ORBzine - Red Dwarf TV Review
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Red Dwarf [Season 1, Episode 1]
The End
Shown 15 Feb 88
The story is set on the interplanetary mining ship Red Dwarf. Lister and Rimmer are the Odd Couple in Space, total opposites and completely at odds with each other. The background characters among the crew include Lister's friend Peterson [Mark Williams ] and the woman of Lister's dreams, Christine Kochanski [ Clare Grogan ].
Lister broke quarantine by bringing his pet cat onto the ship. His punishment is 18 months in stasis, frozen in time ...
Red Dwarf [Season 1, Episode 2]
Future Echoes
Shown 22 Feb 88
The ep starts with an emergency broadcast by Holly, who gives a recap of the story so far.
The ship is approaching lightspeed. And when it breaks the light barrier, the crew see flashes of things that are about to happen! Rimmer claims he saw Lister's death ...
There are a couple of scenes which foreshadow later episodes. Rimmer tells Lister You can't whack Death on the head!. More importantly, they discover that somehow, Lister will have 2 sons ... even though there's no women on the ship!
Red Dwarf [Season 1, Episode 3]
Balance of Power
Shown 29 Feb 88
Rimmer is the highest-ranking officer on the ship, even though he's dead. Also, he has hidden Lister's cigarette supply, so he can force Lister to comply with orders. He makes Lister inventory the ship's stores. Even though the cats have been living there for 3 million years, there's still enough left for the next few centuries.
Lister wants Rimmer to swop disks and let Lister date Kochanski's hologram. Rimmer, terrified he won't be switched on again, refuses. Lister decides to get promoted above Rimmer - by taking the exam to become the ship's chef!
Red Dwarf [Season 1, Episode 4]
Waiting For God
Shown 7 Mar 88
Holly detects a UFO on long-range sensors. Rimmer thinks it's part of an alien civilisation. He wants them to clone him a new body.
Lister learns how to read the Cat language. He borrows the Cat bible, which contains the legend of Cloister the Stupid. Unfortunately, like all religions it caused terrible Holy Wars! We discover the fate of the Cat civilisation.
Red Dwarf [Season 1, Episode 5]
Confidence and Paranoia
Shown 14 Mar 88
Lister goes through Kochanski's stuff in the Officers' Quarters. However, they haven't been decontaminated yet. Lister contracts mutant pneumonia ...
Lister's hallucinations come to life. Two men appear - his Confidence and Paranoia. Rimmer complains, of course. Is Rimmer going to save the day, for once?
Red Dwarf [Season 1, Episode 6]
Me2
Shown 21 Mar 88
Rimmer and his duplicate move in together. Their relationship parallels the previous ep - they start up boosting each others' Confidence, but end up more like Paranoia!
Lister watches Rimmer's death video. His last words were Gespacco Soup ...
2nd Series Autumn 1988
The BBC On Demand service has the new version of Season Two, with fancy intro credits and CGI SPFX. It clashes quite badly, especially because Season One has the original classic intro!
Red Dwarf [Season 2, Episode 1]
Kryten
Shown 6 Sep 88
Holly detects a crashed ship. It's run by a robot butler named Kryten, who is obsessed with a TV soap opera named Androids [a parody of Australian show Neighbours]. There are 3 female officers aboard ...
Rimmer takes advantage of the opportunity to have his own personal butler. Lister trys to help Kryten break his programming and become rebellious ...
Red Dwarf [Season 2, Episode 2]
Better Than Life
Shown 13 Sep 88
Holly detects a pod approaching the ship. It's the mail delivery! Everything is 3 million years out of date, but it doesn't matter! One of the items is a next-generation VR game named Better Than Life! We
Rimmer's background is explored. His relationship with his parents, which made him the person he became, is shown.
Holly's pen-pal, with an IQ of 8000, seems every bit as dozy as Holly does after 3 million years of senility!
Red Dwarf [Season 2, Episode 3]
Thanks for the Memory
Shown 20 Sep 88
The crew wake up, but they have no memory of the last few days. Someone has wiped their memories. Rimmer assumes it's aliens! They have to retrieve the ship's black box in order to solve the mystery.
Lister uses the ship's onboard memory-machine. The moral of the story is that no good deed goes unpunished.
Red Dwarf [Season 2, Episode 4]
Stasis Leak
Shown 27 Sep 88
It's not just the credits and ship's external shots that have been updated. Holly's broadcast was originally about a moon the shape of Felicity Kendal's bottom: now he compares it to Marilyn Monroe's bottom!
