Ian’s Newsround – Titan, TOS & Tribulations News Posted by Ian Symes on 31st July 2026, 10:24 Hello! We’re back from us holidays, to which we hotfooted the day after the Titan launch at Forbidden Planet in Shaftsbury Avenue. It was a marvellous occasion, with Andrew Marshall on top form, a few G&T regulars in attendance, and the very welcome appearance of Rob Grant’s wife and offspring, alongside Paul Jackson and Ed Bye. The book subsequently soared straight in to the Sunday Times Bestsellers List, just like all its predecessors did three decades ago, indicating that the appetite for Red Dwarf in its printed form has never waned. There’s been a handful of other developments while we’ve been away, so what better opportunity to dust off the old Newsround format, and have a bit of a rant about some of the aspects of the Red Dwarf franchise that are not going quite as well as Titan. But first: But it’s the middle of the night, Titan’s on downtime After a few weeks off from our Friday morning teaser videos, the @RedDwarfTitan accounts have fired up once more, with a new video entitled Downtime premiering at 11am. It looks to me like it’ll be a final sign off for the channel, but we’ll find out for sure soon enough. Either way, it’s going to be interesting to see one of these vids after reading the book – we’ll hopefully get all the references this time. TOS it away, old chum Given that we can count on one hand the number of times that reddwarf.co.uk has updated in the last four years, we knew it would take monumental news to stir it back into life. And with the all-new prequel hitting the shops, the e-book readers, the audio platforms and the charts, it could only be one thing: a forthcoming repeat of Series V on BBC Two. Oh. I mean sure, it’s good news, and it’s worth noting – even if TOS didn’t bother noting the repeats of the first four series between 2023 and 2025 – but my editorial instincts would probably have led me to prioritise the whole first-new-novel-in-thirty-years thing. Instead, Titan is relegated to “other” news, with the tiniest possible resolution image of the cover and the promise that info and updates will be posted on the Red Dwarf Facebook page. Not the Red Dwarf website, though. There’s no place for information about a Red Dwarf novel on the Red Dwarf website. Not at all confusing, and brilliant for the brand. I guess this confirms who has custody of which platforms currently. We would of course welcome more regular updates on TOS, it’s just we’d prefer it if it covered all things Red Dwarf. Interestingly, there have been a few tweaks to the layout alongside this update, with the Quarantine Commentaries plug having been removed from the sidebar (which is fair enough, given the circumstances) and the streaming services thumbnails rearranged. They are however still advertising The Promised Land streaming on UKTV Play, when a) it’s not called UKTV Play any more, and b) it’s not available on there anyway. And the bluray set being plugged is still the 2019 release, not the 2025 one. The priorities are clear though – the two previous posts on Sin Bin Island and Rob Grant’s death have been swapped around, to ensure the former is on top. Classy. EDIT: We’ve been contacted by Doug Naylor, and are happy to clarify the following. Details and updates of Rob and Andrew Marshall’s novel didn’t appear on the Red Dwarf website because Rob’s estate have said they prefer Facebook for this and currently don’t want it on TOS. Of course we would have featured it massively if we could, but the Estate’s wishes were that they provide the information and updates via the official Red Dwarf Facebook page instead. We respected those wishes. We also note that the order of the Sin Bin Island article and the Rob Grant tribute have now reverted to publishing order. Doug explains: Sin Bin was automatically swapped with the article on Rob’s death because the Sin Bin article had been updated. It’s got ‘con’ in it, but it’s not a ‘convention’ Strangely, there’s no mention on TOS of the first ever “official” Red Dwarf convention, which took place during our shore leave. Still, there’s plenty of coverage elsewhere, it made the front page of Chortle, and the Nottingham local news. I don’t think we really need to add much that hasn’t already been said in our comments section and forum. But if you want our opinion, the entire event is an absolute fucking disgrace. Beforehand, my view was that it wasn’t really the kind of convention I’m interested in, but given that plenty of other people were clearly enthusiastic about it, fair play to them, let a thousand blossoms bloom as far as I’m concerned. If people are willing to pay half a grand (plus travel, accommodation, food and drink) to meet their heroes, let them. But the fact that people paid all that money and didn’t get the autographs and photos they desired, and instead were left in endless queues with no information and no entertainment, is nothing short of disgraceful. It’s the Red Dwarf equivalent of Willy’s Chocolate Experience. It baffles me. I didn’t expect the weekend to be brilliant, but I did expect competence, considering it was run by the same people who have been successfully organising EM-Con for over a decade. How could such an experienced crew get it so wrong? From the outside, it looks like it was oversold, hence the queueing problems and the over-population of the venue. But also, even if everything had gone to plan… it was just a bit crap, wasn’t it? One merchandise vendor, selling old leftover Series XI stock. A couple of Q&As over the weekend. About eight costumes on display, with no labels or context. Nothing to do but queue. It barely qualifies as half-arsed. Maybe about a sixteenth-arsed if we’re generous. Having witnessed first hand the dedication, time and effort that the Fan Club used to (emphasis on “used to”) put in to making Dimension Jump the best it could possibly be – for no financial reward whatsoever – it’s inexcusable for a profit-making company to do such a shoddy job. They’ve completely taken advantage of the fans who paid well over the odds to be there, and got next to fuck all in return. The response in the subsequent couple of weeks has not been much better. The AI-written apology on the Saturday wasn’t good enough, and neither has been the customer service since. A large proportion of attendees are pursuing refunds on the grounds that the service received was not as advertised, and are currently facing brick walls. Complaints posted on the convention’s Facebook group are reportedly being removed, and responses from the organisers heavily criticised. And yet, apparently it’s all going ahead again next year, as announced in the most low-key way possible, as a footnote on the confirmation of the EM-Con 2027 dates. Do not attend. Do not buy tickets. Boycott. Do not accept being treated this way. And for the love of God, someone strip it of its “official” status, before it does even more damage to the brand.
