UK - Red Dwarf - New episodes in April...

[Neil]

http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/news/2009/03/27/red-dwarf-specials/

Showing on Dave:
Friday, April 10th: Red Dwarf: Back to Earth - Part One
Saturday, April 11th: Red Dwarf: Back to Earth - Part Two
Sunday, April 12th: Red Dwarf: Back to Earth - Part Three

[_liam_]

Have you seen where the episodes are set? I'm not gonna wreck anything, but I feel a bit cautious about this one

[krakenslayer]

I want to lie shipwrecked and comatose...

[Chic Freak]

... drinking fresh mango juice!

I will watch them. But I'm not hopeful.

[MinionZombie]

New Red Dwarf with a bit of danger, is better than no new Red Dwarf at all.

I've got the lot on DVD - all lined up ... mmm, nice. Just like the entire X-Files saga ... an equally sexy vision when all lined up on a shelf.

But what about Kochanski? And what about the ending of Red Dwarf 8?

Ooh - fanboy'splosion...

Liam - if you're referring to the bit of filming they did where they shoot Coronation Street, it's only for a very small part of the whole thing. If you're not on about that bit, what are you on about?

[suicide22]

It will be funny to see the dwarfers back on the small screen!! Their all jus' so funny, lookin' forward to watching dave!!:lol::)

[SymphonicX]

Some of the old stuff feels a bit dated sometimes...

But I still love Psirens, all those eps...amazing...

And the later ep where Kryton is being worked on, the dude unscrews two tiny screws from between his legs...

....and his head falls off.....

classic!

[MinionZombie]

Even the oldest episodes, while from a production design and special effects stand point are quite basic, the scripts still hold up as strongly as ever - thus keeping the episodes right up there with the best comedy ever written. :cool:

[Tricky]

I hope it comes back decent & not shit like so many TV shows they bring back after an extended leave!nothing worse than cringing at a watered down,politically correct version of one of your favourite teenage shows!

[MinionZombie]

I hope it comes back decent & not shit like so many TV shows they bring back after an extended leave!nothing worse than cringing at a watered down,politically correct version of one of your favourite teenage shows!
I doubt it'll be like that.

I'm in good spirits for it, although I was surprised the BBC weren't showing it, and instead it was Dave (who mostly show BBC shows all the time) ... I guess they're looking to do more of their own stuff/take over some reigns. They do show repeats of Red Dwarf after all - and better Dave gets in there than the BBC fucking them around for another decade.

[Chic Freak]

Even the oldest episodes, while from a production design and special effects stand point are quite basic, the scripts still hold up as strongly as ever - thus keeping the episodes right up there with the best comedy ever written. :cool:

Definitely- you can tell it's old but calling it dated is a little harsh because the writing is still so funny and relevant :)

[Craig]

Apprehensive as always, but I really hope it works... and is funny of course!

Dave was a bit of a weird choice to air it on I thought, but if it gives them more creative freedom then props to them.

[Andy]

I doubt it'll be like that.

I'm in good spirits for it, although I was surprised the BBC weren't showing it, and instead it was Dave (who mostly show BBC shows all the time) ... I guess they're looking to do more of their own stuff/take over some reigns. They do show repeats of Red Dwarf after all - and better Dave gets in there than the BBC fucking them around for another decade.
Dave is owned by the BBC.

[krakenslayer]

Dave is owned by the BBC.

Well, Dave is owned by UKTV, which is, in turn, part-owned by the BBC as an external commercial venture (i.e. basically a means of allowing them to make money from advertisement without breaking their non-commercial remit). The new show is also part-funded by Richard Branson's Virgin empire, which also owns the remainder of UKTV, so that explains why it's showing up on Dave first and not the show's traditional home on BBC2.

[MinionZombie]

Well, Dave is owned by UKTV, which is, in turn, part-owned by the BBC as an external commercial venture (i.e. basically a means of allowing them to make money from advertisement without breaking their non-commercial remit). The new show is also part-funded by Richard Branson's Virgin empire, which also owns the remainder of UKTV, so that explains why it's showing up on Dave first and not the show's traditional home on BBC2.
Interesting ... and now another reason why I can lambast the BBC for not sticking to their "charter".

