Doctor Dwarf: Who’s Who? Features Posted by Ian Symes on 23rd November 2024, 09:00 The world's longest running science-fiction series (if you ignore the sixteen years where only one actual episode was made) turns 61 today. Doctor Who is without doubt the second best British sci-fi show ever, and unsurprisingly there are multiple connections between it and Red Dwarf. In this article, we list the whopping fifty-five actors who have appeared in both shows, or in the case of Doctor Who, one of its official televised spin-offs. Not all of these people were credited on both shows, and some of them took some significant tracking down, but thanks to resources such as TARDIS Wiki, TOS's Complete Guide, IMDb's collaborations search, Movie Dude's Pictorial Filmography and our very own Smega-Drive, we think we've caught them all. Read more →
G&TV: Carrott’s Lib (22/10/1983) Quickies Posted by Ian Symes on 6th November 2024, 09:50 As we once again prepare to stick our fingers in our ears and try not to think about things for the next four years, let's take the opportunity to hark back to a far happier time, ie before many of us were even sodding born. We're heading back to 1983 to take in a crucial component of the Grant Naylor oeuvre. Having pretty much mastered the art of radio comedy with the first series of Son of Cliché, it was time to take on television, and the pair began successfully submitting sketches for the likes of Paul Squire, Cannon & Ball and Three of a Kind. But arguably the most quintessentially Rob-and-Doug feeling project of this era was Carrott's Lib. Starring Jasper Carrott, one of this country's greatest ever stand-ups, this was a pre-Spitting Image topical, satirical comedy, broadcast live on Saturday nights on BBC One. Paul Jackson produced the first series, but we're going to focus instead on the first episode of series two, for reasons that will become apparent. The first thing to note is the date - the series started just eleven days after the first series of Son of Cliché concluded on Radio 4, and given how last-minute a lot of those scripts were, Rob and Doug presumably had very little time to breathe between projects. This series also established a new supporting cast for Jasper: future Cadbury's Caramel bunny Jan Ravens, alongside the trio of Nick Wilton, Nick Maloney and Chris Barrie. Now where have I seen those guys together before? Huge thanks to Jonsmad for pointing us in the direction of this YouTube upload: Read more →
Starbug Spotting Features Posted by Ian Symes on 10th October 2024, 12:20 Since its introduction in Series III, Red Dwarf's shuttle craft Starbug has become almost as iconic as the eponymous ship itself, spawning t-shirts, models, playsets, televised competitions and even a giant life-sized version as part of an elaborate ad campaign. Both its interior and exterior have changed dramatically in looks over the years, and it's established almost immediately that there are actually multiple Starbugs in existence, allowing us to headcanon away those inconsistencies with relative ease. When a new set was built for Series XI, a knowing reference to this was included as part of the set design, with the ship's interior baring branding that reads "Starbug 19". But is this number accurate? Does it correlate to the number of Starbugs we've seen on screen, or was it chosen arbitrarily for the purposes of the gag? Let's investigate, as we delve through the episodes to tally up just how many times the ship's been destroyed and then reappeared, and track some of the changes and features which are unique to each iteration. Read more →
Mini Newsround – 01/10/24 News Posted by Ian Symes on 1st October 2024, 15:06 Ah, it's October. The month where the new Red Dwarf special(s) go into production. After all, it was reported extensively online back in May, and none of the publications that giddily jumped on the bandwagon have since issued any updates or corrections, so we assume it's all going ahead. We should be getting the official announcement any moment. Here it comes. Any moment. Aaaaaany moment. Any moment... NOW. It hasn't worked. It's almost as if you should take what the cast say about any new projects with a pinch of salt, as even if the details are correct to the best of their knowledge at the time, plans change, and nothing is official until it's announced by the appropriate channels. This is a lesson that desperately needs to be learned by the entire population of comments sections everywhere else that Red Dwarf is discussed online. Nevertheless, the latest unconfirmed whisper is in, and this time it comes from Chris Barrie, via ITV Anglia: We hope next year to, in 2025, to shoot a special. That's the plan I've heard. The others might throw more light on it, I don't know, but yeah, that's the plan. I think all four of us are up for it, yeah. Read more →
DwarfCast 173 – Bottom Parade – Commentary DwarfCasts Posted by Ian Symes on 18th September 2024, 14:59 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes U&UKTVPlayG2U&Dave&Knuckles Righty dokey matey bloke flap old salty seadog amigo skip-jack jockstrap piano tuners, we're back with another in our occasional series of Dwarf-adjacent commentaries, this time covering Bottom Series 2, Episode 4, Parade. Not only is the series produced and directed by Ed Bye, this particular episode guest stars both Robert Llewellyn and Lee Cornes, which is as good an excuse as any to rabbit on over this episode and tackle your Bottom-shaped waffles. We cover pretty much all the affiliated spin-offs - the live shows, the Fluff video, Guest House Paradiso - as well as discussing what happens when TV schedules are affected by real life events, how Rik and Ade could have fitted in to Red Dwarf and trying to figure out if there's any modern equivalents to this madness. Read more →
