Welcome to a new series I’m doing called “Worst of the best” where I pick the 5 worst episodes of an otherwise fantastic TV series. Today I will be picking one of the few shows that are as jaded and cynical as I am Daria. For those of you not familiar with the show it was an animated series that ran during the 90’s and early 2000’s an was actually a spinoff of Beavis and Butthead. The show show for the most part follows a teenage girl named Daria and her friend Jane where they must endure the stupidity of high school from their rather detached and cynical view points. This was for the most part a clever and well written series that didn’t shy away from some real character development, at it’s best Daria has an air of honestly to it but at its worst…….well you’ll see.

5. The New Kid:

This episode is where Daria befriends a rather sheltered home-schooled kid “Ted” while working in the yearbook club, of whom there are false rumors that his family is part of a cult. While hanging with Daria he starts getting more acclimated to normal teen life and when starts to get more popular friends he ditches Daria. The problem with this episode itself is mostly centered around Ted he doesn’t register as being a real human being in his own actions, particularly in his attitude shift towards Daria. This episode was also the point where the character of the man hating teacher Ms. Barch became a detriment to the show where she crosses the realms of believability when she beats up fellow teacher Mr. DeMartino while on school grounds…..why the hell does she not get fired?

4. Antisocial Climbers:

This episode see a school wilderness hiking trip go wrong when Dara, Jane and the other students stranded in a cabin when a blizzard hits. To make matters worse, they have no supplies because the boy who were suppose to bring them intend took bags of Quinn accessories and on of the faculty Mr. O’Neill has wondered off. On top of this Daria and Jane get lost in the blizzard when Mr. DeMartino falls off a cliff. This episode lacked the clever writing usually present in the show and was a complete mess for a narrative stand point……it was just all over the place with no real rhyme or reason. On top of this it was the second episode where the show became animated digitally so the quality of animation was at an all time low with hideous colours and animation glitches.

3. Daria!:

Well this one was actually really thin in terms of plot because they decided for what ever reason to make this one a musical. In a nutshell the town is in panic because a dangerous storm is forecast to hit. Everyone is in a rush to get home and hope for their own safety, Daria and Jane get locked up on the roof of the school with Kevin and Brittany as can’t make it back. This episode pretty much sucked because it was loaded with off key musical numbers and cringe worthy jokes that don’t do the show justice at all.

2. The Lawndale File:

This episode clearly written during the continued hype of things like the X-flies sees the school suspect that Daria is secretly a Communist and that Jane is fact and intergalactic alien. So a number of the students sneak around trying to expose the both of them. Now this paranoia seems to be passed onto Daria when seeing odd behavior with he sister make her think that she and maybe her family might be aliens too. This episode was just plain stupid because just so much was wrong with it. On top of the dumb plot you have more bullshit with Ms. Barch when she tries to get Mr. DeMartino deported (seriously why isn’t she fired?). On top of this Daria herself was completely out of character, I mean she is supposed to be a smart person and I don’t believe would get suckered onto stupid crap like that.

1. Depth Takes a Holiday:

Oh dear, what can I say about this train wreck. well……in this episode Daria is visited by the human embodiments of holidays Cupid (I would have preferred the killer from My Bloody Valentine) and St Patrick’s Day who tried to get Daria to help them get some runaway holidays who have decided to form a band back to Holiday Island…….On top of this Daria soon finds out that on Holiday Island, all the Holidays are in high school and the runaways were the cool kids. Do I really need to say anything? because this episode really has no excuse to exist…….it seems more like a rejected idea from Sabrina the Teenage Witch, not something that should have ever belonged in Daria. Only can only wonder how on earth this episode manged to get the thumbs up for production and kinda makes dread you wonder how bad the rejected ideas in season 3 would have been.

It’s kinda interesting to see how clearly talented people can so completely miss the mark, Daria is otherwise a fantastic show and that can easily make us forgive a handful of stinkers. At times one has to wonder though how such bad episodes are made, be it that the writer has had an off day or it just looked better on people then it did in practice. I can’t really say but those are my 5 worst Daria episodes so I hope you all enjoyed reading it.

Fresh of the heals of what I conciser Red Dwarf’s finest hour (series V) came the chapter in Red Dwarf history that most people try to forget, yes that’s right I’m talking about Red Dwarf USA. Yes for those of you who didn’t know, after the success of a 5 season run, Red Dwarf would have 2 pilot flop at a US adaptation. The show was largely recast with American actors with exception to Holly who would be played by Jane Leeves (Fraiser) and Robert Llewellyn reprising his role as Kryten (though in possibly his strangest mask). As an interesting side note, if this would have been successful there would have been no 6th season and so we can be thankful for it’s flop. So are these pilots as bad as people claim?……..Let’s find out.

1. Pilot 1:

It’s almost like I’ve seen this all done before and done far better. What can I really say about the plot that I haven’t already done in season 1, because this pilot is really just a US remake of the first episodes The End, however there are some key differences in that it introduces Kryten as joining Red Dwarf while the crew were still alive and is instrumental in the plot in the fact that he helps Lister hide his pet cat Frankenstein, touched on elements of the episode Waiting For God and a rather odd ending. One thing I will note is that the characters are developed far less this time around, this brings me to an issue I had, some of the casting. Now while the guy who played Lister is clearly putting the effort in, the casting of a pretty boy just didn’t match the slobbish qualities of the character, Rimmer while looking more the part just played it horribly, and Cat (played by Hinton Battle) seemed to be just playing the role as if he was making a guest appearance on Saturday Night Live…….actually that is what this pilot felt more like, one big overlong Saturday Night Live sketch. To be fair there were a couple of good jokes like how a dismantled Kryten had to keep himself entertained for 3 million years by reading a Fire Exit sign. Unfortunately moments like this were very few and far between and most of the humour was either dumbed down or just plain embarrassing.

2. Pilot 2:

This one some depending on their view is either better or much much worse, I myself with go with the latter as at least the first pilot was a more complete product. This one was more pitch pilot that serves as a clip show UK series and the first US pilot rather then a cohesive story. This time there are some changes made to the casting as Cat would go for a race and gender swap, now played by Terry Farrell (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) who is now something of a warrior woman and now Kryten is only used in stock footage of Terrorfrom and Camille. We are also “treated” to Lister via cam introducing the characters who will be appearing and then it cuts to ideas for future stories where we are subjected to a rather awkward remake of a scene form Marooned, stock footage of Camille and a never seen story (though it does have a joke that would be later used again in season 6). This one pained me because it really sucked seeing actual classic material abused the way it was here, but if I can say anything nice is that I’m just glad it was short.

