Why science fiction?
I’m sure there are countless theories about why awkward teens gravitate towards science fiction and fantasy, but everyone likes a bit of escapism. And if your ordinary life is dull or scary or isolating or confusing, then you may well be drawn to escapism which is set in a world as unlike your ordinary life as possible. Ordinary well-adjusted young people can read bodice-ripper romances, watch mystery shows or enjoy comedy movies. But if there’s a secret world which you know the rules to and other people don’t, then there’s a power in that. Plus, you can make lists.
I wasn’t quite in the bullseye of that description, but as a child I was a voracious reader and I included a healthy dose of science fiction along with classic authors like Robert Louis Stevenson, Lewis Carroll, Arthur Ransome, Conan Doyle and PG Wodehouse. Then alternative comedy hit our TV screens, and I became obsessed with The Young Ones and Fry and Laurie. Red Dwarf captured all of my tastes in one package.
Why this book?
This book grew out of another obsession, which itself grew out of a previous one. Having recently completed a podcast series in which two friends and I watched every movie which had won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, I was contemplating another project and it occurred to me to wonder how much Star Trek I had seen. When I realised I could watch everything from the original series to Star Trek: Enterprise in just two years if I watched an episode a day, I decided to blog my progress. The blog became a book and when the publishers asked what else I had, I began to wonder how much Red Dwarf I’d seen. I drifted away from it in the late nineties, and I didn’t think I’d watched all of the recent Dave shows. And once again, if you aren’t obsessively cataloguing your progress, what are you even doing?
Why do you think so little SF humour works well on screen? (I can only really think of Red Dwarf and Galaxy Quest…)
It’s a weird blend of tones, and they’re both verbal/conceptual. Horror comedy works well because the horror part is visual and the comedy part is verbal (as a general rule) so you can dial both of them way up if you want and have something as insanely silly and gleefully gory as Evil Dead II. But the thing that makes Isaac Asimov stories compelling occupies the same space as what makes PG Wodehouse stories funny – especially when you take prose away in the move to the small screen. So, there is a bit more funny sci-fi and fantasy in prose form. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy works best in prose, so do Terry Pratchett and (more obscurely) Robert Sheckley.
That having been said, if you’re hungry for a bit of on-screen science fiction humour, here are a few more to add to your list. On TV: Star Trek Lower Decks, Futurama, Rick and Morty, Mork and Mindy, 3rd Rock from the Sun, My Parents Are Aliens, The Orville, Avenue 5. And on the big screen: Back to the Future, Bill and Ted, Men in Black, Ghostbusters, Hot Tub Time Machine and of course, the one which inspired Rob Grant and Doug Naylor to create Red Dwarf: Dark Star. [Ed. My list was of SF humour that works on screen - many of these didn't work for me (while some are arguably fantasy). Ironically, despite loving Red Dwarf, I found Dark Star painfully unfunny - but that's the trouble with sense of humour...]
What’s next?
I have a play called The Gang of Three coming to the Kings Head in Islington about the British Labour Party in the 1970s, and the show I produced at the Edinburgh Fringe, 16 Postcodes, is going on tour.
What’s exciting you at the moment?
I can’t wait for the return of Saturday Night Live which has been off the air during one of the most bonkers American summers I can remember. Speaking of long-running shows, it’s also going to be going into its 50th year, which is amazing.
Interview by Brian Clegg - See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free here
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