Shut that door, there’s a draft News Posted by Ian Symes on 12th December 2013, 13:06 We must admit, we kind of thought there’d be more news about Red Dwarf XI by now. When Doug appeared at Dimension Jump in May, he seemed to imply that an announcement wasn’t too far away. However, that was more than half a year ago, and all we’ve had since is a gun-jumping splutter from Bobby Llew. That is, until now. Sort of. Yes, admittedly, this isn’t much. But it’s a start. Naylor Minor has tweeted: I just read the first draft of the first episode of a new series of a fairly popular sci-fi comedy series. You know what? T’was pretty good. Before you write in, the obvious joke has already been done. Anyway, this is undoubtedly positive news – we heard in We’re Smegged that Doug didn’t write any material for Series X until the green light was on and the budget and schedule signed off. So the fact that he’s now got a first draft shows that either these elements are now in place, or that he’s confident enough in the material that he can go ahead and write it regardless. It’s clear that many of Series X’s biggest problems came from the writing process being a little rushed – which, admittedly, was often out of Doug’s control – so giving himself a head start this time round is a fantastic idea. Like I say, it’s not much. But hey, it’s nearly Christmas. Let’s cling on to this tiny nugget of news, and hope that it blossoms into something more substantial very soon indeed.
Forgive me for not being overly excited that the son of the writer thinks a draft script is pretty good. But yes, it’s encouraging that Doug’s using this time to kick around ideas rather than scouting locations. An earlier start on writing could have spared us from Dear Dave and Entangled.
Oh, of course – the positivity in my post was about the scripts being written at all, not about Richard’s opinions on them.
> An earlier start on writing could have spared us from Dear Dave and Entangled. How, exactly? An earlier start on writing would simply have developed further the stories that required locations, meaning even more stress for Doug when those shoot days fell through. Also, Entangled could have gone through 30 drafts and Doug would still have ended up throwing out the 3rd act at the last minute due to the ape actor oversight… And the dig at Richard was because…?
And the dig at Richard was because…? He’s responsible for the VIII ending and toilet stuff in Dear Dave (eye eye are see)?
>An earlier start on writing would simply have developed further the stories that required locations, meaning even more stress for Doug when those shoot days fell through. I don’t really want to moan about the number of hats Doug wears for the show, and while that is ultimately at the cost of the writing. But I just did. Since he’s bogged down with production duties when cameras start to roll, he absolutely has to be writing before production starts. >Also, Entangled could have gone through 30 drafts and Doug would still have ended up throwing out the 3rd act at the last minute due to the ape actor oversight… Entangled was already a load of bollocks long before the final act. If the final third of your story can be so drastically rewritten, perhaps there’s something wrong with the first two thirds. Lemons, The Beginning, Trojan and Father and Suns have decent stories at the heart of them – irrespective of how the episodes ended up. The other two do not. The original ape ending? That sounded almost as bad as the one we got. >And the dig at Richard was because…? Is it a dig to suggest that someone who is related to the writer may not be able to to offer a completely unbiased opinion of the quality of the script?
Such bile towards Entangled. I just don’t get it. My taste in Red Dwarf episodes has, organically, generally fallen in line with the popular opinion in places like here, but I adored Entangled and it seems many hated it. I’m befuddled.
I like Entangled, too. But then, I really dislike Lemons (the Red Dwarf X episode, not the yellow citrus fruit of the same name), whereas everyone else loves it.
I am very *obviously* reading far too much into this Tweet from RDX producer Roopesh Parekh. it’s just the ‘Watch this space‘ bit that grabbed my attention. https://twitter.com/roopeshparekh/status/413036530400514048 6 scripts in 6 days. Even though it’s coming up to Christmas, it is crazy out there. In 2014…watch this space…!
*Cough* just seen this http://www.wow247.co.uk/blog/2013/12/19/craig-charles-interview-47933/ Quote: Are there any plans to do further episodes? “Yeah. There are! We’re going to do Red Dwarf XI, and it’s in pre-production now. It’s just a case of getting everyone together. Danny is busy doing Death In Paradise, and I’ve got Corrie obviously. It’s like getting The Who back together.” (From Talkie Toaster on TOS.)
>I like Entangled, too. I like Entangled three. See what I did there? (Doug, if you need another comedy writer on board.. a-huh huh… Yeah, won’t hold my breath.) Yes one of the best episodes of Red Dwarf X for me. (The Beginning is my favourite.) I wasn’t keen on the way one part was resolved as it didn’t quite fit with the way the Quantum Entanglement was explained earlier, but it was a decent fun episode overall. It had a decent Sci-fi story and great double act with Robert and Danny. (Spoofed in a brilliant way at Dimension Jump earlier this year.)
There was a more interesting story in Lister gambling away Rimmer’s light bee eye em oh. Although I did go into Entangled thinking it would be Kryten and Cat’s Bodyswap episode.
I like that it set up that the crew were going to have to gamble for Rimmer’s light-bee back, a horrifically cliched plot which can only play out predictably, but then went off in a completely different direction. It is my least favourite episode of RDX but I don’t hate it. I also like the way Kryten says “no” in that bit where he says that. Thank you and merry christmas.
The latest tight lipped loose talk on red dwarf XI, this time danny talking about not talking. http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2014/01/15/19411/red_dwarf_series_11_being_written_now
