Home Forums Ganymede & Titan Forum Chris Barrie has updated his website

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  • #235301
    Bargain Bin Holly
    Participant

    http://www.chrisbarrie.co.uk/

    He mentions the weather, tanks, and his dislike of people requesting his appearance on podcasts; but he also included this tidbit on future Red Dwarf and Brittas Empire:

    “At the risk of repeating something I seem to have said many times over the last umpteen years, I simply do not know if/when we will be doing more Red Dwarf. Over the winter of 2015/16 when we made series 11 and 12, some common sense momentum seemed to be building, but, since then, the project seems to have juddered to a halt. In the desert of silence I do encounter the occasional droplet of positivity but that’s it. If the droplet ever becomes a trickle, I shall of course leap to the keyboard and let you know.

    The Brittas position is not dissimilar. Since the promising newspaper articles of a couple of years ago and the enthusiasm of the Reunion last year, it all seems to have gone all quiet on the Whitbury front. All I can do is continue to express my desire to recreate the chainsaw voiced ogre and that is something I shall certainly keep doing.”

    Thanks to Chris Barrie Fans for making this known on Twitter.

    #235303
    Dave
    Participant

    That’s disappointing. It has rather killed that sense of momentum.

    #235306
    Bargain Bin Holly
    Participant

    I think we’ll be fine tbh, I feel like Chris may have accidentally worded it in a way where it sounds worse than it actually is on part due to the UKTV and Virgin Media debacle.

    We’ll definitely guaranteed at least one or two more series of course. At that point we can shift focus onto the video game, movie, action figures, and crossover special for Red Nose Day.

    #235315
    Dax101
    Participant

    I feel like Doug will get another series off the ground even if it takes another 10 years to do it.

    #235320

    I’m surprised. Chris strikes me as the kind of guy that doesn’t believe in the internet and still send out postal updates.

    #235321
    Dave
    Participant

    I wonder if the ‘desert’ feels longer for the cast given that they finished making XII eighteen months ago now, when it’s a lot fresher in our minds as viewers.

    #235337

    It’s even longer if you think of when XI and XII were confirmed. It’s over three years since the public announcement, so probably quite a bit longer since the cast last heard of the show being greenlit.

    #235338
    NoFro
    Participant

    One of my first dates with my partner of almost three years was seeing Krysis filmed so yeah, the cast haven’t been working on Dwarf for a long old while apart from promotional stuff.

    And yes, I do take people on the best dates.

    #235341
    (deleted)
    Participant

    XII wasn’t filmed 18 months ago – it was filmed *two and a half years ago*, with XI closer to three. Even X and XI were only four years apart.

    I am starting to wonder if something has fallen through to be honest. I know at least one big name crew member was very unhappy post XII with their treatment. Kerry Waddell’s not with Baby Cow anymore, nor is Henry Normal. So even the co-production involvement wouldn’t be guaranteed.

    XIII should have been filmed last winter gone for broadcast this autumn, whether a series or an extended anniversary special. That was the window right there and it’s long gone. Momentum like that expires quickly – if they don’t have something on next year it’s probably gone, all it takes is an exec at UKTV or Dave changing to someone who isn’t a fan and that’s the end of it. Taskmaster has already overtaken it as Dave’s signature show, practically overnight.

    #235342
    Ben Saunders
    Participant

    Just phone up Big Finish to get them to pump out 50 audios a year while everybody is still alive, which appears to be their business model

    #235343

    When they announced doing 2 series back to back I honestly thought it was the start of recording 2 series, have a year off but air one series each year, then record another 2, have a year off but air one series each year etc.

    So we’d constantly have a new Red Dwarf series each year, with production happening once every 18-24 months to allow for schedules not to clash too much and get the gang together (something which should be easier with Craig resigning from Corrie)

    Alas … that didn’t come to fruition, so I fear Darrell maybe right. Unless XIII is commission this year, the taste for it may waiver. Sure we’ve gone a long time before, but surely a channel like Dave would want a new series every year or so, not intermittently. But who knows.

    Fingers crossed we get more.

    #235344
    Dave
    Participant

    XII wasn’t filmed 18 months ago – it was filmed *two and a half years ago*, with XI closer to three. Even X and XI were only four years apart.

    You’re right, my brain let me down there didn’t it? My point is even more true given that, it must feel to them like an age since they were last making the show – any sense of momentum must have long passed.

