Another Red Dwarf discussion (possible spilers for Back To Earth)

[O'Dib]

When something's filmed for a laugh track, taking it out would mean weird silences after every joke. This kind of felt like that. I prefer shows that are filmed without it myself, but Red Dwarf just was that kind of show. Not that I laugh at most of the crap the "studio crowd" does. This had a few laughs, nevertheless, but overall felt too serious in tone. Still, decidedly faithful to the whole outlandish sci-fi heritage of the originals. Can't wait for more.

 

[ColeMercury]

In terms of quality, Series VII > Back to Earth Director's Cut (one-hour DVD movie) > Series VIII > Back to Earth broadcast version (three-parter). I like how Series VII moved away from the sitcom genre, and I didn't like how Series VIII went running back to it. And I much prefer the BtE Director's Cut: it flows much better and gets rid of a lot of the humour which falls flat in the three-parter version.

So 2 nights ago I watched Only The Good (the official one I believe, as opposed to either of the alternate endings).

This is where Lister, the Cat, Kryten & Kochanski escaped into the mirror universe before Rimmer came back through and got trapped in the decaying Dwarf, kneed Death and ran off (to where, I have no idea).

Now, this ending could jive with BTE, since in those 3 eps, we had hard-light Rimmer back (with no explanation of course), but, we would now be in an alternate reality to the one we had for the original 8 series'

The alternate ending I liked, where after about 50 trips back & forth through the mirror, Rimmer finally remembers the "formula" to stop the virus, they save the "prime" Dwarf and let the crew float off in the escape pods as Rimmer salutes Captain Hollister as only he can.

This ending would of course cause problems by having a very alive "live" Rimmer at this point, but they'd be in the same reality they always were.

The 2nd alternate ending was something like the vending machine still firing a can at Rimmer's head, but I don't remember this one as clearly as alternate ending #1. Maybe someone can expound on this ending a little better.

Whichever ending you prefer, who says that Rimmer died then? There's a nine-year gap between "Only the Good" and "Back to Earth" -- he could've died at any time between those episodes.

To expound: there were three alternate endings. Alternate ending #1 was as you describe it -- except the vending machine also fires the can at Rimmer's head in payback right at the end. Alternate ending #2 (never filmed, but they edited together a mock-up of it for the Series VIII making-of documentary) was a downer ending which was like the broadcast one except Rimmer outright died at the end. Alternate ending #3 (also never filmed) had Ace Rimmer show up at the last second in a cliffhanger ending.

Personally, I think alternate ending #1 is the best one. I also think "Only the Good" should've been a two-parter, with "Pete" being just a single episode. They could've split it at the point where the crew evacuates and leaves the prisoners behind.

Also no explanation as to why original Kochanski wasn't resurrected by the nano-bots, unless they recognized the alternate one already.

It would've been funny to see Claire Grogan once alongside Chloë.

In "Back in the Red Part 3" it's explained that Holly was the one who got the nanobots to resurrect the crew -- presumably he told them not to make a second Kochanski (or a second Lister).

 

[Mr Light]

I guess I'm in the minority but I loved Series 8. I thought it was hilarious.

Season 7 and Back to Earth; painfully unfunny.

 

[Christopher]

I thought Back to Earth was about on a par with the rest of Naylor's solo work -- occasionally amusing, occasionally a bit touching, but nowhere near the level of Grant/Naylor at their prime. There were some good emotional moments with Lister; I hadn't realized (or had forgotten) that Craig Charles could be such an effective dramatic actor. I liked the Blade Runner jokes to an extent -- in particular the extended "zoom and enhance" sendup cracked me up -- but they drew them out a bit too much.

The lack of any explanation for how the got from the Series VIII cliffhanger to here was annoying. When did they find the real Red Dwarf again? When did Rimmer end up a hologram again (or, conversely, when did the original holo-Rimmer return from Ace-dom)? I know this show has never been that concerned with continuity, but in the past they've at least paid lip service to it. Couldn't we at least have gotten a ten-second Star Wars crawl that we had to freeze-frame to read?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^It was part of the Series IX joke. That stuff was explained in the series we will never see.

 

[ColeMercury]

I thought Back to Earth was about on a par with the rest of Naylor's solo work -- occasionally amusing, occasionally a bit touching, but nowhere near the level of Grant/Naylor at their prime.

You know, comparing the books "Last Human" and "Backwards", I have to say that neither Naylor nor Grant are as funny or as brilliant solo as they are when they write together. Naylor tends to get hung up on the science fiction and neglect the comedy (some passages of "Last Human" are nothing but drama with no comedy), while Grant neglects the science fiction and goes for more cheap laughs (there's a lot of gross-out humour in "Backwards").

 

[Christopher]

You know, comparing the books "Last Human" and "Backwards", I have to say that neither Naylor nor Grant are as funny or as brilliant solo as they are when they write together. Naylor tends to get hung up on the science fiction and neglect the comedy (some passages of "Last Human" are nothing but drama with no comedy), while Grant neglects the science fiction and goes for more cheap laughs (there's a lot of gross-out humour in "Backwards").

That surprises me, since once Grant left the show, it seemed to lose a lot of its science-fictional imagination and revert to being more just a sitcom that happened to be in space.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

When something's filmed for a laugh track, taking it out would mean weird silences after every joke. This kind of felt like that. I prefer shows that are filmed without it myself, but Red Dwarf just was that kind of show. Not that I laugh at most of the crap the "studio crowd" does. This had a few laughs, nevertheless, but overall felt too serious in tone. Still, decidedly faithful to the whole outlandish sci-fi heritage of the originals. Can't wait for more.

RD's laughing was a studio audience, wasn't it? Not a machine-generated laugh track like you get with most sitcoms?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

When something's filmed for a laugh track, taking it out would mean weird silences after every joke. This kind of felt like that. I prefer shows that are filmed without it myself, but Red Dwarf just was that kind of show. Not that I laugh at most of the crap the "studio crowd" does. This had a few laughs, nevertheless, but overall felt too serious in tone. Still, decidedly faithful to the whole outlandish sci-fi heritage of the originals. Can't wait for more.

RD's laughing was a studio audience, wasn't it? Not a machine-generated laugh track like you get with most sitcoms?

Yep, for the most part Red Dwarf was filmed with a studio audience. With the exception of series 7 and any location shooting, but even those were shown to an audience, their laughter recorded and then played over the show.