Sci-Fi Storm

Here are some of the big and our favorite stories we covered in 2012…

In January, rapidly rising British actor Benedict Cumberbatch joined Star Trek: Into Darkness, while CW’s Arrow dropped “Green” from the name and named Stephen Amell the lead actor.

We lost actor Ian Abercrombie and the voice of the Robot from Lost In Space Dick Tufeld.
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Fans of Red Dwarf have been waiting eagerly for another installment in the comedy SF series, since the most recent effort in 2009 of the Back to Earth mini-series which was a rather odd version that left a lot unanswered from the end of Series 8 (BtE pretended that Series 9 and X took place already). And they are finally going to get it, and get some of those loose ends tied.

It’s already known that the production is going back to how the show was originally done, sitcom style with a live audience. Now Doug Naylor has teased that the show will tie up some of what was left from Series 8 – but not until the very last episode, which is expected to give the series an ultimate conclusion – and is suitably titled, “The Beginning” (fans will remember the first first episode was titled “The End”.)

Also, the final episode of the six episode series draws on the abandoned movie plot.

“Most of the ideas are fresh but for the last episode I borrow things from the very early drafts of the film and explain what happened after the conclusion of series eight,” Naylor said. That final episode also features a spectacular dogfight. Well, spectacular for Red Dwarf.”

Am I sensing Starbug is going to do battle?

Red Dwarf X will air on Dave in the UK in October. No news yet on a US outlet.

If you are in Britain…Brian Blessed (who has starred and guest starred in far too many genre shows to mention, and rumored to possibly play King Dain in The Hobbit), as well as Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, Hattie Hayridge and Norman Lovett from Red Dwarf, have been confirmed to attend the Spring Memorabilia show this weekend (March 26th-26th) and the NEC Birmingham. Note that Craig Charles and Norman Lovett will be there Sunday and Hattie Hayridge and Brian Blessed on Saturday. Danny John-Jules will be there both days.

They join a very extensive list of stars from all sorts of shows including Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, and more. Check out the official web site for more details.

Craig Charles (Dave Lister), in an interview with the Daily Mail, confirmed that there will be another series of Red Dwarf – but Robert Llewellyn (Kryten) says he wasn’t supposed to, but “it just sort of slipped out.” And it’s a “full” series, but that means 6 half-hour episodes – but also to go back to filming in front of an audience – something that they haven’t done since 1998, although the producers are afraid that too much information might get leaked out on Twitter, Facebook, etc. during the long post-production time – something that didn’t exist in 1998.

The last Red Dwarf was the mini-series “Back To Earth”, which had mixed reviews – including my own.

21 years after its very first series, Red Dwarf returned to TV, in the form of a three-part mini-series called Back To Earth, which came out last week on Blu-ray and DVD. Does it return to its early zaniness, or fall flat like its last series?

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