Red Dwarf To Return, Find Earth 298
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."
Written by Doug Naylor. So expect crap. (Score:4, Insightful)
Season 7 and 8 levels of crap.
Indeed (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Aged badly (Score:5, Insightful)
This series aged badly. Watched a few episodes last year and found them deeply unfunny.
It's a britcom so of course it'll be a bit campy, a bit odd, and not for everyone.
What really impressed me was how the Grant and Naylor team wrote the novels as well as the shows. The audiobooks based on the novels were also voice-acted by the original cast.
Humor is a difficult thing and prose and teleplays are two completely different environments to work in. There's so much to written humor that can simply never be translated to the screen, the classic example from the Hitchhiker's Guide -- "The huge golden space ship hung in the air in almost exactly the way a brick doesn't." How do you convey that visually? You can't, not well. And likewise there's more than just sight gags that simply cannot be done in prose. The easiest example to bring up is the Heath Ledger Joker. So much of that performance wasn't just what he said but how he said it, the mannerisms and expressions. It was both comedic and horrifying.
What I find impressive is when you have a writer or writers who can take a story and tell it in such diverse media and do it well. Adams was involved in all the HHGTTG variants and, as I said, Grant and Naylor did both the show and the books.
Anyway, looking forward to these new episodes! Between this and the final movie wrapping up Dead Like Me, looks like we're in for some good telly this year!
Re:Written by Doug Naylor. So expect crap. (Score:5, Insightful)
When Rob Grant left, it all went to hell.
It was a real shame to see a show I loved, grow from very humble beginnings, develop into something delightful (despite its still significant budget restraints) and then have to watch through two agonisingly bad series of death throws.
It looks like it wasn't quite dead though.
Quick! Someone get a shovel!
fantastic? (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally, I think this is pretty smegging fantastic.
Why is resurrecting Red Dwarf fantastic but resurrecting Blade Runner an abomination?
Re:Aged badly (Score:4, Insightful)
It's a britcom so of course it'll be a bit campy, a bit odd, and not for everyone.
But you can't just lump all british comedies together that way. Some of them are just incredible works of comic art. Monty Python, Black Adder, the original HHGG, Fry & Laurie, The Office, and Spaced come to mind. And then there are british comedies that to my mind at least, have no redeeming value whatever. For example, Absolutely Fabulous, and Are You Being Served?. Red Dwarf to me, lies somewhere in the middle.
I'm not sure what it is that I don't like about some Britcoms, but it's not their Britishness. If that were the case, I wouldn't like any at all.
Re:They did the same thing on Lexx (Score:3, Insightful)
Are you really talking about elaborate sets in conjunction with Red Dwarf?
Re:They did the same thing on Lexx (Score:4, Insightful)
I would hardly call the red dwarf sets elaborate, they look like they are about to fall apart most of the time
Re:fantastic? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because the creator of Red Dwarf is alive and well, and is coming back to revive a universe that was created for the purpose of an episodal series.
The author responsible for Blade Runner (Philip K. Dick) died during production of a standalone movie based on his standalone book. Given that the story (originally "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep") was an exploration of what it means to be human and NOT an exploration of a fantasy future (ala Star Trek, Star Wars, etc.), expanding the universe would only detract from the original creation.
Besides, Olmos is too old to play Gaff again. He just wouldn't have that same menace about him. ;-)
Re:Craig Charles == drug problem (Score:4, Insightful)
This will be ... economical (Score:2, Insightful)
So they're back on Earth, and what do you know, the year is 2009. This is going to be cheap to produce...
Red Dwarf: Unplugged, which will feature the cast dealing with no sets, effects or autocue
...and getting cheaper all the time. Or should I say, it will have a minimal carbon-footprint, and be compatible with the current economic climate. Even the script will probably be recycled. Printed on recycled paper, I mean.
Re:They did the same thing on Lexx (Score:5, Insightful)
Usually these sort of "and then they came to earth..." plotlines are cost-cutting measures (so they can shoot in "regular" locations instead of on elaborate sets).
Not sure this really matters. Red Dwarf has always been low budget, and the later series (7+8 and to a lesser extent 6) where more money was thrown at it also corresponded with a huge dip in funniness. Generally speaking the same few rooms are used on the ship or often just Starbug. Growing up in the UK you get used to low budget comedies and high budget stuff just doesn't have quite the right feel; Red Dwarf always used to be perfect, incredibly low budget and relying just on script and actors to make it enjoyable. My favourite Red Dwarf episode ever was Marooned and that's just Lister and Rimmer in a single part of Starbug for the whole episode (with a Thunderbirds style crash at the beginning).
Re:Craig Charles == drug problem (Score:3, Insightful)
God I hope not. I remember watching a documentary once about Red Dwarf, and Craig Charles admitted that for most of the first two seasons, he and Danny John Jules were pretty much baked out of their skulls. Those were also the best in my opinion :)
Seriously, does it really matter that much? What my choice of actors does in their spare time is of no concern to me. I like their work and therefore I appreciate their work.
Re:Aged badly (Score:3, Insightful)