Movie/TV recommendations

[brkl]

Agreed about Death Race!

Ugh, the second episode of Back to Earth was gut-wrenchingly horrible. Built around Blade Runner spoofs :/ Eww eww eww.

[Ben X]

Agreed on Death Race! Phew!

Good point with the Pratchett quote, but then Dwarf also did evil twins in series 5!

I thought the new Doctor Who special was pretty good, apart from Lara fucking Croft being the temporary companion.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Things started getting a bit shaky in series 6, when they lost Red Dwarf and Holly and the whole thing became more gimmicky special-fx based. The wild west episode, although well written, is sometimes marked as the exact point where the ideas ran out.

Gunmen of the Apocalypse probably wouldn't feature in a list of my favourites Red Dwarf shows, but I also don't really care what Terry Pratchett says. Gunmen is actually widely considered to be one of the best RD episodes, if not THE best. It won an International Emmy, the only RD episode ever to do so. It also placed second (after Back to Reality) in a massive fan vote (that's out of 53 episodes). Second.

Series 6 also won Best BBC Comedy at the Best British Comedy Awards (the only RD series to do so) and had consistently the highest ratings in Red Dwarf's history. All this success directly led to NBC making a pilot for a US TV...

It is literally no exaggeration to say that Series 6 was the pinnacle of Red Dwarf's success. (Which is one of the reasons why the split between Naylor and Grant came as such a shock.) Quite the opposite of suggesting that it, or Gunmen, was where it "started to get a bit shaky".

Sorry to rag on you, but this was a pure

.

[DanJW]

No, fair enough. It never felt quite the same to me, but I'm prepared to accept that it was very popular. I'm a huge fan for life anyway, so whatever they make I will watch.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I also re-read the RD novels a while back, and reported on it in this zombie-cow thread. Here's what I said:

"Not enjoying the second novel as much - it's starting to feel a bit too much like lazy transcripts of various episodes."

It's true that they probably got a bit looser with cutting and pasting their scripts into the second book, but did you know that the whole White Hole storyline was actually written for the book? It's the only time they took an idea from one of the books and turned it into an episode.

"I'm reading Backwards now. As usual, the new bits are really good, the transcripts a bit rubbish. The other problem is that it takes too long over each section, doesn't have an overarching plot so it feels aimless, and it's forgotten to do character/comedy stuff as well as plot (perhaps with plot-man Naylor not supporting him, Grant overcompensated). It even has Rimmer being a bit too heroic and likeable quite often."

Just an FYI: There isn't a single line used from the TV series used in Backwards, and only four ideas. The only episode copied was Gunmen of the Apocalypse and it features all new dialogue, FWIW.

Also, there IS an over-arching storyline to Backwards, although I missed it the first time through: Rimmer's personality and neuroses actually act as a backbone for the entire book. It's quite a satisfying read when you realise it.

Last Human on the other-hand is outrageously guilty of copying from the series. Christ, I think there are moments where Doug Naylor spent more time removing "INT. NIGHT - RED DWARF CREW QUARTERS" than actually writing anything new. There's times where all he's done it add, "said Lister" or "said Kryten". Pretty amazing considering only co-wrote what he was using for his book. No wonder Rob Grant was annoyed with him (and subsequently didn't use any dialogue from the show in his book).

Good job on making it the end of Last Human. When I attempted it the second time, I just couldn't get through it.

[ThunderPeel2001]

No, fair enough. It never felt quite the same to me, but I'm prepared to accept that it was very popular. I'm a huge fan for life anyway, so whatever they make I will watch.

Lol. Same here, they've totally got me.

*Goes off to watch the final part of Back to Earth, which he didn't like at all.*

[Ben X]

A white hole?

[ThunderPeel2001]

That's right. Every action has an equal and opposite re-action...

(Let's stop this now.)

[ysbreker]

Speaking of english Sci-Fi. Did you guys see the Doctor Who easter special?

I rather liked it. Too bad Michelle Ryan isn't going to be a companion :/

The teaser for Waters of Mars shows that that one will be great aswell. Can't wait!

