OFFICIAL: Legal dispute resolved News Posted by Ian Symes on 10th March 2023, 12:00 Just a few short weeks ago, we had all but given up hope that this day would come. And yet here we are – following the promising yet inconclusive joint anniversary message from Rob and Doug, we have a brand new statement from the pair, and it’s exactly what we wanted to hear. Rob Grant and Doug Naylor are delighted to announce that the ongoing dispute over the Red Dwarf rights has been resolved. Moving onwards and upwards Rob and Doug hope to launch separate iterations of Red Dwarf across various media, working again with the cast and other valued partners, and wish each other the very best. Smoke a kipper, Red Dwarf will be back for breakfast!! Well then. The dark times are over. After more than two years of silence and speculation, the impasse has been broken. We still don’t know the details of exactly what they were disputing, and what compromises had to be made to get to this point. Perhaps we never will know, and perhaps that’s for the best. We’re just glad that it’s seemingly all behind us, and all we can say is that we hope it wasn’t as painful for the guys as it looked from the outside. A brief search of Companies House reveals a few more details. Firstly, Doug has been reinstated as a director of the company, which restores some sense of order to this chaotic new world. In all the kerfuffle, Paul Jackson and Lesley Armitage (widow of Charles) are no longer directors, leaving Rob and Doug as the only two “persons with significant control” of the company. Based on these documents, it seems like it’s now a 50-50 split between the two of them, but much more excitingly, that’s also the case for the franchise itself. Ever since the mid-90s, it’s seemed like there was very little chance of ever getting Rob & Doug Dwarf again, and whatever slim possibility there was has been completely evaporated by this whole process. This legal battle stopped us getting *any* Dwarf for three long years, but we’ve come out the other side with the absolute best case scenario. Not Rob & Doug Dwarf, but Rob Dwarf AND Doug Dwarf. Many, many people have been clamouring for Rob to return to the fold for decades, but we were never comfortable with the idea that his involvement would be at the expense of Doug’s. Now it doesn’t have to be – they’re both going to pursue their own versions simultaneously. There’ll be two Red Dwarfs. One the week and one for Sunday best. It feels like everything’s still up in the air, but our best guess for what happens next is that Doug continues to make Dwarf for the telly (presumably the “valued partners” mentioned in the statement include UKTV and Baby Cow), carrying on the “prime” Red Dwarf universe that runs from The End to The Promised Land and hopefully beyond. Which leaves Rob in charge of… well, anything else, really. Whatever his buttski can produce first. A new novel would be lovely. We wouldn’t say no to audios or animations. Comics? Games? Spin-offs? A whole new alternative Series VII, taking place in the Into The Gloop universe? It’s our fond hope that both Rob and Doug have spent the last three years stockpiling ideas, and are just bursting to get them out there. But we’re realistic. We’re Red Dwarf fans. It’s never been a smooth experience; even before all this kerfuffle, production has always been beset by delays and disasters of all kinds. Just because they can make new Dwarf now, doesn’t mean they’re in a position to do so immediately. Or indeed ever. But hey, we’ve just spent two years firmly believing that our favourite show was dead and buried, destroyed forever by a dispute between the two geniuses who created it in the first place. Let us dream. Star Trek has got multiple new series on the go. Star Wars and Marvel are relentlessly making new stuff in various mediums. Doctor Who is set to follow their lead and expand its universe in all of the directions it can whizz. Why not Red Dwarf? Let us dream.
So what you’re saying is this might not be the best day to release a Smegazine DwarfCast? I think we need an emergency Dwarfcast with 90mins of pure speculation
How soon before we can begin wildly speculating? The reference to launching separate iterations suggests that they each get to have their own version of Red Dwarf, but even if that does mean Doug continuing with the current version of the TV show, does that necessarily preclude another TV version from existing? Could the long-dreamed-of separate adaptation of the novels be in the cards?
Did have slim hopes for a Grant Naylor written one off special but no complaints here, just happy it’s been resolved with the various possibilities (#buttski) that are now open to all moving forward which I’m sure will take no time at all to get in motion.
Okay, Rob’s just asked for fan suggestions over on Twitter, so go and knock yourselves out, people. #RedDwarfReborn
The separate iterations part makes me really curious. The majority of the audience wouldn’t know or care about behind the scenes issues, so I don’t think we’ll see live action doing seperate continuities like the novels did. Maybe something like one is doing TV, the other audio books, novel, etc? Or maybe they agreed that they both can do whatever Red Dwarf projects they can get off the ground, so it’s up to Doug and Rob to compete to get cast and funding interested in their projects? What a strange time.
