Back in the Red: Part Three – It Just Bugs Me

[Pete Part Three]

It’s shit.

Topic

[Tyrell Corporation]

I like Series VIII, it gets such a bashing around here.

[Smeg4Brains]

Not this conversation again!

[Pete Part Three]

>I like Series VIII, it gets such a bashing around here.

See previous post.

>Not this conversation again!

Yeah sorry. Ending this thread now. Sorry. Bye. Sorry.

[ChrisM]

I liked the earlier stuff in Back in the Red… but it dragged for me after that.

Most people prefer the ‘epic’ version but that dragged too.

Rimmer Sexual Magnetism stuff was a chuckle though.

[Jonathan Capps]

Why the distinction of Part Three?

[hummingbird]

Because it’s depressing.

[Smeg4Brains]

I think I’d have gone for “Pete: Part Two”

[Pete Part Three]

Blue Midget dance, horrendous claymation sequence, stupid “still in artificial reality” bit (fine for Better Than Life as a punchline, not as a plot “twist” to pad out the episode ), 5 minute recap of people licking envelopes, horrible over-acting, stupid “still in artificial reality” bit AGAIN…

[Squeaky Gibson]

After watching the Series VIII deleted scenes, I can’t help but think that a one hour opener/two part story would have been better. it would have meant we would have had a second visit to the original bunkroom, when Rimmmer goes on about looking through Starbug’s wreckage and Cat’s make up in the original shoot is much better.

[Seb Patrick]

>Why the distinction of Part Three?

Didn’t we go over this in the Top 51? ;-) Three is easily the worst part.

[Jonathan Capps]

> Didn?t we go over this in the Top 51? ;-) Three is easily the worst part.

Well, yes, but picking out the worst episode of series VIII seems about as pointless as… well, Twitter ;)

[Phil]

>I like Series VIII

I do, too. Just learn when to keep your mouth shut and you’ll be fine. :-)

That said, BITR3 is shit.

[Pete Part Three]

>Well, yes, but picking out the worst episode of series VIII seems about as pointless as? well, Twitter ;)

Or pointing out inconsistencies in Holoship?

[hummingbird]

>I can?t help but think that a one hour opener/two part story would have been better.

My thoughts precisely. Cut out the crap and it could have worked as an hour long ep.
Likewise Pete should have been left as a single ep.

[Seb Patrick]

Pete should have been left in the fucking BIN.

[Andrew]

>I like Series VIII

You are not alone.

[Mr Flibble]

You are not alone.

Coming Soon: X-Files The Movie 3! Mulder and Sculley investigate a disturbing case of people liking Red Dwarf Series VIII, which leads them to an evil dictator hiding in a deserted studio…

[hummingbird]

>I like Series VIII

I almost-but-not-quite like VIII. I mean, there *is* some good material there, but there’s also a lot of weak gags that are, frankly, unworthy of RD.

Had they ruthlessly edited the script, cut out the padding and the more cringe-worthy moments (blue midget dance, basketball game, Archie, most of Krytie TV), and condensed the good stuff into 6 eps instead of 8, then, yes, it could have been great.

VII, now, is another matter entirely.

[ChrisM]

Blue midget dance doesn’t bother me as much as it does other people. Cheesy yes, but the ‘it’s a dream’ hindsight somehow made it ok.

Basketball- I found this very entertaining. Come on, prisoners doing a mexican wave…

Archie… the earlier part in Kochanski’s room I found funny, but overall superfluous. It just felt like a gag that was stuck in (no pun intended) for somewhere to put it.

Krytie TV. Sorry. Loved it. (But I’ve got a bit of a naughty sense of humor.)

I agree it could have been edited down though. It was mainly the running gag with Rimmer and Lister in front of Hollister in Pete that bugged me (although the sparrow dinosaur gag made me smile.). Not that I dislike running gags in general. I liked the Space corps directives in series 6 for example. It just… felt…. looooong.

I don’t think I really dislike any Dwarf really, it’s just a matter of degrees. (Yet to see the Red Christmas mobisode though.)

[Mnoooah]

I’m going to come right out and fly my VIII flag. Krytie TV and Cassandra were great, Back in the Red did its job more often than not and the basketball game was not only classic underdog conniving, but at least a plausibly dark reason for such an apparantly mickey mouse punishment. (Surely they had the fortune of landing in the least oppressive prison in the universe, or indeed, all time. No one seems to have died on these suicide missions.)

