Red Dwarf related stuff from the past that’s impossible to find in 2021

[GlenTokyo]

I was looking for a particular bit of Red Dwarf trivia, delving around on old forum posts and TOS articles and a few things appeared that I have no clue what they are, and I can’t find much if anything out about with a Google search and a check of the internet archive.

Wondered if anyone knows anything about them, or has any of their own mysteries which other people might be able to shed some light on.

First, what the hell is Weird City? Chris Veale was working on it for GNP, it had scripts and stuff, apparently it was funny but I kept getting results for an unrelated current American TV show.

From this interview: https://www.reddwarf.co.uk/features/interviews/chris-veale/index.cfm

Another one I can find no record of is a Red Dwarf indie game called Virtual Slob by Narrow Monolith Games, with praise like “The screenshots don’t look too bad considering…” from Danny Stephenson, I’d be very interested in seeing this, it seems like it was completed and came out in 2011 and has vanished since, possibly under a pile of cease and desists, but maybe someone nabbed it and G&T can play it on YouTube.

Red Dwarf: Virtual Slob

Topic

[International Debris]

Sorry to derail the thread immediately, but I actually laughed out loud at this bit from the Chris Veale interview:

You must be pleased by the feedback from the REMASTERING and for VIII

[GlenTokyo]

Sorry to derail the thread immediately, but I actually laughed out loud at this bit from the Chris Veale interview:

You must be pleased by the feedback from the REMASTERING and for VIII

Yeah I think they hired the Red Dwarf USA big up executives for that feedback.

Chris Veale is also Red Dwarf related and impossible to find in 2021.

I remember looking him up a couple of years ago, I found a video of a robotic policeman if memory serves, which was about 14 years old at the time, and not a lot else.

I imagine it’s not an exciting tale, probably just started working for a company or something but it’s pretty impressive that a youngish guy got multiple TV gigs working out of a spare room.

Think if he’d done that a few years later he’d be a massive YouTuber or something.

[Warbodog]

Weird City / Tales from Weird City was an animated “comic Twilight Zone-type series” that Rob and Doug failed to sell to the BBC and NBC during the Red Dwarf USA debacle. It’s talked about in some magazines from that time.

Then a G&T news story from 2005 quotes Doug writing on TOS about “An animated Grant Naylor series created in 1992 which I’m developing for TV called: Weird City. You’ll be the first people to see the storyboards.”

The original would have been the same time they were pitching Thursday Man (Walter Matthau dystopia sitcom vehicle) and Big Crunch (“a science fiction magazine show, which would cover everything, from SF and fantasy to graphic novels and nostalgia”). All those rejections might put a strain on a writing partnership.

[Warbodog]

Looks like they also tried to sell it (or something similar) to ITV the first time around as “The Oo-ee-oO Dimension” (Smegazine Nov 1992). And Thursday Man was maybe a film script. No wonder they didn’t get around to writing The Last Human.

[Pete Part Three]

You must be pleased by the feedback from the REMASTERING and for VIII

Remastered came out in 1998. This interview was in 2000. By 2007 and The Bodysnatcher Collection, Grant Naylor Productions were openly admitting that Remastered was a bit of a mess. Not sure when this re-evaluation occurred, although Series IV-VI had presumably already been canned by the time of that interview.

[Warbodog]

Wondered if anyone knows anything about them, or has any of their own mysteries which other people might be able to shed some light on.

I wonder what the BBC continuity announcer said leading into the first broadcast of Back to Reality (26 March 1992) that supposedly persuaded viewers that this might be the last ever episode (maybe with Grant Naylor input).

There’s a YouTube video that claims to be from the original broadcast, but it’s just the 1993 repeat (since it says “we embark on another tour of duty around the universe now…” as BTR was aired first).

[clem]

Norman’s appearance as Holly on Tomorrow’s World from around the time Series VIII aired.

[Jonathan Capps]

Norman’s appearance as Holly on Tomorrow’s World from around the time Series VIII aired.

Hold that thought.

[clem]

Ooh. Did someone say ‘G&TV Special’?

[desbug]

Looks like they also tried to sell it (or something similar) to ITV the first time around as “The Oo-ee-oO Dimension” (Smegazine Nov 1992). And Thursday Man was maybe a film script. No wonder they didn’t get around to writing The Last Human.

Thursday Man lurks on Amazon as a book allegedly published in 2015 with an ISBN and everything. The blurb sounds pretty topical in these pandemic times…

I check the page optimistically every so often to see if it ever actually becomes a thing rather than a data glitch!