[brkl]

Agreed on Death Race! Phew!

Good point with the Pratchett quote, but then Dwarf also did evil twins in series 5!

I thought the new Doctor Who special was pretty good, apart from Lara fucking Croft being the temporary companion.

Not to mention the Magic Negro. But otherwise a good, if not great episode. God I love the intro music.

[Ben X]

Yeah, the psychic was completely pointless as well. Christ, Davies, can't you build a bit of suspense without resorting to hack cliches like that?

[toblix]

Just want to mention that anyone who stopped watching Dollhouse should get back in and at least watch it up until s01e09 before discounting it completely. The last episodes have been really great.

[DanJW]

Yeah it has definitely picked up.

--

Oh, and the twist at the end of Red Dwarf: Back to Earth was quite neat, I thought.

[nsps]

If you're willing to pinpoint the exact episode number at which it gets good, I might be willing to try it from there. But I found the eps I watched borderline unwatchable.

[toblix]

Just forget it, then. If you found any of it borderline unwatchable, I'd suggest it is "not for you".

[elmuerte]

Watched the 3 new Red Dwarf episodes/mini-series. Started out very very slow, second episode reached Red Dwarf quality, but episode 3 ruined it again. The whole story itself is actually quite lame, feels like a clip show from the past seasons.

[miffy495]

I'm really skeptical that any series could do a good feature-length whatever so many years after the original aired. Even Dead Like Me, one of my favorite shows in recent years, had a bad time going feature-length, and that only came out a few years after the show was canceled. I know I'm going to catch flak for it here, but I felt similarly about Serenity. There was simply too much to catch people who hadn't recently watched the series up on, and pretty much any show which tries this can't find a balance between getting newcomers up to speed and not boring those who are already familiar with it. I've loved Red Dwarf since being introduced to it back in junior high school, but I'm not even sure if I want to see this given how other series that I've loved have turned out in 90-minute serial form.

[SignorSuperdouche]

If you're willing to pinpoint the exact episode number at which it gets good, I might be willing to try it from there. But I found the eps I watched borderline unwatchable.

I've also found some of it borderline unwatchable, in particular episode 7, but episodes 8 and 9 are both really outstanding.

[nsps]

I've also found some of it borderline unwatchable, in particular episode 7, but episodes 8 and 9 are both really outstanding.

Funny—I was asking some friends if it got better and one of them said that it did…around episode seven.

I am a fan of Firefly and wanted to like Dollhouse, which is why I was thinking of giving it another shot. But if it's essential to watch all the previous episodes to appreciate the good stuff, then toblix is probably right and I should continue to stay away.

[brkl]

Uuugh, the third episode of Back to Earth is so bad. SO BAD. Just a terrible Blade Runner spoof, although much of it is verbatim copying without much effort to draw any humour from the material. The twist was okayish, really. Worlds above the rest.

[SignorSuperdouche]

But if it's essential to watch all the previous episodes to appreciate the good stuff, then toblix is probably right and I should continue to stay away.

Well if you roughly know who all the characters are you should be ok. The character development doesn't really start until episode 6 or 7 anyway. I'd suggest you watch episode 8 and see how you feel then.

[toblix]

Yes, it was always said the series would pick up with episode 6, and it turns out whoever said so were right. I'd say it gets good from 6-7, but I'd also say that I would think anyone who found any of the previous ones unwatchable should stay away regardless. Maybe I'm just overreacting to the word "unwatchable". Also I'm reacting to starting to watch a series six episodes in, which I don't understand.

Okay, the one with the pop singer was unwatchable.

[Nachimir]

Back to Earth

The only moment when it seemed itself, for the entire three episodes, was when Lister got Rimmer to thrust against the corner of the table.

[ThunderPeel2001]

It sounds like I'm in a vast minority, here... But! I actually quite enjoyed the "multiverse" explanation where they created OUR universe. Everything surrounding it was crap, to be sure, but that was a tasty little nugget, I felt.

[brkl]

The Caprica 90 minute pilote is out. It's actually promising in many ways. I won't say much about it, but as a detail the Galactica composer has done some wonderful work for it.