In general, VIII strikes me as a good idea, recovering the ship is both interesting and a little bit logical, but I can only describe the sour notes as a reflection of what happened to the characters. I think someone said before they seemed to devolve into a brighter, goofier version of themselves.

This led them to mostly do things that were funny, but not nearly as interesting or else radically out of character-
Kryten learning to lie: awesome. Kryten learning to say No by taking hostages: …wha?

But I’m with Chris in that I can’t really dislike any of the seasons, all of them accomplish something or other for character and narrative and if a show is funny enough most of the time, I’ll forgive it most anything.

[pfm]

I like Krytie TV too. That and Cassandra are the only individual episodes that hold up in any way. That was until BITR got the DVD treatment, of course. So I know find at least half of VIII watchable. Some of it funny too. Though BITR really should have been one 30min episode. I’m betting it would have been brilliant if Doug had set out to make it as one.

Regarding the DVD cut of BITR, I would be very pleased if the newly proposed hourlong episode (if that indeed IS what is being planned) was along those lines. The comedy isn’t that bad really (the dire parts aside…), it’s mainly the story and situation that lets it down. Something more standalone with some nice sci-fi in there would satisfy me.

[peas_and_corn]

>Coming Soon: X-Files The Movie 3! Mulder and Sculley investigate a disturbing case of people liking Red Dwarf Series VIII, which leads them to an evil dictator hiding in a deserted studio?

Shut up shut up shut up! Chris Carter might read that! Fox will probably give him another $2.50 to make a film about that.

>I agree it could have been edited down though. It was mainly the running gag with Rimmer and Lister in front of Hollister in Pete that bugged me (although the sparrow dinosaur gag made me smile.). Not that I dislike running gags in general. I liked the Space corps directives in series 6 for example. It just? felt?. looooong.

Pete part 2 was absolute crap. Part one… it was all right, if you ignore the pasted in “archie” bits.

And can someone explain to me why exactly Kochanski, Cat and Kryten were imprisoned when it was only Lister and Rimmer who used the confidential information?

[Zombie Jim Undead]

Some of Back in the Red Part 1 and Cassandra are nice. The rest of Series 8 can cunt right up a fuck.

[Tonguetied]

Part three was alright in my opinion, don’t know if anyone noticed but when Cat throws his lab coat off, in the next shot you don’t see where it landed. Artificial Reality cleans up the mess.

[Ian Symes]

Yeah, that was definitely intentional.

[Ridley]

Do the people that hate the Midget dance hate Tongue Tied?

(I like series VIII…)

[Seb Patrick]

No, because Tongue Tied is actually GOOD.

[Mnoooah]

See? I don’t, and I don’t know why. There’s just better and worse ways of tacking things on, I guess.

[Jonathan Capps]

> See? I don?t, and I don?t know why. There?s just better and worse ways of tacking things on, I guess.

Exactly. Tongue Tied is no less a shameless set piece than the Blue Midgett dance (and clearly they both exist for exactly the same reason – to give Danny some dancing) it’s just that the former doesn’t contain shocking CG and shite music.

[Pete Part Three]

Well, quite.

There’s also the feeling that Doug and Ed thought it was as impressive as the MIB music video. Which it isn’t.

It goes on far too long, makes no sense (false teeth? Cat being kicked by the Midget?…Don’t give me the shit about it “being all a dream”, it’s still awful), and is embarrassing to watch. The choreography isn’t even that good.

And people liking series VIII is fine. People paid to watch Epic Movie and Meet the Spartans too.

[Tonguetied]

The music in Tongue Tied is actually quite catchy, albeit dated. Whereas Blue Midget dance if I remember had that silly cartoonish tune and of course the chattering teeth. The teeth were the only good part about that sequence.

[Zombie Jim Undead]

Exunctly. Tongue Tied exists as a batshit mental dance routine, with genuinely amusing lyrics, within an intelligent well-written series.

The blue midget dance exists as an irritating, pointless, arse-clenchingly embarrasing exercise in wasting time / showing off mediocre effects / lame sight-gags amidst an ocean of sloppy weakly written bowel gravy.

[Danny Stephenson]

It was the only music specially created for the show, The Music Cue section for Series VIII Is rather depressing considering the amount for the other 7 series.