Lister spends his time going through everyone else's stuff. Kochanski has a photo of her getting married to Lister, and Rimmer's diary tells them where to find a stasis leak that will let them travel back in time (and space!) ...
We get to see more of Hollister and Peterson. The Cat meets women, for the first time in his life. There's a spare stasis pod aboard the ship ... Lister wants to save Kochanski, but Rimmer wants to save himself! Unfortunately the crew are having a fancy-dress party, and Rimmer thinks he's been dosed with hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Lister learns a lot about his personal future. This sets up foreshadowing for events in 5 years time ...
Red Dwarf [Season 2, Episode 5]
Queeg
Shown 4 Oct 88
Red Dwarf [Season 2, Episode 6]
Parallel Universe
Shown 11 Oct 88
Red Dwarf enters a Parallel Universe. The alternative crew are the female counterparts of the Dwarfies - and alt-Lister is Angela Bruce!
Red Dwarf [Season 3, Episode 1]
Backwards
Shown 14 Nov 89
After Season 2, the show was privatized by PJP. The foreshadowing and arc from the previous Seasons was set aside, and a super-fast exposition scroll (only readable if you video it and watch in slo-mo) inserted at the start of this ep to explain what happened after the end of Season 2.
Rimmer takes Kryten (who was rescued after he crashed the space-bike, and rebuilt to look like Robert Lewellyn) for a flying test in one of the shuttles, Starbug One. They go through a time hole, and end up on Earth circa 1993. However, this is in the future, after the Big Crunch ... where time goes backwards!
Red Dwarf [Season 3, Episode 2]
Marooned
Shown 21 Nov 89
Holly has everyone evacuate the ship to avoid a cluster of black holes. Rimmer and Lister, along with their most prized possessions, are on Starbug One. Naturally, it crashes and they are left stranded ...
This goes back to the basic concept of the show - The Odd Couple in Space! Rimmer, easily the most complex and human of the characters, is developed and explored as a person. His most prized possessions must be burned to keep Lister alive. Although why Rimmer needs paper books (when Holly already has digital copies of every book ever written) is never explained.
Red Dwarf [Season 3, Episode 3]
Polymorph
Shown 28 Nov 89
The ship is invaded by a shapeshifting creature that reads a victim's surface thoughts, embodies their greatest fear or desire, and feeds off their negative emotions. It targets the neurotic and unstable ...
Lister loses his fear, Rimmer his anger, Kryten his guilt and the Cat his cool. This is easily the best episode ever, a masterful combination of excellent performances and wonderful writing.
The new version has a different epilogue, which gives closure rather than leaving it open-ended.
Red Dwarf [Season 3, Episode 4]
Bodyswap
Shown 5 Dec 89
A skutter goes haywire and sabotabes the ship. Rimmer actually shows the ability to save the day, athough Lister's stupidity gets in the way.
Rimmer discovers that hologram technology allows him to swap brain-patterns with one of the others. He talks Lister into doing the body-swap, so each lives a few weeks in the other's body. Unfortunately, Rimmer becomes addicted to tactile sensation.
Red Dwarf [Season 3, Episode 5]
Timeslides
Shown 12 Dec 89
Kryten's photographic developing fluid (yes, they don't use digital cameras!) has the ability to turn photographs into time portals to whenever they were taken. The crew can go back and visit past events, although they cannot go outside the borders of the photo. They go back to visit guest stars Adolf Hitler [as himself] and the young Dave Lister [Craig Charles' younger brother!]. Kryten even suggests going to Dallas in November 1963 and changing history ...
They manage to change history, and make Lister the richest man in the world. He marries Koo Stark , and is interviewed by Ruby Wax . However, this means Rimmer is trapped alone on Red Dwarf ...
Red Dwarf [Season 3, Episode 6]
The Last Day
Shown 19 Dec 89
Another Mail Pod arrives. This one was intended for Kryten's original ship, but somehow it goes to him on Red Dwarf instead. It contains a message to let him know he is now obsolete, and must decomission himself. Lister and the others throw him a party, to let him know how important his life is.
Unfortunately, Kryten's replacement is on his way. Hudson [Gordon Kennedy - Robin Hood 2006 ] is a massive Terminator type. Not exactly what you'd want if you need your domestic chores done. And for some reason he has a pump-action shotgun!
Red Dwarf [Season 4, Episode 1]
Camille
Shown 14 Feb 91
Shown 21st November 2001 - Wednesday
This episode was originally screened on BBC2 around Valentine's day. Lister teaches Kryten about lying and rebellion, which leads the robot to disobey Rimmer and search a crashed ship for survivors. He discovers a female mechanoid, but when she is taken back to the ship each of the crew sees her as his perfect woman.
