unreleased deleted scenes are found here, the first is an alternate version of the Golf Course scene in Better Than Life where Lister and the Cat are sitting on a beach, the real beach it was shot on however was freezing Cold and its shown on the faces of Craig and Danny in the scene, thankfully the right decision was made to reshoot it.
The other one however is a real gem and comes from the episode Bodyswap and concerned Robert Llewelyn's first day on the show as Kryten and believed to be lost to the ages until this set was being made.
The scene is an extended version of Rimmer inside Lister's body in the sauna reading the magazine and Kryten bringing him another feast and lighting candles with his fingertips.
And now I come to my big bug bear with this scene and that is Bobby's voice, when I first heard it I thought "AAAARRRRGGHHHH this accent is Horrible, Bobby" and that it sounded like a really really really bad impression of C-3PO from Star Wars, I love Kryten and I love what Robert did with that role but thank Smeg he changed that voice, it would've been unbearable for an entire season, the scene as a whole however I am glad to see was cut.
Tongue Tied Archive: This archive concerns the song that opens the Season 2 finale Parallel Universe and has two items in it.
The first is the initial version of the song from Rob and Doug's old radio show Son of Cliche and its perfectly fine to hear but I don't think many will listen to it more than once.
The real treat however is Howard Goodall's demo for the full song, it has more of a 1960's feel to it and I really love it as much as the final full length version made for the show but cut down to fit the episode running time, this was well worth checking out.
Over on the third disc you find the remastered Season 3 episodes and this one final treat worth talking about:
Dad - The Lost Episode: This episode was originally intended to open the third season of the show and address the changes from Season 2 to Season 3 such as Lister being pregnant, the changing look of the ship, Kryten coming onboard and the change in appearance of Holly.
However Rob and Doug couldn't construct a script to their satisfaction and scrapped it, instead putting it all on a crawl at the beginning of Backwards.
Rob and Doug also provide a commentary for this extract but their comments were made better I thought on the "It's Cold Outside" doco which talked about the plans for this episode, still a Rob and Doug commentary track is something I won't complain about at all.
The Verdict:
The Red Dwarf Bodysnatcher Collection is a very nice companion piece to the main season releases but it also made me wish that some of this material had been on the season sets, especially the stuff for the first two seasons as their releases were kind of weak and suffer in comparison when compared with the releases of the later seasons where it was clear that they had a much bigger budget to produce them the way they were made.
The diehard Dwarf fans however will love it and especially love the presence of Rob Grant in the extras and his commentary tracks with Doug, just wonderful stuff that made me wish somewhat that the two would reunite to write one last season together but alas that will never happen but still it was just great to see him talking about his time on Dwarf somewhat and it reinforced just how important he was to the overall success of the show and why it's held up as long as it has.
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