Red Dwarf IV
I have such mixed feelings about the fourth season of Red Dwarf. It’s still fall-down funny in many places, and still packs enough of a conceptual SF punch that it puts whole seasons of certain Star Trek spinoffs to shame. But somehow, it began to veer away from its roots, those early shows with no budget that relied on character relationships, into something more action-oriented because suddenly the producers realized that they did have a budget. In the following season, action would take center stage in several episodes. It’s still funny - it would always be funny - but just somehow lacked the heart of the early seasons.
The full cast - Craig “Lister” Charles, Chris “Rimmer” Barrie, Danny “Cat” John-Jules, Robert “Kryten” Llewellyn and Hattie “Holly” Hayridges - is on hand again for full-length commentaries on all six episodes of the fourth season. Again, the commentaries are funny and revealing all at once, and always insightful - no matter how many books or websites you’re read about Red Dwarf, you’ll still very likely walk away with something new from this six-pack of gang commentaries.
The gang’s also all here for another stellar documentary, Built To Last, discussing the show’s move from the BBC Manchester studios to Shepperton Studios, and with a section focusing on each episode. There’s very little duplication of material between the commentaries and the featurette, but damned if that featurette isn’t really interesting, because some real live dirt is dished. Among the most interesting tidbits are some surprisingly topical discussions about a juncture at which the show’s political correctness was questioned by higher-ups at 
the BBC - never mind the fact that it was possibly the most racially-balanced show on British television at the time (”two white guys, two black guys, and the white girl on the telly!”), or that it actually achieved that Roddenberry dream of being so color-blind that none of the characters’ ethnic backgrounds were ever mentioned even as a throwaway or a joke. And perhaps even more interesting is the discussion of the moving - and near-cancellation - of the broadcast date for the anti-war episode Meltdown, whose original airdate would have seen it going out during the Persian Gulf War. Perhaps even more telling is that the cast members aren’t all in agreement on the validity of that rationale for moving the episode around on the schedule: Craig, Danny and Robert come right out and say it’s ridiculous (if anything, Craig felt there was no better time for such a “message” story), while Chris and Hattie admit to feeling that the delay might not have been a bad idea. There are some very loaded political discussions in the commentary, and while you may disagree with some of the cast members’ views, it’s all very interesting and it’s always connected to the show itself.
A music video, Lurve, sets scenes of the Red Dwarf crew’s (sometimes unfortunate) romantic side coming out from all eight seasons to the tune of Dizzy. Ace Rimmer: A Life In Lamè is an assembly of clips from various appearances of Rimmer’s alternate-dimension, far-more-heroic twin, with a few newly-filmed bits of Holly monologue provided by Hattie Hayridge. As nice as it is to see Hattie as Holly again, this little feature doesn’t do much for me. There are also deleted scenes, Smeg-Up bloopers, Howard Goodall’s incredible musical score in a complete-season archive section, unused model miniature footage, and the obligatory audio book excerpts.
Acknowledging that the Red Dwarf III bonus DVD’s heavily-animated menu overwhelmed some older DVD players (at least in the UK), BBC Video offers a new menu option - animated, or text-only. In this day and age where various studios and distributors are practically trying to make movies out of their menus, it’s nice to see the Beeb making this kind of concession.
Not a bad bunch of shows, and intensely interesting bonuses this time around. You can’t ask for better than that.
