The G&T Review of the Year 2024 Features Posted by Ian Symes on 31st December 2024, 14:58 Ah yes, it’s time for our annual opportunity to take a breather from the relentless pace of Red Dwarf news, and reflect back on the last twelve months’ worth of exciting developments. Or at least it would be had there been any. Something nearly happened in the late Spring, but that was about it. Oh well, thanks for coming anyway. While you’re here, we might as well look back on the things that nearly happened anyway, plus some bits that did happen but weren’t deemed interesting enough for a proper news post at the time, and a reminder of the nonsense that we ourselves churned out to help fill the void. By which I mean: Welcome to the Ganymede & Titan Review of the Year 2024! The biggest story of the year was of course the news that new Red Dwarf would definitely be filmed in October, if you have no sense of media literacy whatsoever. What actually happened is that Craig and Chris both made off-the-record indications at conventions that a new special was being worked on, which Robert failed to confirm or deny on one of his YouTube live streams. A couple of weeks later, Robert gave more details in another stream, which this time got picked up by the online press, and we ended up getting a bit angry about it. Unfortunately, it seems that our scepticism was indeed well-placed. The proposed filming date of October has been and gone, the rumour mill has gone quiet, and there’s been absolutely no indication from any official parties that a new Red Dwarf project has been commissioned. The latest we heard was Chris saying in an interview that they’re planning to shoot a special in 2025. Let’s keep our fingers crossed, and hopefully nobody will jump the gun again this time. In terms of things that have actually happened, UKTV had a big old rebrand, unfathomably changing the name of Red Dwarf‘s erstwhile home to U&Dave. We give it another eighteen months tops before they change it back. But in the meantime, they did do an advert in which a hologram of Cher beams on board Red Dwarf to dance with the Cat, so that’s technically *some* Dwarfy output this year, right? The show did appear on BBC Two this year as well, with Series III being repeated in October and November. There was a brief moment of excitement when the Dave era disappeared from BBC iPlayer for a few weeks, but it’s all back now. In terms of fan endeavours this year, a new book, Red Dwarf: Discovering The TV Series Volume I by Tom Salinsky, has hit the virtual shelves. It combines behind-the-scenes history with critical analysis of the episodes themselves, covering up to and including Series VI in this first volume, with the rest to follow soonish. Meanwhile, our long term podcast rivals over at Gazpacho Soup bowed out, bringing The Garbage Podcast to a close after twelve years as they completed their coverage of every single episode. So we won that. We won the podcasts. Some small crumbs of further news to pad out this meagre feast. Pinewood closed down their TV studios, which means that if there is any new Dwarf, it won’t be filmed in the same place as it was from Series XI onwards. Props from Dwarf and many others were on display in Mike Tucker’s Set to Stun exhibition. Plus, Craig Charles appeared on the front page of the Daily Star, with a heartfelt endorsement of Angel Delight. It was that sort of year. And finally, the late breaking news is that Doug is publishing a new novel in 2025, and all we know so far is that it’s not a Red Dwarf one. This is most welcome – his first non Dwarf project since 2014’s Over To Bill, which in itself was his first since The 10%ers. And so on to our own endeavours this year, a year in which G&T’s output could be generously described as quality over quantity. The DwarfCasts are getting longer, while the opportunities for the three of us to gather together are getting rarer. Nevertheless, we’ve managed to tick off Issues 11, 12 and 13 of the Smegazine, and the Series VI DVD (with the Series VII edition currently in the edit) from our list of ongoing projects, as well as a special edition on all things Bottom. We’ve also been pissing about with videos a bit, such as a round-up of all the people and objects named Frank, an exploration of AI’s capabilities to produce Dwarf content, and a two part Sporcle quiz extravaganza. Our written content has also been few and far between, but we’re quite pleased with what is there. Our pal Dave contributed a guest post on Red Dwarf‘s history with running jokes and repetition, I attempted to figure out exactly how many Starbugs have appeared in the show, we revisited a particularly momentous edition of Carrott’s Lib, and I dedicated far too much time to researching each and every actor to have appeared in both Red Dwarf and Doctor Who. Oh, and we changed the rules of Smegle to stop people from being guaranteed a win if they guessed the right series. In your faces. Before we sign off, we must of course raise a glass to those we’ve lost this year. Hinton Battle, who played the Cat in the first US pilot, but was better known as a prolific and multiple award-winning Broadway star, died in January aged 67. Then in June, we lost the great Nicholas Ball, Red Dwarf‘s original Simulant in Justice, at the age of 78. Here at G&T we continue to keep the flame burning for our friend Seb Patrick, and this year we had the pleasure of attending two events held in his honour: The Seb Patrick Experience, an exhibition of his various collections; and a special cinema screening of The King of Kong, put on by 90 Minute Film Fest. So that was 2024, yet another year where there’s been a notable absence of proper Red Dwarf content, but where the fans have kept themselves busy anyway. The Smega-Drive continues to spread memes far and wide, and our Forum continues to bustle. We sincerely hope that next year will indeed see our boys return to the studio for another special, and/or that Rob Grant’s buttski finally bears fruit. But even if it doesn’t, we’ll still be here to entertain ya. Happy New Year and goodwill to all fans.
