Red Dwarf: Titan – the full synopsis News Posted by Ian Symes on 10th February 2026, 10:06 Following last week’s unheralded appearance of Red Dwarf: Titan on various obscure booksellers’ websites, some bloke called Rob has got in touch with us to clarify one or two things. Hi G&Tians A couple of bookshops seem to have misunderstood the publisher’s embargo, and made a premature pre-launch of the new RD novel, Titan. It’s not even been through the final copy edit yet. They also announced a publication date in July, which is the first we’ve heard of it, and over which we have no control. It’s still not confirmed. Likewise, the blurb we’d written for the cover wasn’t shown in full, presumably to accommodate a word count. Now the Cat’s out of the baggy suit, here’s the full version. ROB & ANDY Many people in our comments were cautious of believing all the details of those online listings, and it turns out they were right to be. But what we do know now is that the novel is definitely real, and it’s definitely coming out. And here, exclusively on G&T, it would seem, is the full synopsis. RED DWARF: TITAN Before the beginning. Before the accident that wipes out the crew, the mining ship Red Dwarf is in orbit around Saturnian moon Titan, and the bulk of the ship’s complement is heading down for shore leave, all with different intentions… A strangely reluctant hen party; a relaxing cheaty golfing break; a terminally-boring cultural Odyssey; a marathon drinking and fighting binge; a stomach-challenging culinary beanfeast and an invigoratingly violent tour of Shore Patrol… But menial chicken soup machine repairmen Dave Lister and Arnold Rimmer have slightly less noble ambitions. Rimmer is in search of some illicit exam-cheating tech, to land a much-lusted-for promotion, and Lister plans to acquire a cat to smuggle back on board as part of a nefarious scheme to return to Earth. But mainly they just want to get as far away from each other as possible. However, their objectives are scuppered somewhat unexpectedly when they receive a cryptic message. A message from the future. The two feuding crewmen are catapulted into a breakneck race to save not only this, but every other Reality. Along the way, they’ll find themselves united again, for the first time, with some new, but somehow old friends, as they embark on a labyrinthian quest through the seediest, most dangerous underbelly of humankind’s furthest outpost, where lurk bizarre off-worldly dangers and one mysterious hidden nemesis with an obscure, yet clearly lethal agenda. So strap yourself into your Holly Hop Drive, and set your bazookoids to “thrill” – the Dwarfers are taking on TITAN. ‘Don’t tell my mother I died with my arm up a gorilla’s bottom.’ ‘But sir – it will be on the death certificate.’ Well then. If nothing else, we know that it wasn’t Rob and Andy who misspelled the word “intentions”. I’m getting real opening-chapters-of-Infinity vibes from this, and that can only be a good thing. Other than that, I really don’t know what to expect, but there are so many possibilities implied by this blurb. The “new, but somehow old friends” have to be Cat and Kryten, right? Or some reality-hopping versions of them at least. It sounds like this premise could be the catalyst for any number of further adventures, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. A new Red Dwarf novel is definitely coming, and our appetites are suitably whetted.
I’ve been looking forward to Titan in one form for another for a while, but it’s only now I’m properly hyped. This sounds like exactly the sort of story I’d want for Red Dwarf. Early Infinity vibes are there, but also the bits I liked most about Colony.
That’s more like it! mainly they just want to get as far away from each other as possible Yep, that’s them. It’s real Red Dwarf.
Reading this side by side with the previous version confirms that all the awkwardness that put me off was down to the bad edit.
Now we’re talking. I take it July was just a placeholder date and the actual release will be later, but either way the official confirmation from Rob and Andrew makes it a lot more exciting! So this synopsis does put Titan firmly in novel continuity (or an offshoot of it) rather than TV, because Lister is getting a cat as part of a scheme and not just because he wants a cat.
I’ve been looking forward to Titan in one form for another for a while, but it’s only now I’m properly hyped. This sounds like exactly the sort of story I’d want for Red Dwarf. Early Infinity vibes are there, but also the bits I liked most about Colony. Absolutely this. It sounds great and the hints at wider stories beyond the immediate Lister-Rimmer plot sound intriguing too. Can’t wait.
