Red Dwarf

Red Dwarf was one show I grew up with that I was obnoxiously obsessive about. It's pretty awful how much dialogue I can remember from repeated viewings when I was at home from school. I remember it being on TV in the afternoons when I was really young, so when it was first revived in the mid 90s with season 3, we were able to record episodes and rewatch them while reliving seasons 1 and 2. Then after season 5, some off screen issues prevented season 6 from appearing. After the season 6 cliffhanger, season 7 took some time to appear, and by then, it was becoming a disappointment for me.

It got kinda Yoko'd by Kochanski, Lister's love interest, becoming a fixture while being played by a new actress. Hattie Hayridge as Holly was never a bad move, and she was ultimately replaced again by the OG, Norman Lovett, but the show persisted with a low female cast (comprised almost entirely of one off guest stars) and I think that hindered it from attention outside the UK. Comparatively, I know seasons 7 and 8 the least from having only seen them once (maybe twice, I honestly cannot remember). I don't even own them on DVD, because I decided the show jumped that shark after season 6. Season 8 was more like a soft reboot of season 1, with us doubling back to the odd couple, one bedroom confinement the show depended on with a lower budget. I wasn't thrilled with season 8 despite it being marginally better than season 7. 

Then there was a massive ten year hiatus before the show reemerged as a three part series special known as Back to Earth, which is now season 9. I wasn't thrilled with this, I get this show was a potential "six seasons and a movie" deal before that was a thing. Given the gestalt entity known as Grant Naylor was now bisected and disbanded, Naylor was more in charge, and I think keen for a US syndication deal (I won't go into the poor attempt at creating the US version of this, this was way before the Office as well, and it failed spectacularly, but those kinds of deals tend to exist when you're looking for international interest). And as I disliked this revival, I decided I'd never bother with the three remaining seasons since released. Seeing the crew return to TV, the publicity shots for the show always made me cringe, so I just wasn't here for any of the new shit.

I decided to watch this on a streaming service from the pilot with the view I'd stick it out to the end, or until I just couldn't stand it. I thought most of season 6 was solid but it was on shaky ground. The charm just wasn't there, I think the idea of this just being forced back into existence (like the Friends "revival") made it so unappealing. Dwarfers aren't the worst fan base in the world but they're still pretty dedicated. A movie was in pre-production, so what we got was the best they could do, I suppose. There is a movie of sorts from 2020 but I don't seem to have access to it. My nostalgia is harder to exploit, I don't just blindly agree to reboots or reimaginings or revivals purely so I can "have my show back". I keep my DVDs knowing streaming is a fickle beast. But I knew I'd never watch the later seasons ad nauseam and owning up to season 6 made sense. At least this way I can watch the older episodes and decide if they're any good but I'm not excited.

I got a pretty good grade in university writing about the show for an essay on gender. The comment from the tutor was the best. But this was one of my go to shows when I just didn't want to face the world. And the world's just too hard to face. (Also, my shows don't bring up any topics I don't want to know about so they're safe). I also own and have read the four core novels, Backwards being my favourite, which included a chapter I learned by heart and performed for my Country Week entry. Aspects of the show are very much a part of my fondest memories, but I don't really want to give it any passes where it's not deserved.

In addition I could not make it past episode two of season 7, Stoke Me A Kipper. Tikka to Ride is a great premise but the editing was awful. Everything had this high production sheen to it that made it look terrible. I sometimes resent people forget their favourite characters are performed by actors who AGE, whether gracefully or not, so much like having Patrick Stewart reprising Picard for his own series, it's a bit tragic to see these actors trotted out like this, voluntarily or not. I'm not saying any of them haven't the faculties (Bruce Willis seemed to have made his current arrangement with lucidity despite his mental and physical health deteriorating). It's just a little sad to see them out there, least it is for me. Like these people cannot live forever so your precious show can continue. Oh, no wait, you've found a disgusting way around this with the help of CG. Which is fucking morbid. Cut it out. You've opened a legal can of worms of what happens to our digital likenesses after we die, what ownership we have of our own image in death. Disney extending and fucking with copyright law for its own gain is less grotesque.

I argued vehemently in high school the core cast of Star Wars would be too old to do the final three chapters. Okay so I was wrong, but in a way I wasn't. Ford apparently wanted out early, we still lost Fisher too soon, and Hamill was probably all on board until the story was derailed, I think he had every right to be publicly honest with how he felt about it. I will probably go to my grave never seeing the final installment, I do not give one fuck about it, I'm only mad on behalf of the fans I know who deserved better. You got a dumpster fire when you'd be better off without. I assumed if they would they'd replace the actors but that would've been heresy. The only one out of all of this who deserved more was Carrie. It wasn't fair. She suffered for the wrong fucking reasons. I'm going to propose another assumption, which would be she'd probably still be with us had you not told her to lose weight. If you honestly thought you were going to get chainmail bikini Leia at this point, you're a tool. It's gross enough you youthed her for Rogue One, oh yay, she gets to see herself how she used to be and feel shitty about how she looked then, this was released literally days before she died, too by the way. And they used footage from Force Awakens in Rise of Skywalker so they couldn't even take care of her properly to finish the damn trilogy. If she did fall off the wagon or suffered from the stress of it, they're more to blame than anyone for her demise. I don't know if it's been stipulated, but she might still be here if it weren't for the fans and their rabid need of more of the fucking same. They vowed not to digitally add her after she died but youthing her in Rouge one, after they took that other actor (I cannot be bothered getting the info on him) and managed to CG his face into the film, it's just like a morbid form of puppetry. So, he had no rights in death, and Carrie did because it was too soon? Is that it? Fuck you, Disney. It seemed like the press (and probably Disney as well) were a touch too anxious about her state and her poor family had to tell them to back off. I can't accept that a corporation were truly concerned for her well being as a human being. I'm sure had she survived and needed recovery, they'd have given her a week then pressured her back to work like most corporations do. Maybe she knew that. I'm speculating because I get mad about these people being coerced into taking roles that cause them issues in the past.