Or maybe they agreed that they both can do whatever Red Dwarf projects they can get off the ground, so it’s up to Doug and Rob to compete to get cast and funding interested in their projects? Yeah, I feel pretty confident we can rule that out. They’re co-directors of the same production company, not rival Project Managers in The Apprentice.
Another day, another what-on-earth-is-going-on. Imagining the absurdity of two different series of Red Dwarf that have nothing to do with each other airing simultaneously. Not only contradicting one another, but doing so seemingly deliberately, and with spite. Rob: I want to start working on Red Dwarf again. Doug: Terrific!! Here’s a few in-progress scripts and my big book of ideas and I thought maybe in one that Rimmer could… Rob: Not with you mate, get to fuck.
Or maybe they agreed that they both can do whatever Red Dwarf projects they can get off the ground, so it’s up to Doug and Rob to compete to get cast and funding interested in their projects? Yeah, I feel pretty confident we can rule that out. They’re co-directors of the same production company, not rival Project Managers in The Apprentice. That’s a shame, the Duke of Manchester was well up for taking on the Alan Sugar role.
Thanks for the extra info about the GNP directorships. I’m gutted, I was looking forward to Paul Jackson’s Red Dwarf. I wanted him to take control from Rob & Doug. Bringing back the pencil ship, then have an episode where he snaps it in half. What a show that could have been. Shame. This news is great PR to smooth recent uncertainty. It’s great direction towards something that Rob always claimed was the plan all along, his butski. Whilst also Doug Naylor: Back To Company Director is a fitting title, i applaud the redressing of this previous unbalance of power. So then…
They’re co-directors of the same production company, not rival Project Managers in The Apprentice. Team Sci-fi versus team Comedy.
Rob: I want to start working on Red Dwarf again. Doug: Terrific!! Here’s a few in-progress scripts and my big book of ideas and I thought maybe in one that Rimmer could… Rob: Not with you mate, get to fuck. I do not think that would be Doug’s response.
… This sounds almost like an advert they are inviting the world to come knocking to produce things. We have to include Live stage again alongside the pure speculation possibilities listed in this threads article. But really my biggest next questions is where does the relationship with Dave Channel sit in a delayed world and also where in future they might not be the only producer of a new Red Dwarf. I’ve seen characters cross media channel more frequently than dwarf, with online, sky, audible and BBC all doing Alan partridge, etc. So be interesting to see if any old bridges are open or things end up moving elsewhere. It can’t be without its issues, but I’m overjoyed these old writers know their old performers love making this show as much as they love writing it, and old fans love watching it and that further delays would only fritter away that last chapter of time. Now in the age of streaming these things get ever more complex. I’m watching Picard on Prime but I note Paramount+ has it simultaneously. When you look at Star Wars, Trek, Marvel and The Doctor goes to Disney+ , spin off potential is milked like a JMC owned dog. Does the longest running sci fi sitcom aim its banner wider than just a few more shows with its ageing cast? Cus streamers love to produce a new thing that a long established audience might sub for, it’s their game. Their second favourite game is cancelling things.
More realistic interaction: Rob: I want to start working on Red Dwarf again. Doug: (dramatically spits out mouthful of Cinzano Bianco) Say WHAAAAAAAAAAAAA??? Rob: I want to start working on Red Dwarf again. Doug: Oh, I see. Doug: How did you get into my conservatory?
Is that tweet of Doug’s legit. Because if you’ve just settled a court case against a former colleague and business partner and then rekindled that relationship, tweeting “Smug” with a picture of yourself with the principle cast of that TV show (i.e. excluding Rob) feels a bit like a slap in the face doesn’t it
Is that tweet of Doug’s legit. Because if you’ve just settled a court case against a former colleague and business partner and then rekindled that relationship, tweeting “Smug” with a picture of yourself with the principle cast of that TV show (i.e. excluding Rob) feels a bit like a slap in the face doesn’t it Rob is inside Snacky.