Well I must say that it is very easy to see why these were never picked up and while they as to their reputation suck the paint off walls, it is kinda a shame that non-bootleg copy’s of them aren’t available. That would actually make kinda interesting extra’s on a DVD and it would be fun if it maybe had a commentary with Doug Naylor and Robert Llewellyn. The copy I had to use was in lousy condition and while I could make out what was going on, it could sometimes be a struggle. I for one wouldn’t mind seeing some future treatment to these interesting if disgraceful failures.

therealpeach:

I’m of the complete opposite opinion - I never understood why people hated the last two seasons, and especially Season VIII. I get that it’s not the same as the earlier seasons - it’s a different feel and atmosphere and is written completely differently, and while I can understand that that might not be what many enjoyed about Red Dwarf, I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss the series on that basis alone. I for one find the Eight season to be hilarious. Krytee TV is one of the funniest episodes (Kryten being my favourite character) in all eight seasons, in my opinion. Some classic gags of his in there. But I can completely understand where you’re coming from. But what I enjoy about Red Dwarf (well, among many things) is that different seasons offer different atmospheres. So, if I want to watch the boys from the dwarf completely lost and bewildered with no clue what to do, I watch Season VI, and it happens to be my favourite series too. But if I want to watch them lost but on Red Dwarf, I’ll watch the first two seasons. I am hopeful for the new season, but after Series IX (still don’t get why they’re calling it that) I don’t foresee it being that fantastic. They’re just too old. But, if I’m surprised, it will be pleasantly so.

I would like to thank you for taking the time to give a rebuttal to my review. I appreciate your stand point, I really do…particularly being someone who for the most part enjoyed the 7th season but let me give a little insight to my view point. For me however I think it’s the humor in this season that made it a hard pill to swallow the most, now to be fair as I listed in the review I thought that the episode Cassandra was actually not too bad…..and there were some things I did actually like such as the return of the bunk banter between Rimmer and Lister……but it seemed like far too often the humor was reduced to things like T-rex poo or other cringe-worthy moments like the Blue Midget dance, on top of things like shoehorning in jokes form older episodes like the Umm song or things like that. I also feel that the addition of unnecessary characters kinda made the show loose focus, I mean if the crew were back for a stand alone episode, I could have been completely behind that but I felt it actually took away from the ensemble cast, the ones we wanted to watch in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, given that my favourite character is Rimmer I would have loved to be behind this season but be it a matter of taste this season just didn’t appeal to me.

As for BTE, I really don’t think that their age was the issue because who says that middle aged people can’t be funny? The problem I feel was the problems lie in the fact that the plot was a self referential mess, with a production smaller then the first 2 seasons the film had a dead lifeless look kinda sucked humor out, the actors seemed very out of practice in the first episode and Doug Naylor still clearly hadn’t gotten over the whole Red Dwarf movie thing and tried to make the whole thing like one with the addition of things being over dramatic in both tone and music…….all this kinda made it not feel like Red Dwarf at all. I do however have some hope of the new season as many of these issues sound like they are being addressed and more effort seems to be going into making what BTE should have been, rather then what it was……either way we will find out later this year.

Well that’s all the Red Dwarf reviews I can do for now since that’s all that’s currently out. While my last 2 reviews were pretty negative it might actually comes as a surprise that I have some optimism for the new season. While I haven’t seen any myself the things I have been hearing kinda sounds like things have been learned from past mistakes, but only time will tell. I hope you folks enjoyed it and I’ll be sure to make a similar review when Red Dwarf X has finished airing.

There is a lot of debate over if this is a season or just a bunch of TV specials, however since the upcoming season is listed as the 10th it seems like this is considered the 9th by the creators themselves. After the show was canceled after the 8th season it seemed like that would be it forever, it would seriously be another decade until we would get anything new (a term I use very loosely) from the “boy’s from the Dwarf”. This first attempt to bring the show back was met with a great deal of disappointment and rightly so. However the issues in quality are likely partly responsible to behind the scenes issues and numerous rewrites. I have heard a number of reports saying this was supposed to be a 2 parter that was bloated into a 3 parter by an executive decision at the channel Dave, and that numerous budget cuts lead to many changes having to be made to the script, something that was evident in the bland sets and crude CGI versions of Red Dwarf and Skutters. It’s hard to say how much this even resembles the originally intended product.

1. Back to Earth part 1:

Here we have our lackluster return in all it’s……well I can’t say glory. It’s been 10 years since the season 8 and a lot of things have happened, Rimmer has at some point died again and is now a Hologram again and it appears that Kristine Kochanski has died as well, and Lister morns her loss very much. However there is trouble when Cat is attacked by a squid creature, so they all except Rimmer decide to go down and get it. The again get attacked by it and are nearly killed, and express their anger of Rimmer being a useless coward. It is revealed that the squid is a dimension jumping leviathan and then abruptly appears a Hardlight hologram of a Russian science officer called Katerina Bartikovsky. She has plans to kill Rimmer but first decides to use the tentacle of the beast to create a portal that will take Lister back to earth. This while episode didn’t mesh, while there were a couple of mildly amusing exchanges the characters feel like they are having an off day and the actors don’t feel to have their groove on. On top of this the episode is actually really boring in the fact it seems to move nowhere and doesn’t have the character moments to fill the uneventful void.

2. Back to Earth part 2:

While still rather limp at least things appear to be trying to move somewhere. The gang gets sucked through the portal and crashing into a department store in modern times. It isn’t long before they found out that in this universe they are a TV show and that they need to find their creator soon or they will die. Their journey leads them to a comic book store, a prop shop where fake noses are made and a bus where to hideously annoying kids reveal to Lister that Kochanski isn’t dead but had dumped him and left in Blue Midget, Kryten lied to spare his feelings. This episode although bad, was never the less an improvement. Here the characters fortunately seem more like themselves and had some amusing conversations about their misconceptions of the 21st Century. However these moments were dragged down but it’s self referential plot, a blade runner parody that forgets it’s a parody and the comic book store scene with an owner who I can only assume was intended to for Matt Lucas but could get a look alike doing an impersonation.

3. Back to Earth part 3:

An so this 3 parter end of a slightly better if still unsatisfying conclusion. In the hopes of tracking down their creator, the Boy’s from the Dwarf go to the set of Coronation Street to seek help from that actor of Lister Craig Charles. Initially in shock he does point them in the right direction and they set off to confront their creator once and for all. After some more rather shameless Blade Runner stuff Lister accidentally kills their creator and find themselves in control over their own destiny. It is here they realize that they are suffering a group hallucination brought on by the squid’s ink much like the despair squid though this one gave them joy for making them feel important. They start regaining consciousness but Lister is reluctant to leave because in the delusion he can have Kochanski back. Again the actors seem to have their mojo back from the first episode, however the episode just isn’t funny enough, the Blade Runner stuff seemed to forget is meant to be a parody and feels far too melodramatic for it’s own good. Never the less there aren’t so many cringe worthy scenes here and is more watchable then the other 2 parts.

