*Looks at my collection of every series on DvD*
...I've waited so long!
The official story regarding the film is that a movie was always planned and Naylor was very enthusiastic about it, but unfortunately funders pulled out, people who said they would fund ended up never getting back to him, so it just never happened.
My source for that is the series 8 special features, Doug saying that himself, by the way.
As a true Dwarfer, I think that series 7 had SOME excellent episodes - see Blue and Tikka to Ride - but the introduction of Kochanski, and, more importantly, the 'absence' of Rimmer did harm the show.
A 'proper' fan as Craigus put it, SHOULD say that series 8 is great, if not superb, for a few reasons;
-Reintroduction of 'Bunk Scenes' - Craig and Chris resolved a few personal issues and felt comfortable working together. This combined with the new.../revised old location allowed for the return of Bunk Scenes - some of the funniest content came from these scenes in the earlier few series and they returned on par in the 8th series.
-Norman Lovett - Holly returned, enough said really, even if his hair dye went wrong multiple times and left him looking like a round carrot.
-The 'old' Rimmer - We got a very 'classic' Rimmer in the eighth series, one who was back to his snidey, backstabbing, weasly self.
-The conclusion - Rimmer knees Death in the balls...that's a good way of showing how awesome Red Dwarf is. And if you hate the cliffhanger ending just watch one of the alternates and convince yourself that really happened, even though this was always a comedy first and a sci-fi second, and it doesn't really matter how satisfying the ending is if you were entertained throughout by the journey itself rather than its end.
