Red Dwarf

[SqueakyG]

Quite weak, I thought. Didn't really laugh. A lot of the banter had predictable lines where jokes are supposed to be.

Rimmer's health & safety obsession seemed to cross into the Brittas character too much (there were a few times in the 90s when Barrie told Grant & Naylor that he wanted script changes because Rimmer moments were a bit too close to Brittas moments -- I think this would have qualified).

Did the BEGGs have to look so much like the Kinitawowi? Badly-fitting masks which muffled the actors' voices too? So many repeated ideas: the synchronicity was a lot like the luck virus, everything being opposite was a bit like the mirror universe, all the talk of being glad to lose Rimmer too much like the dialogue in Holoship.

Irene... bad. The joke about taking a lot of time to see her naked -- first of all, creepy without being funny, also bizarre that she's just standing there and we don't get a shot of her reacting to this dialogue. The upside down glasses... that's quite broad visual humour. And though tripping into the airlock provides the payoff for the health&safety gag, it's a bit heartless to see a live flesh-and-blood woman get spaced and "Ho ho ho, roll credits." It technically made Lister not the last human in the universe (or second-to-last with Kochanski still somewhere...), it's actually a big deal if you think about it.

Nope, didn't feel this one at all.

[Mr Ben]

Didn't like that Rimmer could walk through a wall as if he had no light bee. Of course its not stopped them doing that sort of thing before, but I don't think he's walked through a wall like that has he?

Episode was pretty good otherwise.

[pulsemyne]

He's been through tables (stasis leak). Lister has walked through him on times. It's not the most consistent piece of red dwarf science.

[SqueakyG]

In series 1 and 2 he could walk through walls because he didn't have a light bee -- every room of the ship projected his hologram. From series 3 onwards he had a light bee instead (I think it's one of the technologies they discovered in the science labs), which meant he could leave the ship as long as he was in transmission range of Red Dwarf.

So he can't walk through walls because his light bee can't go through walls. "But hey it's comedy!" says Doug Naylor.

[Chosty]

This was the first episode of the new series I've seen, and thought it was pretty bad, really. As others had said, it was recycling several old episodes, in itself not a bad thing, but you need to ensure you have some positives to compensate. And I just couldn't see it. For me, the biggest thing that's changed for the worse is the acting - it all seems too intense, too rushed, too much caricaturing.

I watched Quarantine and it was such a difference. Series 5 was the last good series for me. I know by then it was already well into the focus on plot-driven episodes as opposed to character-driven relationships, but the episodes still had a good balance of the two, and there was a more sedate pace where everyone and everything had more room to breathe, for want of a better word.

Chris Barrie was great in that episode, both when he was his usual smug self and also when he'd gone potty. It's really atmospheric and creepy.

[Sponge]

Yep, putting old Dwarf on immediately afterwards only serves to highlight how "just ok" these new episodes are.

[El Pibe]

It does indeed. I also think people's expectations are surprisingly high. I never expected it to reach the heights of the very best episodes and so there's the question of whether, in that case, it shouldn't have been brought back.

Personally, I am glad they did as even just decent Red Dwarf is better than no Red Dwarf.

I was surprised when listening to the Empire podcast the other day to hear them say that Red Dwarf only got going during series 3! Kids these days!

[Sprite Machine]

I'm glad I'm not the only one irrationally irritated by the light bee passing through a solid object mistake!

Aside from that, it was ok. Fairly mediocre Red Dwarf episode. Rimmer still gets the best lines.

"Ah but is it the system not the man?" etcetera.

[Nicky]

I was surprised when listening to the Empire podcast the other day to hear them say that Red Dwarf only got going during series 3! Kids these days!

RD was only really good before S3.

[Chadruharazzeb]

Rimmer has been hard light in every other episode this series. What happened?

[Fry Crayola]

Nothing - he voluntarily switched at Kryten's suggestion just to go through the door.

[pulsemyne]

In series 1 and 2 he could walk through walls because he didn't have a light bee -- every room of the ship projected his hologram. From series 3 onwards he had a light bee instead (I think it's one of the technologies they discovered in the science labs), which meant he could leave the ship as long as he was in transmission range of Red Dwarf.

So he can't walk through walls because his light bee can't go through walls. "But hey it's comedy!" says Doug Naylor.

Its never mentioned in any episode. The first time it turns up is in meltdown. In the books it's mentioned as being the size of a pin head. Basically it's all over the shop. In the end though who really cares.

[McCoy]

Its never mentioned in any episode. The first time it turns up is in meltdown. In the books it's mentioned as being the size of a pin head. Basically it's all over the shop. In the end though who really cares.

It's a fairly chunky device in the series though:

[Red Alignment]

Overlooking the existence of the light bee is pretty inexcusable seeing as we saw Rimmer's light bee only a few episodes ago.

