Red Dwarf series X green lighted

[ori-STUDFARM]

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!

[Feathers]

I don't remember that comment (series IX) was that in the 'on Earth' sequence somewhere?

[Meds]

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.

[ori-STUDFARM]

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.

[ori-STUDFARM]

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...

[Meds]

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.

[ori-STUDFARM]

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...

[Meds]

No it does not deserve the bashing, I think it was the whole laughter track scenario that caused all the trouble.

[ori-STUDFARM]

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...

[Obi-Wan Kovary]

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!

[Duffster]

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.

[ori-STUDFARM]

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/. 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/

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!!!

[Meds]

How many of us are going to be glued to the Red Dwarf page looking at ticket options lol :D

[ori-STUDFARM]

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

[Meds]

Ant, i'm on the waiting list as well.