While it remains a disappointment, I didn’t hate this as much as I did on my first visit because I at least understand what it was trying to do more then I do with season 8. This seemed to be made as something more of a tribute and satire to the loyalty of the cult fanbase. However it fails to get the desired results ending up feeling more like a fanfiction that an actual Red Dwarf story. There are also some oddities in the way the episodes where directed as it seems like Doug Naylor after to trying for years to make a Red Dwarf movie still had a bee in his bonet about it and tried to direct this like a movie, and even more odd is that it seemed like the actors were pausing for a non-existent laugh track…..as if they were expecting one to be added in. At the end of the day though it seems Red Dwarf just isn’t built for multi-parter episodes because it always seems to not work very well. At the end of the day I dislike this season\specials because they felt like an overly self referential and bloated story that doesn’t have nearly enough content for 3 episodes.

Season 8 was what we all thought would be the last season because after this the show was actually canceled by the BBC. The season itself saw the show once again completely retool itself, however this was not in the shows best interest like it was back in season 3. This season I feel kinda undid the central idea that Red Dwarf was founded on. While it did mark the welcome return of Rimmer and having Holly once again a full time….the show I feel did much more wrong in it change of setting that didn’t fit the show and turning the show into a farce comedy that at times was so juvenile that it would make The Young One’s cringe. This season just didn’t feel like Red Dwarf anymore.

1. Back in the Red part 1:

This episode alone while not all that good is to be fair a watchable enough start to the season. Continuing where season 7 left off Red Dwarf is back, though there are still some issues with resizing which causing Star Bug (of which the last 2 seasons took place) crashes in the docking bay. It turns out the Nanobots resurrected the entire dead crew, unfortunately this is not a good thing because Captain Hollister is charging them for crimes against the Space Core. Lister tries to convince the newly revived Rimmer to help him out. When retrieving the crews confidential files he also finds the luck and sexual magnetism virus’ from the season 5 episode Quarantine. Setting side a few misfired jokes this episodes isn’t that bad a watch but it’s plot would set to undo everything Red Dwarf is.

2. Back in the Red part 2:

This episode is where things really start to sour. Lister Cat and Kochanski have to face their trial with little evidence to defend themselves while Kryten gets restored to factory settings meaning that all his emotions have been wiped clean. Mean while Rimmer finds that he has 2 timed him and has no intention of helping them out, however getting some of the luck virus on his fingers allowing Lister to escape his cell. They then go to save Kryten who doesn’t recognize them, however later does when the Cat figures that they should all disguise themselves as Duane Dibbley to avoid detection. Wow this episode was atrocious, lame, juvenile and very self referential. The worst of this is centered around the jokes about the sexual magnetism virus, I admit back in 1999 this episode had me worried.

3. Back in the Red part 3:

Things really go from bad to worse as we enter then end of this 3 parter and the second worst episode in the entire series. As the gang think they are escaping Red Dwarf, it turns out they are actually in an AR simulation which is actually part of their trial. Rimmer having found this out decides to sabotage the trial to remove any implications of him using the the crews confidential files. However not everything is as it seems as Hollister was suspicious of Rimmer so everything he is currently doing is also an AR simulation. So while they are all innocent of their initial charges they are on the other hand found guilty of using confidential information about the crew to their own personal gain and are sentenced to spend the next 2 years down in the penal deck. This episode contains many of the most embarrassing moments in the show’s run, things like Cat Dancing with the Blue Midgets and claymation scene tend to leave a bad taste in my mouth.

4. Cassandra:

This episode comes as something of a bright spark in an otherwise lousy season. To increase their jail privileges signs the gang up for the Canaries, thinking it is the prison choir but actually is a group of prisoners they put into generous situations to see if the die to determine if it’s safe for the important people (as in the Mining tradition). As such they are sent down to investigate an abandoned ship at the bottom of a ocean planet. While their they meet the ship’s computer Cassandra who can see the future, she predicts that everyone there will die except Lister, Cat, Kryten and Kochanski. Unable to accept this Rimmer decides that he has to show how weasel a way into surviving. While not perfect, this episode in many ways harked back to the better days of Red Dwarf. While this is in no way a classic it is a good episode and the only actual bright spark this whole season.

5. Krytie TV:

This episode might have maybe worked better if this wasn’t Red Dwarf. Since classified as a woman for not having a penis (that actually happened in Back in the Red part 2) the inmates find out that Kryten actually gets to see the women showering. The inmates decide to kidnap Kryten and reprogram him into filming the women during shower time. This replaces the showing a B-grade film and while Lister is morally horrified couldn’t stop himself from watching Kochanski naked. While he does decide to so the moral thing and tell her, she finds it hard to forgive him to have just sat there and watched it. This episode while did have some funny moments isn’t very good. It all just feels very out of character for the show and of it’s characters. Really the best thing I can say in it’s favour is that it’s watchable even if kinda poor.

6. Pete part 1:

Here we enter into another extremely bad episode. This episode sees Lister and Rimmer in and out of Captain Hollister’s office after a number of immature hijinx like in a basket ball game (prison guards vs imates) they spike the guard half time juice with Viagra because they would have a “hard” time playing with an erection. Eventually Hollister get mad enough at them to have them thrown in the hole where they meet birdman as so named for having a pet sparrow. Mean while Kryten, Cat and Kochanski are on a Canaries missions and find a time altering machine called the time wand. With the help of Bob the scutter Lister, Rimmer and Birdman escape the hole and meet up with the others. In the excitement of escaping his bird Pete dies and when Kryten tries to use the Time wand to revive them it turns Pete into a T-Rex. This episode was a real stinker, one of the shows worst however we ain’t seen nothing yet.

7. Pete part 2:

Out of the frying pan and into the fire, this is unquestionably the worst episode of Red Dwarf. Now turned into a T-Rex Pete is now rampaging the cargo decks, Pete eats the scutter Bob who happened to be holding the timewand so they can’t turn Pete back. Lister decides that to get it back they need to speed up Pete’s bowls and makes a giant cow vindaloo, it makes Pete sick causing it to have diarrhea of which Captain Hollister happened to be in the path of. They get the wand back from Hollister demanding them to turn Pete back into a Sparrow before anyone else is hurt. Meanwhile Kryten is trying to find the mechanical penis he made for himself that’s on the run. When they do eventually turn Pete back into a sparrow, they decide to destroy the timewand only to find that while still a T-Rex….Pete laid an egg. It’s kinda hard to believe just how bad this episode actually is, particularly when you think that it was a once clever show. It was a sorry sight to see Red Dwarf lower itself to such lowest common denominator status.