Yeah, it does look a little bit “I’ve got the actual cast doing TV shows, you’re doing books or some shit that only a tenth of the audience will care about”. I mean, this is all fantastic. Although I was perfectly ok with the show ending on the strongest episode since Rob departed, new stuff is even better. But it’s definitely a bit… weird. While we don’t know the ins and outs of the legal situation, it seemed to be a case of Doug being owed money and having to apply to GNP before being allowed to make more Red Dwarf, and the result is… the ousting of two directors and Rob announcing his own separate Red Dwarf. There must have been a lot more going on than we suspected. If my memory serves me correctly, Doug had turned down advances from Big Finish to do Dwarf, right? I wonder if that’s something Rob would consider. Or, given the studio sitcom format of the show, and his recent work with Andrew Marshall, do we think he’d do a Radio 4 version? I’m sure it’ll be either that or novel(s).
I’d say some sort of audio-based version from Rob’s side of things is a near-certainty. He’s got more recent radio clout than Doug of late, and the cast would leap at the chance to do stuff that didn’t require a much more expensive and complicated telly setup – especially Bobby being able to go maskless. Yeah, it does look a little bit “I’ve got the actual cast doing TV shows, you’re doing books or some shit that only a tenth of the audience will care about”. I mean, this is all fantastic. Although I was perfectly ok with the show ending on the strongest episode since Rob departed, new stuff is even better. But it’s definitely a bit… weird. While we don’t know the ins and outs of the legal situation, it seemed to be a case of Doug being owed money and having to apply to GNP before being allowed to make more Red Dwarf, and the result is… the ousting of two directors and Rob announcing his own separate Red Dwarf. There must have been a lot more going on than we suspected. If my memory serves me correctly, Doug had turned down advances from Big Finish to do Dwarf, right? I wonder if that’s something Rob would consider. Or, given the studio sitcom format of the show, and his recent work with Andrew Marshall, do we think he’d do a Radio 4 version? I’m sure it’ll be either that or novel(s).
Novels and radio series are too obvious. I’m holding out for Red Dwarf The Musical: On Ice. Although, if we do end up with 2 Red Dwarfs that both use the cast, maybe one could have Norman and the other could have Hattie? That’s the most major benefit I can think of for having 2 different versions at the same time.
Although, if we do end up with 2 Red Dwarfs that both use the cast, maybe one could have Norman and the other could have Hattie? That’s the most major benefit I can think of for having 2 different versions at the same time. Big Finish Presents: Red Dwarf: The Hilly Chronicles Starring Hattie Hayridge.
Animation could be a nice way for Rob to go with his half. When I say animation I mean “adult” animation, the show exactly they way it is but animated. Don’t dumb it down for 7 year olds
Also if you want to read the statement with an excessively optimistic lens you could interpret it that Rob&Doug (the gestalt) want to work together on lots of independent versions of Red Dwarf all of which will be Rob&Doug Dwarf and they’d just like to pat each other on the back about this. (Eg they could write novels that are loosely similar to the tv show they work on…) I know that is probably not the intent of the statement but if you squint…
Novels and radio series are too obvious. I’m holding out for Red Dwarf The Musical: On Ice. I believe Rob Grant could do Hitler on Ice far better than History of the World: Part II did.
Is that tweet of Doug’s legit. Because if you’ve just settled a court case against a former colleague and business partner and then rekindled that relationship, tweeting “Smug” with a picture of yourself with the principle cast of that TV show (i.e. excluding Rob) feels a bit like a slap in the face doesn’t it It still feels to me like Rob’s whims fucked up an already precarious production that had finally emerged from mediocrity and become interesting, so it’ll be a while before I can muster enthusiasm for Buttski Dwarf. What was the last thing Rob wrote that was really good anyway? Backwards, probably. I could get behind another novel.
What was the last thing Rob wrote that was really good anyway? Backwards, probably. I could get behind another novel. Hey now… Quanderhorn was pretty good!
