Americans watch Red Dwarf for the first time and it's…

[Dave]

Best Bond? Goldeneye on N64.

Yeah you’ve got me there.

One-hit-kills and proximity mines all the way.

[International Debris]

From Russia With Love, On Her Majesties Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, License to Kill, Skyfall. Some great Bond there.

Bond should be worse than it is. There are loads of problematic bits – the lead character being a misogynistic psychopath, for a start – but somehow they’re done with enough style and, post-Thunderball, knowingness, that the films manage to get away with it.

Ones I don’t like that everyone seems to love: Dr. No, Live and Let Die, Goldeneye.

[clem]

> Often I find I like each actor’s first movie best

That works for me with Dalton, Craig and, erm, Lazenby. And Moore I guess. I *like* other Moore films at least as much as I like LALD but I’d probably agree it’s his best.

http://dissecting007.blogspot.com/2015/08/every-james-bonds-tenure.html?m=1

[Toxteth O-Grady]

There’s also the argument that in their 3rd film, each actor gives their best performance (as they’ve become comfortable in the role, and the script has been specifically written for them). It’s tough to argue with.

– Goldfinger
– The Spy Who Loved Me
– The World Is Not Enough
– Skyfall

Obviously Dalton and Lazenby never made it that far (although Dalton in Licence to Kill is great)

On the flip side, each of those actors’ final Bond films was easily their worst:

– Diamonds Are Forever
– A View To A Kill (look out for Tony Hawks!)
– Die Another Day

Here’s hoping Craig’s next (and probably last) outing will buck this trend.

[Ben Saunders]

The best Bond is Everything Or Nothing on PS2, though. Platinum. Tanks. Willem Dafoe. Come on people.

[clem]

> A View To A Kill (look out for Tony Hawks!)

WHAT?! Where?

[Paul Muller]

And of course, who could forget the most famous Bond star cameos in Red Dwarf;

The tank from Goldeneye/Beyond a Joke and (allegedly) a chunk of Moonraker space station/Nova 5 miniature.

[tombow]

Everything Or Nothing is a real flawed masterpiece. It can range from being the most fiddly frustrating thing you’ve ever played, to being almost magical in it’s ability to make you feel like you really are Bond making chaos in an OTT action movie.

[Toxteth O-Grady]

>WHAT?! Where?

This is very poor quality, but you can see him here:

I tweeted him about to check it was him, and replied immediately confirming it with embarrassment.

[clem]

Thank you. Yeah I can kinda see why he’s embarrassed. Still, he’s in a Bond film. Can’t think of anyone else who’s been in Bond and Dwarf.

[tombow]

The only other Bond/Dwarf link I can think of is Chris Barrie and Daniel Craig both being in the first Tomb Raider.

[clem]

https://m.uk.ign.com/articles/2000/09/26/madonna-in-red-dwarf

She had to settle for being in Die Another Day and doing the song for it.

[Paul Muller]

I wonder where the link in that article to ‘bizarre’ production reports went to originally?

I think she was supposed to play some sort of Simulant Queen thing wasn’t she?

[Ridley]

The (presumed) homo sapienoid from that Red Dwarf movie media kit pamphlet thing?

[clem]

Tbh I don’t remember the story. I Googled red dwarf madonna just to confirm she was one of the very famous people rumoured to be a Red Dwarf fan back in the day, and I hadn’t just made that up. Bill Clinton was another one of course. I’d love to know where that came from.

[Warbodog]

IMDb says Gary Powell was (stunt performer – uncredited) in Gunmen of the Apocalypse and (stunt double: Bond double #1 – uncredited) / (stunts) in GoldenEye. So he’d be indistinguishably on screen in both.

[Hamish]

> I wonder where the link in that article to ‘bizarre’ production reports went to originally?

The Wayback Machine is your friend:
https://web.archive.org/web/20001017190244/https://filmforce.ign.com/news/1380.html

[tombow]

Has anyone been in both RD and Star Wars other than Koo Stark? ( Lady Sabrina Mulholland-Jjones
in Timeslides and Camie in the original cut of New Hope)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5724/22783926380_c75c369f5e_b.jpg

Has anyone been in both RD and Doctor Who other than Angela Bruce? (Brigadier Bamera and Parallel Lister)

http://pm1.narvii.com/6087/25bc7ab801d86e95cc0a97f5894296f639e1023d_00.jpg

[Dave]

There must be loads for Doctor Who, surely. The first one that springs to mind is Asclepius (Jami Reid-Quarrell) who was Colony Sarff and the Veil in DW series 9.

[Ben Saunders]

Not Red Dwarf but interesting anyway: Jeremy Bulloch was in the first Sontaran story of Doctor Who before going on to play Boba Fett.

“Lady Sabrina Mulholland-Jjones” has to be one of THE funniest things in all of Dwarf. Just something about the double-J.

[clem]

I wouldn’t know about Doctor Who but Jeremy “Boba Fett” Bulloch is also Smithers in For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy.

> Has anyone been in both RD and Star Wars other than Koo Stark?

The late Don Henderson of Bulman fame, who I always refer to exactly like that because the cave guide in League of Gentlemen does, is the simulant in Beyond a Joke and is in A New Hope.

