Does RDVIII get a raw deal? Is it time to re-evaluate Series Eight?

[si]

No.

No, you’re right.

[Moonlight]

Well, maybe, but, y’know, the thing about that is…

Yeah, no.

[Warbodog]

Seeing Smega-Drive snaps from Back in the Red has been making me uncritically nostalgic for when that was new and ongoing. That says nothing for its actual quality though and might just be 1999 nostalgia.

I still think Cassandra’s genuinely good. The only episode from VII & VIII I can watch and enjoy as a random Red Dwarf episode, rather than for some kind of experiment.

[Dave]

I’m old enough now that I have a daughter who loves Red Dwarf too, but Series VIII is the only Red Dwarf I’ve never shown her. I just don’t want to ruin the show for her.

[RunawayTrain]

I … *takes deep breath* actually enjoy some bits from it. I even laugh at some of the jokes.

However, as I’ve said before, had I been a proper fan at the time* and had to wait a decade for any more Red Dwarf, my feelings towards it would have been quite different. But as things stand, on the whole I tend to view it as a frustrating blip in the timeline (frustrating because of so much wasted potential) and thank goodness we got some good Dwarf from X onwards.

Oh and we got bunk room scenes, which were a bit of comfort after VII. Also the first time I watched it through, I was just relieved to have Rimmer back for VIII.

(*the first time I saw Red Dwarf at all was with a friend on their DVDs between BtE and X, and I remember really enjoying it but we lost contact for a bit and I had no way of watching it myself. I caught some of X-XII over the years, but it still didn’t capture me until I watched the BBC era again all the way through on Netflix.)

[International Debris]

I think you’d have to be an extremely hardened VIII hater to deny the presence of some good moments. There are still loads of good gags, it’s just they’re surrounded by horribleness. If I had to do a top 20 Red Dwarf jokes list, I’d certainly consider putting “you’re finished,” “dinosaur bowel movement frequency tables,” and “cell inspection ten minutes,” in there. And two of those are from the worst episode. Maybe I should drag up my old “Good things about VIII” thread.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

As John Hoare so frequently pointed out, series 8 can be very funny.  Taken in isolation some scenes are really good.  It can make you laugh.  But it isn’t the sort of show or comedy Red Dwarf had been to that point.  SO much of it is very sketch like, with a plot linking one sketch to another (especially in the multi-parters).  Its far too broad, it breaks the concept by resurrecting the crew, it put them in prison to balance out the ship is now populated, but then gives them the Canaries so they can continue to have the same adventures.  There’s far too many characters and it makes Kryten and Cat less important characters than Hollister in some regards.  Its all very broad, and too easily something that could be in a comedy that isn’t Red Dwarf, i.e. maybe Doug should have use the concept in another sci-fi sitcom idea.

Thats not to mention the really bad attitudes towards women throughout that is again something else Red Dwarf had never really had an issue with until now.  The tone of the entire show just drops to “lol erections, lol naked women, lol dinoasaurs shit”.

And its all completely unneccessary.

[Jenuall]

Yeah there are definitely some gags in VIII, it’s just that so little of it is in tune with the actual characters we are used to. None of it really rises from the characters and relationships that we have grown to know and understand up to this point that it’s harder to get excited about the odd funny line.

Plus the aforementioned tonal shift, gender representation issues, diluting of the core cast, poor change in setting etc.

[Stilianides]

Ah, I nostalgically remember the decade or so before Back to Earth came along where one of the main disputes among fandom was seemingly the 50/50 split between those who thought Series VIII sucked and those who thought it was at least as good as the Rob/Doug years. The tone of the DVD documentary is positively laudatory and it wasn’t until some new Dwarf came along that the attitudes of some people changed (Doug included).

Series VIII has its moments, but there is a desperate lack of quality control. I prefer it to the previous series simply because it’s not quite as depressing as some of the Rimmerless episodes, but it was a huge wasted opportunity. Some of the decisions were probably taken with an eye on the movie in mind, but it now seems such a strange anomaly to have all of those extra characters when they could have just used the classic 5 cast members together for the first time.

[Pete Part Three]

I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed.

[Flap Jack]

[Moonlight]

Hall of Fame.

[Dave]

Excellent.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

BRAVO

[Jenuall]

[RunawayTrain]

It has taken 22 years, but perhaps it has finally found its purpose: meme fodder!

Which possibly answers the Inquisitor in quinn_drummer’s post which I can’t seem to quote

Your Red Dwarf Memes for Safe and Courteous Disposal Out the Nearest Airlock

(All the VIII memes here and on the other thread have had me laughing out loud – you guys are great!)

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Dave]

[Jenuall]

[Rudolph]

It was the first run of Dwarf I saw live, so I have some nostalgia for it and find a few of the gags very funny. I’ve always quite liked the ‘wrong number’ gag.

It is, however, very broad and does have the feel of a sketch show at times. Only the Good… especially has very little plot until the last ten minutes.

[International Debris]

[International Debris]

[Dave]

[Jenuall]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Unrumble]

[Unrumble]

[Ridley]

Christ almighty. We’re in the middle of three separate discussions about the merits of Series VII and VIII. Do we need a new series right now?

[Warbodog]

Why did you divide one opinion into three separate threads though?

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Dave]

 

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[loadoftottnumb]

The deleted/alternate (well and the broadcast one briefly) ending to VIII always makes me a bit sad, it could have been a pretty nice looking series. Sadly they spent most of it in purple overalls in a big boiler room.

[Jenuall]

Fans react to Doug’s plans to release a new Blu Ray of just series VIII:

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

 

 

 

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Dave]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Warbodog]

[Jenuall]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Dave]

[Jonathan Capps]

I know someone who might think that.

[Stilianides]

– “I know someone who might think that.”

This wouldn’t have anything to do with a quickly deleted Tweet would it? ;)

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Jenuall]

[si]

To be fair, when I started this thread, it was just so I could use the generally accepted ‘no’ as a punchline. Really, there are actually a few things I like in/about Red Dwarf VIII. And there are other things are maybe not too great when I look at them now, but when they first aired, I was glad of new Dwarf and happy with a lot of it. I had an edited audio recording of ‘Back In The Red’ on a C90 tape. I was 20 years old, for fucks sake.
I think there’s a fair amount in BITR that I enjoyed – Kryten’s scene with Dr McClaren, for example, that’s good. I mean, obviously, the Blue Midget dance is embarrassing (saved only by “Come back, Mr Sucks”), but I drooled over the RDVIII scriptbook.
We all enjoyed Cassandra, and I think Krytie TV has the most unfulfilled potential – the idea of the crew being in prison and Kryten being corrupted is great, it just runs in the wrong direction with it.
I’m sure there are other bits of worth, gags in RDVIII, but when you’ve got what are essentially filler episodes with BITR3 and Pete part 2, as well as Only The Good… which I’m sure could have been fine had it been afforded some more time and money to hone to script and record it.
One of my big plusses of series eight is that it’s the best Kryten’s head’s looked since series V in my opinion.

[Jonathan Capps]

Yeah yeah whatever, put it in a meme.

[Author]

Posts