8. Only the Good:

This is a very pedestrian episode but given the episode this follows it feels Shakespearean. After a failed attempt by Rimmer to trick Hollister into giving him a full pardon, Red Dwarf picks up a pod that happens to be containing a metal eating virus and as such starts to eat away Red Dwarf, the crew of the ship decide to evacuate effectively leaving Rimmer, Lister, Cat, Kryten, Kochanski and Holly for dead. The decide that the only way they can find a cure is if they go to a mirror universe where everything is opposite to find a cure. Rimmer decides to go in but the machine breaks down before the others follow. This before attempting to find the cure Rimmer decides he kinda enjoys this universe when he is the captain and Hollister is this universe’s version of Rimmer. This episode is noting special, some of the stuff in prison was kinda dumb but there were some funny moments, at least the season didn’t end on Pete part 2. I should also not that this episode ends on a cliffhanger that never has an explain conclusion.

I won’t lie, watching season 8 again for this review was actually a chore. While I defend season 7 to some extent I do feel this season earns the hate directed at it because almost nothing of what made Red Dwarf great is present and it is no wonder that the BBC canceled it. The show took too many wrong decisions and because something alien to it’s original concept. I remember at the time how much I wanted to like this season, particularly since Rimmer returned (even though his character development throughout the series was reset to zero) but nearly everything else was wrong. Only episode the whole season worth checking out is Cassandra and even that hardly goes down in the Red Dwarf hall of fame.

Made 4 years after the cliff hanger in season 6, this season take right back where it left off and continues the Red Dwarf is missing plot arc. However the season is known for shaking things up in a negative way, while the decision to more more away from the “Monster of the Week” direction wasn’t a bad ideal there were other troubles, with co-creator Rob Grant refusing to return and later on the very unfortunate departure of Chris Barrie who couldn’t sign on for a full season due to working on The Brittas Empire at the time. The dynamic would be shaken up ever further when Kristine Kochanski (now played by Chloë Annett). As such saying that this season was troubled would be something of an understatement.

1. Tikka to Ride:

This episode kicks the season off to a good start. Taking place directly after “Out of Time”, Lister is traumatized when he finds out that the battle with their future has destroyed all their curry. Lister wants to go back to get the Time Machine again so that he can go back in time to order some Curry. When the rest of the gang all think it’s a bad idea, Lister hijacks Kryten’s body with one his his spare heads with the guilt chip removed. Able to sorta convince the others they go back in time an inadvertently mess up history by accidentally stopping the assassination of JFK. This episode manages work with touchy subject matter without being tasteless. It’s a good episodes and if not for some glaring plotholes and inconsistencies could have been one of the greats.

2. Stoke Me a Clipper:

We follow that one up with another strong episode. It starts with a James Bond/Indiana Jones opening which has Ace Rimmer getting shot but brushing it off like it’s nothing. However in reality that shot was a fatal one and Ace is infact dying and needs to find another Rimmer to replace him. Rimmer who always resented Ace for being everything his now scoffs at the idea of becoming as himself but with some assistance from Lister Rimmer decides to give it a shot. This was a pretty funny episode with a hilarious opening sequence, it also stands as a strong farewell to a character who was there from the beginning and added so much to the show.

3. Ouroboros:

Oh dear…….this episode. Star Bug gets hit by some kind of strange anomaly which turns out to be an interdenominational portal which seems to work as some kind of semi solid tube. The meet themselves in another dimension except that Lister is a Hologram andKristine Kochanski is alive. However trouble stakes when Listers angry Gelf inlaws (remember back to Polymorph 2) are looking  for vengance and attack the worm hole causing it to break appart stranding Kochanski with crew for this universe which she it more then unhappy about. They now have to escape the Gelps, attempt to get Kochanski back to her universe (and fail) and Lister finds out the secret to his birth. Wow this episode is bad, as hard as I might have been on episodes like Meltdown and the above mentioned Polymorph 2, this was actually much worse and upto this point is the worst yet……it’s terrible.

4. Duct Soup:

Unfortunately we follow that stinker up with another weak episode. The plot for this on is simple, when the power on Star Bug goes out the crew have to go through the ducts to get out and reinstall the power. Problem is that Lister is claustrophobic and starts having panic attacks so people need to take turns to keep him calm, however the ducts turn out to be more dangerous then they had anticipated. This episode very much wishes to be kinda the bottle show that the episodes “Marooned” was back in season 3. Problem here is that in Maroon the character dynamic between Lister and Rimmer was fantastic and lead to great comedy, here the dynamic has very much been broke and as such it just doesn’t work.

5. Blue:

This one is certainly an improvement on the last 2. The plot hear is also very simple, after another failed attempt to get Kochanski back to her own universe, to go down the the storage bay to see what they to lighten Star Bug’s load. Lister starts having memories of the old days with Rimmer and finds that he actually misses him. Kyten and the Cat both just think Lister is crazy but he starts feeling better after a heart to heart talk with Kochanski. Kryten resentful that she was more helpful then him creates a program that he think will out do Kochanski’s “pyscho babble”. This episode is a slow burner as it is mostly buildup to one big punchline and the end and a fantastic punchline it was. This episode was fairly good if maybe feeling a little flabby in terms of pacing……also made me miss Rimmer as well.

6: Beyond a Joke:

Fortunately this proved to be another fairly decent episode. When unappreciated when going to the effort of cooking up a fancy lobster dinner, Kryten’s head blows up due to an overload of negative emotion, they try to fix him but that results in the rest of his spare heads blowing up as well. This leads the gang to have to dress up a Gelfs in order to obtain some more spare heads off a simulant, however they are shocked to find that Kryten had been stolen by one of the similant’s lackeys while they were gone. There Kryten mets a Mechanoid named Able of the same design as himself with a drug problem and the gang have to think of a way to save Kryten. This episode wasn’t bad, Rimmer’s absence was less felt with the focus being more of Kryten, it was faster moving then the last few and had some pretty funny moments.

7: Epideme:

I actually kinda liked this one too. The crew of the Star Bug find a frozen ship that appears to have a life sign aboard. The as always decide to check it out and find that the reported life sign is coming from a person inside an ice block. Within the ice block lies someone who Lister used to know and have a crush on and so the decide the bring it on Star Bug to let her throw out. At night the zombie smashes out of the ice block and makes out with Lister before dropping stone dead. As it turns out Lister has no been infected with a self aware, super intelligent terminal virus with the personality of a radio host. The first half of this episode seemed to have a very season 5 quality….along the lines of things like “Quarantine” and while nowhere as good it was a welcome sight this season.

8: Nanarchy:

After a few fairly solid episodes, this season unfortunately ends on something of a lackluster note. This episode start where the last left off and Lister is not dealing very well with having lost an arm, he is now essentially a depressed wreck. It is decided that things have to change so they try to think of solutions like trying to give Lister a robotic arm (which doesn’t work). They decide that the only way is to find Kyrten’s nanobots to rebuild his arm but they been missing since they were at the ocean planet with the Despair Squid (Back to Reality in season 5) and decide to go back and in doing so uncover secret to Red Dwarf’s disappearance. It should be noted that this episode feature the return of Norman Lovett as Holly who hadn’t been seen since season 2. Having that that this episode is a disappointing conclusion to 2 season plot arc and narrative felt like an unfocused mess, further more it ends on a rather lackluster cliffhanger.