All that license fee taxation, plus being able to wangle a load of commerical cash out of your own products, and this co-owned channel evidently ... wellity wellity well...:rockbrow:

[SymphonicX]

hey if it means the BBC can get away with repeats without hogging up their terrestrial channels then I'm happy - that and BBC iplayer means a lot of stuff doesn't go missed, and they do pump out some great shows

Also anyone watched RD recently? I defo felt it had dated a little bit - the humour more sort of metaphorical or insulting than actually witty or plot driven, but then there are some absolute gems of entire series that were spectacular, I think even number 7 was very very strong...but some of it has indeed dated badly.

[MinionZombie]

Well I duno about that, the main BBC channels have plenty of repeats on them, such as BBC3 - which is essentially a joke of a channel - they don't pick up Adam Buxton's excellent "Meebox" pilot because it "doesn't fit" with 'what BBC3 does' - what absolute trash, BBC3 is supposed to be where new and exciting shows get trialed first (like BBC2 used to be :rockbrow:) - so therefore, you shouldn't have a 'theme' - all that means is making the same shit over and over, and then repeating it constantly - and they don't even air shows all day either still.

[SymphonicX]

yeah but we only count bbc 1,2 and 4....bbc three is a joke really but every now and then you get a diamond - Mighty Boosh etc...

BBC 4 is pretty awesome though, Charlie Brooker's series have been spot on!

[MinionZombie]

Yes, all these channels have awesome shows on them, but they also have a shedload of repeats and damp squibs. The BBC should be producing a greater amount of good stuff - and they should sodding well live up to their charter when it comes to political stuff too, the bastards. :mad:

Meebox - awesome pilot of a sketch show, never picked up. (Clips on YouTube).

Horne & Corden - almost entirely unfunny sketch show gets plastered all over.

[SymphonicX]

Yes, all these channels have awesome shows on them, but they also have a shedload of repeats and damp squibs. The BBC should be producing a greater amount of good stuff - and they should sodding well live up to their charter when it comes to political stuff too, the bastards. :mad:

Meebox - awesome pilot of a sketch show, never picked up. (Clips on YouTube).

Horne & Corden - almost entirely unfunny sketch show gets plastered all over.

Horne and Corden is good!! I quite like it, especially that sketch with the greasey guy who's always showing off to his colleague about his mad night partying ("Cut to me, three AM, in the blue oyster, shirt off dancing with a bunch of models - the DJ comes over and says "you must be a professional dancer" I say "am I fuck, I've got to be in work at 9am" and he says "you're fucking mental"")

Brilliant.

Horne and Corden, unlike the majority of recent comedy stars, are actually likeable characters - something we've not seen enough of in the last ten years - normally it's people we love to hate, Ricky Gervais etc etc, but Horne and Corden don't subscribe to making people feel awkward or annoyed, they're just funny.

Anyway the new eps of RD were fucking terrible from what I saw - self realisation, breaking the fourth wall and all that...annoying. Although I realised I saw it being filmed in Chertsey, where I live - saw the green "starbug" car being dragged on a trailer on St Peters Way near Addlestone! Totally forgot about that, could've broken the news of a new series ages ago lol

[MinionZombie]

I dig Gervais' stuff ... and I'm not denying H & C's likeability - but their sketch show has a handful of decent skits, and then a bunch of completely unfunny ones and others which are just pointless. You could cut out the shit and have two or three awesome episodes, rather than a six episode run of total "meh".

...

As for Red Dwarf - I dug it - I want MORE damnit.

The second episode totally makes the first episode make sense, and then the third rounds it all off.

I think the definitely needed audience participation - live laughter is at the heart of the series, and it felt lacking without it - but I can understand it not being there in this day and age of the internet and tiny cameras and so on, the internet would be alive with spoilers - perhaps for the DVD they'll show it to an RD audience to fill in the laughter gaps (the first episode especially felt like they'd left gaps on purpose) - also, I hope they do an extended version on the DVD, as the story felt like it was pushed along too fast for what they were trying to do - but again I can understand, what with having to lose 3 or 4 minutes each episode to make way for sodding adverts (unlike how the show used to be like).

Also, you're re-introducing characters we've not seen in anything new for a decade, so it's a mighty big beast to handle in 3 episodes with adverts ... ... but anyway, I dug the self-aware angle, and indeed the whole story made sense in the end - in fact this whole 3-episode run refers back to a previous episode ... the title of this 3-episode run should be clue enough. :)

Any Red Dwarf is better than no Red Dwarf, and I want new series to watch before they all get too old to do it - there's plenty of cool stories left to tell I'm sure, plus they're now finally in a place where CGI on television works well enough to big-up the scale of certain shots - but for a series, they would have to return to a more studio-set vibe too I think ... well, just do them like they used to really, the classic formula.

