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 Red Dwarf XI has just appeared on the UKTV site, a week ahead of its TV broadcast on Dave. Lister is getting to that age where curries would keep you up all night, Cat is shedding fur, and Kryten is, well...blobby, but the crew is back nonetheless. Series XI and XII have been filmed back to back, so over the next two years we have 12 episodes of Red Dwarf to look forward to. Without spoilers, the first episode of XI is...well kinda good. It's not the classic series, but it's already an improvement on X, which in turn was much better than Back To Earth and the cartoon madness that was XIII.
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Sep 15, 2016 12:13
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The last season was surprisingly enjoyable and a vast improvement over Back to Earth (and let's be honest, seasons 7 and 8). I have moderately high hopes for these new episodes, at least as proof that a revival isn't always total poo poo.
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Sep 15, 2016 12:42
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That was an okay episode, perhaps up to par with some of the lesser episodes from the original series.
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Sep 15, 2016 18:35
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Senor Tron posted:Series XI and XII have been filmed back to back, so over the next two years we have 12 episodes of Red Dwarf to look forward to. Not having to wait 5+ years between series' is probably the biggest callback to the original episodes they could have done. X was definitely heading back to solid ground and it delights me that my favorite show I used to watch after coming home from Cub Scouts is going to have a strong finish even if the middle ground is decidedly shaky.
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Sep 18, 2016 10:43
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Snowglobe of Doom posted:That was an okay episode, perhaps up to par with some of the lesser episodes from the original series. After series six one of the writers (I can never remember if it was Rob or Doug) left. They said it was because series six felt like a formula and they didn't want to write to that formula. Not The Nine O Clock news ended for exactly the same sort of reason. The thing is when you've only got 6 episodes per series I don't really see a problem writing to a formula. Yea it'll get tired after it's happened 24 times but that's going to take loving ages, why not just roll with it and have some fun for a bit? I feel like series X and XI are them rolling with it and so far it's been fun. I rate them all alongside Tikka To Ride which is the only good episode of series 7. They're not BRILLIANT but I enjoy them and that's what I'm after.
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Sep 18, 2016 19:44
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Rob Grant was the writer who left. Might have to download the UKTV app and give it a watch - I didn't think series ten was too bad.
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Sep 18, 2016 20:19
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X was pretty good, and this first episode had some amazing laughs! I'm so happy it wasn't bad. Although for some reason Kryten felt a bit off at times. He definitely needs to get down the gym! Also I met Craig once and he was cool.
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Sep 19, 2016 00:41
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Dead Goon posted:Rob Grant was the writer who left. Fun fact, they were in the middle of doing a novel adaptation of the show when he quit and they were contracted out for two more books. However Grant and Naylor really didn't want to work together any more so what they did was they each wrote a sequel to the last book they did together. I read all of the books and what I learned was that both of them really needed each other.
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Sep 19, 2016 01:31
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It was good to hear the theme song over the end credits again .
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Sep 19, 2016 01:33
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Just saw the first episode of XI. Had a couple laughs in a full half hour, but mostly garbage. It shocks me that such a shallow story can be written in this age of television. I've never seen such heavy handed - obvious exposition before. It was seriously the clunkiest poo poo ever. One down, eleven to go. Crossing my fingers.
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Sep 23, 2016 05:57
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It's cliched, cheap, dated, and cheesy... but that's the only way Red Dwarf can really work in 2016. A lot of the old episodes hold up purely due to nostalgia and the 7-9 run tried to do something different and failed horribly. It's gone back to the basics, and while it suffers from not having both writers working together, it's the best we can really expect. I can understand some people wishing they'd just thrown in the towel, but it's not too hard to look past the flaws and just giggle along to the obvious jokes that have been well worn out by now.
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Sep 23, 2016 06:35
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I enjoyed X quite a bit, and this episode was good. It didn't have many laugh out loud moments for me but I was grinning pretty much the entire episode. Season X had the brilliant Fathers and Suns which I would definitely rank up there in the top of Red Dwarf. If we get one or two more like that and the rest like Twentica then I won't be complaining. (Disclosure: I didn't hate Back to Earth or 7/8. I recognize that they are less funny than 2-6 but I'd rather have bad Dwarf than no Dwarf.)
