The G&T Review of the Year 2006

Aw. Sadly, our yearly tradition was foiled by server downtime. Still, we can’t let the season of goodwill pass without something, so we present – The G&T Review of the Year 2006.

January was a rather slow start to the year, with the main news not even being Dwarf-related – Hyperdrive made its appearance, to general dismay. Let’s hope its return next year sees some actual jokes included. The month also saw the launch of DwarfWiki on the now-departed Observation Dome; incidentally, after a few weeks offline recently, it’s now back up. Sadly, after a fantastic start, DwarfWiki hasn’t reached its full potential yet – something that needs looking at in the new year.

February was even quieter, although it did see the premiere of the much maligned car-themed panel show Petrolheads with Chris Barrie; a series that died a death after only one series. A great shame, as once you got past the forced banter at the start, the show was pretty good, even with a completely miscast Neil Morrissey as host. The month also saw the release of Mr Flibble and the Headknockers, which sounds like a bad band name, but was in fact some of the best merchandise Red Dwarf has had for ages.

However, March was where the year really kicked off, with the release of the fantastic Red Dwarf VIII DVD (see reaction here). Eight series down the line, we all knew how fantastic it was going to be… but that didn’t make sitting down to watch an hour of deleted scenes any less enjoyable. Indeed, it was rather the month for DVD releases, as Maid Marian Series 1 also made its long-overdue appearance – and right at the end of the month, Robert Llewellyn’s it²i². We also found out what GNP were planning for the next round of DVD releases…

Not much happened in April, although Australia and America did get VIII. As for May – RDSUK, how do I miss thee. Well, not at all, actually. Still, never mind – we did get the best thing ever all year.

June… well, let me put it like this – They’re illegal matey. He’s a CRAAAAACK. HEEEEEAD. And so on. Yes, a month beset by Craig Charles’ CRACK HABIT. The hilarious thing is about it all is that just a few months later, his career is back on track, and everyone’s forgotten about it, which puts all the worrying by certain people at the time rather in perspective.

In July, the Smeg Ups UMD was released, to general disinterest – although that was because of the format, rather than the content, with UMD being officially fucked. The Smeg Outs release that was planned for Christmas was duly cancelled. And sadly, in August Observation Dome went offline. Whilst the circumstances of it going offline early were less than ideal, it was always going to shut down, and be combined with…

…this. Yep, September saw the relaunch of G&T, as Garbage World, Fuchal, and The White Hole merged with the site, to create one glorious whole. We also released two eps of Wrinkles – one of the best things ever to appear on the site that hasn’t yet involved legal action. Indeed, it was rather the month for good news, as Craig had no charges brought against him, and also showed up (and was utterly fantastic) at Dimension Jump XIII. In fact, DJ as a whole – which had a rather shaky showing in 2005 – was back to being fucking brilliant again. Midnight walks! We’re just MAD.

October was another busy month for DVD releases; not only did we get Just The Shows: Vol. 2 (those zany extrasless fools – we know who the mentally stable ones are, right?), but Beat The Geek was also released. Oddly enough, some people have perhaps been more appreciative of Geek Chase – and not just because of the £5000…

November was another quiet month, although I did go slightly mad. But December has seen the announcement of the Red Dwarf Remastered for release in 2007… and I never thought that would feel quite as much like a Christmas present as it has done.

…Phew. To drag out that old cliche – a lot’s happened for a show that last aired in 1999, hasn’t it? And I barely scratched the surface of all the stuff that’s gone on, really. It’s been a great year for Dwarf fandom; at the start of the year, we thought we might be just over two months away from the last major DVD release. Since then, we’ve had Beat The Geek, and the announcement of a release for the remastered series next October . Still, the obvious thing to wish for is that the Movie finally moves forward next year – and whilst Doug Naylor’s still out there pushing for it, I’ll put myself in the hopeful camp.

Meanwhile, back to us. Since September, G&T has been rejuvenated. For a while there in the middle of the year, it might have looked like we were about to fade away – but we’re back. And we’re bad. You all know that my promises mean NOTHING – but there’s a lot we’ve got planned for 2007, and if even half of those things come off, then it should be well worth sticking around for.

So, from all of us at G&T, we hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and have a great New Year. No snide comment. We mean it.