Red Dwarf - Series 7 - Back From The Dead - The Making Of Series 7

A "making of" documentary that covers all aspects of the making of Red Dwarf, Series 7. Taken from the commercial 3-disc DVD release of Red Dwarf, Series 7.
To watch more Red Dwarf videos that KZbin has blocked, visit my Dailymotion channel at www.dailymotio....

[@misterwishart]

27:27 - Weirdly, I think Ed's response here is pretty telling of the attitude around Season 7 and onwards. If you go back to the earlier seasons documentaries, you hear the cast talking about how seriously Grant and Naylor took their concepts and applied them rigidly to their scripts. It was never "Who cares, we made it up anyway", they put thought and effort into it and could usually field off the crew's questions. I've seen the excuse of "the rule of funny" but the reason Red Dwarf was such a classic with a dedicated fanbase was because it wasn't *just* a sitcom, it did the work to introduce sci-fi concepts with a level of internal consistency that paid off with greater audience engagement.

[@kellyjeaularson5786]

No matter what genre a writer writes, continuity is a must.

[@brianm2881]

There are loads of inconsistencies in Red Dwarf, to be fair, even going back before the time drive. For example, in Kryten, Kryten is shown to break his programming at the end of that very episode, telling off Rimmer, before driving off on a motorbike, dressed in leather, yet in subsequent episodes, he can barely tell a lie and has to break his programming all over again. So, there wasn't as much internal consistency as you think, even before S7. And, anyway, Ed Bye would be the wrong man to confront because he's a director and it's not his job to maintain logical plot consistency across episodes and series. That's really more up to the writer(s). Red Dwarf was just one of the many things he directed/produced.

[@kellyjeaularson5786]

@@brianm2881 👍

[@dr.feelgoodmalusphillips2475]

​@brianm2881 They did actually explain why Kryten was different from Series 2-3 by saying after he crashed Lister's space bike, Lister was unable to restore his original personality in the opening crawl of Backwards, so Kryten went back to being his original self, albeit a bit different.

[@zoekm]

I always find that such a weird idea, "we all made it up anyway".. EastEnders is completely made up, but you can't have a wizard teleporting into Albert Square. That said, the guy saying he stopped watching because of that, is totally over the top.

[@adminimer5176]

This is one of the best docu-series made about a great TV show, I really enjoyed every bit of it. Glad everyone participated!

[@mooman9087]

I don't really have the proper words to describe Red Dwarf or the joy it has given me over the years. I feel like the best way I can put it... The entire team involved just loved what they were doing and gave it their all. Every single one of them made the show what it was, every single one of them is special. It is genuinely one of my favorite shows to ever have existed, the characters are hilarious and the stories are the same as well as thought provoking (when there're not for pure comedy)

[@flyingatom5596]

Series 7, has some of my fav episodes I remember dying when i saw BLUE I still ring the song every now and again

[@davidmackenzie9899]

Tikka to ride is a masterpiece. Starts with list mourning curry, ends with Kennedy assassinating himself. It is an incredible but of writing.

[@LTPottenger]

Aside from the show being great, it's surprising how well spoken and likeable every single person involved with it seems to be!

[@RAFMnBgaming]

"so we wrote a scene inspired by james bond where ace rimmer surfs a crocodile" "It ended up looking a little cheesy"

[@similarart1074]

Great scene 🎉🎉🎉

[@RemusKingOfRome]

Great review, loved the Red Dwarf Series.

[@davethomas8410]

The fake crodile was hilarious 😂 I still love that scene to this day

[@Mark-lj1dj]

One of my all time favourite red dwarf scenes. Series 7 was very well done

[@Dennis-555]

The modern motorbike in the early 1900's, classic.

[@alanbeckett4]

I think Doug has missed the point, regretting that it was cheesy. Ace Rimmer is the cheesiest comic invention in Sci Fi! What did he want, Ace to 'realistically' sky surf on a 'realistic' looking crocodile?

