Red Dwarf’s inclusion in “greatest ever TV series” polls and listicles

[Nick R]

Empire did a readers’ poll of The 100 Best TV Shows Of All Time, and Red Dwarf made it on there:

https://www.empireonline.com/tv/features/best-tv-shows/

This news on its own isn’t really worth making a new topic about. So let’s expand the scope: if you know of any other publications that have done lists of the greatest sitcoms/comedies/TV programmes/sci-fi series that featured Red Dwarf, post about it here.

Or, if you can’t think of any, you can – if you must – use this as a place to complain about what did and did not make it onto Empire’s list, and in what order.

Topic

[Dave]

The summaries read like AI

This was my first thought too. The first line of the Red Dwarf one doesn’t even make sense.

[Ian Symes]

The use of AI is offensively obvious. I only read Who, Hitchhikers and Dwarf, and all three entries are complete nonsense.

[Warbodog]

[Warbodog]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Dave]

[Warbodog]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Warbodog]

[Dave]

[Flap Jack]

To give them some credit though, “Doctor Who is one of the best sci-fi shows ever made and one of the best shows the BBC has ever produced. Some of its seasons are shit, but some of them are good, although the good seasons do have shit episodes in them as well.” is just the stance of the average Doctor Who fan.

[Nick R]

[Technopeasant]

In fairness, tabloids have always seemed unable to agree on when Red Dwarf aired even before AI was around.

[Technopeasant]

“The very first episode features an unforgettable plot involving the Prime Minister of the UK being forced to have sex with a pig, that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and disgusting.”

I think we live in that reality already.

“Black Mirror is doubtlessly one of the very best sci-fi shows of the 2000s… The series began in 2011 and has produced 33 episodes over its six seasons, with season 7 due to arrive in 2025.”

Time travel ensued?

“Each episode takes a fascinating look at what the future has in store for the human race, with everything from AI to social media, and the dark side of human nature.”

The AI thinks it’s human.

“Douglas Adams first released his story, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, in 1973, and its popularity was so great that it spawned a radio play”

I don’t think submitting an outline to the BBC counts as releasing.

“Everything about Red Dwarf is wonderfully nostalgic”

At the time it was just a shit show about curry.

The 2005 bit links to an article stating it will be back in 2025.

[Technopeasant]

Also on ScreenRant: “New Star Wars Footage Features The Return Of A 39-Year-Old Monster Created By George Lucas”

[Ben Saunders]

“Such is the cult appeal of the series was proven by Red Dwarf’s return to screens in 2005.”

Links to an article about 2025, in which they refer to Bobby as Llewyn, and say the number of episodes was less than he expected, based on absolutely nothing.

[Ben Saunders]

I see we’ve already had that conversation.

[Technopeasant]

I see we’ve already had that conversation.

[Flap Jack]

Why pay for human writers when a language learning model can give you such authentic critiques as “Doctor Who’s seasons may have fluctuated in quality from time to time, demonstrating how such a long-running show is subject to great fluctuation.”, “its lasting appeal speaks volumes about its popularity”, and “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy includes many wonderful characters with equally memorable names”?

I’m still so naive. Just a day ago I would have been confident that even an AI click-farming webshite would have someone give “Top 10 Sci-Fi Series” a brief glance before publishing, just to check that all 10 of the entries were actually sci-fi series, but nope.

Because sure, bot, Time Travel = Sci-Fi, simple as that. Life On Mars and Ashes to Ashes are sci-fi classics, right alongside A Christmas Carol and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Problem is there’s no editorial oversight anymore. Article authors are expected to edit and proof themselves, except they don’t have time or inclination. 

And why would you when you can have AI spit out dross and you’ll get paid for it regardless.

It is simply click farming to gain a few fractions of a penny from advertising. 

As fun as it is to rip it apart we should really stop engaging with it entirely

[International Debris]

“It is one of the most beloved, and successful, sci-fi comedies to come from the UK in the 1980s”

Only “one of”.

Yeah, it’s actually kind of depressing this list even exists.

[Technopeasant]

At least it did come from the 1980s…

[Warbodog]

“It is one of the most beloved, and successful, sci-fi comedies to come from the UK in the 1980s”
Only “one of”.

People always overlook Nigel “Quatermass” Kneale’s stab at the genre with Kinvig.

[loadoftottnumb]

And another. https://www.looper.com/1725017/best-british-tv-comedies-of-all-time-ranked/

“ After getting himself chunked in stasis for smuggling his cat Frankenstein onboard sometime in the 21st century, Dave is in for something of a shock when he wakes up to find millions of years have passed, he’s the last living human, and his original crewmates have long since died from a radiation leak. His only companions are the ship computer Holly (Norman Lovett), a hologram version of Dave’s neurotic boss Arnold Judas Rimmer who caused the accident (Chris Barrie), a humanoid cat descended from his original pet (Danny John-Jules), and a sanitation android (David Ross). “ 

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Talking to an “AI” be like

[Rudolph]

They’ve discovered this list over on the Red Dwarf subreddit, and it’s amazing to me how none of them have picked up on the errors and obvious AI content.