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Sep 23, 2016 07:29
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Kryten is so drat fat now. His giant chubby glove hands looked hilarious and the lazy attempt to disguise his giant gut with lame costume design is great. 5 stars
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Sep 23, 2016 07:36
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I really enjoyed season 10 but this latest season hasn't gotten off to a good start, the only real laughs I got out of the episode were the repeated gags about the Expenoids having no problem with being hackneyed cliches, or when 3 of 63 hears his name. Hoping things pick up!
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Sep 23, 2016 10:05
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Episode 2 is up on the UKTV site, definitely feels more classic than the previous episode. Ends very abruptly though.
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Sep 23, 2016 11:15
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Episode was okay, but just a little too forced for my tastes. The boys from the Dwarf are still entertaining by themselves, but the jokes fell a bit flat. Still better than S7 though.
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Sep 23, 2016 18:21
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Mortanis posted:Episode was okay, but just a little too forced for my tastes. The boys from the Dwarf are still entertaining by themselves, but the jokes fell a bit flat. I've noticed some of the bits feeling forced too. Still I liked todays episode better than the first. Also Season 7 is your low point? It has Tikka to Ride and Oroboros, which are both really cool sci-fi concept episodes, Stoke me a clipper and Beyond a joke as good character episodes and Blue had the munchkin Rimmer song.
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Sep 23, 2016 22:09
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Yeah the second episode was way better I thought, the reveal of the crew's final positions was great but the best section was the Cat teaching history to a horrified Lister.
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Sep 24, 2016 02:54
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I'm glad to hear the new series is looking good so far. I seem to remember the last one being almost painfully formulaic, every episode being "Lister says something gross, Kryten misunderstands some basic human concept, Rimmer says something pompous, Cat insults Rimmer, etc." without any variation.
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Sep 24, 2016 06:19
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It feels so weird to see new Red Dwarf episodes. The early days are still some of the best comedy tv around, specifically season 3-6. The show hasn't really been the same since Back to earth, but there are a few funny bits and i am just happy to see the characters continue on.
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Sep 24, 2016 06:59
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Back to Earth had one bit I laughed at and one I chuckled at. Rimmer pushing the other hologram into traffic got a good laugh out of me; Kryten narrating in the store was worth a chuckle. After such a long wait and then THAT was what we got, I figured it was best left a dead show. But then came Red Dwarf X. S10 had some good episodes. I enjoyed Trojan, Fathers and Suns, and especially Lemons. Nothing will ever beat Season 5, though.
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Sep 24, 2016 18:36
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Jerusalem posted:Yeah the second episode was way better I thought, the reveal of the crew's final positions was great but the best section was the Cat teaching history to a horrified Lister. I'll agree with you. It's confounding that this wasn't the first episode of the series. Someone else said it felt like it ended abruptly, and I'd agree there also. Between these last two episodes, I'd guess that the scripts were much longer and had to be cut down a lot or reworked before filming. Episode one didn't even really have a first act.
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Sep 24, 2016 21:10
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Isn't red dwarf that show with the puppets? That's still on?
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Sep 24, 2016 21:15
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Sep 25, 2016 02:03
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Lister posted:I'll agree with you. It's confounding that this wasn't the first episode of the series. Someone else said it felt like it ended abruptly, and I'd agree there also. Between these last two episodes, I'd guess that the scripts were much longer and had to be cut down a lot or reworked before filming. Episode one didn't even really have a first act. It felt like episode 2 ended where most other episodes would have started act 3. "It turns out that weird things have been happening because there's a ____ so let's just leave" as opposed to "It turns out that weird things have been happening because there's a ____ but we need to ____ so poo poo's gonna get REALLY crazy!"
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Sep 25, 2016 03:50
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Back to Earth had that great joke where they kept zooming into the photo to reveal all these details. That was hilarious. The rest was garbage sadly. New episode was good, I was laughing regularly, which is all I want!
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Sep 25, 2016 05:18
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Alan_Shore posted:Back to Earth had that great joke where they kept zooming into the photo to reveal all these details. That was hilarious. The rest was garbage sadly. Not seeing the show appear anywhere state side. Any tips? Saw the episode on red dwarfs YouTube page but the quality was awful.
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Sep 26, 2016 04:55
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Jerusalem posted:the best section was the Cat teaching history to a horrified Lister.
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Sep 27, 2016 10:44
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You can't trust Rimmer's sense of history, given his background as a 7th Day Advent-Hoppist.
