One of the worse kept secrets has now been announced officaily.
At this weekends Red Dwarf convention (which I couldn't attend) Doug Naylor finally announced the commissioning of the new series of Red Dwarf.
The details are-
Pre-production begins Oct 2011
Shooting begins Nov 2011 and should last 3 months
Airing in Sept/Oct 2012
It will be 6 episodes
Hopes expressed by Doug and co are for (but not definite yet) a live studio audience, the episodes to be a full 30 minutes to fill a 40 minute time slot, Hatty to return and play Holly and John Lenahan to return as Talkie Toaster (John being the original Talkie voice)
All that is left that could put a spanner in the works is for the cast to officially confirm but with no expected problems in that regard....
Thats an extra 6 episodes at least of the ScutterCast at some point. Quite good news seeing as we are approaching the end of the podcast! :)
Additional: Nearly forgot.....it is also being officially referred to as series X to fit in with the Back To Earth 2009 Easter specials gag of series IX being the best series ever of Red Dwarf and the series that has Lister being told of Kochanski's death by Kryten as he was having a bath!
I don't remember that comment (series IX) was that in the 'on Earth' sequence somewhere?
Thats awesome news, I was watching twitter and facebook for news. :D I really hope (though its a long shot) that ot would be a Grant Naylor written series.
Quote from: Feathers on April 10, 2011, 12:04:46 PM
I don't remember that comment (series IX) was that in the 'on Earth' sequence somewhere?
It gets mentioned by both the kids on the bus and Noddy, the comic book shopper bloke. When they ask about the bath where they find the piece of nose skin he tells them that it was from series IX, the best series ever of Red Dwarf. Don't you remember, you were sat in that bath when Kryten came in and told you Kochanski was dead...it's all in there somewhere...
Thats why Doug jokingly said he would never do a series IX in the promotional build up for BtE.
Quote from: HawkeyeMeds on April 10, 2011, 12:11:38 PM
Thats awesome news, I was watching twitter and facebook for news. :D I really hope (though its a long shot) that ot would be a Grant Naylor written series.
Although I hear their friendship has been somewhat rekindled....I don't think they'll ever write again....at least on Red Dwarf.
tbh, I'm interested to see what Doug will do with a full series. He's heard and taken onboard all the criticism of series VII and VIII. And BtE was never supposed to feel like a run of the mill episode. It was written as a feature length one off special. He didn't begin the script until Nov 08 and just a few weeks before airing, it changed into a 3 parter instead of a 2 parter.
With so much time to plan, this should be as good as we're ever going to get!!
Apparently, they also expressed a desire to use models for SFX shots instead of CGI, but did say this is totally dependant on budget.....CGI being infinitely cheaper. Don't know about you, but I thought the BtE CGI Red Dwarf was awesome.....although the Skutter was a bit ropey...
Ant do you know why they fell out in the first place? I've heard so many different versions. After listening to the latest Scuttercast I've gone back to watching BTE and you know its pretty darn good.
I believe it was just the stress of working together for so long......they were renown for giving themselves next to impossible deadlines to work with and pulling all nighters to finish scripts....I'm not aware of anything specific, but one of Rob's first projects was that Sky One sci-fi comedy, The Strangerers. I wonder if they just wanted different directions for the series? Strangerers was a lot more dark than Red Dwarf.....I've still got it on VHS somewhere...
I enjoyed BtE first time around and loved it as a potential set up to future Dwarf. But watching back now after listening to the reasoning by Doug on both DVD's "Making of" docu's and his commentary....it is bloody fantastic stuff! Definitely doesn't warrant the bashing it seems to get online...
No it does not deserve the bashing, I think it was the whole laughter track scenario that caused all the trouble.
I'm not so sure....I've got a version with an added laughter and it doesn't add that much. I think the problem was splitting it into 3 parts. The pacing for each episode is so different it put people off. Had it been all broadcast on a single night, it would have been better recieved.
Also, people expected it to be just like the TV series. It was never supposed to be like the TV series. Doug wrote it as a special and deliberately set out to write a story that undermined everything that had gone before. ie making them actual characters in a universe where they didn't exist and none of thier adventures actually took place.
His intention at putting everything back as it should be at the end was to act as a relief and to add to peoples enjoyment. But I think it lost him a lot of viewers during the journey...
Sounds great! Thanks to Netflix, I recently finished the entire series. I watched series 1-7 when they initially aired, and had to catch up with series 8 plus Back to Earth. Great ending. Can't wait to see new stuff!
