The Promised Land Review Reviews Posted by Jonathan Capps on 3rd May 2020, 18:55 I’ve been thinking a lot about what I expected from The Promised Land. Over the years since Back To Earth - and so since the general death of any idea of a movie - my relationship with and expectation from the show has changed a fair bit. I was someone for whom Back to Earth was a relief as, despite its flaws, it was a large step up from Series VIII. In this way, it was and still is the saviour of the show’s legacy, even if it’s been superseded since. Series X was when the young, entitled fan in me finally fucked off as now not only did we have something better than VIII, it was better than VIII while playing the same, audience sit-com game. The era of the audience-less, movie-ish experiments of VII and BTE were a distant memory and a new, proper rebirth era was on us. From that point on, new Dwarf didn’t really have any saving to do and Series XI and XII came along possessing a huge amount of confidence in the format, and for the first time since 1994 the show wasn’t in the middle of a giant, near destructive identity crisis and I was no longer particularly worried about what would come next. Read more →
Stellar Rescue – Smart Breakdown Review Reviews Posted by Jonathan Capps on 2nd March 2020, 21:13 You all know the feeling. You finally decide to act like an adult and get that breakdown cover and then you go months and months without any cause to use it. Well, thankfully Starbug's finally carked it again after eight months of smooth running and so the AA are back to get it back on the SPACE ROAD and give us all another little tranche of Dwarf to enjoy. Most of Ian's excellent breakdown of Stellar Rescue could be copied and pasted here without changing much, and that's not particularly surprising. This was shot at the same time as the first advert and it follows pretty much the same structure, but it's still really fun to have new(ish) Red Dwarf gags while we wait for the Special later in the Spring. Read more →
Stellar Rescue Review Reviews Posted by Ian Symes on 1st July 2019, 22:43 Well, we certainly weren't expecting this to happen today. We only caught wind of the possibility of Red Dwarf collaborating with The AA last Thursday, when a giant Starbug was pictured with an AA van near the Angel of the North, with resultant undeclared promotional pieces reported in the local press. When Danny John-Jules reassured us that "all will be revealed" on the 1st July, we were expecting a tweet or a press release. Not for a minute-long chunk of full unadulterated brand new Red Dwarf to turn up unannounced at ten o'clock in the morning. This is what all those hints about the cast getting back together have been leading to. It's not Series XIII - though that's not to say that work isn't also taking place on that - it's Rimmer, Lister, Cat, Kryten and Starbug appearing in a television advert for The AA. The idea of my favourite show doing an advert might have filled me with dread and disgust at one time, with that Bill Hicks quote about "being off the artistic roll call" ringing in my ears. But the world has changed since then, and there are lot of things working in favour of this particular ad. It's all original material, not just exploiting old clips and tainting them by association. It looks and feels like the current show, not some nostalgia trip trying to recapture past glories. And of all the brands they could have associated themselves with - betting companies, loan sharks, shady foreign exchange business - there's not much fault to find with The AA. As it happens, there's no need to worry. This advert is so well-made and so charming that it's impossible not to be wooed. Read more →
Red Dwarf: Series I-VIII Bluray Review Reviews Posted by Ian Symes on 18th January 2019, 09:21 Oh boy, where to begin? This is comfortably the largest Red Dwarf release ever, containing not only 71.2% of all episodes ever (or Series I-VIII, as most people refer to it), but all the extras from the original DVD range, including The Bodysnatcher Collection. Not only that, the episodes have been restored, upscaled to a high-definition resolution, and given what's been officially referred to as an "extensive" colour grade. It's a release that was rumoured for a very long time before it was finally announced, and one that's only now arriving some three and a half months later than the original release date. Our attitude towards the release during that time has ranged from ambivalence to open hostility, but now that it's finally here, is it indeed the ultimate collection of Red Dwarf - the definitive version of the episodes, packaged with all the extras you'd ever need - that it has the potential to be? Read more →