This season I would say is on the high end of hit and miss. I think the thing holding it back most is the absence of Chris Barrie as Rimmer because one thing about Red Dwarf is that it has always had an ensemble cast, one that wasn’t fully complete until season 3. On top of this I found the stronger shift toward CGI this season impacted on the effects negatively making the special effects look far worse then the few before it. Setting said some clunkers though there still are some great moments this season and for the most part the writing is still clever. This was the weakest season and by no small margin upto this point but is still worth a gander.

What’s this, Red Dwarf without Red Dwarf? Yep in the nature that started last season to put the crew in more dangerous situations they made the action no longer take place aboard Red Dwarf which is now missing and the crew are now stuck in the more confined space of Star Bug. If the last season started turning the direction of becoming “Monster of the Week” then season dived head first into it, however unlike season 5 this season does somewhat begin to fall into formula. Another change is the fact this unlike other season this one has an overall story arc that somewhat tied the episodes together. This would also prove the be the end of the mid era seasons of Red Dwarf that people tend to look on with the most affection.

1. Psirens:

Not the most original episode on the world but pretty entertaining. Lister disorientated Wakes up having been in stasis for a few hundred years with Star Bug having been in pursuit of Red Dwarf that whole time, however they figure the could catch upto it by flying straight through the middle of an asteroid field. However they notice that this asteroid field is something of a grave yard of spaceships, the crew soon find out that on the surface of the asteroids live insectoid creatures know as Psirens who create visual illusions to trick their victims in order to suck out their brains with a straw, While something of a continuation of the darker scifi/horror/comedy episodes of season 5, only far less original and in many ways seems to mirror the season 3 episode Polymorph. That’s in no way to say this is a bad episode but much of this we have already seen done.

2. Legion:

While funny enough this episode can be a tad forgettable. Star Bug gets pulled in by a sort of tractor beam to a research station where they are greeted by an intelligent being known as Legion. He converts Rimmer’s Light Bee to hard light meaning he is now able to touch things as if he were still alive. They figure that he would be a great asset to the team as ask him to come with them but he refuses, however he also won’t permit them to leave. While this episode certainly isn’t bad, it’s kinda unremarkable, but I it should be noted for the fact it’s where Rimmer because a hard light hologram and can be an actual physical presence.

3. Gunmen of the Apocalypse:

Now for the episode this season is likely most remembered for. Star Bug is confronted by a rogue simulant ship who finds them to be too primitive to be any real sport decides to upgrade Star Bug in the hopes they might be a bit more of a entertaining kill. Deciding to strike first scoring a lucky shot on the simulant ship crippling it, however not before they send a over a computer virus which would destroy Star Bug. Kryten links himself to the ship’s computers to find an antivirus, take form in a dream in the style of an old Western where Kyten in the washed up drunken sheriff. The crew decide to use the AR machine to go into Kryten’s dream to help him deal with the virus. This episode is noted for winning an International Emmy award in 1994 and stand as on of the most enjoyable episodes in the show’s run.

4. Emohawk: Polymorph II:

Unfortunately the same can not be said for this one, as this is just a recycle of old ideas done to a much lesser effect. When Star Bug is damaged they need to trade for parts with a tribe of Gelf’s, however part of their deal is that Lister has to get married to the tribe leaders daughter. Lister running off on their honeymoon leads the tribe leader to send his pet Emohawk (a smaller domesticated Polymorph) after them which sucks out Cat’s cool turning him intoDuane Dibbley and Rimmers bitterness turning him into Ace Rimmer. I won’t lie, I really hate this episode. Letting go of the fact the “cool” and “bitterness” aren’t emotions, the episode just feels like them clumsily trying to stick popular moments from the past 3 seasons into one episode.

5. Rimmerworld:

This unfortunately would prove to be another subpar episode. Returning to the simulant ship (from Gunmen of the Apocalypse) to raid for supplies the crew are ambushed by a surviving simulant. Rimmer panicking take the escape pod causing the damaged simulant ship to collapse of which the Dwarfer’s nearly didn’t escape. Unfortunately for Rimmer the pod goes through a wormhole and because of the time distortion would have to wait 600 years before they would find him. Using the supplies in the pod Rimmer creates a world of clones of himself which doesn’t work well when he is overthrown and spends most of that time in a dungeon. Inspite of some funny moments this episode isn’t very strong and has a bit of deju of older episodes. On top of this the fact that Rimmer being locked in a dungeon for over 5 hundred years and the only effect on him it has is that he struggles to remember a few names is pretty lame.

6. Out of Time:

Fortunately we sign this season off on a strong note. Star Bug accidentally flies into a place shrouded in fog when they bump into something that they couldn’t detect, however Lister seem to hurt him arm and when Kryten looks at it, he doesn’t see blood but rather machinery. They all think Lister is a robot until the feel another bump and discover it was a pocket of false reality which is used to disorientate and drive off potential looters. Choosing to disregard this they proceed to continue and see what the are protecting, upon making it through find a time machine which for the moment is effectively useless for them. However they are soon visited by themselves from the future only to find that they have become people they despise. This episode was a very good one and ended the season off on an explosive cliffhanger, one people had to wait for 4 years to see a resolution for.

On reflection season 6 is the beginning of the shows decline. The ideas are far less inventive, the plots became more formulaic, more of the humor relies on running gags and too much trading in on past glories (particularly Polymorph 2). This isn’t to say season 6 is bad because watching it is still fun, most of the ingredients that made the show great are still present, I liked the fact it had a continuing plot arc and the effects had once again improved…infact this season had the show’s most impressive model work to date. Season 6 is still a quite entertaining ride but it seems the shows better years are behind it.

Reported to be where the show started to take a turn towards a “monster of the week” approach, season 5 was in no way formulaic. While it’s clear the idea was to put the Red Dwarf crew into more dangerous situations that they were ill equipped to deal with and at times veering into Scifi/horror/comedy, season 5 was also very rich in new creative ideas and the humor remained in top form. This season showed a marked improvement in production values and also would turn out to be the last season for a while to actually take place on Red Dwarf.

1. Holoship:

The most grounded episode this season is still a good one. Shortly after scoffing at a romantic film they were watching on Star Bug Rimmer is whisked away onto a holographic ship comprised of holograms of the cream of the crop. It has everything Rimmer could want for with having a physical presence while on the ship and has a woman that Rimmer actually scored with whom he also has developed some feelings for. Rimmer decides to take a test to become a member of which his opponent will be deactivated. Rimmer never one to do things the far way besides to take a mind patch to make him smarter then he actually is, problem is his opponent is the woman he developed feelings for. A pretty funny episode and shows a rear instance of Rimmer being noble….but not without being disgusted in himself for being sappy like a Romantic film.

