best series of dwarf ??

VI

III

I like Series 2, but i like VI more, although 1 has some redeeming features, I think III has some classic episodes but 1 and 2 are where it all started for me, but not VII or VIII, just 1 and 2. :)

V

Can we have joint favourites?

I think 5 and 6.

Although it’s more a case of liking individual episodes scattered throughout the various series, if that makes sense.

Interesting that the word ‘original’ is missing from the line at the bottom of that artwork…

Well, to me anyway.

Depends what mood I’m in.

Okay… I’ll say IV.

V.

Next?

VI comes after V.

>Interesting that the word ?original? is missing from the line at the bottom of that artwork?

I thought that, but by that point I’d already posted it… it was just the first result on a Google Image search…

(is there a better shorthand for that? Gimage, maybe?)

> I

I love you for picking series 1, Marleen.

For me it’s II at the moment, but like with most other people, that alternates with V depending on how I feel.

> I love you for picking series 1, Marleen.

I know :-*

I suppose a lot of people have a fondness for whichever series they first watched, during the classic era at least.

For me, it’s V. I stand by it though, even having watched every series probably a hundred times. Also rate II and VI very highly. Least favourite may be VII or possibly IV… it just didn’t click for me, don’t know why.

Meltdown is a bit ropey though, isn’t it?

[Hides]

I can’t put my finger on why I’m lukewarm towards series IV. It’s just got this… quality… I can’t explain it.

As for DNA, that might actually be my favourite episode of the series. Meltdown and White Hole being my least.

I really liked VIII at the time. A fresh new format, back to the bunkmates scenario of the earlier series but with a new twist, and a host of comical sci-fi possibilities by reintroducing the baffled crew to the show.

I think there are two main reasons it went wrong.

1) The characterisation was off: as an example, it makes no sense that Lister and Rimmer would be mischeivous conspiring friends, like a pair of naughty schoolboys as someone put it. And that’s without throwing in the fact that this wasn’t even the same Rimmer that Lister had spent years alone with… it wasn’t a Rimmer he may have formed a slight bond of mutual respect with, a begrudging ally, someone he had come to regard as someone he’d met… this was SUPPOSED to be original, snidey piece-of-shit involuntary bunkmate Rimmer… a Rimmer who just wasn’t acting the way that Rimmer was supposed to. He was far too… likeable. Which, to me, made the character unlikeable for the first time. Holly barely got a look in, and even Hollister had transmogrified ;) from a leadership figure of respect to a bumbling oafish figure of ridicule who was revealed to really just be “the doughbut boy” on a blag (what’s a fucking “doughnut boy” anyway?). Shitting on your own legacy and turning your own show canon into a joke is a big no-no. Makes you, as a fan, feel foolish for buying into it the first time round.

2) For an 8 episode series, we only got 5 stories. The first story, three episodes no less, was all plot development and not much of a self-contained story… it took three episodes to introduce the new scenario we would experience during series VIII. But this scenario only lasted for a further 4 stories.

Two of these (Cassandra and Krytie TV) were enjoyable RD episodes that I would hold up to many episodes of Dwarf from the ‘classic’ years.

Pete… as for Pete… I wish they’d just called the first episode “Captain’s Office” as planned (which I shall call it from this point), and the second simply “Pete”, because then they wouldn’t be grouped together in my mind. I think “Pete” and I groan at the image of these two episodes combined, but in truth Captain’s Office was a fun episode (although the characterisation was askew) but Pete (as in, Pt. 2) was a “seen-it-all-before and it was much funnier the first three times” episode. I think Captain’s Office suffers from guilt by association.

Only the Good was an attempt to do something they had pretty much already exhausted much more subtley before (Parallel Universe is the first example that comes to mind), and the cliffhanger ending cheapens it rather than enhances it (a la Out of Time).

I didn’t mean this post to turn into a mini-critique of Series VIII but I think a lot of the bad will towards VIII comes really from the bitter disappointment of being denied more triumphs like Cassandra and Krytie TV using the new prison/Canaries format, and being offered episodes like Pete which may have been better had we not already been down that road once already with the crew. Cassandra shows that the series VIII format could really work; we’re pissed off that we didn’t get enough of a chance to see it in full effect.

That’s my take.

Not only were there just 5 stories but not much in the way of anything new or imaginitive.

