Revisiting Series I with fresh eyes

[Captain No-Name]

Howdy-doodly-doo

I’m one of those forum pervs who watches but never joins in. Been enjoying visiting G&T for years and never intended to make an account. However…

With Series XII having recently preached to us all about the value of criticism, and with Skipper promising to having a very Series I flavour, it seemed like the time was right for me to share the following link with you all.

Basically, I haven’t watched any 20th century Red Dwarf in a very long time (well over a decade in most cases) which puts me in a prime situation to re-evaluate those old episodes which the rest of you will know inside out.

So, while everyone is enjoying Series XII, I’m going back to 1988 and scrutinising those first 6 episodes as a self-contained entity.

You’re welcome to tell me why my opinions are wrong, or otherwise chip in, if you can do so without being a total arse.

DISCLAIMER: Blog posts will be subjective and waffly, with a tone that probably leans more towards analysis than trying to be especially funny myself. Red Dwarf is a comedy, my blog posts not so much.

Anyway, for those who might be interested…

Red Dwarf I – The End

Topic

[Captain No-Name]

P.S.

My website was originally created as somewhere to stick an old comic strip (set in the Red Dwarf universe) which I made back in the Space Year 2000 when I was a kid.

As juvenilia, I don’t expect it to be of interest to anyone other than me.

These are literally the doodles of a child, and were never intended for public consumption.

That said, I enjoyed seeing that Si Bromley has similar vintage (although better drawn) fan doodles on his own blog, so there may be a small glow of recognition for any other fans who spent rainy childhood weekends indoors amusing themselves with a biro and a Woolworths pad of paper.

[Manbird]

Welcome to G&T, Captain No-Name!

(No one said that to me when I joined but, y’know – fuck ’em.)

Nice blog. Maybe cut the number of rhetorical questions, but it’s definitely one I’d follow. Like the breakdown of character tics (Rimmer’s exercise regime, for example) and how you place the show into the context of the late ’80s TV landscape.

Oh, and:

>”Blog posts will be subjective […] with a tone that probably leans more towards analysis than trying to be especially funny myself. Red Dwarf is a comedy, my blog posts not so much.”

This is refreshing and certainly not something to apologise for. Everyone seems to think they’re a bloody comedian these days.

[International Debris]

Oh, this looks fun. It’s so hard to watch any I-VIII episodes these days, what with the scripts being burned into my memory, but my ongoing love of those shows continues through fan criticism of them, so this sort of thing is always welcome.

[Manbird]

>”Oh, this looks fun. It’s so hard to watch any I-VIII episodes these days, what with the scripts being burned into my memory, but my ongoing love of those shows continues through fan criticism of them, so this sort of thing is always welcome.”<

Agree totally: it’s always good to step back and find a fresh perspective. I’ve been doing the same thing recently with the first two seasons (actually, bollocks to that – they’re *series*) of The Simpsons. Glad I did, too, as they’re bloody delightful.

[Manbird]

Anyway, yeah – Red Dwarf, Series One: it’s always a pleasure to return to it. Waiting for God certainly grows in the mind, and the imagination, as the years go by. Criminally underrated in my view.

[Pete Part Three]

Welcome, Captain. I’ve bookmarked it for a nice long read when i’m at work on Monday. :-)

[Ben Saunders]

Do you have a link to your modelling portfolio, by any chance?

[International Debris]

Waiting for God certainly grows in the mind, and the imagination, as the years go by. Criminally underrated in my view.

Oh, I love Waiting for God. Definitely prefer it to the two episodes bookending it for a start.

[bloodteller]

series I is still one of my favourite series of Red Dwarf in general, tbh.

also i really like the point made in the review about how the crew’s death would really be a surprise for the average viewer in 1988. i’ve often thought that at the time that sort of thing must’ve really come off as quite shocking

[Captain No-Name]

Cheers guys, really appreciate your interest in my ramblings!

Maybe cut the number of rhetorical questions

Fair point. I’ll try not to let that get out of hand. Although it’s staggering the sheer amount of questions that The End throws up if you adopt the mindframe of a 1988 viewer. I mean, what the hell is this programme!?

