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28 Years A Smeghead: Red Dwarf Is Coming Back (theguardian.com)
BarbaraHudson writes: Unless you're a smeghead, you'll be excited to know that (after 28 years after the smash cult sitcom began) Red Dwarf seasons 11 and 12 are now in production. The Guardian reports: "'I've known these guys longer than I've known my wife,' says Charles (Lister). 'That was what it came down to -- a choice between staying in Coronation Street or doing this.' Last year, after 10 years on the cobbliest of soaps, Charles left. He missed comedy, and the opportunity to strap on the famous dreads came up. 'I was like 'I've got to do it.' It's a career-defining role.' As it was with Llewellyn's (Kryton) re-application of the rubber head: 'The only reason I do it now -- and I don't do any other acting, it drives me mad -- is because it's being with your mates for a few weeks.' 'There's nothing similar about us,' says John-Jules (Kat). 'Except we all have Red Dwarf.'"
I couldn't watch it after the first part.
You either keep someone up year after year or you leave it alone after a hiatus. Coming back after so many years was a mistake, it didn't work.
Now if they CAN get back into the flow for two entire series, well done. But I've never seen it happen on any series ever.
Same with all the other recent BBC remakes - we can't make anything original (without selling it off to Channel 4 apparently), so we'll just bring back actors from 20 years ago and re-try what we did back then. Everything from Open All Hours to Only Fools and Horses, Yes Minister to Porridge. They've all been "re-visited" recently.
Strange, because the primary complaint about those programs is that the re-runs are shown ENDLESSLY on other channels. I guarantee I could watch one of them right now if I was to channel-surf.
Red Dwarf was great. Correct tense.
For better or worse they'd already mentioned new seasons were coming, but personally I would've stopped with season 8
I didn't particularly care for Back to Earth as a whole, even though it had some funny bits (such as the way Rimmer dealt with the other hologram, early on). X was better - a bit uneven, but worth watching. It takes a bit to adjust to just how much the actors have aged... although Danny J-J has kept it pretty darn together. But of course they're going to age, they're all going to die of old age on that ship.
#DeleteChrome
Keep quiet, otherwise J. J. Abrams will reboot it to season 1.
Are you aware that there was a fairly decent season 10 of Red Dwarf that aired during 2012? Back to Earth wasnt the last, and its not needed if you wanted to watch season 10.
The last few series of RD were a bit inconsistent and thats being kind. And the recent special was ok , but not hilarious. I can't help thinking a revival is partly a retirement fund for the writers and actors rather than because they have any new ideas and comedy. Still, fingers crossed. Also lets hope Chloe Annette is back in. She can't act for shit but boy is she still fit even in her 40s ;)
Toilet Humour is a proud British Tradition.
Kat?
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Unless you're a smeghead, you'll be excited to know that (after 28 years after the smash cult sitcom began) Red Dwarf seasons 11 and 12 are now in production.
You should also know, unless you're a smeghead, that Red Dwarf series (not seasons) are numbered with Roman numerals.
As it was with Llewellyn's (Kryton)
Kryten.
John-Jules (Kat).
Cat. Jesus. I mean, he's actually a bloody cat. That's how he got the name.
Also you make it sound like this is the first time it's coming back since going off air, which isn't so. It has been four years since series X, though.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Sorry, I'm such a smeghead. Here's the correct link.
You sound stressed. Maybe you should sit down and relax with a couple slices of hot buttered toast. Wouldn't you like some toast?
"I need swat, tactical, the guys with the flashlights on their guns, those guys with the big shield thingies"
Series 10? Not bothering.
Having not liked Red Dwarf 7 so much, I liked Red Dwarf 8 (#) even less, to the extent that I've still never watched it all. (Tried once, abandoned halfway; started again a while later, even less successful).
In no hurry, I checked out Return to Earth a year or so after it first went out. My initial impression- that it wasn't as bad as I'd expected- was quickly revised as soon as I realised this was only because my expectations had been so lowered in the first place. The ultimate plot device was a lazy rehash of (possible spoilers follow) the despair squid in Back to Reality. That in itself was just an excuse to hang a self-indulgently "meta" script (the characters realise they're just fictional entities in a real-life TV show called Red Dwarf (##)), the sort of thing a thirteen-year-old schoolboy would find "clever" and didn't come close to being well done enough to escape being fan-pandering rubbish. They were trying to have their cake and eat it, too with the "no, all this showing Craig Charles as an actor in Coronation Street (etc) crap isn't really breaking the fourth wall, honest, because there's an in-universe rationalisation". Yeah, that rationalisation being "it was all just a dream^w rehashed despair squid induced hallucination".
