Seasons 1-6 are very good, seven has a few good moments, and 8 was pretty bad. The “series finale” from a few years ago was absolutely awful. So I have my doubts about this new season. If for no other reason then that while they can hide Cat and Kryten’s age, they can’t do that with the other two.
This is absolutely one of my favorite shows of all time, and I am very excited they are doing a tenth season.
All the episodes are on Netflix by the way.
I’ll just add, as I always do in these threads, that “Queeg” is the best episode of Red Dwarf and maybe of anything else.
Its up there but man there are so many good episodes. Even from just series 2 “thanks for the memory” and “better than life” are also great.
I haven’t watched Red Dwarf in years (I think the series where Kochanski became a regular character instead of an occasional one was the last one I saw) so maybe I’m missing something but: why would they need to hide Lister’s age? I get why they’d need to hide Rimmer’s but they could also hand-wave that by explaining that he decided to ‘age’ himself so that the rest of the crew would feel more comfortable with him or something. Having said that, Craig Charles has aged pretty well; I don’t think Chris Barrie has though.
Step up to Red Alert.
Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb!
Some years ago I read about the japanese version of Red Dwarf (japanese dubbing, not a japanese remake) so we scourged the interwebs to find some episodes online and turns out they made the episodes shorter by several minutes (to fit in more ads I guess) and cut out the funniest bits (like the one above)! Japan truly is from a different universe.
I think the fall from grace of the main star, Craig Charles, didn’t help. He was accused and subsequently acquited of rape, but was still in prison for six months on remand. Since then he’s been hounded by the tablroids, who have published pictures of him smoking crack and so forth. The BBC will no longe touch him with the proverbial barge pole.
I think he’s redeemed himself to some extent though - he’s been part of the regular cast on Coronation Street since 2005. Actually, now that I think of it, he’s been a DJ on BBC Six Music for seven or eight years now so I don’t think it’s fair to say that the BBC wouldn’t ‘touch him with the proverbial barge pole’.
Nah, V and VI were both excellent. Some fans think VI jumped the shark because it dropped Holly and moved the focus to the bug, but I thought it was actually the most consistent in terms of quality since the first series.
After that the partnership splits I think and it hasn’t been worth watching since then. There are the books, after the first both writers go off and write their own conclusions to the story, and both clearly have the same arc in mind for Rimmer which they followed at the end of VI anyway.
VII actually does manage to be retroactively awful simply by ruining the ending of VI.
They’re very good, it’s like a bunch of mates are in your living room having a chat. You also learn some of the rivalries that were going on at the time. It’s interesting getting people who have cleared grown up a little since then looking back quite some way at what they were doing back then.
I remember watching a few episodes way back in the 80’s.
What is it with the BBC and really long running series’?
Dr. Who’s been on for 40+ years, hasn’t coronation street been on since the 60’s also?
Eastenders is the BBC, Coronation Street is ITV.
They’re all alone, more or less.
I’m not saying they need to hide their ages, just that it is pretty obvious how old they are when you bring a show back after a ten year break and present the characters as “business as usual.” In other words, with zero character development despite being noticeably older. The 2009 show didn’t even really acknowledge their ages, beyond a “9 years later” text at the beginning.
Red Dwarf has never had much in the way of meaningful continuity. They even used to change the year the show was based in.
I loved every minute I could get.
The new series has been filmed and will air this fall. Here is the trailer that was recently released:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7opdzX_4kE
Kryten and Cat don’t look that much different, but Lister is a little off and Rimmer . . . well, Chris Barrie looks his age.
I like the idea that it’s become these podgy old bastards, still flying around in space.
The first episode was great. Laughed a lot, it was just like old times, same style. So happy the boys from the Dwarf are back.
It looks like the new series is airing on Dave, a UK comedy cable channel more infamous for showing endless re-runs of old BBC shows. It’s interesting, if symptomatic that they picked up the new series.