Oh, this looks fun. It’s so hard to watch any I-VIII episodes these days, what with the scripts being burned into my memory, but my ongoing love of those shows continues through fan criticism of them, so this sort of thing is always welcome.

Glad you think so! I know these episodes have been endlessly debated over the years, so I hope my re-watch brings something fresh to the table.

Red Dwarf, Series One: it’s always a pleasure to return to it.

It’s been lovely to immerse myself in it again after all these years. The empty, desolate, loneliness of the first series gives it a wonderful and unique feel. And pretending that I’m a viewer in 1988 has given me a new appreciation for quite how unpredictable it is. Which you can lose sight of when you know how things pan out in Series II-XII.

the crew’s death would really be a surprise for the average viewer in 1988. i’ve often thought that at the time that sort of thing must’ve really come off as quite shocking

Yeah, I agree. If you’d avoided being spoilered by adverts or the Radio Times, it would’ve been a real bolt from the blue. Pretending to be a 1988 viewer has also brought a few other things to my attention, like the way Kochanski has no real significance in The End, whereas Todhunter feels like he’s being set up as an important character.

Do you have a link to your modelling portfolio, by any chance?

Damn, you’ve rumbled me. Was it really so obvious?

[Captain No-Name]

More reviews…

FUTURE ECHOES: In which I look for signs that a format might be starting to emerge, after the deliberately wrong-footing nature of The End. There’s also talk of why future echoes are not a Sci-Fi idea; how long-running sitcoms have a guarantee of eventual crapness; and a clumsy simile involving a bizarre alternate universe version of Fawlty Towers…
Red Dwarf I – Future Echoes

BALANCE OF POWER: In which I debate the music of comedy; Holly’s monitoring of conversation word-counts; the nostalgic power of disco dance floors; and the presence of women in the series. Incidentally, I really like Balance of Power. It is better than Future Echoes, so there.
Red Dwarf I – Balance of Power

[(deleted)]

It may be a slower burn, but nudging Future Echoes to after Waiting For God (as originally intended) works so much better. I think one of the reasons Balance and Waiting are knocked so much is because they’re divorced from The End which they’re basically ‘parts 2 and 3’ of. And Echoes works better when you know the characters more anyway.

[Dave]

Although it does open up the plot hole of ‘why don’t they just turn the ship around and then go back into stasis’ for a lot longer.

[Lily]

Reading through the Balance of Power review, it’s interesting to read about jokes that haven’t hit the mark with younger viewers.

The changing room saloon doors one resonated with my chubby teenager self, who hated them only fractionally less than the horror of communal changing rooms that were trendy at the time.

Likewise, the “parental advisory” sticker had just become a thing to much fanfare, so stepping it up to health warnings seemed totally right for the future.

[Captain No-Name]

the “parental advisory” sticker had just become a thing to much fanfare, so stepping it up to health warnings seemed totally right for the future.

Ah, of course! It’s obvious now you’ve pointed it out, Lily. It’s a satire of parental advisory stickers, of course it is. Thank you for pointing this out.

The changing room saloon doors one resonated with my chubby teenager self, who hated them only fractionally less than the horror of communal changing rooms that were trendy at the time.

Right, I see. That makes me wonder whether one of the writers (Rob Grant?) had a similarly passionate hatred of the things, and so the joke had a hilarious resonance to him which is lost on me. Also, I spend very little time in clothes shops, so I was actually braced for people to say “what are you talking about, it’s not an 80s thing, Top Shop is full of them!” or something…

nudging Future Echoes to after Waiting For God (as originally intended) works so much better.

I didn’t know this was the intention, that’s interesting. I’ve perversely decided not to do any research around the production, on the basis that I am trying to recreate the perspective of someone watching the episodes on TV with no wider (or future) knowledge. I welcome people educating me along the way.

Perhaps controversially, I think Future Echoes makes for a better and more confident Episode One than The End. Although I admire The End’s eccentricity and boldness.

Dave Wallace, you’re right that the question “why doesn’t Holly just turn round and leave Lister in stasis until they are back at Earth” is one that flags up pretty early, and Future Echoes has more of a stab at addressing this than either Balance of Power or Waiting for God, so I can see why they would put Future Echoes before those two. But, you know, the question “why Rimmer’s hologram?” was really prominent in my mind on this re-watch and I was surprised that is left unaddressed until Episode 3.

