This is a Dwarfcast….or is it?

[ori-STUDFARM]

I’ve been directed to this facebook group….and I’m not sure what it is.

A quick (very quick*) iTunes search and Google could only produce links to the Dwarfcasts or articles on this site. The guy who told me about it heard it advertised on another podcast (didn’t say which). He says it’s four people, 2 RD fans and 2 newcomers who are going through episode by episode from the beginning. Anybody else have a link or listened yet?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/172039312927247/

*the same iTunes “quick” search also failed to find our Scuttercast under the terms “Red Dwarf podcast”

[MANI506]

But… what the hell is that… who are these people…. what’s going on?

[ori-STUDFARM]

I’m going to reserve judgement (bite my tongue) until I’ve listened….and also try to keep in mind that our podcast started out absolutely shite and maybe still is to some people. But what good is a podcast if nobody can find it and I can’t listen?

Incidently, I think it was my iTunes playing up earlier. Another search brought up loads more including Scuttercast….but still no G&T Podcast apart from the Dwarfcast

[ori-STUDFARM]

It was advertised on The Total Wrestling Show podcast….apparently. Looks like they may not yet have an episode out , so one to keep an eye out for in the future…

[Jonathan Capps]

Hmmm.

[Seb Patrick]

WHAT SORT OF THING IS HAPPENING HERE?

[Pete Part Three]

Quick! – someone supply the details so I can download it and make sneering comments.

[Ridley]

http://thereddwarfpodcast.podbean.com/

[Ian Symes]

Gnnnnnnnnhgn.

[ori-STUDFARM]

How considerate! They launched on my birthday. I think I will like this podcast.

Nb This is me reserving judgment

[Pete Part Three]

I find this a little odd, in that two of the team are newcomers to the show. The other two seem to know it well, but have clearly not felt the need to ever google it and stumble across this site. Or maybe they have since recording this as, although it’s called The Ganymede and Titan podcast in the show, I notice it’s not called that on the webpage.

It gets a plus point for referring to the Patrick Stewart anecdote as fact. And a minus point for referring to Peter Jackson as the producer of Red Dwarf.

[Jonathan Capps]

> I notice it’s not called that on the webpage.

As of this morning, I don’t believe it’s called that anywhere. They’ve been very swift.

I do like this podcast, anyway. I’m a bit unsure about the two fans, a lot of their knowledge of the show is a bit wonky, but I really like the American couple who’ve not seen the show before. It’s genuinely interesting to see two TV and sci-fi literate people discover the show like this. I find myself really looking forward to their reaction to Future Echoes.

[Ben Paddon]

I’m reminded of an idea I had for a podcast which would probably have been called Showing An Idiot Cool Shit, which would have consisted of me forcing my friend Mike to sit down and watch something fantastic that he’d never seen before – usually a movie, or an episode of a show he’d not seen before – and then discussing it and getting his reaction.

We were actually going to do this with Red Dwarf, and we sat down to watch Gunmen, but five minutes in he said, “This is like Saved By The Bell.” Disgusted, I kicked him out of the apartment and I haven’t seen him since*.

* Yes I have.

[HelloMabel]

Happy birthday, Ori. :)

[HelloMabel]

> We were actually going to do this with Red Dwarf, and we sat down to watch Gunmen, but five minutes in he said, “This is like Saved By The Bell.”

Saved By The Bell is like porridge in high school – gloopy crap that everyone avoids.

[Ian Symes]

As of this morning, I don’t believe it’s called that anywhere. They’ve been very swift.

And very apologetic – they seem to have been genuinely unaware of our existence.

[Pete Part Three]

Red Dwarf needs more Kelly Kapowski.

[Ridley]

As of this morning, I don’t believe it’s called that anywhere. They’ve been very swift.

Well that’s considerate.

Although I was going to push for ‘us’ to start calling them G&T USA. :(

[Jonathan Capps]

A sad loss.

[Seb Patrick]

>> We were actually going to do this with Red Dwarf, and we sat down to watch Gunmen, but five minutes in he said, “This is like Saved By The Bell.”

