Whilst I haven't seen it yet, the broadcasting of 'Skipper' brings the total number of Red Dwarf episodes to 73. Why is this significant? There were 36 episodes written by 'Grant Naylor' which means there are now 37 that have been written by him alone or with him as 'head writer' at least. I think that deserves a hearty round of applause.
Thats actually more depressing then it should be. Just means 37 episodes and they still ain't at the quality of 1-6
I posted about this in a fb group a few weeks back. I do like newer Red Dwarf but it's sadeto me that B game red dwarf outnumbers A game red dwarf. At one time it was like Red Dwarf is amazing apart from these few episodes lately. Now it's like Red dawrf is .... not bad.... some of the old ones were great
I still think Good Dwarf outweighs Bad Dwarf. There were some pretty decent episodes in Series 11 and 12.
Congratulations, but I don't think this is whag Doug wanted, split up with his long-time working mate and friend and write the show for another 20 years alone...
I think there are many factors that come into play when it comes to whether Doug wanted to write the show alone. In the early days around series 7 onwards maybe he was abit reluctant but since he started the movie project i wouldn't be surprised if he much prefers it now since after all he took on directing duty too. He also is speaking about the show as if he doesn't want to stop making it and will keep making it aslong as he and the cast are capable of doing so and how much freedom there is in writing the show alone.
Half of series 7 and 8 were excellent which is what you would expect when you have just lost one half of the Lennon and McCartney of TV. BtE - while the weakest Red Dwarf (mini)-series - is not bad and an expansion of the more dramatic style of series 7 with quite an okay plot. Series 10 is a very solid foundation for the two most recent series which had only 1 episode which I was not as keen on, namely Can of Worms (it could go up to two though if either Siliconia fails to grow on me or Timewave goes down in my estimation). Series 11 and 12 - while perhaps not one hundred per cent up there with the Rob Grant co-writes - were excellent Red Dwarf material and definitely the strongest it has been since twenty-odd years ago which is remarkable. Give and Take is the finest Red Dwarf episode since series 6 too! So overall, Doug Naylor-solo has still provided rather a lot of quality RD amongst a bit/some dross and I am especially very satisfied by the two most recent series! If Doug Naylor was completely useless as some have said then the show would never surely have carried on for nigh on thirty years!
Or you just have very forgiving fans who are willing to look past the weak to keep the show going and hoping to see the show return to quality.
If you say so, but I feel that Red Dwarf 10, 11 and 12 have been enough of a success to show that Red Dwarf is still regarded highly by a reasonably good number of people and most critics. Even series 8 got its highest viewing figures ever at 8 million and even BtE pulled in a massive number for a non-mainstream channel.
What an insulting and frankly patronising comment. Have you heard anyone ever be “forgiving” about series 8?!?
Fans have looked past series 8, I'd say that was fairly forgiving. The ending cliffhanger wasn't resolved and Doug doesn't seem to want to resolve it which most fans by now have been become fairly accepting of rather then holding it against Doug.