2017-04-05 04:58:53

Hi guys,
I know this show's not widely talked about now a days among American youths anyway, but does anyone around here like Red Dwarf?
I do for a number of reasons: firstly, though it is science fiction, it is in a way that is not overwhelmingly boring; even the high ranking officials are portrayed as smeg heads, if you will, at times. Not to mention, despite the countless times I've watched it, the jokes in most of the episodes are still not old to me.
Currently, I've only been able to obtain access of seasons 1 through 8, because those were posted on Youtube. Season 9 I heard was not interesting, and 10 and 11 are on ITunes, and unless there is another source I can either get or buy them from I will end up buying the seasons from there.
While we're on this topic, have any of you also read the Red Dwarf books? If so, what did you think? I myself have never gotten around to checking them out, on account of them not being on Bard and my not having an Audible account.

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2017-04-05 05:36:08

Way back when, I listened to the decktalk transcribing of red dwarf. It was...interesting.

Haven't read the books. They're probably not as interesting as the show, though that's up for debate. Personally I don't really think shows can be turned into books without losing something and vice versa, but haven't read the books so maybe i'm wrong.

2017-04-05 12:57:45

I like that series soo much that I cannot wait when the caaracters make a worp from earth to my country in 2015, imagine that?

73 Wj3u

2017-04-05 13:10:43

Oh yesz Red Dwarf. I first listened to the Dectalk transcripts, and then watched the actual series, at least up to Season 10.  It and Star Trek were the first 2 SCI-Fi series that I really got into and what made me love the genre so much.

My favourite seasons are probably 2, 3, 4 and 6, at least those are the ones where I can remember the most episodes.


I found Season 8 to be somewhat confusing and not too interesting, it was cool that the writers tried to bring Red Dwarf (as in the Ship, crew and all) back, but I didn't find it too memorable. Well OK apart from the moment when Rimmer punches death in the face in the last episode. Season 9 likewise wasn't that great, and felt really empty because they decided not to add a live audience laugh track.

Possible Season 10 spoilers[/quote wrote:

Season 10 though was really cool and was basically going back to the roots of the series with the usual crew Minus Holly on the Red Dwarf, back with a laugh track doing things that would go wrong in a typical RD fassion, like constructing a new ship AI which decided that everyone was not competent enough to control the ship or incorrectly assembling an Ikea space shower causing them to travel back in time. So I'm really optimistic that Season 11 will be just as good. I need to get around to watching it soon.

<Insert passage from "The Book Of Chrome" here>

2017-04-05 15:04:48 (edited by The Dwarfer 2017-04-05 15:07:01)

I have to agree with your point about season 8. While I did somewhat enjoy it, I suppose the sudden difference in crew and atmosphere threw me off, so I spent the first couple episodes getting used to the new humor.
Yes, Season 6 was really great. That seems to be the general opinion among people I've talked to. I did quite enjoy season 1 though. Future Echoes and The End are two episodes that never get old to me, though the rest of that season is a close second.
Also, from what I've heard not having listened to it myself, the original series is far better than the Deck Talk version. If you listened to it and enjoyed it, I recommend giving the actual show a try.
As for Star Trek compared to Red Dwarf, I only watched some of the episodes from the original series. While they too tend to go on wild adventures, admittedly more so by a long shot than Red Dwarf, to me the characters in that series seem a lot more logical and serious than those of Red Dwarf -- even Holly, a computer with an IQ of 6000, makes himself out to be a downright git many times.

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2017-04-05 17:25:31

Well of course here in Britain Red dwarf is something of a miner cultural icon, the series get rerun a lot,  and lots of people, especially people who grew up in the nineties know the series very well.

I started watching them about the age of eleven and continued. I remember the hiatus between seasons 6 and 7 while craig charles was in jail and having violent disagreements with my friends about whether series 7 was any good or not.

