Popular Myths and Misconceptions

[Flap Jack]

So it became a bit of received wisdom in the Red Dwarf fandom that “Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers” was not actually intended to be the title of the first novel, but people saw the road sign on the cover, and either misinterpreted it as a subtitle, or appropriated it as a fan nickname for the sake of distinguishing it from the series in general. Then this was later made the official subtitle in the omnibus/audiobook/Radio Show.

And yet, open the solo paperback edition and whaddya know, right there in the inside cover it says:

RED DWARF
Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers

So I’d say that’s pretty clear, even if the subtitle isn’t on the spine. 

Makes it a bit weird for the Red Dwarf wiki to introduce it as “Red Dwarf (often referred to as Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers to differentiate from the television series)… “. Yeah, sure, no actual lies there, technically, but it might be a tad misleading.

—

Anyone else have any fond memories of other pervasive Red Dwarf-related misconceptions or myths?

Topic

[Warbodog]

That’s always been a stupid peeve of mine, so I concede to your actual evidence, I only have the omnibus these days. Title pages are definitive, even if they are the result of misinterpreting cover art.

[Dave]

Back To Earth not being series 9.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Is that a first edition you’re looking at or a reprint?

[Flap Jack]

That’s always been a stupid peeve of mine, so I concede to your actual evidence, I only have the omnibus these days. Title pages are definitive, even if they are the result of misinterpreting cover art.

Yeah, I initially just got the omnibus too, so this myth took a long time to be busted for me.
Though, is it on record that the inside title is only like that due to someone misinterpreting the cover? I assumed not, as surely the title/subtitle would be decided long before the cover art, but I guess it’s hard to be 100% sure.

[Flap Jack]

Is that a first edition you’re looking at or a reprint?

I’m looking at the 2nd printing. It’s difficult to verify when that occurred, but it’s still copyright 1989, so it must have been a maximum of 2 months after the first. It might have even been a pre-publication 2nd printing.

So it is technically possible that this subtitle was added inside between the 1st and 2nd printings – though it seems unlikely that Rob and Doug would make that happen just based on readers thinking it was already the title?

If anyone does have a 1st edition, please do check and if necessary, re-bunk me!

[Jonathan Capps]

re-bunk me!

[Flap Jack]

I regret nothing.

[Warbodog]

More of an historic one, Craig’s macho lie about the dog food being real in the 90s. I probably read that fact in the Programme Guide, then the Smeg-Ups said it was cat food, finally on the DVD documentaries he gave the seemingly definitive answer of tuna in gel.

The Programme Guide that’s up on the Internet Archive is an early edition without the episode trivia points, so I can’t check what other erroneous facts I learned and may still believe.

[Jonathan Capps]

I feel like there are a good few of these in Man in the Rubber Mask. The new footage found for Bodysnatcher that showed the infamous ‘electrocution’ incident in the sauna basically shows that he loves to embellish his stories.

[Flap Jack]

Ah yes, good ones. Another one that comes to mind is “the overlaid skutter in The End Remastered is CGI”. I can’t remember if anyone with authority actually said that, or everyone just assumed it was CGI because it looked crap.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I feel like there are a good few of these in Man in the Rubber Mask. The new footage found for Bodysnatcher that showed the infamous ‘electrocution’ incident in the sauna basically shows that he loves to embellish his stories.

They’re entertainers and to a certain extent comedians.  They tell whatever the best version if the story is.  Which is mostly going to be bollocks.

[Jonathan Capps]

Ah yes, good ones. Another one that comes to mind is “the overlaid skutter in The End Remastered is CGI”. I can’t remember if anyone with authority actually said that, or everyone just assumed it was CGI because it looked crap.

I think that one was down to limited understanding of what CGI is and so the term was misused. Everyone knew about the Tara Wars remastered being ‘CGI’ so changes to Dwarf must be the same thing.

[Jonathan Capps]

They’re entertainers and to a certain extent comedians.

[Flap Jack]

Well, they do get paid to lie, so clearly their testimony can’t be trusted.

[Flap Jack]

Bump. I was in a TV Tropes rabbit hole, and I ran into this piece of apparent trivia:

The Red Dwarf special “Back to Earth”
was originally broadcast in 2009 as three episodes of 25 minutes each;
the DVD release edits them together into a single “Director’s Cut” with a
runtime of about 60 minutes. “Back to Earth” was originally planned to
be only two episodes long, but had to be extended to three due to a
scheduling foul-up — the Director’s Cut fixes the ensuing pacing
problems by cutting out 15 minutes of chaff, and the end result flows a
lot better.

15 minutes of chaff… ? Bullshit. Imagine how many more and longer debates we would have had if there were so large a difference, and how annoyed we would have been that the Director’s Cut was the version put on iPlayer.

So I know it isn’t true, but just for posterity I double checked the running times:

Director’s Cut = 1:10:07

Episodes 1 + 2 + 3 = 1:12:18 (including approx. 2:40 of extra opening and closing credits that obviously gets cut out for a combined version, plus the repeated ‘recap’ shots of the crew getting sucked into the portal and Carbug arriving on the Coronation Street set)

So if in real terms, the Director’s Cut is slightly longer than the broadcast version, how does this particular myth spread?

[Moonlight]

Also, what was this “scheduling foul-up”?

[Flap Jack]

Yeah, my memory of the behind the scenes details for BtE is poor, but I’m pretty confident that the decision to make it a 3 parter wasn’t because Dave realised late in the day that they had exactly 1 extra commercial half hour they needed to fill. Dave, famous for filling their schedules with repeats.

Anyone who knew what a tight budget Back to Earth had would not make the mistake of thinking there were 15 or more minutes of deleted scenes that could just be easily thrown in there.

I considered they might have been confusing Back to Earth with Back in the Red, but that doesn’t line up either.

[Dave]

The decision to make it a three-parter came when Red Dwarf: Unplugged fell through. 

https://reddwarf.co.uk/news/2009/02/20/back-to-earth-the-trilogy/

[Moonlight]

That’s not a scheduling foul-up.

[Flap Jack]

Thanks for that Dave. So at least the fact that it started as 2 episodes and became 3 is true. But Doug’s attitude towards the extra episode is the exact opposite of what the TV Tropes contributor believed. And yep, not a scheduling foul-up.

I do now want to know whether Doug filmed 50% more material than originally required just so he could do an Xtended edition for DVD (in which case I should retract my previous comment on the matter), or if the timeslots for the 2 part version were going to be longer. Maybe I should just rewatch the behind the scenes doc.

[Warbodog]

There isn’t an episode called ‘Waxworld.’

There isn’t an episode called ‘DNA.’

Tongue Tied wiki, BBC iPlayer/Genome and British Comedy Guide are the real fans.

[Flap Jack]

Both iPlayer and TOS also claim there are episodes called “Confidence and Paranoia” and “Demons and Angels”. Weird.

[Warbodog]

“Confidence and Paranoia” and “Demons and Angels”

The Programme Guide too. And:

[Dave]

I do now want to know whether Doug filmed 50% more material than originally required just so he could do an Xtended edition for DVD

My favourite section of that TOS write-up is the paragraph just after that part:

This all started with the script. Doug Naylor had, as ever, written Back to Earth’s two-part story a little long – deliberately so, in fact, in preparation for a possible ‘Xtended cut’ on DVD.

Yet as the script evolved, it soon became clear that every scene in the show was necessary. There was no padding. 

[Moonlight]

It’s like a reverse Back in the Red.

[Author]

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