    #235345
    GlenTokyo
    Participant

    If you’re Dave you have to really want Red Dwarf because they can crank out Taskmaster (though the quality has fallen with the latest series) for a fraction of the cost you’d imagine.

    I think they do want Red Dwarf, but maybe there’s wrangling over budgets.

    Or maybe Doug is concentrating on the bluray re-release thinking that the numbers coming in from that will make Dave open their wallets a bit more.

    #235346
    Bargain Bin Holly
    Participant

    Well I’m paranoid now, tho maybe a little unjustly; is it that Taskmaster has become Dave’ signature show now? I’m not in the UK so I wouldn’t know, but when I was browsing those ‘Virgin Media dropping UKTV’ news articles, they often put Red Dwarf publicity shots up as examples of UK-exclusive television. So I assumed Red Dwarf was still a big part of Dave and maybe a decent chunk of UKTV.

    #235347
    Bargain Bin Holly
    Participant

    *examples of UKTV-exclusive television

    #235348
    Pete Part Three
    Participant

    I have nothing to add to this thread, except:

    Chris Barrie should be in more stuff.

    #235349
    Bargain Bin Holly
    Participant

    I heard Chris Barrie was originally considered for Rowan Atkinson’s part as that talking bird in The Lion King; I’ve been clinically disappointed ever since

    #235352
    GlenTokyo
    Participant

    I’d say Red Dwarf is definitely second to Taskmaster in the signiture original productions stakes but Taskmaster is light entertainment comedy and Dwarf is sci-fi and has a history (which might affect casual views) so I feel like it always would be. Dave have started giving more comedians their own shows now, so if one of those takes off then maybe Dwarf would move down the pecking order, but at the moment it’s a strong second. Seems like they’re extremely proud of it, but it isn’t the thing they get the most benefit out of I imagine.

    #235354
    bloodteller
    Participant

    Shame there’s seemingly no new Red Dwarf being broadcast this year though- what with it being the 30th anniversary it feels slightly sad that there’s been basically no celebration or anything.

    I for one would love to see Can’t Smeg Won’t Smeg 2

    #235362
    Warbodog
    Participant

    Red Dwarf Taskmaster special/s. Commissions itself.

    #235364
    GlenTokyo
    Participant

    Think the Dwarf cast are too old to do Taskmaster, the insurance would be ridiculous.

    Get Greg Davies as a villain on Red Dwarf though.

    #235365
    Warbodog
    Participant

    Frank Skinner, Bob Mortimer, Hugh Dennis, Liza Tarbuck and Tim Vine all did TM in their 50s. Robert would be the oldest they’ve had, but his Scrapheap experience could come in handy. If the Red Dwarf cast are known for being especially shagged-out, just let them sit down.

    #235366
    GlenTokyo
    Participant

    Need 5, who’s the fifth? Norm? That makes a panel with a combined age of 302.

    Bit of a difference between one or two older contestant out of 5, and the Red Dwarf crew haha..

    Bob was the most fucked but had 4 younger colleagues with him. Taskmaster where they don’t do anything that could result in minor injury is taskmaster that’s not worth watching. So many tasks are physical.

    #235369
    flanl3
    Participant

    They could possibly also have it be in character, like Can’t Smeg Won’t Smeg.

    Smegmaster?

    #235371
    Dave
    Participant

    Get Greg Davies as a villain on Red Dwarf though.

    The Husbands Of River Song gives you a good idea of how that might be. I enjoyed him in that.

    #235392
    Moonlight
    Participant

    Now I’m terrified we won’t get more.

    Thanks a lot, Chris Barrie.

    #235394
    Pete Part Three
    Participant

    It’s OK, Robert will shoot his mouth off in a day or two and get everyone excited again.

    #235396
    flanl3
    Participant

    Stirmaster.

    #235398
    cwickham
    Participant

    If we don’t get any more then it’s had a good run. Three proper new series, most of which was quite good, of a sitcom that ended in 1999 in the 2010s is nothing to be sniffed at. I just hope that Doug gets to write something that brings closure and is definitively meant to be the last episode ever.

    #235399
    bloodteller
    Participant

    >I just hope that Doug gets to write something that brings closure and is definitively meant to be the last episode ever.