Kryten falls in love with the female mechanoid. As with the next Season's romance-based episode, Holoship, there are many references to Casablanca.
Red Dwarf [Season 4, Episode 2]
D.N.A.
Shown 21 Feb 91
Shown 28th November 2001 - Wednesday
The Dwarf crew discover a strange ship of unknown design, floating dead in space. They board it, and discover a machine that can alter something's genetic structure. Thanks to the Cat's ineptitude, Kryten's dream of becoming human comes true!
The climax of this episode is a hilarious Aliens rip-off, that climaxes with a fight against a Curry Monster!
Red Dwarf [Season 4, Episode 3]
Justice
Shown 28 Feb 91
Shown 5th December 2001 - Wednesday
Lister is suffering from a hilarious case of Space Mumps. The crew take aboard a cryogenic survival pod ejected from a space ship. It was a prison ship where the prisoners rioted - the pod contains either a beautiful woman or a psychotic cyborg!
The only option is to take the pod to a penal space station. However, to enter the station [now uninhabited and run by an AI] they must submit to a mind probe. This detects any criminal activity they might have committed, which is bad news for one of them!
Red Dwarf [Season 4, Episode 4]
White Hole
Shown 7 Mar 91
Shown 12th December 2001 - Wednesday
Kryten repairs Talky the Toaster, last seen several years ago. The Toaster doesn't sound like Tony Hawks any more - probably due to the accident involving Lister, the Toaster and a sledgehammer!
Kryten tries to boost Holly's IQ and reverse her senility. However, as always things go badly wrong. The ship ends up with no power and failing life support, headed straight into a White Hole. Can Lister save the day by playing space-snooker?
Red Dwarf [Season 4, Episode 5]
Dimension Jump
Shown 14 Mar 91
Shown 19th December 2001 - Wednesday
The Dwarf is visited by a super-pilot from another dimension. His name ... Ace Rimmer!
The irony of this show is that while the good version of Lister is recognisably the same character, However, if Rimmer (now apparently a big fan of hammond organ music) were to fulfill his potential he would be the greatest hero in the Universe!
Red Dwarf [Season 4, Episode 6]
Meltdown
Shown 21 Mar 91
Shown 18th November 2007 - Sunday
Rimmer's boring hobby of the week is the board-game Risk.
Kryten has a matter transporter. It was built on the research labs on Z deck - so the tech is contemporary with Lister and Rimmer! In Kryten's hands it has a range of 500k Light Years (the length of 5 galaxies!). They land on a world populated by wax-droid replicas of famous people from the 20th Century and earlier. Rimmer and Kryten end up among the Heroes, who are lacking in leadership. Lister and the Cat are captured by the Villains, and interrogated by Caligula (Tony Hawks).
Will Rimmer fulfill his potential, and become more like Ace? Since he cannot physically touch anything, he must limit himself to being a General. But with his skill at the game of Risk ...
Lister is particularly damning of Rimmer's First World War strategy. However, he doesn't actually have a plan of his own. But his anti-War rhetoric is quite poiginant, especially 15 years on.
Red Dwarf [Season
, Episode 2
]
Shown
Shown th October 2007 [Wednesday]
This is reviewed in our special supplement!
Red Dwarf [Season 5, Episode 1]
Holoship
Shown 20 Feb 92
The Dwarf encounters a ship that has no discernable mass. It is a Holographic ship, crewed by holograms of the best crew in the Fleet. Rimmer wants to join their crew. The Holograms send their own representative to assess the Dwarfies ...
The core of the ep is Rimmer's relationship with Nirvana Crane ( Jane Horrocks ). This is yet another Casablanca reference.
Red Dwarf [Season 5, Episode 2]
Inquisitor
Shown 27 Feb 92
A time-travelling robot can change the fabric of space-time by replacing people who failed to fulfill their potential. He travels to Red Dwarf to Judge the crew, including the Last Human, Dave Lister ...
Red Dwarf [Season 5, Episode 3]
Terrorform
Shown 5 Mar 92
Shown 1st February 2002 - Friday
Starbug is destroyed, and Kryten sends off a distress signal. After mild confusion, Lister and the Cat come to the rescue. It turns out that the guys are trapped on a Psi-Moon that has mapped itself to represent Rimmer's subconscious.
Finally we get the chance to see Rimmer in a more sympathetic light. Unfortunately there is very little character development. Let's face it, Chris Barrie later dropped out of the show because of the way his character was treated, and it's little wonder.
