So it begins

starn

Chris Barrie is begining to look his age, an back to being a hologram

nyarlothothep

This was both dissapointing and fustrating. It wasn't a bad episode by any means, its just that it pales completely in comparison to anything pre season 7, the reason being that one half of the writing team hasn't returned since season 6, leaving the other less funny half to man the helm.

In addition while I'm not always a fan of laughter tracks, I definetly think this would have benefited the episode. Maybe its due to the fact that a precedent was established with this in the other seasons in conjunction with the fact that laughing is a communal act. I recall this with Fools and Horses, when they went for an episode without a laughter track it just wasn't as funny for some reason. In fact it would have been better if it was filmed in front of a live audience as the jokes would have to be sharper.

Rimmer seemed to be a caricature of his former self, though he improved towards the end.

And did I miss something through all the excitement of thinking omg omg omg this is red dwarf! or did they neglect to explain wtf happened after the events of season 8?

The production and fx were excellent and overall it had a somewhat cinematic quality, however compare this to gunmen of the apocalypse, and imo its not as humourous which is what Red Dwarf is about being a sci fi sitcom.

psicic

Meh. Nothing really happened in this episode. There was nothing stand-out bad about the episode (some of it was a bit strained - but nothing like season eight's howlers) but it felt like the episode had just started when the credits rolled. I'm liking science officer Katerina - her two dimensional character is far better than Kochanski played by Chloe Annett. She does look like a villian-of-the-week type character - but, man, I'm already rooting for her not to turn out to be an alien or get erased as some sort of contrived plot device.

My take on the loss of the laugh-track is that it was a positive move.... a little unusual, but positive. I remember some episodes of seasons seven and eight when the laugh track was having a great time roaring out at some antic onscreen that was particularly ordinary and/or unfunny. Better no laugh track than one used badly. I can imagine the season eight laugh-track roaring out at Rimmer describing Lister's habits to Katerina in this episode.

"How does Lister pass time?" Katerina asks.
Heavy canned chortles at obvious East-European accent.
"Sleeps.... annoys me." Rimmer replies after a little thought.
Peels of laugher filling an entire minute.
"Aside from sleeping... and annoying you?" Katerina presses the issue.
Undue laughter at repeat of earlier joke.
"....Gets ready for bed." Rimmer responds.
Cue the exact same laughter track we've just heard with the volume and intensity turned up to 11 for the next three minutes while the characters remain unspeaking.

At least without the laugh track their conversation flowed a bit more easily and we weren't subjected to hysterical guffaws for a mildly entertaining exchange.

Anyways, I wonder are they going to come up with some continuity between the loss of crew and the Rimmer hard-light issue, or are they leaving it as a series reboot as they have done on numerous occasions in the past(i.e. isn't the official line that several of the series have taken place in alternate realities to each other?)

Overall, I was expecting something a lot worse. I hope the plot goes somewhere, but I amn't facing tomorrow's episodes with the same sense of dread that I had when watching series 7 and 8.

nyarlothothep

Despite whatever they say officially, Red Dwarf has maintained a thread of continuity throughout its run, all major events have been explained. I don't buy the alternate timeline thing, just seems like very lazy writing. Another problem, if Holly is offline, how exactly are Rimmer and the Russian chick still running? (though the Russian chick is probably an alien).

Robert Curley

I have loved Red Dwarf for longer than I care to remember at this stage. Having now seen two of the three specials I don't think I will even bother watching the last instalment. last nights episode was just so bad.
About ten minutes into it I had a horrible premonition that they would end up in Coronation street but I just brushed it off as me being paranoid, I mean really how stupid would that be. And then what happens? well you know what happended. Infact thinking about it now I still can't belive it. Maybe I was just dreaming! The fact is though it was absolute rubbish and as far as I am concerned has nothing to do with Red Dwarf.

johnny_ultimate

I've liked some of the lines

(bigger than God)

but overall it does seem pretty weak considering they've had so long to work on it. When they started going all 'meta' I rolled my eyes - that trick has been done in far too many things before. Red Dwarf has enough rich ideas (well, first six seasons anyway) to keep itself going without having to reduce itself to such a tired idea. Again some of the jokes were lightly amusing - "the tenth season was the best" - but its just a wasted opportunity so far. Unless they really pull it out of the bag for the final episode, this could easily be dismissed as a publicity stunt for Dave.

psicic

My verdict: All very, very bland.

