URGH!
Oh, man. It's horrid. The Red Dwarf Zone have reported on this page from DVD Answers, which features artwork for the covers of the US versions of the latest DVDs, as well as giving the release date of 3rd February.
All I can say is thank God we've got better covers than that. I fail to see the point of changing them. Are they aimed entirely at the short-sighted? Why else would they want a logo that big? And why on Earth did they choose to dispense with the excellent logo across the spines? It's just silliness. Fear not, though, folks. I'm sure the Region 2 release of Series IV won't be so horrid. The Officer's Quarters set isn't so close-up on the UK version, which was previewed on the official site ages ago. Hopefully, our version will retain the colour logo, which works better against the pale background.
Comments
Ah, I dont see the problem with them, really. I know it's crap that they have no spine image but the pictures they chose are pretty cool.
Did anyone notice that the spine for our series III is just a little bit out of line with series II? Also, chaing the text size has just made it look messy. So the region 2 releases have their own problems too.
Posted by Cappsy at November 2, 2003 09:54 PM
I got it to line up, but only by shifting them all up and down.
Posted by Ian Symes at November 2, 2003 10:00 PM
I didn't want a bit of the sleeve poking out of the plastic cover, so indubitably mine doesn't line up.
Posted by Joey at November 3, 2003 09:39 AM
Still haven't got my DVD. Poxy postal strikes...
Posted by Pete Martin at November 3, 2003 10:11 AM
Why do our American friends need a big print version ? is the BBC trying to suggest something.
Posted by Cpt-D at November 3, 2003 10:29 AM
That picture of Rimmer they're using is just WRONG.
Posted by John Hoare at November 3, 2003 10:43 AM
Not nearly as wrong as the Series III spine cover they've used!
Posted by Cappsy at November 3, 2003 11:23 AM
Not nearly as wrong as the Series III spine cover they've used!
Posted by Cappsy at November 3, 2003 11:23 AM
Sorry, that should be 'spine image'
Posted by Cappsy at November 3, 2003 12:55 PM
"That picture of Rimmer they're using is just WRONG."
For which series? I don't personally mind the photos they've selected - I like the way the characters seem to be responding to each other. The way the bottom right character is doing something towards the top left, and the one in the top left is reacting with bemusement or whatever else it might be. Quite fine.
As for the large text and its silvery nature, I think it's because Americans are stupid and have poor eyesight. Some of them are exceptionally fat too, if that's relevant.
"Not nearly as wrong as the Series III spine (image) they've used!"
Let me look again and presume you care about what I have to say, hang on...
Posted by Pagan in "Lost Druid Recirculation Unit" Scare at November 3, 2003 02:10 PM
No, bored now, can't be bothered.
That's my attention span doing that, can't be helped.
Posted by Pagan in "Lost Druid Recirculation Unit" Scare at November 3, 2003 02:59 PM
I think they look alright. The only bit that looks odd to me is Rimmer floating in the air on the cover of IV. I think it's because he's in a room - Lister looks fine on III.
Posted by Rick Mason at November 3, 2003 07:22 PM
I mean the picture of Rimmer used for Series IV. It just looks like a bad lookalike it's so bad.
Posted by John Hoare at November 3, 2003 08:08 PM
That's why I don't have the same problem then. I've never seen a bad lookalike of Chris Barrie before.
Posted by Being Frankly Hilarious to Boot at November 4, 2003 09:46 AM
Actually the only bit I don't like is the text: "The Original Series Three/Four" I think the font is shit and the wording lame. Better would have been: "The Original Third/Fourth Series" but then, I suppose that's the Brit in me.
Perhaps they could have even tried "The Original..." for the first 3 series, and "The Entire" for the remainder. Or just "Entire" the whole lot so that nobody is constantly reminded of the remastered series simply by owning the original item.
Now there's a thang. I'll put that in my diary.
Posted by Basically Shoot Me in the Thighs at November 4, 2003 09:51 AM
The UK version of Series IV has 'Entire'. I think they used 'Original' to ensure people that they weren't buying the shit version.
Posted by Ian Symes at November 4, 2003 09:55 AM
I know that. But I was saying "wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just be allowed to forget all about the remastered version". With the line "original" the remastered series is being inadvertantly immortalised.
I know there needs to be some differentiation. Perhaps the "original/entire" separation is fine, but the foil logo / red & black logo thing might be taking it a step further towards total in-yer-face cuntishness.
Don't ask me what my point is. Can't you just make it up and base your lives on it anyway?
