Gaps In The Red:
The Last Day of Series VIII

Features

UPDATE (20/05/18): New documents come to light!

The recent mumblings regarding a possible imminent announcement of brand new Red Dwarf naturally lead to a discussion about the merits of Series VIII, because this is Ganymede & Titan. In the course of what would go on to be a characteristically tedious debate, an interesting link was brought to light by commenter bloodteller: a contemporary set report on the final studio recording of the series, miraculously still online nearly twenty years after it was first published.

This was a great find, remarkable for several reasons. Firstly, it turns out that the internet-enabled fans of the late 1990s had a dangerously casual attitude to spoilers compared to the self-regulating secrecy of today – every single scene described in detail and badly remembered jokes reproduced in full, online months before broadcast. It also throws up some neat little details about the production that would otherwise be lost to the mists of time, such as a message to the fans being signed “big hugs and kisses – the Inquisitor”, the audience being shown a picture of Ed Bye in a dress, and an incident where a make-up artist is caught unaware by a freshly-painted set.

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Red Dwarf XIII Not Yet Confirmed

News

In the last decade or so since Red Dwarf slowly creaked back into production, certain traditions have been established. The frantic hunt for audience tickets. Scouring the social media feeds of the cast and crew for teasers during production. The carefully orchestrated promotional campaigns culminating in something important being accidentally leaked early. And, of course, the complete inability of the main cast to keep their mouths shut.

This last one has lead to a confusing and mildly irritating secondary tradition in more recent years, as blogs and entertainment sites vie for clicks in an increasingly crowded market: announcing that a new series is confirmed before a new series is actually confirmed. You can track the development of this phenomenon by noting the increasing levels of weariness in our coverage of it happening for Back To Earth, Series X and the Series XI & XII couplet – twice. So imagine our delight when we saw an article on the otherwise excellent British Comedy Guide loudly proclaiming “Red Dwarf Series 13 confirmed”.

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Complete Guide updated!

Quickies

It’s been nearly three years since we launched our Complete Guide To Almost Everything, the G&T equivalent of an old-fashioned episode guide but with loads of extra, obscure stuff included too. Since then, there have been two more series of Red Dwarf broadcast, along with the accompanying Bluray/DVD extras, so it’s about bloody time we got our fingers out and updated it. Presenting:

RED DWARF: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO ALMOST EVERYTHING (REVISED EDITION)

Changes to this version are as follows:

  • Entries added for Series XI & XII
  • New section – Other Appearances, covering minor appearances from the characters in other shows or online exclusives
  • DVD Extras updated with details for XI & XII
  • Silver Survey rankings replaced with Pearl Poll rankings throughout
  • “Elsewhere on G&T” links updated with content published since the first edition
  • New banner

As ever, do get in touch if you have any corrections or additions – you can either comment here or on the article itself.

The Quanderhorn Ovelisation

News

Exciting news – more than a decade on from Fat, Rob Grant has a new novel out later this year. It’s an adaptation of The Quanderhorn Xperimentations, the Radio 4 sitcom he’s co-written with Andrew Marshall of 2point4children fame, set to be released in June at the same time as the radio version is broadcast. We’re told that this will be “expanded from” the radio series, prompting hopes of a Red Dwarf style full novel treatment, rather than a straightforward transposition of the scripts.

We’re very much looking forward to all of this – it’s been far too long since we got hold of any new Rob Grant material, and now we’ll be treated to new examples of both his dialogue and his prose, all within the next few months. It’ll also be interesting to see how he works with another writer; correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this is the first time he’s collaborated with someone other than Doug.

Time is short and we are lazy, so here’s the press release in full:

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G&TV: Saturday Live (15/02/1986)

Quickies

Ooh look, a new regular feature. Let’s see how long we keep this one up. Once a month or so, we’ll be providing some interesting or obscure Red Dwarf-related viewing, usually something involving the cast and/or crew that we’ve found buried somewhere on YouTube. First up, in authentic slightly-glitchy-VHS quality, an edition of Saturday Live from 15th February 1986 – precisely two years before The End aired – co-produced by Paul Jackson and guest-hosted by Chris Barrie.