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Sep 27, 2016 12:15
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I'm still sad the NORWEB Federation will never come to fruition.
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Sep 27, 2016 18:24
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Just saw the second episode, it was a bit better than the first, though I wish they re-worked the ending, they established how the ship worked and didn't bring in a proper conclusion. At least with an episode like Cassandra they blew her up and put an end to it. Did anyone notice they used some music from Series VI I think?
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Sep 30, 2016 00:15
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The third episode was fantastic - I'm not sure if it was as good as Fathers and Suns yet but its definitely up there. Some really funny gags and a clever plot as well.
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Sep 30, 2016 19:35
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MrFlibble posted:The third episode was fantastic - I'm not sure if it was as good as Fathers and Suns yet but its definitely up there. Some really funny gags and a clever plot as well. My only question for the episode is this. So they took out his kidneys. Which is why he was having such a rough time when Rimmer went and woke him up near the start of the episode. That's fine. But if that's the case then what did the crazy medibot actually take out of Lister? He didn't have any kidneys to remove in the first place! I wish they'd had a line where Kryten says the blown up kidneys must have belonged to someone else and that the entire situation was their own fault. Which would have been totally okay with me!
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Oct 1, 2016 01:15
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I really liked it, the plot was very Red Dwarf and the interactions between cat/lister, rimmer/elevator, and rimmer/snackbot were all solid. As for the query above, I was a little thrown too, and every time I think I have the answer it hits a paradox. But paradoxes are what Red Dwarf does best, so I've decided that's the answer.
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Oct 1, 2016 01:37
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While unlikely, I hope they keep SNACKY.
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Oct 1, 2016 01:55
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Taear posted:My only question for the episode is this. Yeah, I kept waiting for them to have even a throwaway line explaining it. It's kind of weird because that combined with this: Junior Jr. posted:Just saw the second episode, it was a bit better than the first, though I wish they re-worked the ending, they established how the ship worked and didn't bring in a proper conclusion. At least with an episode like Cassandra they blew her up and put an end to it. It keeps feeling like each episode is missing a scene or something (but I'm still enjoying them).
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Oct 1, 2016 03:49
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Just finished episode 2. Okay, now it feels like Red Dwarf. Cat teaching Rimmer history just felt like taking a deep breath of your hometown's air after having moved away for awhile, and thinking, "Mmm. Home. Smells a bit. Did it always smell a bit? Eh, screw it, I'm home."
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Oct 1, 2016 03:53
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CaptainCaveman posted:Yeah, I kept waiting for them to have even a throwaway line explaining it. It's kind of weird because that combined with this: There was no need to do anything with the Karma drive in that episode though, it was fine. They can just leave it. The Galaxy is empty other than G.E.L.Fs anyway.
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Oct 1, 2016 12:18
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Taear posted:There was no need to do anything with the Karma drive in that episode though, it was fine. They can just leave it. The Galaxy is empty other than G.E.L.Fs anyway. That is one thing that actually does bug me, the universe feels too "alive" now. Not only are they frequently running into other living beings, they treat it as a matter of course - "Oh it's a G.E.L.F" - even when they thought they were going to find a couple of living humans in episode 2 they didn't seem all that excited about the prospect. I always really loved the idea of the Red Dwarf sailing through space with no real idea where they were and Lister having no other real living being around beyond the Cat - now they don't even blink when they time travel (usually directly to Earth!) and spend a ton of time around other people. There was a kinda muted version of that in episode 2 where Lister and Rimmer are complaining about their luck, with Rimmer insisting that Lister is blessed with good luck (every other human in the universe is dead but him!) while Lister reminds him that this isn't exactly a thrilling situation to be in, especially since his only "human" company is.... Rimmer! There's a moment in I think Backwards where Lister and the Cat go looking for Rimmer and Kryten through "a big blue whirly thing in space" and end up on what they think is Earth but turns out to be a backwards version of our reality. But before they figure it out, there's this quiet moment where Lister murmurs in disbelief to himself,"....I'm home...." and it had real impact. I feel that's kinda been lost over the last few seasons, though nowhere near as bad as that season where the entire Red Dwarf crew gets resurrected.
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Oct 1, 2016 23:50
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I couldn't agree more. It's why Series 1 and 2 are my favorites. Space bum all alone and depressed was far more appealing to me than Wacky Star Trek. But I'll take what I can get.
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Oct 2, 2016 04:35
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