New Red Dwarf Episode Announced August 24th 2008

Ohhhhhhhhh… splendid!

(And after that one, 5 more, please.)

I’m not going to get my hopes up until it’s verified by an official source.

BBC Worldwide? They make shows by themselves?

I can attest to a cautious glimmer of hope.

With official confirmation I may even allow myself to get excited.

Just me being pessimistic really. But in my opinion it wasn’t just robert mentioning it. It all seemed very planned. And the fact that it was an event where you had to buy tickets which money went to a tv channel and that the event was advistised alongside a pledge drive. What i’ve been told that bbc worldwide do is when a show gets commisioned bbc worldwide provides extra funds in return for the rights to make lots of merchandise and then depending on how much money they give they often get a big say in the show so they include other things to make the show sell this could mean changes to red dwarf.

> It all seemed very planned.

The event was planned, but it was going ahead anyway, unrelated to any other project. The fact that Robert knows a certain something is coincidental timing, and something he chose to mention. It it were an announcement, GNP would have made it – and included significantly more details.

The event wasn’t advertised along with the pledge drive – it was one of the things being used to raise money. As PBS stations often do with guests.

> i?ve been told that bbc worldwide do is when a show gets commisioned bbc worldwide provides extra funds in return for the rights to make lots of merchandise and then depending on how much money they give they often get a big say in the show so they include other things to make the show sell this could mean changes to red dwarf.

Then you’ve been somewhat misinformed. BBC Worldwide are the reason the show gets sold to TV stations around the world. BBC Worldwide are the ones who make the DVD releases happen. Which shows have been adjusted to include new content based on BBC Worldwide’s desire to make toys, that you know of? And how would it ‘change’ Dwarf when they’ve been involved with the show since the 90s?

Once again Kirk your understanding of all such situations is impressive and contains no possibility for error.

As I say, your logic is impeccable and comprehends totally all aspects of the process as it works for both Grant Naylor, and the media in general. The world is, absolutely, as simplistic as you show it to be.

Without getting ahead of ourselves? 1 hour Christmas special. BBC2, Boxing Day, 9pm. Highest BBC2 ratings of the year. Series IX commissioned for autumn 2009. You can pay me if I?m right, slap me if I?m wrong.

Form an orderly queue behind the gunsight.

Happens all the time. Just as you say. Yep. No production’s information ever leaks out before release ever.

If it is going ahead I don’t see it as a Christmas special as it’s a short turnaround to get effects and stuff done. Could be done for the 21st anniversary though.

Personally I would think they might go down the stargate route, releasing it on DVD first then it being shown on TV a few months later.

But then we are getting far too ahead here really. It (if there is an it) could be an hour long special on how the movie couldn’t get made.

I don?t see it as a Christmas special as it?s a short turnaround to get effects and stuff done. Could be done for the 21st anniversary though.

… although we don’t know how long it’s been in the pipeline… they could have been shooting it months ago for all we know.

Not generally from the main cast/crew, no. Glad you agree.

Yeah, Catherine Tate didn’t say *anything* in interviews that hadn’t been announced by Team Who…

Good to see you know more about the TV industry than the guy that works in it, though.

> ? although we don?t know how long it?s been in the pipeline? they could have been shooting it months ago for all we know.

But Robert’s said they’re starting filming in October this year. Unless they’ve been secretly filming without him…

Ah, okay. I’ve not read the original thread because I haven’t been at a proper computer all day ;-)

If so, then yeah, it does seem quite a short timeframe. It wouldn’t appear to me, then, that this is being aimed for the 20th anniversary year. But stranger things have happened, I suppose…

> I did think about that when I put it. Which is why I put ?Not generally? rather than ?Not?.

So in what way did that prove your point, or show I agree with you?

Go attack someone else. I don’t work there any more, so your special brand of pissed-off-ness is misdirected as well as ill-thought-out.

As a general point – if I can address the thinking people for a moment – cast leaks are one of the FIRST places to look when information gets out. Lead cast are, after all, indispensable – an NDA only makes so much difference. What with this being the real world and all. (Right now we all know Tyrese Gibson’s been cast in the new A-Team production despite no casting announcement having been made. How? He’s twice said a touch little too much to journalists. Yet his contract ain’t even signed.)

Still, what we’re talking about is a ‘fact’ that’s ‘known’ by Dwarf fandom, and mostly just its internet-based sub-group. Yet there’s been no full announcement, no press release. Any visitor to AICN or CHUD.com will see information about projects appear long, long before the studios are in a position to announce – info that, ultimately, only touches a fraction of the audience the projects themselves will ultimately be seen by. The ‘news’ is among a relatively small community. When you talk about information getting out, the scale of the spread matters.

Will the papers report on new Dwarf now, based on a comment at a Q&A, or will they wait until there’s confirmation? Of the papers who would publish sooner rather than more accurately, how many readers would take the story as fact right away? (“Holly Valance to Take Over As Buffy”?!)

Just because information cannot always be contained, doesn’t mean the same as someone wanting it leaked. There has never, in the history of the medium, been a TV or film production that has managed to keep all information back until ‘official release’. Never. Not one. Doesn’t happen with, oooh, ANYONE’S production, ever. How wide it spreads, and how much interest there is, varies, but NO production is air-tight.

And this is all talking generally. Anyone who’s spent a little time around Red Dwarf in its most prolific years will know the sheer amount of information that came out versus the quantity that turned out to be true. No little part of that was due to the cast chatting to fans at various events – they are, after all, the most visible of those involved, and so the most pestered.

I get it – it’s a rare thing these days and the current fans aren’t used to it. One leak feels like a flood. But there was a time, and maybe will be again, where GNP had so much going on that there would be something like this three times a week. We watched it all come out, debated it just you all are doing now…and we were wrong as often as we were right. Even if the information was accurate, our interpretations were not.

So, y’know, good luck!

> Okay can someone just cut out all the guff and confirm what we know?

Fire pretty?

> Are GNP going to say anything word anytime soon?

That would be up to them, I imagine. ;-p

I must say it makes this article on the official site more interesting. Looks like some announcement was definitely planned.

http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/news/2008/08/01/kcts-gets-anniversarial/

> Again, if you read what I wrote, you would have realised this.

And if you thought about you wrote, you’d reduce the number of stupid things you said by fully 3%.

> Anyway, whatever the reasons behind it all, it has to be great news and probably not the best time to start bickering.

Amen to that. Hopefully people can put their toys back in the pram and just concentrate on discussing things which are more important.

Personally I hope that, if the ep does come about, Doug doesn’t think beyond this and just puts everything into it. By that I mean that I hope that any good jokes from the movie script which can be lifted will be and that the ep won’t be seen as a way of putting Dwarf in the shop window for future projects.

I also pray that it won’t be a ‘best of’ episode with repeated catchphrases and appearances by Ace, the Dibbley family etc.

No matter how wonderfully promising this news is, I’m still really nervous to get too excited about it. It’s a strange feeling, as it feels like we’re on the brink of the best Dwarf news since 2002, but it’s still just out of reach until we get something official.

It’s really odd.

Give that dog a toffee. Hee hee.

> Ah, but he?d already published the fact he was going to on youtube at that point hadn?t he? It wasn?t so much a backing on GNP?s part as informing us of what Robert had already instigated.

Chris M shoots and scores!

And yeah, ‘secret’ and ‘not’ is too simplistic a way to look at it. It’s all a matter of degrees.

> It?s still just out of reach until we get something official.

As it should be, to be honest.