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Phantom, you NEED to watch the third ep... seriously

 

I will if its on in the week and im sure it will be what with it being on DAVE.

Maybe it will benefit distance and watching it as a whole.I hated INDY and the Kingdom of the whatever at the cinema but after the hype and the initial disapointment wore off i watched it on dvd months later and i found it fairly entertaining second time around .

Maybe it will happen with this too.

Edited by Phantom
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I think there is a repeat of all three episodes tomorrow night back to back.

 

I think it ended well enough given where the storyline seemed to be headed at one point but overall I think this fell some way short of being classic Red Dwarf. I suppose they had quite a tough job, do enough to close the whole show off if this is to be the last ever episodes but at the same time leave it sufficiently open in case anyone did want to do another series.

 

Maybe I didn't enjoy this as much given I've never managed to get through Blade Runner (I know its supposed to be a classic, I've just never got on with it!), it did seem there were a lot of references to it.

 

All in all it kind of reminds me of the last three episodes of Only Fools and Horses, perhaps they should have considered that if they didn't have enough to make something that would stand up properly with the classic episodes of previous years then they were better off leaving it alone.

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Honestly I loved the last episode. I really thought it was great from start to finish.

 

Remember all the panic about Coronation Street? Hardly worth it for that! Did love the corner shop bit.

 

The typewriter stuff was by far the funniest thing in the whole 3 episodes for me. Genuinely had me laughing.

 

And with Blade Runner being one of my favourite movies ever, I really loved how it turned out. Obviously I can see why it wouldn't have a wide appeal on that level .. but hopefully people still enjoyed it.

Edited by DavidB
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Now that I've seen all three, I stand by my earlier statement - it wasn't the train wreck I was expecting. I liked the central conceit (it's not new - it's an old sci fi concept that Heinlein called "Multi-person Pantheistic Solipsism"), the principals were solid, and they fell back into their roles well.

 

I think the biggest crime was the length... it was around 23 minutes too long. People say the real talent was Rob Grant, but I think it's more about the democratic writing process - there were scenes that just weren't funny, and jokes that went on a few beats too long, and with more than one pair of hands I think they would have been excised before it arrived at a shooting script.

 

As for the Blade Runner homages, I don't mind it (after all the show's done this sort of thing many times)... although it was shoved down the viewers throat. Again, there were scenes that probably seemed a lot funnier on the page than they were on screen - for example the photo manipulation scene, the latex nose guy, etc. - and they should really have been cut before filming. My feeling is that Naylor felt forced to spin the show out to 3 episodes, so he went and watched Blade Runner again to get some inspiration, and I really think it was a mistake. I'd sooner have seen a 2 parter and a standalone episode than a 3 parter that was spread far too thin.

 

Anyway, as I said it wasn't a train wreck - based on this I'd be interested to see more. Certainly it was more entertaining than anything from Season 8.

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Originally the plan was for Back To Earth to be a 2 parter and for there to be an unscripted, recorded live, third show. During shooting it was decided that to adequately tell the story of Back To Earth they needed about 2 and a half episodes and so decided to scrap the unscripted show and extend BTE to a 3 parter. I think this is why some of the scenes/jokes seemed dragged out.

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I thought it was superb and some of the comments amuse me on threads like this. Firstly, even if you only got into Red Dwarf in it's later years it's fair to suggest your tastes have changd in 10 years. If you've watched it from the start and are looking at 20 odd years then yes, I'd be shocked if you laugh at the same things so they certainly had to strike a balance between aiming at a new audience and pleasing the old fans.

 

Some of the slapstick stuff was awful but were no doubt the bits that made me laugh when I was 12 and watching the first series.

 

I've never understood the need for canned laughter either. Something is either funny to you or not and the script was very well paced to allow you to laugh at the right times anyway. It doesn't take an audience laughing to make something funnier. The script does that. The original series was filmed in front of an audience and their reaction taped so 'canned laughter' is probably the wrong expression anyway.

 

Finally, yes it was a big plug for Dave and for a potential new series with lots of merch. Lets be honest, who doesn't want to buy the toy carbug from the comic shop scene?! It worked though. It didn't need to tie up loose ends because they said at the start 10 years had passed. Plenty of flashback potential for the new series! The acting as superb and best of all they brought back some of the emoton. Craig Charles scene by Kochanskis grave was perfect and reminded me of the scene with Lister and Rimmer after Rimmers dad died. Emotional with just the right amount of humour.

 

Couldn't be happier with it and viewing figures and no doubt dvd sales should at least see one series made by Dave.

 

Oh and as said elsewhere, it's hard to criticise a tv channel that had the balls to bring it back and invest so heavily in promoting in.