Do not attend. Do not buy tickets. Boycott. Do not accept being treated this way. And for the love of God, someone strip it of its “official” status, before it does even more damage to the brand. Thank God you’ve said this, I’ve been thinking exactly the same. They would appear (unofficially) to have already booked a date for next August, but like you, I think it should be boycotted entirely. Let the whole thing rest next year. Personally I’d like to see something really special in 2028 to celebrate the Anniversary, that, given competent organisers, even us non-believers may be tempted to attend and join in the, erm, ‘fun’. And if that doesn’t happen, we can all have a G&Tention, and all have a big weekend together instead.
We’ve barely planned anything in the last 24 years, we’re not going to start now. But it will be soon, we’re all desperate to get our teeth into it.
We’ve barely planned anything in the last 24 years, we’re not going to start now. But it will be soon, we’re all desperate to get our teeth into it. Thanks. Will have to start posting my thoughts (sadly I lost my old login details, so Stilianides is a thing of the past).
We’ve barely planned anything in the last 24 years, we’re not going to start now. But it will be soon, we’re all desperate to get our teeth into it. I need to get on to getting my detailed comments down in the relevant threads. I presume these are going to be used for the Book Club Dwarfcasts, rather than us leaving comments under each Dwarfcast as before?
Will have to start posting my thoughts (sadly I lost my old login details, so Stilianides is a thing of the past). This is a character reveal up there with the Groot Kaas.
I need to get on to getting my detailed comments down in the relevant threads. I presume these are going to be used for the Book Club Dwarfcasts, rather than us leaving comments under each Dwarfcast as before? Definitely for the first one, though the subsequent parts will probably be a combination of the two.
The Downtime video is very sweet. That Holly is suspiciously Brummie though. … yes? Ooo-eee-ooo, he sounds just like Brummie Holly. … and?
Will have to start posting my thoughts (sadly I lost my old login details, so Stilianides is a thing of the past). This is a character reveal up there with the Groot Kaas. :)
The Downtime video is very sweet. That Holly is suspiciously Brummie though. … yes? Ooo-eee-ooo, he sounds just like Brummie Holly. … and? omg, Rich! … do *you* have any idea who is making these videos?
Thanks. Will have to start posting my thoughts (sadly I lost my old login details, so Stilianides is a thing of the past). I remember chatting to you about this before, but please do shout at me if you want help resurrecting the account. cappsy at gmail
The Downtime video is very sweet. That Holly is suspiciously Brummie though. … yes? Ooo-eee-ooo, he sounds just like Brummie Holly. … and? omg, Rich! … do *you* have any idea who is making these videos? … what toupee?
Strangely, there’s no mention on TOS of the first ever “official” Red Dwarf convention Look again, my friend, look again…
Oh Ian is going to love that. The G&T news update curse strikes again. (is that a thing? May have just made it up)
Do we still boycott?? Doug also wants to include cast read throughs of never performed before scripts, something that he wasn’t able to do this time.
Thanks. Will have to start posting my thoughts (sadly I lost my old login details, so Stilianides is a thing of the past). I remember chatting to you about this before, but please do shout at me if you want help resurrecting the account. cappsy at gmail Thank you. But it was probably linked to a now defunct email account. And I have been posting as Turk Thrust for a while now. It’s probably rather easier for you to pronounce, too (though I did enjoy listening to all of the fun you had with Stilianides).
That official post seems to be passing the buck a little imo. “Venue security staff insisted that all guests, including Access guests, joined a single queue, resulting in lengthy delays and understandable frustration.” That suggests it was the venue’s fault and not the organisers. And I love the disclaimer at the end, “Grant Naylor Productions did not organise the event, they merely licensed the rights.”
