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Ah, it’s still there for me!
http://www.dalek6388.co.uk/ 

They’re also on YouTube, which I highly recommend if you like incredibly in-depth pieces of research about essentially trivial subjects. https://www.youtube.com/user/Dalek6388 

It’s still not working for me. Yawnarama City. I’ll figure it out.

Utterly brilliant to know they’re still going.

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“Is that picture yours? It’s rubbish”

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Alright Whovians. I’m very curious about this little conundrum.

Listening to an old Dwarfcast last night, Ian or Capsy mentioned a website called Dalek 6388, which saught to track down every Dalek model from the TV series.

I sought it out today and it’s gone, baby, gone. So sad.

Anyone have fond memories of this site and the guys’ work? Anyone know what happened to it?

A snapshot from the WayBack Machine from 2024:
https://web.archive.org/web/20241228185947/https://www.dalek6388.co.uk/

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The “magic” part is probably more down to childhood nostalgia than the video admits

I do wonder about that sometimes. It’s very hard for me to separate my nostalgic feelings for Red Dwarf 1-VI (especially 1-II) from anything like genuine appraisal. Whenever I come back to it though, I’m flabbergasted by how good it is. Doing a bit of a deep dive at the moment as it happens.

In some of the ‘making of’ documentaries on the DVDs, there’s a bit of disrespect from Rob, Doug and the cast for 1-II. the diss the sets, costumes, even the scripts. And lest we forget Grant Naylor initially tried to burry Series 1 (and succeeded in burring The End for a long time). I’ll never understand it. They are almost certainly my faves. Series 1-II and the first two novels are my Red Dwarf really. I’m all about that “lonely, desolate magic” it seems.

Part of my current deep dive, incidentally, involves listening and re-listening to the Dwarfcast Book Club and Smegazine Rack episodes – thanks Ian, Danny and Capps if any one of you is reading this!

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Here’s the Etsy seller who did the patches, btw:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/PaperCranesCosplay

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A little update. We bought the JMC patch and stitched it on.

I think that’s it finished now really. Tempting to look into other details but, as I said above, this isn’t an attempt to be screen accurate or even to do cosplay. Just a shirt/jacket for the pub.

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Thanks everyone!

If you look at their little face, it’s almost as if they understand (that their dad’s a twat).

Ah, but this made me laugh.

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Three million years in the making.

Th

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It’s cold outside…

I’ll get me coat.

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I think the nice thing about the inconsistency is that you can’t really get it wrong. See what arrangement looks best and go with that!

You’re so right. Thanks Dave!

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One thing that also frustrates me a bit with this podcast, and plenty of others are guilty of it, is that the two hosts sound too bloody similar to my ear! Plenty of times I’m not actually sure which one of them it is that’s making a point!

Also true. They obviously can’t help it but I’ve given up on knowing which one is talking. It doesn’t matter but the dynamic of expert vs casual fan is out the window.

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It’s clearly a more mainstream effort than a Dwarfcast so it’s never going to be as anal and full of details as the sort of thing that us gimps like to listen to, but it serves a purpose and something decent enough bringing more attention to the show now that it is potentially a going concern again is nice.

That’s a very good point and I feel the same way: I genuinely open my mind and accept that they won’t be as obsessive as we are, I genuinely think that’s fine. I don’t want to be a gatekeeping prick about it. But why can’t they just be honest about their level of involvement/love for the show? They come in all “I’m Red Dwarf mad, me” but then they don’t know what the Polymorph is.

Not all guests, of course! The ones I liked were very good.

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I’ve never been but it’s not far from me, I should give it a look.
And according to this link…
The Museum also owns the original flying model of the Red Dwarf Starbug, and the Series 8 Kryten Gold costume.

Ooh, well found. I wonder if it’s the ‘bug from Whatever You Want?

I don’t want to see that Kryten costume so I’ll close my eyes at that bit.

If it’s near to where you live, please go there promptly. Report back. We await your report. Drawings welcome but not expected.

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“It is 85% WHO actual screen used props and costume which makes up the Midlands WHO Exhibition, the remaining exhibits being screen used from Red Dwarf, the Gerry Anderson puppet shows, Star Trek Voyager and some Star Wars items. But predominately this is a WHO Exhibition…but we are sure you wlil enjoy it all!”

(Personally I love the World Health Organization, so even if the Red Dwarf stuff is minimal I’ll definitely be having a blast).

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I’m glad there’s a bit of speculation here now. Thought at first it was a black card situation.

