It’s the all important information that we’ve been waiting on and at last we have definitive confirmation; Red Dwarf XI starts at 9PM on the 22nd September on Dave
Ish.
The date was confirmed today by Dave in this video.
Firstly then, let’s deal with the content of the clip. A lovely model shot that seems to be the result of the motion capture shoot with the new bigature that we’ve seen a photo of. The structure of the side of the ship seems to be different from before, and we previously noticed some minor differences when we picked apart the name plate, which in this clip has been digitally replaced with one sporting the channels name.
There’ll be some interesting evaluation of the new model to be made with new clips and higher quality video, but it’s all looking rather nice in that short clip.
But back to the airdate. Not far removed from when Series X aired, the autumn season is typically a good one for new series of comedy shows, and it’s a perfect home for Series XI. For the fact fans among you, the other series to air in the second half of the year have been II, III, VI and X. All others have aired between January and April.
However all of this comes with something of a large side note, as the first episode will be viewable on UKTV Play from the 15th. Each week after this, each episode will be available on UKTV Play 7 days before it airs on TV as confirmed by Doug on Twitter.
Red Dwarf XI is on @UKTVPlay from Sept 15th. #reddwarfxi, #rouge one(small)
— Doug Naylor (@DougRDNaylor) August 12, 2016
@pendo86 One show a week, each week, 7 days ahead of TX.
— Doug Naylor (@DougRDNaylor) August 12, 2016
Online premieres of shows shouldn’t be a surprise, and it’s certainly not the first time that UKTV have done it for one of their shows. But to do it for the whole series? It certainly feels an odd choice.
Don’t get us wrong, we fully understand that a lot of people’s television habits have changed in the last 10 years, and for many, online catchup services are the way that they enjoy their television shows. But to put the whole series out early online seems to undermine the excitement of new episodes, and makes each ones airing far less of an event.
Perhaps we are stuck in our ways, but it’s not something that we were expecting in 3 million years. It’s not going to change the fact that we are excited about the new episodes, but it does feel like we’ve lost something of the experience we had last time with Series X, and the sense of occasion that a TV premier allowed.
Aside from this big news though, there have also been a couple of smaller stories since last Friday’s update. Firstly, alongside the Twentica screening at the Edinburgh International Television Festival and the September screening at BAFA, Doug is also scheduled to talk about the new series at the Starburst International Film Festival in Manchester on the 28th August. Details and tickets can be found here.
Speaking of Doug, ardent Twitter-profile-stalkers-for-tiny-tidbits-of-news will doubtless have spotted that his profile presently has a previously unseen picture of the new Starbug model as it’s cover photo:
Elsewhere online, a picture has appeared from the 3D printing department at Pinewood, with their snazzy crew t-shirts that we’re desperately envious of:
And finally, there’s this story in the Lancashire Telegraph of a school governor being banned from school grounds after wearing a ‘Lets get out there and twat it’ t-shirt at the school’s sports day.
The old ‘any publicity is good publicity’ adage seems apt here, especially with a new series on the way and a story like this reminding casual fans of the show before it airs. That said, the description of the t-shirts slogan as ‘extremely foul and offensive language’ makes the show sound more akin to The Thick of It than Red Dwarf.
Now if someone can do something else foolish like changing their name to Reg Wharf (though that’s a task for TORDFC chairman James Bull), then we can fill out the local news channels. Today Lancashire, tomorrow… Yorkshire?