Doug Reddit AMA

[Stephen Abootman]

Thought I’d start a new topic so anything of note could be posted in here. The top rated comment at the moment (by some distance) is ‘Would you like any toast?’ so don’t count on it. Starts at 2pm. 

Hi, I'm Doug Naylor, Emmy Award-winning writer and co-creator of the sitcom Red Dwarf. My new children’s novel Sin Bin Island is published Sept 11 by David Fickling Books – AMA!
byu/DougNaylorOfficial inRedDwarf

Topic

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Wouldn’t it have made more sense to do the AMA in r/books ?

doing it in a very small very niche sub for a franchise unrelated to the book seems like it’s just asking for the “would you like any toast” questions, and nothing of any substance related to anything 

Ot certainly isn’t promoting the book very far 

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

There’s also questions about the show that have the answers available for 20 years on DVDs

So even the members of that sub aren’t actually fans enough to have bothered watching or reading anything related to the making of the show. 

[Nick R]

Anyone want to ask him what exactly has been going on with the official site the last few years? (I’m not going to.)

[Niki Hutchinson]

Has confirmed that he is indeed a Waffle Man !!!

[Niki Hutchinson]

Plus, this little question…

[Rushy]

[Niki Hutchinson]

[Niki Hutchinson]

[Niki Hutchinson]

Been a few questions about being with or working with Rob. Here’s one of them.

[Stephen Abootman]

[Niki Hutchinson]

Well… Didn’t think he would answer that on here !!!

[Rushy]

Oh my God I love that idea

[Technopeasant]

I think that pretty much puts in the nail in the Dave era at least, but if he wants to do novels I’m down. They could even try doing full cast audiobooks if they want.

[Nick R]

Someone asked him how he felt about The Brittas Empire reusing the Samaritans phone call/wrong number joke, and he replied: 

Thanks for your question. I didn’t know they did that! It’s not as good as ours!

[Stephen Abootman]

[Niki Hutchinson]

Anyone want to ask him what exactly has been going on with the official site the last few years? (I’m not going to.)

Here’s your answer… (Somewhat)

[Stephen Abootman]

We are so back

[Niki Hutchinson]

Movie talk here

[Stephen Abootman]

[Stephen Abootman]

Now finished but he’s said “I will try and get back tomorrow to finish off any I haven’t answered“.

[Dax101]

Sounds like Red Dwarfs chances of more series or specials have become more difficult where even Doug has lost a bit of faith.

I still don’t know how Doug thought he was going to pull off de-aging effects for a story that needed it for an extended period on a BBC worldwide budget. Even big american productions struggle with that.

As for this Out of the Red thing. No i’m good.

[Flap Jack]

Fascinating! (And depressing.) So assuming Doug is telling the truth, the expensiveness of de-aging VFX was a moot point, because UKTV shut the whole thing down before they could even get into those details. I know we’ve discussed how the British TV industry is in a dire state, but it’s still stark to have it confirmed that yes, even Dave’s most popular scripted comedy of all time wouldn’t be profitable for them to make more of.

New novels would be great, so it’s nice to see Doug show enthusiasm for that! If I had access to a genie who exclusively granted wishes related to Red Dwarf novels – who was also incapable of reuniting the Grant Naylor partnership – I would wish for Doug to write novels set in the TV continuity and for Rob to write novels set in his branch of the IWCD/BTL continuity. (Because regardless of how you feel about Last Human, it didn’t exactly leave a workable status quo in place like Backwards did.)

If I had access to a genie with slightly fewer restrictions, I would ask for a radio series over novels. So much of what makes Red Dwarf Red Dwarf is the performances of the cast.

[Dave]

Some very interesting stuff in those answers, and weirdly despite the pessimism around more TV Dwarf I feel very happy to hear his obvious enthusiasm for more novels.

(The plot for the special involving a team-up between the older and younger versions of the crew would make an excellent basis for a novel – and overcome any de-aging budget restrictions.) 

[Warbodog]

The plot for the special involving a team-up between the older and younger versions of the crew would make an excellent basis for a novel – and overcome any de-aging budget restrictions.       