2. The Inquisitor:

This is a very strong episodes though some claim to be confusing, I dunno I understood it perfectly as a child. The Red Dwarf crew get an unexpected and most unwelcome visit from a mechanical being known as the Inquisitor who goes around histroy obliterating those who he deem as been not all that they could have been. The Inquisitor gives everyone a trial to defend the worth of their own life which is to be judged by themselves. Unfortunately both Lister and Kryten fail to be deemed as worthy of existing and with the help of the appearance of Kryten form about an hour or so in the future has to escape their being obliterated from history. What I like is that even if you removed the comedy this actually has a pretty strong scifi plot but with it is made all the better. This is a hugely underrated episode.

3. Terrorform:

This episode is the weakest in the season and while by no means bad (actually pretty decent) in a season this strong just feels comparatively lacking. The episode starts with Star Bug having been crashed, Rimmer is gone and Kryten is nearly destroyed. After getting a message from Kryten’s severed hand Lister and Cat go down to the planet and repair Kryten. With Rimmer still missing that soon find out that the planet they are on has take on a physical manifestation of Rimmer’s very troubled mind. I think the problem with this episode is that it started off so great that when the rest is only merely decent it falls a little short. There are still some fantastic jokes present so it’s certainly no write off.

4. Quarantine:

This stands as one of my all time favourite episodes. The Red Dwarf crew find a research station that reports show as having a hologram in stasis. They find the they had done a discovered that things like Luck is actually a positive viral strain and take some of that research with them, however when they find the holographic doctor she a virus that while cause telekinetic powers also makes to criminally insane, she tries to attack them before promptly dying from the virus. After this Rimmer has them all sent to Quarantine with them all being locked in the same room and moral between the starts to break. After 5 days they demand to be re-screened only to find that Rimmer has the virus and is now completely insane. This episode is hilarious, it’s one of the moments I remember most fondly when I think about Red Dwarf.

5. Demons and Angels:

This is another really fun episode but does use ideas we have seen done before in science fiction. Lister and Kryten are testing a duplicating machine that they intend to use to eliminate their supply problems, how ever a lab accident causes Red Dwarf to blow up and 2 duplicate copies to arrive in it’s place 1 good, the other bad. Since the duplicates have a limited life span they have to go aboard both to fine the 2 halves of the duplicator, on the good ship their saintlike selves are more then willing to help, however what horrors lie in the bad version of Red Dwarf? This episode often gets complaint about being too dark, and while it is one of the darker episodes tone wise, it really has no baring on the humor….it’s very funny stuff.

6. Back to Reality:

This is episode is plain and simply Red Dwarf at it’s finest. The Crew all but Rimmer board a crashed ship at the bottom of the ocean of some planet, while down their they find out that the crew had all committed suicide under the influence the ink of a giant squid that’s properties causes despair. The retreat to Star Bug only to find out that the despair squid has already spotted them and is heading towards them. The true to out run it but the ink of the squid catches upto Star Bug and the appear to crash. When the wake up the find themselves in a world where Red Dwarf was nothing more then a total immersion video game of which they had spent the last few years of their lives. This get’s worse then the find out the shock of who that are in this world. This episode works as being both a fantastic piece of comedy but also a fantastic piece of science fiction. It does everything right and as such it goes down as being the the episode of Red Dwarf ever made. This episode should also be noted as the origin of Cat’s popular alter ego Duane Dibbley.

Season 5 of Red Dwarf is the shows finest hour, the plots were at their funniest and most creative and even the worst episode is solid. This is generally the season I think back to the most when I think of the show because at this moment everything seemed to click just right. Ironically had the show ended here it would had more widely gone down as one the the best shows in television but to be fair there are still some damn fine moments beyond this point. However as it goes, season 5 is currently the pinnacle of the show and it will be hard pressed for that to change.

With the hit that was season 3 the writers decided to continue the 4th season in very much the same vain and really in many ways felt like a direct continuation. Interestingly Rob Grant and Doug Naylor had intended this to be the final season, a decision on which they were soon to change their mind on. I guess why shoot the goose that lays golden eggs?

1. Camille:

This episode continues the development of Kryten that was started in the least season episode The Last Day. It starts with Lister trying to get Kryten to break his programing by being able to lie and insult people when Kryten has to go asteroid spotting with Rimmer. When detecting a distress beacon that Rimmer wishes to ignore Kryten goes down to search for survivors. Kryten finds what appears to be a mechanoid much like himself but of the female persuasion and promptly falls in love with her. Reluctant to go back with him Kryten persuades her to come back with him and it turns out that everyone see’s their new guest differently….more fitting to their own desires. While it as memorable as Backwards was the season before this start the season on a strong note.

2. DNA:

Much like the episode before it, this one belongs to Kryten. The crew find a mysterious unidentified ship drifting through space, reluctant over what they might encounter the enter the ship. While devoid of any lifeforms the find some oddly deformed corpses of things  that used to be human. The then find the ships computer that has the capability of DNA alteration and amongst other things turns Kryten into a human which he is initially happy about. After an unpleasant encounter with his spare heads Kyrten wants to return to how he was. The to test the machine properly on something not living and use Listers curry turning into a vindaloo monster. This was a pretty entertaining episode if maybe getting a little too silly for it’s own good toward the end.

3. Justice:

This episode was one of the highlights this season. The Red Dwarf crew salvage an escape pod that contains either the female officer of prison ship or a psychopathic cyborg killing machine. To deal with this the decide to proceed to the penal colony the prison ship was going to. They are all then scanned by an AI judge and Rimmer is found to be guilty for murder because of his own feelings of guilt as to the death of the Red Dwarf crew. Kyten set up a trial stating what a buffoon Rimmer is that he could never be held accountable for the death he take responsibility for and as such is let off. However when they arrive back to Starbug are met with an unpleasant surprise as the escape pod has now opened. This is a good example of what makes Red Dwarf good, it’s funny but is also backed up with a strong plot.

4. White Hole:

This episode can be seen as rather average Red Dwarf, it’s funny enough but not as memorable as it should be. In an attempt to restore Holly’s IQ back to 6000 the crew over shoot it by over double the intended number but at the same time short’s her lifespan to that of only a few minutes. As such Holly turns herself off leading to a ship wide shutdown, to make matters worse they start experiencing odd time distortions caused by White Hole and the only way to stop is is by playing an intergalactic game of pool with planets. It seemed before the IQ boost Holly seemed too stupid here (banging her head in the screen when she counts), otherwise this episode is fine but given the fact it tried to pull of such big ideas the while episode seemed kinda small.

5. Dimension Jump:

This episode is likely the one people will remember this season for, and for good reason. Wanting to got on a fishing trip without Rimmer but decide to take him along when failing to sneek off without him, Star Bug is crashed into by a ship dimension jumping. The person piloting is an alternative version of Rimmer who is smart, friendly and dashing…..everything the Rimmer we know isn’t. As such Rimmer is embittered by the confrontation of the fact he could have been something better then he is. This episode was the origin episode of Rimmer’s popular alterego Ace Rimmer and is a damn entertaining one to boot.

