DwarfCast 109 – Blue Commentary DwarfCasts Posted by Jonathan Capps on 25th June 2020, 13:01 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes One sleepy Sunday morning the Ganymede & Titan team gathered on a call, turned on their webcams and Blue themselves. We now present to you, in full, the audio presentation of this event. Join Ian Symes, Jonathan Capps, Danny Stephenson, Frank Waffleman, Muffin and the occasional rustling of Cappsy’s beard as they discuss what could be the stealth best episode of series VII. This is, of course, the final commentary we needed to do for this series so there’s also some general VII chat, as well as some lovely waffles. DwarfCast 109 – Blue Commentary (88MB) As we rapidly approach the end of the BBC commentaries, we’re now forced to re-evaluate what DwarfCasts are even going to be in the future, so keep listening to the end where we lay out our plans for the immediately future. Show notes The “number 42” advert is obviously a fever dream of Cappsy’s own devising Red Dwarf VII: The Early Drafts – Ian compares the visual effects scripts against what was eventually shot #DJrevisited – The Fan Club do a good job filling the gap left by the delayed DJ XXI Red Dwarf Mobisodes and Red Christmas on YouTube The quite broken web archived version of red-dwarf.mobi Red Dwarf trailers on YouTube – The total extent of Cappsy’s Waffle Men research
This has reminded me there was that dire episode in the last series of The Green Green Grass where Boycie’s planning to write a memoir or something, with clips from previous episodes, but also ones from OFAH. I can’t think of any other clip show episodes of UK sitcoms, come to think of it. Seems like they’re pretty much a thing of the past even in America now. As well as the Franks Ian mentions there’s Gary Bleasdale’s character in Ouroboros, whose name was Eric in the model unit’s early draft of the script, and Frank Saunders in the first novel. Speaking of which, very much looking forward to the bookclub!
Enjoyed that and thanks for waffling about my question. I think you had a little difficulty saying my username, so I should clarify. It’s pronounced exactly as it’s written. ;) A few random thoughts about the points discussed… One of the weird aspects about the mobisodes, is that Rob (and Doug) even discussed them in an interview at the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDRQ9i8ZPRo And I think Chris starred in When Evil Calls at about that time which was straight to phones. It was kind of obvious that he wasn’t too ambitious about his acting career anymore. Blue might be my favourite ep of Series VII too, and the fact that it had so few deleted scenes probably indicates that it was better planned than most. I kind of wish they’d included a little more of Chris though, ahead of the Kryten/Kochanski tedium. I feel slightly sad for the late Charles Armitage that Doug has partly blamed him for Kochanski’s presence, due to him being the one who stated that they needed a woman to get money for the movie.
Oh, and I meant to say that it’s a great idea to do a book group type thing. I’ve been re-reading the novels recently, so perfect timing.
I neglected to mention this in the article, but please do post your Wafflem’n questions here if you have any. We’ll be recording the Marooned commentary tomorrow afternoon.
Nice to see that Rob and Doug interview again. I wonder if the other slightly longer one is anywhere. This could be a potentially interesting area for the waffle men to go to – Just The Imterviews. What are your favourite nuggets from the various interviews over the years. I tend to think in Ed Bye quotes sometimes and I just adore the various Doug Naylor podcasts that have popped up in the last ten years.
Its a shame no one got the interview they did for the bodysnatcher collection. i seen the transcript of it so i know what it says, but its a shame the footage seems to be gone.
My favourite VII episode and the only VII/VIII that fully feels like Red Dwarf to me. The munchkin song on first viewing was probably the most I’ve ever laughed at anything, it’s sublime. Kryten’s Hitler speech is also one of my all-time favourite Dwarf gags. I always dealt with the uniform faux-pas as it simply being Lister misremembering. When you said Roc Player I immediately thought of Cat’s terrible gag in VIII. I remember that VIII trailer after Parallel Universe and being so excited. Everyone at school was so excited about how it looked like it was going to be a big dramatic film or something. Will definitely have to revisit the novels again as I haven’t read them in about 25 years, that sounds like a really good idea. How are you going to manage Last Human, given that Part One is tiny compared to the rest of the book?