[Dave]

I really like the way the question of ‘why Rimmer’s hologram’ is addressed in the novels. Putting Lister in a more dire state (both mentally and physically) really helps in justifying Holly’s decision to resurrect Rimmer to sort him out.

[Captain No-Name]

I read Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers when I was at secondary school and I remember really liking the way it fleshed out things about Series I & II, but it’s been years and I don’t own a copy, so I don’t remember how it justifies Holly’s resurrection of Rimmer.

I have a dim recollection that Lister traipsed around the ship feeling depressed, wearing nothing but a duvet or something…

I’d like to own a copy of those first two books. I probably ought to read The Last Human as well (I only got about a quarter of the way through that one and gave up, but I was only about 14).

I really wish that the Omnibus of those first two books had been re-released with a snazzy cover design to tie-in with the Dave series. The Omnibus has such an appallingly bland cover, I think I’d rather track down second-hand copies of the individual books, even though all copies I’ve ever seen are dog-eared and tatty.

[MANI506]

I would recommend the audiobooks on audible as a great way to revisit the novels. Last Human and Backwards are on YouTube in abridged form. They probably shouldn’t be there but they are. I feel they are better in abridged form same as I prefer the fan edits of Back In The Red and Only The Good…

[Dax101]

Its a shame Chris Barrie didn’t read the audiobooks for Last Human and Backwards as they were not quite given the same care and attention as Infinity and BTL.

[Ian Symes]

Finally got round to reading this today and it’s very good indeed. I had a vague idea of doing a similar episode-by-episode revisiting myself, but I’m glad you beat me to it, Captain No-Name, as it’s so much more interesting from the perspective of someone who’s less familiar with it.

[Captain No-Name]

Cheers Ian, I really appreciate you saying that. I’m pleasantly surprised my ramblings have had such a warm reception.

I gorged on Red Dwarf in the 1990s, but have barely touched it since about 2002, aside from watching all the Dave episodes obviously. So whilst I have seen literally every episode, and read 3 of the novels, and used to draw Red Dwarf comics when I was a kid, it’s all so long ago that it’s not fresh in my memory. And I’ve never properly swotted up on the behind-the-scenes stuff; I’ve picked up the odd detail from an ancient Smegazine here, or a half-forgotten DVD extra there, but compared to my knowledge of, say, 1980s Doctor Who, I am relatively uneducated.

Which makes it easier for me to synthesise the “I’ve never seen Red Dwarf” mind-frame, compared to a more knowledgeable fan.

I would recommend the audiobooks on audible as a great way to revisit the novels.

I’ve heard extracts from these (I’m sure my dad had BTL on cassette tape actually) and Chris Barrie does a great job, as you’d expect. But (whilst I’m a fan of audio, and I love a good Big Finish) I think I’d rather have the physical books, truth be told.

[Pete Part Three]

This is *really* good, Captain No-Name. Future Echoes was the first episode I saw, so that one particularly struck a chord.

I’m not sure whether the analogy of an alternate version of Fawlty Towers quite works, mind. Only because you could watch the entire series in any order and, unless you knew otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to pick out the ‘first episode’. The show never really goes to any effort to set up its format; certainly not to the extent that The End sets up a ‘phoney one’.

[Captain No-Name]

The Fawlty Towers analogy is just me rambling, Pete Part Three. If I had an editor, it would have quite rightly been cut, but it amused me so it stayed.

Allow me to have one more stab at re-phrasing the point I was clumsily trying to make…

If you watch any episode of Fawlty Towers, it gives you a good idea of what any other given episode of Fawlty Towers is like. Each episode has the same format, which is to say each episode is a tightly-constructed farce that winds towards a catastrophic crescendo, without any overall story arc of serialised plotting. Which means you can watch the episodes in any order.

But if you watch The End, it doesn’t give you a good idea of what any other given episode of Red Dwarf is like at all. And that means that if you watch Future Echoes afterwards, you *still* don’t know what a standard episode will be like, because you only have The End to compare it to, and you’re not sure which is the more representative (as it turns out it’s Future Echoes, obviously).

