It is I, Le Cleric News Posted by Ian Symes on 14th February 2020, 12:09 Initial announcement? Check. Behind the scenes pictures? Check. First proper publicity stills? Check. The journey towards the broadcast of brand new Red Dwarf is progressing nicely, and it was about time for us to hit another milestone. While we’re still waiting for an episode title, today TOS has furnished us with not only an official synopsis but also a list of guest cast. Hurrah! Let’s go through it bit by bit, as is the tradition. The new 90-minute special is the thirteenth outing of the legendary sci-fi comedy. Ha, I like “thirteenth outing”, in the context of the neverending series numbering debate. There’s your solution, let’s stop referring to things as Series Something; Back To Earth was Outing IX, and this is Outing XIII. It reunites the original cast of Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat) Robert Llewellyn (Kryten) and sees the return of Holly (Norman Lovett) the much loved ship’s computer. Ah, there we go – the first actual official confirmation that Norman is in it, as opposed to him just being featured but unmentioned in social media photos. The commentary in the TOS article about this return coming “after his one-off guest spot” implies that this isn’t a temporary return for the character, and that he’s back to being a fully fledged regular crew member. But then again, we have no idea whether or not there’ll be an Outing XIV after this, so this may be a moot point. Written and directed by Doug Naylor, it was recorded in front of a live studio audience over two nights at the world famous Pinewood Studios. And you can read about that here and here, if you like. Three million years ago… David Lister, a vending machine repairman, was sentenced to eighteen months in suspended animation for smuggling his pregnant cat aboard the mining ship Red Dwarf. While Lister remained in stasis, a radiation leak killed the rest of the crew. Safely sealed in the hold, the cats evolved into humanoid form. Yes, we all remember this bit, spin on, spin on. The cats now roam deep space in a fleet of their own… There you go! This is the crux of the matter, and I like the way the inclusion of that lengthy recap places this turn of events into the context of the show’s history; this special is dealing with subject material that’s seeded right at the very beginning. It’s playing with a cornerstone of the entire premise. This will be interesting to say the least. The special will see the posse meet three cat clerics (Tom Bennett, Mandeep Dhillon, Lucy Pearman) who worship Lister as their God. Lister vows to help them as they’re being hunted by Rodon, the ruthless feral cat leader (Ray Fearon) who has vowed to wipe out all cats who worship anyone but him. They’re just using religion as an excuse to be extremely crappy to each other. In terms of the guest cast, we already knew about Ray Fearon, and the details of his character here provide confirmation, if the big old claws weren’t enough, that Rodon is the baddie of the piece. Welcome aboard also to: Tom Bennett, who’s been in proper films like Rocketman as well as cult comedies such as Love Soup, PhoneShop and Murder in Successville; Mandeep Dhillon, who’s an alumnus of Star Wars, Doctor Who and 24; and comedian Lucy Pearman, known for her sketch and stage shows along with appearances in the likes of The Mind of Herbert Clunkerdunk and Tim Key’s Late Night Poetry Programme. They’re all playing cat clerics, but we don’t know know who the other actor mentioned later in the TOS article, Al Roberts from off of Stath Lets Flats and King Gary, is playing. Unless he is a cleric, and his omission from the main synopsis is some sort of Cleric Al error. Thanks. So there’s still lots to find out before the Special arrives, whenever that may be. Appetite most certainly whetted.
Looking forward to seeing the tense scene where Lister must turn a bowl of cereal into a woman, else he be executed for heresy.
So an actual cat episode, with the promise of more plot to come too Sounds like there’ll be a lot of cats too, not just 1 ship with only 2 or 3 shown Hopefully they manage the make up for them better than all the Kryten costumes “The new 90-minute special is the thirteenth outing of the legendary sci-fi comedy” This will definitely be considered the 13th series
Yes I imagined, there will be a conflict between religious cats and heretic cats, just not “atheist” cats as I assumed. This Rodon guy is shaping up to be a good, threatening villain. Hopefully he’ll prove a real threat with the comedy coming from the three cat clerics.
Give me something with the pathos of Waiting For God and I will be happy. Make it funny and I will be overjoyed. Make it a complete self contained story and I will be ecstatic.
