Red Dwarf

[RottingCorpse]

We have no Red Dwarf thread?

New Red Dwarf Specials Confirmed19 September, 2008

New specials? Proper information? After all the rumours? Oh smeg yes.

reddwarf.co.uk has the facts. As announced by Robert Llewellyn for Grant Naylor Productions this week at the UKTV seasonal press launch, the project is a short series of brand new specials to celebrate the 21st birthday of Red Dwarf.

Doug Naylor will be masterminding the four half-hour instalments, and the regular cast will all be reprising their iconic roles. They are being made by GNP for UKTV's free-to-air channel, Dave - our new best friends!

Red Dwarf repeats on Dave - including an anniversary weekend run - have picked up remarkable numbers since the channel was reborn on Freeview, and it's becoming clear to all concerned that the show is picking a new, third generation audience. With the usual involvement from Red Dwarf partners BBC Worldwide, you can also expect international broadcasts to follow (and, we'd imagine, a top-quality DVD release in the fullness of time).

It's very new news to me - I really only fully heard the details yesterday, Robert told comedian/host Michael McIntyre. We're doing four new shows with the original cast. Two of them are going to be, like, proper episodes of Red Dwarf. One of them is so exciting I've been asked not to say anything about that because other people will steal the idea - and it is a great idea, quite challenging for us as performers. And the other one is a kind of behind-the-scenes-y... the truth. There's been so many rumours and gossip about Red Dwarf, about whether there's going to be a movie and whether we all get on, all those things... The downside for me, which is just dawning on me now, is I've got to do the 'rubber' thing again, which I haven't done for ten years.

For the record, and direct from the makers, the details of the four shows right now - while wholly subject to change - are:

Show One - The Making Of The Specials
A highly entertaining look at what goes on behind the scenes on a Red Dwarf production.

Show Two - Red Dwarf Special: Part One
The cast get back into character, and costume, a decade on...

Show Three - Red Dwarf Special: Part Two
The adventure continues...

Show Four - A Clip Show With a Serious Difference
The cast do it their way. Red Dwarf as you have never, ever seen it before!

The shows will broadcast sometime in 2009 and, if successful, could pave the way for further Red Dwarf TV projects. Thanks to movie and broadcaster wrangles, Grant Naylor haven't been in a position to produce new Red Dwarf since Series VIII went out to audiences of over eight million in 1999. This exciting development suggests a new and shiny future for everyone's favourite sci-fi comedy.

To be kept in the loop as we cover the new production, register your email address with reddwarf.co.uk in the box at the bottom of the page.

The Boys from the Dwarf are back!

[saintangelsin]

Smeggin' hell! That's some awesome news to hear. I grew up watching Red Dwarf on Maryland PBS. Oh how I miss spending Saturday nights watching all those episodes.

[nacho]

I vaguely folded it into the Blake's 7 thread...

http://www.greatsociety.org/forums/index.php/topic,3476.msg91557.html#msg91557

I hate this news, because the show was a hideous train wreck after the sixth season.  We'll never get Red Dwarf as it was in the first few seasons...mainly because they're all rich and sober now, as opposed to child-molesting, car crashing, angry drunks glad for an acting job.

[nacho]

God... And what's with the "No Holds Barred" episode?  Not only are they kicking a very, very, very dead horse, but then we're going to get awkward improv?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7851989.stm

The show has been resurrected by digital channel Dave for a two-part Easter weekend special, which sees the cast finally return to Earth.
...

The new two-part series Red Dwarf: Back to Earth will be followed by a "no holds barred" episode without sets, special effects or autocue.

The weekend will climax with Red Dwarf: the Making of Back to Earth, a behind-the-scenes special from the new episodes.

[nacho]

Cast shot --

http://dave.uktv.co.uk/library/red-dwarf/red-dwarf-exclusive-first-image/

So...wait... Rimmer's a hologram again?  Maybe they're throwing out the last season, eh?

[Nubbins]

I have season 2 and 3 of this, I think.  Season 3 was pretty good, but the first few episodes of 2 were rough as hell.

[nacho]

You haven't watched the whole series?  Oh man... It's a completely different show after season four.

And watch seasons one and two with the commentary track on.  It's (a) funnier than the show and (b) incredibly addictive.  Basically, they spent the first two seasons drunk and insane all the time.

Then they got big and did that minor reboot in season three.  And then they just wheeled off into great times.  Seasons four, five, and six are astounding.  Season seven is where they started to fall, and season eight is horrific (though more watchable than the first two).

[nacho]

A "viral" video from Dave TV:

[nacho]

So I'm pretty excited about this... The more I see the more it looks like classic RD...which is what I want.  No updates and fancy shit, please.  Just more of the same.

[nacho]

Going to rush home and get this in me... After I consume plenty of wine.  I'm prepared to declare it holy and genius and look forward to tearfully posting about disappointment later tonight.

[nacho]

Wow.  It really, really, really sucked.  But, then, so did the last two seasons a decade ago.

But I enjoyed the nostalgia factor.

[nacho]

Wow...so they're going ahead with season 10.  Man, talk about kicking dead horses across several galaxies.

Meanwhile, this King of Awful Ideas gets the greenlight whilst Day of the Triffids and Survivors languishes in the vault?

[RottingCorpse]

http://www.shadowlocked.com/201101201314/news/new-series-of-red-dwarf-confirmed.html

NEW SERIES OF RED DWARF CONFIRMED

...but shooting it in front of a live audience is going to make secrets hard in the Twitter-era.

