Despite the game being 5 years older than I am and only relatively recently having discovered the series, it quickly became my possibly all-time favourite. Along with the OST having found a permanent spot in the calm music playlist I often listen to, both as background sound and for dedicated listens. Currently I am re-playing it for my 5th or 6th time, finding more details and things to appreciate in every re-play still. Initially I played it on PC, but I have found that my Steam Deck manages to run the game without any lag in the Mednaffe Flatpak, despite my PC being faster. Additionally, the more muted colours and smaller size of this screen, with a good DAC backing the headphone jack make for a for me perfect experience of playing it. This as when not stretched out over a full PC monitor, which also over-saturates the colours, I find that I notice more of the details. In the future I hope to take a crack at making a game in a similar vein as a hobby project. Time will tell whether this gets anywhere, it will be a slow-moving long-term thing if it ever materialises. But it seems possible, if extremely ambitious, like the original game I suppose.
I did like the logic in Holly bringing back Rimmer out of all the crew members. Holly knew that bringing back one of Listers friends would have been bad for him in terms of long term mental health. Holly knew that Listers psychology needed at least some conflict to stay healthy. Rimmer was the perfect foil for Lister in this regard. He was annoying and would push back on Lister in all the right ways, without being someone he would ever get violent with due to Rimmers nature.
Call me an anorack then as I saw a quiz between the cast and fans of red dwarf (including space core directives) and got every question right! Now I sleep with Rachael and the puncture repair kit!
I have done the same, on and off for decades, fallen to sleep to red dwarf. Over the years of watching, the crew begin to feel like friends. So it becomes a comfort thing i suspect. Got me through some tough times for which i will be forever gratefull. Boys from the dwarf! 🤘
I love bleak, black humour and the first two series are so, SO good for this. Thank you for making this. You've said what I've struggled to find the words for.
Season 3 ep 2 _"Marooned"_ is pretty much just Lister and Rimmer in one room and heavily dialogue driven. That one really reminded me of an episode of Porridge (S1ep3?) where it's just Fletcher & Godper trying to amuse themselves engaged in dialogue in their cell during a lock-in.
Wow. I thought it was just me. I used to fall asleep listening to VHS recordings of the series and even to this day Red Dwarf is one of the few series I listen to on my phone to help me sleep at night. I am so gratified to hear/see I am not the only one who does this. 😃
I don't think I've ever connected to a youtube video as much as this one. Every few months I rewatch all series falling asleep to them. I've watched them so many times I can just listen to it with my eyes closed and still visualise it. I also find the idea of space relaxing and peaceful where as people I've spoken to find it terrifying lol.
I have a theory about Red Dwarf, that Lister's cat caused the Drive Plate to need repairing by sneaking it into the vent and hair getting into the drive room. Rimmer still failed to repair the drive plate, but the reason he repaired the drive plate was because he found photos under Lister's bunk of the cat in the vent, the vent into the drive room. He rushes to the drive room, but he's too late. Holly has removed all evidence of this and wiped memory of this from Arnold when he was converted into a hologram. Possibly Holly did this when he was still a genius. This is why Holly brought Rimmer back, so Lister would blame Arnold and not investigate further.
Rhipnol is awesome stuff..........you get completely solid deep sleep and wake up almost euphoric. Apparently when Patrick Stewart saw Red Dwarf the first time (back in the day) he thought it was a parody of Star Trek TNG and was outraged, but then calmed down and realized that it was just British Humor.
