To be perfectly honest I’m not especially gripped by the alternate reality angle but am more than open to be proven wrong. I’d probably be more interested in a sequel to Backwards. Haven’t listened to Quanderhorn so can’t use that as a yardstick either.

I think it’ll be a novel. Unless it turns out to be a cartoon.

I’m expecting something similar to Star Trek 09. Where it’s like a timeline-break off reboot with some connection to the future. Since the synopsis mentions a message from the future.

In terms of the alternate reality thing. Well its no different from the novels.They are also a separate continuity.

A big black tom.

To be perfectly honest I’m not especially gripped by the alternate reality angle but am more than open to be proven wrong. I’d probably be more interested in a sequel to Backwards. Haven’t listened to Quanderhorn so can’t use that as a yardstick either.

I wasn’t really a fan of Quanderhorn and I disliked The Nether Regions, I’m generally deterred by prequels and reboots, but the Red Dwarf novels are some of my favourite things ever, so hopefully it leans more to that end!

Like The Promised Land, I’ll just try to enjoy the rare experience of new Red Dwarf and leave the evaluation and dissecting for later.

I feel like the blurb evokes a mixture of an Agatha Christie style mystery (multiple characters with a secret on a shore leave) combined with a PG Wodehouse sort of romp, with a Back to the Future 2 style adventure of multiple alternate and past/future selves zipping around helping eachother. I’m curious as to whether it will provide some happy ending for the younger selves where they don’t actually get stuck in deep space.

I’m also curious whether it will leave us wishing for a sequel, or feel like a big final work on Rob’s Red Dwarf that he wouldn’t have followed up on anyway.

Also, it just occured to me, both my local Waterstones and WH Smith (or whatever it’s called now) often have new books out on the shelf a few days before their official amazon listed release date. I think some staff just plonk them down as soon as they come in. (I worked at a woolworths in the 2000s, and they were quite strict with album and dvd release dates, making sure they were locked in the back until the date on the box.) So I’m going to be checking mine when I go past the next 2 weeks, to see if they sloppily put out Titan early. 

I’m not expecting it to tell change my feelings about the characters or to learn any earth shattering information about them. In my opinion, Rob and Doug’s Dwarf stands on its own and all of the Rob and Doug solo stuff is “one universe to the side” (if that is the right expression to use).

But I look forward to the book and hope it will have some amusing moments and an intriguing plot.

I expect reading it to be a very bittersweet experience, due to Rob’s passing. 

To be honest, I’m just happy to have a new Red Dwarf book. 

Otherwise, what I always enjoyed about the novels (varying quality notwithstanding) was how much they fleshed out the characters, backstory and setting – so I guess I’m hoping for more of that. 

I have high hopes. Backwards was my least favourite Dwarf novel, and the Into The Gloop sketch made me cringe, but this isn’t just Rob writing. It’s Andrew Marshall, too. There’s a discussion elsewhere about how Doug doesn’t have his Dave Dwarf scripts checked…because the script editor is his kid, so is never going to say “This is shit, Dad”, but Andrew Marshall is a guy with huge experience, huge gravitas in this world, and was clearly loving working with Rob. I have high hopes that this double-act will work.

“I’m looking forward to it despite Rob Grant’s involvement” is an unexpected take.

“I’m looking forward to it despite Rob Grant’s involvement” is an unexpected take.

In fairness, we do seem to forget Marshall is the co-writer of this too, so he’ll be bringing his own creative twists and energy that we have never seen done in Red Dwarf before, that opens a lot of potential creative avenues and directions entirely new to the franchise. Also maybe Asclepius is a very big Whoops Apocalypse fan.

Richard unofficially served that role on The Promised Land with pushing for the contribution of the Moonlight scene I believe, he may have given his scripts a readthrough on XI / XII too. Funnily enough just for that contribution, Richard might’ve actually been Doug’s best script editor.

To judge Robs work by Into the Gloop is about the same as judging Dougs work with Red Christmas. Neither were written to be taken seriously and were part of novalty projects.

Since Rob has been away for a long time i am expecting his writing for Red Dwarf to be a bit different, aswell as having a Marshall co-writing it. So the result will be interesting. 

If the whole thing aint funny because of a line thats interpreted as a dig at doug then its probably not being judged fairly. 

I think if Rob wanted to take a dig at Doug he could have done better. But considering it ends with them being turned into a gloop i aint sure this was ever meant to he Rob stating his own canon as much as it is Rob just having a bit of fun.

I compare it to Red Christmas because id rather not believe Doug would ever make an episode where Santa visits Red Dwarf. I give him the benefit of the doubt because its to zany. Same with Into the Gloop which was a project for fans to voice the roles for a little skit. This wasnt a real continuation of Series 6.

Would you prefer he set it after all Dougs work and have the same ending? I dunno i think that would be seen even more so as a dig at Doug. If Rob really wanted to be spiteful im sure be could have. Claiming that everything since 6 was just a fainted memory and then they all turn to gloop.

Rob had never watched Dougs material. And to him, they aint his work so why continue? We were never likely to get a alternative timeline of events in continuation of 6 from Robs perspective. So Rob going a silly ending skit was him having a laugh. This wasnt the equivalent of one parent tripping their child up during a sports game to spite all the training the other parent did. This was never meant to he seen as canon.

I love Colony, by the way.

Colony feels very similar to Red Dwarf in many ways. But I remember enjoying Colony.

I’ve always thought Iain M Banks first few sci fi novels must have been an influence on the tone of the Dwarf novels, they have that same thing of fast, tense chapters about different characters to set up the world. Neuromancer must have been an influence on Dwarf too imo – it has the thing of fantasy VR worlds that entice you to stay and cyberpunk grotty cities with people addicted to weird drugs.

I’m halfway through the first Stainless Steel Rat and thoroughly enjoying it. Haven’t got any of the sequels though. Make Room! Make Room! is sitting on my shelf, that’s the next Harrison book I’ll be starting. The only reason I got into him is Rob mentioning him being a favourite during a lockdown commentary, although I’ve seen his name popping up in various online spaces since.

I read Deathworld years ago when I was reading all the sci fi books on those free ebook sites. It was fun from what I recall. I used to see the Stainless Steel Rat books everywhere when I was a kid, and I knew they were something vaguely in the Dwarf/Discworld “lineage”, but somehow never got round to them. Maybe it’s time.

searched tumblr for Red Dwarf to see this paragraph…and…

in terms of quality I expect –

at worst – a fun romp that captures the fun of the show

at best – an epic that brings a sense of closure to the classic bubble era

Infinity will be getting fair low to middling ratings from people who tried it out and it wasn’t their thing. Less likely to happen with BTL due to it being a sequel and having a gross cover.

Incompetence made a significantly smaller splash than I expected it to at the time. But maybe that splash happened before Goodreads.

Richard unofficially served that role on The Promised Land with pushing for the contribution of the Moonlight scene I believe, he may have given his scripts a readthrough on XI / XII too. Funnily enough just for that contribution, Richard might’ve actually been Doug’s best script editor.

Richard was a producer on the show. Of course he had some influence over what was included in the script and what wasn’t, but that’s not the same thing as being a script editor.