The books also absolutely rock, although I didn't think backwards was a good end to the series, indeed you can check out my reviews of both infinity favours careful drivers and better than life over on fantasybookreview.co.uk.

I also got Mrs. Dark to read the books (the official recordings read by Chris barry), and she's now definitely a fan, though she did describe the humour in the series as "british humour" which might explain why it's less popular in the states I don't know, ---- obviously I grew up with them so to me they're just funny.

For those who say "the books can't be as good as the serie" my advice would be try them.
The books tell the story from the beginning, rather  like the h2g2 books do, and do a dam good job, indeed in last human (one of the two alternative third books), they even provide a good ending to things.

So I'd definitely recommend both the series and the books to anyone enjoys scifi humour, indeed if your an h2g2 fan odds are you'd enjoy red dwarf too.

As to comparing them to startrek, --- well to me they really have nothing to do with each other. I did remember hearing that Patric Stewart is apparently a fan, and that the episode in season 6 (also covered in the book backwards), gunmen of the appocalypse was enspired by the tng episode fist full of datas, but other than that not a lot really, since at the end of the day red dwarf is intended as a comedy and startrek really isnt'.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2017-04-05 17:38:05

@Dark yeah, I think one of the things I really like about the show is the British humor, since in a lot of ways I find it different from that which I am normally exposed to. I'm not experienced enough in both to compare and contrast differences, but there are differences I have noticed nonetheless.
In terms of Season 7 being good or not, I cannot comment on that too much as it and season 8 are the seasons I've ended up watching the least. Episode 3 was one of the more memorable episodes from that season for me, although funny enough that stems from the fact that there is a little kitten in it, and I have gone back to that part enough times that I know it shows up just a little over 8 minutes into the episode. big_smile
Aside from that though I do feel bad for Lister throughout the season, because while he gets a living version of Kochansky, the Lister she is in love with is an alternative version of him.

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2017-04-05 19:26:50

Again Steve I can't speak on the "british humour" but since my wife is American and has spent time in Germany that is something she's likely better able to comment on, she's also a fan of douglas adams and terry pratchett as well big_smile.

As to seasons, I personally thought the better moments were seasons 2-6, though season 1 certainly has it's moments (especailly the rimmer and lister banter).

I actually quite liked various things in 7, the epideme virus and Kochanski's problems with the pipe work for one thing, though last I saw it I didn't feel it was as good as the classic stuff.

Season 8 i'm afraid I liked rather less, and while I probably would've watched 9 I missed it, and given that I had not been as keen on 8 it wasn't exactly a priority.

A friend of mine though did say season 10 was getting things back together so I probably ought to chase up the later stuff at some point.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2017-04-05 19:49:47

Yeah, Season 7 wasn't too memorable for me either, though it definitely had its moments like the Pipe thing Dark described or when Kriten crashed a holographic tea  party with a World War 2 tank to announce dinner was ready.

In regards to British Humor, I find I seem to enjoy British Commedies a lot more than US sitcoms. Apart from Red Dwarf I also watched Fawlty Towers which, even though is now a rather old series got quite a few laughs out of me while on the US side apart from animated stuff like Simpsons or Family Guy I didn't find American Sitcoms like Friends, I love Lucy, family matters or how I met your mother particularly interesting.

On the topic of the US and Red Dwarf, they tried to Americanise the series, which only got as far as This Pilot episode  which is probably worth watching if you're a fan of the series. It also features Robert Llewellyn reprising his role as Kriten.

<Insert passage from "The Book Of Chrome" here>

2017-04-05 20:20:15

Now this, is a show that I can watch for hours on end.
Every tuesday, dad and I will spend hours watching it, hardly getting anything done because we are laughing so much, so hard.
I have seasons 1 through 10 and we're on season4.
Just riting this is making me laugh.
The episode that I like the most so far is the DNA one.
especially the part when Criton becomes human, and he's overcome with, well, certain feelings.
I quote David Lister.
No piece of electronics should ever give a man a double Polaroid!
Haha rofl!