Excellent retrospective. What I would consider, accurate insights. It only just randomly appeared in my recommended videos, today, but the title resonated with how I believe that Red Dwarf often felt whenever I watched it. Your title made me stop scrolling, and I clicked the video because it was definitely something I've thought about regarding Red Dwarf before. It can be interpreted light-hearted comedy set in space, yes, though with a somewhat serious undertone. The bleakness of deep space. Sure, it's just a model moving slowly past a camera with a bit of special effects to give that impression. It is still thought provoking, all the same. In a similar way, 3 million years could easily sound like a throwaway time span further into the future. In hindsight, when I hear that, part of me is immediately expecting it to be pointless, as though they could have said 30 million years and not cared about the specifics. Then again, we don't necessarily need all the Red Dwarf universe mapped and padded out to explain the 3 million years thing meticulously. I will explain in the next paragraph onward. The long and the short of it, is the enormity of the universe. There is a common trope when handling vast spans of time, and trying to convey what that means to anyone in particular. There is something called science communication and conveying the concepts within it, in a pithy and effective manner, which is understandable to a wider range of people. Subject specific jargon can be overwhelming, and how are random folk meant to relate to what this or that vast span of time means? Sometimes, it's not required to (like with Red Dwarf) You can take it or leave it as a random figure someone dreamt up in the 1980's while making the series, and not read too much into it. You can accept it for the likely throwaway lore it may well be, and move on without a second thought. But for what it's worth, I do think that it made me think of many random concepts for how and why this would happen. To nerd out a bit here, let's face it, 3 million years is a very long time on a human level. That's obvious, anyone can see that. The point here, is why did they pick 3 million and not, say, something more 'reasonable' like, 300,000 years, or 30,000 years, or even 'just' 3,000 years? Framing wise, it does feel to be a bleak future, with so much having been lost. Stranded impossibly far from home. Why 3 million in particular? It made me wonder. It's all about perspective. On the geological timescale, or in astronomical terms, the timespan of 3,000,000 Earth years is not really that long. Earth is ~4,567 million years old, so not even 1,000th that timespan. Befitting a setting where the immensity of space and the wider universe, engulfs all human endeavour, the timescale involved is also overwhelming. Perhaps deliberately so. Or maybe it doesn't even matter. Nevertheless, I want to explore this a bit. Let's imagine that something _did_ happen at some point in those 3 million years from our time in the real-world, when humanity reached out across the stars, settling on countless planets and extending it's knowledge of the universe beyond anything we can currently imagine. Plenty of fictional universes have timescales exceeding 3 million years, as well. It's not the timespan that gets me, with Red Dwarf, it's the sheer remoteness and loneliness of the ship, both temporally _and_ physically. It is so, so far gone. To all intents and purposes, gone without hope of return (I know the show does contradict that a bit at times but it's largely the case) A lot can happen in 3 million years. The Necrons in Warhammer 40,000, were asleep for around 60 million years, waiting to reclaim the Milky Way galaxy. The Forerunners in HALO had begun over 15 million years prior to the events of the HALO games, peaking as a civilization long prior to their 300 year nightmare war with the Flood which brought them down for the most part. Then there are other universes in science fiction or sci-fi fantasy, where you have truly insane timespans. The Time Lords in Dr Who (or at least, the Gallifreyans) were pottering around doing random things for roughly 13 billion years. They are one of the eldest of all species in the 'n-universe' (aka the Whoniverse) 13,000,000,000 years is nearly incomprehensible at a glance. It just sounds like gibberish in a passing sense. Why 13 billion? Wouldn't 10 billion or 2 billion be enough? Why be that ancient and still fail to defeat the entirely upstart Daleks? etc etc... There is a lot of this kind of 'temporal inconsistency' across sci-fi. People come up with timespans they deem fit in their universes, and run with it. Comparing and contrasting Red Dwarf's timeline to other fictional universes, I know it feels slightly silly because it's not meant to be taken too seriously in the medium it is framed within. Even so, I still can't help but think this through. The logical question would be, 'what happened?'