The “new, but somehow old friends” have to be Cat and Kryten, right? Pfft. It’s clearly going to be Pete and Ziggy! Very excited for this, the full synopsis has super-charged my hype levels
I don’t think I’ve been this excited about an RD project since series 6. i ALWAYS wanted more pre-accident stuff, and that gorilla/death certificate quote is easily the funniest single line since 1993
Ok, I’m hyped. With this being Official Red Dwarf Product [TM] and there being an Official Red Dwarf Website [TM] but this Official Red Dwarf News [TM] is being released via G+T….does this mean that you’re now the official outlet? Did Rob get to keep you in the divorce? Do you see Doug at weekends?
I was on Wiki attempting to find amusing correlations between Mandelson sackings and RD novels being issued…. And then it struck me that *all* of the RD novels came out under the Thatcher and Major governments. And now I feel very, very old indeed. The last two I remember getting new. I remember reading the first chapter of Last Human at my Nan’s – in her reading chair – and feeling very uncomfortable, but also very much like how you’d expect a 15 year old to be feeling during that chapter.
does this mean that you’re now the official outlet? Did Rob get to keep you in the divorce? Do you see Doug at weekends?
And then it struck me that *all* of the RD novels came out under the Thatcher and Major governments. Red Dwarf books that weren’t released in that period: the second and third editions of the Programme Guide, the second quiz book (A Question of Smeg), and the series VIII script book. Also The Log.
Colour me even more excited than I already was! Somebody’s arm up a gorilla’s bottom, on a trip to Titan Zoo, perhaps? I remember reading the first chapter of Last Human at my Nan’s – in her reading chair – and feeling very uncomfortable, but also very much like how you’d expect a 15 year old to be feeling during that chapter. And even now every time you see a Parker Knoll, you get horny?
I loved the worldbuilding of the pre-accident third of the first book, a whole new novel set in that world sounds good to me. We may end up with a Kelvin Timeline, but it’s not as if that ended up mattering in that other franchise.
I think the big question that we all really want to know is: Will Louis Pemberton (praise be upon His name) be in this?
Will Louis Pemberton (praise be upon His name) be in this? Yeah, and what about Dwayne Dibbley, will he be in it?
Yeah so that mostly looks pretty good. The actual plot is a lot bigger in scale than… well, actually, any other Red Dwarf, which is a bit of a red flag for me, and I’m not sure how putting together Cat and Kryten with pre-accident Rimmer and Lister will work – it’ll be a new dynamic, which could go one of many ways – but the blurb already reads like the tone is right, which should hopefully go a long way to making it enjoyable. Would I prefer a ‘proper’ prequel that’s just a book length version of the first part of Infinity? Absolutely. But put me down as cautiously optimistic.
Maybe I phrased that wrong. I’d prefer something that feels like Infinity. Just a story of them slobbing around on the ship between the opening chapters and the accident. I love the mundanity of it.
Maybe I phrased that wrong. I’d prefer something that feels like Infinity. Just a story of them slobbing around on the ship between the opening chapters and the accident. I love the mundanity of it. Yeah – all that stuff is absolutely *fantastic*. Really good character and world building. I really hope Rob pulls off a win with all of that. It should be easy pickings. Especially with 2.4 Children Guy on board. The guy is a master of making the mundane into something very dialogue-driven, and also a little off-kilter.
So this synopsis does put Titan firmly in novel continuity (or an offshoot of it) rather than TV, because Lister is getting a cat as part of a scheme and not just because he wants a cat. Yes, although:
Yes, although: Ah. Well I assume that Rob just heard about Doug screwing this up in Ouroboros and didn’t want him to be alone. Or it’s a clue that Lister will actually fail to get a cat in the novel.
Does make it interesting in who the novel is written for. Those who watched the show? Read the book? Both? Neither? If it is bringing Kryten and Cat into the pre-radiation leak era, maybe it’s them stranded three million years from home so to speak?
Can Rob even do the stranded 3 million years in the future thing? I assume he can’t touch anything within the shows timeline because that’s all Doug’s, while pre-that time Rob can do what he wants.