>Saved By The Bell is like porridge in high school – gloopy crap that everyone avoids.

Saved by the Bell is brilliant and you’re all fools.

(Says the guy who recently found himself in possession of all four seasons on DVD, and who is currently writing a retrospective article about it. And reading Dustin Diamond’s terrible tell-all book.)

[HelloMabel]

You must be joking. Tell me you’re joking.

[Seb Patrick]

At what it does, it’s great. The first couple of seasons are excessively cheesy, but when it settles down there’s some really solid stuff in there. Again: at what it’s doing, which is being a Saturday morning kids’ show.

[Seb Patrick]

I didn’t buy the DVDs, I hasten to add. I got them for free, and that’s why I’m writing an article about them.

[genericnerdyusername]

I can’t see or hear about Dustin Diamond without thinking about him giving a hooker a Dirty Sanchez now. Maybe that was his plan all along…

[Ben Paddon]

I didn’t hate Saved By The Bell – it was good at what it did – but it’s not dated very well. I like to think Red Dwarf has aged a little better.

[Pete Part Three]

I read Dustin Diamond’s book (it’s about 70p for Kindle, peeps) in about two days. Utterly ridiculous yet compulsively addictive.

[Ridley]

Future Echoes cast is up.

[HelloMabel]

I’m enjoying these! It reminds me of when I was experiencing the show for the first time. But I’ll feel bad for the two Americans come October/November when all of us are sinking our teeth into RDX and they still have to play catch up (1 episode a week puts them only around series 3-4 by then). Maybe they’ll go ahead and watch it anyway.

Heath mentioned that he really likes the main theme and it occurred to me that when I rewatch the episodes, even if it’s without cast commentary or simultaneous DwarfCast, when I get to the end I still always let the main theme play all the way through. Sometimes I sing along and sometimes I just listen. I don’t do that with most other shows. What do you all do?

[Ridley]

But I’ll feel bad for the two Americans come October/November when all of us are sinking our teeth into RDX and they still have to play catch up (1 episode a week puts them only around series 3-4 by then).

For them it’s new Red Dwarf every week for over a year. ;)

[si]

It’s half four in the morning, I’ve been awake for nearly two hours, so I decided to listen to the first one of these. Sorry, but I could only manage six and a half minutes. While I acknowledge that I would not be able to produce a particularly entertaining podcast myself, I just couldn’t get into it. I might try again when I’m in less of a foul mood, but I doubt it.

[HelloMabel]

It took me awhile too. I suggest you start with Future Echoes. :)

[HelloMabel]

> For them it’s new Red Dwarf every week for over a year. ;)

True! Lucky them. But if they’re hooked on it (sounds like they are, given they gave Future Echoes a 9 and an 8) and when PBS and/or BBC America picks up RDX, it will take tons of willpower to not tune in even with most of the old eps still unseen. It would for me, anyway.

Interesting that Sarah found it ploddy and gave it a 5. Maybe she will turn out to be the podcast’s voice of dissent.

[JamesTC]

I enjoyed both of them. I’ll carry on listening to them. It is nice to hear from the perspectives of people who are actively not knowing anything about the show (no spoilers of future episodes) so they take each episode as it comes.

Though some of their theories on why Cat is the only one of his species left are a little disturbing…

[ori-STUDFARM]

>Though some of their theories on why Cat is the only one of his species left are a little disturbing…

I find myself really having to try and be patient for the “Waiting For God” episode. I’ll be interested to hear what they think of the Cat’s back story and the whole Fushal buisness…

[HelloMabel]

Yes, I can’t wait for that one either! They’ll probably go, “My version was better.” (Tongue in cheek of course.) I’m also waiting to hear how they like Craig Ferguson as Confidence.

I was surprised how taken aback they were by Lister’s relatively nonchalant reaction to his situation. I remember reacting strongly to the plot itself, but not to how Lister deals with it (I was pretty young, though). Even though they were (half) kidding with their grotesque theories about the cat race, it was well-reasoned since “The End” deals with mass death in such a blithe way.

(I do remember thinking, as they did, it was really cool that the first episode was called “The End.”)