So, while flawed, I really enjoyed Red Dwarf: Back To Earth, and I look forward to a DVD release packed with extras (I hope they do one anyway), and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for more series!

[SymphonicX]

I dig Gervais' stuff ... and I'm not denying H & C's likeability - but their sketch show has a handful of decent skits, and then a bunch of completely unfunny ones and others which are just pointless. You could cut out the shit and have two or three awesome episodes, rather than a six episode run of total "meh".

...

As for Red Dwarf - I dug it - I want MORE damnit.

The second episode totally makes the first episode make sense, and then the third rounds it all off.

I think the definitely needed audience participation - live laughter is at the heart of the series, and it felt lacking without it - but I can understand it not being there in this day and age of the internet and tiny cameras and so on, the internet would be alive with spoilers - perhaps for the DVD they'll show it to an RD audience to fill in the laughter gaps (the first episode especially felt like they'd left gaps on purpose) - also, I hope they do an extended version on the DVD, as the story felt like it was pushed along too fast for what they were trying to do - but again I can understand, what with having to lose 3 or 4 minutes each episode to make way for sodding adverts (unlike how the show used to be like).

Also, you're re-introducing characters we've not seen in anything new for a decade, so it's a mighty big beast to handle in 3 episodes with adverts ... ... but anyway, I dug the self-aware angle, and indeed the whole story made sense in the end - in fact this whole 3-episode run refers back to a previous episode ... the title of this 3-episode run should be clue enough. :)

Any Red Dwarf is better than no Red Dwarf, and I want new series to watch before they all get too old to do it - there's plenty of cool stories left to tell I'm sure, plus they're now finally in a place where CGI on television works well enough to big-up the scale of certain shots - but for a series, they would have to return to a more studio-set vibe too I think ... well, just do them like they used to really, the classic formula.

So, while flawed, I really enjoyed Red Dwarf: Back To Earth, and I look forward to a DVD release packed with extras (I hope they do one anyway), and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for more series!


well I missed the first ep, and only caught the second so far....but from what you're saying and the snippet I saw of ep 3 last night, it does hold a bit of promise to me - it seems a bit more emotional, Craig Charles showing off this acting skills... Still not overly sold on the breaking of the fourth wall though, much like the star trek discussion in the other thread, I feel it's a bit lazy overall to do that. It just seemed like an excuse to set it in a lower budget environment unfortunately.

Still I think this will generate enough interest to see RD back on our screens hopefully in this same emotive and interesting context as these new eps but with lots of sci-fi, huge laughs and all the quirks we've come to love from Kry, Rimmer, Cat and Lister over the last two decades!

[MinionZombie]

You haven't seen it all from the start? Then what were you moaning about?! :lol::p

Watch it from the start, in the correct order, then comment on it. :)

Indeed - I dearly hope this special will lead onto more Red Dwarf, I want more series!

[capncnut]

Watched the new lot, one after the other. Cor, what a load of old grandad's cock.

[SymphonicX]

Watched the new lot, one after the other. Cor, what a load of old grandad's cock.

hmmm....maybe i was right then....

[Neil]

Wasn't very impressed. Too much attention to the Blade Runner plot, rather than putting comedy in :(

[MinionZombie]

Geez, do you guys want there to be new Red Dwarf or not? If not, shut up, cos I want new Red Dwarf - so pull together for the greater good of the team ... and such.

Flawed, but damn enjoyable and it didn't half get me riled up for new series.

[krakenslayer]

I've only watched the first episode so far (downloading the next two, as I missed them). It wasn't the side-splitter some people expected, but was highly amusing and about on par with most average episodes of the show and certainly didn't lose the "feel" of the older episodes. I actually liked the lack of canned laughter - I felt like I wasn't being patronised and told when to laugh - the only character it didn't seem to work for was the Cat, whose "funny" lines have an awkward pause after them like Danny John Jules is waiting for the audience to laugh. Another thing that was noticeable was the episodes are based on the original concept for the Red Dwarf movie, as opposed to being conceived as a TV serial, and I suspect it will work better when I watch all the episodes back to back.

So yeah, I liked it and I want more. And I want Holly back.