Applauding that clerical error joke. This sounds great. Cast looks good. Also hoping that Rodon is played relatively straight and the gags come from elsewhere.
Excellent potential for a good, classic Red Dwarf story in all of this. The idea of Lister as the god of the Cat race was one of the best parts of the early episodes, and while it wasn’t always handled brilliantly (although I like Waiting For God more than its reputation suggests it deserves) there’s certainly more to be mined there. Sad middle-aged slob Lister might be even more of a fun disappointment to the Cats than sad mid-twenties slob Lister.
I second that, Adam Bailey. And I also like Waiting For God. A lot. Can Lister still be considered a slob? At what age does a person stop being a slob and become ‘a wreck’? Also, I’d say Lister’s cleaned himself up a bit since the early days. Or it isn’t mentioned as much. Cleric Al error. Marvellous. Just takes the sting out of the article’s title. (Winking emoji or whatever.)
I think he’s more of a slob than a wreck. If he was a wreck he’d be in a much darker place I think. But his eating and hygiene habits suggest he’s still a slob, albeit a happy and well-adjusted one. He can laugh slobbily, is what I’m saying. I don’t think age really matters to his slobbiness either. You can do slobbing in your twenties and slobbing in your thirties and then have a break from TV before your main middle-aged slob.
The idea of Lister as the god of the Cat race was one of the best parts of the early episodes, To be fair. Lister being the cat god really was only really acknowledged for one episode. if you don’t count a brief mention in the first episode. it hasn’t been mentioned since. Although i imagine Doug can’t do the leading to Fushal, the promised land thing, because Doug did that similar thing with his the crew meet other Krytens episode last series
Point taken. I hadn’t fully considered the darkness implicit in the term “wreck.” Onslo was a happy slob, wasn’t he. It does have a certain cheeriness to it. Lister doesn’t slob when the chips are down, though, does he. I think this probably isn’t the direction this BTL comment section should take. Apologies all!
This feels like its been long awaited. This feels like a hanging thread of back story not completed by series one. Though it might have only taken a line back then. Like “they all died” etc. This feels fitting as if cat’s should have always been mentioned in a universe context like the gelfs often have been. And simulants. Like a lot is known about simulants hating humans etc. There should have been maybe some information of how gelfs and cats ever got along or didnt etc. And there never has been. So this is a very interesting area to explore, should be good for danny, and yes some cat humour like series 1 and 2 should be returned here somewhere. Really nice synopsis. Over all as a concept though I’m slightly dissapointed, but reversing any true judgement cus it’s stupid to pre guess with such a long running time that there isnt some more stuff to this that will totally quell my feeling that it sounds too simplistic, and a sequel to an episode few really rate. I guess waiting for god is being appraised now on it’s place in cannon, when any other time it’s judge on rewatch value which is fairly low compared to a lot of better episode. Still excited to get new dwarf and this has nicely shaped that it’s coming soon this year.
Sad middle-aged slob Lister might be even more of a fun disappointment to the Cats than sad mid-twenties slob Lister. Didn’t the Cat religion preach the Path of Slobbiness though? He might be a delight to the self-repressingly devout cats.
This feels like its been long awaited. This feels like a hanging thread of back story not completed by series one. Though it might have only taken a line back then. Like “they all died” etc. This feels fitting as if cat’s should have always been mentioned in a universe context like the gelfs often have been. And simulants. Like a lot is known about simulants hating humans etc. There should have been maybe some information of how gelfs and cats ever got along or didnt etc. And there never has been. So this is a very interesting area to explore, should be good for danny, and yes some cat humour like series 1 and 2 should be returned here somewhere. Really nice synopsis. . It probably would have been a bad idea to have the cat race populate the universe. if anything it takes away some mystery and makes Cat less special. As for series 1 and 2 humor. i kinda don’t want more cat caricatures. they did it with can of worms where the first meeting of a said new Cat had them referencing the “thats mine” thing.
> Didn’t the Cat religion preach the Path of Slobbiness though? He might be a delight to the self-repressingly devout cats. Good point. Cat might well be the one they take a dim view of. “It is a sin to be cool” and all that. Liking the sound of this. Al Roberts is very good in Stath Lets Flats.
