Your Unpopular Red Dwarf Opinions

[Piplup2003]

The title says it all. What opinions do you have about Red Dwarf that no-one else seems to agree on?

For me, it’s that VIII is my second favourite series (behind V) and that I prefer Chloë over Claire as Kochanski (this may be partially influenced by the fact that I’ve met Chloë).

And please, no arguing.

Topic

[Rushy]

Red Dwarf’s bipolar attitude towards continuity is not a good thing. It’s distracting and it damages the credibility of the characterisation (which Grant & Naylor put a lot of work into). Sometimes the show is willing to recklessly change everything on a dime like in Backwards and Back to Earth, and sometimes it’s so stuck in the status quo that it feels artificial like in the Dave era. 

Neither extreme is healthy. 

[Hamish]

Also some stuff like the matchbox on top of the jukebox in the inn

Inbox?

[Rushy]

Series III had the best Kryten mask

[Unrumble]

Series III had the best Kryten mask

[Rushy]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I do prefer the older masks, even in the bubble era, by VI it had started to look more like Robert than Kryten

the more worn out and run down the better for me 

III and IV are really good. 

[International Debris]

IV and V are peak Kryten.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

IV and V are peak Kryten.

[Technopeasant]

I like how Kryten was portrayed in Series I.

[Jimboid]

As part of a beginning to end rewatch, I’ve recently sat through VIII again.

Cassandra is such an anomolous upwards blip in writing quality from everything surrounding it that I’m now of the opinion that a ghostwriter was involved – either the entire script or a significant polish of a draft.

[Moonlight]

Maybe it’s just less shit because it actually resembles an episode of Red Dwarf.

[Jimboid]

I don’t know, moment to moment it’s still so much better. 

Way more gags land.  It doesn’t feel like it’s written by the same person.

[Moonlight]

I feel like this is a stronger argument that Doug wrote Cassandra and didn’t write the rest of VIII than it is the other way around. Maybe Paul Alexander drank too much Nyquil and woke up with the script for Krytie TV.

[Rushy]

Cassandra simply had the least behind the scenes issues. 

*Back in the Red had to be stretched out for reasons I forget. 

*The original two part series finale was scrapped due to budget, so Doug hurriedly wrote Only the Good to replace it. 

*The fallout from the finale being scrapped affected Captain’s Office and turned it into Pete. 

*That leaves Cassandra and Krytie TV. Cassandra was obviously the one Doug focused on, while Krytie TV was left largely to Paul Alexander with Doug only contributing the guitar strings subplot. 

[Dax101]

I don’t know if Back In the Red needed to be stretched out. It was originally going to be an hour long special and then it became a 3-parter. And then it was extended even more for the DVD release. Personally i think Series 7 and 8 were still in early testing phases for the movie. So Back In The Red become padded out to movie length.

And id guess Captains Office was likely just a different title for what became Pete and not a totally different story. After all the joke was that they kept going to the captains office. Which in Pete 1 and 2 they did. The whole dinosaur thing being added because he heard they could afford 30 seconds of CGI footage.

Doug just stopped taking the show that seriously. And we got Series 8. 

[Moonlight]

*The original two part series finale was scrapped due to budget, so Doug hurriedly wrote Only the Good to replace it. 

It’s been a long time since I read the VIII script book or watched the behind the scenes but to my memory Only the Good started life as part 1 of that finale and then ended up the actual finale.

[MANI506]

I just watched episodes 4-6 of series 1 remastered as part of my go through of the new box set and I think the editing choices are very good and make the shows better. That’s my unpopular opinion. I also noticed for the first time that Craig Charles corpses when Danny delivers the line ‘he won’t find that one. Not until he changes his boots’.

[MANI506]

I also noticed that a Polaroid of Lister with the two babies is on the wall before the ship breaks light speed. I forget the scene.

[Rushy]

Neurotic VII Kryten is both in-character and very funny. Bobby is the best performer that year. 

[Flap Jack]

[Rushy]

Anyone who says otherwise is LYYYYYYYING

[Technopeasant]

[Moonlight]

I feel like Rushy hails from the Only the Good… mirror universe version of G&T.

[Ben Saunders]

Never disliked the “you’re lying” bit that specifically gets a lot of flack, the Kochanski/Kryten rivalry can get annoying at times but mainly because of Kochanski, and the salad cream bit and similar things. Bobby manages to deliver the material well however weak one thinks it ultimately is.

[Rushy]

I feel like Rushy hails from the Only the Good… mirror universe version of G&T.

[Rushy]

Aside from the “I’m very good in bed” line, there’s nothing funny about Mark Williams as Petersen.

People only like him because they like Mark as a person, and because they read the book, where Petersen actually is funny. 

[Warbodog]

If you’re thinking about Back in the Red, I think people mainly just want Petersen to be there to have the complete set, since they brought back the other two. Him not being there is conspicuously “we couldn’t get Mark Williams,” which takes you out of it.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I don’t think a character has to be funny to be included in Red Dwarf. In fact I think that’s Doug’s error since going solo, that nearly every guest character has to be funny/silly in some way. 

There’s plenty of serious/straight/unfunny characters throughout the early years of Red Dwarf and I’ve always argued the show is better for it when things are being played a little more straight 

[Dave]

Petersen gets some funny moments occasionally (I like his appearance in Stasis Leak) but he’s not hilarious or anything, just one of Lister’s goofy mates.

[Flap Jack]

I liked it when he punched Rimmer in the balls.

[Moonlight]

[International Debris]

I think it’s partly because he gets mentioned more over the years than Selby and Chen.

[Technopeasant]

[Rushy]

I think the Toaster’s rather lovely, actually. Would it have killed Dave to have a slice?

[Author]

Replies