So, yeah, I think we’re in agreement, but I made a pig’s ear of explaining myself first time round!

Ta for checking out the blog. Interesting to hear you saw Future Echoes first. I think that would be my preferred route into the series, rather than The End.

[Captain No-Name]

P.S. The nonsense about Basil and Manuel being on the run after the Torquay Inferno was meant to demonstrate how much you’d have to bend Fawlty Towers out of shape in order to make it give the viewer a similar feeling of unpredictability to that of the first few episodes of Red Dwarf. Like I say, rambling.

[Pete Part Three]

>So, yeah, I think we’re in agreement, but I made a pig’s ear of explaining myself first time round!
>Like I say, rambling.

No, not at all. It was a cute analogy and I understood what you meant (within your article :-) ) about the format change in The End. I liked the suggestion of the hotel burning to the ground in the last five minutes and the next episode being something else entirely . My only *slight* problem with using Fawlty Towers as an analogy is purely that A Touch of Class does no more or no less “format building” than any of the other 11 episodes.

Fawlty Towers seems absolutely effortless in setting up the status quo each episode. The End, meanwhile, seems to be doing a lot of heavy lifting; introducing concepts, characters and, in the example of McIntyre, concepts as characters. In retrospect, a lot of it does seem a bit extraneous as that’s 20 minutes of something that’s not the status quo.

I realise i’m now simply echoing what you’ve said very succinctly in your article. I just thought that series with a more clearly defined “Episode 1” (like The End…but *without* the rug-pull in the last 5 minutes) would be a better fit for the analogy to show how jarring the format break is. That said, I appreciate that it’s quite hard to resist using Fawlty Towers as, well, it’s Fawlty Towers.

[Captain No-Name]

It’s interesting, A Touch of Class doesn’t (for example) feature Basil and Sybil viewing the hotel with an estate agent and optimistically deciding to buy it because it will be a lovely relaxing lifestyle. It doesn’t feature Manuel being interviewed for the job, or Polly arriving fresh off the plane from Canada, or other such dreadful ideas. It just… starts. It just does Fawlty Towers from the off.

I don’t know whether it’s just easy for me to say this from the perspective of roughly 30 years of TV storytelling later, but wouldn’t it be better for Red Dwarf to just jump in the deep end and start with a standard episode of Red Dwarf, and fill in the details via backstory? I’m not sure George McIntyre is needed at all, for example. You should surely establish and explore the hologram concept via Rimmer, rather than a random one-off character.

Like I say, I admire The End’s bold eccentricity and its ballsy rug-bull. But, yeah, there’s something about showing an audience an approximation of a standard episode ASAP that seems like the wisest way to go when putting a new sitcom in front of people. Especially an atypical sitcom like Red Dwarf.

[International Debris]

I think the first half of The End is very much necessary to at least give you a hint of what Lister lost. The sense of shock reflects the way Lister feels when he comes out of stasis. I think that’s quite important.

[Hamish]

Not to mention that Holly’s “they’re dead Dave” speech is probably one of the most cultural iconic parts of the show. It crops up everywhere.

[Pete Part Three]

As much as I think the rug-pull could benefit from coming; the original pilot of Red Dwarf USA shows how this could have been disastrous.

In the USA pilot, Lister’s in stasis after 12 minutes, the show has introduced pretty much everything the UK version has AND Kryten. And the backend of the show has brought back Kochanski and given us a future echo (to some intents and purposes). The result is a mess. It’s so hasty in getting us to the eventual format that there’s zero time to explore Rimmer.

Maybe worth a look if you haven’t seen it, Captain No-Name. It’s on YouTube.

[Dax101]

Given the original assemble cut i think we got fairly lucky.

[Captain No-Name]

You’re right, it’s certainly important to give the audience a sense of Lister’s loss. I just don’t think you need to do it right at the beginning of episode one. Especially not for half the run time.

And I’m not even sure that’s what the opening of The End really achieves. The trolley scene and the first bunkroom scene for example, neither of those are really concerned with depicting what Lister will lose. I’ll give you the coin scene, and the fleeting few seconds with Kochanksi, but that’s about it.

