Comments on: Rouge awakening

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:09:41 +0000

Spot on, Mark. I think that Doug Naylor did the “sci-fi” stuff and then Rob Grant added the laughs. Red Dwarf has been disappointing since Grant left, at the end of series 6.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:16:54 +0000

Would it be fair to assume that Rob Grant was the jokes guy? I remember watching series 7 and wondering if Doug Naylor was incapable of writing comedy without his former partner. I don’t think I made it to the end of series 8, it was just awful. Doesn’t sound like I missed much with the new show.

By: ljones

ljones — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:59:44 +0000

Overall, I’d say the show was a dissapointment. For a small channel like dave I guess the show wasn’t too bad overall – there certianly is much worse out there. But for an (ex) BBC2 show and one as well known as this, it was well below par IHMO.

First of all where does this ‘episode’ fit in with all the other red dwarf episodes? Last time we saw lister and co. they were effectively in prison on RD and everyone had been resurrected. Now they’re out and there appears to be nobody about again. Um, ?

And just where was holly? Why didn’t they have that character in the storyline?

For me the show started out weak and just pretty much tailed off from there. And IHMO large parts of the show just didn’t seem to work, or weren’t really appropiate such as using part of the show to flog DVDs to everyone. Hmmm.

The whole coronation street seemed a bit pointless to me as well. Presumably the only reason it was chosen is because the actor who plays lister is in it. What about the others? Why didn’t they just stick to being in space, instead of choosing an unfunny “fictional characters have just entered our universe” idea. Been done before, and didn’t work.

And godknows why there was the ‘tribute’ to blade runner. Why? That just seemed totally out of place. Why not a tribute to star wars instead? Or maybe even Dr who, at least it’d be british!

Overall quite a dissapointment. Not absoulte rubbish, but certianly not even remotely in the same league as older BBC2 episodes.

ljones

By: Andy Elms

Andy Elms — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:25:38 +0000

Quite simply, didn’t really make me laugh.
More like a bad fan-fiction story, although the Coronation Street segments were worryingly reminiscent of Doctor Who “Dimensions in Time”.
Above all, it was all a bit rushed, what with having to fit in the ad breaks (and I don’t mean the Dave and DVD product placements).

By: Chris Jones

Chris Jones — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:03:50 +0000

I thought this was awful. Self indulgent and toe curling in places.

By: Applemask

Applemask — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 20:33:35 +0000

Personally I liked the final loop, partly because I’m not sure how well the fourth-wall aspect was actually done in the end, and it made for a better ending for the characters, certainly than the last episode of series VIII. The Blade Runner stuff got old fast though.

By: Steve Brennan

Steve Brennan — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 09:41:28 +0000

As for part 2 – all I can say is RIP Red Dwarf. I was more right than I wanted to be when I mentioned the League of Gentlemen movie comparison. Naylor lifted the “fictional characters enter our world” conceit wholesale, and did it with even less laughs. The poor sods were reduced to hawking the upcoming DVD release and the Dave channel itself in-show. Truly – car crash TV. I think its a safe prediction that his will be the last Red Dwarf we ever see.

By: Steve Brennan

Steve Brennan — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 09:52:33 +0000

I don’t think that’s a valid comparison. Red Dwarf is a comedy that has previously run for 8 series with a continuing narrative thread, established characters and two writers. It has been off the air for nearly a decade. The question here is, had the show run the course of its natural life, and was there any justification for resurrecting it? In other words, could we expect a programme that delivered a good story, and most importantly, LAUGHS? Based on the fact that the last 2 series really failed to do that, and Doug Naylor has spent the last few years making groan-inducing noises about turning it into a film (which happily he has failed to do – I’m thinking League of Gentlemen & Hitchhiker’s Guide-style disappointment) it was reasonable to have pretty low expectations for the new episode. And I think it really was poor – flat, unfunny and forced. And Dave rather reinforced the point by showing Gunmen of The Apocalypse and Quarantine straight after it – two of the show’s tightest and funniest episodes.

By: Applemask

Applemask — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:52:46 +0000

Same thing happened to Walking With Beasts back in the day, for absolutely no reason at all except that it was a second series, sort of.

By: Steve Brennan

Steve Brennan — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:11:31 +0000

Yeah – fools, all of us, not to recognize comedy genius when we see it. Hey, haven’t even looked elsewhere at this here t’interweb. Funny how we both seem to think that everyone else will be saying its shit too, though.