Prologue: Red Dwarf: Series Seven and Eight

As there was a hiatus between my covering of Series Six and Seven, so was there a hiatus between their broadcast. The five years between Series Six and Seven saw a number of large changes for Red Dwarf.

            The producing/writing partnership that founded the series was known as Grant Naylor, bringing together the comedy writers Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who wrote several other series together. However, after Series Six, Rob Grant left to pursue other projects. This left Red Dwarf’s television story firmly in the hands of Doug Naylor, who had quite a different idea of where he wanted the series to go.

            Actors also found other priorities. Hattie Hayridge left permanently after her hiatus in Series Six, with Norman Lovett from Series One and Two coming in to replace her. Chris Barrie had found success with his other series, The Brittas Empire, and so only agreed to film in half the series. Series length was increased; Each series used to consist of six half-hour episodes, while the new series would be eight forty-five minute episodes. The budget was bigger, much bigger, and with the advances that half a decade had brought, it was better filmwork as well.

            It’s a terrible shame then, that Doug Naylor’s grasp of what amounts to humour is paramount to that of a small fruit fly. The new series was not only blatantly leaching on the past, it wasn’t funny. And that was the greatest crime of all.

            Regardless, two series were made and I’m going to review them. Most episodes of these two series aren’t considered canon, especially with the more status quo approach of the Back To Earth specials, but they aren’t that good either.

            On another note, I’m also going to start reading and reviewing the series of four Red Dwarf books that, while not truly following the series, do include more of their scenes and seem to contain what the producers would have ideally done had they had the time or the money. Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers and Better than Life were both written under the name of Grant Naylor; After the split, both producers wrote their own sequels to Better than Life; Doug Naylor’s Last Human and Rob Grant’s Backwards.

Thanks