6. Meltdown:

It may have been better to switch the episode order as we are now from the best episode of the season to the worst. Kyten conveniently finds a transporter (which is forgotten after this episode) that transports the crew to a near by breathable planet and find themselves in the middle of battle of good and evil wax droids made in the image historical figures. A now insane Rimmer (who’s messed up after Lister put his Light Bee in his mouth) see’s this as an opportunity to act as General leading to the death of all the wax droids on the planet. I won’t beat around the bush, this episode is bad. Infact the weakest episode made upto this point, not a strong note to end the season on.

This season pretty much plays out like a slightly weaker version of season 3, not that it’s bad by any means but it did deliver the show’s first truly sucky episode and makes me glad that this wasn’t the last season as I feel that the best was still yet to come. In terms of the quality of this season amongst the shows run I feel it belongs somewhere in the middle. Still most of it is still pretty top notch.

What a difference a year can make, only a year after the first 2 seasons the show got a note worthy budget increase which allowed the creators to have the ability to make the show into something more like they had originally wanted. This lead to the show being completely retooled in that it became even more scifi orientated, it’s sets became more detailed and entertaining, Kryten (now played by Robert Llewellyn) joined the regular cast. Also the original actor of Holly refused to return and as such would be replaced by the actress who played his female counterpart in Parallel Universe. Most of these changes was supposed to be explained in an episode entitled “Dad” which do to dissatisfaction with it was never made and was instead explained in a text scroll in the first episode much like those in the Star Wars films……only for comedic effect it moves to fast to normally read.

1. Backwards:

This is one of those episodes that everyone remembers and for good reason, it’s hilarious. In a flight exam of Star Bug (a little ship that become very important and was introduced in this episode) Rimmer and Kryten go through a timehole and crash land onto Earth, however everything moves and is written backwards, being that moving forwards is such a novelty in this version of Earth they become famous stage performers. Since they had been missing Lister and Cat go search for them and follow thought the timehole, upon arriving they don’t get everything is backwards and Lister thinks they are in Bulgaria. Despite mostly following gags about things moving backwards this episode it a real hoot, this episode is a classic.

2. Marooned:

This episode is another fantastic one even if being a somewhat more grounded one. To avoid some black holes the crew split up to ensure safety in both the Star Bug and Blue Midgit. Star Bug containing Lister and Rimmer is hit by a meteor causing it to crash on a ice planet, this is no issue for Rimmer who’s a hologram but since Lister need food (which they are short on) and fire to not freeze to death, things are not going well. Much of the humor work well her with 2 people who hate each other in a claustrophobic setting and is the first time that you see occasional nobility in Rimmer which is unfortunately betrayed by Lister. In some ways this is probably the best episode of the season because while not following as creative or as fun an idea as some of the others, it’s loaded with fantastic character moments and very clever writing.

3. Polymorph:

Another really fun episode and fan favourite, this episode is a huge example of how much the show’s format has changed this season. Red Dwarf and it’s crew are in danger when a mutant lifeform known as a Polymorph breaks onto the Red Dwarf. It has the ability to shape shift into a variety of different forms at will to invoke emotions which it sucks out leaving their personalities radically altered. This episode is largely played out as a parody of alien though given the shapeshifting angle it’s odd they didn’t parody The Thing. Either way this was a pretty silly episode is a lot of fun.

4. Body Swap:

Not as good as the previous episodes but still entertaining enough, though kinda a clique idea. When Red Dwarf’s self destruct alarm goes they are forced to temporarily put the mind of one of the dead officers in Lister’s body to deactivate it. This gives Rimmer the idea that he could use Lister’s body to enjoy the little things he can’s as a Hologram, he convinces Lister under the guise that he plans to get him into shape but proceeds to gorge himself causing Lister’s body to put on more wight. After this point it become a fight over who gets the body. Nothing too terribly original but the jokes are funny enough.

5. Timeslides:

Another fairly fun episode but I feel the weakest in the season due to a few misfiring jokes. When developing photographs Kryten notices something odd, because of the mutation in the developing fluid all the photo’s move. The crew soon finds out that they can go back in time through them but only withing the confines of the photo. Lister uses this to get himself better fortune but altering the timeline to make himself the inventor of the Tension Sheet. It works and not only does Lister disappear but Cat and Kryten do aswell. Being stuck alone on Red Dwarf with only Holly is not something Rimmer is willing to sit around and accept. The episode was fun but I felt a little uneven.

6. The Last Day:

Often season to be the weakest episode of the season I actually found it to be stronger then the 2 before it. Kryten prepared for his death when he hears new that his replacement has arrived. Unable to sway Kryten to stay alive they through a party in his honour and give him presents and get pretty hammered. This being the first time that Kryten has truly had fun gives him the desire to live, however the bad news is that his replacement has arrived and his become violently insane due to the time he spent alone in deep space. I actually like this one because it has some pretty good character moments (particularly the party) and it’s the turning point for Kryten when he really starts to feel like am important member of the cast.

Season 3 was another excellent season but if I had to complain is that given the episode order, all the best episodes were the first 3 thus making the season feel top heavy, it’s not to say the others were bad but much like the first season was it bugs me a little. Having said that, this was the season that made Red Dwarf into what we remember it and what made it become so iconic to so many. At the end of the days, season 3 was one of the strongest seasons in the shows run and is a must see.

Season 2 was something of an end of the first era of Red Dwarf. Made the same year as the first there was clearly no time wasted between making them. However at the same time it was a great deal more ambitious as it carried character development the most of any other season and at the same time had much more fun with the scifi format then that of the first. So let’s take a look at the end of the first era of Red Dwarf.

1. Kryten:

This marks the origin of a character who would become very important in the next season onwards though his somewhat different here (different actor too). The crew find a distress beacon from a crashed ship sent by a robot named Kryten, at the promise of saving women the not so valiant crew decide to come to the rescue. This excitement soon turns to disappointment when they find out the they had been dead for hundreds of years (though Kryten was still taking care of them), as such they decide to take Kryten with them. Rimmer decides to exploit the grieving droid to do mundane tasks causing the once pushover robot to rebel and leave Red Dwarf on Lister’s space bike. Not one of the true greats but it’s pretty funny and a strong enough note to start the season on.

2. Better Than Life:

Now I have to say this episode is a great one. A post pod arrives to Red Dwarf containing mail that’s 3 million years late. The mail contains many things like total immersion video games and a note to Rimmer about his father’s death. This reminding him of the fact he will never prove himself to his father causing a depression spiral, however after finding out about a game Better Then Life, a game about forfilling fantasy Rimmer decides to join Lister and the Cat in playing it. All goes well until Rimmer’s mind starts rejecting good things happening and all hell breaks loose. This is another episode the develops Rimmers character and takes a look at why he is…..well…Rimmer, the comedy present it also in fine form. This one is a real classic.

