Dave Anniversary Repeats News Posted by Jonathan Capps on 1st February 2008, 15:03 According to Merry Media News digital channel Dave will be celebrating Dwarf‘s 20th anniversary with a set of repeats over the weekend of Saturday and Sunday the 16th and 17th of February. On closer inspection of the Dave listings shows that it’s nothing more than one of their normal theme weekends. Starting at 9pm we have Psirens, Legion, Emohawk II and Tikka to Ride (all listed as Red Dwarf III) on loop. The following night it’s Gunmen of the Apocalypse, Rimmerworld, Out of Time and Blue – again listed as Red Dwarf III. Pretty uninspiring all round, really. Dave’s theme weekends are a joke as it is, anyway, but to actually go to the bother of knowing when Dwarf‘s anniversary is but then failing to do more than broadcast a jumble of 8 mis-labeled episodes over two nights is just pathetic. What about showing as many episodes as possible all through the day on Saturday and Sunday? THAT’S a proper way to have a theme weekend, not this feeble half measure. Frankly, they should’ve got Dwarf a tie. Still, let’s not be totally unfair – at least this is an acknowledgment of the anniversary, which is more than we’ve seen from BBC Two. Something might crop up, but at the moment it seems Dave is the only one bothering, which is probably the most depressing thing about all this.
I first have to say that ‘Dave’ is currently my favourite channel… Having said that, this is pretty poor by any standards. As you say, if this is ‘it’, it is indeed rather sad…
“You mean Red Dwarf is actually on tv in your country? You lucky bastards.” I take great offence at that, you have clearly missed the word ‘greedy’ out of the sentance :-)
I have to say, Dave is fast becoming one of my favourite channels. It seems whenever I sit down to watch tv at whatever random intervals I choose, the chances that most channels are playing adverts, or just crap programs is quite high. But Dave always has something that I’ll find funny, normally either Top Gear, QI, Alan Partridge or Red Dwarf. They’re always things I’ve seen a million times before, but worth seeing again rather than adverts.
I think I’ve only ever seen Top Gear on Dave. Like, EVERY time I put it on. Although, oh, wait, “A Room With An Alan” was on the other night.
They showed the entirity of Series 1 of I’m Alan Partridge last night. And then showed it again. Lazy lazy lazy lazy lazy. Where’s the skill or imagination in that?
The classic episodes of Whose Line..? on Dave are a treat, as opposed to the US crap on Five US (the performers aren’t a problem – they’re the same ones mostly, and nor is Drew Carey – it’s the US audience that go overboard and ruin it). Top Gear, QI, Buzzcocks and Mock the Week – they’re the favourites in our house.
I like the fact that they have/had (are they still doing it?) Qi, Mock The Week, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and then HIGNFY after it.# That’s a good 3 hours viewing if you include the adverts…
some adverts are brilliant and sometimes better than the programmes that they’re sat between and feature some of the best music there is… That’s some though, not all… Please keep in mind that I am a very open-minded individual.
some adverts are brilliant and sometimes better than the programmes that they?re sat between and feature some of the best music there is? That?s some though, not all? ^ This. Please keep in mind that I am a very open-minded individual. Cor.
Dave also seems to have switched to widescreen, too. So now the trailers for their 4:3 are cropped and they’ve not even bothered to show widescreen versions of stuff like Top Gear. LAZY.
> I noticed that Red Dwarf was followed by Hyperdrive last night on Dave. They currently have a trailer featuring Dwarf and Hyperdrive clips mixed together… One of those shows is not fit to be in the presence of the other. Can you guess which one?
At the risk of bringing up a whole “Hyperdrive vs Red Dwarf” rant again, I want to say that I do like Hyperdrive. I’m sorry but I do! I think its great that BBC have again dipped into scifi comedy to produce it, and I want more! Okay, it’s not as good as Red Dwarf (obviously). But it’s not bad, it’s different. I see red Dwarf as a scifi that was totally the opposite of scifi like Star Trek Next generation and Babylon 5, which were about negotiation, Ambassadors, and politics of many races, real universe shaking stuff. And then theres Red Dwarf, about a guy who likes curries. But Hyperdrive is different, it’s a direct spoof of the scifi like Star trek, NOT the opposite. I like RD cos it’s funny, and Hyperdrive cos it’s scifi-y
Been pondering for ages whether I should or shouldn’t get Hyperdrive (never seen it, obviously). Some people here seem to think it’s a perfect 10 on a scale from 1 to suck.