Having them be the opposite of Cat might be fun. They can invert all the usual Cat tropes like they inverted Everybody’s Dead Dave in Skipper. “That’s yours, this is yours, all of this and that are yours…”
Isn’t it sort of implied Cat is quite different to most other cats anyway? “It is a sin to be cool” struck me as suggesting Cat being quite opposite to most cat culture. He never really buys into any of the religion stuff, shows zero interest in the priest other than he’s just another cat. We only see the cat in Can it Worms acting similarly to Cat because it’s a polymorph Reading his mind.
I think the idea is that the cat people were required by religious dogma to sublimate their innate catty instincts, but Cat was one of the last few, born after the war had ended and the arks left, leaving only “the sick and the lame”. I guess with the fanatical religious leaders gone it might have become a much more secular society. Then again, there’s the priest, and Cat says he was taught about Cloister in kitty school. Really we know virtually nothing about Cat’s life before The End.
Just noticed Tom Bennett post photos of himself and the crew on the set of the special on Twitter. Revealing his cleric costume as well, it looks roughly similar to Rodon’s which makes sense, realistically, since they’re seemingly refugees of his regime. https://twitter.com/newmanstings/status/1228657383406219269
Good job security were so zealous with the audience members’ phones, wouldn’t want details like that to be revealed willy nilly on social media.
For a short time I was expecting them to wear the white robes as the Highs in Demons & Angels, but that would’ve been too derivative in hindsight. Just some speculation, do you guys think Cat is going to have a romantic interest in the special? I have the suspicion he might, specifically with Mandeep Dhillon’s character, since she has a more varied acting backlog than Lucy Pearman.
Given how long the special is. i imagine you need to fill the screentime with as much stuff as possible.
I’m with a few others here in that I thought “Waiting for God” was a much better episode than most seem to. In fact, if I remember correctly I had it in my top 10 , certainly in my top 20, in the Pearl Poll. So needless to say I await this with baited breath. As I’m old as fuck and in poor health I sure hope the post production doesn’t take forever lol. Also, being across the pond I’ll have to wait for the DVD to come out so…… c’mon y’all get on it! Let this old fart see it before its too late. Man, a Cat race centric episode ….. more on the Cat religion….. strife…… redemption (I’m assuming this part I must admit) …. Holly back …..a full 90 minutes …..sounds like Doug has read my mind lol. I have no idea who the guest stars are but by the reactions from other posters they must be good. I’ve really liked the other guest stars that have appeared over the years so am looking forward to seeing these too. But…… but……. no Patrick Stewart? ;D
Also, being across the pond I’ll have to wait for the DVD to come out so…… c’mon y’all get on it! Let this old fart see it before its too late. I assume Britbox will carry the special alongside its broadcast date as it did with XII, least I think it did
I can’t believe anyone would dislike Waiting For God, it’s up there with Queeg for me. How long have the cats been gone from Red Dwarf now? It seemed like they didn’t leave too long before Lister came out of Stasis (I always assumed than in the previous decades Holly had been gradually opening the ship up to test the radiation levels were ok and that gave the Cats access to the docking bays). 30 years since The End perceived by Lister and Cat, 200 years from V to VI, a couple of smaller jumps here and there. I guess that at most their post-Dwarf civilisation is 250-300 years old.
This just reminds me what a fantastic coincidence it was that Lister was brought out of stasis when there were exactly 2 cats on the ship. He was in there for 3 million years. 100 years earlier and Red Dwarf would have been full of cats; 100 years later and they would all be either gone or dead. Anyway, I’m crossing my fingers that RealBigOleDummy makes it through 2020! And if you’re on your deathbed when the special comes out in the UK but it hasn’t officially made it to your country of residence, then I think you’re morally OK to pirate it. Cloister will forgive you, and the Blu rays in Fuchal all run at the correct frame rate.