At the same time, they should not overshadow what was ultimately a landmark weekend for the Red Dwarf community. The opportunity to see so many cast members together, meet fellow fans from around the world and celebrate one of Britain’s most beloved science-fiction comedies created memories that will last for years. The only positive things they could find to say about the weekend are things that Dimension Jump did better, for a fraction of the price. I will try to keep an open mind for next year’s event, but nothing will convince me that this year’s was anything other than a complete shitshow, and it will take a lot more than this to demonstrate that lessons have been learned.
I’ve also seen quite a few complaints in the group about the raffle, where apparently people were told they could still win if they had left the con by the time of the draw but then they passed over entries that weren’t in the room to give them to someone else, which is clearly nothing to do with the venue security.
I never took sides in the Grant Naylor wars, but the TOS downplaying of Rob’s final work, compounded with bumping Doug’s non-Dwarf book post, is disgraceful. It’s such a blatantly bad look, but excusing it as thoughtlessness wouldn’t be any better.
I actually know Ashley, who is one of the organisers. I’ll have to ask him about it. Ashley Mansfield? If so, I don’t think he had anything to do with the organisation side of things, he did some hosting (and does the same at EM-Con) but that’s it I think.
I actually know Ashley, who is one of the organisers. I’ll have to ask him about it. Ashley Mansfield? If so, I don’t think he had anything to do with the organisation side of things, he did some hosting (and does the same at EM-Con) but that’s it I think. Ah OK, I thought he was more involved with Em-Con.
Sinbin trumping Rob’s death may have been an error as the front page currently has Rob’s passing above Sinbin.
Sinbin trumping Rob’s death may have been an error as the front page currently has Rob’s passing above Sinbin. Thanks, I’ll choose to believe this favourable option.
That’s a generous interpretation. It had been like that for over a week, and then changed within hours of us calling it out.
Something that has gone under the radar is I’ve realised that a great many of the previously broken pages are now fixed. The Complete Guide series pages throw an error and the Buy section has gone completely, but this is good news, especially since I get to correct a few gaps in reddwarf.info that we couldn’t get from the Wayback Machine!
That’s a generous interpretation. It had been like that for over a week, and then changed within hours of us calling it out. I am being generous because I don’t believe Doug is that malicious. I can absolutely see how it was done in error and then not checked by what whatever skeleton crew runs the official site these days until it was pointed out.
My favourite thing about TOS at the moment is how you click the title banner and instead of going to the homepage it reloads the page you’re on. Doug should hire a management consultant.
This. TOS is so amateurish now I am more disposed to take any issues as being mistakes rather than slights. My favourite thing about TOS at the moment is how you click the title banner and instead of going to the homepage it reloads the page you’re on. Doug should hire a management consultant.
Instead, Titan is relegated to “other” news, with the tiniest possible resolution image of the cover and the promise that info and updates will be posted on the Red Dwarf Facebook page. Not the Red Dwarf website, though. There’s no place for information about a Red Dwarf novel on the Red Dwarf website. “Gentlemen, you can’t talk about Red Dwarf novels in here, this is the official Red Dwarf website!”
I actually had a good time at The Red Dwarf Convention. Neither has it put me off attending either a future event run by em-con, or any event the cast are at. Which was something i hadn’t done since Dimension Jump 2021. That doesn’t mean for a minute I am disagreeing with the above words, they all seem to be truthful reporting, and not least of which my ranting disbelief from the weekend is on here just as it is on facebook, like masses of fans pointing out myriad problems. So i am witness to total smegbolica. I did queue a lot. Quite right all that shouldn’t have been the case. I still strongly feel any paid for auto tokens (beyond norman & rickys non attendance which should be automatic and probably is happening.) should be refunded, and any photo failures etc. Especially for walk outs, non returnees and people who no-showed etc because they had read that it was far too busy. I suspect they won’t. That is the part of the money that is an illegal cash grab I feel. I am not defending. Merely stating further facts, when I say that myself personally as bronze ticket level £120, with my wife, with 2 extra payments, 1 of about £100 for a cast of 4 at bunk set photo with chris barrie wearing a rimmer shirt. + 1 extra chris barrie auto at £25, which i bought for a friend. We got a pretty good weekend together. I’ve both memories and signatures and a photo I will treasure as much as any other. I got to see 5 fun panels. James Baxter and Arthur made it different and memorable for me to witness and grab a moment with and the cast were great with their time as always. Kerry shale was tolerable! The fans made it fun too. There was something special about the weekend. Atmosphere wise when it wasn’t about the queues. Because of fans and cast. Even the props to be fair were something a little more than some dimension jumps I went to had, vending machine 402 from mechocracy & captain herrings head were also there. But mostly my need was not for much more than what I got. If I hadn’t been to so many better conventions, I would have naturally been seeking more from the event and been as heartbroken as the most screwed over silver+ fan. It has definitely been the case that Doug once again found himself surrounded by those kind of people that say “it’s going to be alright” then offer him black wrap instead of proper models of meteorites in space. They did make better choices Sunday, I witnessed that. Signage was one example, more screenings and some of the apologies go some of the way. They havnt done enough with partial refunds. Given their model of repeating schedules across the two days. If I like what I see of any future line ups I would be aiming lower again next time at a one day ticket.
