What did the “Programme Guide” book say about series 7 and 8?

[tombow]

I only owned the edition that covered I-V. I know there were editions going up to 8. Did the writers give any negative opinions of their own on the various changes, controversies and silliness of the 6-7-8 era?

Topic

[Warbodog]

I had the VII version, I don’t remember them really giving opinions about the various series (I always disliked VII, especially when it was current, so would have felt vindicated if they’d criticised it), only their disdain for smeg ups and some bemusement at the weirder Smegazine strips.

There’s a Smegazine article where one of them says Series V is less funny than Star Trek though.

[Flap Jack]

The Programme Guide doesn’t really include any opinions about Series VII or VIII, that I can find anyway. It’s all just plot details, production history and trivia (and character bios updated to include Naylor era developments). Closest I can see is that the Ship’s Log entry for Tikka to Ride points out some of the continuity errors.

[Nick R]

Yes, I have the VII edition and there’s not really anything opinionated in there, apart from the horrible vitriol they aim at the poor Smeg Ups tapes. (What did they have against them?)

[Flap Jack]

Just to elaborate a little, the introductions of Series VI-VIII do mention some of the key changes, but they’re the kind of things you’d see in a press release or a magazine interview, not anything opinionated. For Series VI they mention the “drastic” changes of getting rid of Holly, moving to Starbug, hard light, and Cat being more competent. For VII they talk about Doug aiming to make the show more cinematic, and replacing Rimmer with Kochanski for better US investor appeal. For VIII they say how major a twist it was to resurrect the crew, bring back Holly and Rimmer, and put the main characters in prison, but again, no actual criticism.

Although, even when it’s essentially a factual description I can’t help but project an undertone of negativity sometimes…

The prison-cell conversations between Lister and Rimmer echoed the popular bunk-room scenes of the early days (we even get a brief glimpse of the original bunk room, in the first episode), although the original premise of Lister being the last surviving human was well and truly abandoned.

In fact, Red Dwarf VIII (titled Red Dwarf IIII III on screen, but we reckon that’s just being awkward so we’ll stick with the conventional way of saying eight with Roman numerals) may be seen as a compromise series, a hybrid designed to appeal to fans of Red Dwarf‘s two distinct styles.

Given more screen time than ever before, Hollister’s character was deepened, becoming more flawed and human than his previous short appearances had suggested.

Hmm, yes, so they completely abandoned the core premise of the show, tried to mesh two conflicting episode styles together for reasons we’re not 100% sure of, and brought back an old character just to make him totally different. Sounds great!

[Moonlight]

In fact, Red Dwarf VIII (titled Red Dwarf IIII III on screen, but we reckon that’s just being awkward so we’ll stick with the conventional way of saying eight with Roman numerals) may be seen as a compromise series, a hybrid designed to appeal to fans of Red Dwarf‘s two distinct styles.

Why be good at one thing when you can be shit at two things?

[Author]

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