Imagining the absurdity of two different series of Red Dwarf that have nothing to do with each other airing simultaneously. Not only contradicting one another, but doing so seemingly deliberately, and with spite. Now you’ve got me trying to think of previous times when two “rival” TV series were being produced, in the same medium, in the same country, starring the same cast, playing the same characters, aimed at the same audience* – but with separate showrunners/lead writers pulling in very different directions, with separate contradictory continuity. The first example I can think of is from G&T’s unofficial secondary fandom: Sonic the Hedgehog. There was that period in the early ’90s when DiC was making two different Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons with the same lead voice actor, airing on the same channel – but with very different tones, continuity, and visual styles. * (I specified “in the same medium” to disqualify those times when there was a live-action series and its cartoon spin-off happening at the same time. I added “playing the same characters” to disqualify things like Filmation’s Ghostbusters/The Real Ghostbusters. And I specified “aimed at the same audience” to disqualify things like Netflix’s two recent He-Man series (the Kevin Smith one and the CGI one). For some reason, all the examples I can think of are cartoons…)
Yeah, I enjoyed Quanderhorn, especially the back end of series 2. The bits focusing on Kevin Eldon’s character (forgotten how many U’s are in his name) were very well done. I suppose with the loss of John Sessions that show’s future is not guaranteed. I’m glad the legal stuff is over, for the sake of everyone’s health.
Now you’ve got me trying to think of previous times when two “rival” TV series were being produced, in the same medium, in the same country, starring the same cast, playing the same characters, aimed at the same audience* – but with separate showrunners/lead writers pulling in very different directions, with separate contradictory continuity. The closest comparison I could think of was when the official Bond movies had to compete with that rival Bond movie, Never Say Never Again (starring an ageing Sean Connery), which could only be made because of some legal settlement that allowed one of the earlier movies to be remade. Other than that, it’s hard to think of examples of the same franchise splitting in two and competing with itself like that.
Is that tweet of Doug’s legit. Because if you’ve just settled a court case against a former colleague and business partner and then rekindled that relationship, tweeting “Smug” with a picture of yourself with the principle cast of that TV show (i.e. excluding Rob) feels a bit like a slap in the face doesn’t it It didn’t come across that way to me. I just saw it as him using a quote from the series to show that he’s pleased with the way this has been resolved. But now you’ve pointed it out, I can see why it could be interpreted as him gloating. Hopefully that wasn’t how Doug intended it!
I could sit through Quanderhorn, which puts it above Dark Ages and The Nether Regions at least. For balance, Doug did do Over to Bill and Timewave.
So the statement doesn’t tell us a lot – and most of the details are really not anyone’s business other than Doug and Rob’s. But reading the tealeaves a bit and paying careful attention to what it does say (because you can bet your boots both Doug and Rob’s lawyers checked this carefully), my guess as to what the situation is going to be is this: – Doug stays doing TV/film. It’s what he’s been doing with the show since 1997, I don’t think anyone wants a situation where there are two parallel TV continuities happening, and Doug was never going to hand the TV rights over to Rob. I would be shocked if Rob were involved in future TV efforts except perhaps as an occasional guest writer. – Rob and Doug agree to both write novels. Why not? There’s already a Grant continuity and a Doug continuity in the novel line, so leaving that in place doesn’t make things more confusing, and writing a novel is a solitary pursuit which doesn’t tie up the cast. – Rob has been given the right to do something which involves the cast’s participation. If TV is not on the cards, really the major options here would be audio dramas (a la Big Finish) or a live show, and for various reasons I think audio dramas are more likely. Access to the cast might have been the trickiest part of getting a deal, actually. Imagine how upset Doug or Rob would be if they had a brilliant idea for a new Red Dwarf project, called the cast to arrange it, but then found out they were all hanging out at Other Dad’s house playing instead. Here’s where the audio drama thing might have helped break the deadlock: doing voice acting gigs takes a tiny, tiny fraction of the time required to do TV or film. There’s no makeup or costume needed, you don’t necessarily have to all get the cast in one place at the same time (though there can be benefits to doing so), you just have people record their voice and boom, the actors’ role is done. That’s a big reason why I think a live show is unlikely – taking a live show on the road would be a big time commitment for the cast, and I can’t see Doug agreeing to let Rob tie them up to that extent. Since Doug’s had the TV continuity in hand from series 7 onwards, there was an easy deal to be had there: let the status quo remain, let Rob have his own audio drama continuiity (perhaps picking up from the end of series 6 – time paradoxes are grand opportunities to spark off parallel universes, after all), agree to keep the parallel novel continuities going, and then any other flavour of media you can apportion to one or the other or share based on taste. That’s what I’d bet my fiver on, at any rate.