[pfm]

Not sure when this re-evaluation occurred,

Maybe when they noticed the world and his wife slating the ever-loving fuck out of the project at any given opportunity…

Weird City / Tales from Weird City…Thursday Man (Walter Matthau dystopia sitcom vehicle) and Big Crunch (“a science fiction magazine show, which would cover everything, from SF and fantasy to graphic novels and nostalgia”)

It’s worth asking Doug about at least some (if not all…) of these, at any future Q&A.

[Jonsmad]

I felt that the James Hendrie script called events and moments was likely an episode of weird city / oo ee oo zone. It was called an unproduced script from the 90s when lock down theatre did their table read during Rob grants zoom cast series last year.

[Moonlight]

It’s worth asking Doug about at least some (if not all…) of these, at any future Q&A.

No, I think it would better to ask the cast what their favorite episode is. The world needs to know!

[Stilianides]

Doug mentioned The Thursday Man in an interview a couple of years ago and said that Jeff Goldblum wanted to be in it at the time and Steve Martin was also interested.

Walter Matthau, the person Rob and Doug actually wrote it for, hated it.

[By Jove its holmes]

Walter Matthau, the person Rob and Doug actually wrote it for, hated it.

Well Doug can now DeepFake Matthau in

[GlenTokyo]

In a world where all these big names actually appeared in the stuff they were apparently going to, Grant Naylor would be like the Russo Brothers or something.

[JEZZMUND]

I had a poke around trying to find Virtual Slob – or indeed any means of contacting the Devs.
Narrow Monoliths utterly shit games still exist on the Steam Library but the company itself was forced to dissolve in 2016 for non-payment of Tax it appears – the lead dev hasn’t really been seen since, his twitter in IG etc all had last activity around the same time…
Presumably that has something to do with them getting utterly slated for releasing a ‘completed’ game (The Tower) on Steam and THEN launching a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to make it, afterwards.
It also seems (possibly, not sure) that the lead dev is the same guy that got in the news when he tried to sell his soul on eBay years ago.
Point of these shit words are: I can’t find any trace of Virtual Slob anywhere – let alone any screenshots – so if any of you fuckers have any, I’m seconding the “cough ’em up” request…

[GlenTokyo]

I had a poke around trying to find Virtual Slob – or indeed any means of contacting the Devs.

Narrow Monoliths utterly shit games still exist on the Steam Library but the company itself was forced to dissolve in 2016 for non-payment of Tax it appears – the lead dev hasn’t really been seen since, his twitter in IG etc all had last activity around the same time…
Presumably that has something to do with them getting utterly slated for releasing a ‘completed’ game (The Tower) on Steam and THEN launching a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to make it, afterwards.
It also seems (possibly, not sure) that the lead dev is the same guy that got in the news when he tried to sell his soul on eBay years ago.
Point of these shit words are: I can’t find any trace of Virtual Slob anywhere – let alone any screenshots – so if any of you fuckers have any, I’m seconding the “cough ’em up” request…

Virtual Slob is the one I’m most intrigued about. It must have been monumentally shit for it to disappear without a trace when there are so many people on twitter, tumblr, etc that just hoard and dig up Red Dwarf stuff.

[clem]

A couple of days ago over in the Red Dwarf section of Roobarb’s Forum (here’s the link but I think you need to be registered to see it) someone posted this: 

‘I seem to remember Danny John-Jules hosting the programming strand “Def II”, in character as The Cat, claiming various things as his own with his spray, as he is seen doing in Confidence and Paranoia.

Did I imagine this? I can’t find evidence of this anywhere online. There doesn’t seem to even be a mention of it. Did it happen? Does anyone have the footage?’

Well, this is a completely new one on me. Another poster says the programme in question is Babylon 2, and another specifically remembers the Cat introducing a clip of Quatermass and the Pit. Anyone here ever even heard about this? 

[Warbodog]

Another poster says the programme in question is Babylon 2

Found on Genome: https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/732c04ec18d84704a7ae649a173dc52a

May 1988, only a few months after Red Dwarf first broadcast in Feb-Mar.

Doesn’t say if he was doing Cat, but that was the only result for his name and the show.

[Warbodog]

Anyone seen these?

Cyberpunks and Technophobes

Mon 22nd Nov 1993, 18:35 on BBC Two England

Why is science such a turn-off for teenagers? This month London’s Science Museum hosted a European “sleepover” for children aimed at putting the fun back into science but the chances are that by their mid-teens British students will opt for the arts. Space expert Tim Parsons , of London’s Imperial College discusses the problem with the help of author Douglas Adams and Red Dwarf star Craig Charles.