[Plastic Percy]

You can kinda rationalise away Lister’s nonchalance as his coping mechanism for such a trauma. Beside, Lister isn’t really the sort of person to dwell and always find the good in every situation – he’s still alive, he still has his plan and he still has his cat.

[Ridley]

We all know to just check the site on Wednesdays because they don’t update Twitter and/or Facebook fast enough by now, right?

[HelloMabel]

Probably, but thanks for the heads up anyway. One more student today and then I get to have a listen.

[JamesTC]

Never thought ‘Balance of Power’ was particularly poorly thought of. Certainly thought ‘Waiting for God’ was thought to be a lesser episode.

[HelloMabel]

I’m stopping 3.5 minutes in to observe that Heath is already the type of Red Dwarf fan who casually inserts quotes from the show into his conversational speech. Can I get an ‘awesome.’

[Ian Symes]

I love Heath and Angela, but I wish their resident Dwarf experts were, y’know, Dwarf experts. There’s so many things that are either inaccurate, plain wrong (Chris Barrie in real life is “basically Rimmer with the volume up”?), or where they say they don’t know. So many missed opportunities for interesting facts to be brought up too – I found myself listening to it and thinking “why didn’t they mention this here” and “why doesn’t he just have TOS open in front of him” and “for god’s sake, if you don’t know who Teasy Weasy is just Google it”.

[HelloMabel]

Yeah, I suspected some might be frustrated by this. I was glad to hear Cappsy point out some things, like Ed’s split-screen work, in his e-mail.

Though I have some of the same qualms as Ian, I’ll say a few things on Shane’s behalf since he’s not here. (Sarah never claimed to be an expert – just someone who likes the show. Anyway, compared to Heath and Angela, they are experts.)

The bit about Chris first, since that was the most offensive. It became much less so when I realized Shane had gotten his words turned around. He meant the characters are caricatures of the actors, not vice versa. It’s still a gross generalization, but Craig made the same generalization in one of the bts docs.

I think Shane got much of his info from these docs. He could be forgiven for misremembering some things as there is SO much info available these days. Angela and Heath are learning way more than I did when I first watched. The misinformation is irksome for us, but I doubt it’ll diminish their enjoyment of the show. Angela and Heath will get everything straightened out eventually (read: when they join G&T, which I expect they will).

Regarding looking things up, having Shane open up TOS while watching would indeed be a good suggestion if anyone plans on writing to them. This sounds like their first foray into podcasting. I don’t know if that’s a good excuse, but I do know I’ve heard many other, far less entertaining podcasts which would have benefited from having a reference or two handy.

Finally, keep in mind that you (Ian) and the other G&T staff are uber-qualified both as podcasters and as experts. Only Doug and Ed and a handful of others would be as expert as you. If it were my job (God forbid) I would certainly leave out important stuff too – not just stuff I still don’t know, but stuff I do know and neglect to mention in the moment.

The Introcast is neither perfect, nor comparable in any way to the DwarfCasts, but as podcasts go it’s one of the more entertaining ones. I can forgive some inaccuracies from Shane because I love reliving through Heath and Angela all my old discoveries and reactions, especially to the characters and the writing, their analysis of the internal logic, and the speculation. Mostly, I love seeing the show stand up to the test of time and gain new fans.

[HelloMabel]

Confidence and Paranoia is up, but a quick warning: the audio’s got some definite problems this time. Hopefully this will be sorted out by next week.

[Ridley]

Interesting how close Mr. Heath and Ms. Angela get to predicting the next episode through the title. I do wonder how they’re going to handle Kryten’s absense, his and Holly’s subsequent personality changes, and the coming tweaks to the canon (or if indeed they’ll notice them).

Have to admit it’s taking me a while to warm to this new dynamic though. 3/10 for Kryten? Pfft.

[Jonathan Capps]

Yeah, 3/10 is an absolute joke.

Heath and Angela continue to be excellent, though.

[JamesTC]

Yeah, I don’t really like the new guy. But I think that might be because he interjects a little too much and his microphone doesn’t seem to be very good.