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Looks like the Blurays are definitely happening, then

News

Rumours of a Bluray release for the BBC years of Red Dwarf have been swirling for a while. I think we’ve discussed it as an aside on a DwarfCast or two, but we’ve held off from front-paging the news until there was something a little more concrete to report, mainly because the forum was doing a sterling job of logging various developments. Today, however, Doug tweeted:

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DwarfCast 97 – Live 30th Anniversary Special

DwarfCasts

To celebrate Red Dwarf’s 30th anniversary, we took the airwaves (and indeed to the booze) to have a bit of a party. In a rambling, meandering and slightly shambolic show weighing in at well over two hours long, the entire G&T team – Cappsy, John, Tanya, Danny and Ian – plus special guest Jo Sharples, gathered to discuss the Pearl Poll results in very fine detail, reveal how our own preferences stack up to the general consensus, attempt our first live episode commentary on The End, and open the show up to the listeners in a chaotic phone-in free-for-all, which touched on subjects such as the Smegazines, the differences between the solo novels, Red Dwarf USA, and one hundred duck-sized Norman Lovetts.

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The Pearl Poll Results

Features

Ladies and gentlemen, on the occasion of Red Dwarf‘s thirtieth anniversary, we invite you to join us, if you dare, in a journey through the Top 73 episodes of all time, as voted for by YOU. This is the biggest such poll we’ve ever undertaken, both in terms of the amount of episodes it covers, and the number of people who took part. A huge and heartfelt thank you to everyone who submitted their rankings. In return, our gift to you on this special day is several thousand words of analysis to go alongside the full results. Get comfortable.

How will Series XI and XII, still so fresh in people’s minds, compare to the older episodes? Will Series X have maintained its good performance from 2013, or has the novelty worn off? Can Series VII or VIII finally improve their reputations? Is there such a thing as “the bubble” any more now that the number of episodes made after Rob left outnumbers those made before? It’s finally time to find out.

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Live 30th Anniversary DwarfCast! Thursday 15th February, 9pm

News

You heard. We’re now into the week of Red Dwarf‘s thirtieth anniversary, and it’s about time we disclosed our full plans to mark the event. Clear your diaries for Thursday, because we’ve got lots of lovely treats in store, and hopefully you’ll want to join us. The morning will see the long-awaited results of our Pearl Poll published – the ideal start to your anniversary day – before we congregate for a very special LIVE DwarfCast in the evening. It’ll be a jam-packed show, and here’s how it’ll go down:

8:30pm – Now! Something Something Something Music – We start with an extended musical warm-up, featuring specially selected hits from right across the last three decades.

9:00pm – Poll To Poll – The show proper kicks off with an in-depth discussion of the Pearl Poll results, including a look at the G&T team’s combined rankings.

9:30pm – The End Commentary – Our first ever live episode commentary! We’ll be watching and talking over the broadcast version from 1988, not the Original Assembly or Re-Mastered or Japanese edition. If all goes to plan, you’ll be able to sync up with us and watch at the same time, so get your copy of the episode ready beforehand.

10:00pm – Ganymede & Titan Unplanned – In which you, the listeners, set the agenda. We want you to provide the talking points, which can be anything even vaguely Red Dwarf related from the last thirty years, preferably things that we don’t talk about very often. There are many ways to get involved – you can leave a comment on this post, you can tweet us @ganymedetitan, and you can join us in the Spreaker chat on the night.

But most excitingly, this section of the show will be a phone-in free-for-all. Anyone can call up and say what they like to us via Skype – just add ‘ianiansymes’ between now and Thursday night, and listen to the show for instructions on when to call. This will go on until we run out of callers/topics, or fall off air, whichever comes first.

So, start suggesting topics, dust off your Series 1 DVD, add us on Skype and remember to head over to our Spreaker page at 8:30pm on Thursday, ready for the chat to begin at 9pm. We hope as many of you as possible will join us, to help give Red Dwarf the celebration it deserves.