Red Dwarf cancelled! :(

[NeanderCarl]

This isn't NEW news, it's a few months old, but I never brought it up on here.

The BBC have rejected Doug Naylor's request to finally commission series 9 of Red Dwarf after nearly a decade of the Red Dwarf Movie being in limbo, claiming that they now want to appeal to a different audience.

This, despite it being BBC2's longest running and most successful sitcom, one of BBC2's highest rating shows of all time and one of the BBC's most successful international exports. What a bunch of morons. They could probably pay the budget for a new series using just a portion of the money they made on the last DVD release. Wankers.

[NeanderCarl]

Plus, add in the fact that the last series ended on a fucking CLIFFHANGER. A CLIFFHANGER! You can't just let a show end after 20 years on a cliffhanger. If it was a make-your-own-mind-up cliffhanger, like the Butterfly Effect or some shit, then I'd say fair enough but this is such a specific cliffhanger it needs a resolution, as anyone who watches the show will know what I mean. BBC are wankers.

[Outsider]

Series 9 was the only chance of them rectifying the terrible situation of finishing the saga with series 8, which was shite.

[Drakul]

Thats pretty annoying. Is there no chance of them reversing the decision or even just making a straight to DVD movie to wrap things up?

[Tornado]

Yeah Series 8 was utter shite, except for Krytie TV. Series 5 & 6 were the peak. It's been so long since I could actually bother to watch Series 8, that I can't remember how it ends.

[El Vaquero de Infierno]

It has had its day.

Watch reruns on the DAVE channel.

[Kane Knight]

I do very much love the "appeal to a different audience" deal.

But seeing as how I already thought it was cancelled, I can't get too worked up.

[Ogen]

It ran its course and people tried to hang on but near the end it got shite.

[Dave Youell]

It wasn't good since series 6, I'm glad.

[NeanderCarl]

Series 7 was admittedly a down point, mainly because there were too many changes and it no longer felt like Red Dwarf, but I don't get everybody knocking series 8. I thought it was a return to form, almost a return to the more claustrophobic appeal of the first two seasons. Sure, it turned the show on it's head setting it in prison (talk about a gamble) but it went back to 'humour first, sci-fi later' rather than the sci-fi drama of series 7.

In any case, Red Dwarf is a show that reinvents itself on a regular basis, and the series closer brought an end to the prison scenario anyway, meaning that series 9 would have a new situation all over again. Now we'll never know.

[NeanderCarl]

It's been so long since I could actually bother to watch Series 8, that I can't remember how it ends.

Lister, Cat, Kryten and Kochanski had crossed into an alternate dimension but their portal was damaged and they were stuck. The only person able to save them was Rimmer, but he was stuck on the infected Red Dwarf which was rotting away. The grim reaper arrived to kill him, but Rimmer kicked him in the balls and run off to try and save the ship. The graphic read "The End...... The Smeg It Is!" and on this "to be continued" we fade out, never to find out what happened next.

The logical conclusion for the series finale is for the crew to get back to Earth, the entire objective of the whole show... maybe they will find the funding somewhere for a straight-to-DVD finale.

[Kane Knight]

Maybe they could splice together some scenes from "Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars."

[Mr Regal]

I dislike the series where the crew of red dwarf come back...i thought that was wank.

[NeanderCarl]

While we're on the subject of Red Dwarf, I've been watching the pilots for Red Dwarf USA and they suck... sure, the mish-mash scripts stink, but the piss poor casting was the biggest problem.

So my question to you is, assuming they are going to produce another US bastardization of Red Dwarf (which to my knowledge they aren't, but let's assume they are and there's nothing you can do about it so just answer the fucking question!) who would you cast in the lead roles? Assuming you can use any US based actor/actress currently alive, be they TV or movie actors.

I'd probably go with:

Lister - Jack Black
Rimmer - Steve Carell
Kryten - Ryan Stiles
Kochanski - Elisha Cuthbert (not because she suits the role but, yeahhh, just 'coz she be hawt)
Holly - Leslie Nielsen

I'm really stuck for a Cat. I don't wanna just go down the obvious route and pick a high-profile black dude, just because the British actor is black... but then I can't even think of a white actor who could pull off Cat either.

[NeanderCarl]

Ha! I got my dude to play Cat!

Ernest Miller.