Then again, the sort of anally-retentive, detail-obsessed-at-the-expense-of-missing-the-big-picture hardcore "fans" that this was aimed at are exactly the type that will accept this sort of indulgent drivel so long as they're thrown a rationalisation of why it doesn't *technically* contradict the "reality" of the utterly fictional universe. Those people are probably more concerned with the inconsistency in the reported number of floors/personnel/whatever between episodes than in why it stopped being funny or any good after series 6.
Oh, and stuff that lazy Blade Runner "homage" too. Yes, I get what you're referencing given that it's done in primary colours and I'm practically being hammered over the head with it, but you're not actually doing anything funny or clever with it beyond screaming "look, we're referenceing Blade Runner!!"
Red Dwarf used to get away with illogicality, inconsistency and scientifically-implausible (###) plots because those were only a means to an end in what was still ultimately a character-based comedy show. Even when it started moving towards being more overtly sci-fi, it still worked as long as Rob Grant was on board.
When he left after series 6, it lost that fundamental grounding. After seeing Back to Earth on top of series 8, it's quite clear that Doug Naylor on his own just isn't capable of recapturing the characterisation or comedy elements, period.
(#) VII and VIII being the final two series of the original 1988-99 BBC run made after Rob Grant had left
(##) Later on, I read someone else's post somwehere that reminded me that the feature film spinoff of TV series The League of Gentlemen had already used exactly the same "we're fictional characters in a TV series" setup a few years earlier. Which makes it even lazier. As that person also noted, League of Gentlemen at least had the excuse that its original premise had been taken as far as it could go, whereas Red Dwarf's loosely-definite sci-fi setup held almost unlimited possibilities. (###) Or downright impossible, cf. cause and effect in "Backwards"
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Red Dwarf is one of my favourite shows, ever.
Yeah, series 8 was... well, bad, and most people are content to ignore (mini)series 9. But season 10 was pretty good and had some really, really funny moments (Lister's Father's Day thing, for example, took one of the more hilariously messed up aspects of the show and built on it).
So more Red Dwarf? I'll take it.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
When in doubt, add more duct tape.
"Series 10? Not bothering."
Then you lose. 10 was a really nice return to what made earlier Red Dwarf so fun. Was it perfect? No, but it was light-years ahead of 7, 8 and BTE and at it's best was as good as any smeg they ever put out. You're cheating yourself as a fan if you don't give it a chance.
How many comedy series from Britain can you name that made it past their second season?
'Allo 'Allo! - 9
2point4 Children - 8
Absolutely Fabulous - 5
Are You Being Served? - 10
Birds Of A Feather - 12
A Time Goes By - 10
Blackadder - 4
Bottom - 3
Bread - 7
Butterflies - 4
Dad's Army - 9
Father Ted - 3
Goodnight Sweetheart - 6
Hancock's Half Hour - 7
Hi-De-Hi - 8
It Ain't Half Hot Mum - 8
Just Good Friends - 3
Keeping Up Appearances - 5
Last Of The Summer Wine - 31. Yes, Thirty One
Men Behaving Badly - 6
One Foot In The Grave - 6
Only Fools And Horses - 7
Open All Hours - 4
The Good Life - 4
Yes Minister - 3
I could go on...
The big difference between UK and US situation comedies is that US sitcoms are written by teams of writers, and go on for as long as money can be wrung out for them. UK sitcoms are usually written by one or two writers, and end when the situation has wrung out all the comedy to be had. That's bound to mean shorter series and fewer of them.
"Last Of The Summer Wine" is, of course, the exception that proves the case. It avoided ending by repeating the exact same plots ad nauseum.
The most important part is buried at the bottom of TFA:
Red Dwarf XI starts on 22 September at 9pm on Dave. It's available to preview on UKTV Play now.
Without him life would be much grimmer