Turk Thrust

[Turk Thrust]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 05/06/2026 

[Turk Thrust]

Yeah, for the longest time I couldn’t remember which Krysis, Siliconia and Mechocracy were.

I think one issue I have with Mechocracy is that the machines were just used too often in the Dave era imo. It’s interesting that they were forgotten about for so long and then became such a big part of the show again.

I like many ideas during Doug’s Dwarf, but having an almost unlimited number of guest stars and talking machines makes the show feel very crowded. Having one or two more episodes with just the 4 main actors might have allowed for some good character stuff.

[Turk Thrust]

Well, it’s nice if some people enjoy the episode and, obviously, I agree it was a good thing that they didn’t directly mention any specific elections going on at that time.

But the theme of “don’t believe the populists” is so clearly related to what was happening at that time (and is still happening) that I can’t personally just watch it as a bit of Red Dwarf escapism. 

Of course, if I thought it was funny, that would help. :)

[Turk Thrust]

The parallels with real life events are heavy handed
I could swear Doug said somewhere that there was no intended tie-in to that specific American election.

I don’t think it really matters. It’s so obviously saying, “Don’t believe the populists.” That would be fine if there was some interesting spin or twist, but the good guy wins and the bad guy gets his comeuppance. It’s not particularly interesting imo.

[Turk Thrust]

Yeah, I would have to agree that Mechocracy feels a little crowbarred into the Red Dwarf world.

The idea of downloading dangerous data is kind of interesting, but is quickly dealt with to focus on the election.

The parallels with real life events are heavy handed and it all plays out a little predictably (and, as another poster mentioned, the whole thing is of no real importance).

Talkie Toaster mostly just repeats the same jokes from Series IV.

And I don’t personally enjoy the endings to episodes where naughty Rimmer gets his comeuppance. 

[Turk Thrust]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 04/06/2026 

Up to my usual high standards.

[Turk Thrust]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 03/06/2026 

Kryten

[Turk Thrust]

You’re acting as if he wasn’t gurning all the way back in I

His performance was subtler in Series 1.

[Turk Thrust]

I think Chris’s performance in VIII ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous. 

His comedy timing was absolutely still there. For example, “You really think … ok, I’ll do it.” or “They’re mine.” “They’re mine.” “Have you been going through my things?”

But there is also the gurning (as shown in the above image) and OTT moments. A lot of that was how the character was written, though …

[Turk Thrust]

Now for a real hot take:
Chris Barrie’s performance in Back in the Red is one of his best. Not only does he recapture the specific cadence and style of his Series I self, but he’s a much better actor in 1999 than he was in 1988.
The best version of the character matched with the best version of the actor. Match made in heaven. Then the rest of VIII happened. 

 

[Turk Thrust]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 02/06/2026 

Nanarchy, The Beginning, The Promised Land

[Turk Thrust]

01/06/2026 

Cassandra, The Inquisitor

[Turk Thrust]

31/05/2026 

M-Corp, Backwards, Tikka to Ride, Stasis Leak

[Turk Thrust]

While Skipper has many good ideas and fun elements, bringing Hollister back didn’t work imo.

I like Mac MacDonald, but he is overacting like crazy in that scene, the writing is weak, and the production standards leave a lot to be desired. The whole thing feels very rushed to me.

[Turk Thrust]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 30/05/2026 

The End, M-Corp

[Turk Thrust]

I do think Stoke is a nice farewell for Rimmer, giving him the opportunity to become a better person. 
I also hate the whole Ace Rimmer, multiverse-travelling superhero thing so much. I don’t like Red Dwarf being an epic space opera, I don’t like the characters being anything other than just people who were unfortunate enough to end up their situation. So superhero Rimmer and Ouroboros Lister don’t appeal.
So I have complicated feelings about Stoke.

One thing I do know is that it’s a hundred times better than Tikka, which does not belong on a good episodes list.

Yes, I pretty much feel the same way.

Tikka is ambitious but falls flat for me, and I agree that Lister and Rimmer shouldn’t be written as two space heroes. 

[Turk Thrust]

Thinking about it now, Paul Alexander was given a couple of tough tasks for that series. Not only writing out Rimmer, but also penning the first draft for Epideme only to be told, “You can’t have Rimmer in it, you can have Kochanski instead (a character none of the writers seemed to really know how to make interesting).”

