Doug Naylor – Ask the Industry Podcast

[Jawscvmcdia]

Check this out…

http://simoncaine.co.uk/ATI/DougNaylor

Topic

[Dax101]

I Wonder what episode it was that the cast cheered about but the fans hated.

[bloodteller]

Meltdown, probably

[MANI506]

It was Duct Soup. Sorry if someone else has already replied. I’ve spent an hour listening to this fried gold.

[bloodteller]

just started listening to it about half an hour ago- the story about doug trying to park in the executive car park was absolutely hilarious. quite worried though, as i’m drinking a glass of water while listening so if it gets funny again i might accidentally spray all over my screen

[Ben Saunders]

Good stuff. Always wanted more Doug interviews. Now I have one. Bonza.

[Pete Part Three]

This is really good. Quite a few bits that I never heard before (specifically the story about Doug building DVD shelves to deal with the anxiety of going solo). Not overly enamoured with the host though; he really should have clarified who “Rob” is (his surname is never mentioned and he’s a pretty big deal in this) and the moment where he’s disappointed that Doug answers a question “the wrong way” is pretty awkward.

[Ben Saunders]

It’s not exactly new information but it’s still interesting that it was Ed’s idea to get rid of the audience and do the film look, as most of the blame thrown at VII seems to lie with Doug. I wonder how much better VII would have been with an audience. It wouldn’t be entirely accurate to say it would be just as funny because the writing would still be exactly the same, as I would think that knowing you’re writing for an audience would lead you to writing slightly different with regards to plots and locations etc, but idk.

If VII had had an audience, making VIII no longer the “oh we have an audience back” series, would the cast have over-egged their performances as much, since they wouldn’t be playing up to the audience so much as they didn’t miss them/were used to them? We’ll never know. There’s always the possibility that the VII-with-an-audience universe is WORSE.

[Ben Saunders]

Also Charles Armitage wanting a woman in it – what would they have done otherwise? Kochanski feels like the natural option because she’s the most established non-main-cast presence on the show, so who else could it have been? Nobody? An entirely new character?

[NoFro]

I don’t think the quality dip of VII lies with the way it was shot to be honest. Just my opinion. I think it looks mostly great (CG space sequences aside) and the performances are still really strong. It all comes down to the scripts for me.

[Ben Saunders]

Same, I think, but maybe if it was written with an audience in mind, it would be slightly different. But then again, the opening to Stoke Me A Clipper certainly wasn’t, and that’s one of my favourite parts of the series. I do think the opening of one of the episodes (I can’t remember which one, Ouroboros maybe) feels pretty dead, and would absolutely benefit from having an audience give it just a little more energy.

[Dax101]

One criticism i would give Doug in interviews is that whenever there is something the fans didn’t like about an episode it always seem to come down to budget, green screen, no audience, the cast not being comfortable with something, ect ect. but i think thats a weird way of looking at fans judgement towards these episodes.

He mentions green screen that the cast were not comfotable with, but series VII and VIII didn’t have that much green or blue screen going on. perhaps he is talking about BTE but still.

Its fair to say that after Rob Grant left there was always gonna be a piece of Robs personality missing from the show, its just something thats gonna have to be admitted at some point.

[Dax101]

The scripts are the make or beak of the show. followed by the cast and then probably the audience. if the scripts don’t work then that effects the other 2 fairly quickly.

[Ben Saunders]

Yeah there does seem to be a little bit of deflection away from the potential quality of his writing and more towards production aspects, with the closest thing being him blaming Duct Soup’s quality on it being written in two days or whatever.

[clem]

I remember Doug talking on one of the DVDs about how important it is to write material that’s right for the performers, knowing their strengths and talents even down to stuff like Chris doing impressions, Danny’s juggling etc. Interesting to hear him say that approach came from earlier in his and Rob’s career, writing for the likes of Little and Large.

[Warbodog]

Doug says “Red Dwarf” in the American way, with emphasis on the first syllable. Not the main takeaway from this, but there you go.

[si]

Doug’s always said it that way, and it’s always… well, not irritated, but it sounds odd when most of us say it differently. But it’s his show, he can say it how he likes.

[Ben Saunders]

It’s like how Americans say “The Phantom Menace” wrong, with the emphasis on “phantom”. It makes it sound unnatural and worse than it actually is

[Hamish]

Never mind that it was created by an American…

[A Bailey]

Re: what to do as a replacement for Rimmer, one alternative would have been to end Stoke with them getting back to Red Dwarf and bringing back Holly.

[Ben Saunders]

The creator of gif pronounces gif wrong, it’s not unprecedented

[GlenTokyo]

Redwarf Vs Red… Dwarf is probably just something that happens when you say Red Dwarf a lot and it’s taking too long. Just speed it up and get it out.

[bloodteller]

>Also Charles Armitage wanting a woman in it – what would they have done otherwise? Kochanski feels like the natural option because she’s the most established non-main-cast presence on the show, so who else could it have been? Nobody? An entirely new character?

I remember reading somewhere, although I can’t at all remember where, that at one point they were considering Petersen or Captain Hollister. I have no idea how true that is, it’s just something I heard. I guess I can sort of see VII working with Hollister as the new character, but Petersen? Surely most of VII would then just be him and Lister drinking copious amounts of beer

[GlenTokyo]

The captain being a woman can be seen in Captain Tau from the US pilot and worked fine, would have been interesting to see a version of VIII where there would have had to have been other types of jokes that weren’t just “I’m fat” based, though if Dave Dwarf is anything to go by it wouldn’t have been pretty.

To be honest the amount of screen time they had I doubt Charles would have been satisfied with either Hollister or Petersen (or Kochanski tbh).

[Ben Saunders]

The Captain might be the next go-to, because you need some sort of drama/tension between the characters, if it was just Petersen then everybody would get on like a house on fire and it wouldn’t be that interesting, like the first series of The Next Generation where Roddenberry forbade any of the characters from ever arguing with one another

[bloodteller]

>The Captain might be the next go-to, because you need some sort of drama/tension between the characters, if it was just Petersen then everybody would get on like a house on fire and it wouldn’t be that interesting, like the first series of The Next Generation where Roddenberry forbade any of the characters from ever arguing with one another

Yeah,but you know Duct Soup would have been at least marginally more interesting if it were Lister and Petersen fucking around in the vents and getting absolutely smashed. It’d be like the party scene from The Last Day, only extended over the course of a whole episode and with a lot more drinks

The Captain is good for conflict, but with Kochanski and Petersen, they both know Lister quite well and are mentioned a lot so there’s something to work with already. With the Captain he doesn’t really know any of them, so it would have had the same effect as just introducing some random bloke to the show

[bloodteller]

Obviously though, the ideal character to replace Rimmer with in VII would have been Todhunter. Entire episodes of the elusive officer invigilating exams, putting people in stasis and going through a dead man’s stuff, culminating in viewers finally finding out what the fuck his actual job and/or rank is

[Dave]

Eight episodes of hunting Tod.

[Ben Saunders]

Waiting for Tod

[Plastic Percy]

<<so who else could it have been? Nobody? An entirely new character?>>

The Smegazine ran an April Fool announcing that (I think) V or VI would be animated and that Camille would become a main character. So I guess Camille could comeback in a modified form – still shape-shifter but can choose what she looks like.

[Ben Saunders]

So like Kamelion in Doctor Who, complete with being shelved after 2 episodes because they’re shite? Sounds good

[Author]

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