The Quanderhorn Xperimentations (book) Reviews Posted by Ian Symes on 1st July 2018, 13:11 NOTE: While this review is spoiler free, readers are free to discuss the novel in the comments, which may contain spoilers for future episodes of the radio series. The first thing that strikes you when you pick up a copy of The Quanderhorn Xperimentations is that it's BIG. Certainly a heavier tome than any of the Red Dwarf novels, and comfortably the largest installment of Rob Grant's post-Dwarf literary career so far. He has some help here, of course, from the presence of co-writer Andrew Marshall, as well as the existence of six freshly-written radio scripts to adapt. The press release that first alerted us to its existence promised us the book would be "springing and expanded from" the radio series, bringing to mind the aforementioned Dwarf novels, which still stand as masterpieces of their genre for the way they take the source material and use it to build a much bigger universe. Now that the book has hit the shelves, does the reality meet those, admittedly rather hard-to-match, expectations? Read more →
Red Dwarf XII: Bluray/DVD Review Reviews Posted by Ian Symes on 26th November 2017, 21:23 Ladies and gentlemen, it's a new record. Series XII was released on shiny disc just four days after the last episode was broadcast on TV, which in any normal circumstances would make you worry that the release would be a rush job. But due to the back-to-back filming of both the last two series and their accompanying behind-the-scenes shoots, the lead time on this package is the longest they've ever had. The Series XI release set the bar pretty low for its counterpart. While the extras it featured maintained the levels of quality and entertainment value we've come to expect, it fell short of telling as comprehensive a story as any of its predecessors, and the significantly lower than average running time left us feeling a little short-changed. Will the Series XII release seek to address those shortcomings, or are we in for more of the same? Let's rip open the (sadly stickerless) cellophane and find out. Read more →
Red Dwarf XII: The Game – A First Look Reviews Posted by Jonathan Capps on 21st November 2017, 10:07 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'. Read more →
Red Dwarf XII: Skipper Review Reviews Posted by Ian Symes on 14th November 2017, 16:49 For the third time since Red Dwarf's revival, I find myself sitting down to review a series finale, and pondering the very nature of what a series finale ought to entail. The Beginning went for an emotional resolution, leaving the characters very much in a place where they can be picked up again, but providing a satisfying full stop to their adventures if the worst came to the worst. Can of Worms didn't have to do that, and indeed it wasn't initially designed to be the final episode; it was placed at the end presumably because it was deemed to be one of the strongest, with an attention-grabbing premise to raise expectations. Skipper aims to tick both of those boxes, and yet in many ways it's like no Red Dwarf finale that's been before. While it shares with Back To Reality the threat of a fundamental change to the show's formula, it packs so many big and varied ideas into its running time that it feels more along the lines of a Doctor Who finale - throwing handfuls of elements from the history of the series together, jumbling them all up and turning everything up to 11. It super-serves the hardcore fans and hooks in the casual and lapsed ones with a much-publicised returning guest star, then hits them all with surprise after surprise when it gets underway. Such a unique episode of Red Dwarf needs to be tackled in a different way. The story can be split into three distinct stages, both in terms of the progression of the plot and the journey of the main character. So let's deal with those stages one by one. Read more →
Red Dwarf XII: M-Corp Review Reviews Posted by John Hoare on 7th November 2017, 14:30 There's a moment, very early on in M-Corp, which set my mood for the entire episode. It's a very small exchange, I've got to admit. KRYTEN: Now, eat up. It's time for your present. LISTER: Ah, I don't need a present, Krytes. I've got everything I need. KRYTEN: Sir. You've got nothing. And with this single joke - with its bleak matter-of-factness - I relaxed. I relaxed in the same way Back to Earth made me tense up, with its tedious ironed sneezes and unearned graveside pathos. Unfairly or not, I've had enough problems with post-1993 Dwarf that each episode needs to win me round anew. Many never manage it. Just make me laugh, dammit. M-Corp not only won me round. It's my favourite Dave-era episode, by a considerable margin. Read more →
Red Dwarf XII: Mechocracy Review Reviews Posted by Jonathan Capps on 1st November 2017, 20:03 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. Read more →