[Turk Thrust]

When Ace programmed Rimmer to look like him, it’s possible that he also copied his entire skillset over. And Rimmer just had to build up courage before he could properly access it. All of Ace’s training for Rimmer seemed to involve becoming confident rather than anything practical.
Given Rimmer’s ejection seat snafu at the end of the episode, it feels like a no on that.
But even if Rimmer did inherit Ace’s skills digitally, it’s never mentioned, so neither Rimmer or Lister know about it, and go ahead with the plan for Rimmer to become Ace thinking that he doesn’t have the practical skills to pull it off. So this theory would explain why Rimmer doesn’t just get killed off screen, but it wouldn’t explain why Lister and eventually Rimmer think it would actually work. Actually if Ace had said to Rimmer “you now have all my skills” that would have helped a lot with the confidence side of things!
This does draw attention to the good episode/bad episode fan theory dichotomy. If an episode I like has elements that don’t make sense, I’m eager to come up with theories that explain away those things. But if it’s an episode I dislike, I instinctively just go “yeah the episode doesn’t make sense because it sucks and it sucks because it doesn’t make sense, who cares”.

Yeah, I get that and with some of the stuff (the explanation of a knight escaping from the AR machine), I think the simplest explanation is probably the correct one. Paul and Doug overlooked some of the finer details.

[Turk Thrust]

> Rimmer could then have been brought back seamlessly if Chris ever chose to return without any, “Is this the original Rimmer?” questions.
this is only a problem because of VIII. Of Doug hadn’t created a second Rimmer we wouldn’t be asking who the current Rimmer, where he comes from, what he remembers etc 

But Doug would either have had to bring Rimmer back having failed as Ace (I can’t really imagine how that could have worked, but maybe Doug might have managed it) or simply ignored Stoke Me a Clipper. Neither is ideal in terms of storytelling.

[Turk Thrust]

Well it’s also giving Chris Barrie the opportunity to play Ace again, which he rather liked to do, I gather. So yes they only had Chris for a limited time but it’s not like they sidelined Chris the actor, quite the opposite in fact.

Sure, but if there was a choice between, for example, a 2 minute scene of Ace and Rimmer riding carpets or two 2 minute scenes with Rimmer, I would go for the latter.

I don’t know the details of why it happened, but it’s interesting to me that the obvious thing to do would have been to get Chris into the studio and to film a whole bunch of group scenes or Rimmer/Lister two handers. It would have been the quickest and simplest approach.

Instead, they had him doing stunts, filming on airfields with planes flying overhead, acting opposite himself, and reshooting scenes that didn’t end up getting used.

[Turk Thrust]

Despite Stoke Me a Clipper being one of the better episodes in VII, I don’t think having an Ace episode was a great way to get rid of Rimmer.

Firstly, because I don’t really believe the whole concept that the Rimmer we saw from I to VI could try to become Ace.

Also, because if the crew had gotten themselves into a perilous situation that left the ship damaged and unable to support a hologram, it would have had the potential for some genuine drama if handled in the right way. Rimmer could then have been brought back seamlessly if Chris ever chose to return without any, “Is this the original Rimmer?” questions.

Finally, they only had Chris for a limited time in VII and every moment that Ace appears is a moment that Rimmer could have been on screen. It seems slightly odd looking back that as Chris only made himself available for 3 weeks, they chose to have him play 2 characters at the same time.

(On a semi-related note, it speaks volumes for the production problems of VII that they got Chris to film the “Vindy sauce” scene for Tikka to Ride twice and didn’t end up using either of them!)

[Turk Thrust]

29/05/2026 

[Turk Thrust]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 28/05/2026 

Really should have got it on the last one.

[Turk Thrust]

Since Rob and Doug like their specific references, would it have been better as “Star Trek convention” or “Doctor Who convention”?
But I guess the general one has more of the fourth wall breaking sense that they know what they’re talking about.

That would have changed the nature of the joke and much for the worse imo.

The joke in the show is Rob and Doug gently mocking their own. If they mentioned another show’s fans, that would have been a lazier approach I think.

[Turk Thrust]

“He’s looking so geeky he probably couldn’t get into a science fiction convention.”

I’ve heard some negative comments about this joke in the past, but I like it. It fits into that classic comedy tradition of gently poking pun at your own audience.

