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Catching up with Red Dwarf

June 19, 2026 by Neil Turner

After I’d caught up with Doctor Who, the next series I focussed on was Red Dwarf – another long-running BBC sci-fi series. I have a very minor connection to Red Dwarf – my godmother’s husband, Mel Cross, was a camera operator on the first two series. Sadly, Mel passed away last year.

I own the DVDs for the first eight BBC series, and the Blu-Ray for Series X which was commissioned by UKTV (which in turn is owned by BBC Studios, the commercial wing of the BBC). After series X, there were two further series, and a film, The Promised Land. Every episode of Red Dwarf, including the film, is available on BBC iPlayer in the UK. Which is odd as UKTV has its own streaming service, U, where these episodes aren’t currently available. Still, iPlayer doesn’t have adverts so it’s a plus.

Series XI

I started with Series XI, as I thought I hadn’t seen it before. It was first broadcast 10 years ago in 2016, back when our 10-year-old was a baby. However, as I watched the series it became clear that I had watched it before. Still, I enjoyed watching it again, and whilst none of the episodes are all-time classics, there are some inventive ideas there.

Series XII

These two series were filmed essentially back-to-back, either side of Christmas 2015. There are some stronger episodes here, like Siliconia where the rest of the core cast get turned into Mechanoids along with Kryten.

The last episode, Skipper, certainly feels like it was written with closure in mind, with various old faces re-appearing in cameo roles.

The Promised Land

And finally the film, or rather the ‘feature length TV special’. It was produced in 2019, and broadcast early in lockdown in 2020. The film focuses on the Felis Sapiens species – i.e. Cat’s distant relatives. There had been plans for a Red Dwarf film following series 8 that never went anywhere, and although series 9 (Back to Earth) could be considered a film, it was broadcast as three episodes.

The Promised Land, like all series apart from 8 and 9, was filmed in front of a live audience, and so it feels more like an extended episode rather than something different and special. Certainly, unlike when many other TV shows get adapted for the big screen, there doesn’t appear to have been a big increase in budget. For the most part, the story is free-standing and you can watch it without having caught up with the rest of the episodes.

The Man In The Rubber Mask

As well as watching lots of TV and film, I did also do some reading during my recovery period, and this included The Man In The Rubber Mask by Robert Llewellyn. Llewellyn plays Kryten in Red Dwarf, and this book is his autobiography. It was originally published in the 1990s, but Llewellyn has updated it more than once (as per the cover, it contains “57.4% more smeg”). The latest edition is self-published, and available from Llewellyn’s web site, and comes signed as well.

The future of Red Dwarf?

I suspect we won’t see any more new episodes of Red Dwarf now. The first series was broadcast all the way back in 1988, and apart from the addition of Kryten in series three, has had the same cast throughout. And they’re getting old; Llewellyn turned 70 this year, and the other three are in their 60s. However, I do hope that there is something special commissioned for Red Dwarf’s 40th anniversary in 2028 – perhaps an update to Can’t Smeg, Won’t Smeg?

Catching up with Doctor Who

June 13, 2026 by Neil Turner

Screenshot of the Doctor Who series on BBC iPlayer

Since I’ve had a lot of time at home recovering, I’ve taken the opportunity to catch up on missed episodes of Doctor Who. From when the series restarted in 2005, until 2020, I watched every episode either at or shortly after broadcast, and own several of the series on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Alas, after series 12 (the second one with Jodie Whittaker as the thirteenth Doctor), I fell behind, and hadn’t found the time to catch up with the series. So, a period of enforced rest was a great excuse to catch up, and bring myself up-to-date with the three more recent series and specials.

Series 13 – Flux

This appears on BBC iPlayer as nine episodes, as it encompasses the six episodes in the Flux story, broadcast on 2021, and the three specials broadcast in 2022 that tie up the thirteenth Doctor’s story arc. I liked Flux – since Doctor Who resumed in 2005, I don’t think we’ve had such a prominent story arc across six episodes. I also enjoyed the specials, especially the feature length Power of the Doctor which managed to incorporate three of the Doctor’s most well-known foes well.

2023 Specials

These are the first episodes to appear on iPlayer in the current ‘third’ era (the first being ‘classic’ Doctor Who from 1963 to 1996 and the second from 2005 to 2022). The Doctor regenerates into the Tenth Doctor (also considered to be the Fourteenth Doctor), played by David Tennant, and is reunited with his old assistant Donna Noble, played by Catherine Tate. There’s also a brief cameo from Bernard Cribbins, in what would be his final acting role before his death, as Wilfrid Mott, Noble’s grandfather.

The reason for the change in era was because Doctor Who became a joint production between the BBC and Disney, with episodes being released internationally on Disney+. It also saw the original 2005-2009 showrunner, Russell T Davies, return to the role. The title music changes with most series and it was nice for it to be closer to the 2006-7 music, which I consider to be the best. It felt like the series was going back to what made it great in the 2000s.

These are also the first episodes of Doctor Who to be broadcast in 4K Ultra HD – specifically HLG HDR which is backwards-compatible with older TVs. We bought a 4K TV during lockdown in 2022 and the improved picture quality was noticeable.

