The Return of The Return of The Return of Red Dwarf

[Si Hunt]

Yes there was a sense that the Universe was a busy hub of activity, rather than before when they only ever met the odd rogue simulant.

I know what you mean, yet somehow this felt better than the glossy, overly serious approach.

Si.

[SiHart]

overly serious approach

Well, it is supposed to be a comedy

[Si Hunt]

Yes exactly, that's why I think this is better. Parts of Series 7 for example were so wistful and whimsical it was like they thought it was a drama.

Si.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Well series 7 was the first to be written without Rob Grant and by Doug Naylor's own admission the experiment with bringing in new writers on some episodes didn't really work so it's not that surprising that the series wasn't on the same form as previously.

[Rob McCow]

Loved it. Absolutely spot on, it's as good as Red Dwarf has ever been.

The weird, unsettling thing about it is that these characters' lives have gone on in the background for years and years, but we never heard about it. I'm dreading to think how long it's been since the last series, but to think that after all that time there are these four guys (technically one guy, one cat, one hologram and one bog-cleaning robot) flying around in space together is so strange.

What I particularly liked was that the core premise of the episode was based around Rimmer's resentment of his brothers. It makes the show human and easy to relate to. You could have taken that concept and stuck it in any setting. Far better than ooo... having a wacky, jive-talking virus working it's way up Dave Lister's bum or something.

[Si Hunt]

Interesting, I assume each series just picks up where the last leaves off.

Si.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Most of the time that's true (I'm going to ignore onscreen blurb detailing the events of Lister's pregnancy and the return of Kryten at the start of series III). More obvious exceptions being that it was explicitly stated in Psirens that the crew had been in stasis aboard Starbug for 200 years subsequent to losing Red Dwarf (which we later learned happened very shortly after the event of "Back to Reality at the end of series V).
In the first episode of series VIII Lister refers to having been away for "five, six years not counting stasis" and then I suspect most will remember Back to Earth opening with the caption "Nine years later". I think we can safely assume that Series X is set fairly soon afterwards which put's Lister's current age at about 40.
Anyone who's ever read the first draft of "The End" included in the omnibus edition of the first two novels may recall that prior to casting the character was originally imagined as being about 47.

[Alex]

I just watched it tonight and I thought it was kind of alright. I went in with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised that it made me laugh a few times, and it was nice to see the crew back together (yet) again. But at times some of the jokes felt a bit laboured, and the dialogue a bit formulaic. My biggest complaint is with Craig Charles though, whilst the others were on top form (Chris Barrie especially) there seemed, to me at least, something a bit off with Charles' portrayal of Lister.

Overall I doubt it's something I'll ever watch again, but it is nice to have them back I guess.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I didn't particularly notice anything wrong but I do recall that when we saw episode 2 being recorded a week after episode 1 it was mentioned that Craig had flu that week although his performance didn't seem too affected which is good cos this week's is a much more Lister-centred story.
The remaining four episodes were recorded in January IIRC so hopefully he'd had a chance to recover over Christmas.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

The tiny niggle I had was that Kryten didn't look quite right - difficult to put your finger on but definitely something just a bit off on his head (unless its mechanoid ageing !)

The Kryten mask was very odd yes. Funny because if you look at Back to Earth it looks fine there. Must be a deliberate re-design.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

God forbid they might have tried to make the rubber mask slightly more comfortable for poor old Robert Llewellyn who spends hours in it every week when they're filming!



Anyway... tonight is the episode that Si and I saw (most of) get recorded just before Christmas last year... really can't wait to see it again!!

[Jon Masters]

God forbid they might have tried to make the rubber mask slightly more comfortable for poor old Robert Llewellyn who spends hours in it every week when they're filming!

Fact or Supposition ?

Watching it again I pinpointed that
a) You could see the roundness of Bobby's head pushing out through the rubber and
b) It seemed badly joined around the eyes

I would have thought both of these would have made it more uncomfortable rather than the reverse ?

