With just ONE DAY TO GO until Red Dwarf XII is unleashed to the world on UKTV Play, Dave have posted a two minute preview clip from Cured.

Personally, I’m not going to watch this now, as I’d rather wait a day and watch the whole thing, but for those who want a little appetiser before tomorrow’s main course, feel free to discuss below.

29 comments on “P-p-p-poker Face P-p-poker Face Muh Muh Muh Muh

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  • I’m just amazed the title for this story wasn’t a variant on “Teaser? I hardly know her!”

  • I’m not going to watch either. Though I did catch a couple of seconds of the Cat in a teaser variant on Dave last night. Wasn’t paying enough attention to hear what he said.

  • i watched it and I don’t know when Doug decided to embrace the cats dumbness but it feels abit late in the series to act like he was just born yesterday (same with XI)

    Overall not impressed unfortunately :(

  • “I’ll show you how to get all the fish you’ll ever need.”
    “Five fish?”
    “Mm!”
    “Five fish! I’ll be rich!”

  • Manged to watch it. I actually quite enjoyed that, particularly the titular poker faces themselves.

    I might not have access to the internet for a bit starting on the 5th, because my life hates me, otherwise I would’ve waited.

    but it feels abit late in the series to act like he was just born yesterday

    To me, it came across as more Cat is finally getting around to trying to play card games with the rest of the crew and has absolutely zero experience with them. According to Timeslides he’s generally just played silly, made up games with Lister. Stuff where they probably invented rules on the fly. I can’t imagine Cat has often played games with strict rules, or as a group with Rimmer and Lister.

    To me it really does seem like he’s trying something new and kind of abnormal for him, rather than just being dumb.

  • Although there is that scene in Beyond A Joke where they go into silent running mode, and they’re all sitting around in the dark playing cards together.

  • (Just to be clear, though, I don’t think any of that inconsistency matters too much if it gives you the chance to do something funny.)

  • If this was series 1,2 or even 3 id agree but the show is years ahead by now and apparently the cat doesn’t know what sex involves and isn’t hooked up on poker even after many of the card games alluded too in the shows past.

    If Doug was writing mini sketches of the early years of the show id find this normal but it seems like the cat has reverted way back in a way that feels like you have to ignore long term development of the show, unless you make something up in your head to explain the cats naivety but it feels abit cheap.

  • Since I tend to find Dave era Cat very funny, I kind of rationalize it in my head that in the many years of sitting around on Red Dwarf getting older Cat has kind of reverted to a more selfish, catty self. In Series VI he was very much forced into a position where he had to mature and be more invested in the rest of the crew, because it was in his best interest given the dire situation. But he’s been back on Red Dwarf, free to do and go wherever for probably a fair bit longer than the entire timespan of the original 8 series now.

    But again, I’m happy to justify it because I very much enjoy the current incarnation of the character.

  • Series XI was the first series of the show that really bothered me with the cats lack of intelligence because he seems like a cross between the cat and (series 6) Duane dibbley now. in fact you could bring back Duane now and dumbing him down even further would be kinda difficult.

    Doug has probably found a comedy gold mine in playing on the cats idioticness side but to me it feels abit backwards to the lost years of series 1 and 2 but decades later.

  • I’m not watching either but I did see Cappsy doing a one-man stage play adaptation of it.

    He just climbed in through my window and wouldn’t leave until I said his performance was transcendent.

  • This isn’t the cat being stupid, this is the cat operating under his own unique logic. As Seb pointed out, it’s been a character point for the last 30 years!

  • Yeah but the character has evolved from series 1,2 to 3 onwards.

    This feels like a believable lost sketch from series 1-3 and while i can see why most wouldn’t care since they won’t mind seeing that cat back… it just feel unnatural to me.

    I can see why its funny but i fear its becoming a caricature.

  • I’d also like to point out that he clearly knows the rules of poker in the scene, it’s not that he’s unfamiliar with it. It’s just that nobody has ever taught him how to bluff.

    But Dax, it really does rather feel like the sole basis for your complaint is “It’s new”. To say “It was fine for him to be stupid earlier on but as soon as we reached Series XI it bugged me” is just… baffling in the extreme.

  • you’d think he’d have learned to bluff by now, given its established in Holoship that they play poker pretty much all the time

  • Fun fact: For some reason, the title of this article trips the profanity filter on my work computer and blocks the whole of G&T.

  • But Dax, it really does rather feel like the sole basis for your complaint is “It’s new”. To say “It was fine for him to be stupid earlier on but as soon as we reached Series XI it bugged me” is just… baffling in the extreme.

    There was a discussion on G&T a while ago before XI was released and it was about the cat being more Dumb from series 6 onwards and i was one of those people that argued that the cat has always been dumb its just rob and doug played on it abit more from 6 onwards

    Now XI was the Series that i am now totally agreeing that the cat is abit too dumb. apparently doug can give the cat sexual jokes (finger wetting machine) in X but when it comes to XI the cat has no idea what sex is so we can assume secretly hasn’t for 12 series and 20 years presumably in show logic.

    Apart from maybe series 8 where the cat decides he needs to get his face beaten so he can go to medical i don’t think the cat has ever been THAT stupid

    I ain’t saying i can’t see how the poker joke is funny… but it stands out as slightly outdated for the character.

  • Coming out of lurking to ask a question: When was the last time Cat was cool?

    I don’t think the scene fails because of the writing but because, sadly, Danny’s performance doesn’t sell it. At least for me. He never seems to play Cat as cool anymore, more like Dwayne Dibley as Dax already said. Imagine this scene but with Danny playing Cat in the same way he did with something like his worm-skin rug line to Rimmer back in series 6. Everyone else knows he’s being stupid, but the Cat doesn’t so he says things with utter confidence and that cool attitude he used to have. Then I think it works.

    Just my two cents. Back to lurking I go!

  • Yeah, I like Cat cool and a bit dim due to his self-involvement, and lack of experience around humans. But he shouldn’t be a stupid imbecile and I wish Danny would tone down the silly faces. I think there’s a tendency to flanderise him for laughs and Can of Worms did him no favours. The virginity stuff was fine, but the complete naivety around sex didn’t ring true.

    The Cat from Season 3+4 is the best example of the character IMHO. The screeching was mostly gone, and he was socialising with the crew a lot more. Throwing the snowball at Lister in Timeslides, giving Kryten the earring he really hates as a present, playing it cool after meeting his perfect mate in Camille. You don’t need to go overboard with the dumbness to get laughs from him. It’s not perfect (“Have you done my leg yet?” in Dimension Jump is STILL awful).

    I think this was discussed at the time Can of Worms, but I think it’s interesting to determine whether the Cat is genuinely cool, or whether the Cat just likes everyone to think he’s cool. The portrayal now nudges towards the latter (which is the antithesis of “cool”), I think it used to be the former.

  • In an interview around 2009 for back to earth Danny did mention that the fans missed the more child like Cat of the early series so that might be something to do with it.

  • Craig made me a laugh in this scene! Which is something that rarely happened in IX. X was a much better series for him.

    Overall I think people are analysing the clip, and the Cat’s behaviour, just a little too much…..just a tad. :p If the Cat was actually cool then that’s not right for the character either! He’s supposed to think he’s cool, dress cool, but not actually BE cool.

  • Series XI was the first series of the show that really bothered me with the cats lack of intelligence

    Hm, interesting. For me, XI was the first in a while that *didn’t* make me think Doug had decided Cat was an imbecile. From VI onwards, he seemed to me to stop being naive and selfish, and just became plain stupid. He was dumb instead of cool, and it was really starting to bug me. He seemed to have a little bit of intelligence.

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