[tombow]

Wow so he is the first person to utter the word Sith on screen? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Erf6s_wYJk

[Ben Saunders]

I love that deleted scene, there’s just something so engaging about it, even though it’s incomplete and unedited etc. First time I saw it I thought whoa. And yep, the word Sith had been around since at least ’76 but was never spoken on screen until Episode I (?); I think it’s used in the novelisation which came out before the film or something.

[Lemming Sunday]

Frances Barber has been in both.

[CB3]

Wasn’t Mac McDonald in The Empire Strikes Back? As a rebel pilot apparently, though I’ve never noticed him myself.

[International Debris]

“Lady Sabrina Mulholland-Jjones” has to be one of THE funniest things in all of Dwarf. Just something about the double-J.

It’s an absolutely excellent silly name. Makes me wish they’d done more.

[si]

Kevin Eldon’s been in RD and Hyperdrive. That’s a limited members club.

[Plastic Percy]

Jack Klaff was Abraham Lincoln in ‘Meltdown’, Red Four in ‘A New Hope’ and Apostis in ‘For Your Eyes Only’.

[Warbodog]

I was concerned that the Roger Moore era was going to be too stupid to appreciate, what with the Alan Partridge endorsement, but Live and Let Die was loads of fun and Yaphet Kotto’s death was hilarious, so keep it coming.

[International Debris]

Be interested to see what you make of Moonraker.

[tombow]

I was surprised that he only got to space in the end showdown, obviously I thought the whole film was in space

[clem]

Made on location in “OUTER SPACE!” according to the credits.

[Pete Part Three]

I did a double-take when I saw that. You know, like pigeons do.

[Plastic Percy]

People forget, you can get lost in space.

[Ben Saunders]

>Made on location in “OUTER SPACE!” according to the credits.

[Warbodog]

Because it was asked, I enjoyed Moonraker. Alternately crazily thrilling and quite dull, far from my least favourite (Golden Gun/Diamonds or Casino ’67 if that counts). Definitely the most over-the-top so far (I figure the 80s will hit the brakes hard then), but to their credit, they succeeded in gradually raising my suspension of disbelief to the point that I still accepted it as a Bond film – right up to the moment a blaster was fired and it became Star Wars for 20 minutes.

[StokeMeAClipper]

Forgive the necroing of a semi-old thread. But my suggestion for a first watch would be Bodyswap or Marooned.

[Warbodog]

Thanks for the bump/excuse.

1. Skyfall, 2. From Russia with Love, 3. Licence to Kill, 4. Goldfinger, 5. The Spy Who Loved Me, 6. Live and Let Die, 7. Casino Royale, 8. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, 9. Moonraker, 10. You Only Live Twice, 11. Dr No, 12. The Living Daylights, 13. GoldenEye, 14. Octopussy, 15. Never Say Never Again, 16. Thunderball, 17. Tomorrow Never Dies, 18. For Your Eyes Only, 19. Spectre, 20. Die Another Day, 21. The World Is Not Enough, 22. Quantum of Solace, 23. Diamonds Are Forever, 24. A View to a Kill, 25. The Man With the Golden Gun, 26. Casino Royale 1967

Dalton.

[clem]

> Dalton.

Yep.

That’s not a bad ranking. TWINE so low and worst of Brosnan’s though?!

[Warbodog]

I was just bored by TWINE, and the Brosnan era was depressing me generally by not being the direction I wanted after LTK. DAD was definitely worse, but I had more fun laughing at its expense and was relieved it was the last one.

[clem]

Ah, the Brosnan films were my first exposure to Bond, but yeah I can see how they might seem like a bit of a retrograde step if you were watching them all in order these days. After such a long gap there was definitely a conscious effort to go back to a tried and tested formula. I think they did try and have their cake and eat it to an extent though, and sometimes the grittiness is at odds with the lighter tone. Brosnan himself, however, manages to be a cross between Connery and Moore quite brilliantly I think
And I do have a soft spot for the utter bollocks of DAD when I’m in the right mood for it.

[Warbodog]

I would have appreciated Brosnan more if I’d taken a break after LTK like they did. I mainly enjoyed the tank stealing the show in GoldenEye and Michelle Yeoh in TND.

I remember seeing an advert for this Bond box set in some magazine c.2000 and my traditional 70-something Nana pointing out the good Bonds: Connery, Moore and (surprisingly) Brosnan. Fun to think of her watching GoldenEye on ITV and loving it.

[clem]

Old ladies like a Bond with a twinkle in his eye I guess.

VHS tapes took up a lot of space, didn’t they?

[International Debris]

I really enjoy Tomorrow Never Dies. It captures the romp feel of the most fun Moore films, without the faux-grittiness of GoldenEye or the gimmicky shite of the other two Brosnans. It’s the only Brosnan I can imagine wanting to ever watch again, tank scene aside.

[Dave]

I think all the Brosnan Bonds have their moments, although Die Another Day is largely shite.

[Hamish]

Warren Zevon, after getting his cancer diagnosis, said he wanted to live long enough to see the next Bond film. That alone justifies Die Another Day.

[Author]

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