[@Allie-w1l]

@@alanbeckett4 Yes, that would be much more realistic! 😜

[@pinkfloyd870]

The cheesy croc was epic....

[@chrismorse2617]

The tank that kryten drives is now in the dezerland park in Florida

[@davidmackenzie9899]

It's the same tank from the same bond film Goldeneye.

[@hanniffydinn6019]

I’ve rewatched red dwarf more then Star Trek, well anything really! A masterpiece of fun! The older series 100% hold up, it’s so well written! 👍👍👍👍😎😎😎😎😂😂😂😂

[@tilasole3252]

This and Are You Being Served I've seen dozens of times. But unlike the later AYBS episodes after Mr Lucas left, Red Dwarf all the way through is still pretty good.

[@johnking5174]

Don Henderson who played the simulant sadly died a year after filming his Red Dwarf scenes. Series 7 was filmed in 1996 and Don died in June 1997. He had throat cancer, which was very noticeable in his scenes on Red Dwarf, his voice was going as mentioned by Craig.

[@kylerennie30]

As horrible as it may sound, the vocal issue brought on by the throat cancer actually made his character a fair bit scarier.

[@dragondaveltd1992]

This series 7 was actually my first introduction to Red Dwarf (and look back it now, I understand on why most fans overlooked this and prefer the original ending to Series 6 and Skipped over to Series X)

[@catfactsuk]

thanks for uploading

[@RandallFlagg1972]

You are very welcome!

[@RandallFlagg1972]

You are very welcome!

[@KatMusic2009]

Gary Martin was Vince Fontaine in the musical GREASE when it returned to the west end in 1993.

[@SAMwise-ps6zo]

thank you thank you thank you! ive been hoping to find this as my dvd is scratched to hell in this area

[@Allie-w1l]

This is the first time I've heard that Chris Barrie wanted to leave the show. I kind of wish I had not found out. I thought they loved working on it together.

[@r.folkefiende]

​@wwemusicfanCnot to mention all his work doing Brittas at the same time as well.

[@hectorpascal]

For many actors, the thought of becoming burnt out AND typecast (in any form) is a fate worse than any other in their profession.

[@Allie-w1l]

@@hectorpascal That's a good point. Sometimes I forget I have the point-of-view of a fan. For actors, being in the same role for most of their life may start to feel a bit like career failure.

[@Ray_D_Tutto]

He came back though. He clearly loves working with the other guys. He just needed a break.

[@Allie-w1l]

@@Ray_D_Tutto True!

[@tilasole3252]

Chlöe Annette is truly a gorgeous woman and funny to boot

[@Diablo_Himself]

1:40 Who is that actor without glasses...? I've seen him in something. 22:56 Beautiful car! Chevrolet...? Chloe Annett...I love you! x

[@ClubCatJohnKite]

I love the story lines of seasons 7 and 8. I always like the unexpected plots of Red Dwarf.

[@pkpckls]

1:14:20 Not to be unkind to the bloke, but I think Epideme could have been quite a good episode if it hadn't been for Gary Martin's ridiculously OTT voice over.

[@gr8witenorth61]

i have been watching chateau diaries, for quite a while, and if anyone has ever noticed the name of the friges, they use in their video''s ????

[@darthkahn45]

I love how Craig and Chris didn't particularly get on to begin with and slowly warmed to eachother as the series' went on. The fact that they were probably at their closest by S7-8 so that kiss was like the culmination of their journey together.

[@TheLazyCostumer]

smeggin' brilliant that is

[@lforster2]

I loved it

[@SAMwise-ps6zo]

36:50 this is the ace rimmer funeral music kzbin.info/www/bejne/mqDRY6GOpshngqs i absolutely adore this piece

[@mickmack8999]

Red Dwarf ruuuuules 🤘

[@davidmackenzie9899]

The time drive did move you through space, how does the future crew meet all those historical figures if the time drive didn't?

[@videogamesandfilm6821]

Because they explain in the show that if they ever found a Faster Than Light drive they could goto any place at any point in time. The whole gag when they found the time drive was that they were in the 16th century, but still billions of light years into deep space.