DwarfCast 172 – The Smegazine Rack – Issue #12 DwarfCasts Posted by Ian Symes on 21st August 2024, 11:35 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes "Clifford the Big Bastard of a Dog" With apologies for the delay, it's finally time to get back on the rack! Our Smegazine odyssey reaches February 1993, a very interesting time in Red Dwarf history, as the magazine's news page documents. In this episode, we uncover the origins of Entangled, some foreshadowing of The Promised Land and the first ever use of the smeg hammer. Other super relevant and definitely on-topic discussion points include the Bottom Exposed documentary, various 1990s adventure game shows, and the state of the Hitchhikers franchise after Douglas Adams's death. Oh, and the results of a caption competition from two years ago. We may not be fast... Read more →
Video DwarfCast #4 – Are You Smarter Than A G&Ter? Byte One Features Posted by Ian Symes on 13th June 2024, 15:18 We've set a lot of Red Dwarf quizzes in our time, but are we any good at answering them? Well, we already know that Cappsy isn't, but what about Ian and Danny? It's time to find out, as we put our reputations on the line by taking on a series of Sporcle quizzes that probe every aspect of our mental capabilities. Want to play along? You'll find a big list of quizzes underneath the video - take them, then watch the vid, then tell us how you did. Oh, and you're probably better off clicking through to YouTube and going full-screen if you want to see what we're typing properly. Byte Two coming soon! Read more →
The State of Online Journalism in 2024 Features Posted by Ian Symes on 18th May 2024, 15:13 or: Why We Insist On Being Grumpy Bastards Every Time This Happens If, like me, you're known amongst your more neurotypical friends, family and colleagues as "the Red Dwarf fan", you'll have received umpteen messages in the last couple of days, reacting to the "news" that new Red Dwarf has been "confirmed". These normies will then have been confused by your lukewarm response, before you have to tediously explain that nothing is actually official yet, and the articles that they've seen online are just discussing the rumours we've known about for months. "But look", they reply, "it says it right here, the Scrapheap Challenge guy announced it". At this point, you have to choose between launching into a full scale rant about the intricacies of television commissioning, or just saying "yeah, looking forward to it" in order to maintain the illusion that you're a well-adjusted individual like them. It's especially frustrating when you can also see this happening on a much wider scale. Us lot - you, me and anyone else who'll visit a fansite for a sci-fi programme from the 1980s - know the score, but there are vast swathes of Dwarf fans who have a much more casual relationship with the show. They might love it every bit as much as we do, but they're not as obsessive about the details as we are, and are less likely to have been following the series of small scale leaks that we've been tracking. But all of a sudden, they're all over social media in the last two days, sharing their excitement at the confirmation of something that isn't actually confirmed. But here's the thing - it's not their fault. They're being let down by the people they trust to provide information. Read more →
Something’s (maybe) coming (possibly) News Posted by Ian Symes on 17th April 2024, 13:15 It's funny to think that just over a year ago, we were convinced that Red Dwarf was dead and buried, a victim of an ongoing legal battle with no end in sight. That was until it ended. And since then we've been teased with the prospect of a new spin-off series, whilst also regaining a modicum of hope that the OG Dwarf would return at least once more. While there is still no official news - and as usual we'd like to clarify that nothing is confirmed until it's announced by the production company and/or the broadcaster - we've now entered what we've come to recognise as the preliminary phase that usually indicates that such an announcement may be forthcoming. Yes, the cast have been blabbing again. Read more →
Video DwarfCast #3 – ChatG&T Features Posted by Ian Symes on 31st March 2024, 12:01 If there's one thing we like more than speculating wildly about all things Red Dwarf, it's pissing about with the latest silly internet fads. For our latest Video DwarfCast, we combine the two by using ChatGPT to answer all those burning questions. What is Red Dwarf: Titan going to look like? Who's going to play the young versions of our favourite characters? What would a redesigned Starbug look like? Or a redesigned skutter? How would Kryten do on Robot Wars? And can 2024 artificial intelligence do a better job of drawing Rimmer on the bog than Kryten can? (As should be perfectly clear from the video itself, we in no way condone the use of A.I. as a replacement for human artistry in any way. It's a laugh, innit?) Read more →
