Quote: Jennie @ July 26 2013, 7:45 PM BST

Cassandra is easily the best episode in this series. Whilst there were some good performances, I think the return to Red Dwarf took something away from the show. Being trapped in the claustrophobic Star Bug, with constant threats from the outside world and constant irritations from within, brought the best out of this show.

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Except they'd tried to carry on doing that in Series 7 and it failed miserably. I applaud them for trying to take the show in a slightly different direction even if it didn't always work. Being an artist means trying new stuff eveven if it doesn't always pay off.

Although I seem to remember being trapped was still a large part of the dynamic to the extent they wound up prison.

Quote: chipolata @ July 28 2013, 11:06 AM BST

Except they'd tried to carry on doing that in Series 7 and it failed miserably. I applaud them for trying to take the show in a slightly different direction even if it didn't always work. Being an artist means trying new stuff eveven if it doesn't always pay off.

Although I seem to remember being trapped was still a large part of the dynamic to the extent they wound up prison.

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They kept the prison dynamic so Lister and Rimmer could share a bunk again.

Fundamentally, there were two problems from series 7 onwards:

1) No Rob Grant

2) No studio audience.

The writing wasn't up to scratch, and a studio audience, for all that it is no longer trendy, keeps you honest. If it's funny, they'll laugh.

(Although from my recent experiences of attending the recording of a studio sitcom, they will laugh whatever. You are very clearly told at the start that you must laugh like a banshee at absolutely everything).

Series 8 was in front of an audience I think. The main problem was no Rob Grant, and making changes that didn't really work.

Quote: Jennie @ July 28 2013, 2:58 PM BST

They kept the prison dynamic so Lister and Rimmer could share a bunk again.

Fundamentally, there were two problems from series 7 onwards:

1) No Rob Grant

2) No studio audience.

The writing wasn't up to scratch, and a studio audience, for all that it is no longer trendy, keeps you honest. If it's funny, they'll laugh.

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I wouldn't disagree with that, but would say that Naylor realised it wasn't working and tried something new. That's an admirable quality, regardless of how well it turned out (and it didn't turn out as badly as the die hard Dwarfers sometimes make out).

Cassandra and Krytie TV were good IMO - in that order. Other than that, meh. The Captain annoyed the hell out of me - just thoroughly unfunny, the scenes involving him.

Quote: Maurice Moss @ July 31 2013, 4:24 PM BST

The Captain annoyed the hell out of me - just thoroughly unfunny, the scenes involving him.

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Sad lowpoint for me is the scene where they're doing a medical check on Cat. They realize Cat isn't only cool and sexy looking but his heartbeat is funky as well. The whole scene is cringeworthy and unfunny but the captain trying to dance to the rhythm makes me want to throw up. It's not the actors' fault though...the 6 years old child that wrote that scene is to blame.

Another painfully overlong unfunny scene involving the captain is when Rimmer is doing his extra long military salute.

Quote: chipolata @ July 29 2013, 10:43 AM BST

I wouldn't disagree with that, but would say that Naylor realised it wasn't working and tried something new. That's an admirable quality, regardless of how well it turned out (and it didn't turn out as badly as the die hard Dwarfers sometimes make out).

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The problem with series 8 was that it was just OK. Classic Red Dwarf is arguably some of the best sitcom ever written. When they got it right, it was hysterically funny.

This was just OK.

I completely gave up on series 8. One long cringe fest.

Mind you, even at its best there's something a bit cringeworthy about Red Dwarf.