Those holiday snaps look a tad suspect. I mean, why would you deliberately and callously photoshop Cappsy into a Villa shirt?
That’s a generous interpretation. It had been like that for over a week, and then changed within hours of us calling it out. I am being generous because I don’t believe Doug is that malicious. I can absolutely see how it was done in error and then not checked by what whatever skeleton crew runs the official site these days until it was pointed out. The ranking of the stories to put Doug’s book above Rob’s condolences could, if being generous, be taken as an error yes. But to say virtually nothing about a brand new Red Dwarf book, the first in 30 years?! Petty, disappointing and just insulting to the memory of the shows co-creator – not to mention Andrew Marshall
Those holiday snaps look a tad suspect. I mean, why would you deliberately and callously photoshop Cappsy into a Villa shirt? J’accuse, SlowMotionAtomicBomb!
Petty, disappointing and just insulting to the memory of the shows co-creator – not to mention Andrew Marshall It is, but after reading that Reddit AMA, I can’t blame Doug for feeling this way. Rob repeatedly broke his promises and refused to be honest while they were together. Finally he backed out of the gestalt completely just when the deadline approached on an entire season’s worth of scripts, not to mention the book. Then Rob publicly said he didn’t want to have just Red Dwarf to his name, casting an unfavorable light on Doug’s continued involvement with the show. Then he gets Ed Bye and Paul Jackson to triple backstab Doug (Ed worked on VII and VIII!) and oust him from the company. If they hadn’t, Doug could’ve produced at least one more special before Dave lost interest. It’s nice to imagine a romantic forgiving of all past sins, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Doug’s current opinion of Rob’s character was somewhere between Hermann Goering and Fredo Corleone.
If they hadn’t, Doug could’ve produced at least one more special before Dave lost interest. With COVID and an elderly cast I wouldn’t have bet on it. Might just be cope on my part though. That said, I do somewhat agree that I personally see more malice in Rob’s return to the franchise than many others do. Not that he shouldn’t have had the option, and it’s good it was worked out in the end, but the fact remains Doug was here for us while Rob wasn’t. For over twenty years. All water under the bridge though, or at least it should be. And certainly nothing nasty on Andrew’s part.
That said, I do somewhat agree that I personally see more malice in Rob’s return to the franchise than many others do. That’s not really what I meant. I don’t think Rob was malicious, just that he had issues at the time that would have left Doug understandably resentful. My theory on the takeover is that Doug was willing to let Rob come back and do his thing, but with the understanding that Doug is boss. So if any new TV show is made, Doug’s the one that makes all the arrangements. He didn’t want to be caught in the same mess as last time. Rob most likely balked at that, and offered Ed and Paul their old jobs as director and producer respectively for their support in ousting Doug.
Petty, disappointing and just insulting to the memory of the shows co-creator – not to mention Andrew Marshall It is, but after reading that Reddit AMA, I can’t blame Doug for feeling this way. Rob repeatedly broke his promises and refused to be honest while they were together. Finally he backed out of the gestalt completely just when the deadline approached on an entire season’s worth of scripts, not to mention the book. Then Rob publicly said he didn’t want to have just Red Dwarf to his name, casting an unfavorable light on Doug’s continued involvement with the show. Then he gets Ed Bye and Paul Jackson to triple backstab Doug (Ed worked on VII and VIII!) and oust him from the company. If they hadn’t, Doug could’ve produced at least one more special before Dave lost interest. It’s nice to imagine a romantic forgiving of all past sins, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Doug’s current opinion of Rob’s character was somewhere between Hermann Goering and Fredo Corleone. Of course Doug would have no reason to, and has absolute no history of, blaming everyone but himself. Frankly we’ll never know what truly happened, trying to assess a decades long relationship from an few comments made across various media over the years isn’t going to get close to the truth, and I think continuing to speculate and take sides isn’t what we as a community should spend our time doing.
I think continuing to speculate and take sides isn’t what we as a community should spend our time doing. Yes, especially under the most recent circumstances, I know I’ve moved past this and am just trying to appreciate anything positive we still get on the Red Dwarf front these days. I get trying to understand the split and make sense of more recent developments too, but in the end it isn’t going to change anything.