I no longer use skype like I used to, so feel free to follow me on twitter at rockmasterrob for updates, to chat and all that good stuff. I follow any and everybody back who follows me.

2017-04-05 20:24:08

@Rob, you should read last human, that scene is done in slightly more detail and is rather hilarious!

@Pitermach, I am quite a fan of Simpsons and futurama, and I've enjoyed bits of Frazier, though in general most of the comedies I like are the English ones. Faulty towers is something I grew up with, though for me next to red dwarf the other comedy I love most (and which I introduced Mrs. Dark to), is Black adder, indeed for while the bbc each friday used to show first red dwarf, then blackadder, which was cool! big_smile.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2017-04-05 20:41:16

Oh yes, the WWII tank was quite funny, though I didn't realize that is what happened; I don't have those episodes in audio description and I have not read a lot of the transcripts just yet.
One part my friend and I got major laughs out of was the scene at the beginning of Inquisitor where Kriten saw Lister reading the comic and quoted part of it.
"Zap kerpow splat, Die in bed you Trojan Pigdog gnyarrg Kerpow".
I found this bit funny namely because of Kriten's puzzled, logical tone when reading it.
@Rob oh dear, the Kriten becoming human scene. That was very well done. It was quite hilarious to see the writers' take on what would happen if a mechanical, programmed to think like a machine, suddenly became human.
I don't know though. Lister turning first into a chicken and then a hamster set me off as well.
@Dark in a different thread, you brought up Toaster's conversations with Holly, how they were similar to someone's conversation about politics or religion, when the other party would rather not talk about it. Ask me any question! Would you like any toast? I have an IQ of 12000, I know everything about the universe! Ask me anything! Would you like any toast?
And... so forth.

On another note, it is also quite puzzling to me why a food vending machine is capable of dispensing rubber boots and a bucket. Okay, the bucket I can kind of get, because you can serve food in a bucket, but boots?
I'm referring to the scene at the beginning of Future Echos where Lister approaches the malfunctioning vending machine with a lisp and asks for breakfast.

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2017-04-05 21:43:08

Well maybe it was that the vending machines also despensed cleaning supplies, or maybe it was just that they were supposed to be maintained by Rimmer.

Btw, I remember for the launch of series 7 the bbc did a full evening of red dwarf, which featured the characters on a special of ready steady cook cooking chicken Vindaloo, (complete with the wisk in Cryton's groinal socket), a university challenge on trivia between red dwarf fans and the cast, and an a to z of red dwarf.
In the a to z, e was for exterminate, and resulted in This little skit which tells you exactly what the Daleks think of red dwarf big_smile.

Btw, whatever else I think of season 7, I have to say the rimmer song is hilarious! have a listen here if you want a laugh.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2017-04-05 22:40:11

this topic just brought back memories... gonna marathon the series in a couple days

"You know nothing of death... allow me to teach you!" Dreadlich Tamsin
Download the latest version of my Bokura no Daibouken 3 guide here.

2017-04-05 22:42:54

@post 13 You are not behaving like a true dalek. You should be exterminated. @post 12 I already told you to die in bed you trojan pigdog. If you need assistance with that request, please notify us greeks so we can dispatch you a gift. Right then, my favorites of red dwarf, season 6 and the layter bits of season 7. Season 8 has its moments. I like all of the seasons, with the acception of season 9. I have yet to watch the full season 11 since I only baught one episode. Season 1 I like but the arguments between lister and rimmer in that season do eventually get on my nerves, if anything at most I like the first episode and the sixth episode, and some ocasional bits from episodes 3 and 4. I saw the special talked about in the last post before mine. For anyone else that has seen it, when asked what you've got to either cook or work with, can't remember which fully, the answer is not kerelyn karmin's ear. Nore should you ask your host about his life in school when he has the initials A H, for anyone that doesn't understand the joke behind that don't ask. As in regards to red dwarf and star trek, I believe this quote should work fine. Don't give me this star trek crap, its too early in the morning.