Lovely and encouraging reaction from Heath and Angela. Interesting to see they identify Kryten as a possible ongoing character straight away.

[cirenshane]

just want to say hello Shane from the podcast

[Jonathan Capps]

Welcome to the site, Shane!

[HelloMabel]

Hi Shane. You know me already. Welcome. :)

[cirenshane]

the reason why paul rated it so low is that he doesnt like David Ross as Kryten

[Ben Paddon]

just want to say hello Shane from the podcast

He’s not here. Would you like me to take a message?

(Hello.)

[Danny Stephenson]

FEEEEEEEEEEEB one boiled egg…

[Alex]

Hang on, I’ll just write it down. How do you spell egg?

[genericnerdyusername]

Eggsterminate.

[Ridley]

“We love good continuity.”

Oh my.

[JamesTC]

Someone else tell them. I’ve got gussets to scrub.

They’re still expecting Kryten to turn up in the very next episode. I wonder if it is because they are watching from Netflix or some other service if the like which would probably use a BTE promo photo to advertise the show.

[Ben Paddon]

They’re in the US, right? They can’t be watching on Netflix – it’s been off the streaming service for approaching three months now.

[HelloMabel]

In the last episode Heath mentioned seeing something about Kryten in the little research he did. I think that, and the fact that they liked him so much, are the reasons they’re waiting for him to come back. Or if they’re using the box set, they could have seen his picture on the box.

But I was really happy to hear that they loved this episode, and so much as to not notice that Kryten wasn’t in it. Can’t wait for “Thanks for the Memory.”

“I’d prefer chicken” – definitely a gag for the ages.

[John Hoare]

I remember when I was watching Dwarf for the first time back in the 94 repeat season, I expected Kryten to come back in the following episode, as I’d heard he was a permanent character. Really surprised me when he didn’t.

[Jonathan Capps]

> I remember when I was watching Dwarf for the first time back in the 94 repeat season, I expected Kryten to come back in the following episode, as I’d heard he was a permanent character. Really surprised me when he didn’t.

Exactly the same for me, too.

I think Heath and Angela are going to have a massive continuity based meltdown when they get to Backwards…

[Pete Part Three]

It didn’t help that in the ’94 repeat run, the continuity announcer closed the show with something like “And Kryten and the rest of the crew will be back next week”.

I think I’d been peeking at VHS sleeves in Woolworths and knew he wouldn’t be back until Series III though.

[Ridley]

“I really hope it’s going to cohere and it’s not just ‘we’re making this up as we go along’ and it’s never going to cohere or make sense, y’know?”

Oh my.

[Jonathan Capps]

I think they’re going to have to learn to treat each series as its own continuity bubble, without worrying about how it related to previous series. I’m genuinely excited to see their reaction to series III.

Incidentally, I’m likely to be a guest on the podcast at some point soon. I’m looking forward it immensely!

[MANI506]

Yes!

With all due respect this introcast could use someone with comprehensive knowledge of the show stepping in.

I think you should be on it every week Cappsy!

[Ridley]

I smiled knowingly at “too weird for words”. ;)

[mick]

> I’m likely to be a guest on the podcast at some point soon. I’m looking forward it immensely!

I’m possibly looking forward to hearing that more than watching the rest of RDX

[Jonathan Capps]

I was going to be recording with them this Sunday, but it’ll be next week, now. I’m on for Backwards, which is excellent.

[Danny Stephenson]

Ooteeseeebeib. you say that into a microphone and it’ll read backwards as ‘BBC Two’ :)

[JamesTC]

:(

They hate ‘Backwards’.

[Ridley]

“Jonathan”?

[genericnerdyusername]

I’m shocked that anyone could hate Backwards.

[Alex]

If this is the way their opinions are going then I have a horrible feeling that i’m going to find the show increasingly difficult to listen to.

[NoFro]

Listening to this I can just imagine Cappsy was sitting there wanting to scream about how the next episode is one of the great character episodes if not the greatest character episode as they bitched about how shallow Backwards is and how shallow the show had seemingly become.