. Presumably something appalling. In a way, it's darkly unsettling that a ship could be lost for so long. It definitely has a horror element. There is almost something amusing in a uniquely British way, of characters like Cat and Rimmer being around 3 million years after humanity first went to the Moon. There is something paradoxically ironic about it, as though, at the end of all things, there shall still be some British cat mutant at the end of meaningful time, on a human scale, dressing in 1980's fashion and basically being the ship's cat immortalised. It's insane and bleak in an oddly funny way. Why these three fruitcakes? How long can it continue? Would they really survive like this? (probably not) The grimdark version of Red Dwarf, would be more akin to what happens regarding the Engineers in the Alien franchise and universe, or the souls of the Necrons (or should I say more accurately, in context, the Necrontyr) in W40K. It probably wouldn't be so cheerful with all manner of madness unfolding. That a trio of relative incompetents can keep the ship functional at all is not only impressive, but strangely endearing. Why them? Because it is, and that's all we the audience need to know. Whittled down to three goofs with some additional computer intelligence assistance. They persist, with seemingly no end to their task. In a way, 3 million years on an eternal voyage, is as tragic as it is humbling. When trying to convey what 3 million years _really_ means, how do we relate to that? The Dinosaurs (the non-Avian forms, at least) lasted for roughly 170 million years (167 million years, provably, with fossil evidence) from the Carnian Age of the Late Triassic Period, to the Maastrichtian Age of the Late Cretaceous Period. Just saying that might not mean much though. This is why science communication has to be more helpful. If I were to say, the Dinosaurs evolved in at least the 5th of 30 Ages of the Mesozoic Era, that goes someway to demonstrating just _how long_ that dynasty lasted (and it doesn't even count the Avian Dinosaurs which endured beyond the Mesozoic, into the Cenozoic Era, which we are still in 66 million years after the Mesozoic Era ended. I'd further contextualise this by pointing out that the Dinosaurs were present for no fewer than 26 of the 30 geological ages/stages of the Mesozoic; for 3 out of 7 of the Triassic Period Ages (the last 3 of those; Carnian, Norian and Rhaetian - though some palaeontologists speculate that they went further back, before the Carnian, into the Ladinian, or even the Anisian; it gets increasingly difficult to delineate true Dinosaurs from their gangly, Dinosauromorph kin and close but no cigar lookalikes, in the wider Archosauromorpha, but I digress; long story short: finding 'Dinosaur Zero' is not easy, and may be impossible in a completely proven way); for 11 out of 11 of the Jurassic Period Ages; and for 12 out of 12 of the Cretaceous Period Ages. [part 1/2; part 2 in reply to myself below]
[part 2/2] There are practical constraints on this. For instance, we know that, there is absolutely zero chance of any Dinosaur being pre-Mesozoic (aka, Palaeozoic Era in age) We can safely rule out the Early Triassic. The only real question that matters, is where we draw the line where and when the first true Dinosaur evolved from out of the Dinosauromorpha. The base of the Triassic is ~251.902 Ma (mega-annum; millions of years ago) The first provably true Dinosaurs (on anatomical diagnostic characteristics) are from the middle of the Carnian Age, around ~233.23 Ma. That is in itself, during what is known as the Carnian Pluvial Episode/Event, which may well have been part of the reason why Dinosaurs evolved (certainly spurring on their evolution and further success, although it could also be the case that the first true Dinosaur evolved just before that, with the Carnian Pluvial Episode, happening between roughly 234 - 232 Ma BP (Before Present) Subtract 233.23 from 251.902 and you get 18.672 million years left in between the base of the Triassic and the earliest known true Dinosaurs (from the Santa Maria Formation, in South-East Brazil; species like _Saturnalia tupiniquim_ and _Gnathovorax cabreirai_ for instance) The Carnian Age/Stage (the geochronological term, being Age; the chronostratigraphical term, being Stage; used mostly interchangeably though the stratigraphic view of geological strata, always uses Stage exclusively; with a group of Stages making a Series; with the more poetic geochronological term for Series, simply being Epoch; stratigraphy purely being interested in rock matrix sequences and strata aka layers of rock, in sequence, according to various laws within geological science e.g. the Law of Superposition as a generality) is the earliest Late Triassic Age. 18.672 million years (to reiterate, a not so insubstantial sum of eighteen million, six-hundred and seventy-two