I much prefer it to the stuff in Back to Earth Part 2 where they make fun of the guy who doesn’t like science fiction. That feels a lot more obvious.

[Turk Thrust]

It makes me wonder whether there could be a lot more Dwarf merchandise out there, though.

The Only Fools and Horses Appreciate Society seem to be advertising new stuff almost every week.

[Turk Thrust]

Cheap and tacky ****.

[Turk Thrust]

27/05/2026 

Mechocracy

[Turk Thrust]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 26/05/2026 

[Turk Thrust]

25/05/2026 

[Turk Thrust]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 24/05/2026 

Backwards, Meltdown

[Turk Thrust]

I find Craig distinctly weak in the early episodes, but I don’t see the rest of it. The others are finding their characters, but I think it’s as funny and quotable as the rest.

Definitely.

I wonder how much opinions are influenced by the fact that the audience, who clearly had no idea what they were watching, give such a small reaction to the jokes. 

If those same jokes had come in Series II and beyond, they would be getting huge laughs and some would be considered classics today.

[Turk Thrust]

I believe that Confidence and Paranoia ranked 40th in the Coral Canvass poll, but imo it is comfortably in the top 36. There are so many positives to the episode:

– It focuses on a really solid sci-fi idea.

– Holly is used well both in the running Agatha Christie gag and the delivery of the deadpan, “There’s an emergency going on.”

– Some very funny gags: “Yes mum, I’m just packing my satchel.” “… we don’t use our tongues to clean our genitals.” “I just fed him into the waste grinder and flushed his bits into space.” (I’m guessing the latter was Rob’s line.)

– A good use of the skutters in both the temperature taking scene and, especially, Stabbim.

– Two well cast guest stars.

– Great Howard Goodall music during the space walk and a quite impressive explosion for the time.

– A nice twist at the end that sets things up for the next episode.

[Turk Thrust]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 23/05/2026 

White Hole, Legion

[Turk Thrust]

It’s also probably a moment that was a hangover from the original intention of Lister being someone whose brain was fried. 

[Turk Thrust]

It’s a very quick, handy way to change the story, especially in the Smegadrive. 
Part of me thinks it would have been quite a fun way to do it, bring back the plot from the first half. I think if it’d been done in 1993, people wouldn’t have been too upset. 
Especially if they’d found Red Dwarf in the centre of the stellar fog.
And then series 7 had been an eight part mystery series about who took the ship and why they surrounded it with unreality bubbles. Turns out it was Holly, who was annoyed at being almost entirely ignored for the previous year or so. 
Sorry, I’m getting carried away now.

I also used to think they could have made Holly the culprit. 

“I decided to restore myself to my original appearance. According to my research, it should only have taken a few seconds.”

“And how long did it take you?”

“2 years, 9 months and 13 days.”

Or something vaguely along those lines …

[Turk Thrust]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 22/05/2026 

Balance of Power, Kryten, Parallel Universe, Thanks for the Memory

[Turk Thrust]

I was reading G&T, so would have known about the budget limitations of Back to Earth, because I treated it as gently as a school play when it started. But by the end I was less forgiving, it seemed like a waste of the opportunity and just like doing Red Dwarf for the sake of it, without even being able to be very Red Dwarf. All my goodwill’s faded now.
Yeah, I don’t get why the first entry you’d make in a franchise for a decade, why you’d do something so subversive.
I quite like some of the outdoorsy ones. Meltdown, Gunmen etc. So, I think they absolutely could’ve done something very in-spirit. Maybe Doug wanted to do something very daring, but then he should taken into account how VII and VIII did.

It’s interesting looking back, but there was a time when the official viewpoint was that Series VIII was both a commercial and critical success and a step up from VII. I wonder how many of the zany characters from VIII were in the various versions of the movie script?

My feeling about Back to Earth is that Doug wanted to show he could direct something vaguely cinematic (despite the budget limitations) which is why you have the slow pan across the ship at the start and you have some recreations of Blade Runner moments.

Another poster mentioned the Kochanski scenes and I think it would have been possible to have made a much shorter Back to Earth with those scenes as the beginning middle and end. There was a fan edit that had Lister reading Jane Austen as the opening scene which worked very well, and the moment he says goodbye to Kochanski and returns to Red Dwarf would have been a fitting way to end things.