I wonder if it’d work in an audio with some kind of AI 80s-cast voices (or can you de-age voice?)

[Flap Jack]

I wonder if it’d work in an audio with some kind of AI 80s-cast voices (or can you de-age voice?)

You probably could modulate the voices to sound younger (with or without AI, preferably without), but I don’t think the cast’s voices sound different enough that it would make sense to do that. For my money they should either find another way to indicate which version of a character is speaking, or let the ambiguity be part of it, or just don’t bother.

[clem]

If I could have one wish from the genie of Red Dwarf novels who can do anything except get Rob and Doug working together again – because of course that can’t be achieved even using magic – I’d have to at least seriously consider asking for access to all the work they did on the third co-authored book. It’d either be that or a Backwards sequel by Rob, which I’d much rather get than Titan. The whole ‘it’s a prequel but not really as it’s one universe over’ thing just sounds like a bit of a cop out, and as I said in the comments on the latest Dwarfcast, I don’t really like the idea of novels set in the TV continuity anyway. 

Just to be clear, having said all of that I’d read/watch/listen to anything with the name Red Dwarf on it that came out of Rob or Doug’s buttskis. 

[clem]

For my money they should either find another way to indicate which version of a character is speaking

Get Emile Charles and Philip Labey? 

[clem]

If I had access to a genie with slightly fewer restrictions, I would ask for a radio series over novels. So much of what makes Red Dwarf Red Dwarf is the performances of the cast.

Not sure whether I’d rather get it than a novel but I’d want a radio show to be a proper sitcom, recorded in front of an audience. 

[Technopeasant]

 Get Emile Charles and Philip Labey? 

The latter could presumably play a 30-odd year old Rimmer these days on television, if they had decided to do it that way.

[Dax101]

Id guess Rob doesn’t really remember the novels well enough to do a continuation from backwards. He probably would have to read the books as a catch up. While just doing something very fresh and different is probably where the prequel idea come from.

While Last Human didn’t really leave much room for a continuation so any novels for Doug would probably be in the tv universe.

[Warbodog]

Oh my God I love that idea

Except how Lister saving himself from stasis suggests that decades of daydreaming about it and considering the ramifications would still end up at “fuck Cat and Kryten.”

[Technopeasant]

Except how Lister saving himself from stasis suggests that decades of daydreaming about it and considering the ramifications would still end up at “fuck Cat and Kryten.”

Yeah, I feel like it was done in Stasis Leak and Timeslides.

[Flap Jack]

Id guess Rob doesn’t really remember the novels well enough to do a
continuation from backwards. He probably would have to read the books as
a catch up.

You make this sound like it would be an unusually burdensome amount of research to do for a novel.

Not sure whether I’d rather get it than a novel but I’d want a radio
show to be a proper sitcom, recorded in front of an audience.

100% on the audience. If we’re losing the visuals, we should preserve as much of the audio element as possible. This is why it should be a BBC thing. Big Finish have never recorded a sitcom in front of a studio audience… or recorded a sitcom at all, as far as I know.

Also – they should bring back Howard Goodall. Apologise for Series XII and The Promised Land on their hands and knees if they have to.

[Dax101]

I can only imagine the big cool factor is the de-aging and probably the Series 1 decor that would be brought back once again.

You make this sound like it would be an unusually burdensome amount of research to do for a novel. 

Well they are long books with a lot of details and backstory. I suppose you would have to assume that a new novel wouldn’t at all risk retconning anything by accident.

[Flap Jack]

Well they are long books with a lot of details and backstory. I suppose
you would have to assume that a new novel wouldn’t at all risk
retconning anything by accident.

Kind of, but also not really? The 3 books are under 300 pages each on average, and there is a good amount of character backstory/lore/worlbuilding in them, but it’s not actually that dense. They’re pretty light reads with lots of dialogue, and realistically tons of the lore is of the “introduced to justify one particular episode’s plot and then never mentioned again” flavour. Unless his new story specifically involves those elements, Rob wouldn’t need to remember all the details about Better Than Life or Agonoids any more than someone writing a new TV episode would need to remember everything about the Enlightenment and ERRA.

