I’m just catching up with the month-old news that Red Dwarf is to return to production for two new half-hour episodes. These episodes will be accompanied by a ‘making of’ documentary and an anniversary clipshow. Apparently they were commissioned by the freeview channel Dave, after regular repeat runs there have managed impressive viewing figures. There seem to be very few other details available at the moment, though it is claimed that ‘all’ the regulars will be returning, and there are clear signs that if the project is successful it will lead to further instalments.
Well, I’m certainly curious to see how they turn out, and I’d love to be optimistic. This is one of my all-time favourite TV shows, and one which meant a great deal to me when I was younger (and to be fair still does), but really I’m not expecting much. In many ways the series fell apart long before it disappeared from our screens. I thought the final two series were an absolute abomination and it is difficult to imagine Doug Naylor turning things around. It might just work if he ditches much of the back-story and continuity of the final series in favour of a back-to-basics story featuring just the core cast in an isolated situation – and if he can somehow remember how to write good jokes again (which were completely absent from 7 and 8). Sadly though I wouldn’t be suprised if Naylor feels obliged to present us with a torturous continuity-riddled abortion of an episode attempting to sort out the tangled mess in which he left the story at the end of the last series – which ended some ten years ago – and which is exactly the sort of serious mistake he made with much of the final two series.
Ultimately, I do think that if Red Dwarf were ever going to save itself from the scrap heap then it needed to do so ten years ago with a fresh new series instead of endless wrangling over a movie which was never seriously going to happen and which absolutely nobody thought was a good idea.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Regards,
Marwood.