So this synopsis does put Titan firmly in novel continuity (or an offshoot of it) rather than TV, because Lister is getting a cat as part of a scheme and not just because he wants a cat. Yes, although: Two cats, two appendixes. If the jokes and plot are there, I’m willing to suspend my disbelief. Which makes me think of Blackadder not wanting anyone to stare in disbelief at *his* willy suspension. Which then makes me think of Rob Grant and genital torture. And suddenly I’m wary about this again.
Can Rob even do the stranded 3 million years in the future thing? I assume he can’t touch anything within the shows timeline because that’s all Doug’s, while pre-that time Rob can do what he wants. Hm. I suppose the message from the future isn’t necessarily from their three million years hence future selves. And hasn’t Rob mentioned timey-wimey DNA bollocks in relation to the Cat? Maybe Frankenstein gets zapped by some kind of evolution accelerator or something, and we get a version of the Cat that way.
Can Rob even do the stranded 3 million years in the future thing? I assume he can’t touch anything within the shows timeline because that’s all Doug’s, while pre-that time Rob can do what he wants.
Does make it interesting in who the novel is written for. Those who watched the show? Read the book? Both? Neither? The other synopsis says it’s “the perfect reboot for those who have never seen the series but also full of wonderful Easter eggs for the fans”, which makes me hopeful we’ll get a fair bit of the character-based stuff and world-building in the vein of the early chapters of the first novel that we all seem to want.
If he doesnt state when that message from the future is and leaves it to the imagination, there could be some leeway. There are ways he could connect to the future without him actually telling stories in it
The other synopsis says it’s “the perfect reboot for those who have never seen the series but also full of wonderful Easter eggs for the fans”, which makes me hopeful we’ll get a fair bit of the character-based stuff and world-building in the vein of the early chapters of the first novel that we all seem to wan They always say that though, I want impenetrable for fans old and new alike! I’m just thinking if it is Cat and Kryten from the future, you’d have to explain them both and what future. The thought occurs that if it was Frankenstein getting her DNA diddled, well, this could be the Red Dwarf USA set up with the addition of Cat brought in early. If he doesnt state when that message from the future is and leaves it to the imagination, there could be some leeway. Fire exit sign.
If he doesnt state when that message from the future is and leaves it to the imagination, there could be some leeway. “You gotta-“
I dunno what the chances are that anyone will be reading this and not know about the show. I know some read Infinity before watching the show but id say different times would make this a little less likely today.
Yes, I do think the chances of it finding a ‘new’ audience are extremely slim. There’s no much point in speculating too deeply about Cat and Kryten, as we don’t know the minute details of the deal Rob and Doug made. For example, Virgin publishing didn’t have rights to the Terry Nation estate, but there are still direct references to the Daleks throughout the New Adventures. They couldn’t write stories about the Daleks, but they could talk about them in other stories. If there’s something similar here, it’ll be possible to have the characters come from the show’s main timeline without being set within it.
Yes, although: We don’t actually know it wasn’t intentional in the TV timeline, even if it was never my favourite ret-con personally.
I’m just looking forward to the possibility that we might finally meet Flight Coordinator Ronald Littlewood!
Do you think Ronald Littlewood was another Dennis the Donut Boy alias when he was a little higher up the ladder?
Maybe I phrased that wrong. I’d prefer something that feels like Infinity. Just a story of them slobbing around on the ship between the opening chapters and the accident. I love the mundanity of it. The chapter detailing Rimmer’s exam preparation routine is the Mount Everest of Red Dwarf. It’s so good. Also, I can’t help wondering if maybe Rob intentionally picked this era of Dwarf to work with. Because we know from his past interviews that if he’d managed the show alone, he’d never have evolved it past the series 1-2 formula.
There is the possibility that the message from the future won’t be from “our” future crew, given the “save not just their own, but every other reality” part of the premise. I’m imagining multiple messages from multiple versions of the crew subtly different from Doug’s era, maybe not even including them. Or maybe the crew from Rob’s ‘Backwards’ book universe, as opposed to telly?
maybe not even including them It’d be hilarious if he gave them a cameo though. “Holly, did you give Rimmer a wig again?” “This is the JMC onboard computer speaking. No.”