Although… thinking about it some more, it might be even easier than that. As long as Rob remembers how he ended Backwards, he can get away with so many retcons/continuity mistakes.

[Rushy]

As long as Rob remembers how he ended Backwards, he can get away with so many retcons/continuity mistakes.

If there’s a time skip, he wouldn’t even have to reference the previous books. Everything was restored to the basic status quo. 

[Technopeasant]

I suppose you would have to assume that a new novel wouldn’t at all risk retconning anything by accident.

Internal consistency? In Red Dwarf?!

[Warbodog]

An interesting Word of God insight on why Rimmer is still roomies with Lister, besides the company:

Episodes that were never made:

Considering the underwater model shots of Back to Reality were just shot through a narrow fish tank, how the hell would this have happened?

[Dave]

[Warbodog]

[Unrumble]

[Dave]

[Jonsmad]

There’s nothing wrong with a new Doug novel continuing from not Last Human, but from The promised land. Or indeed a movie novel existing between Only the Good and Back to Earth. Even if it reuses anything from the beginning!!  In my opinion. 

[Dave]

Yeah I think the novel continuity is loose enough and the old novels so long ago that any new book can pick up with whatever status quo it needs to. And either way, the ending of Backwards was such an effective reset that anything goes, really.

[International Debris]

100% on the audience. If we’re losing the visuals, we should preserve as much of the audio element as possible. This is why it should be a BBC thing. Big Finish have never recorded a sitcom in front of a studio audience… or recorded a sitcom at all, as far as I know. 

They did Eighth Doctor live shows last year, and have a series of sitcom pilots releasing this autumn which will lead to a full series of one of them, so it’s not something they’re completely inexperienced in. 

That said, BF should still be the second choice behind Radio 4, if only for the fact that they’d bring in only a fraction of the listeners. 

[Jonsmad]

I’m liking this talk of something live for the 40th. 

When red dwarf live was previously a topic I used to fantasise something as meta as Still Game live at the hydro was, where characters talk to the audience but still carry on a full believable narrative world you care about with full sets and actions. Plays to 20,000 people a night. 

Now it’s later. I’m envisaging something much nearer to the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy radio show  live tour. Script reading with some minor staging and props and hats. Something much nearer the cost effective celebration of the recent fast show live tour. Age appropriate and not over stretching show legacy. Each actor comes on stage as themselves for a chat about making the show and its inspirations before donning a costume for a short greatest hit sketch moment. More arrive as the evening goes on until it’s an ensemble musical finish & bow. Plays to multiple touring theatres of a few Thousand. Without old actors having to stumble too much. A worthy cash injection late in life and warm nostalgia for an aged audience a lot of which will have never made it to a sci fi convention talk.  Still more character stuff than you ever get in an informal chat Q&A.

[Flap Jack]

They did Eighth Doctor live shows last year, and have a series of
sitcom pilots releasing this autumn which will lead to a full series of
one of them, so it’s not something they’re completely inexperienced in.

That said, BF should still be the second choice behind Radio 4, if
only for the fact that they’d bring in only a fraction of the
listeners

Oh, interesting. I knew about The Stuff of Legend, but I didn’t realise they’d changed their mind about recording and releasing the live show version. Still not a comedy of course, and a theatre recording is definitely quite a bit different to a studio recording. The sitcom pilots seem cool, but I would be (pleasantly) surprised to learn they recorded any of them in front of an audience.

Either way, a BBC production would not only be more mainstream, it would also be free to listen to, which is a nice bonus.

[Nick R]

Doug does like his watery episodes: 

[Dave]

Doug does like his watery episodes:

[Warbodog]

I found the underwater episode anecdote at the start of the Series 2 Bodysnatcher documentary. Mike Agnew (RIP) says they asked him and Ed “if we could do an entire episode underwater” after the end of series 1, which they decided against. Nice to have it confirmed by Doug that they really did mean *shooting* underwater, since Back to Reality does entirely take place there.

[Author]

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