rionaleonhart | Not Today.

I mentioned this in the comments of my last entry on this show, but Red Dwarf's visuals have aged surprisingly well, save a handful of ropey special effects. Series seven and eight use CGI for the ships, but the model ships in the earlier episodes are actually more convincing. The set design is great. I'm impressed that I can watch this eighties/nineties sitcom and genuinely believe that the characters are in space.

Some of the humour's aged poorly, as you might expect. (Surprisingly, series eight, the last of the original series, is the one that's most dodgy in retrospect, possibly because the larger number of characters enables situations that weren't really possible earlier.) Most of the show still holds up, though! The characters are still very strong. And it never really struck me as a kid, but half the cast is black, the protagonist included, and nothing is made of it; that'd be considered progressive in British television today, let alone in 1988.

Some details, meanwhile, have aged hilariously. I love that they have VHS tapes, but they're TRIANGULAR, because it's the FUTURE.

Here's a line that's aged extraordinarily:

Rimmer: Maybe you haven't noticed this, but we're going to be spending the next two years in the brig. Two years with the scum of the universe: hardened criminals, deranged droids. People so unbalanced and debauched they couldn't even get elected as President of the United States.

There's got to be fanfiction material in series eight. Lister's been locked up with a version of Rimmer who's not quite the Rimmer he remembers; it must be incredibly strange for him!

The conclusion of 'Only the Good...' is one of the best endings to a television show I've ever seen. (Well, yes, there was technically more Red Dwarf to come, but not for another ten years. 'Only the Good...' was definitely written to be a finale, so I still consider it one.) It's an abrupt conclusion, yes, and it leaves a lot of questions open, and it's a little strange that it focuses solely on Rimmer (and not even the Rimmer who's been around for most of the show), but it's so brazen and so magnificent that it manages to pull it off. I love it.

I have a considerably more genuine emotional investment in Red Dwarf than I feel I should. I really do care about this ragtag bunch of stupid gits.

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Rimmer: Maybe you haven't noticed this, but we're going to be spending the next two years in the brig. Two years with the scum of the universe: hardened criminals, deranged droids. People so unbalanced and debauched they couldn't even get elected as President of the United States.

[chef kiss]

We all crowed at the screen when he said it. Incredible.

There's got to be fanfiction material in series eight. Lister's been locked up with a version of Rimmer who's not quite the Rimmer he remembers; it must be incredibly strange for him!

I contemplated post S8 fic at one point. It involved switching the Rimmers back, and new Rimmer becoming the next Ace Rimmer. I think Doctor Who was involved at one point?

Doctor Who and Red Dwarf do seem like they might combine well! And I bet any Red Dwarf fanfiction you wrote would be a lot of fun.

Series seven and eight use CGI for the ships, but the model ships in the earlier episodes are actually more convincing. The set design is great.

THIS IS IT YES. CGI is stupid and really poor, but models actually look like the thing they're meant to be because they are the thing, and you get the lighting right every time, and they age really well, where CGI ages SO badly. I know they were time consuming, but CGI is also time consuming and expensive and also stupid.

I enjoyed this whole post very much.

Yes! The opening sequence for the first two series still looks incredible, over thirty years later. It conveys the vastness and the isolation so, so well.

This makes me realize that I'm not sure how much (if any) of the last season I've actually seen ... and none of the reboot, but I think with the original show, it was mainly an issue of not being able to get my hands on the final season - this was back in the era when downloading TV episodes was actually pretty difficult - and then just never really getting back into it enough to watch all the way through. I've rewatched parts of the first few seasons a couple of times over the years, but nothing from the late seasons, I think.

I do remember every time I rewatched some episodes I found myself noticing that thing you mentioned, how it has aged very well and very gracefully. Some of the writing is dated now, but it's still funny and often feels more contemporary than you'd expect. The low-budget nature of the show is probably a feature, not a (star?)bug, since cheap model f/x look pretty much the same no matter when they're being made.

I'm fairly sure I'd seen all of series eight before, but I have no idea how, because, yes, those were the days when you had to actually watch things week-by-week on television or they were gone. It first aired when I was ten years old, and I think I caught some of it then, but I doubt I was diligent enough to keep up with the schedule at that age. Maybe I saw it via the endless repeats on Dave. (Er, Dave is a television channel. I don't know if you're aware of that, but it occurred to me that that sentence probably sounds odd if you're not.)

Some of the writing is dated now, but it's still funny and often feels more contemporary than you'd expect.

Yes! I wonder how much of that is due to the fact that, when your show's set in the far future, it's hard to rely on current events or pop culture for your jokes (although they do sneak a few references in there).

The low-budget nature of the show is probably a feature, not a (star?)bug, since cheap model f/x look pretty much the same no matter when they're being made.

This is a great observation that hasn't really occurred to me.

It's a great show, but I've forgotten season 8, I think ...

Eight is a bit of an odd one; all the crew of the Red Dwarf are resurrected, so it feels very different from the lonely, isolated tone of most of the show. It's still got some great moments, though.

Did you know that during lockdown/quarantine (whatever you want to call it), they did some Red Dwarf "commentaries" over Zoom (I think you sync it up with the ep maybe as they reference things going on on screen) you might be interested in. Chris Barrie is on one of them! (He looks so old now! I suppose it was a long time ago.)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpLV4pb515nR186GOfKFOTA

-timydamonkey

I hadn't heard about this! Thank you for the heads-up. When I was fourteen and the first-series DVD came out, I'd play the cast commentaries over and over again, once I'd watched the episodes themselves too many times to justify repeating them.

I meant to say this on the previous Red Dwarf post, but: I do have fond memories of that show. Underappreciated. Surprisingly dark comedy. And I keep seeing shades of it in more recent sci-fi material.

*hums something with the words 'mango juice' in it*

It's a great show! The concept really is dark and fascinating. I'm glad to hear it's got a visible legacy.

Have you ever seen any of the remastered scenes? Because of reasons they decided to remaster the first few series, which means they did a bunch of CGI, including but not limited to random Skutters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLxs6GX79IQ

The practical models were great for its time, and are still fine for a TV show!

Another thing I remember from the cast commentary about skin colour is that they discuss how incredibly difficult it was to light a scene, because obviously Danny John-Jules has darker skin than Craig Charles, and meanwhile you've got Robert as Kryten whose head is already pale and then his body is metallic and shiny. It was the first time I'd heard anyone discuss the difficulties in lighting when it comes to filming a bunch of people with different skin colours.

WHAT, THAT'S RIDICULOUS. I'm very glad the remastered version isn't the one on the DVDs and Netflix!

I remember hearing about the Red Dwarf lighting issues! It's an interesting topic; it hadn't really occurred to me before that you have to take differing skintones into account if you want to light a scene in a way that makes everyone look good.

Yeah, I think one of the earlier DVDs had some more scenes so you could compare, but it was very WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT???

Admittedly I don't listen to a lot of DVD commentaries but it's definitely something that doesn't get talked about a lot - but then plenty of technical details don't. I think it only came up once in the Red Dwarf commentaries, and even then it was a casual 'oh yeah, that was tricky, wasn't it?' and back to taking the piss.

Not Today.

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