    What would the definite final ever episode be like? There was quite a feeling of closure in Skipper already- Rimmer and Lister looking out the porthole and remarking “We’re really home…” but Rimmer realising he just can’t stay. With a bit of tweaking to make it a little more emotional, that felt like it could easily have been the last ever Red Dwarf scene.

    #235400
    bloodteller
    Participant

    Out Of Time and Back To Reality both felt like possible last episodes ever too, though.

    #235402
    Dave
    Participant

    I feel like every series gets an ending that could let it stand as the last ever episode. Apart from XI really, for obvious reasons.

    #235406
    bloodteller
    Participant

    I dunno, I don’t think IV, VII or VIII have endings that could work as the last episode ever.

    #235407
    Dave
    Participant

    Sorry, I meant Dave era.

    #235408
    cwickham
    Participant

    Doug has said – as recently as post-XII – he has an idea for a potential definitively-last-episode-ever, hasn’t he?

    #235409

    I thought he said he’d never do one, actually.

    #235411
    Dave
    Participant

    Yeah, didn’t he say in interviews that he prefers those series that don’t contrive a big finale?

    #235412
    Dax101
    Participant

    >Doug has said – as recently as post-XII – he has an idea for a potential definitively-last-episode-ever, hasn’t he?

    He has said he prefers to write potential final episodes as just fun stories. he doesn’t sound like he wants to write a proper final episode.

    Overall i think Doug is stubborn enough that we will get more Red Dwarf at some point.

    #235413
    Dave
    Participant

    From here:

    http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/tv/red-dwarf/43633/red-dwarf-doug-naylor-on-a-final-end-to-the-show

    “I don’t want to write a final episode.

    Seinfeld did a final episode and Larry David said it was a mistake, that if he had his time all over again, he wouldn’t write the final episode. I think the feeling was it was a slight disappointment.

    I think when people die you don’t often get any warning and you don’t know when it’s going to be and I’d rather we just go.”

    #235414
    Dax101
    Participant

    <blockquote cite=”Is Red Dwarf a show that will one day have a definitive, rounded conclusion, or will you continue to make open-ended episodes indefintely?

    It’s hard to say because I don’t know when it will end. I’ve asked myself before ‘if this ends up being the final ever episode, would it be a good way to end Red Dwarf?’ I know Larry David regrets the way he ended Seinfeld and wishes he kept it open, and that’s something I keep in mind when I consider how Red Dwarf might end, but I can’t say for definite that’s the way I would wrap it up. My feeling right now is to keep it open-ended, although I do have a story for if we decide to give it a finale.”>

    #235415
    Dax101
    Participant
    #235416
    bloodteller
    Participant

    It’s difficult to imagine what a genuine final ever episode of Red Dwarf would be like, to be honest. The Backwards novel ending works pretty well as a satisfying and heartwarming conclusion, but it’d be difficult to do that on-screen.

    #235417

    Getting the balance right is hard. I think a final episode has to be satisfying as an episode in its own right, it has to close things off to an extent, but also shouldn’t feel too much like a big event.

    Reading the set reviews for Skipper, I honestly envisaged it would be a strange time-travel episode in which the crew were transported to various times in their past, making it kind of reflective, but also quite dramatic because maybe it would be something they were out of control of. They’d get to relive past moments and look at how far they’ve come and maybe have to make a big decision to get out of the situation. I thought it would be quite emotional. I suppose what we got was something not entirely dissimilar, but I suppose I was thinking of something more dramatic.

    What I don’t think would work for Red Dwarf is a big special ‘look it’s the last episode!’ type thing, which Earth would have been. For some shows it works: ‘Allo ‘Allo’s last episode features the very end of the war, which is a fitting end for a show which was largely serialised anyway. That last episode has relatively little plot and is really just tying it up. I wouldn’t want that for Red Dwarf. A story where the ‘final’ element of it unfolds over the course of the episode would be nice, though.

    Or Doug could go with my idea of 30 years in the future, Cat and Lister have died, leaving Kryten and Rimmer alone in the universe. Both being artificial life, they are faced with the choice: with no company and eternity stretching out ahead of them, do they carry on, or decide that, having lost their Red Dwarf family, they should turn themselves off?

