Indeed. In this version the jaunt into the mirror universe to find the antidote wasn't pointless, it ends in a way that makes sense, the gang's still together and they've rid themselves of their captors.... in short it's an ending that actually leaves you looking forward to what's ahead next season. The version we got was just noisy confusing, downbeat spectacle that made me wonder why we bothered watching the previous 7 episodes for the sake of no coherent outcome.
For anyone that doesn't know, there were 4 endings for series 8. First was the shown ending Second was this Third was the shown ending but cut to an earlier point (where rimmer says smeg as the formula burns) And fourth which was never filmed was having our Ace come and save the day
I had an idea that involved Ace coming back to help, but results in both him and our resurrected Rimmer dying and both getting revived through the hologram system into the same Rimmer, because that makes sense to me as the Rimmer in the new series seems to have memories only Ace could have and remembers the ending to series 8, something only the recreated Rimmer could have. Although Ace couldn't return back to his universe, I could imagine him pulling it off by going to this opposite universe and using the mirror to return to his/our one. (I know there has been many many Ace Rimmers, and the first one we see can't go back to his home via the means he left it....I don't really know if that applies to all the Rimmers, probably best to think it does.)
I prefer this ending as canon, but the actual ending they went with is much more memorable and dramatic. It'll have increased their chances at making another series if there was demand to know what happened too which was probably a factor. I cheered so hard the first time saw that ending though where Rimmer kicks him in the nuts and says that classic line, "only the good die young"...what a moment!
The problem is, a demand to know what happened next after a cliffhanger, can if left unresolved too long, just lead to frustration, losing faith it'll ever happen (the longer something goes unresolved, the more of a mammoth task it seems to follow it up) and eventually no longer caring. For me it was doubly so because we'd already had a cliffhanger followed by hiatus after Series 6, and whilst I waited that out, I think after this I was just frustrated that after all that waiting they were doing it to us again.
Yeh it mystifies me why they'd change this proper conclusion for the nonsense they made the official ending cos it didn't get them another series for a decade so it did nothing but piss off a lot of fans, and neither Back to Earth nor series 10 did anything to address it either.
Well, Hollister did desert his command; Captains are supposed to go-down *with* the ship. Hollister was more interested in saving his-own skin. Now, he's forfeited his ship.
Red dwarf fan for 15 years and I just now saw this ending for the first time. The true ending for series 8 and the proper ending. The actual Only The Good ending always struck me as being thrown together at the last minute, and now I know why. It was! Naylor's artistic sense by season 7 was complete and utter shash and that was the result.
i like it it explains alot but its more fun for the nxt series when rimmer goes to explain how they got out of it and lister cuts him off and we never hear how he did it lol
Cat cuts him off actually and I don't find that funny as much as a big fuck you to the fans by cheating them of any explanation to something that was left unresolved for a decade. It's just lazy frankly.
Not quite. In this version Rimmer is in no mortal danger in the end, so it doesn't quite follow why he's a hologram again in seasons after (in the transmitted version it's a conclusive leap that he did die). Also there's dialogue in the Series 10 episode The Beginning in which we're nearly given an explanation for what happened after the cliffhanger, indicating it's the cliffhanger version that happened. Not this one.
Doug Naylor is the culprit the only problem with this show was the frankly lazy attitude towards continuity, Rob Grant saw no importance in worrying about it at all and Doug set up cliff hangers at the ends of series that he then either gave half arsed explanations for or none at all next series. They're both bad writers in that respect and it's contemptuous towards the fans who support this show.
Well I like BTE even less than series 8 so no that doesn't work for me. I don't like meta humour, BTE mixed too much reality of the show and Chris's acting career in with the in world show, would rather ignore that one if anything. @Stefano Pavone
This wasn't even the ending that the final one replaced; there was a THIRD, as far as I know totally unseen, ending filmed where original Rimmer, as Ace, returns to save the day. The reshoot with Death was literally last-minute, after all other filming had done, and it was so slapdash that it wasn't even an actor under the hood, it was Ed Bye, the producer. But why? Even the Ace ending would have been better than what they did! (source: The DVD this extra comes from, all the cast/crew interviews)
@The SNES Man Yes, this is pretty much true. Doug Naylor was at this point obsessed with getting a film made, and was trying his hardest to push the production value of the show to impress Hollywood executives and convince them to fund it. The CGI dinosaur was apparently one of his ideas to accomplish this. This was also why Pete was a two part episode
@The SNES Man I'm not sure we can hope for conclusive answers like that, given that they've ironed over other wrinkles like the two Rimmers (the revival series Rimmer seems to have memories of both the original and the resurrected one from S8) for the sake of convenience. Still, we can live in hope
I still think they could have made more episodes off the back of this ending! 2 more episodes would be amazing, maybe with them finally returning home? Red Dwarf is one of those shows that, however naff it is, people still absolutely love it!
