Better dead than smeg ?

[Pete]

So an new RedDwarf series in the pipeline

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/12/red_dwarf/

http://llewblog.squarespace.com/red-dwarf/


as much as i'd like to see a new series i'd rather live in hope of a new series rather than be disappointed by one.

Like the Stone Roses reunion rumours which crop up every year.... maybe its best left to the imagination ?

Edit for those not in the know smeg is a make of fridge

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

Indeed. Done properly it would be great to have another series. But you always get the feeling it will either never actually happen, or not enough effort put into it and turn out awful.

Proper British comedy at its best though

 

[LFFPicard]

The easter special they done last year or year before I felt was poor. They tried to make everything look new and the set looked nothing like the original, all shiney and window severwhere instead of military grey corridors and no windows.

They have been trying for a film for years, the script for it had been re-written 2-3times but never got a budget. I just hope they go back to old on a new series and not try and make it better with fancy stuff. The first 3 series are still the best.

 

[JSG10]

I love Red Dwarf with a passion and seriously hope they don't do another series unless they stick to the old school methods of filming and don't bother with all the CGI crap and other animations that ruined the "specials" they did recently.

First ever episode is my favourite for two simple lines that always get my chuckling:

"Lister is that a cigarette you're smoking?!"

"No... it's a chicken"

 

[Pete]

i agree, the Dave shows had their funny moments but that was just it; a series of funny gags strung together, rather than a script which was funny. if that makes any sense ?

and your right too about the sets, would be amazing if they went back to proper set design and hobbled together ship models etc and relied less on cgi.

fingers crossed though

 

[MickyG]

My favourite episode has to be Quarantine, the one where Rimmer goes crazy, it's brilliant.

(Rimmer dressed in a red and white poker-dot dress with army boots) "So, let me get this straight, you want to fly, on a magic carpet, to see the King of the Potato People to beg for your freedom, and you claim your completely sane?"

Comedy genious =)

G

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

Gotta love Tongue Tied

 

[LFFPicard]

Tongue tied is great..
I also want a dream recording machine

My best episodes are

Gunman of the Apocalypse
Backwards
Bodyswap
Queeg

Classics!

Gunman of the Apocalypse also won an award.

 

[Pete]

ahhh memories... Back to Reailiy was class too.

 

[pengipete]

It worked best in the early days because Grant and Naylor balanced out as writers - they got the right mixture of comedy sci-fi - some of which was as good as anything on programs like Star Trek with their huge budgets. I loved the fact that Grant/Naylor decided right from the begining that there were no aliens - the only life in the universe came from Earth so any bizzarre creatures were GELFs or mutants were really just highlighting elements of humanity - very satirical. Grant and Naylor were behind most of Spitting Image - where Chris Barrie provided many of the voices including Ronald "my fellow astronauts" Reagan.

Once Grant and Naylor stopped collaberating, the show began to feel forced and formulaic - and sometimes a bit too clever for it's own good. It didn't help that the BBC started to question the budget - when the show became a maintream hit, they kept pushing for better (ie more expensive) SFX at a time when CGI was not the cost-saver that it is today.

I loved the first couple of books too. They didn't just write down the episodes, they wrote an entire, logical story in which the best scenes and lines from the TV series were just a natural part of the story plus they fleshed out other elements so you get to know more about the characters and events. After a couple of books, Grant and Naylor decided to write seperately and you effectively have two completely different versions of what happens next in the story-line - neither of which is bad but both feeling only halfway right. If you haven't read them, get the first two books - even if you've never watched Red Dwarf, they're a good read.

Oddball fact - when Lister married the hairy GELF, the GELF leader was played by Ainsley Harriott - the TV chef.

 

[Pete]

I like all the books, my copy of the first book looks like it would pre-date the first bible, i've read it so many times and taken it abroad as a light read often. The book primordial soup ? is good and has some cracking photos on-set .

another oddball fact is that when lister discovers his infant self under the pool table in the box, that's danny john jules' (Cat) son.

 

[LFFPicard]

Oddball fact - when Lister married the hairy GELF, the GELF leader was played by Ainsley Harriott - the TV chef.

I knew this It was mentioned in "Cant Smeg wont Smeg" as Ainsley was hosting it.

The Red Dwarf specials where great too liek Cant Smeg Wont Smeg, Smegerversity Challange and a few others.

 

[pengipete]

Never thought I'd say this but the Back to Earth mini-series suffered by not having a laugh-track. I normally detest the things - especially in American comedies where they're so loud and fake sounding - but it made B2E seem a bit cold - almost as if the producers were trying to make it seem high-brow.

