New Book: Red Dwarf – Discovering The TV Series

[Dave]

Just stumbled across this listing for a book I hadn’t heard about until now.

Not sure whether I’ll pick it up or not – these reviews seem a bit mixed. But I’d be interested to hear from anyone who does.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

What’s the betting it’s AI generated?

[DibbleySmegHead]

I also saw this while looking for something else. It doesn’t seem like anything groundbreaking so might pick it up if I see it on sale at some point or more than likely, I’ll get it as a stocking filler at Christmas, lol. 

[clem]

The book covers 1988 – 1993, and they’ve used a Series X publicity photo for the cover. I’m good, ta. 

[cwickham]

Tom Salinsky is a Big Finish writer who’s a known Dwarf fan, I think he was in the live chat for the 35th anniversary Dwarfcast, I think it’s kosher

[GlenTokyo]

The book covers 1988 – 1993, and they’ve used a Series X publicity photo for the cover. I’m good, ta.

Taking inspiration from the Blurays…

[Flap Jack]

Well, I suppose I am interested in _Red Dwarf_.

Ropey summary and crap choice of cover image aside, could be good? Though when I saw the title, for some reason I imagined a book by Rob Grant where he talks about his experience watching the Naylor era for the first time. Now that would be a day one purchase.

Anyway, I’ve found the most offensive part of the summary:

Volume I will cover the first six series and Volume II will
conclude the story of _Red Dwarf_ on television as well as looking at
the novels, comic strips, computer games and more.

[Formica]

Interesting choice to conclude the story of Red Dwarf with a third-party book rather than a traditional televised finale.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Look what’s listed in the suggested bar, though…

[Technopeasant]

There aren’t any official computer games though, only mobile games.

And given there are more episodes post-Rob than pre, a bit odd for that not to get its own volume.

[Moonlight]

Maybe he’s one of those annoying fans who reject everything after Series VI. Although, they’re not nearly as annoying as the people who think VIII is a stone cold classic but everything after is shit.

[Dave]

I think my favourite part of the book blurb is this:

 In this work, Tom Salinsky will look at exactly how it came to be; who was considered for the cast but didn’t make it; how it was radically reinvented for the third, sixth, seventh, ninth and tenth seasons;

Because Series VIII was a totally run-of-the-mill, business-as-usual series. 

[Flap Jack]

It would definitely make more sense to make the Volume I/II split at the Grant/Naylor breakup across all media instead of just the TV series. Then it could be a proper chronological journey through all of Red Dwarf history. And covering the first two novels, the Smegazine and the US pilots in Volume I would surely even out the lengths.

I really enjoyed the Doctor Who duology Space Helmet For a Cow, which took exactly that approach, ending the first volume at the end of Season 26. It wouldn’t have flowed the same if Paul Kirkley had finished talking about the 50th anniversary celebrations and transitioned to “Oh, by the way, back in the 70s they did this thing called Doctor Who and the Pescatons… “.

[Ian Symes]

Ah. A small confession. Tom got in touch with us towards the start of the year to ask for our assistance with this. He sent us a (digital) proof copy and asked for feedback, which Cappsy and I both readily agreed to provide. However, in true G&T fashion, we then… didn’t. We just ran out of time before he needed to submit the final manuscript. I feel really bad about that, so I do want to support the book… although if I was completely neutral, both the cover image and the price tag would have probably put me off on first impressions. 

[Flap Jack]

Oh wow. Well if he thought to ask you, that’s a very good sign. Hopefully your proofreading wasn’t make-or-break, quality wise.

I guess that experience makes a G&T review unlikely. Maybe it could be a guest article.

[Dave]

Hopefully your proofreading wasn’t make-or-break, quality wise.

Just think of all the additional mentions of the word Cloche they could have snuck in. Missed opportunity. 

[Jonsmad]

Discovered it in 1988 thanks. 

[Flap Jack]

Hey guess what, the second most recent episode of Better Than Life was an interview with Tom Salinsky. Goes to show how well the people in this thread have been keeping up with that (myself included).

From hearing him speak about the book, he and it do indeed sound totally legit (not that I disbelieved Ian of course). He seems to know his stuff, and has apparently conducted some of his own interviews for this. At one point he speaks about the extra week of production for Series 1, and demonstrates that he knows full well that the whole “the BBC ordered 7 episodes but luckily forgot this when only 6 were delivered” anecdote was a myth, which is promising. I’ve gone from being completely dismissive to actively looking forward to the book.