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2017-04-05 23:23:01

Lets go out there and twat it!¬

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2017-04-06 00:40:44

At dark,
last human. I'll check it out. Where can I go for the books and all that good stuff?
I've never read the books. the first thing that got me into the series was the deck talk stuff. Should be interesting to read the books/literature though.
as for the vending machine with a lisp, well, I always sort of thought of the vending machines opperating on a sort of tube system, that had malfunctioned with that particular machine. Then, perhaps something had taken place off screen. I wouldn't put it passed both the scutters and rimmer to put parts and pieces where they shouldn't go haha. then, once they did, whatever they did, there was a certain piece or servo or something that was placed into the wrong part of the machine. And then when the machine's units failed, every servo or whatever controls the tubes, failed as well. So, there's your pare of boots and that bucket. Lol smile

I no longer use skype like I used to, so feel free to follow me on twitter at rockmasterrob for updates, to chat and all that good stuff. I follow any and everybody back who follows me.

2017-04-06 01:47:09

I see your point with the vending machine. That's certainly likely given Rimmer's uh... I'll be nice and say competence.
@15 I'd go die in bed you see, but first I must finish painting the walls from ocean gray to military gray. It is taking me a while because I can't really tell the difference between my new paint and the old, but I swear that's just a problem with my vision - I swear it!

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2017-04-06 02:26:50

I'm afraid I really can't! imagine reading red dwarf with a synth at all, then again I'm not a fan of reading most any literature with a synth anyway.
With regards to the books unabridged audio versions of the first two, namely infinity favours careful drives and better than life are available from most anywhere.
I'd highly recommend these since they are read by Chris Barry himself who does a truly amazing job. The books are written by the series co creators rob grant and doug nailer under the pen name Grant Nailer.

There are two alternative third books, Doug Nailer's Last human and Rob Grant's backwards, both of  them conclude the series in a different way.

of these last human is imho the distinct superior, --- backwards has moments (especially the introduction of Ace rimmer), but imho both the humour and the plot just aren't as good, indeed I get the feeling from the books that Grant was in to the jokes and nailer more into the plot which is why last human is in general less funny than the others for all it gives probably the best actual definite ending Red dwarf could have.

Unfortunatelylast I checked commercial audio versions of the last two books are both abridged. In the case of Last very slightly (though we do unfortunately miss the dna section), in the case of backwards really! really! badly (mi9ssing the  gunmen of the appocalypse ending).

Likewise Last human is red by Craig charlse (who does a pretty awesome job but not imho as good as Chris barry), while backwards is red by Rob Grant himself who is pretty dire.

Other than the commercial audio versions, all four books are available from the Rnib in unabriged copies red by an acotr called David thorp who does a pretty good job, even though he doesn't quite follow the voices of the series, ---- his cat with a deep, fifties dj voice and his rather camp butler sounding Crytan is not exactly the way I imagined either character, but they definitely work.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2017-04-06 08:20:17

@Dark
Just to clarify, the first book you discuss is "infinity welcomes careful drivers". Clarifying to avoid any confusion.

Regards,
Sightless Kombat.
***If you wish to refer to me in @replies, use Sightless***

2017-04-06 14:20:15

Yes.

The first book is infinity welcomes careful drivers, (I want to say favours but it is indeed welcomes), the second is better than life, there are two alternative third volumes, last human and backwards.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2017-04-06 15:52:42

I really need to check those out, Dark.
In rare cases, I can read books with a text to speech engine, though now that I have found Bard, I only do so if I can get a highly interesting book in no other format.
Danny has read the books, though I haven't asked him to share details with me for quite obvious reasons. The only thing I do know is how George MacIntyre died, and why. I have been hesitant to read the books due to the point someone brought up earlier that shows turned literature or vice versa ends up messing up or leaving out something, but given the positive reviews given by those who've read it that might change.