[SiHart]

Excellent episode! Very funny, great characterisation and great fun!

Oh! It's a poppadom!

[Dino]

That was a lot madder than last weeks. And can anyone confirm the end credits list more staff and crew than the BBC series? It certainly looks like it's had money thrown at it. Red Dwarf was never about cutting edge comedy, but it does have a style that I've missed these past few years.
And how does it work, the people who went and saw the filming?
Are the cameras far away and have the actors in close up? Or when you look at the stage can you see cameras obscuring your view?

[Andrew Curnow]

Although I enjoyed last week's, tonight's was much, much better. Some genuinely funny stuff in there, really just very entertaining, and like 'old' Red Dwarf at its best. "Tough love" is an instant catchphrase, and the sequence where Rimmer and Kryten are deciding on the new computer ("Doesn't matter, not important. Blonde") was very good. The 'chinese whispers' gag was a bit daft, but worked, as did the video messages from Dad to Son, which managed not to be overdone, and had a very funny pay off with the guitar.

Loved it!

[Nyder]

The speaking vending machines were very Douglas Adams.

Share & Enjoy!

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Very Red Dwarf as well.

[Si Hunt]

I didn't enjoy last nights as much. Not as many laughs and the budgetry limitations of this series are becoming apparent- from the opening titles, it seems that just about every episode bar next weeks is going to be set aboard Red Dwarf.

What bothers me about this series is that it feels like all the characters have regressed back to how they were in series 1, forgetting everything that ever happened to them, which as a long term viewer who watched these characters evolve, feels very odd. The cat has gone back to his original feline state, regaining the mannerisms he once grew out of as he became the space pilot of Series 4 to 6, Lister is once more content to mouche about his bunk room and dream of "finding Krissy", even though he's found her and moved on their relationship to being friends in Series 7... in short, they all seem to have regressed back, and I find that really odd. Where is Star Bug? The crew I know would have bazukoided their way off Red Dwarf and headed out into space by now.

Does anyone else know what I mean? I am enjoying this hybrid creation but it feels strange.

Si.

[SiHart]

I know what you mean, but that hasn't stopped me enjoying this series much more than any since season 5. Maybe it's because the humour is coming out of the character interaction again rather than a random sci-fi device/ setting/ premise/ repeated catchphrses and so it's much funnier.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I didn't enjoy last nights as much. Not as many laughs and the budgetry limitations of this series are becoming apparent- from the opening titles, it seems that just about every episode bar next weeks is going to be set aboard Red Dwarf.

What bothers me about this series is that it feels like all the characters have regressed back to how they were in series 1, forgetting everything that ever happened to them, which as a long term viewer who watched these characters evolve, feels very odd. The cat has gone back to his original feline state, regaining the mannerisms he once grew out of as he became the space pilot of Series 4 to 6, Lister is once more content to mouche about his bunk room and dream of "finding Krissy", even though he's found her and moved on their relationship to being friends in Series 7... in short, they all seem to have regressed back, and I find that really odd. Where is Star Bug? The crew I know would have bazukoided their way off Red Dwarf and headed out into space by now.

Does anyone else know what I mean? I am enjoying this hybrid creation but it feels strange.

No actually I really don't. Sorry but did I imagine the great big dollop of continuity from series VII about Lister being his own father? Also Lister wanting to go after Krissie references "Back to Earth" when Kryten revealed that Kochanski had faked her own death and left him. When he met the imaginary version he decided to after the real one if he had ever get himself together.
I suspect Starbug will be back at some point but I was sick of the sight of it by the end of series VII and was cheering when they blew it up at the start of series VIII!

If they have contradicted any previous continuity (let's just remember that the return of hologram Rimmer for Back to Earth was never explained so presumably the same non-explanation counts for series X) then so be it. Red Dwarf has always famously rewritten it's own continuity whenever expedient. Reminds me of something else in that respect

I preferred last week's purely on the grounds that it was completely new to me and always been more of a Rimmer fan but I did really like last night's.