Craig advocating for STEM education over the arts seems a bit odd, but maybe this was before he learned about the tantalising horror of dildonics.

Computers Don’t Bite: the Beginners’ Guide

Mon 8th Jun 1998, 19:30 on BBC Two England

The series for consumers of new technology looks at how the forces’ mail has been transformed by the latest gadgetry; the stars of Red Dwarf book a holiday on line rather than going through a travel agent; and a look at ballroom dancing via a waltz on the World Wide Web. Presented by Carol Vorderman and Adrian Chiles.

How many of the stars? Did they get together specifically for this?? Did they go on the holiday???????

[Technopeasant]

the stars of Red Dwarf

[Technopeasant]

 Another poster says the programme in question is Babylon 2

[Warbodog]

I seem to remember Danny John-Jules hosting the programming strand “Def II”, in character as The Cat, claiming various things as his own with his spray, as he is seen doing in Confidence and Paranoia.

Confirmed that Danny was playing Cat, and the Babylon 2 thing above was part of the Def II strand. From Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition 10: The Complete Seventh Doctor (2005):

An extract from The Claws of Axos Episode Four appeared on BBC2’s DEF II on Monday 30 May [1988], one of a number of items introduced by Danny John-Jules in his Red Dwarf persona as the Cat and pre-recorded on Tuesday 24 May.

[clem]

Good work, Warbodog.

Judging by this clip of Stephen Fry, Babylon 2 wasn’t a distinct programme, just a feature of the Def II host segments. So presumably the Cat presented the whole thing?

[Podey]

I have a very vivid memory from my childhood of watching a show – I think it was ‘Telly Addicts’ – where they introduced the teams dressed up as TV characters, and the one team was dressed up as the boys from the Dwarf. 

I’ve clicked on various random episodes on YouTube and haven’t found it and no one else had ever seen it whenever I’ve mentioned it on here.

It’s possible I’m completely making it up but I can still see it in my mind!

[Warbodog]

There’s one match for Telly Addicts + Red Dwarf on Genome, doesn’t mention costumes though:

Telly Addicts

First broadcast: Mon 23rd Sep 1996, 19:00 on BBC One London

Noel Edmonds presents the light-hearted quiz in which two teams test their television knowledge. Tonight’s contestants are the “Generation Gap” from Portsmouth, Norfolk and Chichester, who will be showing off their expert knowledge of “Red Dwarf”, and the “Double Deckers” from Poole and Bournemouth, whose chosen programme is “MASH”.

[Warbodog]

Aha! I tracked down one of my own, which I remembered clearly but was never able to find with keywords. Craig Charles interviewing Patrick Stewart (and maybe Jonathan Frakes, unless he’s talking to someone else) at the premiere of Star Trek: Insurrection (on Electric Circus, Friday 18 December 1998).

From 5:17 to the end.

[Warbodog]

I like how the clueless edit suggests Jonathan Frakes is a random celebrity Trekkie in attendance from 4:57-5:05, then introduces him as the director and cast member a minute later.

[Dave]

The edit immediately after he praises the special effects getting better and better seems cruel.

[Warbodog]

Yeah, that was the first film in a while that wasn’t handled by ILM and the drop in quality was noticeable to 13-year-old me. I didn’t mind it as a film, because I’d been following the development and knew to basically expect a random mid-season two-parter rather than something more exciting.

[Podey]

There’s one match for Telly Addicts + Red Dwarf on Genome, doesn’t mention costumes though:
Telly Addicts
First broadcast: Mon 23rd Sep 1996, 19:00 on BBC One London
Noel Edmonds presents the light-hearted quiz in which two teams test their television knowledge. Tonight’s contestants are the “Generation Gap” from Portsmouth, Norfolk and Chichester, who will be showing off their expert knowledge of “Red Dwarf”, and the “Double Deckers” from Poole and Bournemouth, whose chosen programme is “MASH”.

Cheers – a quick look at episodes from that time does indeed show contestants being introduced in short clips of them dressed as TV characters so I may not have imagined it after all.

[Podey]

For example…

[Podey]

Additional detail I just remembered: it started with them all facing the wrong way, with their backs to the camera, then they realise and turn the right way around.

I’m *so* desperate to see it again just to see what the Kryten costume looked like! 

Though also slightly terrified there might be blackface involved.

[Warbodog]

[clem]

Nice to see Reketrebn very briefly at the end of that Electric Circus video.

[Author]

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