Red Dwarf [Season 5, Episode 4]
Quarantine
Shown 12 Mar 92
The Dwarfies board a derelict, where they discover scientific research items. The scientists had isolated certain viruses, including Luck.
Unfortunately, Rimmer takes it upon himself to lock the others in quarantine. Worse still, nobody knows who has been infected ...
Red Dwarf [Season 5, Episode 5]
Demons & Angels
Shown 19 Mar 92
Kryten builds a matter duplicator. It divides items into two copies - one with all the best properties, one with all the worst. Then the field reverses itself, causing the entire ship to explode ...
Red Dwarf [Season 5, Episode 6]
Back to Reality
Shown 26 Mar 92
The Dwarfies try to salvage a derelict, but get attacked by the Despair Squid.
They wake up in cryo-pods, and are told that they spent the previous few years in a total immersion video game.
Red Dwarf [Season 6, Episode 1]
Psirens
Shown 7 Oct 93
Shown 17th October 2007 [Wednesday]
Rimmer wakes up from Stasis aboard Starbug One. He has total amnesia, and Kryten gives him (and new viewers) an update. Red Dwarf was hijacked by persons unknown, and the crew have been in hot pursuit aboard Starbug for 200 years! Kryten has decided to reactivate the crew because they have almost caught the ship again. Starbug, if piloted by the cat, can take a shortcut through an asteroid belt ...
The asteroid belt is inhabited by the Psirens - GELFs who (like the Polymorph) can read thoughts and project mental images. Although the effect is psychological, even artificial life forms like Rimmer and Kryten can be fooled by it. The Psirens take on the forms of crew members, and Kryten's designer [ Jenny Agutter ]. There's even a reappearance of Kochanski [ Clare Grogan ]. Could she have survived, or is it a trick?
Red Dwarf [Season 6, Episode 2]
Legion
Shown 14 Oct 93
The Dwarfies arrive at a space station where Space Corps scientists developed new technologies. They are greeted by the Station's sole inhabitant, a strange creature named Legion. He removes Lister's appendix (which was previously removed on Earth) and gives Rimmer a Hard Light Drive.
Naturally, it's all too good to be true ...
Red Dwarf [Season 6, Episode 3]
Gunmen of the Apocalypse
Shown 21 Oct 93
Shown 31st October 2007 [Wednesday]
Starbug falls foul of some vicious Rogue Simulants. The Dwarfies end up getting their ship upgraded, but they also get a dose of the Apocalypse Virus in their central computer. Their only chance is for Kryten to infect himself with the virus, analyse it and create an antivirus program. Naturally, the others have to help him by using a VR game as an interface. Kryten's subconscious looks like a poorly-shot Western film.
This is an award-winning episode of the show. However, you'd be hard-pressed to say why. It over-uses SPFX, which were passable at the time but haven't gotten better with age. The older episodes which relied on wit and humour were far superior.
Red Dwarf [Season 6, Episode 4]
Emohawk: Polymorph II
Shown 28 Oct 93
Shown 7th November 2007 [Wednesday]
The Dwarfies are desperate for a new Oxygen unit, so they trade with some Gelfs. Unfortunately the Gelfs want Lister to marry the Chief's daughter (Celebrity chef Ainsley Harriot!).
After Lister double-crosses the Gelfs, the Chief sends his per Emohawk to kill the Dwarfies. It's a Polymorph, and sucks its victims emotions. Naturally, this is a great excuse for the return of a couple of fan favourites - Ace Rimmer and Dwayne Dibbley!
Red Dwarf [Season 6, Episode 5]
Rimmerworld
Shown 5th April 2002 - Friday
The Dwarfies try to salvage some gear from a wrecked cyborg ship. Of note, Kryten still has the teleportation device from Season 5.
Rimmer ends up stranded on a planet. He seeds it with terraforming gear, and creates human clones ... of himself!
Red Dwarf [Season 6, Episode 6]
Out of Time
Shown 12th April 2002 - Friday
Rimmer and the others are feeling the strain of being trapped together in Starbug in deep space. Things get more interesting when they run into a subspace pocket of unreality.
This is the end of the series, so there is a cliffhanger.
7th Series 1997
Red Dwarf [Season 7, Episode 1]
Tikka To Ride
Shown 17 Jan 97
The crew are still on Starbug, but now they have enlarged sets - apparently a spacial distortion side-effect.
Lister wants to use time-travel to get himself a Tikka curry. He secretly installs Kryten's spare head, which has no guilt chip.
They time-travel to 22 Nov 1963 [to get the US Audience!]. After all, this was made in 1996 when the film JFK was still in the public mind.
