Customer Reviews

Red Dwarf: Series 1

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a really good series and starts of with a laugh on the 1st line, of the 1st episode, of the 1st series, which is a start of things to come. It's still trying to find it's footing in a few episodes but it's still a laugh a minute. Hollies hologram S.O.S. at the start to each episode is great and is really missed in later series. The extra's are also really good on this DVD which you can't say in many. You will be laughing all the way through this and there are some really amazing lines and jokes. Well worth having.

This is the first, and, in my opinion, the best Red Dwarf series. I remember watching this when it first aired on BBC2. I hadn't intended to watch it, it just happened to be on and I remember thinking it would be rubbish. Shows how wrong I was.

Ignore the low budget sets and old fashioned `special' effects and ignore the fact that the cast comprises unknown (at that time) actors. None of that matters with such a wickedly funny script played in a wonderfully over the top manner by its stars.

The Red Dwarf is a mining ship millions of miles from home. Dave Lister (Craig Charles) is about the lowest ranked member of crew possible, senior only to the tiny robotic Scutters. Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie) is only one step above him but is highly ambitious and opinionated (as well as totally deluded about his abilities), and just loves to pull rank over Dave. The two despise each other and swap insults with unfailing regularity. When Dave is found to have smuggled a cat on board he is threatened with stasis for the remainder of the journey if he doesn't hand the creature over for extermination. Dave opts for stasis and this is where the saga of Red dwarf really starts. When he comes out of stasis he finds that something has wiped out the entire crew of the ship and he has been in stasis for 3 million years. His only company is the ships computer Holly, a holograph of his deceased, neurotic, room mate come enemy, Rimmer, and a self obsessed, humanoid creature, simply called Cat, who has evolved from Frankenstein, Lister's smuggled cat. The humour mainly focuses on the banter and sarcastic comments between Lister and Rimmer, two people who loathe each other but are forced together for company. Holly and Cat, in this first season, play low key parts but have some brilliant one liners.

This two disc set not only contains the entire first series but also a myriad of extras including deleted scenes, `smeg-ups' and commentaries by the cast. You don't have to be a sci-fi fan to enjoy Red Dwarf, just a fan of quirky, `off the wall' comedy.

The Show: The early episodes, i.e. the first two seasons, of Red Dwarf hold a special place for fans. Before any real money was thrown at the series, and even before Kryten joined the crew on a permanent basis, the first series concentrated on characters and comedy. This series sets up the characters and the relationships that will carry the show through 8 series. One of, if not the best, series of Red Dwarf and one of my personal favorites.
Th DVD: Having seen (and taped) most of the show off of PBS, I'm glad to finally have this on DVD. The picture and sound is great, and the disc easily navigable. Though not as many as the later series (II, III, IV) there are a good amount of outtakes, deleted scenes, trailers, etc. But the true gem as far extras is the cast commentary on all 6 episodes. Chris, Craig, Danny and Norman share stories of the early years, behind the scenes, etc. Very cool for diehard fans like myself.
In short, if you're a fan you NEED this, if you're new to RD this is probably the best place to start.

I have been a fan of the sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf for many years, in fact let's put it this way, I've been watching it since it first came out "cough-cough" years ago!

So I am more than happy it is now on DVD, especially as two a year seem to be coming out and we are already on Season 4 so roll on Season, 6, 7 and 8 is all I can say!

This is a great DVD.

You get all the first series on one Disc plus loads of other extras on another disc.

And who can forget the first series when we were introduced to the grungiest man in the universe, Lister, the most cowardly man ever (and now a hologram) Rimmer, an ever so slightly insane computer called Holly, and the last descendent of Lister's cat, known only as Cat and eventually Kryten the neurotic but lovable Mechanoid.

This is British humour at its best, and over the years it has improved like a good mellow wine.

I am not going to give an in depth account of each episode, just and overview of the ongoing storyline which is that the Red Dwarf is a deep space mining ship with a crew of thousands. However due to the ineptitude of Second Technician Arnold Judas Rimmer, that crew has been wiped in a massive radiation leak and the ship left to drift in space for millions of years whilst the radiation dies down.

The only survivor is Dave Lister who was in cryogenic suspension after being punished by the Ship's Captain for bringing a cat on board, Arnold Rimmer's, now a Hologram (that means he's dead but resurrected in the form of a computer simulation but he can't touch anything) and ex-room mate of Lister's and a very human looking descendant of Lister's cat, who has all the vanity and habits of a feline that has evolved over millions of years.

We are treated to a variety of hilarious moments as Dave Lister comes to terms with being the only man left alive on the Space Ship and in the universe, and his reluctant friendship with Rimmer (who he hates and loves in the same breath) his relationship with Cat and eventually the Android (called Mecanoid in the series) Kryten who joins them in one episode in Series 2 and then becomes a permanent feature by Series 3.

There is also Holly, the ship's slightly mad computer, after all he has been alone for a VERY long time and two Scutters (repair robots) who have also become a little demented over the years, they both belong to a John Wayne fan club!