Or maybe the crew from Rob’s ‘Backwards’ book universe, as opposed to telly? If I had a nickel for every time a Rob Grant Red Dwarf novel had to grab alternate universe versions of two of the characters to kinda awkwardly fill out gaps in the roster something something two nickels something something happened twice
Ah ha, I just got a marketing email where Red Dwarf: Titan was the headline item! So it’s not up for pre-order at Amazon or Waterstones but it is up for pre-order at the Gay Pride Shop. Unironically great priorities.
Also, I can’t help wondering if maybe Rob intentionally picked this era of Dwarf to work with. Because we know from his past interviews that if he’d managed the show alone, he’d never have evolved it past the series 1-2 formula. I don’t think it’s ever been said he didn’t want to evolve past the 1-2 formula. You might be talking about him not wanting to include a robot character into the mix, but was convinced to give it a try. Rob was the more stubborn one when it came to the show certainly. But he has also said his favourite series was 5 or 6 so I don’t think it quite adds up to the decision to do a prequel. If anything it’s likely more because Doug has not touched the pre-series 1 time period and so Rob can make it his own. Sometimes you take what you can get I guess.
I don’t think it’s ever been said he didn’t want to evolve past the 1-2 formula. You might be talking about him not wanting to include a robot character, but was convinced to give it a try. From Dwarfcast 160: “it was Doug who said ”look, if it’s gonna be a better show, stuff it”! And you know, he had a point, we would never have got the look from season three, if you’d gone with me and been compelled to keep things as they were.”
Or maybe the crew from Rob’s ‘Backwards’ book universe, as opposed to telly? If I had a nickel for every time a Rob Grant Red Dwarf novel had to grab alternate universe versions of two of the characters to kinda awkwardly fill out gaps in the roster something something two nickels something something happened twice Wasn’t that Last Human? I was never a big fan of Backwards tbh so I might be forgetting something.
Both Last Human and Backwards had parallel-universe elements to them. Last Human uses it to start the story with Evil Lister who killed his crew, and Backwards uses it to resolve the story of crew that had been killed off. So it makes more sense with Backwards in terms of a continuation. I think Rob would probably be more likely to connect it with the shows timeline than the novels though.
Just had a flick through the end pages, I was thinking the ending of Backwards was the ending of Last Human, for some reason.
I would not be in anyway annoyed if Rob’s included, if only by a small element, some continuity/ reference to his ending of Backwards
I reckon there’ll be an entire adaptation of Timewave in there somewhere. Agonoids board The Enconium.
Agonoids board The Enconium. By Timewave logic they’d all immediately get jobs as masseuses and the genital torture would be handled by the guy who skims band-aids out of the pool.
At the very end of Backwards, the alternate Rimmer and Kryten say this: — ‘Well.’ Rimmer’s forehead wrinkled. ‘You picked a rare old time to show up. We’re about to be…’ Kryten cut him off. ‘There’ll be time aplenty for that, sir.’ He leaned towards the screen. ‘Head for docking bay four seven five, sir. I’ll have a vindaloo sauce sandwich waiting for you. Signing off.’ — So there’s definitely scope for Rob to tie this into Titan somehow… so I guess we’ll see. I imagine it’ll be ignored though, and just be a fresh start.
‘Well.’ Rimmer’s forehead wrinkled. ‘You picked a rare old time to show up. We’re about to be…’ ‘…shoehorned into a prequel’
So there’s definitely scope for Rob to tie this into Titan somehow… I would love that! I’m gonna have to give Backwards a revisit now.
‘Well.’ Rimmer’s forehead wrinkled. ‘You picked a rare old time to show up. We’re about to be…’ ‘… left in an unresolved cliffhanger for 30 years.’
Can Rob even do the stranded 3 million years in the future thing? I assume he can’t touch anything within the shows timeline because that’s all Doug’s, while pre-that time Rob can do what he wants. Rob has already produced “Into the Gloop” set after out of time, which he cowrote. A script that timeline branches off from the cannon then established in Tikka To Ride. Until i see more evidence, i would say that Rob can’t alter the events within episode 1 to 36 within their actual timeline, but he can alter timeline anything he co wrote, into a pre-accident timeline. So Inquisitor or Ace could turn up, but he won’t be writing Snacky or Hogue The Rougey.