As for Wafflem’n, inspired by the mobisodes chat, what are your thoughts on that other ’00s web obscurity of dubious canonicity, the Mr. Flibble interviews? Worst and best (or least worst) bits?
One of the weird aspects about the mobisodes, is that Rob (and Doug) even discussed them in an interview at the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDRQ9i8ZPRo Between both this and Bodysnatcher you do get the sense that Rob was at least tempted to come back to Red Dwarf at the time. I am still hoping that Rob will pen another Red Dwarf novel some day, as a nice counterpoint to Doug’s television output. Maybe the commentaries will get him in the mood again.
This is really all thats left of the bodysnatcher website. http://web.archive.org/web/20101223184726/http://www.reddwarfbodysnatcher.com/transcript.php Wish the video was still there. it used to be on the main page but its likely gone. Also there is a playlist of mobisodes on youtube. shame they ain’t all online
As for Wafflem’n, inspired by the mobisodes chat, what are your thoughts on that other ’00s web obscurity of dubious canonicity, the Mr. Flibble interviews? Worst and best (or least worst) bits? Do you mean Talkie Toaster rather than Mr Flibble? The Talkie ones were the fictional ones, the Flibble ones were with cast and crew and whatnot.
With regard to Marooned, I think it is one of many examples of why models come out ahead of CG. In the docs they mention that it was written because the crew said that they could do good snow, and it turned out to be one of the best episodes ever. Many years later Chris Veale said that he could do a dinosaur, and we know how that turned out. :) As for wafflemen questions…what have your highlights been so far from the Zoom quarantine commentaries? Personally, I have just been happy to hear that Rob really likes so much of the show (even stuff that he had forgotten about or was dreading) and that he loves Parallel Universe. It’s also very kind of them to answer so many fans’ questions.
Do you mean Talkie Toaster rather than Mr Flibble? The Talkie ones were the fictional ones, the Flibble ones were with cast and crew and whatnot. Oh bloody hell I forgot there were two lots of them. They all conjoin into one lot of “erm, what’s this?” in my head. In which case: I’d love to hear your thoughts on both.
Now you’re one away from completing everything from The End to The Beginning, I’m going to be watching them all in broadcast order with Dwarfcast commentaries.
Now you’re one away from completing everything from The End to The Beginning, I’m going to be watching them all in broadcast order with Dwarfcast commentaries. I was pondering about doing that myself. Probably regret it.
Now you’re one away from completing everything from The End to The Beginning, I’m going to be watching them all in broadcast order with Dwarfcast commentaries. Why, are you atoning for something? Wouldn’t it be better to just flagellate yourself?
Why, are you atoning for something? Wouldn’t it be better to just flagellate yourself? One lash for every time someone says “cunt”. Fucking Hell. Doesn’t bear thinking about.
For those that want to go through them in broadcast order, spreadsheet I created to do just that. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1u-Pa08zt4c7C9rL9MktW0Y8CP_hDOdssLnnkjVnA5mA/edit#gid=0 It hasn’t been properly updated recently, so I’ll either get around to that soon or someone else is free to add the latest eps on.
Why, are you atoning for something? Wouldn’t it be better to just flagellate yourself? Nah, if I did that for four hours each day for nine days I’d probably get used to the pain. This is the self-harm that keeps on giving.
An interesting observation: in the Better Than Life commentary, a Doug quote from DJ is discussed, in which he says a JMC update is on its way and things go very wrong as a result… the assumption is this ended up filtered into Trojan and Fathers and Suns. Interesting to hear back in hindsight of XII.
If you did watch every episode with dwarfcast commentaries what would you put on if the waffle went over 30 mins? Model shots and/or music cues playing softly behind maybe.
Oh, I just leave the DVD menu on for the next episode while I’m listening to the wafflem’n (+ similar).
