RED DWARF
Season 10

Available on disc

The crew of the mining ship RED DWARF pick up a distress call from a ship to learn that it is under the command of a hologram of Rimmer's brother. They pretend that they are on a top of the line attack ship in order to give Arnold one moment of triumph over his hateful sibling.

RED DWARF is back - and not in that awful Back To Earth miniseries format, but a return to the half hour standalone comedy format that made it the funniest of all science fiction sitcoms. Yes, the crew all look older, but that's not even mentioned. There must have been some adventure that we didn't see that aged them all. They are just the same characters that they were with the same weaknesses and flaws and determination to get through what remains of life together.

Most important of all, though, is that this opening salvo is funny. Not up there with the greatest episodes, but with enough laughs to put many other shows to shame and all delivered with flawless comic timing. There's no plot to speak of, but then there never really were. There's a situation and the crew react to it in their inimitable fashions.

Welcome back Dave, Rimmer, Cat and Kryton. We've missed you.

It's Fathers' Day and since Lister is his own son (it's a time travel paradox), he has a whole protocol worked out for giving himself a card. Unfortunately, he finds that the generation gap can exist in a single person and a psychotic new computer can make it deadly.

The novelty of seeing the crew back has worn off, but the episode gets away with it just about. It's not as funny as the series opener, but we can live with that because there are some laughs to be had. The psycho computer's been done before, but the whole predictive behaviour programming is quite fun - as is the visual nod to STAR TREK - THE MOTION PICTURE.

This is Craig Charles' episode and the rest of the crew aren't give that much to do, which is a shame, and the running joke about chinese whispers is more of a crawling joke that needs to be put out of its misery.

A rejuvenation shower sends the gang back in time to AD24 where they end up in India meeting a man called Jesus.

This isn't the first time that gang have time travelled and not the first time that they've come into contact with a famous person, but the idea that they should meet Jesus does raise the stakes and the blasphemy possibilites.

The humour is consistent enough and there are enough funny gags to get by. It's not classic RED DWARF, but it is a solid enough episode.

Lister loses Rimmer in a game of poker with aliens and has a bomb strapped to his groin to ensure payment. To remove it, the crew encounter a woman who fancies Arnie.

This episode is a bit of a let down after the last couple. The plot, such as it is, is episodic and tacked together as if there wasn't enough in any one of them to fill out an entire episode. Thus, we get the groinal exploder, which is funny for a few minutes, the losing of Rimmer to Gelfs, which is barely funny at best, a woman who is incorrect about everything, also not all that funny, and both Cat and Kryten speaking in unison, an idea that might have had promise, but doesn't fulfil any of it.

Also, the jokes this time around really aren't that funny. This is an episode that suffers from mid-series fatigue.

Lister is missing the human race until a letter stating that he might be a father takes him mind off it. Getting caught in a love triangle between two vending machines doesn't help.

The vending machine part of this episode is funny. When the french-accented one starts accusing Lister of hitting on it you can't help but laugh and another declaring with joy that it's the first time that she's seen a ceiling is delirious.

The rest is a little tired and low brow, relying on the comedic potential of toilet paper and having all the bad thoughts you don't want to have in your head being described to you. That's a pity because the vending machines bit is very funny.

A rogue robot obsessed with duels across time and space brings a cruiser of bloodthirsty simulants after the Red Dwarf. Hiding out in an asteroid field, there is only man who can save them. Sadly, that man is Rimmmer.

The season goes out on a high, not because it's funny, but because it actually offers some character development. For once, Rimmer is given the opportunity to stand up and be counted and the tool for salvation is just as ridiculous as you might expect. A few more successful jokes wouldn't have gone amiss, but we can get by on the chemistry between the leads.

We're not sure there was enough in this season to justify the show's return, and it might be time to let the show rest on its early laurels.