[Si Hunt]

It's more the tone of it than specific details - I know there has been continuity references back, I guess the characters themselves just seem different to how they became. In the same way that Kryten broke free of his programming, I think the other characters did too, and they became a sort of bunch of ramshackle space crusaders, venturing onto Psi-moons and marching onto simulant ships with bazookoids blazing; what gets me is I can't quite see, narrative-wise, why they would go back to just bumming around Red Dwarf. There feels like a lack of ambition due to budget.

I totally understand why Si prefers to lose the trappings of Series 5 and 6, but (and I may be alone in this) I always loved all that. I loved the different ideas that drove each storyline - the planet made up of Rimmers, the squid that made them imagine the whole series had been a dream, even the one episode of S8 that embraced this ("Cassandra"), one clever sci-fi idea, around which a 30 minute space adventure plot was spun. I even liked the repeating gags like the Space Core Directive. We seem to have gone back to more soap-style plots, last nights for example being around the character idea of Lister leaving messages for himself, with a running gag about a vending machine. I'm enjoying it, but I do miss the more sci-fi concepty stories. It's down to personal taste I guess.

But, as I said, my main point was that the characters seem to have lost that ambition as well. I mean, what's their purpose? What are they trying to do? Originally they were stuck on Red Dwarf because they didn't think anything was out there; they also seemed not to have discovered devices like Star Bug and the weapons, which allowed them to leave the ship. Later on, the motivation seemed to be exploration and the search for supplies; then finding the lost Red Dwarf. Now they have found it again, have they decided just to live there and while away eternity on it? Is it now a show about four people that are happy to live on a ship together? Interestingly, there's been less Rimmer/Lister tension this year, which would suggest perhaps they have finally accepted each other as friends? This would in part explain it.

I just struggle to get my head round their current motivation. I'm afraid it feels like they are all on a ship together because that's what the folk-memory of the series insists they always did, regardless of the reasons for it at the time.

Si.

[Darren]

I didn't enjoy last nights as much. Not as many laughs and the budgetry limitations of this series are becoming apparent- from the opening titles, it seems that just about every episode bar next weeks is going to be set aboard Red Dwarf.

What bothers me about this series is that it feels like all the characters have regressed back to how they were in series 1, forgetting everything that ever happened to them, which as a long term viewer who watched these characters evolve, feels very odd. The cat has gone back to his original feline state, regaining the mannerisms he once grew out of as he became the space pilot of Series 4 to 6, Lister is once more content to mouche about his bunk room and dream of "finding Krissy", even though he's found her and moved on their relationship to being friends in Series 7... in short, they all seem to have regressed back, and I find that really odd. Where is Star Bug? The crew I know would have bazukoided their way off Red Dwarf and headed out into space by now.

Does anyone else know what I mean? I am enjoying this hybrid creation but it feels strange.

Si.

Yeah I agree with you. Watching this latest series, it feels somewhat lacking in narrative drive and it's as though they are playing caricatures of themselves. There are some nice one liners and a couple of good setpieces (last nights with Lister's video), but it's not gelling.
Watching the series 4 repeats afterwards highlights the problems for me.
Series X lacks the ambitious, exciting intelligent storytelling of series 3-6,8.

[SiHart]

Well as I've said before I really found Series 6 disappointing at the time, I don't much like Series 7 and 8 was good but patchy. For me this approach to Red Dwarf works far better. And the fact that I'm laughing at it more than I have in years (yes I know it's not been on for years but you know what I mean!) shows that this is an approach I like.

[Si Hunt]

Series X lacks the ambitious, exciting intelligent storytelling of series 3-6,8.

Yeah that's what I should have said but in less words.

Si.

[SiHart]

Or lacks the money to tell that kind of story, so they're making the most of their resources?