This is well worth watching, and if you don't become addicted after the first ten minutes I'll be very surprised and you'll be a Smeghead!

You also get the full six episodes on one disc, a collector's booklet and another disc full of extras such as cast commentary, deleted scenes, isolated music cuts, photo gallery and a lot, lot more!

In Britain a TV show like Red Dwarf gets only six episodes a season, compared to the 20-plus common in the US. The good news is that, with all their efforts bent toward a mere six eps, they can make those the best six episodes possible.

Red Dwarf is the name of a mining spaceship. The first episode in the series - called, paradoxically and charmingly, "The End" - introduces us to Dave Lister (Craig Charles), uber-slacker and lowest ranking person on Red Dwarf, and Arnold J. Rimmer (Chris Barrie), stupid, rude, officious control freak and second lowest ranking person on Red Dwarf. (Obviously AJR is destined to become the series' most popular character.) Since Lister is the only person he outranks, AJR of course dedicates most of his waking hours to making Lister's life hell. This would work if Lister gave a damn about anything Rimmer might say or do. Instead he regards Rimmer with the total contempt usually reserved for a high school stoner contemplating a junior ROTC cadet who takes himself WAY too seriously.

A horrible accident kills the entire crew except Lister, who emerges from suspended animation millions of years in the future to find himself a long, long, long, LONG way from Earth, his only companions the computer personality Holly - I have to point out the obvious play on 2001's HAL (played as slightly dense by the wonderfully deadpan Norman Lovett); a humanoid cat (Danny John-Jules) whose main occupations are eating, sleeping and admiring himself; and his old pal Rimmer, generated by the ship's computers as an intangible but visible hologram, surviving to badger Lister millions of years after AJR's own death. Talk about the gift that keeps on giving.

In this first season, the lack of a serious budget shows. The sets are drab in a Blake 7 kind of way. In one scene, showing much of the crew of Red Dwarf at a banquet, jackets are thrown over seat backs both to add a bit of color and hide the fact these are all modern, cheap cafeteria chairs. Almost all the budget went into building the sets; the Red Dwarf mock-up; and robotic "scutters," cute as hell, small janitorial robots (which never worked well, an ongoing source of irritation for everyone making Red Dwarf). Every episode takes place on the ship, simply because there was no money for location shooting. Series creators and writers Doug Naylor and Rob Grant had very little power to control the show during this first year. Otherwise they would've done things differently regards set decoration, direction and character development.

For all that, even in these early episodes Red Dwarf has SOMETHING. The "something," of course, being the relationship between Lister and Rimmer, the Odd Couple of outer space. Over the years this relationship would be expanded upon, and modified somewhat, but its rock solid appeal was there from the very start.

I'd been told for years before watching this DVD that Red Dwarf was a "very confusing series, hard to get into, but stick with it, it's worth it." For years after its introduction, because every Power That Was considered the first season so inferior to what came later, the episodes on this DVD were never rebroadcast, either in Britain or the US. I can see where this would be a confusing series to jump into in the middle, not knowing the backstory, why Lister is stranded on Red Dwarf, that Rimmer is a hologram, etc. Since my first exposure to Red Dwarf, by contrast, was watching Series 1 on DVD, to me it made perfect sense.

This two-disk DVD set was obviously a labor of love for the people putting it together. It's been given top drawer treatment all the way around. The quality of video transfer is excellent, the colors (such as there are) crisp, the audio clear. The second disk is chockful of amusing "extras." The only negative, to my mind, is that the enclosed Red Dwarf booklet, while very well-done, reveals secrets from later seasons. While I'm sure this is all old news to longtime series fans, as a new fan whose first exposure to Red Dwarf was this DVD, I found it a bit irritating.

Buy this DVD, it's the perfect introduction to one of the most imaginative, funniest television shows ever. If you have any liking for science fiction, or any sense of humor at all, you will love it.

Most of us grew up on Sci-Fi films and televison of the Star Trek/Star Wars, tradition, with starships full of pure hearts and high ideals in the pursuit of galactic knowledge. Of course, I've always thought that if you filled a starship with the people I've gone to school and worked you'd get something quite different. Remember that kid who was always crashing his bike, setting the chem lab on fire, or dropping delicate devices...? What if he was, say, in charge of safety on an intergalectic starship? He'd get everyone killed.

Which is exactly how Red Dwarf begins. An overrreaching and extremely annoying cliber by the name of Rimmer (one of a great many absolutely tasteless references) has managed to kill off the entire population of a ship except for one man left in suspended animation. A few millions years later when the radiation had died down, he's taken out of suspension by a computer who has gone quite mad in the interim, and finds that his only companions are a holographic projection of the most annoying man on the ship- yes, the one who's killed everyone off- and the last descendant of his cat.

