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RED DWARF |
SEASON 5 SEASON 6 
Dave Lister - Craig Charles Arnold Rimmer - Chris Barrie Cat - Danny John-Jules Kryten - Robert Llewellyn Holly (1,2,7 & 8) - Norman Lovett Holly (3,4 & 5) - Hattie Hayridge Kristine Kochanski (7 & 8) - Chloe Annett 
OTHER RED DWARF SERIES Series 1 & 2 Series 3 & 4 Series 7 & 8 Back To Earth Series 10 OTHER SCI FI COMEDIES Quark Clone Supernova No Heroics Hyperdrive 
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BACK TO REALITYInvestigating a ship at the bottom of an ocean, the crew of the RED DWARF find themselves attacked by a giant sea monster and crash Starbug. Instead of death, they find that they have been playing a fully immersive video game for the last four years and are not at all the people they thought they were. Series five begins in the kind of style that wipes away memories of the disappointing Meltdown. Not only is the idea that the last four series have been a video game pure brilliance, but their new personas are the stuff of comic genius. At the forefront is the Cat's reaction to finding out that he is, in fact, Duane Dibley, a man with no style whatsoever. On top of that, the explanation as to why they are in the video game is beautiful. The despair squid is a creation of comedy gods. This is what science fiction comedy will always need to be measured against in the future. TopDEMONS & ANGELSIn an attempt to strengthen the supply situation, Kryten invents a triplicator, a machine that creates two copies of one original. One copy proves to be all that is good and one all that is rotten and putrid, so when the whole Red Dwarf gets triplicated, the crew are faced with all that is great and noble in themselves, but also all that is disgusting. Another cracking episode from the Red Dwarf team, but also one with some genuinely disturbing moments. Whilst the visit to the good ship is par for the course (which means pretty damned funny) the visit to the rotten ship is screamingly funny, but also revolting. There is also the sight of Rimmer in suspenders being beyond gross and Lister being used as a pawn to kill his partners. It is possible that the show is trying to say something about the duality of personality and both the heights we can scale and the depths we can fall to. If not, this is top drawer comedy. TopHOLOSHIPWhen the Red Dwarf encounters a holographic ship in which the crew of holograms spend all their time expanding human knowledge and having enforced sex at least twice a day, Rimmer believes that all his dreams have come true. Cheating his way through the entrance exam, he finds that his success means the switching off of the woman with whom he has fallen in love (or bed at least). Arnold J Rimmer has certainly been allowed some serious character evolution recently. Following the introduction of Ace Rimmer in Dimension Jump we now see him actually having sex (or at least having had sex) and sacrificing his dreams for another. Who would have thought that such character growth was on the agenda? Oh and it's just so blissfully funny. Chris Barrie gets a lot of chances for brilliantly-timed double takes and the dialogue continues to delight. TopQUARANTINEAt a deserted research centre, the crew contact another hologram. They determine that Rimmer should share his projection system with the new one, but she turns out to be a psychopath able to project killer beams from her eyes. When Rimmer contracts the virus that affected her, the crew are locked in quarantine to face a deadly combination of brussel sprouts and Mr Flibble. Their only chance, an experimental luck virus. None of the characters in RED DWARF have ever been completely sane, so seeing one of them go completely mad gives the writers a chance to go even further from the realms of reality with their jokes. It's really funny and whoever thought a penguin glove puppet would be quite so threatening? TopTHE INQUISITORThe inquisitor is a being that travels time and space, taking those it considers worthless completely out of time and replacing them with someone who never got the chance to be born. When it comes across the crew of the Red Dwarf, it finds a bountiful harvest, but are their wits enough to escape permanent deletion? There's been a lot of plotting around the value of the characters and their (dubious at best) acheivements in series four and five. This is another one, asking whether what we do with our lives justifies our having them in the first place. If we don't make the most of it, should we lose it. In the meantime, there is the scary inquisitor, one of the better monsters by being just a mask, and some very funny lines. TopTERRORFORMKryten and Rimmer crash on a planetoid. Kryten manages to get help, but Rimmer has disappeared. The planetoid turns out to be a psi-moon, a place that moulds itself according to the psyche of the inhabitant. This means that the rescue mission mounted by the rest of the team must risk life, limb and sanity within the physical manifestation of Rimmer's disturbed mind. Even worse, they might have to tell him they love