A nice round-up for, as you say, a fairly slow year for official Dwarf stuff. Regardless, thank you for keeping us entertained and informed as always. A Happy New Year, smeg heads and here’s to a brill 2025 🍻
Happy New Year to all at G&T. While official Red Dwarf content is slowing down (the mothballing of TOS and the Twitter account hasn’t helped) it’s still a great time to be a fan – largely because of the great content and community that still thrives here. So thanks as ever for all the time and effort that it takes to keep this place going.
Thank you all for another year of one of the finest sites on the web! Fingers crossed for a 2025 where something Red Dwarf related finally happens. Honestly at this point I’d take a new AA-style advert, a new non-original-type mobisode, the Red Dwarf website being updated for literally any reason, or a new somehow even worse remix of Tongue Tied.
Here’s hoping there’s SOMETHING on the horizon. Thanks once again to the team for all that they do for the G&T community and the wider Red Dwarf fandom. Happy 2025 to everybody here.
While we are in the New Years spirit, might as well share a cartoon I just made. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laKglxp6Olc
Always enjoy your content and Dwarfcasts even if official news has been thin on the ground, managed to meet Chris and Robert at conventions this year and both said something was on the horizon, and we’ve been in the quiet times before, feels different this time with the official channels winding down or non existent. But as always will keep fingers crossed.
I’ve unexpectedly had two weeks off work with a dodgy foot. I’m well into one of my most comprehensive nay definitive Red Dwarf journeys. Dwarfcast Re-discovery series 1-5 Dwarfcast Book Club Infinity/BTL/Last Human Part 1 DVDs series 1-5 Bodysnatcher DVD Dwarfcast Smegazine Rack 1-3 Infinity/BTL/Last Human (first two parts)/Omnibus/Primordial Soup/Scenes From The Dwarf/Son Of Soup/Programme Guide/Official Companion Danny’s Tongue Tied single/Howard Goodall albums I’ve ordered the Six Of The Best CD and a Starburst magazine I think I remember reading in WH Smith in 1999. And now the saga continuums AND NOW THE SAGA CONTINUUMS
If we don’t get any new Red Dwarf content we’re gonna have to resort to gladiatorial combat to keep the site interesting. I wonder how many lions Cappsy can defeat before they overtake him.
A battalion is a HUGE number of people. Around 1000 in the military. And they lost TWO of them and then sent in Lister et al.
Alright dudes. IMDb lists an episode being made this year. It’s called “Episode #14.1.” Catchy title.
Me in 2024: “Why are they not calling it Series 14?” Me in 2025: “Why are they calling it Series 14?!?!?!”
Renewing my insistence that the next installment, series or TV movie, should be titled Series 15 to confuse and infuriate people.
Series 15 would annoy me less than Series 14 honestly. 15 would at least make it unambiguous that the numbers are meaningless. With 14, it would be Doug trying to gaslight us into thinking The Promised Land was a series – or perhaps a Series X/Back to Earth-style reverse gaslight.
Series 15 would annoy me less than Series 14 honestly. 15 would at least make it unambiguous that the numbers are meaningless. With 14, it would be Doug trying to gaslight us into thinking The Promised Land was a series – or perhaps a Series X/Back to Earth-style reverse gaslight. The database ID of The Promised Land in the Smegadrive is 13. If the next series is 13 as well I will be cross.
I think TheTVDB has cracked the code of where to put it, placing TPL as Series 0 Episode 23. Series 0 should only be used for bonus content IMO Either give it a series number or do what Doctor Who does with specials and just rage them to the beginning or end of a series so they appear chronologically I don’t want to dive into a a separate folder of miscellaneous content that appears at the start of any series list to find an episode that broadcast most recently.
The database ID of The Promised Land in the Smegadrive is 13. If the next series is 13 as well I will be cross. Database IDs you say? Well that changes everything.
I don’t want to dive into a a separate folder of miscellaneous content that appears at the start of any series list to find an episode that broadcast most recently. The shitness of the arrangement is what makes it genius. Permit me in these following dozen paragraphs to elucidate why.
OK, but, to be fair, they also have a listing for TPL as a movie which is significantly less stupid than Series 0 Episode 23.
do what Doctor Who does I seem to remember the ordering of episodes on Dr Who DVDs being pretty controversial, however I have no direct evidence of this
do what Doctor Who does I seem to remember the ordering of episodes on Dr Who DVDs being pretty controversial, however I have no direct evidence of this Putting Christmas specials at the start or end of the series of a DVD may have been controversial but it was sensible OK, but, to be fair, they also have a listing for TPL as a movie which is significantly less stupid than Series 0 Episode 23. Yeah listing a separate entry makes most sense but then if you watch things in order (especially where’s there’s lots of out of series episodes) you risk missing it
Putting specials at the end or beginning of a neighbouring series makes sense if it’s necessary to number everything, but it really shouldn’t be. I suppose if “#14.1” is legit then it is only a production code. Who remembers the last episode of Doctor Who Series 4 – The End of Time, Part 2?