Interesting perspective though. This was the first episode I saw of Dwarf and whilst it’s not a favourite of mine, I still believe it’s a brilliant intro to the show. I also think they give the episode too little credit. The backwards sequences are funny, but there are so many great lines and it’s the dialogue that makes me go back to the episode again and again. Before they even reach Backwards Earth they’ve had the driving test and the Flintstones conversation! Two classic scenes!

And I never get tired of the running Bulgaria gag. Especially:
LISTER: No, I don’t speak any Bulgarian. You speak English?
VAN DRIVER: Sorry, I’m English. Are you Bulgarians?

[genericnerdyusername]

>If this is the way their opinions are going then I have a horrible feeling that i’m going to find the show increasingly difficult to listen to.

Agreed. Their opinions are shit.

[Danny Stephenson]

Hmm, you’ve got to remember this is the FIRST TIME they’ve seen these. Before you formed your opinions on what is the best episodes you’ve had maybe 10 years or more to mull it over and think about it. I certainly didn’t have a defining opinion on first viewings, it was the subsequent years that followed that shaped my true opinions.

I hated Meltdown to begin with, but i love it now.

[HelloMabel]

Plus, remember that they did give good marks to several highly regarded episodes (Future Echoes, Me^2, Stasis Leak). I think that earns them a niblick for Backwards.

Haha, auto correct thought I meant to type “no-lick” for “niblick.”

[Pete Part Three]

I haven’t listened to this since episode 1, but thought I’d give it another go due to the presence of Cappsy. I actually found Angela’s comments about Backwards justified in that, if you like many aspects of Series 2, it doesn’t naturally follow that you’re going to like this.

I have a very clear memory of seeing this episode for the first time and the changes to the show (all of which I consider to be positive) blew me away to such an extent that the episode itself got a free pass. Even now I find it hard to distance the story from the fact that this is episode 1 of the drastically new look. The way Holly and Kryten are reintroduced with out any effort is quite incredible.

But, yes, the story Is rather gimmicky (I don’t remember who but Rob or Doug admitted as much in the Quiz book questionnaires and labelleled it as one of the worst episodes) and, no, there isn’t a huge amount of character comedy in there. But it still makes me laugh…

I imagine the newbies will reacquaint their love affair with the show with Marooned though and, since much of series 3 is much more character-driven, they should be fine.

For the moment.

[Tarka Dal]

I guess another issue is perspective. Red Dwarf may not have invented the backwards universe concept, but it was pretty fresh to me as a ten year old. Watching it for the first time now I’d probably be less enthusiastic, the backwards idea itself would seem less original. Much like with some classic films or albums you have to think in terms of what else was around at the time.

I can recall a couch potato feature in SFX years ago where they tore into Backwards and I was fuming. Then I watched it myself and it’s really apparent that an awful lot of the ideas don’t make any sense at all.

[Ian Symes]

Backwards is absolute nonsense from finish to start, but it’s so funny that it doesn’t matter.

[Danny Stephenson]

…ereht did uoy tahw ees I

[genericnerdyusername]

Off the top of my head, I can’t think of an episode of Red Dwarf that isn’t riddled with continuity errors since the second series. But does that matter?

[Ian Symes]

I’m as guilty of this as anyone, but it seems that people only complain about continuity or plot-holes if they didn’t like the episode anyway.

[JamesTC]

Flobba-dob blib blob bleeb.

[genericnerdyusername]

> I’m as guilty of this as anyone, but it seems that people only complain about continuity or plot-holes if they didn’t like the episode anyway.

If you don’t find anything funny in it, then I don’t see why you shouldn’t resort to relying on the plot to satisfy your entertainment needs.

[MANI506]

Way back in the distant past I do remember the series 3 kick off being a little jarring. I became a fan around about series 2 and endlessly rewatched Queeg before Backwards was aired. There was a feeling of something not quite right!

[Jonsmad]

That was hilarious. Well done Cappsy. I’ve never heard one of the series 2 loving series 3 haters in action before.
Wow. Poor woman at the moment it almost sounds like she has got the whole of Dwarf to now go through, hating everything ha ha. I hope for her sake she mellows. I’m glad i went through the 2 to 3 jump back at the very beginning of video taping and never really had a major problem cus backwards was the first thing i ever taped off the TV myself.