I’ve always wondered, and I also apologise if this has already been answered but: Was Howard Goodall not approached for Series VIII at all, was there a conflict of interest or was he just busy on other projects?

[Andrew]

I believe it was a budget thing. Library music’s cheaper, and was used a lot on VII in place of the score that was delivered. (As per the assassination sequence in Tikka, for example.) So I guess the feeling could have been ‘Why pay for it if we’re not going to use it?’

[Tonguetied]

I only really liked the return of the old transitional music in the background when Red Dwarf was passing by. I really hated the country music played during the peeling of the spuds .

[Danny Stephenson]

god don’t that music makes me cringe so bad…

[Mnoooah]

Well you know how it is, you leave your paper to the very last night and when you get library the only thing left is Goodnight Moon.

[ChrisM]

>I?m going to come right out and fly my VIII flag. Krytie TV and Cassandra were great

I didn’t mention Cassandra in my post above, and indeed, this ^^^^ is very true. A great old style episode.

If you follow what I mean about ‘old style’.

[Phil]

>If you follow what I mean about ?old style?.

Doesn’t it mean that the actors don’t talk in a naturalistic style?

[Andrew]

> Doesn?t it mean that the actors don?t talk in a naturalistic style?

:-D

[ChrisM]

I have to admit the thought popped in my head as I wrote that.

Kind of opened myself up for that didn’t I?

I meant the kind of episode of similar structure and humor from earlier Dwarf episodes (I guess Future Echoes would be the obvious one.)

But I’m sure you know that’s what I meant.

[Squeaky Gibson]

>I only really liked the return of the old transitional music in the background when Red Dwarf was passing by.

I agree, that really was a nice touch and a nice throw back to series 1. also some of the CG shots (even though they are the same ones they used for Remastered series) look ten times sharper, the opening fly-by at the beginning of Krytie TV springs to mind and the overhead shot just before Ackerman whinges about some stealing his eye, is also good. though the Original models, still capture more detail.

[pfm]

> also some of the CG shots (even though they are the same ones they used for Remastered series) look ten times sharper

IMO the Bodysnatcher Collection made the Re: An Utter Utter Bastard CG shots look a lot better. Only the VII CG pisses me off.

One thing, will Howard Goodall be involved in the new project?

[Phil]

We know Norm won’t be involved as he’s busy wrapping up production on Roswell 1847.

[Mnoooah]

monkey finally askes one question we’ve been dancing around, dear father christmas, bring us the budget for original music!

Do we? DO we Phil? We’re in a goddamn hall of mirrors here! Arrrggghhhhh!

[hummingbird]

The problem with the Midget dance scene (as well as it being over-long) is that it just isn’t funny.

Whereas Tongue Tied *is* – and not because the song/dance is terribly funny, but because it’s character-based: it’s R & L doing the routine in those costumes that makes you laugh the most. Tongue Tied isn’t funny at all if you have no knowledge of character.

The Midget routine is a fantastic vehicle for Danny, but it doesn’t serve the show as a whole. And it
a) slows down the action
b) goes on for ever
c) just isn’t funny

[Dave]

I have no problem with the Midget dance in principle and I don’t think it’s just padding, but it’s so bloody repetitive.

[Antipodean]

I do like Series VIII. Not as much as VII, which again I don’t like as much as VI, which again I don’t like as much as the first five. But I do still like VIII.

The thing is, “Back in the Red” would work as a two-parter. It’d work really well. But as a three-parter it’s just annoyingly stretched out with too many unnecessary bits (the dance, the claymation, the whole reshoot bit in the next “layer” of AR – and I thought the latter two *were* funny, but they were pointless). The thing is, couldn’t Doug or Paul have come up with another story idea to put in the middle of the series (to go either 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th), instead of shooting extra scenes to extend BitR?

My other big issue with VIII is that I think “Pete” should have been one episode and “Only the Good” should have been a two-parter (you could split it at the point where the rest of the crew evacuate). With those changes I reckon the quality of VIII as a whole would be lifted.

[Pete Part Three]

>The thing is, couldn?t Doug or Paul have come up with another story idea

Well, since the only decent story idea in VIII is a rip off of Future Echoes…Probably not.

[peas_and_corn]

It might be a rip off, but it involves sexiness, which makes it better?

[Author]

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