[Moonlight]

His only companions are the ship computer Holly (Norman Lovett), a hologram version of Dave’s neurotic boss Arnold Judas Rimmer who caused the accident (Chris Barrie), a humanoid cat descended from his original pet (Danny John-Jules), and a sanitation android (David Ross). “

This is such a profoundly clunky and overwritten description to throw into the middle of a list like that. They can’t be bothered to mention Kryten’s name at all, but we get Rimmer’s middle name and history. No human would write like this.

[Technopeasant]

I mean, that gives humans a bit too much credit. Tabloid journalism predates ChatGPT.

[Ian Symes]

They’ve discovered this list over on the Red Dwarf subreddit, and it’s amazing to me how none of them have picked up on the errors and obvious AI content.

I’ve been on the Red Dwarf subreddit. This does not surprise me. It’s only half a step ahead of all the Red Dwarf Facebook groups that aren’t Escape Pod.

[Flap Jack]

I mean, that gives humans a bit too much credit. Tabloid journalism predates ChatGPT.

No, I’m with Moonlight on this one. You can take in the full spectrum of human journalism, and even the laziest tabloid columnist would not write a synopsis of Red Dwarf that was this exact brand of… off.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

I agree. To compare use of AI in this manner to hack writing is more insulting to the hacks, who at least put in the time and effort of writing their own hacky material.

[Warbodog]

The equivalent hack in this case is someone who doesn’t know the beloved show they’re authoritatively writing about and is doing lazy, crappy research, which I don’t think would make them any better. This is coming from someone who’s made most of his living being a mercenary hack writer for various industries I have no existing knowledge of or interest in.

[Flap Jack]

Oh, I’d say it would be better, absolutely. Even if tabloid hackery is shit, at least it helps someone feed their family, and it doesn’t have a disproportionate carbon footprint. Most crucially, even if you find AI slop qualitatively the same as traditional tabloid/clickbait slop, the need to pay actual people to write these articles and wait for them to be finished and edited acted as a natural limiter on how many of them could realistically pop up and drown out the actually well written content on the internet. With AI, website owners can just continually mash the “generate crap” button and flood the web with garbage.

Also, knowing a crap clickbait article was generated by an LLM really takes the fun out of debunking and deconstructing it. If we’re going to read an article that says weird and stupid things about Red Dwarf, at least let us dunk on the fool responsible, not just despair about the dire state of online journalism as an industry.

It’s like putting “Before I begin, literally none of this happened. I made it all up.” at the beginning of an “Am I The Asshole?” Reddit post.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[International Debris]

And another. https://www.looper.com/1725017/best-british-tv-comedies-of-all-time-ranked/ 

I think we’re all overlooking the fact that somebody has put Extras in the top ten sitcoms of all time. 

[Dave]

I think we’re all overlooking the fact that somebody has put Extras in the top ten sitcoms of all time. 

Presumably they mean the Red Dwarf DVD extras.

[Moonlight]

Who would’ve expected the biggest new tech craze of the 2020s was going to be the button that makes infinite garbage.

[Flap Jack]

See, this is why human writers are better. A human writer could have leant into it.

E.g.

10. The Office

9. Extras

8. Life’s Too Short

7. Derek

6. After Life

5. Time Gentlemen Please

4. Horne and Corden

3. Reggie Perrin

2. Britain’s Got The Pop Factor and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly On Ice

1. Big Top

An AI will only churn out mainstream, obvious options. My list would surely get more people talking.

[Moonlight]

The best British sitcom is Blake’s 7.

[Technopeasant]

 I’ve been on the Red Dwarf subreddit. This does not surprise me. It’s only half a step ahead of all the Red Dwarf Facebook groups that aren’t Escape Pod.

[Technopeasant]

They can’t be bothered to mention Kryten’s name at all

[Technopeasant]

EDIT: already posted.

[Moonlight]

I feel like Ganymede & Titan could make a huge profit as an entertainment conglomerate if instead of digging up Ian Symes every 8 months to write a thinkpiece we just train an AI on every post Warbo has ever made and let that write fifty articles a week.

[Technopeasant]

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

[Technopeasant]

Actually Great Space Shows That Aren’t Star Trek, Ranking The 9 Best

[Ridley]

Continue Reading was such a Star Trek wannabe.

[Warbodog]

Not so bad, outside of the low Dwarf crime and its stupid comment about funny sci-fi, but most of these are the obvious picks for the topic anyway. Though Stargate SG-1 deserves more credit than Universe, since at least it was fun for a while before I got bored, while SGU made me wonder why I was bothering with every episode to its inevitable cancellation.

I only got around to The Expanse recently and it was interesting, but I wouldn’t put it up there with the fun ones. I might feel the same about BSG if it hadn’t caught the end of my adolescence bubble. Nothing I read about The Orville made it sound like it was worth my time.

[Technopeasant]

“It was the first Stargate series with a signal, linear narrative driving toward a definite destination.”

[Author]

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