 

*rambling mode off*

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I thought it was superb and some of the comments amuse me on threads like this. Firstly, even if you only got into Red Dwarf in it's later years it's fair to suggest your tastes have changd in 10 years. If you've watched it from the start and are looking at 20 odd years then yes, I'd be shocked if you laugh at the same things so they certainly had to strike a balance between aiming at a new audience and pleasing the old fans.

 

What about younger fans? (Including myself) I only got into Red Dwarf about 3 years ago and I didn't think it was as good as it could've been (though I enjoyed it and hope to see more).

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II've never understood the need for canned laughter either. Something is either funny to you or not and the script was very well paced to allow you to laugh at the right times anyway. It doesn't take an audience laughing to make something funnier. The script does that. The original series was filmed in front of an audience and their reaction taped so 'canned laughter' is probably the wrong expression anyway.

 

All sorts of studies have been done about this, and there's all sorts of justifications - some of which don't really apply to the modern audience the way they did when it started back in the 50s. But they've found the most pervasive reason to have a laugh track is that it gives the viewer the feeling (subconsciously of course) of watching the show in a group. Obviously a lot of shows have gone down a "post-modern" approach and gone without a laugh track - Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry Sanders, etc, and it works for them. But these are very tightly scripted shows. When you look at the most consistently high quality 'classic format' sit-coms of the modern age (for example Frasier, and no I don't count *any* British sitcoms in that list!) they use a live audience combined with a laugh track to give a general impression of a 'gestalt' experience.

 

As for Red Dwarf, for me, I can see it from both directions... the main problem is that Red Dwarf has always had either a laugh track or a live audience (or a mixture of the two) so it seemed incongruous to not have it. That said, it would have seemed odd to have one given the storyline...

Edited by MikeDonovan
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I thought it was superb and some of the comments amuse me on threads like this. Firstly, even if you only got into Red Dwarf in it's later years it's fair to suggest your tastes have changd in 10 years. If you've watched it from the start and are looking at 20 odd years then yes, I'd be shocked if you laugh at the same things so they certainly had to strike a balance between aiming at a new audience and pleasing the old fans.

 

What about younger fans? (Including myself) I only got into Red Dwarf about 3 years ago and I didn't think it was as good as it could've been (though I enjoyed it and hope to see more).

 

I certainly think there were bits that could have been better but I think it's all subjective really. I think they took a massive gamble going in the direction that they did and perhaps as a comeback show they could have gone for a real back to basics approach and reeled of 'space corp directives' made Kryton as neurotic as possible and for a sure fire winner brought back Dwayne Dibbley. I was delighted they chose a different approach and thought the show was better for it. I also think for there to be any hope of a new series they had to demonstrate they were capable of doing something more. The last series looked tired and cliched. I thought this cherry picked some of the better running jokes and brought them up to date. The 'space corp directive' and references to the holly hop drive etc worked so much better as an obvious in joke for sci-fi geeks than actually being proper plot points.

 

Anyway, that's me done on the subject I think. I really hope it comes back for a full series and I hope people gave all three parts a go and watched it as a whole. Can't understand people watching 22 minutes of an hours show and giving up on it that easily!

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As mentioned above Curb your Enthusiasm has no laughter track but as its so well written,acted,clever and so very very funny the fact there is no laughter canned or otherwise doesnt even register.

On the other hand if you have a comedy with no laughs without a laughter track it saps the very life out of you.Its like being at a wake.A crap comedy like Little Britain USA may con people into thinking they are watching something funny(admitidly the talking dog was funny) with its canned laughter but you cant kid anyone without a laughter track.

Edited by Phantom
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I re-watched Season 8 and no point really lol. Look at my earlier post for recap of the final ep if you want... In the series, the Nanos have bought back Red Dwarf and resurrected the crew, but they stick our lot into the brig as they "stole" Starbug... and the series is them in prison. Doesn't relate to the new eps at all apart form the fact they're on Red Dwarf, not Starbug.

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i only watched the 1st episode and didnt see the other 2, not coz i didnt enjoy the 1st, just coz i was busy. ill buy the dvd tho for sure. the 1st episode was pretty good i thought.

 

on a side note, im more than happy Sophie Winkleman was in this, one of the best looking women on tv imo

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've only read the title of this thread, not the posts....given that it's on the forum section for an event due to happen in Bedford, I'd say it's a pretty accurate description of the town!! lol

 

(This is coming from personal experience, as I've lived in/near Bedford for most of my life)

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I've only read the title of this thread, not the posts....given that it's on the forum section for an event due to happen in Bedford, I'd say it's a pretty accurate description of the town!! lol

 

(This is coming from personal experience, as I've lived in/near Bedford for most of my life)

 

Thanks for the heads up.

 

Note to self. Pack extra Sodoku book.........

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