Home Forums Ganymede & Titan Forum SFDebris: Opinionated Guide To Red Dwarf

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  • #11450
    Richey
    Participant

    Hey folks,

    I’ve no idea if anyone has posted about this before, but I thought I’d just give a heads up to SFDebris’ Red Dwarf reviews. It’s done by an American gent named Chuck, I watch every week as he does reviews of the various Star Trek series (usually hillarious, always intelligent) and his Dwarf reviews are very very good.

    One of the things that appeals to me the most about them is we’re getting the perspective of an American fan, something that’s always cool to see when it comes to British shows. And if nothing else his videos disprove the stereotype that all Yanks struggle to understand British humour.

    Anyway, check out the reviews here; http://sfdebris.com/reddwarf/series1.asp

    #114248
    JamesTC
    Participant

    I like his theory on how the version of Lister seen in ‘Stasis Leak’ is the future version (pre-jar) from ‘Out of Time’ (which explains away why Lister didn’t end up marrying the original Kochanski, they changed time by being killed by their future selves).

    #114249
    Richey
    Participant

    Totally agree mate. Like I said, his reviews are a great mixture of comedy and intelligent analysis. Highly recommended :)

    #114267
    thomasaevans
    Participant

    It may be late at night… but that makes no sense to me. Explain.

    #114271
    ChrisM
    Participant

    >It may be late at night… but that makes no sense to me. Explain.

    The theory?

    I’m assuming he’s saying that the reason we never saw Lister go back and marry Kochanski is because the incident at the end of Series VI where the future selves killed their younger selves means that he will never become that Lister who went back…

    Or something.

    #114272
    srmcd1
    Participant

    It actually makes a bit of sense. The future Rimmer in ‘Stasis Leak’ was growing a mustache, and the future-future Rimmer in ‘Out of Time’ had a great big honkin’ mustache. Wonder if Rob and Doug meant to do that…?

    #114273
    ori-STUDFARM
    Participant

    > Wonder if Rob and Doug meant to do that…?

    I seriously doubt it.

    #114276
    Mr-Stabby
    Participant

    I’ve long been a fan of this guys reviews. He not only makes his reviews extremely funny, especially for the sh*t stuff like Star Trek V, his reviews go further than any review i’ve ever read or seen. You’ll see what i mean when he reviews the more techno-babbley episodes of Star Trek, or the episodes of other shows that involve deep character arcs or complicated episode concepts.

    His Red Dwarf ones i think are not his best, and that’s saying something because his Red Dwarf reviews are still great. His best reviews are without doubt the Star Trek ones for me. Especially the terrible episodes of Voyager and Enterprise.

    #114279
    Seb Patrick
    Keymaster

    That theory is so good I can’t believe it never occurred to me before.

    Only downside is that you need to come up with a good rationale for why Kryten isn’t there… or for why Kochanski isn’t with the future crew in OOT. But otherwise, that’s some quite superb fan-plot-filling.

    #114280
    MANI506
    Participant

    I enjoyed these and the Stasis Leak/Out Of Time theory works for me.

    Puppet Rimmer ejecting out of Starbug as the screen fades to black makes me laugh every time!

    Just about to watch the series vii review. Hope he does series viii and BTE soon.

    #114281
    NoFro
    Participant

    “In any event, Out of Time is probably the worst Red Dwarf episode.”
    He then goes on to say that Identity Within is better. I can’t agree with a lot of what this man says.

    #114282
    Pete Part Three
    Participant

    >“In any event, Out of Time is probably the worst Red Dwarf episode.”

    Oh, my poor fool.

    #114283
    Seb Patrick
    Keymaster

    >“In any event, Out of Time is probably the worst Red Dwarf episode.”

    I didn’t actually watch the video yet, so I didn’t see that.

    EVERYTHING THAT THIS MAN HAS EVER SAID IS WRONG.

    #114284
    MANI506
    Participant

    If I’d been drinking coffee I would have spat it out when he described Out Of Time as the worst episode! Interesting to hear a different point of view though.

    ‘I’m an American’ – Alan Partridge

    #114285

    I haven’t watched the video yet or read all the comments, I’m just writing this as I haven’t posted anything in a while and people might have forgotten I exist. I suppose I could say that Out Of Time used to be my brother’s least favourite episode before series 7 was made, but that’s probably because the crew were dead at that time. I can’t think of any other reason someone would think it was the worst.

    #114286
    NoFro
    Participant

    Apparently all the jokes fall flat.

    #114287

    Bollocks they do.

    Case closed.

    #114288
    Pete Part Three
    Participant

    Since the episode in question starts with the “morale meeting” scene, arguing that the jokes fall flat is a lost cause.

    #114289
    Mr-Stabby
    Participant

    I wonder if he has seen Series 7 and 8 at that point. I’d say there was a case for ‘Out of Time’ being the worst episode if he hadn’t seen Series 7 and 8. But if not….WHY NOT?

    #114291
    Seb Patrick
    Keymaster

    > I’d say there was a case for ‘Out of Time’ being the worst episode if he hadn’t seen Series 7 and 8.

    Balls there is.

    #114293
    NoFro
    Participant

    He also says that the jokes in Holoship take a back seat to the love story. Now this may be him trying to say Holoship has a great plot with great character stuff for Rimmer and the comedy just isn’t quite as good as the brilliant plot but it sounds more like he’s claiming that the humour in Holoship is sporadic when, in my opinion, it is one of the most consistently funny episodes… along with Out of Time.

    #114294
    thomasaevans
    Participant

    Rimmer’s “Oooooooooh dear” Is better than 8 alone.

    #114295
    NoFro
    Participant

    One of my favourite Rimmer moments and OOT also has one of my favourite performances by Robert. His finger tapping when he realises Lister isn’t a robot is better than most of VIII.

    On the subject of VIII, I was feeling optimistic and sat down to watch it the other day and decided to watch BITR part 1 and really quite enjoyed it. In fact I enjoyed it so much that I decided I was going to watch part 2 but when that folder opened on the DVD menu and I saw the scene selection and remembered what happened in part 2 I just turned it off. Such an unbelievable drop in quality between those two episodes.

    #114296
    Ridley
    Participant

    “In any event, Out of Time is probably the worst Red Dwarf episode.”

    Now that’s just as silly as the “I’ll freely admit that the original series got a bit stagnant from series 5 through 7, however I really felt that 8 shaped up to be a return to form.” I read on Amazon yesterday.

    #114297

    > Now that’s just as silly as the “I’ll freely admit that the original series got a bit stagnant from series 5 through 7, however I really felt that 8 shaped up to be a return to form.” I read on Amazon yesterday.

    Should we really be mocking mentally ill people?

    #114298
    Plastic Percy
    Participant

    I’ve always liked the theory that the Double-Double Lister and Rimmer from ‘Stasis Leak’ were younger versions of the corrupt Lister and Rimmer we see in ‘Out of Time’. I figured that Kochanski too had been corrupted by her hedonistic time travel and had dumped Lister and left after he was reduced to a brain in a jar, being now too shallow to date him.

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