Low & High: Red Dwarf Remastered

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It’s over fifteen years ago now that Red Dwarf Remastered was unveiled to a waiting public. Ever since then, Dwarf fandom has debated: is there something good about it, something laudable? OK, OK, we’ve never fucking liked it. But is it time, perhaps, for some quiet re-evaluation? Are the new CGI effects maybe not as bad as we thought? Does the film effect make the show look better? Maybe that cut dialogue was actually a pretty good idea in retrospect?

Well, no. Much as I’d love to be a contrary little shit, I’ve just re-watched all nineteen episodes and nearly died of a brain haemorrhage. Sure, maybe there’s some good changes that people have forgotten – and we’ll get to those later. But most of them still leave me blinking with bemusement, or shouting at the telly, or blinking with bemusement and then shouting at the telly.

Yet… there’s a part of me that feels an article like this is somewhat graceless. After all, from a UK perspective… we “won”. The original versions were those first released on DVD. Repeats on TV are always the original versions as well (aside from when Dave screws up and shows the Remastered version of Marooned). Doug Naylor himself has admitted that the project didn’t go as well as he’d have liked. At this point, sneering at Remastered doesn’t seem quite as useful as it did fifteen years ago, when it genuinely – if unintentionally – felt like these versions were indeed replacing the originals.

But then, G&T has never really worried about being graceless. So don your pixel-proof gloves, as we present: The Top 10 Worst Things About Red Dwarf Remastered.

High & Low: Series X Scenes

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It was exactly two years ago today that Red Dwarf X burst onto our screens, heralding a brand new era of regular new series, sensible production schedules, and crystal clear communication with the fans as to the show’s future. In a change to your scheduled programming, High & Low looks back on the very best and very worst Series X Scenes. By sheer coincidence, all six episodes have at least one representative in the top ten, although the same even spread does not apply for the bottom five, with one episode taking up 60% of those spaces. What episode could that possibly be? Bearing the usual “only this writer’s opinion, not that of G&T as a whole” caveat in mind, read on to find out…

High & Low: Special Effects

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Of all the difficult tasks I have faced whilst writing Ganymede & Titan, this has to be one of the most difficultistestist. Even more difficult than writing an article which doesn’t manage to be spectacularly rude about somebody for very little reason. How the bloody hell do you manage to boil down the quite staggering amount of amazing special effects work for Red Dwarf into one easy-to-digest Top 10 list?

Answer: with a lot of kicking, screaming, self-doubt as to the worth of my entire life, and general dissatisfaction. Hopefully that’s sold this article as something well worth reading. Let’s get on with it, shall we?

High & Low: Rimmer Scenes

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After High & Low‘s sojourn into Guest Character territory, we’re sailing back to the main cast here, and arguably the most important character in Red Dwarf; Arnold Judas Rimmer.

Coward, pedant, complete bastard; who IS the real Rimmer? I hope my examination of his best and worst scenes over the past 1o series can shed some light. Or just provoke a mud-slinging row in the comments. As ever, my article, my rules, my opinions.

High & Low: Guest Characters

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Previously on High & Low, we’ve comprehensively and indisputably determined the ten best and five worst cast members’ other shows and DVD extras. With those contentious issues now settled once and for all, we turn to the topic of guest characters. Red Dwarf has always had such a strong core ensemble that it’s a rare occasion when an outsider takes centre stage. But memorable guest performers have often been used to enhance storylines, either for extra comedy value, a threat to the crew’s safety, or to build touching and emotional relationships. The best ones are usually a combination of at least two of the three, and it’s those that we celebrate here, along with some of those that failed to do any of them effectively.

High & Low: DVD Extras

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Welcome to the second installment of our, ahem, “monthly” series, looking at ten of the very best and five of the very worst offerings from one given area of the wider Red Dwarf universe. And the reason you’ve been waiting two months for the second installment of this monthly series is that the topic is something that’s proved very difficult to put into order – namely DVD Extras. We’ve been treated to some of the finest DVD packages that TV comedy has to offer, with hours upon hours of well-researched, fascinating and hilarious extras accompanying each series. How on Titan is it possible to decide which brilliant thing is better than another brilliant thing, or to come up with five that aren’t brilliant? Read on to find out…

High & Low: The Cast’s Other Shows

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Hello and welcome to High & Low, our brand new monthly feature looking at the very best and very worst offerings from the wider world of Red Dwarf. Each month, we’ll be taking a subject and picking out the top ten best examples of whatever that category is. It’s a bit like Buzzfeed, but with lots of words instead of animated gifs taken from Youtube videos. But that’s not all. Because this is G&T, we’ll also be pouring scorn all over the bottom five shit bits from each particular field.

So, what subject will be kicking off this glorious brand spanking new feature? We present the Top 10 and Bottom 5… Cast Members’ Other Shows.

The Silver Survey Results

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Ladies and gentlemen, on the occasion of Red Dwarf‘s twenty-fifth anniversary, we invite you to join us, if you dare, in a journey through the Top 61 episodes of all time, as voted for by YOU. So if you disagree with anything you read here, you’ve only got yourself to blame. This article was an epic undertaking for us, and it will be for you, the reader, as it’s 10,000 words long and jam-packed with more statistics than you can shake a stick at. The words are by Ian Symes, the graphics are by Danny Stephenson, and the massive database that ran the survey was by Jonathan Capps, who also made it all look very pretty with his CSS shenanigans.

Grab yourself a coffee or a beer – whatever’s your poison – and brace yourself. Good luck everybody – here it comes!

You Have Been Watching… Part 1

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Just in case you’ve forgotten, Red Dwarf is set three millions years into the deepest of deep space, in a lonely, alienless Universe, well past the natural life span of the now distant human race. Despite this, and as early as series 1, we’ve always had our fill of guest stars, from artificial intelligences, to human created GELF monstrosities and haughty and / or insane holograms. The apparently narrow scope for guest characters has never been a problem.

Series X is now over and done with and every single episode featured at least one guest character of some description. They’ve all combined to make for a unique series, with encounters of the like we’ve never before, as well as ones expanding on past stories. So join me now, if you will, as I trawl through every single guest character, get to know the actor a little better (search for them on IMDb), assess them (needlessly and overtly infuse the piece with my own opinions) and finally try to work out which ones, if any, we are likely to see again come a potential Red Dwarf XI.

Ten From Ten – Red Dwarf X’s big talking points

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The one accusation that can’t be levelled at Series X is a lack of ideas. With scenarios and stories floating around Doug’s head for over a decade, there was never going to be a shortage of adventures for the crew to get up to. Indeed, many episodes seem to have almost too many ideas, with several interweaving plots competing for screen time. As such, there’s a nagging feeling that we’d liked to have seen more of certain elements, as not all of the questions raised by the concepts were fully answered in the series.

This article, therefore, lists ten of the biggest talking points from the series – a series that contains enough invention and intrigue to keep us talking for years. We’re not saying that these are plot holes or things that Doug neglected; these are just topics that it’s fun and interesting to speculate on in a far more in-depth manner than the pace of a half-hour sit-com episode will allow. In several cases, it’s good and proper that these things weren’t expanded upon within the episodes; not only would it have taken up valuable screen time, but it would also have been a shame if we hadn’t been able to ponder on any in-universe interestingness in the weeks, months and possibly years we’ll spend waiting for Series XI.