Back in the Red went down the AR simulation route already explored in Back to Reality, Better Than Life, Gunmen of the Apocalypse and Beyond A Joke (maybe others too, can’t think right now). And the “turns out they’re still in AR” twist was more-or-less also recycled from two of those episodes.

Pete went back to the “monster of the week” format seen in Polymorph, DNA, Polymorph II, Terrorform and all kinds of others but with no inventiveness behind it. Just a contrived “time wand” to create this latest threat. It was a misfire.

Only The Good, as mentioned, retreaded old ground from Parallel Universe, Timeslides, Ouroboros and others.

Of the 8 episodes of series VIII, only Cassandra and Krytie TV actually explored new ideas and I think that’s why they are considered (at least by me anyway) as the two best of the series.

Agreed on most points, although I would argue that complete novelty is not necessary, or indeed present in either Cassandra or Krytie. Cassandra is about trying to second guess and manipulate the future. Krytie is about reliable old Kryten acting up, same again. The reason I like both those episodes is because they use the characters well.

Rimmer is not only most like himself in Cassandra, but the teeny bit of development he does is entirely in keeping. Lister is back to properly pining for Kochanski in Krytie. Hopeless Romantic was the main balance for his reckless blokeyness, it was what made him really sympathetic. Series 7 and most of 8 didn’t give him much of anything to be idealistic or romantic about so he wasn’t as interesting.

my two cents, anyway.

I recently watched 8 again. And… largely I enjoyed it.

Back in the Red was way too long though. It had plenty of good stuff in it, but it dragged a lot. I think they should have just gone with the 2 parter at most rather than 3.

In the past I’ve found Pete irritating with the running jokes etc, yet this time I didn’t. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen the scenes so often. Watching it for the first time makes it drag less. Cassandra, in particular was a brilliant well crafted episode. I’ve seen it criticized for being so similar to Future Echoes, which I think is unfair. Sure, it has similar themes, but it still totally works in it’s own right. And Krytie TV was very funny.

The characterization was off: as an example, it makes no sense that Lister and Rimmer would be mischievous conspiring friends, like a pair of naughty schoolboys as someone put it.

I wondered about that myself, but considering the circumstances, I find it believable. They’re not really friends, but they ARE both in jail facing a common enemy. The camaraderie totally makes sense.

Todhunter was the very first episode, before Rimmer’s character became more defined (wasn’t that script written several years prior to the rest of the series?) and he thought “Captain Paxo” was an hallucination.

As seperate episodes ‘Back in the Red’ is not too good (by Red Dwarf standards) but the versions on the DVD which splice the story together with re-orded scenes and deleted scenes added make it much more enjoyable, sort of like a Red Dwarf Movie (who would have thought of it).
‘Cassandra’ was probably the smartest episode of Series VII and VIII and alot of the comedy is drawn from that which improves the episode greatly. The ending is very good too.
‘Krytie TV’ is my favourite of Series VIII, I guess I just love Kryten too much. I like Lister and Rimmer being sort of friends here because they have been in that prison for atleast a few months by this time (isn’t it established as a year in ‘Pete’?) so they must have learned to live with one another but I must say Robert steals the show as the rogue Kryten.
‘Pete’ is really more of two episodes. Part 1 is fantastic, I loved almost everything in it, the basket ball game worked quite well actually, jokes like Kryten getting the ball and cleaning it are just brilliant. The Time Wand stuff was a bit of a hit and miss, things like the man talking and stopping was terrible but the stuff with Cat and Kochanski ecoming younger with different clothes was very funny and it is followed with probably my favourite joke of the series, Kochanski says “How will we get this back on board” and Kryten replies “Don’t worry I have an excellent place to conceal it” and in the next scene he has that raised head, I don’t remember watching much of Red Dwarf VIII when it was on, I remember being really happy while watching BITR1 and that scene. Part 2 has a dinosaur.
‘Only the Good’ was a good episode but I was never happy with how it ended the series, I won’t have to worry about that now!

well as i said before at end of pete prt 2 hollister says hes goin in the hole for a year .. then next episode rimmers on probation so im guessing there is a year between pete part 2 and only the good ?? or have i missed soemthing

I wondered about that too. I doubt Hollister went through with it though. He was feeling ‘rather emotional’ at the time to say the least, and it was a sarcastic parting gag (in my mind.) Even if he did go in the Hole to get away from it all, I imagine the sleeping facilities and lack of buns probably changed his mind pretty sharpish.

I agree that a lot more time has probably past on the ship between (and even within) episodes than we’re privy to.