The cast are old, they can’t keep putting a pensioners head in a big rubber bag under hot lights, and one might end up earning himself a weekly show on GB News and become a scheduling nightmare so I think diversifying Red Dwarf is a good thing for Red Dwarf as a concept – which has the potential to be strong without the cast actively participating (see the novels, well some of them). More novels, comics, behind the scenes books with loads of archive goodness, a Red Dwarf expanded universe set before the accident (GELFs, simulants, clearly some kind of Star Trek genetic engineering/ eugenics Khan shiz went down), and games (including the cast as protagonists, or just NPCs you happen across), I’d take any of it. Red Dwarf has been a bit wonky since November 1993 so it’s not like there’s a massively high “worthiness” bar to clear for any new stuff from anyone, just make as much as possible and hopefully some of it is decent.
Why did nobody wake me up to tell me this was happening? Now make two specials each year, airing them six months apart, in perpetuity until Robert eventually melts.
What excellent news, and what a very unusual situation. Bring it all on. Doug’s cleaner: Well, that stain will never shift. Doug: But it was a comedy spray!
Let’s be flag down a cab and head for real street here. Doug is going to carry on with the TV isn’t here. Beyond that, Rob has only very recently expressed an interest in maybe doing another book. I think that’s probably the best we can expect. the statement does only say “hope to launch separate iterations”, and I think maybe a little too much is being read into that. A lot of weight should be put on “hope” and then remember both aren’t the most organised when it comes to getting projects going. I doubt it’s going to be two entirely disconnected and concurrent universes running simultaneously beyond what’s been done before, i.e. novels. Maybe cast read audio books. Anything beyond that I’ll be surprised.
Very pleased to read this news, even if there are still so many question marks. I don’t subscribe to the viewpoint that Rob was in any way the bad guy (and I’m posting this with no insider knowledge whatsoever). These things happen in business, and if Rob had been behaving in an unreasonable way, I doubt that Paul and Ed would have continued to do the commentaries for so long. It’s hard for me to imagine Rob doing anything with the original full cast, and I won’t really hold my breath for any Dwarf related projects. A novel would be great, but my understanding was that he and Doug each had the right to do that anyway, so that wouldn’t really explain any legal proceedings.
I don’t subscribe to the viewpoint that Rob was in any way the bad guy (and I’m posting this with no insider knowledge whatsoever). These things happen in business, and if Rob had been behaving in an unreasonable way, I doubt that Paul and Ed would have continued to do the commentaries for so long. I agree that Rob isn’t the bad guy, but I don’t think the quarantine commentaries indicate anything either way, because they were all in 2020, before this all went down. It’s hard for me to imagine Rob doing anything with the original full cast, and I won’t really hold my breath for any Dwarf related projects. A novel would be great, but my understanding was that he and Doug each had the right to do that anyway, so that wouldn’t really explain any legal proceedings. Pure speculation of course, but it seems likely to me that this was never about the “right” to produce more Red Dwarf content just in general, but the terms under which new Red Dwarf content would be produced, e.g. the original rumour that Doug wasn’t being properly renumerated by GNP. It also strikes me as at least plausible that Rob not wanting to settle for doing “side” content while Doug does “main” content could have been a factor.
I agree that Rob isn’t the bad guy, but I don’t think the quarantine commentaries indicate anything either way, because they were all in 2020, before this all went down. The White Hole commentary came later and after this all went down, I believe. I’m sure the legal stuff didn’t come 100% out of the blue, at any rate. Rob and Paul specifically addressed it together online.
The White Hole commentary came later and after this all went down, I believe. I’m sure the legal stuff didn’t come 100% out of the blue, at any rate. White Hole commentary??? Oh… it was a Holly Hop exclusive. That’s disappointing. 🙁
What fantastic news. I reckon we’ll have a new special, scripted by Doug Naylor, announced in the next 3-6 months, filmed late this year/early next and broadcast about Easter time 2024 (Dave 15 year anniversary) As for the rest, Rob Grant Dwarf will have a curiosity factor anyway, whatever he comes up with. I reckon he’ll deviate quite far from Doug Dwarf to keep things clear. A novel is the most likely first release imo.
The legal action hadn’t started by the time of the Quarantine commentaries, but Doug’s removal from the board certainly had.
Occam’s Razor suggests that Doug will at least attempt to get more TV specials off the ground, and Rob will write a book. That is what I expect to happen, and also what I would like to happen. So great.
If it was full-draft written, I want “Out of the Red” now performed on stage at the next Dimension Jump by the full cast acting it all out in the style of the back to reality car chase hallucination. With Lee Cornes playing all other supporting character parts. While we wait for new multiple red dwarf media.
