Thumbnail Wars Features Posted by Ian Symes on 22nd June 2023, 11:22 Here at Ganymede & Titan, we're never afraid to tackle the big issues surrounding Red Dwarf. Over the last twenty years we've dealt with accusations of racism, homophobia and sexism within the show, gone through the trauma of seeing our beloved co-creators waging war through the courts, and hosted endless debates about which of Series VII and VIII was the shittest. This week, almost the entirety of Red Dwarf was published on BBC iPlayer, including all but three episodes of the Dave era. It's all still available on UKTV Play of course, meaning Mummy Beeb and Daddy Dave have joint custody of all their kids and step-kids. And so there's now a new question to settle. A question that will tax our collective IQs to their very limits. Which platform has the best thumbnails? Let's go through series by series, awarding points to each streaming service based on which image we prefer for each episode. The iPlayer thumbnails are on the left and can be distinguished by the black background, while UKTV Play is on the right against blue. (If you're on mobile, you'll probably want to tap to expand.) While we're here, we might as well also cover any oddities or discrepancies in the metadata. Honestly, this is going to be pretty niche. Strap in. Read more →
Teaser? I hardly know her! News Posted by Ian Symes on 15th September 2017, 11:42 NEW TEASER AND PICCIES, EVERYONE. UPDATE: Now, before we get on to analysing that lovely little teaser, let's pick through the other details that were released today. Read more →
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 →
DwarfCast 78 – The Beginning Commentary DwarfCasts Posted by Ian Symes on 12th September 2016, 13:45 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes It's the end! No, wait, the opposite of that. It's The Beginning, as we draw our coverage of Series X to a close, just in time for the coverage of Series XI to begin. Join Jonathan Capps (via Skype), Tanya Jones, Danny Stephenson, Ian Symes and the Fan Club's Jo Sharples as we discuss such burning issues as how many of the Rimmer brothers are illegitimate, what Arnold's dying words actually were, including whether or not he even said "gazpacho soup" in the first place, and our feelings on Series X as a whole, with the benefit of nearly four years of thinking time. Plus, we bring you a round-up of all the major Red Dwarf XI news that didn't make it to the front page of G&T in the last week, and the long-awaited announcement of how exactly we'll be covering the new series, bearing in mind that the release schedule for each episode is a confusing, divisive mess. Listen to the DwarfCast for far too much detail about our reasoning, but the short version is this: Live DwarfCasts at broadcast pace. Written material at online pace. Discussion threads for both. Everyone gets some coverage asap after they’ve watched it, and nobody has to miss out on anything they can't catch up on. Let’s make the TV broadcast the big event, and treat the online releases as an optional preview. Read more →
Ian’s Newsround – 07/09/16 News Posted by Ian Symes on 7th September 2016, 14:32 UPDATE (08/09/2016): More merchandise details announced! There are now just fifteen days to go until Red Dwarf XI starts on Dave, and a mere eight days until it premieres online. As we put the finishing touches to our plan of how to deal with all this (there's a spreadsheet, with upwards of four pages), there are enough small pieces of news knocking about to warrant dusting off this old strand, for the first time in four years. The snippets of new information are coming quicker than we can front page them, so do keep an eye on our Twitter and our forum to keep up to date. But if you've missed anything so far this week, it's hopefully all here. Read more →
Survey: The Series XI Dilemma Quickies Posted by Ian Symes on 17th August 2016, 16:25 It can not have escaped your attention that UKTV plans to premiere each episode of the forthcoming Red Dwarf XI on their on-demand service, UKTV Play, one week ahead of their television broadcast on Dave. This puts us in a somewhat tricky situation in terms of our coverage. We had planned on doing pretty much exactly what we did last time - an "instant reaction" DwarfCast almost immediately after each episode, broadcast live on the internet, with a tidier version in the usual feeds the following day, followed by a written review over the weekend. This isn't so straightforward when not everyone's going to be watching at the same time. This move has made it a hell of a lot harder to be part of a communal shared experience, but we're determined to make it work. That's where you come in. We'd like to know more about how you're intending to consume this series, and your preferences for how we go about things. To that end, here are a series of polls; the results of which we'll take on board, but won't be legally binding or anything. Annoyingly, we'd like to request that those of you from outside the UK abstain from taking part in this vote; it's the people who have a choice as to how they watch the series that will be most affected by our decisions. Read more →
DwarfCast 74 – Fathers & Suns Commentary DwarfCasts Posted by Ian Symes on 14th August 2016, 11:23 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes Yes, we've stuck to something for two weeks in a row. Here's the second of our Series X commentaries, which predictably enough covers Fathers & Suns. John, Danny, Ian and TORDFC's Jo Sharples return to discuss such matters as how much help Lister got in creating his video, how this is the show's third Holly-centric episode, Alf Garnett, and a hidden cock and balls. Oh, and racism. Let's see if this room full of white people can sort out that thorny problem once and for all. As well as that, we bring you an excessively angry one-man rant about UKTV's decision to premiere Red Dwarf XI episodes online a week before broadcast, and how this is going to play merry havoc with our content plan, along with the rest of the news from the last seven days. Read more →
VIDEO. BROADCAST DATE. MODEL SHOT. ONLINE? News Posted by Jonathan Capps on 12th August 2016, 10:45 Well, there really is quite a bit to take in here. The official social media accounts have all, in one way or another, revealed the Dave *broadcast* date for Twentica to be Thursday, 22nd September at 9pm, placing it roughly around the same time as most people’s best guesses. We are all certainly very pleased that UKTV were considerate enough to fit things into our Series X DwarfCast schedule so neatly. This will presumably put Series XI among the illustrious company of 31 previous episodes to premiere on a Thursday. Wednesday remains as the only day of the week to not hold that particular honour. Continue reading →