[@davidmackenzie9899]

@videogamesandfilm6821 so explain how the future crew found them in space and how they met all those historical figures? Perhaps the normal crew didn't know how to use it correctly yet.

[@videogamesandfilm6821]

@davidmackenzie9899 do yourself a favour man. Watch the episode again and pay attention.

[@terrortorn]

Craig Charles must not be paying attention if he thinks British comedy doesn't allow for pathos in moments and US sitcoms do. Has he ever seen Steptoe.

[@zoekm]

Butterflies.. One Foot In The Grave.. Blackadder Goes Forth.. there are lots.

[@terrortorn]

@@zoekm Only Fools, Citizen Smith, Dear John... you don't even have to step out of a John Sullivan creation to see mastery of the art.

[@danielwilliamson6180]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gGHbk6OamM2Fqdk Robert Llewellyn's video diary which he recorded during filming of Beyond a Joke.

[@chazzybara]

jesus, i thought they were thought they were talking about the other michael shannon as JFK

[@JagerLange]

I went and looked it up as that's what I thought too - I was sure I would've known that if it were the case...

[@johnking5174]

At least Red Dwarf showed the episodes to fans and got their laughter for the laugh track. Other comedies, especially American comedies would have just used stock canned laughter. So at least they had real laughter, from fans at the scenes and not stock canned laughter.

[@robinsanders5541]

I watched series 7 when I was about 12. As I was into Star Trek at the time, I rather liked the new look they gave it along with the added CGI. The JFK story was genuinely great and I still love it. The Ace Rimmer episode beginning felt like it was supposed to be cheesy, again loved it. Shame there wasn’t more Rimmer in series 7 but I think they managed to pull it off rather well. This is British Science Fiction, it’s supposed to be just a little bit crap! It wouldn’t work if it was perfect! Dealing with absolutely huge ideas that the Americans really can’t handle and at the same time making it funny…. A grand plan with very few resources! Well done to everyone that worked on it. I loved every second! Oh and by the way, that was a T-55 with ERA not a T-72!

[@combatking0]

1:07:40 - The T72 tank didn't enter production until 1969, which was long after WWII had ended...

[@stuartdunlop8834]

The tank must have been in the game's DLC

[@jonkayl9416]

Alternate dimensions is just one theory of Quatum Mechanics, I wouldnt say it was real, more bonkers science. If you think about it is a crazy theory. Still good fun though. :)

[@Faith01841]

The disrespect on Chloë Annett is despicable, I love her. Chris Barrie chose to leave, don't take it out on her.

[@markdavidson9100]

Me too, looking forward to seeing her at the end of the month, and getting her to sign my artwork. She’s leaving red dwarf on starbug with a space background

[@stevenesbitt3528]

Oh she’s terrible, watch the pipes are noisy scene, it’s like first year drama school.

[@stevenesbitt3528]

Dropped off a cliff here and never recovered, RD has six series as a truly great sit com and then just stop watching😂

[@videogamesandfilm6821]

you should give 12 a go, I think its pretty decent.

[@FeistyFox82]

Chloe Annet, literally my first crush 😋💓💓

[@Mark-lj1dj]

55:00 😂😂😂

[@axelshawAk]

Yessss! I was going say the same thing!!!! 😂 you could tell they loved it

[@Mark-lj1dj]

​@@axelshawAkCraig Charlesian Liverpool supporting poparee 😂

[@dunatyphon5416]

Chlöe Annette is a lovely girl, and quite a good actor. But, I was never able to picture her as the real Kochanski. Clare Grogan will always be the real Kristine. Just my preference.

[@stevenesbitt3528]

The whole retcon was a mistake, was far better that Lister and her never got together

[@finenebula]

23

[@johnking5174]

1:12:20 - Watching this little bit from Ed Bye now in 2023, after we have lived through the hell which was Covid era of 2020 to 2022 and what he says here about "viruses" is interesting.