Make Out of the Red, but since the option is now available when it wasn’t before, set it on Red Dwarf. Make it a sort of Back in the Red, if you will. The cast still play themselves.
Make Out of the Red, but since the option is now available when it wasn’t before, set it on Red Dwarf. Make it a sort of Back in the Red, if you will. The cast still play themselves. Out of the Red, Back In the Red, all do the Hokey Cokey.
Out of the Red, Back In the Red, all do the Hokey Cokey. You put Doug back in, take Paul Jackson out. In out in out shake it all about.
Out of the Red, Back In the Red, all do the Hokey Cokey. Hey hey, my myRed Dwarf can never dieThere’s more to GNP than meets the eyeHey hey, my my Out of the red, and back in the redRob and Doug Dwarf is where it’s all ledWith no fish on board, Cat’ll never be fedWhen you’re out of the red, and back in the red
Not quite sure what to make of this. Bobby’s been in Australia for the last week or so hasn’t he? So not sure when this is from.
So that’s an old pic as this one is from 2019: https://twitter.com/DannyJohnJules/status/1182250182819434497 Best guess: table read scheduled?
So that’s an old pic as this one is from 2019: https://twitter.com/DannyJohnJules/status/1182250182819434497 Best guess: table read scheduled? Ah, thank you, I needed confirmation before I got too overexcited.
Clearly the next special addresses the Jim and Bexley stuff from Future Echoes and Parallel Universe and is called Red Dwarf: Past Echoes (Epilogue).
Clearly the next special confirms that Rimmer pissed himself as opposed to shat himself in The Last Day.
Clearly the next special addresses the Jim and Bexley stuff from Future Echoes and Parallel Universe and is called Red Dwarf: Past Echoes (Epilogue). Jokes aside, that’s actually not a bad idea for lore to focus on.
I think it’s come up in discussions before, but yeah in all seriousness it feels like one of the main ‘loose ends’ that Doug has made reference to, and you could get a decent emotional heart for a story out of Lister reconnecting with Deb and his boys. And a perfect excuse to cast Hattie again!
So me and my mate talked about this in our podcast series Item Box (Head to 46:12) Also, heads up’s. Yes I ended up making the same mistake about Danny Instagram from 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTMmKSW6ckk
Radio Times – Doug Interview https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/red-dwarf-return-new-episodes-exclusive-newsupdate/ “good chance” of Red Dwarf returning to screens. “I don’t think anyone knows what’s going to happen exactly. Basically, the rights issue has been cleared up and Rob and I can pursue different things and that’s kind of – I don’t know what he’s doing exactly.” “I’ve had a lot of interest, people calling me, broadcasters, whatever, publishers – all just in the last three days, it’s been a bit mad, but great. So it’s just getting some meetings together and working out what exactly we’re all going to do.” Red Dwarf back on screens – “I think it will, yeah. Without wanting to pre-empt anything, there’s real interest, I think.” “Providing the boys are available, which isn’t the easiest thing because they’ve all got these mad schedules, especially Craig [Charles] and Robert [Llewellyn]. But provided we can get everyone available and they do all want to be available, they want to make more, I think we’ve got a good chance.” “I was working on a story this morning, in fact I was talking to someone yesterday about, ‘Is it possible to do this now?’ And they’ve gone off to find out whether it would be possible to do it with the budget we’re likely to have. There are lots of things like that where you wait for technology to become available for us to be able to do some of the stories.”
So purely my speculation is it doesn’t sound as If any Dave special is immediately on the cards to me. But still among possibilities, and they are publicly shopping what possibilities are for TV dwarf and beyond and butski, hope it pans out for some interesting content from both without more time in conflict that’s not constructive. If publishers get interested again, that’s great for the very final years, in my eyes
I’ve had a lot of interest, people calling me, broadcasters, whatever, publishers – all just in the last three days, it’s been a bit mad, but great. Muppet crossover confirmed!
“I don’t think anyone knows what’s going to happen exactly. Basically, the rights issue has been cleared up and Rob and I can pursue different things and that’s kind of – I don’t know what he’s doing exactly.” The level of coordination in the newly reformed GNP board of directors is truly something special. You know, I was initially sceptical of the idea that we could end up with Rob and Doug directly competing with each other to make new Red Dwarf in the exact same medium and format, but now I’m not so sure.
