Professor Flibble

[Professor Flibble]

[Professor Flibble]

[Professor Flibble]

I don’t think I ever noticed that Cat and Kryten high-fived here before.

Always thought it was a little odd. Idk, I think for me, it’s how casually he does it.

[Professor Flibble]

[Professor Flibble]

[Professor Flibble]

[Professor Flibble]

This is absolute hogwash compared to some of Professor Flibble et al’s efforts… but it’s the thought that counts. 

I’m very flattered you’d say that! 

Actually, I’ve got a very funny idea, give me a moment 

[Professor Flibble]

Just a joke, the last line anyway. You’re fine don’t worry about it

Also, I just want to say, your profile picture’s absolutely hilarious. Isn’t that from one of the PS1 Harry Potter games?

[Professor Flibble]

But I will also add my voice to saying welcome to Professor Flibble!

Glad to be here! 

[Professor Flibble]

Just a joke, the last line anyway. You’re fine don’t worry about it

Oh, okay, fair enough. Nice to meet you!

[Professor Flibble]

Hello, youngster, welcome aboard. 

Thank you very much!

[Professor Flibble]

I was looking in my screenshots folder the other day and came across a couple posts from people on here that I’d completely forgotten about and thought “fuck me, remember them? Glad I don’t”
The most notable one was you, the person reading this

I’m sorry, I don’t understand? 

[Professor Flibble]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 19/05/2026

Marooned, The End, Kryten

Thought it was Rimmer’s green Series III uniform at first

4

[Professor Flibble]

Forgot that Parallel Universe didn’t even show its title on screen. 

It did on those things that were before your time. Not sure why it was deemed necessary but the title was added for the VHS release. 

I think I’d heard about that, but not actually seen the VHS version for myself. 

I imagine it’s BBFC guidelines. They had a similar mandate on the early Classic Who DVD releases for Hartnell serials (before 2008 when they added the story title to the main menu).

[Professor Flibble]

[Professor Flibble]

Wait, ignore this one, just realised the original title was still slightly visible.

[Professor Flibble]

Forgot that Parallel Universe didn’t even show its title on screen. 

[Professor Flibble]

[Professor Flibble]

[Professor Flibble]

[Professor Flibble]

Had a quick go trying to improve it. Idk if it comes across very “Remastered.” 

[Professor Flibble]

Also, I’ve got to say, growing up watching the Fan Film Competition special feature on the Series VII DVD, how mental it is to me that I’ve now spoken to people who worked on Red Dwarf: The Movie, Yeah, No, Yeah, No. 

[Professor Flibble]

Thank you! I really appreciate how welcoming everyone is. I was on the Red Dwarf Amino a couple years ago, around when The Promised Land came out, but it wasn’t the same thing at all.

[Professor Flibble]

Oh, just had a little looksie, yeah he sounds like an utter knob. 
Stuff about “commies” from what I can make out. Oh, and stalking Moonlight on Twitter? 
Was he one of those toxic right wing weirdos who goes on about everything being woke? 

[Professor Flibble]

As long as it doesn’t turn out you’re The Data Doctor (forum member, not character), lulling everyone into a false sense of security before the ultimate troll, please do stick around! 

I’m aware of, well maybe a bit of the forum’s history, but not this, I’m afraid. What did they do?

[Professor Flibble]

Was talking about those roundel DVD covers earlier, rustled up a couple a while ago for Web of Caves and Curse of Fatal Death. Latter still needs a blurb. Oh and the CGI Daleks were done by ThePrydonian on Twitter, should’ve added a credit there. 

[Professor Flibble]

But that’s not to say that some of Ncuti’s outfits don’t look great. I wish he’d worn his main brown leather coat look a lot more. 

[Professor Flibble]

I didn’t watch the RTD revival at first, but I remember seeing a photo of Tennant and still being disappointed that they’d fallen back on suits and hairstyles after the shaved leather jacket Not Your Daddy’s Doctor Who guy that had felt like a cooler update.

I get why people don’t consider Eccleston’s look very Doctory, but I still think the cut of it, it looks more like a Doctor outfit than probably half of Ncuti Gatwa’s wardrobe in the role. Again, I’m very traditionalist when it comes to Doctor Who, I like shirts, collars, lapels, bow ties, checkered trousers etc.

[Professor Flibble]

Welcome. Seen some of your posts, you’ll fit in just nicely here

Thank you!

[Professor Flibble]

I’m more with Flap Jack, the TV movie is a different thing entirely to the classic series, to me. Although that might be because I remember experiencing the Doctor Who cancellation in real-time and the long wait for the movie to revive it, which felt like just as much of a reboot at that time as the RTD era did later.
In retrospect though I can see how the movie feels like a last hurrah of the classic series rather than the start of a new era.