[@SuborbitalPigeon]

What's that? I've never heard anything like this on video comment sections the last 4 years.

[@johnking5174]

1:04:12 - Well Robert that idea goes all the way back to Star Trek: The Next Generation, where Data their android discovers he has a "brother" called Lore, both created by their same creator Dr. Noonien Soong. So Star Trek was around a decade ahead of Red Dwarf on that story.

[@RandallFlagg1972]

Agreed that its not necessarily an original idea, but some of the best comedy work is lampooning serious drama e.g. Airplane

[@stitcha123]

The whole of red dwarf is just a spoof of trek and alien.

[@AndrewChapman]

@@stitcha123 And a touch of Star Wars too.

[@SuborbitalPigeon]

Don't give me any of that Star Trek crap, it's too early in the morning

[@pickledegg1989]

@@stitcha123And Dark Star.

[@MicrophonesInTheTrees]

8:56 No, no and no.

[@sacredcoww]

Correct. No Rob Grant, and less Rimmer. Also the lack of studio audience. S7 is the cut-off point for me, though I do like Tikka to Ride. S1-6 is the Golden Era of Red Dwarf.

[@adammclaughlin845]

I rewatched series 7 recently, for the first time in about 15-20 years. The show definitely jumped the shark when Rob Grant left, and Kochanski's character is so horribly written I feel sorry for Chloe Annett, but honestly series 7 has aged REALLY well. A lot of 90s stuff has aged better than expected, but RD series 7 is really strong. Stoke Me a Clipper, the vastly-underrated Duct Soup, Blue and Epideme are absolute belters. Tikka to Ride is uncomfortable and the Pride and Prejudice one is easily the worst. EDIT: The CGI is absolutely horrible though, the VFX are such a step back from series 6. It even looked shit at the time and I'm pretty sure Craig Charles criticised it later on.

[@AndrewChapman]

27:36-28:09 Jeez, someone clearly took the show way too seriously. Since Red Dwarf is a sitcom, does it really matter if the time drive isn't handled correctly? Even Stephen Hawking (RIP) once stated the show doesn't take itself too seriously or try to be politically correct like other sci-fi shows. Hope that smeghead doesn't have a KZbin account and still moans about Ed Bye breaking the rules of the time drive.

[@ShamrockParticle]

"Rule of funny", yup. It's not like Red Dwarf altered continuity before, Kochanski and Lister were never an item until around series 4 when it was revealed they had dated for a while (DNA). Which is arguably irritating as the show wasn't outright slapstick, but Red Dwarf somehow made it work. For the most part.

[@misterwishart]

"Does it really matter if the time drive isn't handled correctly?" I mean, if you want people to care about your sci-fi stories: Yeah, it kinda does. It's easier for an audience to engage with genres that involve obscure concepts like sci-fi, fantasy, horror etc. if you establish what the "rules" are. That means they know what is and isn't possible and it makes engagement much smoother. The guy in question obviously was far too sensitive (also: How would it be Ed's fault as director??) but Ed's response is also pretty telling if that was the attitude around Series 7.

[@AndrewChapman]

@@misterwishart Yeah well as I say, Red Dwarf is a sitcom, therefore no ordinary sci-fi show. I mostly watch it for the humorous sitcom side of it and don't throw a tantrum if they don't quite get all the sci-fi elements right. In "Backwards" for instance, they didn't quite get it all right. Like where Lister's already dry before going into the water when he should've been soaked before going in so he could then come out dry. Plus they don't always keep continuity anyway, but I just go with it.

[@misterwishart]

@@AndrewChapman - Right. That's you. I'm explaining why Red Dwarf in particular became a cult favourite, not just *another sitcom* that happened to be set in space

[@AndrewChapman]

@@misterwishart Okay matey.

[@KaiserRika]

Say what you will about series 7 & 8, but they're much better than 10, 11 & 12.