This just reminds me what a fantastic coincidence it was that Lister was brought out of stasis when there were exactly 2 cats on the ship Why does Holly let him out at all? Everyone else is dead. They’re 3million years from home. Lister is as good as dead, really. Holly sets himself the goal of keeping Lister sane, but it’s only by letting him out that Lister’s sanity becomes a problem. It could be argued that the most compassionate thing to do would have been to let the last of the cats die out and then just tank Red Dwarf into a sun, destroying the ship and killing Lister for good along with it. Or at least only let him out once there is a civilisation for him to integrate with. Holly could have turned the ship around and headed back to Earth and let Lister out then. And why is it, only the hold and stasis booths are sheilded from radition and not the whole rest of the ship? It’s a bloody great big space ship powered by a nuclear reactor. Shield the whole ship from that stuff.
And Holly isn’t really programmed to be compassionate, is he? He’s just following his protocols. Which presumably include preserving human life as far as possible.
Murder is pretty not on, even if you think it’s for the best. The moral thing to do would be to give Lister a choice in the matter, and with two companions, the Cat and Rimmer, I doubt he would choose the “yes, fucking kill me now” option. He’s established as being quite optimistic, with his Fiji plan and all that. Holly doesn’t have the right to kill him without giving him the choice.
>And why is it… [the] stasis booths are sheilded from radition Stasis booths are shielded from everything, including time itself
He’s just following his protocols. Which presumably include preserving human life as far as possible. Holly basically ditches all protocols doesn’t he? Given what we see in Queeg and Fathers and Sons he seems to be acting independantly of any rules and regs etc.
Regardless of whether it’s due to “compassion” or “programming”, it makes perfect sense that Holly’s priorities would be Lister’s physical safety, freedom, and emotional well-being, in that order. While it was possible that Lister would be so miserable after being woken up that it would be kinder to leave him in stasis, there’s no reason not to try it. Odds on finding civilisation are slim. There’s no sense in keeping Lister frozen on the off-chance of finding it rather than giving him a chance at life straight away (and he could always have chosen to go back into stasis if he wantdd to). And it turned out that Lister was fine, so it was the correct decision.
Worth noting that in the novel Lister falls apart and nearly drinks himself to death, which is perhaps a more plausible reaction to his situation.
I always liked the novel version, especially for how it justifies the need for Rimmer, although it’s not something that I think would have worked for TV.
Lister in the novels is a different character, he’s way more preoccupied with himself and more often insults Rimmer. Plus the characters don’t often balance comedy with their pain, like when Lister tells Rimmer something along the lines of they were never friends, Rimmer just gets genuinely hurt and they move on cause they discovered cat. I think some parts of the novel take themselves way too seriously for my taste, that said BTL is way more of an enjoyable read than IWCD. It’s better at introducing morbid concepts whilst being tongue-and-cheek with it, like Rimmer in the body of a prostitute who the guy he just busted out of jail with is trying to pimp out. Sounds dark, but they handle it far better by not having Rimmer agonizingly detail his fear or whatever. That’s my main problem with Backwards, it reads like a creepy Stephen King book than anything Red Dwarf. Like going into detail that Rimmer’s genitals are getting disintegrated in the wild west simulation. It’s just vulgar for the shake of it.
Lister in the novel is the same character, but given room to breath. basically without the restraints of 30 minutes and being a novel it doesn’t have to worry about keeping the laughs constant like a sitcom. Lister telling Rimmer they ain’t friends and Rimmer being shocked by that is meant to be funny because while he looked down at Lister, he always assumed lister looked up to him. its the flaw of Rimmers personality thats the joke. As for the disintegration of genitals. Lister was blasted in his in Last Human. the last 2 novels were not kind to the characters.
As for the disintegration of genitals. Lister was blasted in his in Last Human. the last 2 novels were not kind to the characters. Backwards is arguably much more graphic and disturbing though, what with Kryten murdering a homeless man with an axe, Cat shredding a woman’s vagina with his barbed cock, the Agonoids’ plan to brutally torture Lister, Ace Rimmer exploding in the vacuum of space, Lister breaking every single one of his ribs, the Cat getting decapitated, Rimmer slowly getting melted into a fleshy puddle and suffering a “million agonies” all while still being conscious…the list goes on. it really does read like a horror story at times, or at least a regular story written by a man with a serious torture fetish
As for the disintegration of genitals. Lister was blasted in his in Last Human. the last 2 novels were not kind to the characters. It’s more gratuitous in Backwards. It’s a very mean-spirited read, like Douglas Adams had his bad 1992 combined with getting medical results he was infertile and coming home to find his house burglarized. Shazam. Mostly Harmless now has cenobites that drive a hacksaw between Arthur’s legs.