him. Chris Barrie gets to be oiled up by two half-naked lovelies in this final episode of series 5. The peep inside the mind of Rimmer is full of great character comedy and killer lines, but it is, indeed, the moments when they have to make Rimmer feel good about himself that are so beautifully played and the final line is somewhat cruel, which just shows how much we have come to know and love these characters. TopPSIRENSThe crew of the Red Dwarf are now the crew of Starbug, mainly due to the fact that somebody has stolen Red Dwarf whilst they were away. They are now in pursuit, and stand a good chance of catching up if they sneak through an asteroid belt that the main ship was too large to navigate. The problem is that there are psirens about, creatures that create illusions to lure ships and their crews to their doom. Can the crew resist? Is the pope an omelette? They're back for series 6 and off to a good start. I'm not sure why the Red Dwarf has been ditched for Starbug, but that will hopefully become clear. There is a bit more of a leaning to the gross out humour with Lister snogging with a disgusting mess of a blob, but there is still a good return on the laughs per gag ratio and the actors still seem to be having a great time. It's good to have you back boys. TopLEGIONStarbug is caught in a tractor beam and dragged to an apparently abandoned space station. Once inside, the crew discover that this is the home of Legion, a being of infinite intelligence, taste and style. Unfortunately, he also wants to keep them there forever. This is a terrific episode, back to the character squabbling of old, though there are moments of sheer slapstick, such as the use of the telekinetic chopsticks. Rimmer's upgrading as a hologram to one with a hard light drive that allows him to be solid also allows for all sorts of new opportunities for humour. TopGUNMEN OF THE APOCALYPSEAfter an encounter with a ship full of killer robots leaves the ship's computer infected with a virus and on a crash course, Kryten absorbs the malicious code in order to fabricate an antidote. When things go wrong, Lister, Cat and Rimmer have to enter his dreams, dreams in which he is the drunken sherriff of a western town about to be gunned down at noon. This series is rapidly becoming about the situations rather than the characters. This might be why they have swapped Red Dwarf for Starbug. It could also be that Hattie Hayridge wasn't available to play Holly, so they just dumped the ship. Either way, it was the characters that made the comedy and idea-driven episodes such as this one are weaker than those that concentrate on the crew. That's not to say there isn't fun to be had, there are always great lines on RED DWARF, but it is a step down from the heights we are used to. TopPOLYMORPH II - EMOHAWKWhen Starbug crashes on a gelf (genetically engineered life form) moon in need of an oxygen processing unit, trading with the hideous locals turns out to be a simple matter of giving away Lister into marriage. When the plan goes west, the vengeful leader sets his pet hawk on them to suck out their emotions. POLYMORPH was one of the funniest of the previous shows and so it shouldn't be surprising that the show should choose to revisit it. The set up is fresh enough to forgive going back over old ideas, but it is the return of two old favourites, Ace Rimmer and Duane Dibley, that makes this episode. Those are great characters and we could always use more of them. TopRIMMERWORLDWhilst on a visit to a disintegrating ship, Rimmer takes the only escape pod and falls through a wormhole onto a desert planet. Fortunately, the pod is crammed full of terraforming stuff. Unfortunately, the time-stretching effects of the wormhole means that for him, 600 years will go by before he can be rescued. He uses the time to create a whole world based on his own dna. Now you know that's not going to work. Now I never thought I'd see the day that RED DWARF looked tired. This episode uses lots of ideas that have been used before (not least Rimmer faced by himself) and has not only a weak plot with a terribly weak ending, but a paucity of really good gags as well. Still, it can only be a blip, can't it? TopOUT OF TIMEStarbug enters a region of space protected by an unreality field. They are assailed with images that aren't there, making them believe things that aren't true. At the heart is a ship with a time travel device. As they set it up, a new Starbug appears with a crew from 15 years in the future, a crew that they don't want to turn into. A pitched battle ensues in which Starbug is destroyed. For the first time, the series ends on a cliffhanger as the Starbug is destroyed and it smacks a little of desperation, as if the team didn't believe that the audience would come back without a hook. Whilst series 6 hasn't been the best, there have been enough great moments to make up for the weaker ones and the show is still the best sci-fi comedy ever. We want it back, but not only to find out what's happens next. oh, and bring back Holly. Top |
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