I think for me it’s also aesthetically it bears a lot more resemblance to the Classic Series, with the sonic screwdriver (I love the classic sonic screwdriver design btw), the Seal of Rassilon all over the place, the McGann logo basically being a modified version of the Pertwee logo, Hudolin’s police box design being very Classic. And McGann being the quintessential “Classic” Doctor with long curls, a quaint manner and a frock coat.

[Professor Flibble]

But the way I see it, Eight is neither one nor the other

I’ve always seen Eight as a classic Doctor. If the DVD’s got roundels on it, it’s Classic Who.

Incidentally, I’ve ordered the steelbook, but I hope the regular blu-ray has an alternative roundel cover.

[Professor Flibble]

I also like Hattie-Holly’s drunken interaction with Kryten in The Last Day.

I’ve always found this really sweet.

[Professor Flibble]

I guess if it happens, we’ll all get used to it, but it does feel like an evening meal being 90% dessert, or a book being 90% index. That’s good to know about Scream of the Shalka though!
If they could go back in time and change the way they did these collection releases, I think it would have been better to divide a lot of these extras across different sets rather than lumping them all together at the end.
So The Curse of Fatal Death and Scream of the Shalka would be with The TV Movie, Shada 2003 would either be with The TV Movie or Season 17, Real Time would be with Season 23, Death Comes to Time and Dimensions in Time would be with Season 26 etc.

I was very surprised Search Out Space wasn’t on Season 26, given it was a special feature on the 2007 Survival DVD. Oh, also, I forgot, the Destiny of the Doctors cutscenes with Anthony Ainley, stick those in the set too. 

I think also tbf McGann needs a cover, and The TV Movie and 2003 Shada on their own wouldn’t be enough to bulk the physical box out on the shelf. One thing I really like is how consistent the spines are in terms of width.

[Professor Flibble]

Actually a bit of a hard question to answer, because I think like you say, yeah, White Hole is probably the one that jumps to mind. 

I always thought Rob and Doug weighing up Kryten and Holly’s characters on how much they could exposit was a bit unfair, because I think both characters had other very different things going on. Kryten’s a sanitation mechanoid who enjoys what he does, Holly’s the senile computer who runs the ship. 

[Professor Flibble]

I think Ace Rimmer is sort of an idea made form with a long, flowy wig and lots of confidence anyway, so I’d personally count any depiction of Ace Rimmer as, well, an Ace Rimmer. 

[Professor Flibble]

Quarantine’s also my all-time number one, with Me² a very different runner up.
Actually, Rimmer does a rude hand puppet character in both, so I guess they’re the same.

Tbf, Me² is probably my favourite of Series I. Love Rimmer arguing with himself, and the gazpacho soup revelation. 

[Professor Flibble]

With Doctor Who, my perspective isn’t so much when it stops being good, but whether it was any good before. Like The Simpsons, there are only portions of it I really care about and would rewatch and focus on, the majority is just there.

I find that even the rough patches of the show or the weak stories for me, there’s something I can enjoy about them. Admittedly less in the revival.

[Professor Flibble]

 and another main feature which is a low quality flash animation that is probably impossible to make HD. 

Oh, actually, Scream of the Shalka can very easily be converted to HD from the flash files, because it was made using vector graphics. There’s a page here on The Millennium Effect website with a video.

https://millenniumeffect.co.uk/index.php/the-collection-the-wilderness-years/

I’d assume they could also do this for The Invasion animation. James Goss says the original flash files still exist.

[Professor Flibble]

It wouldn’t be remotely cohesive, and the proportion of main features to special features would be way off.

I’d say it’d be a bit like The Bodysnatcher Collection, but that did have Remastered. I think it’d still work as a way to mop everything up. And I’ve wanted some of those things to get a proper home media release for years. Always loved Curse of Fatal Death. Practically Classic Who distilled in the length of one episode. And again, that’s got different versions.

[Professor Flibble]

Welcome Professor Flibble! You’ve already made me laugh multiple times with your excellent edits.

Cheers! I’ve always loved all the differences in the title sequences and closing credits, so riffing on that is something that appeals to me.

[Professor Flibble]

When it comes to Dwarf, I’m not a purist. Most of the seasons are so distinct in style and tone that I find there are things to appreciate in all of them, even VIII.

Actually, I will say I do find Doug’s attempts to reinvent the format with each series fascinating. I love the Series III-V vibe but if the entire show did that, I guess I wouldn’t have the attempts to stray from it exist so I can moan about them.