thousand years; I mention the decimal place figures, because 672,000 years is about thrice the timespan _Homo sapiens_ has even existed for full-stop thus far; again, it's not just a matter of a rounding up remainder, it's a huge amount of time in it's own right) Now, basically half that right away to about 9.336 million years, and that add it to the evidence based 233 Ma BP figure, and is roughly about how old _some_ palaeontologists are trying to claim the true Dinosaurs go back to (in places like South Africa and Madagascar; with these claims being based largely on highly fragmentary remains, lacking enough diagnostic evidence to prove they are removed enough from the numerous close cousins and more primitive forms that were still around well into the Late Triassic) The oldest undisputed fossils of true Dinosaurs, come from about 233 Ma BP. If you look at that chunk of time before then, in between the beginning of the Triassic Period (in the Induan Age, followed by the Olenekian and then the Anisian and the Ladinian) you can quite well imagine that there would be plenty of Dinosaur-like critters running around (we have plenty of their fossils already) and the first known Dinosaurs, then it becomes clear that, in the grander scheme of things, they wouldn't have appeared that much earlier than the likes of the animals known from the Santa Maria Formation. It starts to become a futile endeavour. What does it really matter anyway? We know they certainly weren't from the Permian Period or the Early Triassic. It is just debated whether they evolved in the Ladinian, rather than the Carnian. I could accept that if evidence arises, but not the Anisian. That'd just be too far back in my opinion. The contextualisation of the vastness of Deep Time, is important. 3 million years begins to feel outrageous in the context of Red Dwarf, but in the geological timespan, that isn't even that long. For most of the 200,000-300,000 years that _Homo sapiens_ has been around, we've been hunter-gatherers. If going with the 200,000 figure rather than 300,000 (I would say we evolved about 205,000-210,000 years ago, but some people swear that it should be 300,000 hence why I bothered to include that range; I think that's too high a figure, though) only about the last 1/20th of the last 200,000 years, had proper farming and full-time sedentary settlements. Basically, the last 10,000-12,000 or so years. 8,000 or much less in plenty of parts of the world. 3 million years seems impossibly vast. From the scope of the geoscientist or astronomer, that is not that long at all. 3 million years into humanity's future is a _staggeringly_ long time. All of our story as a species thus far, is not even 1/10th that sum. Point being, so much would happen in 3 million years for a spacefaring civilization, that it isn't any surprise at all that it may or may not have collapsed. This is both depressing and oddly endearing, because it shows how, even in such a dire predicament, there will always be some British dudes goofing around after the complete collapse of a civilization which used to be quite something. 10 years in the present day is a very long time on a societal level. Social evolution and world history is unfolding at a rapid and relentless pace. Imagine what can happen within 3 million years (or 300,000 decades) That is a scary span of time for a sentient human, however 'insignificant' it is on the geological timescale.
No way are we the same age, and from basically the same area. As for that night time thing, I used to (and sometimes still do) put it on during those winter nights where it is bitterly cold outside with the hail and ice, it gives a cozy feeling of being protected from the dark and the cold in the quiet wilderness. As for Backwards, I remember seeing that with my dad and us both being in stitches.
Thatchers Britain? She was better than the shower of Sh*t we have in power now, 4 yrs in prison for a Fb post...Jeesus..What would the Dwarfers make of that?
I would argue something like people just do nothing is a modern comedy that was made by working class people (they worked in a call centre together) and came through the bbc production line
Series one to eight - brilliant, then they screwed it up by not directly continuing from Rimmer's last words in the last episode of season eight. I watched episode one of season nine, waited for this to be referenced, realised they'd buggered it up, and never watched anymore. I converted all my eight seasons into MKV files and I watch them at least once a year, and I use quite a few of the words or lines in my everyday life, including the inflections, "what is is?" being the one I use the most.
Seasons 7 and 8 were a disappointment for me. I didn't find them funny. 10 and beyond were a mild improvement. I'll always consider 1-6 as the "original run" though. Different strokes for different folks of course. Thanks for watching.
