DwarfCast 108 – Cassandra Commentary DwarfCasts Posted by Jonathan Capps on 18th June 2020, 11:58 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes In what is quickly becoming something close to a nasty habit, we’re back once again with another episode commentary. And today is a day for both joy and joy, as we finally put Series VIII to bed with the long, long overdue commentary for Cassandra. Danny Stephenson, Jonathan Capps and Ian Symes once again convene to discuss this episode’s title of ‘the good one in series viii’, the nature of predeterminism, and to offer a surprisingly generous appraisal of series VIII’s position in Red Dwarf history. As if all that wasn’t *quite* enough for your poor ears to handle, we’ve also got an especially waffly edition of Waffle Men in which we get far more self reflective than is entirely necessary. DwarfCast 108 – Cassandra Commentary (65.9MB) All things being well DwarfCast 109 will be a commentary for series VII’s Blue and we’ll once again be answering your questions in another Waffle Men, so please do throw anything you want to ask in the comments and we’ll add it to our list, just so long as Pete Part III doesn’t beat us to it. Subscribe to DwarfCasts: XML | iTunes
Here’s another (hopefully less self reflective) question for you Waffle Men… Can you think of a type of joke or gag that Red Dwarf did better compare to a another comedy show ? (I.E.” You’re not gonna get me in that dress”, cut to man in dress or something else better than that)
Here’s TJ’s VIII reviews: https://web.archive.org/web/20041106143731/http://www.geocities.com/janvogels/reviews.html “Contrived And Needlessly Asinine Reason for Inmates to Explore Space”. Excellent. I think I find Cassandra especially joyless precisely because it almost has the semblance of a properly good episode. Apart from the flawed logic in thinking it’s impossible for any of them to die except Rimmer, but that it might be possible to save him, it doesn’t occur to Kryten that Cassandra could have been lying. And it turns out she was, so Kryten could very easily have killed someone with that gun. I hate the sloppy ending as well. For one thing, why can’t Lister stick his chut to the wall properly? Anyway, well done for finishing Series VIII!
*listens to ‘cast, hears three intelligent adults having a real heartfelt discussion about their lives and loves relating to Red Dwarf* *gets called a prick* Fuck off, then.
Yeah, it’s not an awful half hour of comedy – if you remove the rapey bit – as there are a number of good lines and some interesting plot ideas, but it’s still a chore to watch sans commentary, as there are still too many poor jokes and the oft discussed Kryten figured it out bit still bugs me as much as it did on first watch: there is literally no way he could have known that in the slightest. Interesting that the production design got praise: I hate the look of VIII almost as much as the shit jokes and performances. It’s all over the top bright and bold, stupid 1970s fonts, just really ugly. In terms of liking episodes at first, I remember being a bit uncomfortable with the quality of jokes, performances, fonts and costumes even on the first viewing of VIII, and I know I genuinely disliked it long before I’d come across online fandom. It has to be said that discovery of G&T only furthered that dislike, however. Timewave I remember vividly because although l laughed quite a bit, I also remember coming away with a “what the fuck was that?” feeling at the end. I was very uncomfortable with it and instinctively knew it would be hated on here. That Time After Time smegazine description sounds like what I expected Skipper to be. On the subject of names, Madonna’s birth name was Madonna Louise Ciccone, so no need for a change there.
Five times over the past hour or so I’ve started writing a comment here, trying to relate my own thoughts on the stuff you chaps were talking so eloquently about in those last fifteen minutes or so. But I just keep disappearing up my own arse. I will just say that my own life would be a hell of a lot different if it wasn’t for Dwarf. I don’t have a lot of ‘real life’ friends, so most of my friendships are with the members of the online RD fan community, namely here and the old BTLi forums. Red dwarf has been a constant connection all through my Teens, Twenties, Thirties and now Forties. I’ve not really managed any of the other stuff that adults have supposed to have accomplished before the age of 30, so I’d have very little without it, and I can’t imagine ever not loving Red Dwarf. Shit, that disappeared up my own arse a bit as well, didn’t it? Interesting that the production design got praise: I hate the look of VIII almost as much as the shit jokes and performances. Oh, on a visual note, one thing I do really like about series VIII is Kryten’s head. Best it’s looked since RDV. And I don’t think the Dave era’s really given us good head yet. Fnaar.
*listens to ‘cast, hears three intelligent adults having a real heartfelt discussion about their lives and loves relating to Red Dwarf* Two, you forget I was in it.
Lovely stuff chaps and I think Waffle Men is a superb feature rivaling Coffee Lounge Cock. Having been a full blown smeggie since series 2 first aired (or possibly the repeat) I fell off of Red Dwarf fandom between the 2000 issue of Better Than Life with Blue Midget on the cover and the news that series 1 was gonna be coming out on DVD. As soon as I saw Peter Risdale Scott on that sofa I never looked back and series X was an especially giddy time just before I became married and middle aged.
*listens to ‘cast, hears three intelligent adults having a real heartfelt discussion about their lives and loves relating to Red Dwarf* Two, you forget I was in it. That joke took an embarrassingly long time for me to process.
Tony Hancock 100 – Star Bill – 07/06/1953 – BBC Sounds It threw me for a minute when her recognised voice popped up in 1950s rediscovered radio variety show bantering with Hancock.