If there’s one disturbing scene in any novel which expands on its television representation, its the scene from Emohawk which features Lister’s wedding night, as described in Doug’s Last Human. Namely where his Gelf bride is riding him, and “Oh God, he was close to climax”.
Bobby Llew is doing a live stream on Twitter at the moment and mentioned that the Red Dwarf special will be out over Easter.
That’s good news. By a strange coincidence, Easter weekend 2020 falls on the exact same days as Easter weekend 2009 (with Easter Sunday on the 12th April), which would make for a nice bit of symmetry with Back To Earth.
I made this comment on Discord I think, but Easter weekend and the second coming of Lister to the cat people is something of a tenuous and entirely unrelated connection I wanted to point out.
As long as its better then the crew returning to earth and discovering they are just characters in a tv show called Red Dwarf. then go in search of the shows creator. who they accidentally kill. then they play with a magic typewriter before discovering they are actually in a hallucination by a Joy squid.
Back To Earth is arguably the best of the Dave era. It does have an unconventional plot for Red Dwarf, but it feels way more like Red Dwarf to me than X-XII in terms of the performances, the script, how the characters act etc. It also actually has a lot of heart to it, something which I think is especially lacking in XI and XII. It’s just nice that Back To Earth actually makes you care about all the characters, whereas Rimmer and Cat in XI-XII are just genuinely unpleasant to watch a lot of the time, so even on the rare occasion the show tries to do a bit of pathos, I don’t really care because the characters are utterly nasty the rest of the time
The omen thing was a joke obviously. X is definitely better than Back to Earth, though. Sure, Back to Earth carries a good dramatic plot with fine character development; but X does that plus some good comedy to boot, which is what essential Red Dwarf needs. Back to Earth has very little in terms of funny moments outside a few, and I say a few being the ones other people laughed at on times I rewatched it, I personally don’t find it funny at all. It borders on cringey at times not going to lie (“It’s got that crunch sound.” *squish*). X’s got a lot of great character moments in terms of comedy and making them feel like genuine people. I watch stuff like Dear Dave and, yeah, it has periods of “this is obviously a bottle episode”-ness to it, but that’s mixed in with stuff I still think is hilarious (“…some of them are annoying, stupid, and petty, and some may even be insane”). I still don’t get the thing about Rimmer and Cat being unpleasant in XI and XII, and I’ll be around every corner whenever you mention that so be afraid, be very afraid. Though, I will say in XI and XII they act more like caricatures than actual people, but I won’t hand that flaw to X, cause it’s really not true.
The heart in BTE feels like abit of an afterthought. i swear i read somewhere that it was Andrew Ellard who read the script and brought up the idea to Doug about Kochanski appearing at the end. which might mean a big part of that heart was added later. and i could believe that if you look at the structure of the Kochanski stuff in the story. which is very much the lister mourning scene, the bus scene and the ending. And kochanski really was the only area where the heart came from. which is probably why the whole joy squid angle (giving joy) kicks in only by the end. As for Dear Dave. i could not care less that its a bottle episode. the bonkin dispensing machine only works if you are laughing at Craig trying desperately to make it work. and the Rimmer Subplot is dull. The Letter stuff is actually the highlight of it all and if it was the only thing that was going on… it might have been a better episode IMO.
I don’t think it matters if Ellard suggested the idea or not, since the end-product works out pretty well for it. I will say, though, I was never particularly convinced Lister was really feeling “joy” when he said he did, which was before Kochanski arrived, as everything before that was really grimy and unpleasant apart from the two kids on the bus. The Rimmer subplot isn’t that big a part of the plot, plus it leads into my favorite Kryten line.
Kryten got closure for his lie, Cat found his coat, Rimmer realizes he can use being a fictional sitcom character as an excuse for his failings / reason that they aren’t actually real failings, and Lister learns to hope again. I might be headcanoning but that’s how I like to look at it. OK that Cat thing is a stretch but it’s not like he’s much more than a gag delivery system anyway.
