John's Roundup - 20/6/04
Vast waves of nausea pass through Dwarf fandom. A few of little bits of news that really aren't worth your bother, then...
LATEST BREAKING UP-TO-THE-MINUTE NOT LATE AT ALL NEWS: As reported by both The Mirror and Chortle, Dwarf was apparently used to lift the England team's spirits after their defeat by Portugal. Although seeing everyone can get a FUCKING HILARIOUS HEADLINE HONEST from it, everyone focuses on the Peter Kay angle.
"When we go into the massage room, we put a DVD on and watch it. We watched a bit of Peter Kay the other night before I got my head down and went to bed. He's very funny."
I was going to take the piss out of his fine comedy criticism, but to be honest "he's very funny" is a very good reason to watch a show. Although it would have been nice if they had discussed the development and employment of the fart joke in Dwarf throughout the years instead. Actually, there's genuinely an article in that. But I might have some trouble getting it out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
It's no longer necessary for sci-fi fans to wistfully say, "Beam me up, Scotty." Firstly - this was never said in Star Trek. Secondly, hardly any sci-fi fans actually do this. Thirdly, what the fuck has that got to do with the article anyway? Anyone going round saying silly things like that isn't going to stop, purely the presence of what the article is talking about. It's just not relevant at all. It hasn't even got the saving grace of being amusing. It's simply cliched rubbish, chucked in because the writer thinks that it has some relevance because they know nothing about what they're writing about. Fuck off lazy journalism fuck. Still, what is being written about is interesting: Seattle's Science Fiction Museum, which has just opened. Amongst the many interesting exhibits is the following:
"A favorite will be the eye-catching space dock. On a wide screen, see more than 20 of science fiction's memorable ships moving in and out of your visual range, including Rama, X-Wing, the Borg's cube, Red Dwarf, the ship from "Close Encounters of a Third Kind," the Enterprise, Nostromo and Valley Forge."
That is, of course, the Nostromo, not the Nostrilomo, which is the weakest joke Dwarf has ever done ever. Still, I'd fucking kill to see some lovely Dwarf model shots on a huge screen. Which is a bit worrying, now I actually think about it.
Meanwhile, thanks to john on our comments who's noticed that Filthy is now listed on Play. Interestingly, they are giving a release date of July 27th, whilst Playback themselves are still giving the August 10th date. It's things like this that keep me awake at night, frankly.
Oh, and Austin Ross has noticed that Rob Grant's Fat (and believe me, all the newspapers/magazines will be making that joke in a year's time) has been pushed back from the 1st May to the 19th May 2005. The real question is: can anyone find out what the book is actually about? Apart from fat cunts, obviously.
Comments
Now Tanya knows why all her bra's end up shaped like your head!
Posted by Cappsy at June 20, 2004 02:58 AM
That SF museum should be quite good. One of its biggest supporters is Greg Bear, the author of the famous short story "Blood Music," which you should all read.
Posted by Austin Ross at June 20, 2004 03:23 AM
They were beaten by France, not Portugal. But it was in Portugal.
</pedantry>
Posted by Seb at June 20, 2004 04:57 PM
In case anyone else is a fan, that SF exhibit thing with all the ships will also feature the Planet Express ship from Futurama.
I read another version of that article somewhere that mentioned the Futurama ship but left out Red Dwarf. And now THIS article mentions Red Dwarf but leaves out Futurama.
Is there only room for one main-character-kept-in-suspended-animation-for-too-long-plotline in each artcile?
Posted by Phil at June 20, 2004 07:26 PM
There's probably an article in 'Parallels With Red Dwarf and Futurama', y'know. There are dozens.
Posted by Darrell Jones at June 20, 2004 07:30 PM
Oh yeah, I know. The thing is, I've been FIERY tempted to write such an article (or at least a chart or something) but 1) I wasn't sure how much interest there would be and 2) I'm far more familiar with Dwarf than Futurama...having only seen about half the total episodes of the latter...so it would take some time.
Still, I'd love to do so. I've seen articles before that mention specific episode parallels, but they always leave out important connections between the two and it's bothered me enough to consider doing something about...
Hmm...
Posted by Phil at June 20, 2004 09:00 PM
I was thinking on the train today about writing the very predictable article about Dwarf/Trek parallels. A Futurama one would be 100x better.
As for my mistake - well, I wouldn't mind, apart from my shit journalism rant. Sigh.
Posted by John Hoare at June 20, 2004 09:39 PM
Red Dwarf is way worse than The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which it copies.
Posted by Franc, pronounced "Fronc" at June 20, 2004 11:39 PM
There's an article in that, too. Perhaps unoriginal, but an article nonetheless.
Posted by Austin Ross at June 20, 2004 11:40 PM
Next time you guys watch through episodes, keep an ear out for how often somebody on Dwarf says "Don't panic." It actually happens quite a LOT and I'd like to see someone compile a list. Once or twice, fine, but I've been noticing it more and more lately...so I'd like to think it's a definite Doug Adams reference.
Posted by Phil at June 21, 2004 02:14 AM
It's just an excuse for yet another Dwarfy drinking game.
Posted by Joey at June 21, 2004 11:44 AM
I'd like for someone to do an article about how RD rips of HHGTTG, because I can't see it at all.
Posted by Ian Symes at June 21, 2004 07:18 PM
The main reason people make that comparison is because both are comedies set in space, which is a bit unfair, seeing as Douglas Adams didn't have the monopoly on space stories. In fact, there are two very distinct focuses at work: HH is a comic drama, which focuses on the whole of the universe and one man's attempt to deal with his loss of home, while RD is far more insular, with the use of space fairly light, at least in the first two series.
It's true that both deal with the extinction of the human race, but hasn't this been a pre-occupation of most Sci-Fi since the genre was invented? Given the self-obsessed nature of humans and our inability to deal with the idea of life outside Earth, I would think it is almost inevitable that most space stories start with a single human separated from at least his time, if not his species.
Posted by Tanya Jones at June 21, 2004 09:24 PM
I've heard the argument that HHGTTG was in fact very reminiscent of the works of Robert Sheckley. Being unfamiliar with Robert Sheckley, however, I am unable to comment. There's certainly an article in all this, though.
Posted by Austin Ross at June 21, 2004 09:32 PM
I'd never say Dwarf rips off Doug Adams. Especially since Dwarf holds up so well on its own without any comparisons even being necessary. But I do think the "don't panic" that Lister often slings at his crewmates is a reference to Adams. Which is entirely different from (and much more respectbale than) ripping it off.
So I really don't see where Franc gets off saying it's a ripoff...at least not without some justification.
Posted by Phil at June 21, 2004 09:56 PM
I'd never say Dwarf rips off Doug Adams. Especially since Dwarf holds up so well on its own without any comparisons even being necessary. But I do think the "don't panic" that Lister often slings at his crewmates is a reference to Adams. Which is entirely different from (and much more respectbale than) ripping it off.
So I really don't see where Franc gets off saying it's a ripoff...at least not without some justification.
Posted by Phil at June 21, 2004 09:58 PM
To be honest, the "don't panic" could be as much of a reference to Dad's Army. Or anything really. Or, more likely, just a usage of the common phrase "don't panic"...
Posted by Darrell Jones at June 21, 2004 11:47 PM
And if it's done badly, it's a rip-off.
If it's done well, it's a homage.
Posted by Pete Martin at June 22, 2004 09:10 AM
Hitchhiker's Guide only copies Dad's Army anyway, which did it far better.
Posted by Fronk at June 22, 2004 12:32 PM
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