Rob has the cast on two week nights and every other weekend. “But Rob lets us have Nando’s.” “Was Paul there?” etc.
Rob has the cast on two week nights and every other weekend. “But Rob lets us have Nando’s.” “Was Paul there?” etc.
I hope Doug gets some advice from people who aren’t taking the piss. That technology thing has me worried about a repeat of a “blowing the budget on a brittle 3D printed Starbug made of sand that we can’t paint” situation. The way they made Back to Earth would be fantastic now, with all the contributors rather than one CG house, because technology has come so far, people like Ian Hubert making low budget Hollywood level stuff at home in Blender etc, leverage that, and fans who have expertise and aren’t going to rip you off, and then splash out for Millennium FX for makeup, and Mike Tucker for models(although it seems he’s wound up the Model Unit sadly).
‘Is it possible to do this now?’ And they’ve gone off to find out whether it would be possible to do it with the budget we’re likely to have. This remark makes me slightly curious if Doug is toying with the idea of some sort of AI-based visual effects. Cue speculation about doing a time travel story by de-aging the cast. Bear in mind many years back in “Idea for an Episode” I predicted that Series 11 Episode 6 would involve a “polymorphectomy” so my predictions are as good as certain. Disappointed I was wrong about the “song-and-dance” part of it though.
‘Is it possible to do this now?’ And they’ve gone off to find out whether it would be possible to do it with the budget we’re likely to have. This remark makes me slightly curious if Doug is toying with the idea of some sort of AI-based visual effects. Cue speculation about doing a time travel story by de-aging the cast. Bear in mind many years back in “Idea for an Episode” I predicted that Series 11 Episode 6 would involve a “polymorphectomy” so my predictions are as good as certain. Disappointed I was wrong about the “song-and-dance” part of it though. I hope not. AI plus movement is bad times. I think it’ll be a full CG character, like a slimy GELF, or a Legion cast combo abomination but not done with Quantel Paintbox.
Craig’s schedule slightly less busy https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/showbiz-tv/channel-4-axes-hit-quiz-26533370
Craig’s schedule slightly less busy https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/showbiz-tv/channel-4-axes-hit-quiz-26533370 Also: https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/showbiz-news/craig-charles-rushed-hospital-after-26553060?
Dwarf is mentioned on the Big Finish podcast this week, starts around 39:30: https://www.bigfinish.com/podcasts/v/2023-04-02-davison-conflicts Basically, a listener e-mail asks if BF would be open to doing Dwarf now the legal issue is over and Nick’s reply is “Certainly would be open to that, if anyone’s listening who can help, get in touch”.
Dwarf is mentioned on the Big Finish podcast this week, starts around 39:30: https://www.bigfinish.com/podcasts/v/2023-04-02-davison-conflicts Basically, a listener e-mail asks if BF would be open to doing Dwarf now the legal issue is over and Nick’s reply is “Certainly would be open to that, if anyone’s listening who can help, get in touch”. Interesting. Go on then, who e-mailed?
For what it’s worth, I’d much rather any potential audio Dwarf was on Radio 4 instead of Big Finish. Even ignoring stuff like studio audience, there’s the price factor. I don’t fancy spending £80 a year just to hear new Red Dwarf if possible.
For what it’s worth, I’d much rather any potential audio Dwarf was on Radio 4 instead of Big Finish. There’d also be the comforting pressure that it would be trying to appeal to casual listeners who have options (like TV Red Dwarf has always been), rather than merely content exploiting existing consumers. Are there even that many of us? The average poll age rising by five years in five years suggests the fanbase isn’t replenishing itself at a sustainable pace.