When i picture the idea of the Joy squid. instantly i think of the Better than life stuff in the novels. because thats what a joy squid should do right? that was at least the idea with the despair squid. it was to induce despair. so it really should have been inducing joy right? not wait till they realized then suddenly it kicks in just for Lister.
To be fair, the despair squid was a slow burner as well. In order to generate real, lasting joy, and not make everyone immediately suspicious that they just warped to the Playboy mansion where they’re celebrating Lister and Rimmer’s now-joint birthday party, you have to play the long game. The despair squid could have just made them hallucinate a reality where they’re constantly on fire, and loads of people are pissing on them to put them out but it’s never enough, so they start hurling incredilbly personal insults at them because they think that might help, but instead it created this rather convoulted reality for them that took them quite a while before making them properly suicidal. Making somebody depressed is much easier than making them happy, in my experience.
Kryten revealing the lie would only make him feel bad for making it in the first place, the other two are stretches. For Rimmer what you should’ve said is him killing Katerina and giving him a sense of superiority. Other than that, Cat and Kryten don’t get much out of the hallucination at all.
The Joy Squid made every character’s dream come true. – Lister gets to be a hero to some random kids on a bus. – Kryten gets to visit the set of a soap opera, and he likes one particular soap so maybe likes them in general. – Cat gets to go to a department store. – Rimmer gets to murder a woman.
It was a slow burn in Back to reality. but alot of it was creating the situation that would put all 4 into despair. really the idea of them trying to find their creator so they do not die doesn’t really compute as leading to Joy. as it does desperation and fear. lister says he felt great since they got there… but it doesn’t really show.
It was a slow burn in Back to reality. but alot of it was creating the situation that would put all 4 into despair. really the idea of them trying to find their creator so they do not die doesn’t really compute as leading to Joy. as it does desperation and fear. lister says he felt great since they got there… but it doesn’t really show. Yeah, of all the things to defend of Back to Earth, I think its a mistake trying to defend this.
I like how adamant Danny is on Twitter about not calling the special a movie, and Robert on his Parascope just gets frank and calls it a movie. Tbh, at 1 hour and 30 minutes that’s literally what it is lol
Imagine if this special is a success, I think the preferred route would be making two more specials so we’d have what is essentially a Red Dwarf trilogy of movies
Everyone always seems to forget/not notice, the whole meta part of the story is what Cat gets out of the hallucination in Back to Earth, they even say it in dialogue: “All my life I’ve wanted to go on a metaphysical odyssey! For years I thought I’d never get the chance!” No clue why that’s what brings him joy, but they do explain it at least.
Everyone always seems to forget/not notice, the whole meta part of the story is what Cat gets out of the hallucination in Back to Earth, they even say it in dialogue: “All my life I’ve wanted to go on a metaphysical odyssey! For years I thought I’d never get the chance!” No clue why that’s what brings him joy, but they do explain it at least. Wish I’d never remembered, cause that line is incredibly stupid.
I thought I remembered seeing that joke on here before, but I’ve been making it for about 10 years, so… no proof, sorry. I just have.
“Once Darrell had been dispatched, and there was nothing more to do, they fought amongst themselves.” – William Shakespeare probably.
https://www.mcmcomiccon.com/birmingham-march-2020/news/the-cast-of-red-dwarf-get-ready-to-land-at-mcm-birmingham Noticed on this that they end with “The Red Dwarf special will air on Dave later this year in April.” Might have to make my way there if they’re showing some footage from it too.
Some dashingly handsome, likely well-endowed fellow mustered the cahonas to ask Doug Naylor when we’ll be getting a title: https://twitter.com/DougRDNaylor/status/1233815477761249280
Contrary to his tweet, it seems Doug might release it on the 15th to match the last day of the Czech Red Dwarf convention according to him liking a tweet suggesting such.
I’ve been trying to think of a cat-related pun that could make up part of the title. Something with feline or felix, or maybe something to do wuth the whole feral thing… Haven’t come up with anything yet..
When you explain all that and don’t think of one, you felis all (fail us all…)? I’ve got one! The Red Pawf. *dies*
We should do a dedicated thread for this, guys. It would be HILARIOUS. I think this is pretty much it now, isn’t it?
