The ‘Ow-much? Red Dwarf Convention

Posted by Ian Symes on 27th September 2025, 16:08

We've always said that we'd be reserving judgement on the new Official Red Dwarf Convention until we had more details - what kind of event is it going to be, how much is it going to cost, what do we get for our money. Well, we now have those details, with the launch of the convention's website. It's going to be held at The Level, a music and events venue in Nottingham, on the 18th and 19th of July 2026. So unlike Dimension Jump, it'll be more of a comic con style affair, rather than the more intimate vibe you get from a hotel-based con. This is kind of what we were expecting, given that it's being run by the team behind Em-Con, but it's fair to say there's been a bit of a backlash from a number of fans, especially when it comes to the pricing.

Before we get into it, full disclosure: while I was never a part of The Official Red Dwarf Fan Club team, my partner was for over a decade, specifically as the chief Dimension Jump organiser for most of that time. As a Fan Club WAG, I was among those who helped to run a total of six DJs, to varying degrees.

Ian’s Newsround – Covers and Conventions

News

Posted by Ian Symes on 10th July 2025, 15:51

Whaaaaat? An Ian's Newsround? When TOS still isn't updating and there isn't a new series about to air? Yes, we're in the unusual situation whereby, during a period in Dwarf's history where it's not unusual to go for months at a time without any news whatsoever, lots of little bitty things have happened in the last couple of weeks. Most of this has already been discussed by the community in our forum and comments sections, but it's nevertheless nice to log it for the record all in one place. Let us begin with...

I see a little silhouetto of some men

As you can see, the cover image for the new Bluray boxset has been revealed, via the underwhelming medium of the Amazon listing being updated. My initial thoughts are that it's an improvement on the previous abomination, but that's a low bar to clear. I can kind of see what they're going for; we'd been discussing how tricky it is to pick photographs that represent the whole lifespan of the show, and so doing something this stylised makes sense. Silhouettes of the main four characters is a good idea on paper, but other than the logo itself (and thank you, powers that be, for giving us a complete 'W' and 'A' this time) absolutely nothing about this screams "Red Dwarf" at first glance. Matt Groening once said that the greatest cartoon characters are identifiable purely from their silhouette, and Dwarf is fairly unusual among live action shows in each of the main characters having at least one physical attribute that's both unique and iconic. If you want an abstract representation of those four characters, surely you go with teeth, H, dreadlocks and angular head? Wouldn't close-ups be more attention grabbing than shadows in the distance? And what about Holly, or Kochanski, or Snacky?