There are certainly going to be new fans coming along all the time, but it’s definitely a bit of a legacy franchise now that is kept aloft by a certain core group of fans, so you’re absolutely right that it needs to retain as much of its wider audience as possible to stop becoming a big fanservice circle jerk. I have very mixed feelings about Big Finish. Having heard the majority of their output (if there’s one good thing about having long Covid it’s that I’ve had time to trawl through all the stuff I downloaded), there’s clearly a lot of love for the shows they make in there and a lot to recommend many of the stories, but it’s also increasingly clear that it’s become very cynical in terms of churning out material. In the years before the new series started, it was largely the same core of Doctor Who fans who’d written for the Virgin and BBC books and was really just a new Doctor Who story each month. The spinoffs were few and far between, and usually for good reason – either Nicholas Briggs’s obsession with Daleks in Dalek Empire, or as a way to get earlier companions involved when their Doctors were unavailable/dead (Sarah Jane Smith, UNIT). As the new series began to compete you can see them branching out more to keep sales up. I think the main reason for so many unlikely spinoffs in more recent years is the fact that they’re paying the license for the new series but, until very recently, only had one actual Doctor from these years, so they’ve been trying to do as many stories as possible. At first it seemed like they probably just rang around every actor who’d been in a Tennant story and asked if they wanted to do an audio series, and then they moved on to the Matt Smith era. Some of them are surprisingly good – Donna Noble Kidnapped was an unexpected joy, and I never liked Rose on screen but her Dimension Cannon spinoff is nice – but others are fucking terrible wastes of space – The Year of Martha Jones, Tales of New Earth, Lady Christina – that absolutely reek of desperation. Occasionally one pops up that feels like it was destined to be – The Paternoster Gang’s stories aren’t especially great, but the three lead characters are strong enough to carry it, and they almost feel like they were written with a TV spinoff in mind – but most of it does feel like it’s there purely to make money, rather than for any artistic reason. I also imagine this kind of horrible Big Finish sweatshop where a bunch of writers are forced to churn out scripts. The likes of Matt Fitton, Jonathan Morris, and James Goss all have 100+ stories to their names, and they’re among a handful of writers who seem to do a story for every single spinoff that comes along. Unsurprisingly there’s a kind of generic Big Finish style story that becomes incredibly bland and beige after you’ve listened to more than a few. There are also crossover references and such between ranges which can get a bit annoying when come across a character you’ve never met before because they’re on a story you weren’t interested in. There’s definitely an attempt to get people to buy as much as possible. I’ve noted down my favourites and have been gradually buying the in print ones from the BF site, which is where my issue about price came from. Although he’s actually my least favourite Doctor, I ended up really enjoying a lot of stories from Eccleston’s second Big Finish series and popped it on my list. It was released in four boxsets over the space of two years, and each is £39.99 for the CD edition – £160 for the whole series. Obviously TV channels and production companies are behind the making of the TV Who, so that offsets a huge part of the costs, but when a TV series comes out on BluRay and it’s a quarter of the price of an equivalent audio series, the latter feels very, very expensive indeed. Especially you can just watch the TV version for free. In all I’ve found between three and maybe 15 stories for each Doctor that I like enough to buy, which isn’t a great total given that for the past few years there have been several Doctor Who stories and spinoffs released every single month. There’s just really too much. Next month there are eleven new Who stories coming out (plus four episodes of Torchwood). That’s more than the TV version has put out per year in years. I wonder how many people listen to them just once and never again. For what it’s worth, I can’t imagine they would make Red Dwarf spinoffs. Obviously if the license was that they could only do that, like in last year’s excellent April Fools article here, then maybe, but basically Doctor Who is the core of what Big Finish does and how they make their money, so they squeeze it for every penny it’s worth. In comparison, their other ranges – all the Gerry Anderson stuff, Stargate, Timeslip, Dan Dare, Survivors, etc. – just stick to the core stories without spinoffs. There seems to be a bit of an expansion of Blakes 7 in terms of prequels and things, but otherwise they only really do it with Who. But yeah, Radio 4 please.
Why are we treating it as if the BBC and Big Finish are the only ones in contention? I want to see how Jazz FM would handle it.
Classic FM: The Rimmer HourDaily show hosted by Arnold Rimmer, playing the finest compositions by Mozart, Mendelssohn and Motörhead.
On his radio show today, Craig revealed that he is doing some filming for a much loved BBC comedy show on Monday. He’s going to be a guest on ‘Would I Lie To You?’
Let it be known that Craig’s appearance on WILTY? also featured Shazia Mirza, Amy Gledhill and Jeremy Vine
They’ve hired a web developer to fix all the hyperlinks on the official site and all the photos are going to be upgraded from VGA resolution to SVGA resolution.
From this day, all inmates with no records of violence or depression, will be allowed to have strings on their guitars.
Red Dwarf Remastered: Blu-Ray Boxset. Red Dwarf Blu-ray Boxset: Remastered They’ve found the artist on Fiverr and offered £10 and they’ve agreed to add the missing prongs to Red Dwarf’s ramscoop.