It was always going to be a bit iffy when they decided to go the Coronation Street route. It also all seemed a bit cynical - lots of devices and lines to appeal to the various type of fan out their (I found the Blade Runner references and the self-referential twists less and less charming as they flew past).

I don't know, though, in my opinion it was never downright 'season eight' bad - and what could have been cringe-worthy(

e.g. 'car-bug'

) merely turned out to be the very definition of 'so what?'. Some interesting things were hinted at (

Dave Lister became an alcoholic sometime in the past nine years and, being the compass that steered the others in the past, that's why things have fallen apart a bit on Red Dwarf

), but it was never really developed properly or fleshed out.

For my money, I'd still like to see the movie that was rumoured a few years ago to come about (the one with machine-flesh hybrids (not simulants, apparently)) chasing down and exterminating all remnants of humanity. That set-up sounds perfect for a classic combination of crew bickering, ineptitude and dumb luck in the face of an overwhelming powerful external force.

I presume this 'mini-series' - which was essentially an over-hyped ad for the Dave channel - was also an attempt by Grant (he's the original writer still involved, I think) to rekindle interest in the franchise after the BBC turned him away. I hope to god, though, that if Red Dwarf ever makes an appearance again, the 'money-men' (whoever they are) force a producer or script writer on to the project that can structure a story better (beginning-middle-end), they get some writers that can at least emulate - if not recreate - the writing/comedic style of any of the first six series and that the in-jokes are dialled down a notch.

Plus more of sexy Katerina.

I'm just saying.... :pac:

smoke.me.a.kipper

i enjoyed the episodes. i certainly dont think it was dwarf at its best, but it kept me entertained for an hour and a half! i would also have liked to see the alcholic lister.

the only part i didnt like, was the coronation street part.

Myrddin

Trust the boards pessimests to dampen everything. Would you all have prefered for Back To Earth no to have been made at all. I must be the only one here who though it was fantastic to see all the crew again on tv, new material, new stories. Brought me right back to times of old when the previous seasons were premiering.

I thought the storyline, humour, effects etc were all fantastic. I like the way they skipped a season (9), leaving the remote possibility of a prequel season to BTE, and maybe a conclusive ending just after BTE.

Get a grip guys, its new Dwarf. You might think meh and all that pessimistic bs but new dwarf it good dwarf, no matter what the hell its about. Its becuse of smarmy idiots like some of you that we dont still have tv trek these days but thats another issue.

If your a true fan you should be supporting of the product, I dont think some of you will be happy until we hear "Because the response was poor - we have decided not to pursue future Red Dwarf content". We should count our blessings that BTE ever got off the ground for god sake - lets stop the pissing & moaning about it.

From a true Red Dwarf Fan to anyone who hasnt seen BTE yet - its Red Dwarf man, enjoy! As this may very well be the last time we see the smeggers again

Diddy Kong

It was good to see them back on the screen but I expected so much more!! The story was just just a mix of the dispare squid and the Better than Life book. They could have at least created a new story for it.

It had some funny moments, but in general was a let down.

Scarinae

I enjoyed it. Ok, so it wasn't as good as some of the old episodes, I'll give you that. But was anyone really expecting it to be? Also, a few of the old episodes actually aren't that great when you watch them again - but from reading some of the responses on this board you'd think that every episode in series 1-6 was a comic masterpiece

alastair_doom

EnterNow wrote: »

Trust the boards pessimests to dampen everything.
Get a grip guys, its new Dwarf. You might think meh and all that pessimistic bs but new dwarf it good dwarf, no matter what the hell its about.

It was a rubbish episode. Wasn't smart, wasn't funny wasn't interesting.We're not being pessimistic, we're being honest. It was a very poor attempt at a script and a story. If they wrote a good script, people wouldn't be bad mouthing it.

EnterNow wrote: »

If your a true fan you should be supporting of the product, I dont think some of you will be happy until we hear "Because the response was poor - we have decided not to pursue future Red Dwarf content". We should count our blessings that BTE ever got off the ground for god sake - lets stop the pissing & moaning about it.

Total rubbish. I like red dwarf as a whole, i didnt like this episode. I dont see any point in pretending this was a good episode. And I dont see any point in being on a discussion forum where everyone lies and pretends things are good when they aren't.

I assume everyone here doesn't want to see red dwarf cancelled totally. But everyone here wants to see good episodes, not to be fobbed off with this half assed fan w@nk.

This wasnt an episode of red dwarf, this was a series of skits that the writer thought fans would get a kick out of.