Video DwarfCast #1 – Coral Canvass Livestream Spectacular Features Posted by Ian Symes on 17th February 2023, 11:40 That was a heck of a night. To celebrate Red Dwarf's 35th anniversary, fans from around the world (well, some of them) gathered together around a cosy YouTube window, marking the occasion with Ganymede & Titan's first ever live video DwarfCast. The main topic of conversation was the Coral Canvass, with lots of analysis and in-depth stats about the latest definitive ranking of episodes. Next up was Clochebusters, a brand new and wholly original Red Dwarf game show, before the evening was rounded off by a lovely batch of live waffles. But there was so much more to discuss, as a very intriguing statement was released just as we went live, changing the agenda significantly. All this plus some vintage Dwarfy adverts, the rarely-seen visuals that accompany one of our best DwarfCast stings, and a series of catastrophic yet hilarious technical failures. And it's all available to catch up with whenever you like on demand: We'd recommend watching on YouTube itself so that you can see the chat replay in real time. It's particularly fun to watch the explosion of activity when the breaking news breaks! There's also chapters embedded if you want to skip to certain sections. A huge thank you once more to everyone who came along, for however long, especially those who joined the chat and gave us a lovely warm fuzzy feeling inside. And an extra special thanks to Jason Smedley, Niki Hutchinson and Quinn for bearing with us and being thoroughly brilliant Clochebusters contestants. One heck of a night. Read more →
BREAKING: Rob and Doug statement News Posted by Ian Symes on 15th February 2023, 21:00 Some breaking news for you – a message has been released by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. Yes, both of them. Together. To fans, cast and crew and everything in between, a very smeggy 35th birthday. Fingers crossed for more. Much love Rob and Doug There is certainly a lot to discuss, so head on over to our Coral Canvass Livestream Spectacular right now, for all the reaction to this and today’s poll results, plus a lovely game of the wholly original Red Dwarf quiz Clochebusters!
The Coral Canvass Results Features Posted by Ian Symes on 15th February 2023, 09:01 Ladies and gentlemen, on the occasion of Red Dwarf‘s thirty-fifth anniversary, we invite you to join us, if you dare, in a journey through the Top 74 episodes of all time, as voted for by YOU. Once every five years, the various factions of the fan community come together to rate each and every episode, and we then collate the results and analyse them in far too much detail. 2013 was the Silver Survey, 2018 was the Pearl Poll, and now for 2023, Ganymede & Titan are proud to present The Coral Canvass. We changed the methodology this year; we'd always previously asked participants to rank every episode in order of preference, but this was a big ask of people's time, and didn't take into account that not everyone taking part would be equally familiar with all the episodes. So we simplified things and asked you instead to rate each episode out of 10, with the option of leaving blank any episodes that you didn't feel like scoring. The result was by far the biggest response we've ever received, with a total of 692 participants submitting at least one vote, more than double the sample size five years ago. A huge thank you to everyone who took part and helped spread the word. Read more →
Ganymede & Titan: 20 Years in 20 Articles Features Posted by Ian Symes on 14th September 2022, 09:00 2002. Tony Blair is Prime Minister. The Fellowship of the Ring wins four Oscars. Atomic Kitten's cover of The Tide Is High is Britain's best selling single. And on a free web-hosting provider, a brand new website starts. A website that features Red Dwarf, but is regularly updated. A website full of opinions, but with no justifications. A website that has already been started and abandoned three times by its teenage creator, and then almost scuppered by a part time job, but which finally hits the internet on the 14th September 2002, the date on which pedantry goes beyond the final frontier. The website is Ganymede & Titan, and tonight we salute the inexplicably still active site and its tedious crew. Read more →