Technically, they've already been 'home' in the Backwards episode. I've watched it recently (I know, 15 years after your post!) and Kryten explained in that episode that after the universe had reached its peak expansion, everything began to contract and time was now running backwards so that Earth they were on was the ACTUAL Earth but 3million years in the future. That's one (REALLY NERDY on my part!) point but another point is that the creators have said they don't want to have an actual 'ending' officially. In the Red Dwarf Omnibus book which I used to have, (published in 1992 so forgive my spoilers!), the story also ends on Earth with time running backwards.
this ending is much funnier, plus it makes more sense with how they are all still together in season 10, instead of rimmer being dead, or being stranded after they went to the mirror universe and the machine blew up
I remember telling my brother about this episode ending on an unresolved cliffhanger and he said maybe that was funnier. Yeah, he was right. On its face, this is funny, but the ending they went with is more memorable.
true in the sense of memorable, hey it kept us hanging on for years! suppose it did exactly what it was supposed to do when you think a bout it! great point
People keep saying this ending makes more sense because they think the whole crew died in the shown ending That one made sense because in back to earth Rimmer is a hologram Because he died in this season And the others survived because they were in the other place thingy at the time
I enjoyed all 7, 8 and (so far) 10 but I do think series 6 had the best ending. That 'did they die or not' cliffhanger, plus Rimmer's chance to be heroic made it a great final ending in my opinion.
Thanks for upload. This is much better than the ending they used. It's like back to the good old days when the crew was dead... now only if they got rid of Kochanski.
Why did they not use this one at the end? It would have made more sense for them to use it because then Series 9 would have made more sense. Of course, in Season 9, Rimmer is a hologram again, so that doesn't make much sense. Then if he was killed by death, that could explain why he is a hologram, but how were the others revived?
10 years had passed between this Series 8 and Back To Earth (Series 9), just like in real life. So yeah a lot of stuff happened (such as the Dave-Kochanski romance). Rimmer getting himself killed (AGAIN!) like he did in Series 3 Timeslides isn't that surprising. Remember, he got the entire crew killed in the first place! Remember, Red Dwarf isn't about sensible and intelligent stories. Remember when Dave got pregnant by his female Alternate Universe counterpart? They never really explained how that got resolved! Except in high speed Star Wars scroll!
Here is something I am not sure of: I have the Red Dwarf season 9 "Back to Earth" on DVD. It is Season 9 because there wasn't any other Season called Season 9. I think there is a misprint, but it is also stated in the movie, when Lister reads the back of the movie case. If you look on the back of the package, it says that it took place after season X, which is season 10. Why would it not have taken place after season 8? Season 10 didn't come out until 2012. The DVD Back To Earth came out circa 2009, so wouldn't it have made more sense for them to say it took place after season 8. If it took place after season 10, they probably would have found the video on Blue Ray and not DVD, think of that.
Michael Hambrook That whole adventure on Earth was just a Hope Squid induced shared hallucination, so what's the point? They could have called Series X, Series XVIII and it would have made sense since the mini-series acknowledged that ten years had passed for the characters since Series VIII. Red Dwarf is an absurdest comedy, like Futurama*, Family Guy, American Dad and The Simpsons. Yeah its good and fulfilling to appreciate chronological canon but reading too much into everything kills the fun! In that spirit, you notice whenever they begin to talk about how Rimmer saved the Red Dwarf from the metal eating virus in the last episode of Series VIII, "Only The Good..." (i.e. THIS ENDING) something interrupts them? Just enjoy the ride! * The final episode of Futurama is a great example of how to end a series emotionally but make it possible to create future episodes later without violating any continuity rules.
Actually, answer me this: It says on the back of Red Dwarf: Back to Earth that it takes place after season X, which is season 10. It was made before Season 10 was made, so why doesn't it say it was made after season VIII (Season 8)?
I used to feel sure this ending was better. I think the main reason for that it offers resolution. People especially like this ending in hindsight because we've been left without the cliffhanger version totally resolved for over ten years, so I'm pretty sure hindsight plays a part in that regard. Still, is Rimmer kicking death in the balls not at least a little cool?