That said, I do somewhat agree that I personally see more malice in Rob’s return to the franchise than many others do. That’s not really what I meant. I don’t think Rob was malicious, just that he had issues at the time that would have left Doug understandably resentful. My theory on the takeover is that Doug was willing to let Rob come back and do his thing, but with the understanding that Doug is boss. So if any new TV show is made, Doug’s the one that makes all the arrangements. He didn’t want to be caught in the same mess as last time. Rob most likely balked at that, and offered Ed and Paul their old jobs as director and producer respectively for their support in ousting Doug. Well you can prove anything by making up a load of bollocks, can’t you.
That’s not really what I meant. I don’t think Rob was malicious, just that he had issues at the time that would have left Doug understandably resentful. My theory on the takeover is that Doug was willing to let Rob come back and do his thing, but with the understanding that Doug is boss. So if any new TV show is made, Doug’s the one that makes all the arrangements. He didn’t want to be caught in the same mess as last time. Rob most likely balked at that, and offered Ed and Paul their old jobs as director and producer respectively for their support in ousting Doug.
Rushy, you are completely and utterly talking out of your arse. There are so many reasons why your interpretations are misguided, but unfortunately not all of them are public knowledge. What we do know on the record is that Doug had written, contractual permission from all of his fellow GNP shareholders (Rob, Paul and Lesley Armitage, widow of Charles) to pursue further Red Dwarf projects at the time of the changes in the boardroom, and that this wasn’t affected by those changes. The contract stipulated that Doug had complete creative control over any such project. So the *exact opposite* situation to your shit-brained theory.
Rushy, you are completely and utterly talking out of your arse. There are so many reasons why your interpretations are misguided, but unfortunately not all of them are public knowledge. What we do know on the record is that Doug had written, contractual permission from all of his fellow GNP shareholders (Rob, Paul and Lesley Armitage, widow of Charles) to pursue further Red Dwarf projects at the time of the changes in the boardroom, and that this wasn’t affected by those changes. The contract stipulated that Doug had complete creative control over any such project. So the *exact opposite* situation to your shit-brained theory. That’s perfectly fair, but I don’t see why you need to be rude about it. I was merely presenting a conjecture, which wasn’t even putting anyone in a bad light. It’s fine if you think it’s a very silly theory, but why bite at me for that?
Even the props to be fair were something a little more than some dimension jumps I went to had, I’d hope so, given that this was the “Official” convention. FWIW, while GNP did donate many, many items to the auction/raffle, the fan club never had access to props room for display purposes, and we asked! (numerous times during my tenure) It has definitely been the case that Doug once again found himself surrounded by those kind of people that say “it’s going to be alright” then offer him black wrap instead of proper models of meteorites in space. “definitely”? What makes you say that? Just curious!
That’s perfectly fair, but I don’t see why you need to be rude about it. I was merely presenting a conjecture, which wasn’t even putting anyone in a bad light. It’s fine if you think it’s a very silly theory, but why bite at me for that? Because it’s irresponsible, insulting and just plain shitty to paint someone in such a bad light with no evidence whatsoever, presenting your own conjecture based on nothing but what you’ve imagined has happened. I’m going to react strongly when the person you’re besmirching is a) my hero, b) my friend and c) dead. To be clear, I know next to nothing about what went on between Rob and Doug in 1993-4. I know very little about what went on during the legal kerfuffle a few years ago. Everyone else on here knows even less than me. So I’m not going to tolerate somebody spouting uninformed bollocks about the subject, and then saying “hey, it was just a theory”. Not everyone who’ll read this comment thread will read to the bottom of it. Search engines and AIs will crawl this page and summarise it, not caring about the veracity of what it sees. It’s irresponsible.
That’s perfectly fair, but I don’t see why you need to be rude about it. I was merely presenting a conjecture, which wasn’t even putting anyone in a bad light. It’s fine if you think it’s a very silly theory, but why bite at me for that? Perhaps some of us are feeling particularly protective of Rob currently, for some reason, and having people post bollocks about him is a little frustrating.
Because it’s irresponsible, insulting and just plain shitty to paint someone in such a bad light Perhaps some of us are feeling particularly protective of Rob currently, for some reason, and having people post bollocks about him is a little frustrating. All I did was talk about how Doug might have felt about him based on what happened and the personalities of all involved, with clarification literally one comment below that I don’t think badly of any of them, along with reasonable human motives for their behaviour. As for AI and search engines, I really think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill. Rob’s legacy doesn’t need you to defend it.