Into The Gloop was written as a one-off one-time project and was also written well before the settlement of the legal issues between Rob and Doug that came in 2023, so I don’t think we should read much into that about what Rob’s restrictions might be.
In Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers (Based on my Ominbus edition) It’s established in Chapter 14 that It’s Seven Months Lister has been aboard. He broke up with Kochanski around six months & a week. A week later aka 6 months 2 weeks (Chapter 18 enlightens) he hatches his plan to get a cat to trigger Stasis. He has 3 days Mimas leave and a week of cat non discovery, which takes it back to around Seven months when he goes into stasis and Rimmer & the crew die. If Red Dwarf Titan is supposed to branch off in some alternate way from the novels then I would say it does so around chapter 14. The fact it’s Titan, which is mentioned in The End. Makes me ponder at this stage that it’s a new book continuity starting before The End Episode. It’s “All Reality” mentioning, makes me think anything is multiverse possible. With the possible exception of the inclusion of little jimmy osmond.
So Inquisitor or Ace could turn up, but he won’t be writing Snacky or Hogue The Rougey. There is a 99.99999999% probability that he doesn’t know they exist
So Inquisitor or Ace could turn up, but he won’t be writing Snacky or Hogue The Rougey. There is a 99.99999999% probability that he doesn’t know they exist In the Carpool interview Rob did with Robert he mentioned that he tried to watch Series 7 once but got so blackout drunk in order to get through it emotionally that he didn’t remember any of it. Granted, a) he would be playing things up for telling an anecdote in an interview, and b) when asked the inevitable question about The Split he gave a vague answer about “musical differences” so take anything he says about Doug and Doug Dwarf with a pinch of salt. But all evidence we have, shaky as it may be, is that he wouldn’t have a clue about Epideme or Cassandra, and if that’s true, he DEFINITELY doesn’t know anything about the Dave era beyond what he’d know as a member of Grant Naylor. If there were merch he’d sign off on or see a cut of the profits from, like I dunno Eaglemoss were still around and they did a figure line or some new T-shirts (what’s your favourite, the Snacky blueprints shirt or the What An Absolute Slag shirt?), that’d be something. tl;dr Rob would be far more likely to know who Butler is if they did a jigsaw with him on than from the actual episodes, and considering the state of GNP right now the chances of that are already 0, so the chances of him knowing about Hogey are less than 0, and the chances of him writing Hogey is a number that doesn’t exist
Well that’s upsetting. Can you really be said to have lived a full life if you don’t know about Snacky?
In the Carpool interview Rob did with Robert he mentioned that he tried to watch Series 7 once but got so blackout drunk in order to get through it emotionally that he didn’t remember any of it. In one of the lockdown commentaries one of the other guests started talking about something that happened in a Series VII episode as though it was from Rob’s era, and Rob corrected them and correctly identified the relevant episode (as Tikka, I think). So I think he knows a little bit about the Doug-era stuff even if he’s not hugely familiar.
He’d likely know a bit about that episode and see its title around even if he’d avoided watching it. I know there’s an unpopular episode of Doctor Who called The Timeless Children that I’ll never bother watching, etc.
Wasn’t it in one of the Dwarf Cast interviews with Rob where he says something along the lines of “I have people who have watched Doug’s stuff to tell me about it” I think in the context of making sure he doesn’t repeat something that has already been done elsewhere?
I know there’s an unpopular episode of Doctor Who called The Timeless Children that I’ll never bother watching, etc. What I’d give to live such a peaceful life.
So Inquisitor or Ace could turn up, but he won’t be writing Snacky or Hogue The Rougey. There is a 99.99999999% probability that he doesn’t know they exist Totally. I saw him at The Dimension Jump convention where he returned for the Thirtieth anniversary, and he walked past the fancy dress line up totally thrilled to see costumes of people dressed like ace and polymorph placard Rimme etc, then he looked completely baffled as to why one ace had a crocodile to surf on or who the medical android Asclepius was and you could see him struggling to ponder if he had forgotten something or was missing a joke just as much as it would dawn on him it was from a show he hadn’t seen.
I know there’s an unpopular episode of Doctor Who called The Timeless Children that I’ll never bother watching, etc. What I’d give to live such a peaceful life. I mean, that’s me from the start of Tennant.
