Let’s Talk About Samsara (on UKTV Play) News Posted by Ian Symes on 23rd September 2016, 08:31 Twentica? Twentica was a week ago. We’re far more concerned about the quite hilarious things that happen in Samsara. Yes, with the first episode safely broadcast in a linear manner, it’s time for episode two to spread its wings and fly to On Demand Land. We’d kind of expected it to go online immediately after broadcast, until Dave clarified last night that they were waiting til Friday morning. We’re massively on board with this; it helps to keep things clean by holding back the new episode until we’ve finished discussing the last one. Anyway: EDIT: COME ALONG, EVERYBODY! IT’S HERE! IT’S IN ORBIT! Discuss away below, and we’ll be along with some Talking Points for you later today. And thanks to all those who listened live to our Twentica DwarfCast last night. We were a little rusty in places, but we soon remembered how tremendously fun the experience is. Same time next week, yeah?
DwarfCast 79 – Live Twentica Reaction DwarfCasts Posted by Ian Symes on 22nd September 2016, 22:00 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes Message incoming: G&T are back with their first live DwarfCast in nearly four years. Consequently there's a bit of rustiness, and an inexplicable moment where the host gets the name of his star guest wrong even though he's reading from a script, but there's also a tremendous amount of laughs, breaking news and searing insight, as Jonathan Capps, Danny Stephenson and Ian Symes are joined by guests Alex Newsome, Joey Newsome, Tom Pyott and Jo Sharples to discuss all things Twentica. As well as the biggest and smallest talking points from the episode, we also cover the fan screening event, first impressions of Red Dwarf XI: The Game, some preliminary spoiler-free previewing of Samsara and to cap it all. an exclusive interview with Big Bang Beryl herself Rebecca Blackstone, presented for the first time at an audible level. Read more →
Let’s Talk About Twentica (on Dave) News Posted by Ian Symes on 22nd September 2016, 09:02 Yes, in what doesn’t feel like an anti-climax at all, tonight’s the night that Red Dwarf XI debuts on your actual television. Twentica airs at 9pm on Dave, and this is the thread for all those of you that have resisted the temptation to watch online over the last seven days (Are there any of you? Show of hands…). And as this is the first thread with the shiny “Dave” banner on the top, I’d like to remind those of you who have already seen the episode to not spoil things for people in the comments, as per our spoiler policy. Anyway, once you’ve finally watched the episode, you can catch up on the content you’ve missed from the last week, namely the episode’s talking points, Cappsy’s review, an analysis of the title sequence, and an interview with one of the episode’s guest stars. And everybody is welcome, regardless of at what pace they’re watching the series, to join us for our first Live DwarfCast of the series from 10pm (BST) tonight. We’ll be bringing you our analysis of the episode, along with a report from tonight’s fan screening of the first two episodes, and an exclusive interview with another Twentica guest star. It’s not to be missed – the link will be posted here on G&T (to the right there, where the countdown currently is) and on Twitter soon after the episode finishes airing on Dave. EDIT: The guest cast for Twentica have now been listed on TOS, so it’s no longer a spoiler to say that tonight’s Live DwarfCast interviewee is Rebecca Blackstone! In the meantime, the Red Dwarf XI game is now out! Well, at the time of writing, it’s in the iOS App Store, but presumably by the time you’re reading this it’ll be in the Play Store for Android devices too. It’s a tricky one to discuss, as the game does contain spoilers for Twentica, plus people may want to play through without having any surprises spoiled. So, feel free to discuss the game in vague terms here, but for the time being let’s keep all specific discussion of the game’s content to this forum thread. One last thing. Samsara is going to be available on UKTV Play at some point today. We’re not sure when, but we’re assuming that it won’t be until after Twentica has been on the telly. If that’s the case, expect a discussion thread not long after we finish DwarfCasting. If it’s any earlier than that, remain calm and wait for the thread to appear before any spoilery discussion. It’s all very complicated this time round, isn’t it?
