Podcast Friday

[radiantfracture]

Let's do one of those podcast Fridays frandroid came up with and I'm stealing via sabotabby. [Edited to reflect accurate citation]

Here are two retro pop culture moments to enjoy.

Imaginary Worlds - The Nine Lives of Red Dwarf

The Imaginary Worlds podcast has a Red Dwarf episode devoted to hugging the show and its fans.

I saw RD on PBS, baby. I am (if it were not already tragically obvious) one of those minds shaped by whatever British TV North American public broadcasting could buy in the 80s and 90s. I had every single Red Dwarf shirt PBS offered as a promotion during pledge drives. I wore them to shreds.¹

The IW guest is creator Doug Naylor. The host, Eric Molinsky, clearly has true affection for the show and some poignant reflections about actors and therefore characters aging across several decades of filming.

I was a bit perplexed by the conversation about how comedy and scifi were Thought Not to Mix, only because of the wild popularity of HHGTTG. They do sort of address this (it was good radio but bad TV, which ok, no one can say the TV show was high art) -- but I still feel skeptical that Red Dwarf was groundbreaking in this respect. (But again, I was highly conditioned by HHGTTG from an early age.)

-- I'm far from an early Dr. Who expert -- was it always serious for the first couple of decades? It was at least, for budgetary reasons, always pretty camp.

The episode is a love-fest, so they don't address the problems the show had with female characters -- the amazing chameleonic Kochanski for example. I wouldn't even bring this up, except that Naylor kept saying "we didn't have enough characters! We needed to come up with a new character!" and I kept thinking -- I have a brilliant idea for you! A character who is Not a Dude.

Endless Thread - Artist: Known

I can't remember who first posted the question of the unknown A Wrinkle in Time cover artist, but thank you. I just saw in a recent post by vass that the artist has been found! The Endless Thread podcast took on the quest.

The episode gives some pleasurable glimpses into the history of science fiction publishing and art; I would have happily listened to another full hour just going into all that background, and I would propose that this is the Real Story. (The mystery itself, while genuinely mysterious, doesn't have a particularly dramatic solution. It's the people we meet along the way.)

And a quick reading note

elusis, the Kindle has been an absolute godsend -- in general, and especially while my back's been out.

{rf}

1. I ship Limmer (Rister?) and I don't care if that makes you feel queasy. Me too! But the heart wants what it wants.

Comments

[elusis]

New journal layout, whoa!

Of course you love Red Dwarf. Of course. There was a time when half my jokes were quotes from Cat or Holly. I'm rather afraid to go back to it though, as I suspect the Suck Fairy may have visited. Can't wait to listen to that podcast though.

I'm thrilled the Kindle is working out for you. I felt kind of self-indulgent buying the new gen one when the older one worked fine, but knowing that you're really enjoying it makes me very happy.

[sovay]

I had every single Red Dwarf shirt PBS offered as a promotion during pledge drives. I wore them to shreds.

I envy your T-shirts. I was introduced to Red Dwarf in college and watched it from the top bunk of the dorm room in which the relevant portion of my friend group probably exceeded fire codes to watch assorted British TV, Blackadder and Jeeves & Wooster being the primary other examples . I did not belong to the overlapping friend group that was watching Buffy and Angel. I retain a desperate and horrified, unsurprising affection for Rimmer.

I ship Limmer (Rister?) and I don't care if that makes you feel queasy. Me too! But the heart wants what it wants.

. . . Do you write it?

[radiantfracture]

I retain a desperate and horrified, unsurprising affection for Rimmer

My god, exactly this. I long to heal him.

. . . Do you write it?

I never have -- but the dream kiss was a transformative moment in my life.

[sovay]

I never have -- but the dream kiss was a transformative moment in my life.

IMDb provides the sterling trivium, "Craig Charles and Chris Barrie actually kissed for much longer than shown but it was reduced much to their disappointment."

[radiantfracture]

Amazing.

In a similar story, I remember a friend telling me at the time about an interview with Chris Barrie – I haven't found it on the Internet – where he says something like "we did it twice. Once to get the take, and then we did it again because we liked it."

[derien]

I can't squee out loud right now because I'm at work, but my body is vibrating from the squee held in!

[moon_custafer]

Holly obviously ships it, too!

[radiantfracture]

Hey that's right! It was his idea.

[sabotabby]

1. I ship Limmer (Rister?) and I don't care if that makes you feel queasy. Me too! But the heart wants what it wants.

Hah. No judgment here. I haven't watched the entirety of Red Dwarf but I appreciated what I saw.

ETA: I do not deserve credit for Podcast Friday—that's on frandroid

[radiantfracture]

Lol to "stolen valour" -- I have corrected the citation.

[the_lucky_nun]

I really loved that episode of Endless Thread. I hoovered up every Dell paperback in the Young Adult section as a kid - and still go back to archive.org to "borrow" my favorites, and this sort of mystery would have fit right in as a YA book. This episode was the audio equivalent of a page-turner.

[derien]

I'm also a huge Lister \ Rimmer fan!