I am definitely looking forward to this. I am a huge Red Dwarf fan ever since I accidentally ran across it on PBS many years ago.
As filming is beginning shortly, I thought it a good idea to bring everyone up to date.
A few weeks ago, Craig Charles announced on daytime TV that the new series will begin shooting in November and that sets have already started to be built. The official site said this was not yet actually true. My guess is that they were only at the planning stages...
On Robert Llewelyns blog on the 31st of October, this appeared http://llewblog.squarespace.com/red-dwarf/ (http://llewblog.squarespace.com/red-dwarf/). It is basically a run down of everything he knows upto that date. There have also been a few tweets about being measured up for the Kryten mask.
The key points raised in his blog were that filming begins towards the END of November with 2 episodes being shot before Christmas and 4 episodes after the New Year. These will be shot before a live audience (something the production company has expressed a wish to do, but not officially confirmed that they are doing yet)
Now the absolute latest... the official site has recently posted a news story....kinda.
It has announced that there will be some kind of an announcement next friday (11th Nov 2011) at 11:30am. We don't know for sure what this announcement will be, but considering how close we are to filming, it's a pretty good guess that this will be GNP's official live audience announcement with details on how and where to get hold of tickets.
This can be found at http://reddwarf.co.uk/news/2011/11/04/news-on-the-way/ (http://reddwarf.co.uk/news/2011/11/04/news-on-the-way/)
Incidently, Red Dwarf X is still rumoured to be aired in the Autumn of 2012.
I've gots to gets me some of them studio audience tickets!!!
How many of us are going to be glued to the Red Dwarf page looking at ticket options lol :D
Tickets went up for grabs today at 2pm and, despite the website crashing due to high demands, email and Twitter applications caused the tickets to run out for every single episode within 1 and a half hours.
I didn't get my application in until an hour after that...I am on the waiting list, but I don't expect to hear back... :(
Incidently, the filming dates are-
Friday 16th December 2011
Friday 23rd December 2011
Saturday 7th January 2012
Friday 13th January 2012
Friday 20th January 2012
Friday 27th January 2012
Ant, i'm on the waiting list as well.
It does say you should hear within 24 hours. But I've yet to see anybody post about having heard back. Including those few who got in when tickets were still available. Most of them managed to register via email and Twitter after the servers crashed. Nobody anticipated the huge response!!
Did Darren get in?
I don't even know if he applied. I've only seen a couple on G&T and a couple on the official site that do appear to have gotten in early enough. Stating preferred dates and such.
I'm hoping that in the event of failing to get to Red Dwarf X, these waiting lists carry over to Red Dwarf XI (with crossed fingers...). I did debate offering to take tickets for The Cube Saudi Arabia version off their hands in exchange for Red Dwarf tickets... :)
LOl i did the see The Bube Saudi, but you cant beat a bit of Pip Schofield.
The good news is, I have obtained a ticket to be in one of the filming audiences!! And work has agreed to let me change the day of my half day off so that I can attend.
The ticket came from an unlikely source. Somebody online who I fell out with BIG TIME about 3 years ago who I didn't think actually liked me. And now I believe I may have to kiss him!! :)
So, next friday (23rd December) I will be having heart palpatations from sheer excitement. And up until that day, I will be walking on air!!
Nice one!
I hope you don't have to do anything unusual to get hold of this ticket ;)
I must admit when you text me this afternoon i was thinking he's got that wet suit out again ;)
Nice one mate.
I should auction off the wetsuit...
....or maybe put some "pay per view images" of me in it on the internet
Attending the live audience was an amazing experience. One that I will remember for the rest of my life. Red Dwarf probably means as much to me as Star Trek does to most people on this forum. And to be able to see it made before my very eyes.....words can't describe.
I have written a spoiler free account of my experiences at THIS CLICKY LINK THING HERE (http://www.reddwarfforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3487)
It is a little bit of a lengthy read, but it is pretty much everything I am allowed to say about the episode. I am now in the strange position of knowing and wanting to talk about events from within the show, but not being able to.
I have to also add that the future of a Red Dwarf live audience is very much dependant on how much spoilering takes place on the internet. Now, with nearly 2 weeks since the first recording and with a combined attendence to both recordings at about 600 people, it's not looking bad at all. All the fan sites seem to be adhereing to a spoiler free policy and, with the exception of a couple of tweeted set pictures that haven't really been viewed much, it seems to be going well. I haven't come across anything yet myself.
There's still a long way to go until airtime, and still another 4 episodes to shoot, but so far so good. :)