URRRUASFUISASUHF News Posted by John Hoare on 5th April 2006, 18:31 I swear, if one more person tells me that the only reason I don’t like VIII is because “it’s different from the other series”, I shall knock someone’s block off. THAT. IS. NOT. THE. REASON. GET USED TO IT. Christ.
Surely the reason IS that it’s different – they’re right! They just don’t mean different in terms of quality, which is your issue. Me? I’m sick of both sides of it. I’m sick of ‘as we all know it’s basically awful’, AND I’m sick of the defenders telling people to stop being that way. I’m bored of ‘if you like this series you’re deluded’ as well as ‘if you don’t you’re unwilling to adapt to change’. I’m bored of it coming up every time anything Dwarfish is discussed. Of Series II DVD reviews that dig at later series. Of one star and five star Amazon reviews that reflect bog-all except the author’s need to make a point as heavily as possible. Of one faction proving unwilling to acknowledge flaws, and the other unwilling to admit to successes. Mostly, though, I’m sick of listening to myself whine about the whole situation…
Here’s a quote from an amazon review – “Red Dwarf VIII, the last Red Dwarf series produced for television, is so far off the original premise and comedic style of the first few series of the show that in many ways it seems like a completely different show. Having an entire ship full of people with whom Lister can interact really shatters the great comedic premise on which Red Dwarf was created, that being that Lister is the last human left in the universe.” With this the reviewer proves he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. There’s probably about two laughs in the entire 52 episodes about Lister being the last human alive. i.e. the whole show doesn’t hinge on it. And having the crew back doesn’t destroy that ‘great comedic premise’ IMO. There’s still that seperation between the Dwarfers and the rest of the crew. I think the introduction of Kochanski in VII does much more to upset that balance. Not that I don’t want her in it, but if you think about it, bringing her back was much more important than how the series was shot or the ‘format’ of the show. It seems that most people judge VIII by two things – the return of the crew and the shit cliffhanger. I think the cliffhanger annoys people more than anything. As I’ve said before, if series IX had happened soon after VIII, people would see VIII in a better light. Not, I hasten to add, because IX would have been worse, but because the overall plot of VII and VIII would have been resolved and that whole era of the show would feel complete. Unfortunately, every attempt Dwarf has made at sustaining a story over a series has fallen flat somewhat. This started in VI. And that’s also when Dwarf started becoming too self-referential. I read somewhere… that once a show does too many ‘in-jokes’ then it’s time to end it. Er, I’ll shutup.
I agree with Andrew 100%. And I’m just going to shut up about the whole issue. For the next year, anyway. I regretted posting this article about half an hour I’d done so, to be honest.
The cliffhanger is not one of the worst things for me. For me it’s the really appalling jokes that were in this series, such as: “Post’s here” “Nostrilomo” “Rat-arsed” (I can’t even be bothered to quote them fully) NOTHING in previous series was as bad as those. So yes, it is different.
I’m afraid to post and yet I cannot turn away. I agree that the reason Red Dwarf was funny had little to do with Dave Lister being the last human. But my enjoyment of the show boils down to more than just laughs. It doesn’t really matter what the setup of the show is (extinction of the human race, 3 million years from Earth, missing the mothership) but it does help the show to be actually about SOMETHING. My biggest gripe with Red Dwarf VIII is that nothing ever seems to be happening and, on the rare occasions it does, it’s illogical and a bit cack. Compare and contrast Out of Time where the crew battle their future selves for control of the Time Drive…and Pete pt1 where they…uh…play basketball for a reason that I’ve already forgotten. Plus, the humour is mostly infantile. The acting is far too over the top (Robert, Chris occasionally and most of the semi-regulars). The costumes are horrible (sorry). The library music is terrible. The CGI is shit. The lighting is weird (!). There’s only 5 stories in the whole series (and they’re cobbbled from off-cuts of Quarantine, Future Echoes and Jurrassic bloody Park). And there’s that horrendous mess that is Back in the Red Part Three (what the bloody hell is going on in this episode?). So, um, yeah. Different to series I-VII. To be honest, I don’t give a toss about the cliffnanger as I’d given up caring by the point that appeared. As for the crew, interesting enough idea…just went nowhere. I avoided doing a review of VIII for the site I write for because, as you can see, I have very little good to say about it. With this being the final DVD in this wonderful series, it didn’t seem fair to be overwhelmingly negative. I have no real problems with people liking these episodes, just conclude that they must like the earlier episodes for very different reasons.
The CGI isn’t shit. There, I said it. Although I hate it in the re-mastereds and, of course, VII. Despite the new Dwarf looking a bit… the actual CG isn’t all that bad, especially for a British TV show in 1999. Some of the CG in Who isn’t much better (though I have to say the clips of the new series look great from an effects point of view, who would have thought a few years ago?). Another point about VIII. Most of Dwarf doesn’t seem to age at all, but VIII does because of a few dumb things like the Blue fucking Midget dance cunting sequence which makes you think of Men In Black and motherfucking Little Green Bag which is the kind of ‘parody’ that just about everyone had done several times over throughout the ’90s. “The acting is far too over the top (Robert, Chris occasionally and most of the semi-regulars).” I disagree with that. Although Robert does seem to channel Kelsey Grammer a little too much in places, I wouldn’t say he goes over the top. And Chris is great IMO. I think he did a good job of taking Rimmer back to his old self, and he really is one of the best things about VIII, milking certain situations (e.g. bouncing on the bed in Cassandra) where appropriate.
> The cliffhanger is not one of the worst things for me. For me it’s the really appalling jokes that were in this series, such as: > “Post’s here” > “Nostrilomo” > “Rat-arsed” Nostrilomo was a real groaner, but the other two were funny.