Wasn’t it in one of the Dwarf Cast interviews with Rob where he says something along the lines of “I have people who have watched Doug’s stuff to tell me about it” I think in the context of making sure he doesn’t repeat something that has already been done elsewhere? Yes, DwarfCast 160. From the handy transcript: C: Are you up to speed with Doug Dwarf, as it were? R: Only in very broad terms. I mean, I have people who are very familiar with it, who would look at my stuff and say, “oh, actually, Doug’s done that.”
I mean, that’s me from the start of Tennant. Me too. I still appreciate him and Smith (and to a lesser extent Capaldi) as Doctors, but there was something really pure and classical about Eccleston’s portrayal that was forever lost after he was gone. I love series 1. he mentioned that he tried to watch Series 7 once but got so blackout drunk in order to get through it emotionally Obligatory “what the hell happened between those two” post
Not that we’ll ever have specifics but I feel like it’s easy enough to imagine their working relationship getting immensely strained by the pressure of V / USA / VI. I’d have a hard time watching the show I cocreated go on without me too.
Obligatory “what the hell happened between those two” post Not that we’ll ever have specifics but I feel like it’s easy enough to imagine their working relationship getting immensely strained by the pressure of V / USA / VI. Not to mention The Last Human’s being contractually obligated but badly behind schedule (purely because Rob wanted to write separate chapters, according to Doug), plus the 10%ers pilot, plus the 10%ers series, plus VI getting rushed for nothing, plus the implication from one of the Smegazines news updates that there were talks of a movie too at that stage, and then any other work Rob and Doug were doing on nascent projects like The Thursday Man or The Oo-Ee-Oo Dimension and developing the concept for I-Camcorder and anything else we don’t know about. It’d burn anyone out, and Doug saying in Back From The Dead that the final straw was: DOUG: Rob then said “okay well, I think we should write separate episodes.” Which didn’t thrill me, because neither of us had written before, and there is- I felt we were honour-bound to produce a really good series. So, I wrote three, he wrote three, people wanted him to do some rewrites on his, and he didn’t want to, and left. And then… [laughs] I was then suddenly solely in charge of the thing and having to produce either a new script or a vastly rewritten script one a week for I think it was four weeks. So, that was an interesting time. I wonder who could have possibly been asking Rob for rewrites. Certainly not the guy who later in this same documentary complains that guest writers only want to rewrite a certain amount of drafts before wanting to leave, and who then fucked over the VFX team by changing the script from Ace fighting simulants on a spaceship to fighting Nazis in a plane, and then turning around and complaining that the plastik krokodil they had to rush together in five minutes wasn’t very good. Entirely blameless. — Only tangentially related I know, but I actually went back to the Carpool video to check the quote, and several things to mention: – 1:46 I don’t know if it’s been mentioned elsewhere that Rob and Doug specifically wanted Dwarf to be a BBC show because it gave you a 29 minute timeslot instead of 22 – Rob endearingly nerding out about the models makes up for yet more bitching about the grey sets. And they make fun of Norman for moaning – 11:00 Rob says it was Doug who said “who cares about continuity? “””Fix””” the sets and costume design and retcon whatever to make the show better. If it’s shit, don’t keep on being shit just because we did it that way before.” Cut to It’s Cold Outside 1:08:38 where Doug says about dropping Dad and ignoring the mpreg cliffhanger: I was just beside myself with, “what about the continuity problem?” And Rob was very much, “so what? Who cares?” This remake of Rashomon is a bit shit tbh – 16:23 “Chris has mellowed a lot” poorlyagedthings.jpg. Also apparently Danny wasn’t playing up during the DVD commentaries, he’s always just been Like That from the beginning – 17:37 ROBERT: Cos at that time, my experience was live performing, you know, in front of an audience. That’s what I’d done for years, so… And then my little experience with telly was in a studio with quite an uptight, and bitter, and very well-educated director who thought I was shit! The Corner House sounds like a lot of laughs – 19:38 Robert mentions Mammon, Robot Born of Woman was commissioned by TalkBack for a Channel 4 sitcom pilot, I’m assuming that was never produced? Does a script exist? – 21:06 Here’s the quote about “musical differences”. Real shame that it’s followed up by a mention of how well Rob and Doug got on at the time, and what sounds like a lovely 25th anniversary reunion lunch for Son of Cliche. Sad – 22:07 And there’s the quote about trying to watch Series 7 (or “season 7” as he calls it, so at least that wasn’t a new thing by the time of Into The Gloop), and how he can’t watch them. “It’s like watching a video of your ex-wife’s second honeymoon night. There’s nothing in it for you.” – 23:27 Given it was local comedy nights and small venues, not exactly performing at the O2, so I’m guessing probably not, but still, I wonder if any fan bootleg recordings exist of Rob’s standup tour