Hopefully we shouldn't have to wait too long - apparently, the show got record ratings of 10% of about for Dave, which normally gets 0.9% of the UKs audience share.

[MinionZombie]

Hopefully we shouldn't have to wait too long - apparently, the show got record ratings of 10% of about for Dave, which normally gets 0.9% of the UKs audience share.

Really? KICK ASS!

Fingers crossed for an extras-packed DVD release as well.

[_liam_]

I enjoyed it & would like to see more. Definitely the best episodes since "Stoke me a Clipper", and the best run of episodes overall since series 6.

Yep a few duff jokes & for some reason the cat isn't funny anymore. The references to past episodes are not funny & weren't in series 7 or 8 either. The Blade Runner homage in the final one went on far too long (about 15 minutes), it's like yep. We get it. We get it! Also no Holly - for fuck's sake, he's hilarious.

Anyway enough hating yo

good stuff

- cat aside, cast on top form
- no kochanski for the most part
- ridiculous series 8 story arc & ending swept under rug (thank FUCK)
- Craig Charles taking the piss out of himself with the pint while he reads his lines & references to the priory clinic
- the ball breaking hologram woman - works really good with rimmer, i like the way she makes him seem even more snivelling & shitty
- the ending - simple, low key, and a bit poignant, really nice. You feel the emotion in Dave's voice when he speaks his final line. Total contrast to that abortion of an ending to series 8 (worst ending of anything ever)
- Generally the jokes were pretty funny, with a couple of proper piss myself moments.


So aye, my verdict

1st one
8/10
2nd one
7/10
3rd one
6/10 - but perfect ending


I'd like to see more, but tryyyyyyy and get rob grant in

[MinionZombie]

Interesting summary there liam - glad you liked it.

Aye, perhaps the Blade Runner reference went on a bit too long, but regardless, I enjoyed it quite a bit ... although I was kinda half-expecting to see Doug Naylor on screen as their creator, hehe.

I think The Cat is still funny, but the character suffered the most at the hands of the lack of studio laughter (which is an element of the show that goes right back to the beginning, for those not in the know out there somewhere) - so it really sticks out in the first episode where there are CLEAR gaps for audience laughter to come in.

There was probably no laughter because they'd not want to show it to an audience before transmission in this day and age of "teh intarwebz" and super small cameras etc - the last new Red Dwarf was in the dial up era of 1998/1999 after all. Methinks a laugh track will be recorded for the DVD - which I think will help round it out.

Mind you - it would have also been pointless filming in front of an audience due to the story and sheer volume of F/X and location work - a series would be more studio based methinks, ergo, more audience participation.

The references to previous episodes - ultimately it wasn't too big a distraction, and some worked nicely - like call backs to the previous episodes, as certainly one purpose of Back To Earth was to get the fans all hot & bothered for the show again, reminding them of some of the classic episodes (mission accomplished with me at least), hence the boat load of 'best episodes' that were shown on the nights in question.

Interesting you mention series 8 - while flawed and not perfect - I actually enjoyed it a lot more upon 2nd, 3rd and 4th viewing on DVD. I was a bit non-plussed when it originally aired, but it's better these days than it once was ... even with the "just still too early" use of TV-budget CGI - something which NOW can be used to great effect thanks to the likes of Dr Who employing some 'good in general, very good for TV' CGI use.

Funnily enough, I was quite annoyed with BTE#1 for not explaining how they got from the end of series 8 to now, but BTE#2 explains WHY they wouldn't fill that gap. Hopefully they get picked up for a new full series, and THEN we'll get to know.

As for Kochanski, I was a bit gutted she wasn't in it - it is nice to have the guys all together, but it's also nice to have a bit of female company for them as a counter-balance. Plus, the ball breaking hologram woman was essentially filling Kochanski's shoes somewhat - what with Kochanski being the only one who properly knows what she's doing (something flagged up many times in series 7 in the cockpit scenes).

I found episode 2 to be the most 'classic Dwarfy' if you will. It had far more jokes, make episode 1 make a LOT more sense, and I did enjoy the self-aware/referential storyline. As for episode 3, it was somewhere between ep1 and ep2 in terms of exposition and jokes.

Aye, the show was at its best when Rob Grant was involved - he was perhaps more suited to the jokes, whereas Doug Naylor was/is perhaps more suited to the stories ... but they were both capable of doing the other, if you get my drift, but they each had a strength, again if you get what I'm saying.

Anyway - woo!