The Kevin Eldon Interview Features Posted by Ian Symes on 21st September 2016, 15:24 Here's an unexpected delight. A friend of a friend of a friend got in touch with Kevin Eldon on our behalf, and old 4 Of 27 himself was only too happy to answer some questions via email. There are some extremely minor spoilers for Twentica below, but thankfully Kevin decided to take a somewhat literal approach to many of our questions. You won't find much in the way of hard fact here, but you'll hopefully laugh a fair few times. Our endless thanks to Jonathan 'Jonsmad' Young (who, along with setting the whole thing up, collaborated with us to provide the questions) and Harry Pye, without either of whom this wouldn't have been possible. Read more →
Red Dwarf XI title sequence analysis Features Posted by Ian Symes on 18th September 2016, 18:52 As has been the case since Series III in 1989, the first episode of a new series brings us a new title sequence, which in turn brings with it several tantalising glimpses of future adventures. Some of them are already familiar to us from the various trailers. Others fall into context when you're armed with frame advance and a list of synopses. The most exciting ones are the ones that could from anywhere, and there's a fair few of those. By our reckoning, there are 29 individual shots (plus a title card) in the 35-second sequence, all of which are analysed and annotated below. Read more →
Red Dwarf XI: Twentica Review Reviews Posted by Jonathan Capps on 17th September 2016, 20:36 A new episode of Red Dwarf has been broadcast for the first time in just under four years, and for the first time ever - whether you like it or not - premiered online. G&T were there, but what follows are my own personal take on the start of a new era for the show. Read more →
Talking Points: Twentica Features Posted by Ian Symes on 15th September 2016, 22:18 By now, most of the people who have chosen to watch Twentica ahead of broadcast will have done so, and there's a hell of a lot to discuss. But there's a problem. The nature of the online release means that not everyone watches at the same time, and so it's tricky to give a structure to these discussions that would otherwise be covered by a live DwarfCast. To that end, and to plug the gap before our full written review in a few days' time, here's the first edition of our new feature. Each week, usually on a Friday morning but we're making an exception for the first one, we'll summarise what we consider to the five biggest talking points from the episode. We'll then use your responses to kick off the debate in the forthcoming Live DwarfCast, which will follow the Dave broadcast. Obviously, these are by no means the only talking points - just the things that are in the forefront of our minds after just the solitary viewing. So without further ado, get stuck into these... Read more →
Let’s Talk About Twentica (on UKTV Play) News Posted by Ian Symes on 15th September 2016, 13:08 Yes, it seems like despite having waited for nearly four years for a new episode of Red Dwarf to come along, the big day has crept right up to our astonished faces. A week ahead of Twentica‘s debut on Dave, it’s going to be released online “by this afternoon”. We don’t know when exactly, but we’ll update this post with a link when we spot it. In the meantime, make sure you’re registered and signed in on UKTV Play, to avoid delays. EDIT: IT’S ONLINE. IT’S BLOODY HERE. BLOODY HELL. Of course, the above only applies to those of you who aren’t saving yourself for the TV broadcast this time next week. From this point on, things get a little bit confusing. We’re doing our best to cater for all fans over the next seven weeks, so all posts will be clearly marked with a big friendly banner, as you can see above, telling you whether or not it’s safe to read. Our spoiler policy has been updated, and it’s more important than ever that you acquaint yourself with it. Put simply: before it’s broadcast on telly, you can only discuss Twentica on threads with the blue UKTV Play banner. If you see a Dave banner, or no banner at all, don’t discuss the episode there. We’ll keep the extracts on the home page spoiler free, but if you’re waiting for the Dave broadcasts, don’t click on posts with the blue UKTV Play banner, and don’t read comments on those posts. You’ll see a nice “you can read this” Dave banner on posts starting next week. It’s still a bit annoying that the audience is split up in this way, but at the very least, we’ll be making it as easy as possible for people to catch up with any episode-based content they’ve missed, with new navigation options waiting to be unveiled as soon as they’re necessary. In the meantime, those of you who can’t resist watching the episode online can discuss it on this post right now, and look out for a brand new feature either later tonight or early tomorrow (depending on when the episode is live), running you through the biggest talking points that Twentica turns up. Good luck, everybody. Here it comes…
Unabandoned Shop News Posted by Ian Symes on 15th September 2016, 13:08 In amongst all the excitement of Twentica being unleashed to the world, the launch of the brand new Red Dwarf shop has understandably taken a back seat. But on any other day, this would be a huge deal, so let's take a closer look. The first impression is that the site is functional but attractive. Nice big pictures and prices of everything on offer on the front page, with sub-indexes divided between "clothing" and "accessories". It's a bit of a shame, however, that the pictures are quite low-res, and that there's no option to zoom in to take a closer look at the items you're expected to pay good money for. There are details you can make out in last week's TOS update that you can't actually see on the shop itself! As for what's for sale, we have a choice of nine t-shirts (one long-sleeved, one polo, the others regular), all of which are available in S-XXL and presumably intended to be unisex. There's also two hoodies, a mug, a bag, a poster, a postcard set, a lanyard, a badge set and a keyring. It's worth noting that none of these things are actually available yet - you can order them all right now, but they're all listed as shipping in October 2016. Prices are decent, particularly for the clothing, although the lanyard and keyring seem a bit steep at £8 each, before p&p. I placed a massive order earlier, and the shipping cost seemed very reasonable, but I've since seen unconfirmed reports that there's a minimum shipping cost of £5.60 per order, no matter how small the order. Read more →
Constant, guilt-free SFX Quickies Posted by Ian Symes on 14th September 2016, 18:57 As you're probably already aware, Red Dwarf features in this month's SFX magazine in a pretty big way. Not only is there a big feature on the forthcoming series, there are four variant covers - each featuring a shot of one of the main characters - and a free mini-booklet celebrating the show's history. After traipsing round every magazine vendor in West London in an attempt to collect all four, I accepted defeat and actually read the magazine instead. I was surprised to discover several previously-unseen pictures from forthcoming episodes, many of which give intriguing clues as to the content of the series. I tweeted my discoveries as I went, and those tweets are collated here. You won't find reproductions of the magazine or any of its contents - you'll have to actually go into a shop and pay money for that - but there is plenty of description and analysis... Read more →