[Jonsmad]

>Backwards is absolute nonsense from finish to start, but it’s so funny that it doesn’t matter.

Totally agree with this. And I’m probably just trying to over defend it’s logic when I say the next bit. But given that none of us has ever experienced traveling to a universe that is mirrored and traveling in an opposite arrow of time. We dont really know what would happen. I think we look for a complete reversal of our arrow of time logic. As if the whole show should run in a perfect reverse. understandable we then find holes in that pretty easy. But when Lister and Cat first arrive they are talking forwards and walking forwards and experiencing some physical effect etc backwards in advance. Then they try interacting with backwards universe people. And later in the episode they are able to
perform backwards things like reverse eating. So them being there is a paradox. A mix of forwards in a backwards law universe. So any events that happen to be a mix of Forward and Backwards can be said to be a result of the paradox. Which pretty much takes care of anything, except maybe the logic of the words in the paper that Kryten is reading takes a bit more explaining in terms of how a reverse brain in that world thinks in it’s direction. It doesnt just unthink a thought. It thinks forwards still but in terms of the laws of the world around it. Like the brain there would think. ” yadot yenom emos nrae nu dna pu teg tsum i”

[fozzibear1]

Sounds reasonable to me Jonsmad

Im assuming Johnathan Capps as a featured guest is a sign that everything is now resolved to everyones satisfaction at both sites.

Assuming this is true I’m wondering if it might be an idea for a few of us in the group to offer to help them with preparing some crib notes for each episode.

Basically im thinking along the lines of ‘the more net activity us fans can generate and sustain the easier it makes it for Doug Naylor when it comes to negotiations both regarding commissioning and budgeting’

To those who have had contact with them do youi feel this would be welcomed as helpful or do you think it might be taken as insulting,, obviously you cant garuantee what their reaction will be but you guys prob have a more accurate estimate than I would

[Ridley]

So yeah, I’m looking forward to hearing how the Uncle Frank story went down.

[Ben Kirkham]

“I remember when I was watching Dwarf for the first time back in the 94 repeat season, I expected Kryten to come back in the following episode, as I’d heard he was a permanent character. Really surprised me when he didn’t.”

So glad it wasn’t just me! I loved David Ross’ Kryten so I was gutted the following week. But then, when ‘Backwards’ started I was surprised again! Loved it though.

[HelloMabel]

Amazingly, the last time anyone posted on this thread, Sgt. Smiley was still here.

http://thereddwarfpodcast.podbean.com/2013/05/03/season-6-episode-6-out-of-time/

Guest starring our very own Ian Symes. Nice to have this to ease some of the DJ withdrawal symptoms.

[HelloMabel]

Drives me crazy that they say “the Red Dwarf” and “the Starbug.”

[MANI506]

This has been a very interesting podcast, but it’s about to get a whole lot more interesting as they work their way through 7 and 8!

[JamesTC]

Especially since they said in the latest podcast that the one character who you couldn’t take out the show would be Rimmer.

[Ridley]

Especially since they said in the latest podcast that the one character who you couldn’t take out the show would be Rimmer.

And one of the show’s strengths being its models…

[Jonathan Capps]

I’m on for Tikka to Ride. It’s going to be… interesting.

[MANI506]

My gut feeling is that they’re going to love Tikka To Ride with some reservations about the models.

I also fully expect them to spot the continuity fuck up straight away.

[HelloMabel]

So I’m going to try to get in on the spoilercast on Sunday. I just e-mailed Shane.

[MANI506]

More the merrier! I certainly loved this episode on first broadcast. I was gagging for it and as far as I was concerned it delivered in spades. The rest of the series not so much although there are fantastic moments. As mentioned in the G&T podcast, the opening montage is first class!

[HelloMabel]

> More the merrier!

Hooray! That’s what Shane said, too.

My understanding of the spoilercast is it’s not just about Tikka, it’s us guessing how Heath and Angela will react to Series VII generally.

[Author]

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