Out of the Buttski – Our Rob’s (50%) the Boss? Has plots? Is a ponce? Alphonse?

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

I felt like making a thread all about what we can expect, or what we hope for, or just generally what we think, about Rob Dwarf. Personally I’m dubious about his motives for returning but I’m not above giving it a shot provided he can maintain the quality of writing we all expect from him. I mean, all new Dwarf is good Dwarf (with a few prominent exceptions that will not be named here – at least, not in this particular post) and I’m sure we’re all curious to see what he’s got planned. That said I think in some respects his ambitions might overstretch the bounds of realism – animations are expensive to produce and I think Red Dwarf is probably still too niche for anyone to take a risk in backing an untested animated spinoff like the one he’s so excited for.

[Jonathan Capps]

Attempt to create an ‘Idea for an episode 2’ thread detected.

[Flap Jack]

INTO THE COOP

Rob Grant-penned Red Dwarf spin off in which the Dwarfers turn into birds. Lister is a pigeon, Cat is a peacock, Rimmer is a chicken, Kryten is an owl or a raven or something, whatever, you get the idea.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Attempt to create an ‘Idea for an episode 2’ thread detected.

I didn’t mean actual episode ideas!

Though now that you mention it…

[Dave]

BED DWARF

Rob partners with Dunelm for a Red Dwarf-inspired range of bed linen, inspired by classic bunkrooms from throughout the show’s history. 

[International Debris]

Been well-discussed in the interview thread, but I’m in agreement with those suggesting a full animated series is possibly beyond the scope of the show at this point. I could image some animated shorts. 

Obviously we don’t know how much research Rob has done. He might just be flinging ideas around at the moment – him asking what types of animation people would want suggests this may be the case – and animation might just be his preferred idea. At the same time, he might have worked out a vague budget and spoken to interested parties. The other thing I’ve wondered about us time – how long would a series of 30 minute episodes take to animate? 

My feeling is we won’t hear much for another couple of years and then 2025 will start with an announcement that there’s a new series of Red Dwarf coming to Radio 4, written by Rob. In interviews he’ll talk about pursuing the animation route but discovering it not feasible for the franchise at this point, and saying how he retailored the potential scripts for radio instead.

[cwickham]

MATHS IN THE BUTTSKI

Rob Grant has lots of ideas for the future of Red Dwarf. He decides to make half of these ideas plus half an idea as books. He then decides to use half the remaining ideas as audios. He then decides to use half the remaining ideas plus half an idea as animated series. There is only one idea left, which actually gets made. As all of the ideas were used completely, how many ideas did he have to start with?

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

MATHS IN THE BUTTSKI

  

[Ridley]

Attempt to create an ‘Idea for an episode 2’ thread detected.

Plots for series 11 III

[Formica]

MATHS IN THE BUTTSKI
Rob Grant has lots of ideas for the future of Red Dwarf. He decides to make half of these ideas plus half an idea as books. He then decides to use half the remaining ideas as audios. He then decides to use half the remaining ideas plus half an idea as animated series. There is only one idea left, which actually gets made. As all of the ideas were used completely, how many ideas did he have to start with?

Red Dwarf XIII

[Formica]

I think it’s well-documented that Rob wrote the racism and Doug wrote the sexism, not sure how they expect separate adaptations to capture the magic of the original.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Get a writer who can do both racism and sexism?

[Moonlight]

Taiwan Tony doesn’t have a penis so by Series VIII logic…

[Warbodog]

RED DWARF HEROES

Lazy genre swap reboot that remakes all the episodes in a generic medieval fantasy setting and painstakingly replaces all the sci-fi concepts with just magic or whatever to broaden the appeal to people who prefer that. Rimmer’s a regular ghost, Cat’s just some beast like you get in these things. They’re on a boat obviously.

[Warbodog]

RED DWARF HIGH

Oh yeah, this is just Idea for an episode.

[International Debris]

I feel a right idiot writing a serious response in this thread now.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

I feel a right idiot expecting more serious responses than just yours.

It was very well thought out though.

[Loathsome American]

I like serious responses. 

The idea of an animated show or some kind of spinoff on a streaming service seems unlikely, to be honest. (No reason not to shoot for it and pursue meetings or whatever, I suppose.) I could see someone in those circles possibly wanting to do a “Let’s grab an IP and do a total reinvention hanging on a familiar name” kind of thing, but would they be interested in “Let’s give a bunch of money to one of the creators of a show that’s never had a spin-off before so he can pursue his creative vision”? 

I’ll admit, though, that even as a fan of the Marvel Comics characters I would not have bet on Iron Man to launch a multi-billion-dollar omni-franchise and I was loudly telling people as late as 2011 that this Avengers movie was probably going to be a disaster, so my insight is clearly limited. But I am mostly just assuming we might get some books or modest audio productions out of this. 

[Moonlight]

Radio Dwarf with Hattie as Holly.

[loadoftottnumb]

Playing round with the ChatGPT malarkey I asked it to do a story about Lister going missing. Sadly it didn’t come up with anything good so I haven’t posted it however there was one interesting line from Rimmer along the lines of ‘We’re just glad to have you back old boy’. 

It made me wonder about an ‘inbetween’ Ace/Arnold Rimmer, one who progressed from the original but not as far as Ace. Maybe he could be an idea for a spin-off character, a bit like the Navigation officer married to McGruder in Skipper. 

[International Debris]

I think Our Rimmer as Ace is actually a character and story that has a lot of potential. Obviously it’s not something Rob would consider, but I like the idea that he doesn’t actually become the kind of Ace we’ve seen before, but he tries his hardest, mellows and becomes a bit nicer, while still being recognisably Rimmer. 

[Author]

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