Back to Live, back to reality? News Posted by Ian Symes on 13th May 2016, 18:17 Thanks to Thomas Evans in our forum, and Jeannette via email, for alerting us to this report in the ever brilliant Daily Express. It’s all based on this interview from ScififantasyNetwork, where Danny confirms the live show idea that Doug floated at Dimension Jump last May. There’s no new information here, but it’s nice to know that it’s still on the table. Personally, I find myself skeptical about the prospect of this idea ever getting off the ground, purely due to the logistics of finding a time where all four of them are available to tour the country, but where it would be a better idea to do this than film a new series. I don’t think we’re any closer to it happening just because Danny has mentioned it, but fingers crossed. Interestingly, the Express also quotes an interview given by Craig to Planet Smeg. That’s a name I associate with the good old days when there were dozens of fansites and none of them were Gazpacho Soup. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were still updating around the time of Series X, and sure enough, here’s the interview. However, there’s no year on that page, just the fact that Craig was due to play The Trojan Rooms in Whitley Bay on “21st Of November”. A quick bit of Googling confirms that this interview must date from 2010. This five minute bit of fact-checking seemingly beyond the Express, who state confidently that Craig was speaking “last year”. So Craig’s comments about the stage show are from before even Series X was announced, let alone XI and XII, and certainly long before Doug said anything about it in public. Still, there is one more piece of intrigue from the original Danny interview to pick at – he says that he expects Series XI to air in “September”. Similarly, Robert said on Periscope earlier this week (you’ll have to trust me, it was over 24 hours ago) that he’s expecting “heavy promotion” for Series XI to start in September. Between these comments, and the fact that it’s clearly the best timing for it, we can expect to be seeing new episodes on our screens at around the same time as X. Maybe a couple of weeks here or there, but definitely that time of year. So yes, none of this is particularly new information, but let’s make up for your lost time with a couple of recommendations. TOS new boy Seb Patrick has written this wonderfully geeky piece on Red Dwarf‘s title and credit sequences – a particularly interesting nugget is that Cassandra is the only episode from III onwards not to be represented in the opening titles, and there’s a mildly mind-blowing revelation about a shot from Camille in the Series IV titles. Also, @CultSFX have promised to spend their weekend tweeting about the effects work in Red Dwarf Series 2, so I’m going to spend my weekend looking at those tweets. Hurrah!
Note that Planet Smeg has some APPALLING spammy ads on the front page, randomly stuck between the Dwarf lines: “Play ninjago games free or even lego ninjago games” “Minecraft is one of the most popular games of all time and is now available for free. Go try minecraft for free online and see why players of all ages are raving about this creative, open-world game.” “free download android 2048 game via 9game.com” So that can fuck RIGHT off.
Just for a laugh, I went through the links page on Planet Smeg, to see how many of them are still active. Two. There’s Blue Dwarf, a community fan fiction thing, which has never been my cup of tea but I’m pleased to see is still active, with a handful of posts per month. Then there’s this massive pile of links, which will require further clicking. However, one thing to note on this one – it looks to all intents and purposes like a relic of the late ’90s, a nostalgic monument to what the web used to be, still standing probably by accident. But then I noticed a mention of Youtube, and then further noticed that it was a link to a Youtube search for Back To Earth videos. How utterly superb – the show came back after ten years, this bloke suddenly remembered his ancient links repository and felt the need to update it. But not to change anything about the aesthetic, or to remove any dead links, or do anything else with the site at all since. Lovely stuff.
Then there’s this massive pile of links *clicks various links, reaches ‘Red Dwarf: Science Lab’. Clicks and investigates their links page…* Oh. Wasn’t expecting *that*.
http://www.cyberpursuits.com/aboutsite.asp “I prefer to use Interent Explorer for a number of reasons: it uses the Document Object Model. It is free. It plays fair with all other applications on my system. It is easy on the developer and gives the user a better web experience. If you use Netscape with this web site, try it once with Internet Explorer. You will suddenly discover a new face to the pages, new navigational cues, and new visual enhancements that just are not possible with Netscape except through graphics (which consume your download bandwidth) and through extensive coding to compensate for Netscape’s many WWW shortcomings.”
Just clicked on ‘Doug Naylor Chats — The Short Crimson Page’. I’m in the middle of reading the interview on the main page and loving it so far: Memox asks: “What is your favourite episode?” Doug Naylor: “I don’t have a single favourite episode. I like Back to Reality. But as a pure comedy episode I think the remastered version of Polymorph is very strong.” EDIT: A few seconds later, just read this and had to post it: SarahBellum asks: “Why in the remastered The End did Rimmer crash into something after running through the Cat when he’s a hologram?” Doug Naylor: “I was waiting for that question! It is the sound that his light-b makes when it collides with a solid object and not some gratuitous sound effect added by Ed Bye when my back was turned to get a cheap laugh!”
Just clicked on ‘Doug Naylor Chats — The Short Crimson Page’. I’m in the middle of reading the interview on the main page and loving it so far: Memox asks: “What is your favourite episode?” Doug Naylor: “I don’t have a single favourite episode. I like Back to Reality. But as a pure comedy episode I think the remastered version of Polymorph is very strong.” EDIT: A few seconds later, just read this and had to post it: SarahBellum asks: “Why in the remastered The End did Rimmer crash into something after running through the Cat when he’s a hologram?” Doug Naylor: “I was waiting for that question! It is the sound that his light-b makes when it collides with a solid object and not some gratuitous sound effect added by Ed Bye when my back was turned to get a cheap laugh!” ADDITIONAL EDIT: Sorry, last time I’ll do this, I swear. Just read this and thought it was apt: Chief Jawa asks: “Bottom has been successful as a Live stage show, any plans for a Red Dwarf one?” Doug Naylor: “The problem is who would write it and when. Rob, at one point said he would think about doing one, but so far nothing has happened. And I really feel the material should be mostly new, well at least 75 per cent, okay 50 per cent new – so that would be quite a lot of writing.”
Doug Naylor: “In terms of writing scripts this is going to be my last season. After that it will be the film and new projects. I’m trying to put together a team of writers who will then write future series of Red Dwarf. The BBC would like a series of eight delivered once every 18 months from now until 2020.” Hmm.
http://www.irishnews.com/magazine/2017/03/10/news/craig-charles-hopes-red-dwarf-crew-can-make-space-for-arena-tour-960713/ More talk of the live show, for next year. I love the rebooted red dwarf that the cast write by the way, so much better than any rob/doug versions.
It’s weird that this is technically an official confirmation and therefore news but it’s something we have extrapolated/assumed to be happening for so long it’s like it’s not.
I love the rebooted red dwarf that the cast write by the way, so much better than any rob/doug versions. Innit. Between Craig and the writer of the piece, I’ve never wanted to thump someone more.
I love the rebooted red dwarf that the cast write by the way, so much better than any rob/doug versions. Innit. Between Craig and the writer of the piece, I’ve never wanted to thump someone more. Boot them in the balls John. Just dont Reboot them,