The interview is a worthwhile listen even if you don’t care about the usual episodes, in my opinion. Although it is a bit silly that, for example, Tom is the one to inform John and Fergus about how Padre was originally going to be a janitor character, when that should have been easy trivia fodder for the actual Dimension Jump episode.

Although the book must have been delayed not that long ago, because they say it will be out at the end of August. Also Tom says Volume I covers all the BBC series for some reason, instead of just the Grant/Naylor era.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

> and demonstrates that he knows full well that the whole “the BBC ordered 7 episodes but luckily forgot this when only 6 were delivered” anecdote was a myth, which is promising

Has anyone ever taken that as gospel anyway? It comes from Paul Jackson doesn’t it? 

I’ve always read it as just a quip about how they were lucky to be given the slot for a show that had 7 weeks weeks, but only needed to make 6.

[cwickham]

I’ve never seen it as a quip – certainly at the time of Bodysnatcher’s release people seemed to take it at face value. I think it’s more likely he remembered there were 7 production slots for only 6 episodes, they’d used the last slot to reshoot The End and other bits, possibly he also remembered there was a script that was written but dropped, and couldn’t remember exactly how everything fitted together 20 years later and presumed they must have been intending to deliver 7 episodes but only ended up making 6.

[Flap Jack]

Well, I certainly took Jackson’s explanation at face value, and from best I can gather the fanbase in general did too. I think the first time I’d heard it suggested that Series 1’s pick up week was likely always intended for pick-ups and not to record a 7th episode was in this 2021 Dirty Feed article:

https://www.dirtyfeed.org/2021/06/seventh-heaven/

Plus, in the BTL interview Salinsky says that Paul Jackson specifically asked the BBC for a 7th week to ensure they could finish the show. Technically that could be an intelligent guess, but it sounded like information he’d actually been told, and I haven’t heard that detail before.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I guess I just never accepted that “the BBC forgot” there was meant to be 7.

[Technopeasant]

I guess I just never accepted that “the BBC forgot” there was meant to be 7.

[Flap Jack]

The thing is that Red Dwarf’s told history – and the history of many TV shows – has a lot of slightly incredible stories like that. In the grand scheme of things, the idea that in the vast bureaucracy that is the BBC, someone might not be 100% on top of whether a 7 week production was for 7 episodes or for 6 episodes and pick ups is hardly the most bizarre happenstance.

Maybe one day we’ll find out that in fact no budget was set aside for a Happy Families Series 2 that was never planned to happen and that Red Dwarf was given its own budget from the very beginning, or that Janet Street-Porter didn’t declare Gunmen of the Apocalypse unfilmable after it had already been filmed, but I don’t see the sense in being sceptical about any stories that seem at all unusual.

[desbug]

The blurb and the author profile worry me that there might be a few too many underscores dotted about the text for readability… _Lister_ and _Rimmer_ enjoy their space adventures on _Red Dwarf_ and _ _ encounter no aliens at all.

[Flap Jack]

The blurb underscores do lower my confidence in the publisher, even if I’ve become more confident in the author. You’d hope that in the actual book they’ll just use italics for these instances as is (I presume) intended, but I guess we’ll see.

Salinsky published a Star Trek book in the same vein and from the same publisher a few months ago, so if any Trekkos in the thread have read that, they could give us a good idea of what to expect with the Red Dwarf book.

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Star-Trek-Discovering-the-TV-Series-Hardback/p/49373

[clem]

Maybe one day we’ll find out that in fact no budget was set aside for a Happy Families Series 2 that was never planned to happen

Don’t forget that Ben Elton already cast doubt on the Happy Families story.

Ben Elton Casually Rewrites Red Dwarf History Like It's Nothing

[Flap Jack]

Oh wow, I definitely missed that revelation first time around, thanks clem.

Though at least in this case the core of the story is true, as far as we know. They just messed up the detail on which show it was replacing.

[Stephen Abootman]

Competition to win one of THREE COPIES here: 

https://www.film-news.co.uk/competition/3577/Win-Red-Dwarf-Discovering-the-TV-Series

[Technopeasant]

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