I think the cameos from the original cast should (and will) be quite small. I think at most they’ll be Jim Reaper/Data Doctor-type appearances, which I don’t wholly object to but I could live without. I like the fresh startness of this whole idea. I don’t think Cat or Kryten should be in this at all, especially not Cat. Maybe a Kryten plotline could happen in parallel, he getting snapped up to serve on the Nova 5 or something, but I don’t think that’s necessary either. Would be happy to have KK and Peterson et al in it though. And a sky full of Red Dwarf in orbit would be quite striking.

I’m also gunning for this being Arlene and Deb’s dimension. I doubt this is Rob’s plan but I think it would would be sweet.

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Oh, in 1976 I did a drawing of a robot and then Star Wars came out. … Who has an umbrella, mate? No-one. Sherlock Holmes has come.

Excuse me?

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Correct!

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Genuinely interested to hear how you came to that conclusion, though.

Hi Ian. Many moons ago, I read some fanfic about the “forever righteous” cat ark turning up. It was what it was: fanfic. But it involved a clever idea that all Cat technology is based on Red Dwarf technology. Because it would be, right? It’s where their brains evolved.

When I saw the four-minute preview material from The Promised Land, the little ship that the cat zealots climb into looked (to me) a lot like the post-remastered Blue Midget. Similar hull shape. So I thought “ah, Doug had that same idea.” The way that the cats dress like Lister added a certain credence to this: their culture as well as their technology might be RD-based.

In the fanfic, if I remember correctly, a Cat inventor claims to have a device that will help the Dwarfers get back to Earth faster. It turns out, much to everyone’s disappointment, to be a Talkie Toaster who will help them to pass the time with chirpy breakfast banter. Haha.

Bit of a leap really, but because the fanfic’s punchline was grounded in the idea that Cat technology evolved from RD technology (and because I thought Doug had had the same idea AND because a return of the toaster had been mooted by Doug at conventions over the years) it seemed actually plausible. EVEN INEVITABLE.

Thought I’d Sherlocked it, didn’t I?

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Naturally, I will commit suicide immediately.

*puts mouth around bazookoid*

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RHLSTP!

That’s Herring all over. Quick to criticise comedy as he thinks he knows it all. Then you watch or listen to any of the stuff he’s written, (That Was Then…; Relativity; his hours of stand up) and you realise he’s very much
just a keen amateur.

RHLSTP!

Sigh. I’m afraid you might be right. I’ve been a fan of Herring’s for a very long time but this is a true burn. Still love him though.

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WHAT?! Hahahahaha. You can go to any newsagents and buy a toffee crisp right now.

You were a bit too quick to leap in there. If you’d read a very few extra words, you’d have seen that this had already been addressed. And it doesn’t really matter if a thing is still available, does it? There are several ways a reference might be described as dated.

In any event, I was speaking in favour of the lovely Toffee Crisp reference in our shared Favourite Thing, Red Dwarf. No need to kick my balls in.

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Toffee Crisp is still very much a thing though aren’t they. Not to mention, Lister orders a crispy bar once and the machine chucks out a Toffee Crisp. The fact its a Toffee Crisp is incidental and isn’t the joke. Its in the same vain as the blueberry muffin being from Tesco. Just a cheap, shop bought prop.

That’s just a poor example

To be fair to Herring, that might have been *my* poor example. I may not have remembered his examples correctly. I think Bernie Inn might have been in there.

I agree with Dave though, that the specificity of Toffee Crisp is funnier than a generic brand krispie bar. It’s just more interesting and it comes with its own highly-welcome semiotic freighting.

My point really is that all those specific things (whether they seem old-fashioned *now* or are likely to look old-fashioned in the 23rd century, are) are GREAT, that they serve the screen, serve the joke, serve as their own little bonus joke, and anchor the script fragment into a meaningful, characterful world.

Anyway, back to my poo.

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When Richard Herring revisited Red Dwarf last year or so (he wrote about it in Warming Up and mentioned it a few times on RHLTP), he seemed to like it on balance but seemed to think it was a missed opportunity along the lines of Goodnight Sweetheart.

One of the the things he said he didn’t like about RD were the ‘dated’ real-world references to things like Toffee Crisp. I like Herring a lot but when he said that, I just thought, “you’re so wrong.” I love all that stuff and always did. It’s very funny to think of say, Teasy-Weasy, culturally surviving into the future.