High & Low: Back To Earth Features Posted by Ian Symes on 10th April 2019, 09:00 Back in 2008, when Red Dwarf turned twenty, it was very much a former television programme. The last new series had finished almost a decade earlier, fans had finally accepted that the long-proposed Movie was never going to happen, the regular DVD releases had come, gone and done a lap of honour with The Bodysnatcher Collection, Dimension Jump attendance had fallen off a cliff, and while there were still regular updates from The Official Site and the odd dribble of merch every now and then, the general feeling was that Red Dwarf was a show that should be talked about in the past tense. And that was sort of ok. We'd come to terms with it, although we were all more than a little worried about what the fan community would look like at the next milestone anniversary without any fresh stimulus to keep us going. But when Red Dwarf hit 25 in 2013 and 30 in 2018, the landscape could barely have been more different, thanks to what happened towards the end of that twentieth anniversary year. Read more →
Red Dwarf VII: The Early Drafts Features Posted by Ian Symes on 17th January 2017, 12:54 Twenty years ago today, Red Dwarf VII debuted on BBC Two. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. Red Dwarf had been away for over three years, having previously managed to average out as an annual event for six series. The delay was mainly caused by three monumental behind-the-scenes events: Chris Barrie deciding to leave the show; Craig Charles being held on remand on a charge from which he was ultimately cleared; and Grant Naylor splitting as a gestalt writing entity, leaving Doug in sole command of the show. Big changes were also afoot on-screen, with the change to single-camera, audience-free shooting, the addition of a film effect, a move to a comedy-drama format, and Rimmer's place on Starbug being taken by Chloe Annett as a version of Kochanski from an alternate universe. In many ways, it was twenty years ago today that Red Dwarf changed from what it was then to what it is now. The reason those first six series still exist in a bubble is that they were all made in broadly the same circumstances. The cast and crew may have altered over the years, and the production may have moved from Manchester to Shepperton, but these changes took place slowly and naturally; to paraphrase another comedy that debuted in 1997, it was evolution, not revolution. With Series VII, that changed - a conscious effort was made to make things different from the previous series, and it was against a backdrop of production problems and uneasy compromises. Red Dwarf lost its momentum, and it's been fighting to get it back ever since. It's only now that it's starting to feel more smooth and assured; Series XII will be the first time in years that there hasn't been a raft of changes since the previous series, and that's only because they were shot back-to-back. Opinion remains mixed on the merits of Series VII. The G&T staff are pretty unanimous in our disapproval, but elsewhere there are plenty of fans who enjoy it for what it is, regardless of how different it is from what came before, and even some who hold it in the same regard as the first six series. Regardless of your position, what's interesting is how it came together, and the developments that took place prior to the episodes reaching the screen. To help with the extra workload caused by Rob's departure, and the series containing two more episodes than usual, Doug brought additional writers on board for six of the eight initially-planned episodes. How this process worked has always been a great source of speculation, and to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the show's first big comeback, that's what we're investigating today. Read more →
Cappsy’s Tiny Bits News Posted by Jonathan Capps on 12th March 2008, 23:24 Bored? Tense, nervous headaches? These two Dwarfy bits and bobs should cure what ails you (or make it considerably worse) until the weekly TOS fix comes along. Read more →
Brand New TOS News Posted by Jonathan Capps on 25th February 2008, 16:22 The countdown has ended, and the goods have been duly despatched to us as promised. It's a new website, it's very good and you should slap yourself round the face if you thought it was going to be The Movie. Read more →
New Audio Releases! Rob Grant! News Posted by Jonathan Capps on 24th February 2008, 19:39 TOS celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the first transmission of Future Echoes with one of the most interesting updates we've had in a while. Read more →
Happy Dwarfday! News Posted by Ian Symes on 15th February 2008, 14:20 1988. Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. The Last Emperor wins nine Oscars. The Only Way Is Up is Britain's best-selling single, and on BBC-2, a brand new series starts. A series which features science-fiction, but is funny. A series set in space, but without aliens. A series that has already been turned down three times by the BBC, and then almost scuppered by a technicians strike, but which finally hits the airwaves on 15th February 1988 - the date which comedy goes beyond the final frontier. Read more →