3. Thanks for the Memory:

This one was another very strong episode. The crew go down to a planetoid to celebrate Rimmer’s death day (I guess it’s like birthdays for Holograms). After which with them all having a but too much to drink, Rimmer tells Lister some things about his love life that he would soon regret. The next morning (or so they think) a strange thing happen when Lister and the Cat wake up with a broke foot in a cast and they seem to have actually missed the last few days. They must uncover Holly’s now missing black box to find out was happened in those last few days. This is another strong episode for character development, and while it’s not as funny as the last one is a strong episode in of it’s own.

4. Stasis Leak:

This the writers seem to be on a roll at this point with 3 really strong episodes in a row.  The crew find a Stasis Leak (which no one really seems to get) which send the crew back in time before the destruction of Red Dwarf but find that anything that try to bring back to the present turns to dust. However Lister wants to get to so Kristine Kochanski is put into stasis and survive the disaster, Rimmer on the other hand tries to get himself put into stasis so he is no longer a Hologram but they effectively change nothing change nothing. While time travel plots are overused this was a strong one and once again the comedy is in strong form.

5. Queeg:

Another entertaining episode, albeit most straight forward and less eventful one. After an accident with some technical issues that nearly kills Lister, Holly as ship computer is deemed to incompetent to take care of the remaining crew and is hence forth replaced by a more militaristic computer named Queeg. Queeg acts like a drill Sargent making everyone’s lives hell and making them work long hours for minuet scraps of food. It is upto Holly to challenge Queeg once more to retake the role of ship’s computer….is he upto it? While this episode is nothing all the new or inventive it hit the right notes in terms of comedy and as such is still pretty good.

6. Parallel Universe:

It seems every scifi has an episode about parallel universe’s, this would be the first episode of a few in which Red Dwarf would. In an attempt to get back to Earth fast Holly invents the “Holly Hop Drive” which instead of taking them back to earth brings them into a universe where genders are reversed…..initially excited at the thought Cat is soon disappointed when he finds out who his counterpart in this universe is. One thing I should say is that people should start getting used to Holly’s female counterpart. This episode was amusing enough though I sometimes found the female characterizations to be a bit off at time.

I have to say that I actually really enjoy season 2, it’s a vast improvement over the first and stands as being IMO one of the stronger seasons of the show. There isn’t a limping leg in the lot, and it really feels a lot more lively with far more creative and fun ideas then the first. Rimmer seemed to become much more of a 3 dimensional character then he had prior been and they even tried to dress up the drab original sets a bit to make it seem less dull and grey to look at. Season 2 is just flat out good comedy and comes as being easy to recommend.

In anticipation of the new season, I will review every season of the shows past and what better way to do that then go back to where the show started, the very first season. For those who haven’t seen the first season would likely notice just how different it was to how the show would later become. So let us dive into the series that started it all.

1. The End:

What a name to give the first episode, it serves as the setup story for the shows premise with Lister being frozen in time in time for 3 million years and finding himself to be the only surviving member of the crew (and maybe the last human alive in general) and finds him self trapped in space with a hologram of his dead bunk mate who incidentally hated one another, a person who had evolved his pet cat and the senile ships computer named Holly. For what it’s worth it was a decent enough introduction to the series, even if not one of the most outstanding episodes.

2. Future Echoes:

Ok now this episode is pretty damn fantastic, the idea of this episode is that because the ship enters and passes light speed the crew are disorientated when the see disjointed images of things that are going to happen in the future. Due to the lack of context in the things they are seeing they make incorrect interpretation and some of the visions they see appear pretty dire. This was a really strong second episode and one if the show’s best……it is unquestionably the high point to the season.

3. Balance of Power:

This was another decent episode but falls short of the powerhouse that proceeded it. This episode’s plot was pretty basic, tired of Rimmer bossing him around Lister take a test to become the ship’s chef in order to out rank him, also so he could shut Rimmer’s projection down and instate his lost love interest Kristine Kochanski (take a note of that name, it will be important). This episode was fairly straight forward but served well to develop Lister’s feelings of loneliness and as some pretty good jokes to boot.

4. Waiting for God:

This episode doesn’t fare as well as the others, it’s nothing horrible though. The idea of this one was that Lister while going through the cat books finds out he is their god and is shocked to hear the violence that had because bu misquotes of his words, and subsequently finds out what happened (sorta) to the rest of Cat’s species. Mean while Rimmer finds a garbage pod that he thinks contains an alien in stasis. Honestly I don’t find the religious commentary that strong in this one because it’s nothing we haven’t seen done before and done better, on the other hand the subplot with Rimmer is where the episode delivers the real laughs.

5. Confidence & Paranoia:

This was probably the weakest episode of the season but still isn’t without it’s moments. Lister finds himself coming down with pneumonia, however it’s different now because over 3 million years it has mutated and now causes him fever hallucinations to take on a physical forms. This causes his hallucinations to take on a human manifestations of his Confidence and Paranoia. This episode again brings back the plot ark or Lister wanted to replace Rimmer’s hologram with Kochansk. This episode isn’t bad I guess, there are some moments but just isn’t all that engaging.

6. Me²:

This the last episode of the season is in a bit better form then the last couple. Finding a way to support 2 holograms (something the show seems to forget after this episode) this episode start where the previous left off…with 2 Rimmer’s. Felling he now has far better company then Lister he moves out of the room to go live in another with himself. However before long there is trouble in Rimmer’s paradise when his self loathing kicks in and they begin to fight and rather unpleasantly at that. It gets so bad Lister is put in control over which one of the 2 Rimmer’s will be terminated. This was a far more entertaining episode then that last to and was the first to really develop the idea of Rimmer’s inner loathing which would become the defining thing that makes him such a jerk.

All an all I like the first season on the whole. It’s not the most consistent season, it’s a bit primitive and is kinda rough around the edges. It does however set up the premise rather well and delivers us characters who are legitimately likable even if they wouldn’t be the best of people to know. However it is because they are such a bunch of misfits that makes them as fun at they are. It’s not perfect but it’s easy to see why the show continued…..particularly with how strong the episode Future Echoes was.

I have to say that I’m actually starting to become cautiously optimistic about this new season of Red Dwarf. After the dreadful Back to Earth episodes back in 2009 I honestly wasn’t even thinking about giving this new season a shot but recently I’ve been hearing things like the fact they have gone to the effort in getting back much of the production staff of the first 6 seasons and returning to model effects rather then the CGI that was used in the later part in the show. Looking at this screenshot even the set design looks to have much more of a Red Dwarf feel to it then that of the BTE episodes as well (BTE having something of a sterile look to it)…….kinda has the grungy lived in look that season 3 to 7 had………If these episodes are well written or not remains to be seen but it looks like a real effort is being put in and as such it’s actually starting to rekindle my interests.