[Professor Flibble]

I pretty much give up on Doctor Who past the Christmas Carol episode. I didn’t connect with the Silence arc, much less so with the Clara nonsense.
Series 10 was a rare glint of gold (not withstanding the terrible Missy and Monk arcs), and then everything after that isn’t even worth conversation for me. 

I do actually love A Christmas Carol, to the point I consider it a favourite of mine from the revival. That’s even if it breaks some of the show’s rules to tell its story. I love the world, the characters, and I’ve got nostalgia-tinted spectacles for 2010 and the beginning of the Matt Smith era, when everything felt so magical and optimistic. But yeah generally I think the show became far too introspective and insular, and you could tell precisely when the casual audience dropped off. I think it must’ve been the River Song reveal in A Good Man Goes To War. 

[Professor Flibble]

I really enjoy the enthusiasm you bring to the forum, it’s great having you here and I hope you’re here to stay

Thank you! Well, a couple people have said it, so yeah, uh, I think I’ll stay! Haha

[Professor Flibble]

My personal favourites are Hartnell, Troughton, McCoy and Eccleston. 

Troughton and McCoy are my general favourites, but Matt Smith is my favourite revival Doctor, and Tom Baker and Paul McGann also make the top 5 for me.

[Professor Flibble]

The imminent 4K release of the TVM makes a wilderness years Blu-ray box set a bit of a weird prospect to me. 

Oh Wilderness Years has tons of stuff that can go on it. And they’ve left special features from previous sets like the Doctor Forever! documentaries. The fact any footage from Dimensions in Time was included in Wish World lends credence to the possibility they’ve paid for the rights to use it. Both versions of 30 Years in the TARDIS, Search Out Space, The TV Movie (as the headliner of course), The Curse of Fatal Death, Death Comes to Time, Real Time, 2003 Shada and Scream of the Shalka. As the primary content, I think that’d make for a really cool set. Also given the BBC haven’t done home media releases for some of those webcasts.

[Professor Flibble]

Ben, you missed off The Time Meddler, which is the best Hartnell story IMO. I mean, logically it would have probably made more sense to end the season with Ian and Barbara’s departure and then have the exciting new companion, the first appearance of another of the Doctor’s race, and the first story to properly mix history and sci-fi as the start of the next season, but they did things differently back then.

Ah, War Machines is my favourite Hartnell.

[Professor Flibble]

If they ever do a Season 3 set…
I believe people involved with the range have confirmed that the plan is to do a set for all 26 classic seasons, and the blurbs saying things like “build your archive” support this.
For any episodes that are still lost and haven’t been animated by the time the Season 3 set happens, they’ll just include telesnap reconstructions. Season 3 is still worth doing for the episodes that do survive.

Yeah, every single season is going to be released. I think initially they weren’t going to wait for the animations but now the game plan’s changed, BBC Studios have apparently finalised a deal where they can make an animation immediately following the previous one, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they wait a little longer for seasons to be “completed.”

Also we’re totally getting a Wilderness Years box set. Paul Vanezis says he hates the title so internally its being referred to as “Season 27.” A widescreen edit of the TV Movie is also being considered, which is something I didn’t think was possible.

[Professor Flibble]

I often wonder how the last two series would be perceived if it wasn’t for the two godawful finales. I think they’re pretty damn solid on the whole. The worst ones aren’t as bad as the worst of the Chibnall era, and while the best ones may not hit the heights of RTD1 and Moff, they’re decent in their own right. The run from Boom to Rogue is extremely strong. But the first thing you think of when you look back on the first series is the stupid dog thing with the same name as a classic series villain, and for the second series it’s the stupid ogre thing with the first name as a classic series villain. Part of the problem of course is that with a shorter series, it’s easier for the whole thing to be overshadowed. With only eight episodes, a two-part finale is 25% of the run.

Something I maintain is that the mystery box story arc format doesn’t suit the show at all and I yearn for the return of the Classic Series format. I wasn’t keen on the Chibnall era like anyone else but it did do one or two things I liked, and Flux effectively being a Classic-style six part serial with cliffhangers was one of them.

[Professor Flibble]

You quoted between my posting and realising I was wrong and editing it but, yeah, that would totally make sense!

Haha that’s good to hear, I thought I was talking utter nonsense for a second there!

[Professor Flibble]

Don’t recall seeing this one before. The huggy, chumminess is quite weird and out of character, like Chris is attempting to look. Rimmer-y, and the rest are just the actors posing for a photo while happening to be in costume.

I believe it’s a “cast” photo rather than in-character as I had a postcard of it with all of their autographs printed on.

Any idea where I would have gotten this from?! It would have been around the time VII aired. I presume maybe the fan club but not sure?

Oh, just thought I’d send the original photo.

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