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Comment by JojoFatsani | Hacker News Reader

There was nothing like Red Dwarf on TF (British or American) back then - a laugh-tracked show that could be simultaneously the most hilarious dry wit, not-so-dry bawdy humor, and a compelling and thought-provoking sci-fi action-adventure all at the same time.

I fell off it after they had that comeback season roughly in 2000 where the whole ship got revived. Then I saw a few clips from a later season where everyone was pretty schlubby. I'll need to track down some way to re-watch the whole thing.

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Very on topic: Rob Grant left the show after the sixth series. I think the lack of his influence was immediately apparent, a lot of the depth was lost. Like how the transition from series 2 to series 3 got a lot more action-y, 6 to 7 started to lean more on established tropes etc (IMO).

Also of note: Grant and Naylor wrote a series of Red Dwarf novels that were surprisingly good. They really fleshed out a lot of the character behind Lister and Rimmer. One novel goes deep on the concept of Better than Life, a one episode throwaway in the show but expanded to true horror in the novel.

They split (same time as they split on the show) and wrote separate novels in different continuity in the end. IMO Grant’s was notably better.

A bit ironic that one of the reasons to leave the show is as he expressed "a wish to have more on his tombstone than just Red Dwarf"

He was involved with Spitting Image back in the day as was Steve Coogan. One of the best British comedy shows in the eighties.

I read the books as a young teenager in highschool before watching the TV show. I loved the books!

Actually, I realised I lie, I did occasionally watch a few of them in primary school. I remembered being absolutely terrified of Polymorph.

I watched the whole lot thanks to lockdown. I used to like up until series six or so, but had a look at the later ones. Yes, the actors certainly all look more "lived in" nowadays.

The later series/seasons are very uneven, which surprised me. I stopped watching originally around when Chloe Annette's Kochanski was introduced but I was surprised that instead of a steady decline that the quality was very up and down.

I rewatch it a lot and the only season I skip is 9. There are a couple bad later episodes I'll skip but there are more than a few bangers in the later seasons.

Ditto here, season 9 ("Back to Earth") is the only one I have no desire to rewatch.

Season 12 is particularly good though. In my opinion, the first and last episodes of that season are among the funniest they've ever done!

IIRC that was the one with the absurd "Photo Enhance" scene for which I think the episode more than justifies itself?

Yes. Kryten had definitely been at the pies

Robert has a whole set of youtube channels on electric vehicles and other renewable technology. It’s quite impressive what he does now but I always see Kryten in him, strange.

https://youtu.be/TUi03zA4DAM?si=F55U2fbHjGcksHaK

He's done a lot of things, but for my money the "Scrapheap Challenge" show was his best.

(This is a show where two teams are left inside a scrapheap and given a day, or so, to build a contraption/device.)

He was just so enthusiastic about all the teams, and seemed genuinely interested in both the design, the building, and the performance of whatever it was they were being challenged to build.

Didn't it move to the US as Junkyard wars with Henry Rollins?

I just searched wikipedia and saw that it did:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapheap_Challenge

But I can't say I've ever heard of that before, or seen any. I used to watch the UK series while having lazy breakfasts every Sunday morning with my then-partner.

That was always a nice treat for us both.

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