For my money, the disco scene in Balance of Power, and the various lovely scenes in Series II where Lister and Rimmer talk about their respective families are considerably more effective at evoking what Lister has lost. Demonstrating that you don’t need to tell this story in a linear fashion.

See also, not starting Doctor Who in 2005 with Gallifrey being destroyed in the Time War. A sense of tragic loss is crucial to the character of Eccleston’s Doctor just like it is to Lister, but the episode “Rose” busies itself with showing you what a standard Doctor Who episode will be like, before mining all that emotional backstory.

I hate to admit it, but the “Everybody’s dead” scene frustrates me. It could’ve been executed so much better. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it on the page. It just frustrates me on the screen. Especially “are you trying to tell me everybody’s dead?” which I would have preferred Craig Charles to deliver shell-shocked rather than like he’s thick and he’s only just worked out what Holly means (I think Norman Lovett’s wonderful delivery of the punchline would have worked brilliantly regardless of how Craig Charles set it up).

[Captain No-Name]

Maybe worth a look if you haven’t seen it, Captain No-Name. It’s on YouTube.

I have not seen it Pete Part Three. I shall make sure to avoid it for a good while yet, it sounds ghastly!

Neither have I seen the original assembly, Dax101. Was that on the elusive Bodysnatcher collection?

[Dax101]

Yeah it had originals scenes that were filmed for the first episode before they used money for a 7th episode to refilm scenes for it.

[Captain No-Name]

Sounds very intriguing. I didn’t even know about the existence of The Bodysnatcher Collection until I read about it on this forum! Shame it’s so obscure.

[Dax101]

You probably can find some of the extras uploaded online, although you might have to google them.

[Warbodog]

This might just intrude on your viewing time, and you might not be able to get hold of them anyway (though like MANI506 said, the audios are all on YouTube for now, including unabridged Chris Barries). But if you were interested in re-reading the books at some point, it could be interesting to read them in publication order relative to the series, to get more of an insight into where Grant Naylor’s gestalt mind was at.

I’m interested to know how first generation fans reacted to certain plots and continuity from the books making their way into subsequent series, so this is the next best thing. (First book after series 2, Better Than Life after series 3, Last Human & Backwards after 6).

[International Debris]

It’s probably because I’m so used to the show existing in its current state, but I really can’t see flashbacks working. I think the audience need the same shock as Lister to make it work. I’m not saying the opening section of The End does it that well – you’ve pointed out some of the issues with fairly basic, underwritten relationships – but structurally, I have no problem with it. Rimmer and Lister’s pre-relationship relationship is necessary to understand their post-accident relationship, and I don’t think that can be done through flashbacks either.

[International Debris]

Also, what are your thoughts on continuing this onwards after I? A few years ago I introduced my girlfriend to the show and it took her until The Last Day to accept the changes in series III. Would love to see if you could continue this series to take onboard all the changes in the show over the years.

[Hamish]

> I hate to admit it, but the “Everybody’s dead” scene frustrates me. It could’ve been executed so much better … Especially “are you trying to tell me everybody’s dead?” which I would have preferred Craig Charles to deliver shell-shocked rather than like he’s thick and he’s only just worked out what Holly means

Is he being thick, or is he is being incredulous? Lister had only just come out of stasis, meaning that as far as he was concerned he had been speaking to Todhunter only moments before. You can only be shell shocked after the scale of the problem has sunk in. Temporally disoriented as he was I don’t think he had the time for that.

[bloodteller]

i used to think it was sort of disturbing that Lister never exactly reacted to the death of the crew in The End (the most he gets is feeling a bit sad about Kochanski) but i suppose it sort of makes sense he’d react like that, doesn’t it? after all, “death is not the stigma it once was” and so in the universe Red Dwarf takes place in, death isn’t really treated as seriously- they can just revive people as holograms.

[Dollar Pound]

yes but holograms require massive amounts of power to generate. in mechocracy kryten says he’s a machine – but so is rimmer. a tiny flying robot that can project a 3d image and sound. weird they happen before mechs. once you’ve got mechs what’s the point of holograms? just download the personality file into a mech body and they can have a physical presence. also holograms could live together in lightbee communities – the money they save on rent they’d need for the leccy bills…

[Captain No-Name]

what are your thoughts on continuing this onwards after I?