And it’s interesting too. As a kid, I didn’t get all the references and would marvel at the complexity of the grown-ups’ shared history! Today, I look back and laugh at Rob and Doug’s parochial and low-brow (just perfect for Lister, Rimmer and Holly) choice of references.

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Anyone know what Lyons and Nazzaro are up to these days? Do they ever come to the conventions or post at this forum?

(Great post by the way, Warbodog).

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Why, if there are cinemas on Red Dwarf, and monitors in all of the living spaces, is Lister watching a film in the drive room in Confidence and Paranoia?

I always kinda liked that. It’s a silent and short-hand way of saying that, for better or worse, he has the run of the ship now. Once formal or professional spaces are now stripped of their meaning.

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the costume is goofy and silly and everything

The costume reminds me of the animal costumes used in modern ballet and theatre. Strongly resembles animals in the Nutcracker and maybe those “on ice” type thing (was there a Peter Rabbit on ice?). I suspect the Rat suit might have been bought or borrowed from a production like that.

I don’t know this though. Someone else here may be able to confirm or deny.

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Allow serious moments to be serious, allow what jokes you do have to pack more of a punch. Don’t feel the need to keep the gag rate 100-per-minute, throw out all the shite ones.

This. 100%.

My fave moment in the last couple of series is in M-Corp where Lister is staggering around clumsily with the invisible objects. He looks utterly alone. It’s bleak in the way that Series I did bleak. More of that please! Especially as the guys get older.

Think of the emotional, quiet moments in Bojack Horseman and also remember that RD is about loneliness. The ramifications of Lister’s situation — death or lonesomeness forever — is built-in. They should use it more.

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I think Mr Rat should be in every episode, and also remastered versions of all the previous ones with him digitally inserted in should be released.

I’m not down on Mr Rat especially, but why do exactly do people like him so much? What’s the joke? Is it just “Rat instead of Cat?” Is that really all it is?

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I really feel that GNP need to create a Red Dwarf equivalent of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Eqew1mXO30

Nice! There are, of course, the “frequently asked questions” bits of the Smeg-Ups videos with Kryten talking to us through the Black Box.

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Good line: “It’s your duty to disembowel him.”

In what we’d now call the “Death isn’t the handicap it used to be in the olden days” conversation, what is the meaning of that line about the President of the United States being dead for twenty years? Is that supposed to be satire or world building or something else? Are we supposed to think that the Prez has been literally a corpse for all that time, that Lister believes the President to be as ineffectual in office as a dead body would be, or are we supposed to accept the fact that the President is actually a Hologram in this world?

I have the Rob and Doug commentary on now. I don’t think the pedal bin ash canisters look so bad.

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I can see some similar ones on Google Image search, but mine was none of those. They all look like fan-made/Etsy cash-in type things referring to “a” Starbug or “the” Starbug. Gross. Mine definitely read Starbug 1 and was a thing of beauty.

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95% sure it was TORDFC. Pretty sure the logo was on it.

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By the way, when the VHS finally materialises in that advert, the “Timeslides” and “Backwards” titles appear on the same box.

They must have beamed it in from another universe — one with longer-playing tapes — using the Holly Hop Drive.

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Why do you suppose these works were going up in Conway Hall? Are they part of an art show of some kind or are they just part of the lobby furniture or something (and if so, I wonder why)?

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It’s both real and a deal.

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It was the boy Symes.

Cool!

I didn’t know about Vic and Bob’s Big Night Out until it was being reviewed in press, so didn’t experience any kind of anticipation. I didn’t know if it was going to be a full-on tribute/special for Vic Reeve’s Big Night Out or if, simply, the title was a reference. In real time, I enjoyed it very much. A lovely one-off treat. Didn’t see it as particularly part of the original series, despite the Novelty Island/Graham Lister stuff.

The one thing I did NOT like was the lack of an apostrophe in the set.

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The sound used just as the music and drums kicks in

That sound effect always appealed to me and while, with hindsight, it’s probably supposed to be the sound of a thruster, I liked to think of it being the sound of a stasis booth door opening.

My headcanon once upon a time was that the adventures we see on-screen are Lister’s most eventful days between periods of stasis on the way back to Earth.

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Ordered. Cheers.
Ta ra, ya shitter.
Burp.

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Cool! Impressive that all of this is known. What a lovely, cohesive fan community! Cheers Ian.

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To be honest (and I hated Timewave) I never saw that there was an anti-gay theme. Camp does not mean gay. And even so, the episode was more down on tackiness than true camp.

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