“DOUG: Rob then said “okay well, I think we should write separate episodes.” Which didn’t thrill me, because neither of us had written before, and there is- I felt we were honour-bound to produce a really good series. So, I wrote three, he wrote three, people wanted him to do some rewrites on his, and he didn’t want to, and left. And then… [laughs] I was then suddenly solely in charge of the thing and having to produce either a new script or a vastly rewritten script one a week for I think it was four weeks. So, that was an interesting time. I wonder who could have possibly been asking Rob for rewrites. Certainly not the guy who later in this same documentary complains that guest writers only want to rewrite a certain amount of drafts before wanting to leave, and who then fucked over the VFX team by changing the script from Ace fighting simulants on a spaceship to fighting Nazis in a plane, and then turning around and complaining that the plastik krokodil they had to rush together in five minutes wasn’t very good. Entirely blameless.” I think pinning that on Doug is a little disingenuous. Or are you referring to Ed Bye? This refers to the 10%ers, doesn’t it? In which case, the people asking for re-writes would have been asked for either by the director of Series 1, Marcus Mortimer – who is also listed as a producer of the 1st series, or either the line producer or associate producer, I suppose. IMDB doesn’t credit Ed Bye with coming on board until Series 2.
Not sure I can find it in me to hate Doug for wanting the show to be good, honestly. And wanting to write individual episodes is one thing, but individual chapters is absolutely insane unless you have some extremely solid narrative device to justify it. I remember reading a book when I was young where the POV changed every chapter, which was novel. Well it was a novel novel.
It’s kinda weird to read that Doug was the one that cared about continuity as when you look at his Solo stuff… it’s not the most fluent in continuity. There are some major ramifications in series 8 that were leaped over by the time of BTE. I imagine ego was also part of the relationship strain. They had a hit TV show that had gained a fan base, was being recognised by the US, won a comedy award and Emmy, and had talks of a movie. They were on a huge high.
It’s interesting that one of the most common criticisms of the Dave era is that it usually feels a draft away from completion. But yeah, I would say Rob not wanting to do more drafts is the bigger problem there, rather than the other way around. But it feels like a symptom of him not really having his heart in it, to be honest. Which is clearly the case.
Have people who struggle to understand the Rob and Doug tiff never fallen out with anyone? They don’t have to be the High versions of themselves, these are the guys who made Rimmer. Expect sickness.
They got on quite well for the Bodysnatchers collection. Infact their commentary is really funny. It gives off the impression that its not so much that they can’t along, its that they choose not too.
Have people who struggle to understand the Rob and Doug tiff never fallen out with anyone? They don’t have to be the High versions of themselves, these are the guys who made Rimmer. Expect sickness.
And wanting to write individual episodes is one thing, but individual chapters is absolutely insane unless you have some extremely solid narrative device to justify it. I remember reading a book when I was young where the POV changed every chapter, which was novel. Well it was a novel novel. The Red Dwarf novels shift perspective a lot already, but the omniscient narration’s consistent. It might be normal for co-authors to alternate chapters if they’re really on the same wavelength, not sure (Pratchett and Gaiman sent each other floppy disks with their latest stuff on when writing Good Omens), but Rob had done all the actual typing of the earlier books, so if he wasn’t editing Doug’s chapters, it could have been jarring.
You can’t account for whether Doug was deliberately trying to write in a different style with Last Human to do his own thing, but I think the descriptions of “Rob at the keyboard” and the way Backwards is written makes it come across like the prose of the Grant Naylor books was more heavily filtered through Rob’s style.
