I decided to revisit Red Dwarf for my early morning sunday viewings. There are a bunch of series but they are short ones, 6 or 8 episodes in each. The first series came out in 1988 and I know we saw it on PBS a year or so later. On and off for the next 21 years they did 7 more series and a 3 parter called Back To Earth. I had seen all of them, but the 3 parter, in the past. It's been quite a while and it seemed like the right time to spin those discs again. The dvd has all 6 episodes on one disc. There's a second disc of extras. The 4 main actors do a group commentary for each episode. In the first episode we find our anti-hero Dave Lister, played by Craig Charles, living in the mining ship Red Dwarf at the end of the 22nd century. He's a lowly food vending machine service man. He shares a bunk room with Arnold Rimmer, played by Chris Barrie, who does the same job but is a grade higher. Lister is the only one on the ship Rimmer out ranks and his petty nature won't let Dave forget it. Rimmer reports all the rules that Dave breaks and Dave breaks a lot of rules. His best violation was when he brought a cat into the ship while they were docked at Io. He gets caught but won't give up the cat. Dave's punishment is his salvation. While he's in stasis everyone is killed when the ships's drive fails and radiation escapes. It was Rimmer's fault but no one can punish him. Everyone's dead, 168 of the 169 crew. Dave, in stasis, survived just fine. The cat also survived but Dave doesn't know this when he's let out of stasis 3 million years later by Holly, the ship's computer, played by Norman Lovett. It's been a long lonely voyage for Holly, who's gone a bit around the bend. He creates a hologram of Rimmer as a companion for Dave. He claims it's the best choice to keep Dave sane but that's questionable. A better companion for Dave is the decendant of the cat he left in the hold 3 million years ago.
That's Craig Charles and Chris Barrie as Dave Lister and Arnold Judas Rimmer in the left picture. The second has Rimmer with Danny John-Jules as Cat. He's my favorite character. Danny's preformance is truely amazing and worth the price of the dvd alone. Once we get past introducing everyone in the first episode we get to the day to day living all alone in deep space. Holly sets the ship to go fast to earth and when they get to light speed they have some echo's of the future. There's lonelyness to deal with, Lister discovers he's the cat people's God, then he gets a mutated cold that causes his dreams to come out solid. The cat likes when it rains fish but no one likes when Lister's Paranoia and Confidence become human. Rimmer gets a duplicate hologram of himself to room with and that turns out pretty awful for him. Lister, Holly, and the cat have a laugh.
The episodes are filled with jokes and complicated bits of writing. The dialog is funny and often rude, there's a certain amount of slapstick. These aren't guys who care for each other and they don't hold back on the comments. The reality of the concept is the last man in space, all alone, far from home, no chance of getting laid. I wouldn't want to watch the serious version of that as much as the fun version. I've seen these episodes several times since they were new and they still make me laugh. Can't do better than that.
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