    #235421
    GlenTokyo
    Participant

    Maybe they could do something like theyre on their deathbed but find a derelict 35th century infinity drive or some shiz, that harnesses the power of an artificial sun and plumb it in to Red Dwarf, and they resurrect Lister and the Cat, as they were, healthy and that, and bring back Kochanski from her disc, and Macgruder and Petersen etc, be a ship of the dead but sort of upbeat. They go home (don’t crash into it) and meet whatever super humans live there, and they’re sort of heroes, people out of time, telling their stories and whatnot. And then Red Dwarf stays in the solar system as like a stately home, they live there but you can pay a fiver and look at the old stuff.

    #235422
    Bargain Bin Holly
    Participant

    I always thought Backwards had the most downer ending of all the novels (excluding IWCD, but with that one I knew there was a sequel to resolve the ending), though thats probably cause the Gunmen section immediately preceding it left me genuinely depressed afterwards. I like Backwards though (excluding Cat, he legitimately infuriates me in this book), but more so for its horror and despair themes which I feel makes the book very unique in contrast to most of the series.

    I don’t know how they could do a final and what it should be about, but if they were to have the final at the end of a normal series, I’d love for them to have one of its episodes to be based on the Garbage World section of Better Than Life. Also I’d love the final series to take more risks and cover more unconventional ideas the show normally wouldn’t do, that 30 years in the future idea sounds really cool though the themes might come out of left field if its in a series like XI that focuses more on jokes.

    #235424
    bloodteller
    Participant

    >I always thought Backwards had the most downer ending of all the novels

    Well it is a little depressing in some aspects- Rimmer, Kryten and Holly have died, Lister and Cat have had about a billion traumatic experiences and now have to cope with losing their friends (the description of Lister “trying not to think about the fact that Rimmer was gone” was really quite sad) and they now have to leave their reality behind.

    But I do think it’s sort of sweet, in a way- out of the infinite timelines the Dimension Drive could’ve taken them to, it takes them to one with Rimmer, Kryten and Holly, one where said Rimmer, Kryten and Holly don’t have a Lister or Cat. In that sense, it’s as if the five of them are meant to be together as a team, they belong with each other. And the book ends with Lister coming to that realization himself- for the longest time, he’s been trying to get back home, when all along it’s been right there in front of him. The posse are closer to him than any family he’s ever had, and Red Dwarf is a place where he genuinely belongs.

    Or it was just Rob Grant indulging his sadistic torture fetish by putting everyone through a load of shit, but then suddenly realizing he can’t end the book with everyone being brutally killed off. I don’t know.

    #235426
    bloodteller
    Participant

    >What I don’t think would work for Red Dwarf is a big special ‘look it’s the last episode!’ type thing, which Earth would have been.

    I think Earth would’ve been good at the time, but if they were to do that episode now it’d be shit. At this point Red Dwarf’s gone on for so long and left such a legacy that it’d just be incredibly disappointing to suddenly have a “Ooh! We’re back on Earth, show’s over” episode.

    It’d be like if the last episode of Doctor Who was the Doctor just suddenly dying for good and not regenerating, and that’s the end. Maybe would’ve worked back in the 60s, but now that the show’s been going for over half a century it would be an awful end to such a long run.

    #235432
    tombow
    Participant

    I think the Last Human novel (for all its faults) had the only plausible happy endings for the characters. Lister and Kochanski look forward to having a family Adam and Eve style, Rimmer finds out he was really liked by McGruder, has a son, and manages to be a hero (and becomes Ace without dying in the show), ..Maybe Cat could find other cat people somewhere.

    I mean does Lister need anything more…? He is a slob and he never really seemed to have close friends before, just drinking buddies. As for if Kochanski deserves to be alone in space or find humanity again, I don’t know how social she was, but if she was a nerd that knew the inches of rainfall for whereever, I’m guessing she was alienated from people too.

    #235436
    Lily
    Participant

    I don’t think there should be a final episode. They’re always anti-climatic or finish somehow unsatisfactory. How would you wrap up Red Dwarf? They either get back to Earth and live happily ever after which is just a bit cheesy, or they die (violently or old age) which is depressing.

    #235437

    I just think an episode that ends with a very definitive, everything is going to be ok for the guys.

    Kind of like how The Beginning or even Skipper ended (even BTE to a certain extent), but with a little more emphasis on “this is it, they’re still out there, they’re happy, let them go now”

    Doug has clearly been thinking about that when writing series finales in recent years, and put a little of that in just in case. But if he knows for sure that is the very last episode he is writing, he could make it a little more special.

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