As for AI and search engines, I really think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill. Rob’s legacy doesn’t need you to defend it. I think your sorely misunderstand how quickly and how far bad information / misinformation travels. There are YouTube channels dedicated to finding hair brain fan conjecture and spinning into “reality” that then carries the myth spreading and ends up as truth in the fan/public consciousness But far from that, it is a bit irresponsible to start throwing “theories” around about people’s personal relationships, and quite uncouth given one of them is dead and the other is at best an unreliable narrator.
and the other is at best an unreliable narrator. Careful, you don’t want the AI to start calling Doug Naylor a liar. But alright, alright, I can be more careful too.
and the other is at best an unreliable narrator. Careful, you don’t want the AI to start calling Doug Naylor a liar. But alright, alright, I can be more careful too. I’m not calling him a liar per se. But he has been the de facto head of Red Dwarf for 30 years. He has been the sole protector and the mouth piece for the show His interviews have to viewed through the lens of someone who is running a business, and protecting their position. He is also a human who will naturally tend towards self bias.
What makes the near total lack of coverage for Titan on official channels sting more is that if it is (hypothetically) motivated by bitterness/envy on Doug’s part, this would have been the perfect opportunity to put that aside. Rob is dead, so Titan was his last opportunity to contribute to the series either way, and then Doug goes back to being Red Dwarf’s sole uncontested steward. Even if – if – it pains Doug to cede ground to Rob in light of whatever happened between them 30 years ago, this was the chance to be the bigger man at virtually no cost. I’d like to think this was just an unintended consequence of TOS running on minimal support, but both the bumping of Sin Bin Island over Titan and the Official Convention™ not covering Titan either makes that a lot harder to believe. This isn’t to say that it’s actual malice at play, but it does seem like Rob and Doug’s legal settlement (contrary to the inference from them making a joint statement) was along the lines of “you do your thing, I’ll do mine, and we’ll stay out of each other’s way”. That’s fine when just applied to a personal level, but when GNP as a whole is a proxy for Doug it isn’t fair or practical at all. It would be bad business even if Rob were still here to advocate for himself, but it’s even worse now that he isn’t.
It is a little sad that Titan hasn’t been promoted a little more by the official channels. Andrew Marshall would surely have been a really interest guest at the convention (if he had been willing to attend). And when Rob, Paul, and Ed did the Lockdown commentaries, Paul was very keen to promote The Promised Land if my memory is correct.
I’d hope so, given that this was the “Official” convention. FWIW, while GNP did donate many, many items to the auction/raffle, the fan club never had access to props room for display purposes, and we asked! (numerous times during my tenure) …. This does not surprise me, & knowing this now just adds even more applause to the efforts & your personal efforts of those Dimension Jumps. They really were so deeply satisfying that even in 2026 their lingering memory affects my own and assuredly other fans experiences of what this now tagged “official convention” was. So I was able to spend a little time looking at these props, because so much of the cast presence had been delivered to me before in my life in so many ways, at brilliant DJs. You shielded me. I was here for things like James Baxter & Arthur Smith. To me dimension jump as never short of being official, coming from the official fan club. But I do understand the current use of it in distinction. I also talk of Dimension Jumps with the longest of memories back to including Northants 90s. Your own personal Dimension Jumps era, I do remember as keenly looking at curried monster head, and Mike tucker star bugs, costume pieces and much more. More iconic than can of worms bits are. … In terms of the dis-organisation. I watched both the social media messages for this convention, and on site staff personnel interactions at the weekend. There were a few things “talked up” on socials before hand. One post, possibly a video, seemed to hint at Snacky the robot post being present. Second to this they also seemed to post about 4 more guests being offered attendance after the announced 12 of which 10 were able to be there. But this didn’t materialise. So they over promised. Now all of that could be well intended circumstances that shifted. But added to ALL the criticisms levelled widely summarised by Ian above, I witnessed multiple volunteer ushers, venue staff, more social posts that genuinely wanted to fix things, which in itself is good. But the attitude of “it will be all right now” still over promised. One example moving a couple of chairs out from the 100, in front row to better priorities a couple of wheelchair attendees was a well meaning response to acess complaints but well short of a solution when standing photo queues were blocking aisles etc. I became very aware Sunday in overhearing and reading that a team talk and actions Saturday night occurred. working on making things better for Sunday. It’s my belief they would have either included Doug in that as the licence man or communicated to him early Sunday all the changes that had been made, which were numerous ones. Sunday was better. But not able to be a full solution. On the Saturday I witnessed one of the em-con guys repeatedly trying to explain with the phrase “we do know how to run conventions” as if reputation of previous em-con events sucess was a by word to be respected by everyone standing for too long in a confused queue system that things would be fixed quickly. It was apparent to me that con-venue communication was not going to allow any such quick fix. Sure enough now they are over blaming the venue side of the faults. Which will improve any future convention, especially given the current venue choice alludes to a more regular shared commitment.
I think continuing to speculate and take sides isn’t what we as a community should spend our time doing. Yes, especially under the most recent circumstances, I know I’ve moved past this and am just trying to appreciate anything positive we still get on the Red Dwarf front these days. I get trying to understand the split and make sense of more recent developments too, but in the end it isn’t going to change anything. I agree, which is why I don’t think people reading into Doug’s mind through the inscrutability of a barely maintained website is fair either.