[@videogamesandfilm6821]

I think series 12 especially feels like 5 and 6, just not quite as good. 7 starts well, but never manages to recover after the terrible duct soup episode. Season 8 is just goofy, and they all feel a bit charactury.

[@tufty1990]

Wow you can feel the tension oozing out of this one, must've been some atmosphere at the time. Literally go to the Series 8 doc, which must;ve been filmed around the same time, or any of the others and they are lightheartedly chuckling about this that went wrong or a cast member doing that, which was annoying at the time but now is very funny, not quite the same this one, lot of agitation, clipped voices and gritted teeth. I think the shift to a comedy drama is a really interesting point, I do think Series 7 is the weakest despite my personal view that having Kochanski was a really positive move but mainly due to Rimmer's absence, how can you do the odd couple without one of the odd couple. If you take them as comedy dramas I think Tikka to Ride, Duct Soup and Epideme are quite outstanding. Blue is meh because it's reaching backwards, Stoke me a Clipper is a bit too tailored for a glorious send off rather than because it suits the series, Ouroboros is bogged down with so much exposition, Beyond a joke starts well but loses it's way and Nanarchy I think is just a weak episode that ends the series on a low note.

[@kenny832]

Boy is my finger not on the pulse! Love RD but Duct Soup is my all time least favourite

[@videogamesandfilm6821]

Terrible episode.

[@TroyConvers5000]

I love S7, the series matured and there was some character growth with callbacks to past stories. Anett was a great addition and a foil to both Kryten and Lister. And it still had some great humour, just not some of the shallow 'knob gags' some of the harcore RD fan base wanted. That, and I think some of them didn't want a woman on the show for... reasons.

[@mikesmithz]

Because women are not funny. Watching an episode of Red Dwarf is like hanging out with the lads down at the pub - and no one wants their mate bringing their bird with them to the pub. The whole dynamic changes, and it becomes boring.

[@TroyConvers5000]

@@mikesmithz and that's why you're single. What a stone age attitude to have, you misogynist. Get some air and a clue.

[@Faith01841]

Finally someone says it!! All the hate on her is purely misogyny. I love the exploration of her character, and her dynamic with each character added some real depth to the whole series. All most men ever have to say about her is that they thought she was fit or that she "ruined" the series. Waffle.

[@davedempster7658]

Rob Grant and Chris Barrie got stuck up their own asses sadly.

[@dilatedbeholder3865]

I remember impatiently waiting for season 7 after the long gap after season 6, and I was crushingly disappointed. The first episode was painfully unfunny and sadly I never felt the same about Red Dwarf ever again. Season 7 literally ruined the whole show for me.

[@tibedog5629]

season 7 always annoyed me because of this one fact Since it was established that the future thems could not destroy their past selves because that would make the future thems not exist and then them knowing what to do to avoid becoming the future thems then there was no future thems so no deaths Yet future JKF was able to shoot past JFK

[@videogamesandfilm6821]

Yeh, it's where the sci-fi became less tight and it was more about the spectacle.

[@mark.083]

Wait what! They did an American version!? Well, I didn't know that. I would have thought the Americans just wouldn't get it.

[@brianm2881]

The Americans didn't really get it, to be fair. They tried to force it into the American snappy line format and did away with the pathos that really characterised the first couple of series. A real line from the American pilot was Holly telling Lister that the whole crew was dead and he'd been in suspended animation for 3 million years. Lister's response - 'My god.... My baseball cards must be worth a FORTUNE!'

[@AndrewChapman]

There's a documentary about it included on the Series 5 DVD.

[@similarart1074]

They didn't 🎉🎉

[@thegrottouk]

Red Dwarf is my fav show ever ! but just a quick one (what happened holy aka the male)

[@pauladamson9749]

Norman moved to Scotland and didn't want to travel down all the time to do the rehersals and live studio shows when only on a TV screen. He chose to move, he was always bitter about his screen time and lower pay and was a pain in the arse bringing the set down - all gathered from the commentaries, he still even whines on them! Still he came back as Holly from season X onwards IIRC.