My current tussles with the Linux command line have kept my radar swinging pretty slowly lately; therefore thanks to Mark C for pointing me to Robert Llewellyn's blog. Llewellyn, the presenter of Scrapheap Challenge for 10 years, but beloved of SF TV fans for playing servile robot Kryten in the BBC's Red Dwarf, has commented on the Daily Mail's joyous re-reporting of Craig Charles' announcement on Real Radio: TV channel Dave is planning a new series of the science-fiction comedy for 2012, in the wake of the channel's 2009 21st-anniversary specials, which proved hugely popular, with viewing figures that trumped BBC2 and C4 combined.

Speaking to presenters Ditchy and Salty on the Real Radio breakfast show, Craig Charles, who played Lister in Red Dwarf for most on the 1990s, and is currently featuring in Coronation Street, told listeners "They've just commissioned another series of Red Dwarf. We're gonna film at the end of November, December and January."

Commenting on the quality of the show, which was pretty poor in its early series but grew funnier and more inventive through the BBC's commitment to its potential, Charles said "We've gotta recapture the highlights like series 5, series six, that kind of stuff. If we can hit that mark then brilliant. There's no point doing it if it's a bit so-so." Hear hear!

Robert Llewellyn commented on the announcement at his blog:

"So, the thing is, the whole point was that I was told not to say anything. Doug [Naylor, show creator] told me, face to face, ‘don’t tweet this bobby. Not yet.’  So I didn’t. I was really good. I said nothing.

"Then I spend a day in my voice over cell and know nothing of the interview Craig had done on the radio, which was, it appears, picked up by the Daily Mail, which, as you know is my fave all time newspaper. Ahem.

"...So then I get back to my trusty lappy and there’s a great slew of tweets telling me that Craig has once again spilt the beans. You’ve got to love him, he knows how to spin the scoop. I’ve just spoken to Craig, he was as usual gloriously funny about it. He said, and I quote. ‘I did a radio interview and it just sort of slipped out.’ So yes, we are making a new series, commissioned by Dave, not a special or a movie or a one of dooberry. A full 6 half hour episodes of a brand new series."

Llewellyn notes, not necessarily without an air of trepidation, that the 2012 Red Dwarf is seriously considering shooting in front of a live studio audience, which hasn't happened for the show since 1998. And, as the actor points out, does anyone remember 1998? The pre-Twitter years...?

"The fear among the producers now is that it’s impossible to imagine an audience of around 400 people at the recording of a TV show like Red Dwarf, where nobody does a bit of a hint on Twitter, or sneaks a picture on Facebook or posts a bit of badly shot video on YouTube."

Perhaps the only solution is to do the show live, as the BBC did with David Tennant and The Quatermass Experiment 4 years back...? Otherwise the only reasonable solution is to confiscate the audience members' phones and execute them straight after the performance, which may put a dent in the show's comedy stylings.

[nacho]

STOP!!!

NO!!!!


 

[nacho]

Kill me now!

Red Dwarf: new series now 100% confirmed, due 2012
Seb Patrick

It's official: Dave has commissioned a new, six-episode run of Red Dwarf, which will be hitting our screens in the autumn of 2012...

Published on Apr 11, 2011
In the two years since Red Dwarf was last on the air in the shape of the Back To Earth specials, there have been a number of false starts and sort of announcements regarding the show's further future. This past weekend, however, Dwarfers were finally given definite, official reason to celebrate, with confirmation that a full six-episode series has been commissioned by digital channel Dave for broadcast in 2012.

Speaking to fans at his first appearance at the Dimension Jump convention in over a decade, writer/director/producer, Doug Naylor, was able to announce the news mere minutes before Dave put a press release online stating the same. For the first time, both producers and broadcaster were able to jointly confirm that a deal has been struck for six thirty-minute episodes (full half-hours, airing in a 40-minute slot), with the only outstanding matter being the cast members signing on the dotted line. "However," joked Naylor, "they've already agreed to do it in principle, so if they don't do it we'll just sue them."

Anticipating various questions from fans, Naylor went on to explain that the series is currently planned to shoot between November 2011 and January 2012, before a scheduled broadcast some time around September 2012. He also tackled the ever-present studio audience question, admitting that his own preference is to shoot the new episodes in front of an audience, but that the final decision rests with Dave, which he therefore intends to try and convince.

The wording of Dave's announcement also settled a long-standing uncertainty over the show's series numbering, confirming that Back to Earth is now considered the ninth series, as the new episodes will be known as Red Dwarf X.

Naylor later commented in a Q&A session that the 'nine years later' gap left between the end of Series VIII and the specials would likely be explained in some way by the new series, but more likely later on in the run than at the beginning. He also hinted that a return for the character of Holly could be on the cards, although refused to be drawn on whether Norman Lovett, Hattie Hayridge or both might be involved.

In a later, more informal chat session with fans, Naylor elaborated further on possible story ideas currently under consideration, dropping some tantalising hints.

In particular, delving into the family backgrounds of the lead characters seems like it may be a recurring theme. He suggested that there were plans afoot for Rimmer's brother, Frank, to make an appearance in some way, while a mooted return to the 'Lister is his own father' concept from Series VII sounded so brilliantly head-screwy (and Steven Moffat-esque), we don't really want to spoil it here.

There was even the suggestion that Series X might, for the first time, feature an underlying story arc across its episodes. Certainly, the impression seems to be that Naylor is well ahead on plotting an elaborate and involving story for the characters' return. We can only hope that the quality of the comedy will be up to scratch as well.