UPDATE: We’ve been contacted by Doug Naylor, and are happy to clarify the following. Details and updates of Rob and Andrew Marshall’s novel didn’t appear on the Red Dwarf website because Rob’s estate have said they prefer Facebook for this and currently don’t want it on TOS. Of course we would have featured it massively if we could, but the Estate’s wishes were that they provide the information and updates via the official Red Dwarf Facebook page instead. We respected those wishes. We also note that the order of the Sin Bin Island article and the Rob Grant tribute have now reverted to publishing order. Doug explains: Sin Bin was automatically swapped with the article on Rob’s death because the Sin Bin article had been updated.
Excellent news all round. Don’t the Titan teasers feature the URL for TOS though? EDIT: They do. Weird.
Although I’ve just realised that the swapping of the two articles occurred before Friday’s update, as I discussed it with Cappsy and Danny on Tuesday 28th, and yet the Sin Bin Island article wasn’t updated until Friday 31st. But hey. It’s fixed now.
UPDATE: We’ve been contacted by Doug Naylor, and are happy to clarify the following. Details and updates of Rob and Andrew Marshall’s novel didn’t appear on the Red Dwarf website because Rob’s estate have said they prefer Facebook for this and currently don’t want it on TOS. Of course we would have featured it massively if we could, but the Estate’s wishes were that they provide the information and updates via the official Red Dwarf Facebook page instead. We respected those wishes. That’s fair enough, it’s an odd choice to not want to be publicised everywhere, maybe they knew they’d be able to control things on Facebook more, but whatever. I’m a little annoyed at myself for jumping to conclusions and not thinking through all the possibilities, though this does seem like an unlikely one. But perhaps we wouldn’t have done had we not thought that TOS would deliberately stay silent on the matter.
That’s good to hear! I now also feel bad for assuming it was some kind of snub by Doug/GNP, but in my/our defence it was a pretty logical conclusion to come to. What a bizarre choice by Rob’s estate to turn down the promotion – though admittedly it does line up with Rob’s previous choices to give G&T Titan scoops over more official channels. It’s hard to dismiss the idea that there’s some kind of Grant v. Naylor logic at play here regardless of which side is being unreasonable, but I will try anyway.
Thanks for the update Ian. Still seems like some things don’t really add up here (but then when have they with GNP?!) – why mention Titan at all if you’ve been asked not to? Why did the article order get rearranged prior to the Sin Bin update? Removing the link to quarantine commentaries but leaving an outdated blu ray link? Would be nice to hear confirmation from Rob’s estate and/or Andrew that their wishes were indeed not to include anything on TOS – and to enquire as to why they would prefer Facebook (although presumably this is because it’s much easier to update/manage dynamically for them?) Either way, seems like a no-brainer to promote the success of something which is doing good work to maintain the presence of the RD brand in 2026 and demonstrating that people still want more of it and that an active audience exists. Especially if you’re someone who is, ooh I don’t know, wanting to keep making more of it.
Glad that got cleared up. Big fan of Rob. Big fan of Doug. I’d always rather assume good intentions / mistakes than rush to decide the worst. I never had the pleasure to meet Rob but from what those who knew him say, he seemed like a very good egg. I’ve interacted with Doug a few times and have always been struck by his warmth and decency.
That’s fair enough, it’s an odd choice to not want to be publicised everywhere, maybe they knew they’d be able to control things on Facebook more, but whatever. Especially for those of us not on Facebook. I got everything from here, but still…
As much as it is just generic new wave synth pads, I genuinely think the music used in Downtime is beautiful. It’s a shame we’ll probably never know what the actual track name is, since it’ll be a stock track which isn’t picked up by Shazam or what have you. Anyway I’ll give the obvious response to this comment myself, to save us all time.
TOS has their convention article now and apparently the fact that it was a mess arguably means it was actually great. What a relief.
That’s fair enough, it’s an odd choice to not want to be publicised everywhere, maybe they knew they’d be able to control things on Facebook more, but whatever. Especially for those of us not on Facebook. I got everything from here, but still… I’m not sure you even missed anything on Facebook… if that was where Titan was meant to be promoted, then the person who was meant to write some posts about it in the run up to release forgot (assuming it wasn’t actually going to be Rob Grant).
You’ll want to have a look at the Official Con’s FB statement this evening. If you can find it! They’ve hidden their FB page from public view, have been booting members who even drop a laughing emoji, obviously deleting comments, then turned comments off. G&T and this article get a namecheck. In short, everything was the venue’s fault and the organisers are beautiful blameless boys who never did nothing wrong. Will be massively surprised if their planned second con next August now goes ahead, despite what their acolytes are saying. Madness reigns.