I agree that the poor quality of the acting, and certainly the shooting/direction, harms the series. Compare with the earlier series in the repeats, generally much more subdued performances on show there, and it's all just shot more proficiently - no over-lit sets, better use of camera angles. RDX just looks and feels too much like a tacky US sitcom, particularly with that deafening laugh track.

[Nick R]

I'm glad I'm not the only one irrationally irritated by the light bee passing through a solid object mistake!

Script editor Andrew Ellard points out that the dialogue mentions him switching to "projection mode" in order to walk through the door (which I'd missed). So it's still sci-fi tech that doesn't make much sense if you question it at all - but at least the inclusion of that one phrase means it's less inconsistent nonsense sci-fi tech!

[layten]

What the... Have I accidentally wandered into a Star Trek thread? It's Red Dwarf, deal with it and move on, a consistent science base is not something the series has ever cared about.

[Captain Novaforce]

It has a creature that evolved from a pregnant cat into a flashy dressing man in 30 million years. The show clearly doesn't care about science!

Good fun but didn't like Irene being human though, listers loneliness is one of the best things in it.

[Lorfarius]

Just what is going on with that canned laughter? Bloody awful. They laugh at nothing and in the most over the top way, ruins any comedy.

[Nick R]

Just what is going on with that canned laughter? Bloody awful. They laugh at nothing and in the most over the top way, ruins any comedy.

"Canned"?

Fair enough that you think they're laughing at nothing (the excitement of being at an episode recording with lots of other fans will do that; I doubt they all laughed out loud at the same bits when they later saw it on TV). Fair enough that you might think the laughter is mixed too loud (although IMO panel shows are the worst culprit in that respect). There are even some bits where laughter was edited from one shot to another.

But none of it is canned.

[pulsemyne]

Red Dwarf is filmed in front of a studio audience.(say that with Norms voice from cheers).

[PK]

Yeah it's not canned...ish.

It's filmed infront of an audience but I swear what you see on TV is not what happened on the night, it can't be. It's like they're playing laughter from joke 'A' after joke 'D', if that makes sense. They have to be, unless the audience were sitting there going HAHAHAHAHA at the top of their lungs literally everything the cast did or said.

Still, I quite liked episode 3!

[Ketchup]

I think they must be messing with the laugher. Before you could see the actors react to it, longer pauses, shouting over the top of it etc. this doesn't have that really an is more like series 7 where there was no audience to bounce off of.

[Nicky]

but he's only been the last human until kochanski turned up on the scene, and irene was an ape for god knows how long in stasis. the "last human" point is a null one.

[merman]

Well, Entangled was the best episode of the series so far for me, great lines and a better plot. Even if we have seen elements of the plot before.

[Dandy_Sephy]

I think they must be messing with the laugher.

I doubt there is a comedy series that has ever run where there isn't some form of being creative with the laugh track mix in some form. There was a Friends doc when that show was still running where they told you all about how they fiddled with the laugh track and Naylor himself has mentioned having to edit the laugh track before (Polymorph) although that situation wasn't quite the same. It's pretty much a due process to do some editing on the track for technical reasons as well as trying to improve it.

Laugh tracks in general are a strange thing. Some people go on huge rants about canned laughter for shows shot in front of live studio audiences and people who never attended the live performance try to pass judgement on what 100 people in the audience actually thought when having the cast 15feet in front of them.

There are a few places in the pre s7 episodes where the laughter betrays the actual quality of the joke, on the other hand there are plenty of jokes that maybe didn't get the reaction they should have.

I don't doubt they may have bumped the mix up slightly but that can be a technical thing as much as a editing thing. Really the whole thing comes across as looking for issues rather than taking it as it is, a criticism I could level at a lot of comments in this thread.

[Lorfarius]

Its hard to not think of it as canned, to be honest I was convinced it was because of the moment where Cat slides out of the corridor for his first appearance holding the book. There's a guy that's practically snorting and howling with laughter at it, really ruins any possible moment of comedy cos I started thinking "its not THAT funny". Laughter needs editing properly as it can compliment humour really well but none of the eps so far are doing it right at all.

[Fury4k]

,

[Gigga]

I'm baffled by the reaction in this thread, I've just watched the first few episodes and didn't enjoy it much at all.

[Stig]

Well I'm happy that I've enjoyed them and even laughed out several times. My expectations were never high so that helps.

I'm guessing in regards to the laughter that maybe being actually part of the audience is different than just sitting on the sofa. Laughter is contagious.

[MrPogo]

I suppose they won't get it right first take every time (and probably film every scene more than once, just in case, even if it does seem fine), so the audience reaction might sometimes be forced laughter at a fifteenth viewing of the same joke, or premature guffawing at a punchline they know is coming.