‘I have lots of more ideas for the future of Red Dwarf,’ says writer

With Red Dwarf’s first ever feature length episode hitting last week, it seems that writer Doug Naylor has a new fuel in his fire and has ideas for where to go next with the series.

Speaking on the Two Geeks, Two Beers podcast, Naylor revealed that he wants more feature length adventures for the boys from the dwarf.

“I love the format of the film-length [episode] and would love to do more,” Naylor said.

“[I’ve got] lots of different stories… but until they actually go ‘Yes, OK’ you don’t narrow it down. It depends on the budget, it depends who we can get to be in it.”

Producer Richard Naylor echoed the enthusiasm, adding: “There are a million ideas, but it’s hard to focus on something… at this point, we don’t know if anything’s happening or if it’s a special or it’s a series.”

“And also, I do want to do something new as well. So it’s juggling the two.”

While the feature length episode, The Promised Land, was pretty good – nowhere near classic Red Dwarf – it was a big hit for the channel Dave which airs it, so more is definitely a likely prospect.

The duo hint that was may see the full crew of Red Dwarf including Captain Hollister (Mac McDonald) could return and nothing was off the table: “They could be on a planet somewhere and a whole new civilisation could have grown up, you just don’t know… This is where you go, ‘Actually, we’re looking for a new antagonist’ and you go, ‘Oh, OK, what happened to the crew?’.”

It seems that, as long as there is an audience for the show – and there is – then the Dwarf isn’t going anywhere:  “We’ve always said that we don’t want to do the ‘final show’ – where Lister’s back on Fuchal, he’s got his white horses and somehow he’s got Kochanski and they ride off into the distance and everyone goes ‘What a lame s**t show that was’ – it would be just horrific,” Doug said.

Richard added: “I think if you were gonna end it… there’d possibly be a chance in a novel or something. [Doug has] got some things that he’s told me that I genuinely think would be great endings, but those big moments, sometimes when you try and do them on a sitcom budget, even if it’s a healthy budget, it just doesn’t quite have the impact.”

“And also I don’t want it to end,” Doug goes on.

“Going ‘That’s the end’… I think that would be horrible. I’m tearing up just thinking about it!”

While Doctor Who has lost its way in recent years, it feels like Red Dwarf is upholding its legacy of classic British sci-fi/humour (it’s no Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, but there was only one Douglas Adams), but it’s got that classic feel and it should be kept on our screens for as long as humanly possible.

I always feel better knowing that Dave Lister, Arnold Rimmer, Kryten and the Cat are still lost out there having crazy adventures… does that make me a bad person?

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