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2017-04-06 23:21:21

@Steve if you check out my review of  welcomes careful drivers over on fantasybookreview.co.uk you'll find I address the hole differences thing too.

The books don't try to just parrot  the series, ti's more like they retell the series as a story with similar events but rewritten from the beginning to work more effectively as a book.
On the one hand this means bits get missed, eg, no confidence and paranoyer and no triplicator, on the other, it means that you get things in a slightly more coherent way, for example the readiation leak doesn't happen about half way through the first book, given you get plenty of time to acquaint yourself with Rimmerna dlister and some of the other people on board the ship, --- indeed in some ways I like the fact that in the books some of the characters are a wee bit more fleshed out despite some of the humour being missing.

The only bad news is Bard doesn't have them, one reason my lady hadn't heard of the books or the series before we got together since I think had she run across them on bard she'd have likely downloaded them.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2017-04-07 01:13:45

@Dark That reminds me, I'd really like to check out that review. I never normally read book reviews but I suppose I could give it a try with this one.
That does sort of disappoint me that there are no Confidence and Paranoia since I found those two quite funny.
On another note, there are some character points I would like to bring up that I've noticed.
Firstly, Rimmer, because he is the one I have the most speculations about. Am I the only one who feels quite bad for him? I mean sure, he portrays himself as a self centered, unpleasant, cowardly uncaring smeghead, but that's only most of the time. Though you'll remember that in "The End", it was his reaction when Cat showed up to get in front of Lister and attack. I don't know if this was him attempting to protect his friend, or if he was just trying to show power, but I believe it was the former. There are other scenes where Rimmer shows genuine care and concern for Lister especially, like in the Confidence and Paranoia episode. If you ask me, it almost seems like Rimmer could have indeed ended up being a caring and all around good person to hang out with, had it not been for the bullying of his childhood and his parents' lack of concern for him (one example of which could be found in a scene where Rimmer is hanging upside down from a tree and all his mother can talk to him about is how he's failing in school, and how that will dampen his chances of making it into the Space Cor.). To sum it up, it is quite apparent to me that Rimmer's inner conflict is that all he's ever wanted is to be truly loved, and to know people care about him.
And then, there is Lister. Him, I like a lot, and can generally get as a person without much thought. If I'm not wrong, he's a sensitive, down to earth, confident, witty individual, but with major I don't know if you'd classify them as social? Issues. I think what makes Lister that way is that he knows the disgusting things he does for what they are, and he knows how nasty others think his habits are, but he does not care. Instead, he accepts himself, and to heck with what others think about him, he's Lister after all, and he's not hurting anyone. While he comes across a lot of times as cocky and uncaring, as I said earlier he is quite sensitive, and he shows this more than Rimmer. One example was him giving up 18 months of wages on the trip just so he could save his cat.

Well alright, I realized how long this post was getting, and that it's probably getting tiresome reading. So I'll stop here for now, I'll save the rest for later if anyone is interested.

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2017-04-07 14:42:45

Well here is a link to my infinity welcomes careful drivers review 
you'll also find a link on that page to my review of the second book better than Life (I really need to do the alternative third entries).

While I won't say the books are better than the tv series, after all the series came first and their are classic bits in the series that just didn't make it into the books, one thing I will say is that in the books the characters get better fleshed out and explained.
Rimmer and Lister particularly, indeed one reason I like last human so much is that it provides a final ending for Rimmer's character which never existed in the tv series, as well as a happy ending for Lister.

Often I think in the series the writing swerved a bit, so sometimes lister was just a sterriotypical  slob, sometimes he was a more decent person and it depended upon what the episode needed, where as in the book the balance between lister being a right git and Lister being actually a decent person is rather better addressed.

this is actually making me want to read last human and provide the review, iand indeed one for backwards as well.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)