[@sarahjrandomnumbers]

27:35 Someone got an autism diagnosis after that meeting...

[@sarahjrandomnumbers]

@erosion271 Everytime I see a clip from them, I cringe so hard my back cracks.

[@AndrewChapman]

@@sarahjrandomnumbers They're the real smegheads lol

[@seanlinesteammvg4967]

I didnt like cloe annett in this, prefered the orignal kachnaski i think season 8 onwards it didnt feel like red dwarf anymore personally

[@TakeNoteOfThat]

Exactly this

[@TroyConvers5000]

Except Claire Grogan is a crap actor.

[@tilasole3252]

I would have preferred Claire if they were going to still use the character Kochanski. However Chlöe was just absolutely the better actress. From the very first shot till the end, she was perfect. Great range of emotion and facial expressions, funny and gorgeous to boot!

[@AndrewBrown-qs9fw]

😂original one that got feet in for a few series and storylines? Moron 😂

[@AndrewBrown-qs9fw]

Don’t watch it then mate.

[@purehyperbole5727]

It has been downhill from series 7. Rob Grant took the funny with him when he left.

[@banned_from_eating_cookies]

Series 7 was the biggest disappointment. Most of it was just not funny, by far the worst series.

[@LS-ot6vd]

Totally agree. There were a couple of good episodes. But the rest were corny and unfunny. And I remember thinking this as a 12 year old kid! One of the biggest mistakes they made was ditching the live studio audience. It made the writing lazy. In series 1 to 6, they really had to make an effort when there were 100+ living and breathing humans showing up at the studio expecting to be entertained.

[@Ray_D_Tutto]

8 is worse.

[@videogamesandfilm6821]

@@Ray_D_Tutto 8 is at least more consistent. I think it's a better overall series compared to 7.

[@Mike-tv9rk]

Thr Notion that Every human Beings's decisions split off into a parallel universe, or existence, requires a level of personal/individual and very human-centric conceit on the part of every consciousness that exists. That apart from including insects and animals too. This conceit means that it cannot be true. The only way you can square this theory is that you or I are everything everywhere in every time. It's not a question that you are real and I am not. It's that you ARE me! Now go and have a little sit down bro.

[@finenebula]

Season 7 and 8 were garbage. Funny enough it took until season 11/12 for it to get funny again,

[@finenebula]

Some of the new writers were just not up to it

[@leeauld4216]

I think 10 was a decent return to form, and more importantly, they reverted back to the classic 'golden era' of Dwarf formula (season 3-6)

[@ShamrockParticle]

​@leeauld4216 seconded. Series 10 got made only because people tuned into BTE out of nostalgia, which was originally a one-off reunion special. I didn't expect 10 to be as robust as it was, but 10 does hang in there with the greats (2-6 IMHO).

[@valley_robot]

I remember when the show life on Mars was being filmed in the street below my bands rehearsal room, I wanted until it was all quiet on the set and then shouted "action", fun times, it was chaos

[@kadiummusic]

No. It's NOT scientific. There are no parallel universes.

[@Wraith-Knight]

after season 2 red dwarf went down hill and then fell into a deep pit this season was an epic fail never even watch'd all of them but then season 8 brilliant after all those years holly(original) n rimmer are a must

[@Windsockstudios926]

Always thought the show peaked at series 6. The cliffhanger and years of waiting as a kid built up so much. But sadly it was never able to gain the same balance of comedy and jeopardy and was never as good. 0

[@theonlybuzz1969]

It’s one of those series that I regularly watch over and over again, I always find it funny even though I know what’s going to be said next. Some people just don’t understand. Smoke me a prepper 🫑 and I’ll dump on trump for breakfast! Just wish there was more of them, red dwarf that is, not trump

[@killboggins]

Series 7 was crap. Get rid of the funniest character and replace him with a not funny one. Rubbish

[@johnking5174]

They didn't "get rid" of Rimmer, Chris Barrie wanted to leave, he was not forced out. Chris had wanted a break.