1989 was a simpler time, a world away. Yugoslavia won Eurovision, the other George Bush took office and Tsakhiagiyn Elbegdorj announced the establishment of Mongolia’s democratic movement.
Sci-fi nerds across the country put their dragons back into dungeons and gathered round their primitive 1980s television sets to watch space sit-com, Red Dwarf.
Over the next six years, Red Dwarf grew into a cult phenomenon, and the minutiae of each episode was discussed at face melting length in fanzines and – as though the medium was invented for it – over the internet.
Then everything went wrong, as the writing team split and the series descended into rehashing of the same core jokes – Rimmer mis-remembering Space Corps directives and Kryten‘s head bearing a resemblance to something vaguely amusing. And then the series ended, a poor cousin of how it first began.
But, like an angry poo, some things will return to haunt you, and after a? nine-year hiatus, Red Dwarf is back. Would it be a terrible reminder of those latter days, or have the years been spent building up a library of great gags? Let’s ask Dave.
As a stand-alone, 90 minute comedy drama, it’s absolutely terrible. If you’ve never seen Red Dwarf before, or even possess a knowledge of the series that would get you laughed out of a Red Dwarf Fan Convention – Dimension Jump 15: October 9th to 11th 2009 at the Holiday Inn, Birmingham – then you’ll probably end up not having a clue what’s going on. The short of it is that the characters realise that they’re characters and follow the back of the DVD of the episode to find out what to do next. Yeah, exactly. Exactly like the League of Gentlemen film.
The decision to show the episode in three parts was strange – nothing happens in the first two, and then they arrive in Coronation Street and everything goes completely mad, with Lister talking to an actor called Craig Charles who plays Lister and IT’S LIKE A BIG CIRCLE OF EXCITEMENT.
For budget reasons, the episode is almost entirely filmed in front of a blue-screen, which leaves scenes a little bit flat as the actors try to work around nothing. The choice not to have a studio audience, or even a laugh track, is strange – it leaves the Cat’s bizarre wailings sounding like a side effect of a mental illness.
While some of the jokes are funny, they’re too far between and often fall flat. If you’re into mind-bending self-referentialness and have a scale model of the Red Dwarf universe in your loft, then you’ll definitely enjoy it.
If you have fond memories, or even a passing nostalgic smile at what Red Dwarf was, leave well alone.
This was a guest-blog by Nik Johnson from Shouting At Cows. Go and read it now or we’ll fight you.
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Ian says
There was a funny joke? Wow I must have missed that one. In fact, there was a joke at all? Really must have been watching the wrong show.
Had they kept it to an hour and plagiarised Blade Runner and their own storylines less then it might have been passable. It was fan service, nothing more, nothing less. Unfortunately Red Dwarf fans are quite happy to lap up an inconsistent plot. I’m reminded of the late Linda Smith’s description of Lord of the Rings readers: They’re all engineers called Dave.
Joke Police says
Slightly off topic, but are we ever getting Most Recent Comments back? I miss it bad.
Tom J says
The first three jokes in the show were Lister ironing his sneezes to annoy Rimmer, Kryten taking a holiday in the utility cupboard and Cat getting annoyed because a monster messed up his hair. In other words, exactly the same jokes that have propped up the entire show for most of its life. Such a shame, because the stories behind the sub-par humour are often very innovative.
Beth says
I’m still trying to get my imagination around the idea of “an angry poo” so I’m going to have to pass on trying to pretend Red Dwarf could be funny again.
David says
It wasnt that bad! Perhaps it would have been funnier with a laughter track though.
“the episode is almost entirely filmed in front of a blue-screen”
What episode? Overall its about 50/50 and isnt it infact a green screen?
Jason says
I hated the way after 10 years, Naylor couldn’t come up with anything fresh… How could he rehash something like the despair squid? Completely ridiculous. The jokes were bad, the characters seemed out of character, they looked old… need I say more?
jim says
Oh man.. what can you say? after series 7 and 8 my hopes were not high but ever the optimist I hoped the magic from early Dwarf might be back. Boy was I wrong! I think this will be the final nail in the Dwarf coffin.. such a shame!
Kelly says
This is why i hate the ‘hardcore’ Dwarf fans – they moan and moan when the series finishes and then, when it FINALLY comes back all you hear is’omg this was soooooo crap wtf was with the CGI thts not rd!’
For me,this was fan-smegging-tastic,maybe not the best red dwarf there is but much better than most so-called comedies these days(coughTwoPintsOfLagercough)
Give the cast and crew a break – its been over 10 years since the last series.Of course theyre going to be a bit rusty.The acting was on top form but i wish that they had given Rimmer more lines.Chris Barrie is such a brilliant yet horribly underrated actor – he would make a great 12th Doctor