I like the idea that it ends with them being victorious, but I can also see how this ending slowed down the action quite a lot by requiring everyone to stop what they were doing so that Rimmer could memorize the formula. Everyone's life is on the line, and they're sitting around bored? Doesn't seem realistic, even in this wacky universe.
There are a number of things he could have done, like ask for the mirror version of the virus so that it comes out as the antidote. However, he's not smart enough.
At first I thought this was the better ending. I'm not as sure now. Knocking death in the nuts is one of the coolest things ever. I love the Reaper's last line: "That's never happened before." Also, that vending machine is one of the funniest things about Series VIII. "Alert, alert, a Choci-Nut Bar has been stolen without payment!"
Yeah after the endings of series 6 and 7 I just wanted to see them relax, I felt cheated - this ending is less messy & more satisfying. Nice having Rimmer rub it in the captain's face
Why couldn't he have just got the formula for the virus in the mirror universe? Then, when he came back, it would have become the formula for the antidote.
formula was backward when he returned, oh I see your point. he was too much of a rimmer to work that out and by the time he got back the machine was coroded
I do like how even Kryten, Kochanski and even Lister heard of Cesiumfrancolithicmyxialobidiumrixidixidoxidexidroxhide. and how even Cat heard of the one that its not to be confused with but i like the suspense that the chosen Only The Good ending has =) ♥ Red Dwarf and can't wait for Series X!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The RU-vid subtitles are awesome! It the antidote called "Alone says in front of the mix it with the the rigidity doxie taxi driver side". Or is it; "Since in front of it makes the end of the idea mix cd two dogs see Brookside"?
nah i think that the original rimmer is still ace, the nanobot resurrected rimmer died and a new hologram that had all of the rimmer's memories was made
I thought maybe this could've had both endings mixed in like when Hollister looks out of the window, maybe he could've shot the lasers at Red Dwarf and it started to blow up, then Death comes and says" The crew of Red Dwarf, your lives are over." then Rimmer kicks him in the groin
In my head canon, this is the actual ending and the ending we saw in the original was a hallucination in Rimmer's head as a result of being hit by that can the vending machine. fired at him. The can also killed him which is how he became a hologram again (and is also why he meets death in the hallucination).
I take it you've read the beginning of series 3 titles that confirm that Lister did give birth to the twins, they grew up very fast in our universe and were taken to the female Lister dad!
Funny how if this aired we'd probably have accepted MODEL SHOT as a special effect. They could have put a Red Dwarf christmas ornament on a string and swung it back and forth and I'd love it. As far as I'm concerned the characters are all that really matter anyway.
If I remember correctly, when Kryten built the machine in order so they could all transpose dimensions to search for the antidote, Rimmer was the first to step through before the machine suddenly blew up. Theoretically, in order to avoid it blowing up a second time due to an overload of information, and thus run the risk of someone getting injured, Kryten could have programmed only Rimmers bodyweight into the machine as Rimmer was the one who had already gone through. Thats just my theory anyway
This makes a lot more sense and is also hilarious, but part of me really likes the used ending too. I feel like this still needed a bit more explaining as to how Rimmer died again (knowing how useless he is the can of soda probably did it) but it’s really interesting to see it and it really helps explain the gap between Season 8 and later Red Dwarf seasons. Still though, nothing will ever top Rimmer KICKING DEATH IN THE BOLLOCKS and running off screen, that’s just hilarious. That ending never made much sense to me though because it explained how Rimmer died but not now the rest of the crew made it back into the normal universe on a fully repaired Red Dwarf without the crew.
Shouldn't Kochanski have been put in charge of the remaining crew of five? Highest ranking surviving member of the crew, that was the premise that had Rimmer acting s captain in the early series.
You know, just because the rule book states that those with the more pips and ribbons takes command in a situation (emergency or not), doesn't mean the Higher Ranking Officer wants to. Kechanski may have said "me? Officer in Command? Bugger that, he wants it, he can have it!"
Maybe K just didn't care that much. Or maybe she was in charge, but let Rimmer use Hollister's room because she liked her own, and Kryten would take orders from anyone.
I think, considering the original ending was kind of a cliffhanger that went no where (Like most episodes right?) This one was the better one, at least it was a bit more happier~ Plus we're back to where we started, they have full run of Red Dwarf xD
they SO shoulda used that ending! but just imagine how heartbreaking it must have been for craig, robert and annett having remembered that chemicals name only for it to not make the final cut lmao!