But what if they delete them? Delete them without reading? I’m not sure I could take that kind of rejection.
I’m assuming it’s this one: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0V3qwkvPheeRXdzBP9RCJVb6AbeNXynfscWQGLhJacuwv8F7Gk2qHqL8jxQYUsj3Vl&id=61577691063014
I’m assuming it’s this one: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0V3qwkvPheeRXdzBP9RCJVb6AbeNXynfscWQGLhJacuwv8F7Gk2qHqL8jxQYUsj3Vl&id=61577691063014 Thanks for the link! I’m not quite getting how VIP registration would be so much higher than expected. Surely they knew how many VIP tickets they sold? And if it’s possible to pre-register, shouldn’t they have known how many people did that too and not have had to assume?
What they should have done was plan how many people in each bracket they could process and set ticket numbers accordingly Letting as many people as wanted buy a VIP or Gold ticket is ridiculous If everyone buys one, no-one gets any of the perks
Whatever excuses they might make, a lot of the comments I read suggested that they hadn’t really paid attention to details regarding any aspect of the convention. For example, playing random pop music instead of something Dwarf-related, not labelling costumes or props, not having enough other things going on to keep people interested etc. Even though they were clearly running it to make money, there should still be a basic professional instinct to prepare in the right way and to give people as good an experience as possible.
What they should have done was plan how many people in each bracket they could process and set ticket numbers accordingly Letting as many people as wanted buy a VIP or Gold ticket is ridiculous If everyone buys one, no-one gets any of the perks Yep. No amount of throwing the venue under the bus can change the fact they clearly got greedy with the higher price tickets and didn’t limit them appropriately. There’s been more than a few DJ’s I was part of that left a lot of money on the table because numbers had to be kept in check.
“To allow everyone the opportunity to read this update in full, comments have been turned off”. What on IO does that even mean.
“To allow everyone the opportunity to read this update in full, comments have been turned off”. What on IO does that even mean. “We wouldn’t allow a version of this post with comments turned on to be public, because then everyone would see the massive influx of justifiable criticism towards us, and deleting all negative comments as they happen would only make us look worse.”
and deleting all negative comments as they happen would only make us look worse. “But we will, however, ban anyone leaving negative emoji reactions”
Timewave doesn’t look so far-fetched now, does it. It’s happening. Time to put on your pink horse costume.
Given the state of the official website, and how easy it was for a bunch of clowns to get the license for an official Red Dwarf convention, would G&T ever consider applying for the license to be the official Red Dwarf website? I mean, frankly, you’ve been the de-facto website for Red Dwarf for a very, very long time.
Only if we all get a salary for posting here. I’m owed at least ten grand for how much Photoshop work I’ve done for the meme thread.
Given the state of the official website, and how easy it was for a bunch of clowns to get the license for an official Red Dwarf convention, would G&T ever consider applying for the license to be the official Red Dwarf website? I mean, frankly, you’ve been the de-facto website for Red Dwarf for a very, very long time. This is a ridiculous suggestion. As if it’s even possible. But if it were. Why remove the ability to comment freely by being licensed to operate as the mouth piece for the franchise Its better to remain unconnected to the franchise, post freely, and still be the de-facto website
Only if we all get a salary for posting here. I’m owed at least ten grand for how much Photoshop work I’ve done for the meme thread.
Given the state of the official website, and how easy it was for a bunch of clowns to get the license for an official Red Dwarf convention, would G&T ever consider applying for the license to be the official Red Dwarf website? I mean, frankly, you’ve been the de-facto website for Red Dwarf for a very, very long time. Even if we wanted that, which we don’t, our current relationship with the powers-that-be is a little too strained for it to happen any time soon. We never wanted to be the default destination for Red Dwarf; G&T was one of dozens of fansites when we started, but they soon died off (admittedly it didn’t help when we combined several of them into one). As Quinn intimates, we’re always most comfortable on the sidelines, passing comment on any developments rather than being the ones to break them. The lines definitely became blurred with the closure of TOS and the inactivity of the official social channels, and while we’re always happy to be tossed the odd exclusive, we wouldn’t ever want to be a mouthpiece. Apart from anything else, it would be too much like a job (and we would expect to be paid for it, which nobody has the budget for), rather than the glorious escape from the more boring obligations of adult life.
Apart from anything else, it would be too much like a job (and we would expect to be paid for it, which nobody has the budget for), rather than the glorious escape from the more boring obligations of adult life. And I imagine it’d have to be a bit less sweary. Where’s the fun in that?
And I imagine it’d have to be a bit less sweary. Where’s the fun in that? Yeah a sanitized G&T would be awful. I like my archivists potty-mouthed.
I mean, they poached from this parish before, to great effect If not, they could always get Chris to do it. He seems good at updating website.
