Product Details

• Actors: Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John Jules, Hattie Hayridge, Robert Llewellyn
• Writers: Rob Grant, Doug Naylor
• Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: BBC Video by CBS Fox
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1998
• Run Time: 84 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302805422
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #370,034 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most of us settle for pizza, buddy., May 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Red Dwarf IV, Byte Two ~ (White Hole / Dimension Jump / Meltdown) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Three episodes of the hilarious sci-fi series. In 'Dimension Jump' Rimmer finds out that a tiny decision can alter the course of your life. I don't know what some people have got against 'Meltdown'. It's one of the high points of Series 4, a kind of 'Red Dwarf meets Spitting Image' in which the Dwarf crew find a planet inhabited by wax-droids, sort of a colossal futuristic waxworks museum. But the wax-droids have broken their programming and the heroes (who include Einstein, Queen Victoria and Stan Laurel) are under threat from the villains (who include Rasputin, Caligula and Hitler and his cronies). The Dwarf team even come across giant wax-droids of the creatures out of 'Gappa' (a Japanese monster movie). In 'White Hole' the team find a way of restoring Holly's IQ, but things don't go as planned. Though this episode all too often degenerates into one special-effect after another, it's still great fun.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The Odd Couple" in space has never been funnier, January 8, 2003

By 

J. Fuchs "jax76" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Red Dwarf IV - Byte Two: Dimension Jump [VHS] (VHS Tape)

For those of you who don't know, Red Dwarf is a British comedy/science fiction series that focuses on Dave Lister, the only human survivor of a reactor meltdown on the deep space mining ship, Red Dwarf. Revived by Holly, the ship's computer, after many years in deep sleep, Dave is joined by a hologrammatic reconstruction of his dead bunkmate, Arnold Rimmer, the mechanoid, Kryten, and a humanoid creature who evolved from his cat. Think the Odd Couple meets James Brown, but with killer British wit.

Although I would recommend starting from the beginning, this is probably the best single tape collection of the bunch, with three terrific episodes.

"White Hole" -- cleverly messes with our notions of time and intelligence, while letting Lister play pool with planets. A great episode for understanding the particular quirks of each of the characters.

"Dimension Jump" -- lets Chris Barrie, who plays the repressed and smarmy Rimmer, get out of his usual character and play Rimmer as a dashing know-it-all and lovable hero, as well as the usual Rimmer, who resents his perfected, other self. Another great riff on time.

"Meltdown" -- oddly, when the British Red Dwarf magazine had its readers rate all the episodes in the first 5 series, this was the lowest rated. But Americans seem to love it, and with good reason. It is one of the best RD episodes ever, with great lines (including Rimmer's hilarious account of his best ever game of Risk), and the surreal battle between the good wax droids (Einstein, Pythagoras, Mother Teresa, Elvis, etc.) and the evil ones (Caligula, Rasputin, etc.). Worth buying the tape for the Winnie the Pooh execution alone.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun, Fun, Fun (in the Sun, Sun, Sun), January 21, 2000

By 

wonderrat "wonderrat" (Mountain View, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Dwarf IV, Byte Two ~ (White Hole / Dimension Jump / Meltdown) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Seires 4 of RD is good stuff and the three episodes in this tape certainly deliver. 'White Hole' is certainly thought provoking in many ways. God does not play with dice, but perhaps he plays pool. So I guess the implication is that the big bang was one giant pool game. And that means that Lister is God. Makes you want to be an atheist, right?

What would happen if we ran into our doppelgaenger? 'Dimension Jump' presents us with an Arnold Rimmer who is popular, witty, talented, and gets propositioned by both men and women. Smoke me a kipper! Our Rimmer hates the other Rimmer, who is everything that loathsome piece of smeg isn't. Maybe our lives are changed by one event. I don't know if I want to see another me, though.

Finally, we see Arnie's Army, which has nothing to do with golfers, in 'Meltdown.' Imagine Madame Tusseaud's creations running amok. Imagine commanding a military force which includes the likes of Sergeant Elvis Presley (which was his actual rank while in the Army-nice piece of historical accuracy), Lietenant Colonel Mother Theresa, Marilyn Monroe, Einstein, Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Queen Victoria, the Pope, President Lincoln, Noel Coward, Sartre, Pythagoras, St. Francis of Assisi, and Stan Laurel against Hitler, Caligula, Boston Strangler, and all the evil dictators and despots of the world. No Dirty Dozen here. Rimmer comes off as a cross between Patton and Lou Gosset (remember the lines about steers and...?). Rimmer insults Saint Francis with them. Funny, even if Winnie the Pooh was shot by a firing squad (although we don't actually witness that). Also thought provoking, especially the consequences of a peace as created by Arnold Rimmer-no peace with honor here and indeed the tone of this episode is very much anti-war. War is not the sanitary game of Risk that Rimmer makes it out to be and peace by all means possible is not nesesarily a good thing. Almost like that last scene in the last Blackadder episode. Only the BBC could pull that off!

These epiodes are indeed fun, fun, fun, as the RD theme song states, but be prepared to think about your fun as well. No American TV show could come close with combining comedy, satire, and biting social commentary in one tidy episode. Too bad the later series (7 & 8) couldn't match the intense humor and social commentary here. Who says TV is a bad thing?