Posted by Basically Shoot Me in the Thighs at November 4, 2003 04:08 PM
I don't think the colour of the logo is anything to do with whether or not the episodes were re-mastered; it's just so it looks better against the cream background.
Posted by Ian Symes at November 4, 2003 06:19 PM
Why start off with the foil one then? Since the RD logo was always red before. Surely continuity was one of their main intentions from the start - the spine logo and all (including that inspired alternating text size for odds and evens), everything matching up and looking fantastic when you have the set. Why change the colour of the logo depending on the background? There would be no logic to changing the colour every three series since you'd end up with only two series at the end with the third colour. Unless that colour connects psychologically with the urge to buy things (can you think of another way to shift units of the 7th and 8th series on DVD?) I don't know why they would do that.
Posted by Basically Shoot Me in the Thighs at November 4, 2003 08:37 PM
Because it looks better on light colours to have the red/black variant of the logo. I can't see what the problem is - the series IV cover looks gorgeous.
Posted by Darrell Jones at November 4, 2003 09:39 PM
I hate the spine text. It had to be said.
Posted by Cappsy at November 4, 2003 09:51 PM
"I hate the spine text. It had to be said."
I was joking about the spine text. Though you had to see the stupid grin on my face to know.
"the series IV cover looks gorgeous."
Of course the colours look gorgeous. I wasn't complaining about that per se. In fact this is a little overblown because I was exaggerating everything earlier for my own amusement. My little problem/non-problem depending on which way you look at it: either the series 1-3 logos are silver to make a point of showing they are not the remastered ones (therefore immortalising the remastered ones if you use a kind of reverse logic. This doesn't really bother me, I was being silly!) or they are changing the logo to suit the background colour. If it is the latter, I might ask why the first three are all the same then, or whether they are thinking of keeping the red logo just for series 4 (making it different to the others for some reason) and going back to the foil once a darker background is used again, or keep a three-series theme for each colour like the foil logo was (making the third colour only run for two series).
Either way I thought this might be an interesting subject of debate for you guys, since you ran with the "how will they colour the covers, will it be red/blue/green on a loop with two left over at the end, or will they have a different colour for each series?" theme. Rather than complaining, I was wondering. Wondering aloud with caustic soda pouring from my mouth.
Posted by Basically Shoot Me in the Thighs at November 4, 2003 10:18 PM
I don't think there's an 'every three releases' structure for the logos, they're just using whatever looks best. Silver on beige (even with a black drop shadow) just would stand out in the shops.
As for the DVD covers, if they go with cyan for series 5, then I think they should use the grey Starbug cockpit texture for 6 and canary yellow for 8. Not sure about 7, perhaps just a purpley colour simply because it would look nice.
Posted by Darrell Jones at November 4, 2003 10:50 PM
After seeing the region 1 covers I'm starting to think they are going to keep with the silver logo. It would make sense and be good for continuity.
Posted by Cappsy at November 5, 2003 04:07 PM
The silver logo on the cream background looks horrible.
The red and black one looks gorgeous. Fuck continuity if it's not going to look as good as it could do.
Posted by Darrell Jones at November 5, 2003 05:53 PM
I concur.
Posted by Joey at November 5, 2003 05:58 PM
I think I'm the only person who thinks that the actual background of the IV DVD looks slightly odd - possibly a bit too detailed and messy. But I'll reserve judgement until I see the actual cover in the flesh. I still love the idea of it, anyway.
Posted by John Hoare at November 5, 2003 07:44 PM
Well let me tell you this for a fucking kick-off: I think the image of Lister and Rimmer on the series 3 DVD looks washed out and fuzzy. I saw it in the shop today and nearly shot the toes of my foot (not having a gun was the only thing stopping me from doing precisely that). In fact I felt the green of starbug was more harbinged than my expectations after seeing it online (yes, that is a real word), and I was actually feeling for a moment that either Rimmer or Lister was wearing lipstick or something to look more like they weren't on a DVD cover when they were.
So if anybody wants to check their DVD covers and tell me that the shop I visited had something wrong about it, do please help yourselves.
Posted by Roasting upon Chestnuts at November 5, 2003 09:15 PM
For those of you still collecting the stickers:
"nearly shot the toes of my foot"
should have read:
"nearly shot the toes off my foot"
You see how subtle changes make all the difference? And we have some popular Victorian parlour games detailed in books downstairs if you want them.
Posted by Roasting upon Chestnuts at November 5, 2003 09:19 PM
Stop throwing up arse debris and fuck off back to your grotto, you.
Posted by Darrell Jones at November 5, 2003 09:40 PM
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