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Red Dwarf To Return, Find Earth
Lawrence Person writes "Everyone's favorite live-action science fiction comedy series will finally return to TV, with Lister, Rimmer, Kryten and the Cat all making it to Earth. The new two-part series Red Dwarf: Back to Earth will appear on digital channel Dave, will be written and directed by Red Dwarf co-creator Doug Naylor, and will reunite the line-up. 'It will sit alongside two further new episodes — the improvised Red Dwarf: Unplugged, which will feature the cast dealing with no sets, effects or autocue, and Red Dwarf: the Making of Back to Earth, a behind the scenes look at the new production.' Personally, I think this is pretty smegging fantastic."
I don't recall the Earth being destroyed. Lister was in stasis for a long, long time as the ship drifted further and further away, but IIRC, Earth was still there - just unreachable in any reasonable length of time (kind of like Dark Star). (Feel free to correct my bad memory.)
But, there was at least one episode where the crew does go back in time to visit Earth. I liked it just because it was so terribly un-P.C. to suggest that JFK needed to be assassinated in order to save the U.S. (Not unrealistic, just not P.C.)
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Even if it's crap it's not worth missing. Even when the stories got a little stale I thought that it was still good I liked that caliber of dedication by the actors and the fact that they are all excited to come back so many years later to finish it off is great. Though I thought that it wasn't going to be written by just doug nailer in the coffin :(
But it will be a good farewell I think, and I won't have to sit around thinking "but what next" for the next 40 years(even if it's not like the original I still sit down and watch the whole series some weekends). Hands down on of my top 5 favorite shows.
I wonder if Craig Charles has dealt with his serious drug problem
"even if it's not like the original I still sit down and watch the whole series some weekends"
What I wouldn't give to have a machine that erases the memory of things like RD, so that I could sit and watch it all again. Sometimes it would be nice to be like Holly in that regard.
Michael Reed, freelance tech writer.
I find the biggest difference is that Britcoms are normally about losers. Compare with the US, say 'Friends'. The main characters are very successful; they have lovely flats near Central Park. I find it hard to have empathy with them. Whenever they have a 'problem' I wish they'd just shut up and catch themselves on. They seem like whiney, spoilt, brats.
Lister, on the other hand, is a slob who lives in an interstellar slum. Yet he always seems pretty chirpy about it. You should check out the US version of Red Dwarf, where some moron at the networks replaced Lister with a super-jock. None of the jokes made sense afterwards.
Of course, there are good US comedies (normally the cartoons) and there are *loads* of really, really bad Britcoms.
All intents and purposes. Not intensive purposes.
I thought Rimmer kicking death in the yabos was a great moment. The show was always corny. What makes it great is the interplay between the actors. There have always been times in the show when the writing wasn't what carried it. Not the same show? Okay. Still funny for most of the same reasons? Yes. Looking forward to this new stuff? Ab-so-smegging-lutely.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
This is summed up by the never made Red Dwarf USA .... ...Rewritten by Grant and Naylor .. and a team of American writers and producers ...Lister is heroic, and handsome (but still a slob)
Most British comedies are still written by a very small team (usually 2 or 3) people rather than the joke committee system they have in the states, it is noticeable that the US comedy shows that work in the UK are the ones with the smaller teams of writers ....
Puteulanus fenestra mortis
Comparing Red Dwarf to Monty Python, HHGG or The Office is an insult to Red Dwarf. The Office is best watched on a weekday evening after a hard day of work. Monty Python is great entertainment with friends on a Saturday afternoon. Red Dwarf is something entirely different.
Like many Americans I first encountered Red Dwarf on PBS late Saturday evenings. After seeing one episode (Demons & Angels) I was hooked. I was thrilled when Season 1 released on DVD and I watched it through that Saturday afternoon. However, it didn't seem to hold up over the years. I was watching a mediocre British comedy, and quite confused.
Eventually I realized that Red Dwarf needs to be enjoyed late at night. Like ATHF, it's bizarrely hysterical but only when in a certain mood. Red Dwarf is not meant to be analyzed for plot holes or comedic merit. It's meant to be watched in a dark room, late at night, and alone. Only then does it become a spectacle of incomprehensible British slang, something far greater than it was meant to be.
Red Dwarf is the only TV series I've purchased on DVD. I've seen the episodes so many times that I remember the audience's laughter. It's no exaggeration to say that it's the best show I've ever seen. But, I can understand that many consider it a mediocre sci-fi comedy. It needs to come with a warning label, "Only watch after 10:00 PM".
Rimmer kicking the anthropomorphic version of Death in the nuts? WTF?
It's a great counter to his (original self's) earlier exchange with Lister in "Future Echoes":
Lister: Come in number 169, your time is up. OK, what was I wearing?
Rimmer: Ahhh... that jacket, and that red T-shirt.
[Lister pulls out his hat and replaces it on his head, then yanks a hefty length of piping off the wall.]
Lister: You said yourself, I can't stop it. Let's get it over with.
Rimmer: Ah, Lister, what's that for?
Lister: I'm goin' out like I came in: screaming and kicking.
Rimmer: You can't whack death on the head!
Lister: If he comes near me I'm gonna rip his nipples off!
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
That said, I have to agree with GPP - It aged badly. When I go back to watch the episodes over, it's rare that I watch anything beyond the ship being reconstructed. It was still fun, but lacked a lot of the charm that the early episodes had.
Not a matter of aging imho. Something weird happened after season 6. I still deeply love seasons 1-6.
This is something I really don't agree with.
Some things can be said to age or go downhill, others simply change.
Believe it or not (and I hope you would, given the demographic of the SD crowd), people don't like doing the same stuff all the time. They like change. They like to be challenged. They like to learn new things.
Sometimes, new things aren't quite the same as the old. Some better, some worse. You have to allow for possible failure if you want the good stuff.
Early Dwarf was primarily an odd-couple comedy, the inter-relation between diametrically opposed characters in a confined environment. After a while (series 3?) it became an ensemble piece. Then it veered in another difference for a while.
Seriously, if Rob + Doug had wanted to do the same thing, they'd be writing for soaps.
Yech, I sound like some of my old teachers.
... and today's pet project has