From: starbugaboo@NOSPAMyahoo.com   
      
   Gavin wrote:   
   >   
   > Little feature on Red Dwarf in this month's SFX magazine, the "Jumping   
   > the Quark" feature, in which they decide at what point a TV show   
   > started to suck. Lets see whether SFX are talking shit.   
   >   
   > The helpful graph shows that they have a slightly different opinion   
   > than you'd expect: they think the show hit a high in series 2, then   
   > went on a steady decline ever since. I actually agree with that,   
   > because the early series are my favourites; but I thought most people   
   > considered series 5 - "Back to Reality" in particular - the ultimate   
   > high point.   
   >   
   > They say:   
   >   
   > "By the end of the fifth series, the show was visibly flagging - ideas   
   > were starting to feel stale and recycled, with 'Back to Reality' (a   
   > Xerox of 'Better Than Life') concluding the season with a real damp   
   > squid [sic] of an ending. Season six followed down the same path..."   
      
   Don't agree... I loved this episode.   
      
   > They consider the introduction of Kochanski in series 7 to be the   
   > biggest blow to the show:   
      
   Here, I agree.   
      
   > "Having her turn up as a space cadet that was more annoying to the   
   > audience than the crew did the show no favours; it made you wonder why   
   > Lister had ever cared about her in the first place. The blame falls at   
   > Doug Naylor's feet rather than Chloe's - he simply couldn't write   
   > convincing female dialogue, preferring instead to pile on jokes about   
   > shopping."   
      
   I don't blame Doug's inability to write female dialogue... I blame his   
   choice to bring her into the equasion in the first place.   
      
   First off, she was a very different Kochanski than the one we envisioned   
   and she was amazingly annoying to boot! She added exactly nothing to the   
   show (unless you want to watch a leather clad ass all day in which case,   
   there are magazines for that) and made the dynamic between the   
   established characters suffer. Then the lack of comic timing during this   
   series sealed the fate of it "jumping the shark" or "jumping the quark"   
   or whatever they're calling it.   
      
   --   
   Starbugaboo   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)