It’s cold outside, there’s no kind of atmosphere. I want to lie shipwrecked and comatose, drinking fresh mango juice with goldfish shoals nibbling at my toes. No I’m not describing my thoughts about Monday morning, that’s the words from the late 80’s and early 90’s iconic theme tune to one of the most random but successful sitcoms in British history. Don’t believe me, check out the theme tune below, you’ll be singing along in no time!
So what is Red Dwarf if you haven’t seen it? Well imagine the very last human Craig Charles (Coronation Street) in existence, stranded on a ship with a cat/human hybrid Danny John Jules (Maid Marion, Trouble In Paradise) a narcissistic hologram Chris Barrie (The Brittas Empire)and a robot human with a vacuum cleaner groinal attachment Robert Llewellyn (Scrapheap Challenge). They travel through time causing mischief and mayhem, whilst eating vindaloo and blasting anything and everything with their bazookas. They even coined the catchphrase ‘Let’s get out thier and tw*t it!’.
The original Red Dwarf was amazing, a mix of pure randomness and British humour combined with a sci-fi element. Sc-fi fans loved it, non sci-fi fans loved it. It was a smash hit. ‘Polymorph’ is my favourite episode for it’s sheer randomness. I mean an alien that disguises it’s self as underpants to attack the human? That’s more evil than Alien & Predator combined.
Ok so you got a random misfit bag of a crew, who drink beer, eat curry and take on alien underpants? You can see why the British public loved it. But sadly the show was axed in 1999 and what better way to end it than blowing up your own evil future versions of yourself.
So that was it, Red Dwarf was over, finished, it was one hell of an eleven year ride but it was worth it, it was time to go out on a high.
All was quiet until 2009 when a weird Red Dwarf/Coronation Street mash up occoured, it was so popular than the series was rebooted in 2012. It blurred the lines of reality, where Craig’s character met himself on his other show.
The less said about the the rebooted series in 2012 the better, so as such to preserve the shows memory, I will use a Men In Black ‘Neuralyzer’ to erase my memory.
The show tried a triumphant comeback and it sadly flopped more than a Tom Daley dive at the Olympics (burnnnnnn). That’s why when I heard way back before I even started the site, that British network Dave was planning on attempting another reboot I was less than thrilled! Then I sat down annd thought about it, Dave is a network that is targeted at people about my age and 10-15 years older, the true fans of the original show. Plus when you look at the list of the shows they currently air I changed my view and reserved my judgement.
All was quiet until the official Red Dwarf site has published a synopsis for series XI, and it’s looks to promise so much more.
‘Red Dwarf XI, the eleventh series of the legendary sci-fi comedy, reunites the original cast of Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat) and Robert Llewellyn (Kryten) along with a host of guest stars for a brand new series recorded in front of a live studio audience at Pinewood Studios. The series is written and directed by Red Dwarf co-creator,Doug Naylor, and produced by Richard Naylor and Kerry Waddell forBaby Cow Productions & Grant Naylor Productions.
The show’s six episode run sees two of the Dwarfers’ dreams come true: Rimmer accidentally saves the life of a Space Corps Captain and is promoted to Officer, while Cat takes time off from being in love with himself to fall in love with a female Cat with a secret. Meantime, Lister wakes up to discover a deranged droid has stolen some of his body parts and Kryten has a mid-life crisis and considers leaving the Dwarfers for a younger crew. The posse also find themselves in an alternative America where modern technology is outlawed, making both Kryten and Rimmer illegal.’
You can also watch the announcement by Dave below.
Is the theme tune not stuck in your head yet? Ok one more time!!
so THAT’s why you threw that seemingly random pic into that one tweet, lol…. Slick!! 🙂
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