It isn’t unusual for a few rare shows in the United Kingdom to come back years later with more episodes or sometimes just a two to three year gap between seasons if not every year.  DOCTOR WHO was resurrected in 2005 after leaving the year in 1989 and having a brief comeback in 2006.  RED DWARF returns after ten years- first with the BACK TO EARTH special and now RED DWARF X (aka series ten with BACK TO EARTH being series nine).

 

LEMONS is the best episode of the season as the Red Dwarf crew end up back on 23 AD Earth and have to travel to India to get lemons and meet Jesus.

 

THE BEGINNING is a cut down version of the feature film script that never got made due to a variety of reasons and it is another strong character episode for Arnold Rimmer as we look into his past (and get a little hint of how the crew got out of a jam at the end of series eight).

 

I rather enjoyed seeing the four remaining crew members of Red Dwarf (Lister, Rimmer the hologram, Kryten the android, and cat the humanoid descendant of Lister’s cat) back for six more episodes.  The first episode is the weak episode of the season, but it quickly improves after that.  I hope they make a series 11 son and finally have Lister find Kochanski again.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

WE’RE SMEGGED is a two hour making-of documentary that shows the challenges that the production faced to get six more episodes made from having to scrap most of the location filming, doing multi-camera with the Red cameras in front of a studio audience, Craig Charles being sick for the first episode taping, having to reshot the model effects after the first shots proved to be unusable and the original model film held by the BBC was lost (it seems the BBC still loses stuff after wiping so many programs so many years ago, and worrying they would have footage that meets broadcast standards after the master footage gets misplaced for a short time (usually productions make two back ups of the footage to protect a show where this new RED DWARF series had no back ups).

 

SMEG UPS is a gag reel culled from the bloopers that happened during the shooting of the tenth series.

30 minutes of deleted scenes are also included on the disc (with optional audio commentary explaining why each scene was cut).

 

FINAL ANALYSIS: The tenth series of RED DWARF is as funny as the other seasons after the mediocre first episode with LEMONS being the high point.  The making-of documentary is a must watch to see an insightful behind-the-scenes look in the making of the series that almost wasn’t. I hope series 11 isn’t far off from getting made.

 

This DVD review is (c)7-31-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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