It’s not, strictly speaking, an awful program. There are a couple of very inspired bits of comedy in there but they’re too far and few between to make it worth picking up, in my opinion.
Mainly what I mean by scifi-y is that it’s Bridge-based, like all the startrek’s, and they deal with alien races and stuff like that, instead of just dossing about and running away from aliens. It has some cool situations that remind me in some cases of of h2g2. As a trek fan, I think it’s almost perfect.
My take hasn’t changed – it doesn’t know WHAT it is. Some of the guys are in a regular sitcom, some are in a Trek spoof, and some think it’s The Office In Space. So it doesn’t gel. Doesn’t help that the stories are so weak – the ‘Marry the Chiefs Daughter’ thing is awfully old. Dwarf managed to twist it, in a genre-aware way, and get in and out in ten minutes of Emohawk. So it was a set of gags and PART of a plot, not the whole story. For Hyperdrive it was 30 minutes, and played exactly as you’d expect.
If it’s set in a future and/or on a space ship, it’s SF enough for me. If it’s not total crap, I’ll probably even find it funny. > a regular sitcom, some are in a Trek spoof, and some think it?s The Office In Space I wouldn’t mind either of the above, so I’m probably on the safe side of things anyway.
> I wouldn?t mind either of the above, so I?m probably on the safe side of things anyway. The problem is you don’t get one of the above. You get all three, clunkily thrown together. It tries hard – and I was a big defender of the first episode when it launched – but always seems to make the wrong decisions.
> Some of the guys are in a regular sitcom great! It makes it easy to follow for people who aren’t even into scifi, so I can watch it with my dad. > some are in a Trek spoof, Ace! i love trek, and I love taking the piss out of it > and some think it?s The Office In Space Brilliant idea! I love the Office, and I think in the future our attitudes to our “working day” will probably be the same. We have a good laugh in my office, and in Hyperdrive I could relate to people doing exactly the same madcap things …. but it’s in space. I think that’s funny. Your attempts of putting me off are not working! Compared to the other rubbish uk comedies that have come out lately (I’m so sick of rubbish “Catchphrase based” comedies like Catherine Tate and Little Britain) I think it’s fantastic that the BBC are making comedies like this, and want many more.
Perhaps you’d like to save your opinions on its excellence until you’ve actually seen it. And then enjoyed its cancellation after two series. :-)
But there isn’t going to be any more Hyperdrive, or is there? Andrew, I know what you mean, but still, the more you say, the more tempted I am. I’m not that picky with Comedy anyway – even the crappiest UK comedy seems to be classes ahead of anything that’d be on German telly. ;)
> But there isn?t going to be any more Hyperdrive, or is there? No. As I said, it was cancelled after the second series failed to pick up any more viewers than the first series got. (Not that that’s an indication of quality – Chalk went through the same thing and was very decent.)
Cancellation is no indication of quality, (look at Firefly) but I can definately agree it wasn’t very popular. Even people who I thought would like it just didn’t watch it.
bluedwarf, you have completely missed Andrew’s point about the three different styles in Hyperdrive. We’re all in agreement that any one of the three approaches could be a great idea, but one programme trying to do all three at once doesn’t work. Nobody’s trying to put you off the show, you great tit.
I don’t think I missed the point as such, I just dont think it’s a problem. I think I will end my argument now, the whole world is against me! I don’t actually know anyone apart from me who likes it. Marleen – go watch Hyperdrive and form your own opinion, maybe you can join my tiny little minority group of fans!
Marleen, I like it, and get shitloads of abuse for it. I will, however, concede that it is nowhere near Dwarf in style, laughs, brilliance etc. However, I’m in with the writers now, and got the DVDs free (signed). It honestly isn’t as bad as everyone makes out, just don’t expect your sides to split.