I’d consider it, but I guess we need to wait and see whether the show gets commissioned for a second series ;)

Is he being thick, or is he is being incredulous?

Oh he’s being incredulous definitely. That’s clearly the intention of the script, and that’s obviously the reaction that makes sense in the wider context of Lister as a character. He’s not a stupid man at all.

I’m just suggesting that Craig Charles’s acting is a bit lacking in this scene. Later on in the series his acting improves considerably, but this early on I don’t think he nails it I’m afraid. It’s the only scene in The End where he’s required to really impress us dramatically… and he doesn’t.

If you gave Craig Charles a scene like that nowadays he’d pull it off, for sure.

bloodteller, I know what you mean. I personally would prefer a bit more of an emotional reaction from Lister. In my headcanon, it really hits him between The End and Future Echoes. Any normal person would do a fair bit of crying and panicking, but that wouldn’t make for good sitcom scenes!

Dollarpound, your point about hologram personalities being downloaded into robot bodies is an excellent one. (Kind of reminds me of the question of why Davros doesn’t build himself mechanical legs, instead of that cumbersome chariot).

But I don’t think it’s a plot hole yet, because there don’t appear to be any humanoid robots in this fictional universe. Obviously if a humanoid robot turned up, that would change things. But for now, the service robots with the good union mentioned in The End are seemingly the skutters; while Holly, the vending machines and the Talkie Toaster are all distinctly non-humanoid.

[Captain No-Name]

Hot off the press…

WAITING FOR GOD: “There is an absolutely pivotal moment that happens right at the beginning of this episode. It will fundamentally change the viewer’s expectations of the remainder of the series, and yet it it is such a small and fleeting thing that it is actually invisible if you watch the episode in isolation. It only reveals itself when watched in sequence with the previous episodes. And that moment is this…”
Red Dwarf I – Waiting for God

[International Debris]

That’s made me happy. I really, really like Waiting for God, and never understood why it’s often rated among the – if not THE – worst of the original 36.

[International Debris]

On your hot dog point, I think Lister’s comment is more at the quality of cinema hot dogs in particular, not hot dogs in general.

[Captain No-Name]

That’s made me happy. I really, really like Waiting for God, and never understood why it’s often rated among the – if not THE – worst of the original 36.

Really!? It has a poor reputation? Worst of the original 36 you say??? You see, this is where it benefits me not having a thorough knowledge of Red Dwarf fan consensus. I’m astounded. It’s clearly an outstanding episode!

On your hot dog point, I think Lister’s comment is more at the quality of cinema hot dogs in particular, not hot dogs in general.

Ha ha! Fair enough. I’m no hotdog connoisseur. They’re just crap rubbery sausages aren’t they? I’m sure Lister’s donut diner would have divine hotdogs better than I can imagine.

[Ben Saunders]

To be fair, none of us have ever experienced anything on the magnitude of waking up 3,000,000 years into the future with everybody you ever knew or loved having died, so we don’t really know what a “normal” reaction would be. I always thought he was being incredulous though, and the scene is very funny, so I give it a pass.

He does get a bit mopey about everyone being dead later on.

[Ben Saunders]

Hot dogs are nice but everybody knows they’re made of chicken feet and gristle

[bloodteller]

>bloodteller, I know what you mean. I personally would prefer a bit more of an emotional reaction from Lister. In my headcanon, it really hits him between The End and Future Echoes. Any normal person would do a fair bit of crying and panicking, but that wouldn’t make for good sitcom scenes!

oddly enough you’re exactly right about it really hitting him between The End and Future Echoes. in the “lost episode” of Series I called Bodysnatcher (intended to be the second episode of the series) Lister has a line that goes something like “I know what I’ve lost. Everything. Friends, family… for all we know, the planet Earth no longer exists. No more trees, no more human race…” so i guess he does begin to understand the gravity of the situation sooner or later

[International Debris]

It’s telling that vegetarian hot dogs taste EXACTLY like real ones.

[Author]

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