Red Dwarf [Season 7, Episode 2]
Stoke Me a Clipper
Shown 24 Jan 97
Shown 5th December 2007 [Wednesday]
This is an extra-length episode, packed full of Rimmer goodness. It starts with Ace Rimmer on a typical mission of daring-do!
Meanwhile, Lister is using the VR game for sex. He offends the King [Brian Cox - Troy ] so he can win the favour of the Queen [ Sarah Alexander ]!
Ace Rimmer arrives on Starbug again. He has a request - he's dying, and Arnie Rimmer must take his place!
Red Dwarf [Season 7, Episode 3]
Ouroboros
Shown 31 Jan 97
The Dwarfies investigate a rip in the fabric of space-time. They meet their opposite numbers from an alternate universe. Unfortunately, Lister's Wife [Ainsley Harriott] is still after him ...
The Alternate Dwarf doesn't include a Rimmer (though he appears in the flashback). Instead they have Kristine Kochanski [who now looks like Chloe Annett ] ... and she ends up accidentally trapped with the regular crew!
The climax reveals the identity of Lister's parents. Ignoring, of course, the facts that nobody cared who Lister's parents were, or indeed the fact that the solution offered is completely and utterly nonsensical!
Red Dwarf [Season 7, Episode 4]
Duct Soup
Shown 7 Feb 97
The crew are trying to adjust to their new circumstances. Kryten is incredibly jealous of Kochanski, and engineers a plot against her.
The crew get trapped in the ship's air vents. Lister's claustrophobic, and Starbug's autopilot is flying straight into disaster ...
Red Dwarf [Season 7, Episode 5]
Blue
Shown 14 Feb 97
Lister finds himself missing Rimmer. This goes to unbelievable proportions, until Kryten takes drastic measures.
Red Dwarf [Season 7, Episode 6]
Beyond A Joke
Shown 21 Feb 97
Red Dwarf [Season 7, Episode 7]
Epideme
Shown 28 Feb 97
The Dwarfies investigate a crashed ship. Aboard is a frozen woman, a Jupiter Mining Corp employee. They take her back to Starbug, just like the guys did in The Thing ...
Lister gets infected with an intelligent virus. Whoever bio-engineered it must have given it a personality based on Talkie the Toaster! It will kill him within hours, and the best he can hope for is just losing an arm!
Red Dwarf [Season 7, Episode 8]
Nanarchy
Shown 7 Mar 97
Red Dwarf [Season 8, Episode 1]
Back in the Red (1)
Shown 18th Feb 1999 [Monday]
Finally - a new series! This episode is the start of a Season-long 6-episode arc, probably the first time this has ever happened on UK TV. It starts with Lister and Rimmer [RL Rimmer, NOT a hologram!] in a prison cell together, then goes into a flashback that takes off exactly where the previous Season ended.
Not only have the nanites repaired the ship, they have resurrected the crew as well. However, the Captain has no way of knowing what has happened, so he has Lister arrested for joyriding and crashing a Starbug, and smuggling 2 stowaways [Kryten and the Cat] aboard. Their only hope is ... yes, you've guessed it - Arnold J. Ace Rimmer!
Continued next week - and eagerly awaited!
8- 2 25 Feb 99 Back in the Red (2) 8- 3 4 Mar 99 Back in the Red (3)
Red Dwarf [Season 8, Episode 4]
Cassandra
Shown 18 Mar 1999
As an excuse to get the Dwarfies out of the Brig the writers have Lister volunteer them for the CANARIES - which stands for Convict Army, Nearly All Retarded, Inadequate Expendable Sheepshaggers.
Almost as good an acronym as CLITORIS! :)
Red Dwarf [Season 8, Episode 5]
Krytie TV
Shown 18 Mar 99
Kryten is reprogrammed as a one-robot TV station - and sets himself up as a pay-per-view Jeremy Beadle for his fellow convicts. He gets to take showers with the female inmates ...
8- 6 25 Mar 99 Pete (1)
Red Dwarf [Season 8, Episode 7]
Pete: Part 2
Shown 1st April 1999 [Thursday]
A ravenous T-Rex is running around the lower decks of the mining vessel.
Red Dwarf [Season 8, Episode 8]
Only the good ...
Shown 5th April 1999 [Monday]
As a special treat, BBC2 gave us the final episode. Rimmer achieves his dream of captaining the ship, and meets his nemesis - a vending machine voiced by Tony Slattery!
The cliffhanger ending [reminiscent of the Season 5 ending] explains why the episode is so entitled - and gives us ample hope that Arnold Judas Rimmer will NOT die young!
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