[Turk Thrust]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 21/05/2026 

An episode I have thankfully only watched a couple of times.

[Turk Thrust]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 20/05/2026 

Parallel Universe, Blue

[Turk Thrust]

[Turk Thrust]

Sorry if the above is in poor taste. 

[Turk Thrust]

[Turk Thrust]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 19/05/2026 

[Turk Thrust]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 18/05/2026 

Blue

[Turk Thrust]

One thing I will say is that, even allowing for the fact that the material was underwritten, Norman would have done a better job with the opening gags that were considered for Series III (where you can see Hattie’s eyes moving as she reads the autocue).

[Turk Thrust]

 I think Norman would probably have fought harder for material and Rob and Doug would probably have found a little more for him to do because they found it easier to write for his version of the character. 
Considering how he was written for Series 8, i ain’t sure about that. In the end its going to come down to their ambition to write bold episodes like say Back to Reality vs what material they can give Norman in episodes like that. Which would still be an issue.

The way he was written in Series 8 felt like the way you would expect the writers to desperately be looking for material for him. For example how much did Norman appear in Cassandra?

I think that’s a separate thing. Series VIII can’t be compared to the rest of Dwarf in that sense.

Plus, if Norman had still been part of Series III, he would have had the clout of being one of the original and regular cast members.

When Norman returned in Series VII, you have the weird situation of him kind of, but not entirely, being a main cast member. Which is part of the reason there was the Back to Earth fiasco of him expecting to be in it and Doug not including him in the original scripts.

If Norman had stayed for Series III, the dynamic would have been very different. Maybe Rob and Doug would still have decided to lose Holly at some point, but getting rid of an original actor and character would have been a different thing to letting Hattie leave.  

[Turk Thrust]

Norman is great but weirdly I’m glad I only saw his episodes on the eventual repeats after I’d got used to the Hattie version in IV and V when I got into Red Dwarf, because then I didn’t view Hattie’s Holly as any kind of an attempt to imitate Norman. In my mind they both just did their own thing and are both equally good at it.

Yes, I know what you mean. Series III was the first one that I watched as it was broadcast and I certainly didn’t see Hattie as a weak link. Having said that, it shows how good Norman’s performance was that when I went back to watch the first couple of series, I never thought, “Who’s this other guy???”

And I don’t think Hattie was particularly imitating Norman as that was her style anyway. I can understand why Norman was irked, though, and he later clarified some of his comments on the DVD. He felt that they’d promised to do something different with the character (and he used Kathy Burke auditioning as an example of them trying), but when he saw Hattie’s portrayal he felt she was just a carbon copy.

Obviously, he only has himself to blame for walking away, but I have to feel some sympathy for Norman. He had to watch Red Dwarf becoming more and more successful while his own career failed to reach any great heights. In the mid 90s, a friend of mine had to book a cheap comedian to do a gig at the local university. Norman was the cheapest one available that anyone had heard of, so he got the booking (and was very funny). 

[Turk Thrust]

I don’t like to compete them personally. I like Norman, and while Hattie got a little less to do overall, I think she still added something to the show that i appreciate.
Its an interesting thought to wonder what the show would have been like had Norman not left, because Rob and Doug clearly wanted to turn the show into something more adventurous and just because it was Norman, probably wouldn’t have changed much in regards to telling stories that struggled to really have a purpose for Holly. Does make you wonder if Norman would have ended up leaving anyway, out of pure spite for the lack of material.

I think it probably would’ve happened eventually, yeah. I mean he wanted his face on the screen in the first place.

I think Norman would probably have fought harder for material and Rob and Doug would probably have found a little more for him to do because they found it easier to write for his version of the character.

And while Norman may be a world class moaner, I will always forgive him for that because him fighting to get his face on screen was hugely important for the show. If there had only been 3 in vision characters for the first couple of series, we will never know whether the show would have worked and been recommissioned.  

[Turk Thrust]

I did type an explanation and then decided against posting it.

That’s too much knowledge to have to not get the joke, I’m sure. (and what an unpleasant joke, btw)

Yes, as Doug lost a leg himself, he obviously won’t have meant anything bad by it, but I imagine one reason it was cut is because it could have caused some offense.

[Author]

Replies