DwarfCast 179 – The Smegazine Rack – Volume 2 Issue #1 DwarfCasts Posted by Ian Symes on 5th February 2026, 13:31 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes “INT. Chris Barrie’s Arse” 8 extra pages! 2 free postcards! Smeggier than ever before, it’s the new-look Smegazine Rack! Yes, after a prolonged gap since our last sojourn to the early-to-mid 1990s, we return to discover everything’s become glossier, wider and more densely packed, as we finally reach Volume 2 of the Red Dwarf Smegazine. There is much to discuss, not least the most unfortunate cover line of all time, but also a comic strip with remarkable parallels to a much later TV story, the latest news on just how messy the production of Series VI was, the evils of red chairs, the soap opera parody that refuses to die and the crossover event of the century. Plus, we give a very special welcome to a new Smegazine writer, who would go on to have a very, ahem, “interesting” career. DwarfCast 179 – The Smegazine Rack – Volume 2 Issue #1 (144 MB) Show notes The magazine, via archive.org or Stasis Leak, whatever’s your poison It was actually us that tweeted a list of all the times the crew could have got back to Earth, although Curtis Threadgold did indeed come up with a number of other suggestions. We haven’t managed to dig up any of Chris Barrie’s Jackanory episodes, but we have figured out the TX dates: Jack Crater, 1st-3rd March 1993; The Fox and the Chicken, 25th February 1994; The Greatest, 9th March 1994 Ace Rimmer Worlds Tour Smegazine signing event at Forbidden Planet, May 1993 What Stanley Didn’t Say, by Anthony Frewin
I kept (keep) all my Smegazines nice and neat easily in clear A4 sleeves. Volume 2 fucked that right up.
They definitely know what they’re doing now. It still gets a bit too weird and obscure a bit too often, but there’s less of the half-arsed kids’ annual padding and more of worth. I had all of the mags from this point (bought a few years later), except issue 7, which the local comic/record shop didn’t have for whatever reason. – God, a 1993 Christmas special would have been amazing. A final Grant Naylor episode of Series VI.5. I guess they knew it wasn’t happening by the time they edited Out of Time to be a cliffhanger, rather than resolving that in a special, but maybe not and it would’ve just been a much shorter wait. – Nigel Kitching seemed to consider Lister the God his best Smegazine work, at least I saw him mention it once. I like his Dibbleys best though. – Super-Ace is distinctively drawn and coloured by the late Nigel Dobbyn, also of Sonic the Comic. He drew comfy Knuckles. – Since you brought it up, Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) broadcast three years late on the post-Doctor Who, sci-fi-averse BBC, starting in September 1990 (so Kryten was before Data). Like when they started late with The Simpsons, the gap gradually narrowed and Deep Space Nine (1993) started in September 1995, Voyager (1995) in September 1996. Enterprise (2001) was broadcast by Channel 4 from 2002, apparently. Even I wasn’t watching by then.
Oh ok, not straight in at the contents page, that’s new. Potted history of the show, is it? Mike Butcher writes the “Smegatorial” (ugh what), have Howarth and Lyons gone now? If so that would make the overall “this is a much better magazine” tone amusingly nasty. Lister the God. Ok so this is The Promised Land, yeah? Er, who repainted Holly? Replaced by a green Norman. Ok we’re going heavy on the lore here. Also Norm’s Holly returns, and immediately acts against the crew in a story about Lister being a false Cat God. Oh and Kryten’s broken. Is this where the idea for Krytie TV came from? I love Cat calling Holly ‘face’, is that from Infinity? This is a really weird mix of early and mid era Dwarf, Lister being called Monkey and Master David. Well, you can’t deny that that was bold. Not very funny and it doesn’t feel like much actually happened. I suppose part 2 will have the meat of the story. News from the Dwarf. Well, I think the Four Gunmen of the Apocalypse is a better title. Amazing the titles were given out so early. Hard light draining Starbug’s power doesn’t feel like something that ever got off the ground. Him indoors and an album for Acid Jazz. It’s astonishing how many things never got off the ground. Behind the Scenes Well I’m glad they acknowledged the elephant in the room about more Red Dwarf and Holly. Bloody hell, they’ve given away the episode titles, the setup of the series, and now a blow-by-blow account of the last scene of Call Me Legion. Danny thinks he’ll be getting his six nipples out, with a vixen on each. Ok, Danny. Craig – other than Gary Glitter in space, I don’t have anything to respond to here. The Junior Encyclopaedia of Space Oh, I like this. It’s the unanswered questions thread. The light bee one is a bit of a stretch. I liked the sentence “this is the sort of pedantic question we get from some people.” Red Dwarf is a very rare example of a long running sitcom without a proper Christmas special, isn’t it? I wonder what it might have been like. Especially as it would have followed Out of Time. Androids. Yeah, I didn’t miss this. Super-Ace Smegopolis. Right. wtf is that picture wtf is any of this Yeah, ok. The End Ok, mostly stuff we’ve heard a thousand times before, but I imagine it was great at the time. Looking forward to the next 35 instalments of this series. Books Howarth and Lyons get a bit of a kicking here. Was there a falling out? Captain’s Log Speak of the devils, here’s their first contribution to this issue. Hollygrams I mean, someone fell for that terrible April Fools joke? Really? Jake Bullet and Dwayne Dibbley Oh fucking hell this thing. WHAT IS GOING ON