Season one sets up the basic premise, introduces the characters, and explores the ship. Along the way much beer and curry is eaten and sprayed about as thousands of crude insults are tossed about and our hero tries to figure out how to keep from going mad himself. And it just keeps getting better from there.

a must have in any fan of this shows collection. great episodes and a great premise to a fantastic story creating a believable situation with one man, Lister, the sole survivor coming out of stasis and then finding out hes lightyears in the future after Rimmer didnt fix the drive plate. along for Lister's ride is a hologram of Rimmer, the computer Holly, whos only a head and one of Lister's cats babys turned into a human with cat instincts and fangs and a insatiable craving for fashion wear. wacky moments include where in the episode Me2 where Lister is watching the death of Rimmer, Rimmer yells gaspachi soup and many others. the ride is great and it gets even better and into depth later on in the other 7 seasons.

It is a pity that this series have never been broadcasted in my country.

On a visit to Nederlands this summer, when I first heard a dialog between Lister and Kryten, my eyes were trapped to the TV screen, I was captured by a very funny dialog about a crucial subject : Is there such a place called Silicon Heaven ? What becomes of an Android's soul after its death ? Wooww !... A different kind of "Blade Runner", I thought. That was my first impression.

Then, I didnot even know it was "Red Dwarf" which had been a cult series for at least 14 years with lots of fans. After watching several episodes, it became my favorite sitcom series ever.

Sometimes masterpieces come in cheap, simple, weird Sci-Fi sitcom packages.

RED DWARF is a series that came out during a time when there was a major strike in Brittain. The show had a lot going against it and a comedy in a sci-fi based series was something that BBC wasn't quite supportive until they realized how much of a hit they had in their hands. With the many wonderful reviews already on Amazon, I'll more or less discuss if the casual viewer of sci-fi or non-BBC watcher would enjoy RED DWARF. First and foremost, although this is sci-fi and came out during the same time Star Trek: The Next Generation was out in America, please do not think this is a serious show. As a matter of fact, keep your mind open and do not compare this series to any sci-fi show. Also, I want to say that I give this DVD a perfect rating because they went all out and put many things on this series 1 DVD from outtakes, featurette, the Japanese version of the series which shows the edited special effects of the show and more. As for the series itself, things get better as the series progresses, season 1 is more or less funny actors working on a miniscule budget and the things you learn from the included booklet and the featurette, you get a feel of what it took to make this show a hit despite the budget and the crisis they went through during the electrician's strike. Now for my friends in America who ask me to compare it with another series or movie in terms of what kind of humor. This series is quite hard but it does have the zaniness and dissing like "The Young Ones" but the comedy in itself is that the last human alive happens to be the dimwit crewmember they put on stasis along with his deceased partner who is a hologram, the computer and the cat evolved to a human who looks like he is a big fan of James Brown. It's something you can't compare to anything and it's quite unique. The first series pretty much focuses on Lister as he must cope of being the last human and getting along with whatever he can with the ship. But this being a unique show, if one has an open mind, I truly recommend giving it a shot.

First let me say, that if i were just rating the series, I would give it 5-stars right off. Even the weaker episodes (mostly the earlier, and very late ones) are very funny, and if not laugh out loud funny, still very kitsch and charming.
And those of you who own the DVD are probably screaming maniacally "How could you want more from a DVD release!?" Thats just it, these releases are a little bloated with special features. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather a studio err on the side of including more material than less, but since I am of a mind to collect this entire series on DVD, the price tag is a bit inhibitive. I bought the series pack, where you get both seasons one and two for a bit cheaper, but its still way up there. EXCLUDING the multiple audio commentaries that accompany the actual shows, there is a whole DVD of supplementary material with EACH season. Each DVD has 90 minutes of documentary and other video, plus a cartload of other stuff, most of which I can't imagine looking at more than once or twice.
I'm not sure if some of the inclusions raised the price because of royalties needing to be paid, but honestly, an ENTIRE japanese version of the first episode is on the season one dvd. Its fun to watch it for about 5 minutes and get a kick out of the crazy voiceovers, but the whole episode? And the documentaries are far too long and poorly edited. You get the feeling they realized they had to have an extra disc to fit any special features in, so they just decided to cram it with stuff. Wether or not they could have excluded some stuff and made it cheaper, I can't say, but things like clips from the audio books (maybe a veiled advertisement), which I have read anyway, Isolated music cues, etc, make me think they are just trying to get a couple extra bucks from the cult nuts, which is great, but i'm on a budget.
That said, there is some other really cool bonus stuff. The documentaries, though they could be more succinct, are still full of cool facts and interviews. Outtakes are always great, some deleted scenes worth watching, funny commentaries, and some neat production notes and easter eggs.
All in all, if you like red dwarf, you HAVE to buy it, and for all my complaining, I'm still going to fork over the dough and be glad I had a chance to own such a good transfer of every episode of this great show. Its better to have more than less, but its going to cost me a couple hundred dollars to get the whole series, and half the discs will be full of useless ephemera like a geological survey of an asteroid the characters played golf on. Shave 5 bucks off the list price and forget some of this fluff.
In short: Buy it, love it, but don't get too excited about the towering list of special features (which is longer than the list of episodes).