Series 14

Wikipedia calls this series 14, so I’m sticking with it even though the BBC considers it to be series 1 of the third era. This is the first series with the Fifteenth Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa, and I liked how the series included some musical numbers which was a first. As you would expect from a Russell T Davies series, some episodes were very camp, but I enjoyed Millie Gibson as the Doctor’s companion, Ruby Sunday.

Series 15

Which brings me to the most recent series, broadcast last year. It’s a bit of an odd series, as although there’s a new companion (Belinda Chandra, played by Varada Sethu), Ruby Sunday also appears in several episodes.

I also felt that in the last episode, Ruby’s story isn’t tied up very well. I gather she’s not likely to be in the next series, so it would be nice to know what she ends up doing instead.

The next series

So now I’m up-to-date, and ready for the next episode which was expected to be a Christmas special this December. Except it’s been cancelled, and the next series is now up in the air.

We know that there will be a new Doctor, as he regenerates at the end of the episode, but we’re not sure who they will be. On the whole, I’ve enjoyed the new episodes, and it’s been good to get caught up.

I’ll be blogging about some of the other TV series and films that I’ve been catching up with in the coming weeks.

Roku 2 XS Streaming Player review

December 22, 2024July 21, 2014 by Neil Turner

A photo of the box for the Roku 2 XS Streaming Player

Last week I purchased a Roku 2 XS Streaming Player from Amazon. Normally costing around £80, Amazon are now selling them for £55, making them just £6 more expensive than the slightly newer but more limited Roku Streaming Stick (sponsored link).

When I discussed streaming media boxes last month, the streaming stick was my original first choice, but this was before the drop in price of the Roku 2 XS. Compared with the Streaming Stick, the 2 XS adds a number of extra features:

A USB port, for plugging in external hard disks to watch video files from.
A Micro-SD card slot to expand its storage space from the 256 megabytes provided as standard.
An Ethernet port.
Analogue outputs for televisions that don’t support HDMI.
A motion-sensitive remote for playing games, with Angry Birds included.

The latter two don’t bother me too much, but extra capacity could be useful if I end up installing lots of extra channels.

I’m really impressed with it, actually. The box is tiny and can sit comfortably in the palm of your hand – in fact, the remote control is longer than the box itself. Speaking of which, the remote is simple and doesn’t have lots of seemingly useless buttons like most of our other remotes. It doesn’t come with HDMI cable as standard, instead shipping with an analogue cable, but you can get a reasonable HDMI cable from most pound shops these days.

Setting up the Roku

Device setup is quite easy – plug it into your TV and the mains, and then the device will try to connect to the internet. If you haven’t plugged an Ethernet cable in, you’ll get to select a Wifi network, and enter the passcode. Your device will now ask you to go to a computer and set up a Roku account, and then enter a code to link your device to your account. You do need to enter either a credit card number or PayPal email address to create an account, but you won’t be charged unless you purchase an app which costs money.

Roku will offer several channels to you, and then you’re ready to go. It’s easy to navigate around, although sometimes there’s a bit of a lag between you pressing a button on the remote and the box reacting. The newer and more powerful Roku 3 should have less lag but it’s quite a bit more expensive.

Setting up your Roku with your YouTube, Facebook and Flixster (for UltraViolet) accounts is done on your computer as before, but the Netflix app requires you to enter your username and password on the device itself. You can use an on-screen keyboard, or a mobile app for iOS or Android which turns your phone into a remote control, with keyboard entry. I found that the Netflix app would not accept a password with special characters so I had to change it first.

Using the Roku

Once set up, the device is really simple to use on a day to day basis. Firstly, you don’t need to turn it off, as it effectively runs on the same power as a Raspberry Pi and can be left plugged in and switched on without drawing too much electricity. This means it doesn’t take ages to boot up when you want to watch something. Apart from the slight interface lag as mentioned before, it’s quick to navigate through, and as most of the apps are official and authorised you get a consistent experience – the iPlayer app works in a similar way to the BBC’s web site, for example.

I’ve mentioned BBC iPlayer, but ITV Player, 4oD and Demand 5 are also available, covering all four main free-to-air broadcasters in the UK. Of the paid-for streaming services, Roku supports Netflix and Sky’s Now TV, but not Tesco’s BlinkBox or Rakuten’s Wuaki TV. US users can get the Amazon Prime Instant Video channel but it hasn’t launched in the UK yet.

If you want to watch content on your own computer, such as films that you have copied from DVDs, then you can install the Plex app on your Roku, and the Plex Media Server app on your computer. The Plex app on the Roku is free for 30 days and then there is a small charge to keep using it – I paid £1.49 but I think this was a special offer.

Another nifty feature allows you to beam content from the YouTube mobile app to your Roku, in a similar way to Google’s ChromeCast stick and Apple’s AirPlay. An icon appears on your screen, which will show the video on your TV, but you retain control on the mobile device. Right now, YouTube and Netflix are the only two apps which support this although I haven’t tried Netflix myself.

On the whole I’m really impressed with the Roku. At £55 it’s only just over half the price of the Apple TV, and can do just about everything its more expensive competitor can do, and more. The interface is simple and enjoyable to use, apart from the slight lag as mentioned earlier. I would definitely recommend it.