Its brilliant exposure of how we need other people, even prats like rimmer , Lister was cool but a bum he needed rimmers anal retentiveness to stay sane , resisting him , was fun .. Listers refusal to be conventional , gave Rimmer purpose, even though Lister disgusted him
With the ratings failure of the final serious attempt at new sci fi for some years by the BBC in 1987, Star Cops, and considering the outright hostility of BBC executives towards Doctor Who*, it’s unsurprising that the only way the Corporation would commit to making sci fi at this time was as a sitcom. The BBC didn’t want to make sci fi anymore and used it’s inability to compete with Hollywood budgets as an excuse not to try. BBC executives saw British TV sci fi as an embarrassment and a joke and then along comes a sendup in the form of Red Dwarf. We were a very long way from the peak of the BBC’s commitment to producing sci-fi, from the legendary live broadcasts of Quatermass and Orwell’s 1984 (starring Peter Cushing) directed by Rudolph Cartier, to the 1965-71 anthology series Out of the Unknown with its adaptation of stories by literary luminaries including Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, John Wyndham, Ray Bradbury, J G Ballard, E M Forster, etc. Being too young to remember Blake’s 7 (1978-81), the TV version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1981) or even really register The Tripods (1984-85), to me as a child, BBC science fiction WAS Doctor Who and it felt like they had switched allegiances away from my favourite show to a sci-fi sendup in the shape of Red Dwarf. So in my contrarian way I was predisposed not to be interested in it. I don’t say any of this to drag Red Dwarf. My older brother got into it after first series or two and ended up buying the DVDs when they came out. Just sharing my own experiences of being an 80s kid living on a quiet Hertfordshire street. A daydreamer with a vivid imagination who was blithely unaware of any of the political stuff provided as context at the start of this video. Plus a bit of context in regards to BBC sci fi production that I only became aware of much later. (*financial under investment, slashed series length, lack of promotion, vindictive scheduling in the ‘graveyard slot’ against ITV’s ratings juggernaut Coronation Street, the first attempt to cancel the show that was back-pedalled into being presented as merely a ‘rest’ for the series and became known as the notorious ‘18 month hiatus’ …)
I also spend a month or two each year drifting off to sleep with Red Dwarf on. I'm amused that I'm not the only one. Edit: Also, I should have commended you on this docu video. I like how you drew parallels between British culture and economy at the time and the world the show has built. Great work all around.
I swear we must’ve had the same childhood. I was born in 1992 but if I crawled into bed with my parents they’d be watching Red Dwarf. I used to go to sleep watching Backwards. The only issue is The Polymorph gave me nightmares. 😂😭
@@retromuel please look it up. It's nearly 5 hours, but his documentaries are the best in all of youtube imo. Also check his virtua cop one where he interviews almost the entire japanese staff
The Shenmue games have aged badly in many ways and were quite divisive at the time. Regardless, I absolutely adore the games. I can't think of another console so synonymous with a single game than the Dreamcast with Shenmue. Shenmue is one of the primary reasons why the Dreamcast is one of my top 3 consoles of all time, and I love the games just as much today, if not more, than I did 20+ years ago.
I was 4 too in 88 and red dwarf is one of my all time fave shows. I have and do the leaving an episode on while going to sleep... I also do it with buffy one of my other fave shows
I always remembered as Red Dwarf being much, much longer that it is shown here. Is it just me or have I been tainted by the remembrance of the Star Ward ships (and especially Spaceballs1)?
Did you watch the "remastered" episodes maybe? Most of the effects shots were redone with late 90s C.G and the ship was made much longer. I think it was also like that in series 7-8, although I've only really watched those once or twice. This stubby version is how it looked in the original 6 series.
When I was a kid, our local PBS station would play Red Dwarf like 10pm-ish, and sometimes do marathons of it even, for pledge drives. I always looked forward to it.
Watched the first episode when it aired and was hooked! I rate every season, some are better than others based on preference but each has it's moments, I've watched them through more times than I can remember.
