Well, here’s hoping we’ve never used that headline before.
Before today the only source of information we’ve had on the Blu-ray releases of Red Dwarf 1 to VIII is from a very premature Amazon listing and Doug’s Tweets on the subject. It is, however, now all official and that, and GNP are going ahead with what seems to be an entire set released on the 1st October as part of their ongoing and extensive 30th anniversary celebrations.
A few days ago the Red Dwarf XII mobile game was released. This time round the episodic format has been replace with a more open free to play model giving you a handful of endlessly repeatable mini-games that give you points to unlock one of a tonne of playable characters. This weekend I sat down to have a first play of the game, and I have recorded this momentous occasion for your viewing ‘pleasure’.
I can’t quite believe it but tomorrow marks the end of Series XII for UKTV Play when it only seems like yesterday that Lister was playing a duet with Hitler. It will also be the first time in almost two years that there will be no new Red Dwarf waiting in the wings for us. This could very well be the end. Don’t fret, though, as for the final time this year we’ve been given a teaser clip for the forthcoming finale Skipper – and it’s a good ‘un.
Despite drawing on so much from the show’s past, Mechocracy feels like a very different sort of episode. It ends up in a ridiculous place in a way that I might not’ve been so receptive of had this been part of a hypothetical series IX in 2000. But as it happens, this represents the most sheer fun I’ve had watching the show in a while, and a great example of how to fold in references from the show’s past.
I like these little preview clips of the up-coming UKTV Play episode. For one or two glorious minutes I can see what it might be like to watch the episode for the first time without it being a muddy, low resolution, low bitrate mess. Ah, the future.
We’re all pretty familiar with the basic premise of this week’s episode and this clip seems to set that up. There’s some good laughs in there, and this is definitely one of the episodes I’ve been most looking forward to this year. We’ll be kicking off our M-Corp chitter-chatter proper tomorrow, just as soon as Mechocracy has appeared on that fusty, old, linear platform known as ‘television’. Speaking of which my review is due up later today, stretching any goodwill you or my colleagues may still have left towards me to its limits.
Series XII is going to be a weird contradiction. As we’re all aware this series was written and filmed back to back with XI so while it’s reasonable to expect a very similar tone and style to the series we’ve already seen and analysed to death, that’s by no means a guarantee. Production efforts have been made to separate the two in subtle ways with changes to the main sets but what I didn’t consider before sitting down to watch Cured is how this double banking has the potential of making this series strangely unique. While we’re not aware of the writing order of the series, we do know that all of XII was filmed after XI had wrapped and a very short break, which means for the first time in actual decades a new series of Red Dwarf was not starting from scratch. We maybe even have to go as far back as the gap between the first two series to draw a proper parallel for this situation.
So what’s my point? Well, I feel like Cured greatly benefits from this. Confidence and general quality in writing, direction and especially in the performances that has produced an episode that despite some issues felt so comfortable and effortless, especially with the characterisation. If this is how things start to go when this team gets some proper momentum, then it’s a shame XIII and XIV aren’t following closely behind.
This one’s been floating around for a while but it’s remained on the fringe of our spoiler policy until UKTV started drawing direct attention to it. As it looks like they’re leaning into this as part of the Cured promotion we couldn’t rightly ignore it much longer. However, as a last stand to demonstrate our opinion that this is a reveal that we firmly believe should NOT be part of the pre-broadcast promotion and that we would’ve preferred was kept as a surprise on the night, we will keep everything after the jump…
Bit of a funny update this week, as the true premiere of series XII has kind of ended up sneaking up on people due to the fact that it will once again have its episodes streamed on UKTV Play 7 days before broadcast. More excitingly, however, four new publicity photos have been added to the XII gallery and they all look lovely so do check those out. Let’s start off today’s update after the jump with a great picture of Chris Barrie’s face as a concession that I am incredibly excited about what is to come over the next weeks despite my moan about the nature of its broadcast…
Well, this is unexpected!
An exclusive preview of #RedDwarfXII will be landing on @davechannel tonight from 9pm! #Taskmaster #Porters pic.twitter.com/E9sax2bNwk
— Red Dwarf (@RedDwarfHQ) September 20, 2017
At the time of writing we’re not sure what exact shape this preview will take, but this level of teasing would suggest it is not insignificant. Whatever it is we have to wait until it turns up during one of the ad breaks around tonight’s Taskmaster. It does seem a little odd that we’re getting a presumably significant bit of publicity debuted on a weekday night and not in the traditional Friday slot, but I guess UKTV are still figuring out how to debut things effectively.
Please do use this post to share your thoughts on whatever we end up with, and we’ll possibly be back with further coverage of it if we deem it WORTHY.
So, let’s cut right to the chase.
Norman Lovett is BACK in an as yet unconfirmed episode of series XII – a series which, we now know, will ‘premiere’ on Thursday 12th October 2017.
Depending on how lucky/unlucky you’ve been with the minor minefield of spoilers since his episode was recorded last year you’ll either be SURPRISED or UNSURPRISED to learn of Lovett’s return to the show. Personally, I’m more shocked and sickened by the fact that it’s been 18 years since series 8 first aired but I have to say the old computer is looking good on it, if a little overly made up.
Regardless of your thoughts on who is the One True Holly, the above image will certainly invoke a lot of warm fuzzy feelings for a lot of you. I’m personally getting more of a 1 and 2 than an VIII vibe from that image but as for the performance we’ll have to wait to see what a 2017 version of Holly looks and sounds like and, indeed, what the context of his appearance will be. GNP are keeping schtum about the exact episode he’s appearing in, but I imagine it’ll become clear soon enough.
The other big news to come out today is of course confirmation that Series XII, episode 1, Cured will air on Dave on the 12th October. Now, as we all know at this point the likelihood is that this puts the true start date of the series a week earlier on Thursday 5th through the UKTV Play service. While there’s no reason to believe that won’t be the case, we’re still waiting on official confirmation. Personally, I’m rooting for the decision that doesn’t split the viewership into two angry pieces.