Even so, I'd be more than happy to see more of the same - though I really want it set back in space and without too many extra characters (but definitely bring back Chloe Annett as Kochanski - for obvious reasons ).

 

[Pete]

yeah, it was odd without laughter, i think i'm right in saying the first x many series used a live audience track, so they'd show an episode to an audience and record the laughter from them. which is why some episodes have some random wiedo laughs going on but fitted really well. later series had the canned bbc laughter.

has to be the original kochanski for me...

 

[pengipete]

I wasn't too sure when they didn't use Claire Grogan - it's her that I picture and hear when reading the books - but I really like Chloe Annett as an actress (and a babe - if I'm honest) and I loved the idea of making her posh and pompous but actually just as daft as the rest of them - a classic character type and she did it really well.

There was a downside to having Kochanski as a full-time character in the series. She'd originally been brought in to fill the void left by Rimmer's departure - as the up-tight, straight guy to Lister's slob - but when Rimmer returned, they effectively gave her more of the Cat's role. The Cat was almost relegated to the background with the later series being almost entirely about Lister and Rimmer, Lister and Kris and Lister and Kryten. Cat was seriously under-used - a shame cos DJJ did such a fantastic job in developing the character over the years and was as much to thank for the series success as anyone.

 

[Pete]

has anyone ever seen the american version (rip-off) ? personally i just can't bring myself to but maybe it is really funny to watch in a sort of; look how bad it is or by how much they've missed the point kind of way ??

 

[pengipete]

It's almost entirely awful. They only made the pilot and the copy I've seen is very poor quality but even ignoring that, it's a sad shadow of the original.

There was always going to be a problem transferring it America - we wouldn't just ignore wobbly scenery and ropey special effects, we'd actually enjoy them cos we grew up with Doctor Who plus there's a very British style of pace, satire and cynicism throughout that the Amercans hadn't really had on TV - they'd been fed a steady diet of mush and gag-lead shows with quick-fire one-liners and likeable characters.

The worst thing they did was to cast Lister as a typical TV "hunk" - tall, broad-shouldered and ridiculously good-looking - just a bit of carefully trimmed stubble to make him look "rough". Our Lister was a working-class slob with more courage and heart than even he knew - there's was a Star Trek pin-up.

Robert LLewellyn went over to play Kryten - apparently because the producers thought he was American. The Cat was played by an American dancer - quite a bit older than DJJ when he started but actually pretty good. Holly was played by Jane Leeves - Daphne from Frasier - which was pretty good casting except we didn;t get chance to see her after losing her IQ - could have been good though. Rimmer was totally forgetable. In typical American style, they chose someone small and skinny - stereotype geek/weed.

They'd had a brilliant idea to make the show different - then dropped it. They actually filmed scenes with Terry Farrell - Jadzia Dax in Star Trek DS9 - as the Cat. The idea of having a drop-dead woman - especially one that is totally self-absorbed and a different species - with Lister and Rimmer around could have been good - even better if they'd had Lister's feelings for her be more fatherly (due to seeing her as Frankenstein's off-spring).

They changed the storyline slightly - so that Kryten joins Red Dwarf and meets Lister and Rimmer before the accident. Different but sensible except that Kryten appeared to be more like the character he became after being around Lister - possibly missing out of some of the best storylines where Kryten learmns to lie and cheat (who knows - with enough practice, he could have become a Bender).

In the end, the pilot is rushed. They introduce the main characters and basic idea of the accident but completely missed out Rimmer's whinging about being a hologram or Lister's despair at knowing every is dead - including Holly's admission that being alone for millions of years had sent him loopy - "I'm sorry, were you close?" after telling Lister that the human race is probably extinct is one of my favourite lines. They ended the show with a load of scenes from the UK original - carefully editted around showing the cast.

Oh yes - they used the original theme tune too.


And finally - the good news.....


According to Craig Charles - the new series is being filmed later this year - and will be broadcast on Dave in 2012

I kept that one back - cos I is evil-weevil.

 

[pengipete]

Incidentally, another odd fact and a cool connection...

In the last two episodes of Doctor Who with Christopher Ecclestone, the floor manager on the space station was played by Jenna Russell...

...who sings the Red Dwarf theme tune in the closing credits.

 

[Pete]

oohhh interesting, i had it in my mind that they had made a whole series at least.

i'm not holding out for it being filmed this year - if i were sinical i might emply that Craig and Rob intentionally let the Cat out the the bag ('scuse the pun) by blabbing about the possibility, just to drum up some momentum from those involved. Rob does seem very apologetic about it on his blog mind.