Monday, October 29, 2012

Red Dwarf X - Episode Four: Entangled


The new series continues in a positive way, with several throwbacks to the classic years. I have come to expect by this stage in the proceedings that every episode will have its highs and lows, but it is the presence of those highs that guarantees my continued viewership.
The episode begins with Lister starting a fire in the cockpit, after spilling the sauce from his kebab over the monitor. The attempt to put out the fire with a can of lager was a nice reminder of the scene from D.N.A. when Lister destroys the curry monster. Rimmer and Lister then rekindle their old dynamic, in a sequence which is very much akin to the opening scene in the very first episode. The exchange concerning the fact that Rimmer was responsible for the death of the crew was very well written and well acted – and did a very good job of demonstrating the pointlessness of Rimmer’s bureaucratic management.
There have been a few character inconsistencies in this series so far, but this episode did a very good job of reminding the audience that the writers and actors haven’t lost track of who these characters are.
It was also nice to see more involvement for Kryten and Cat in the form of their own plot-thread. I’m glad that this series has put Rimmer and Lister front and centre in terms of focus, but at times the other two Dwarfers have been somewhat underused. Happily they get plenty of attention here, and their synchronised dialogue sequences are very well delivered. I also enjoyed the terrified expression on Cat’s face when he realised what book he was holding. The line about space-weevil’s having an I.Q of 2, and thereby being able to outsmart Cat was also funny.
We were then introduced to the episode’s main storyline, with Lister losing Starbug and Rimmer in a game of cards to an unusual species called BEGGs. This lead to a scene very similar to the trade off scene in series VI, where Lister ends up marrying a GELF in exchange for a vital part of the ship. As much as I love the sixth series, I didn’t enjoy this scene all that much, so it came as a pleasant surprise when the supposed high-stakes poker game finale was snuffed out as suddenly as it was presented. Kryten’s inability to translate ‘choking to death’ as a language was another fun line.
Kryten and Cat’s power of synchronicity is used several times as a deus-ex-machina, first to lead the crew to the space station where they find the inventor of the groinal exploder – which Lister is shackled to – and then to assist in the deactivation of said device. Along the way the crew pick up Dr Irene Edgington – the aforementioned inventor – initially in the form of a chimpanzee. They are able to restore her to her original form in a slightly pervy scene, which would fail if it weren’t for the quality of the performances from Chris Barrie and Danny John-Jules.
The numerous plot threads all unite in a pretty well thought out pay off, as Irene strikes up a strong connection with Rimmer, and the two are discussing having sex, when she accidentally trips over a box of Rimmer’s health and safety forms and falls into an airlock. Kryten and Cat had previously deduced that her name Irene E could be construed as Irony, and her demise is certainly an ironic one. The episode then concludes with an excellently downplayed one-liner from Lister.
A lot is packed into this episode, and at times it seems a bit messy, but it becomes clear during the final scene that the episode was actually rather well thought out. I enjoyed a lot of the call-backs to the earlier series, and it seems as though the series is leading to some sort of pay-off to the Lister/Kochanski storyline, as Kochanski has been frequently mentioned throughout the series. Only two more episodes to go!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Red Dwarf X - Episode Three: Lemons


The third episode from the latest series largely takes place away from the ship, as the crew find themselves stranded in 23AD, where they have a supposed meeting with Jesus himself, during his missing years. Things naturally get a bit messy, and it seems as though the course of history may end up irreversibly altered. Either that or the invention of ‘the bag’ occurred several centuries earlier due to the Dwarfer’s meddling.
There’s a nice call-back to the third series at the start of the episode, when The Cat shows great enthusiasm for a crazy golf tournament that he’s set up in the medi-lab. The scene ends with an open ended joke: Lister found some meat in a freezer near Kryten’s quarters, but The Cat steals it from him before he gets the chance to eat it. The pay-off to this joke comes much later on, when it is revealed that the ‘meat’ was Lister’s organs, which Kryten had removed. Funny or gross? Take your pick!
There is then a little bit of character inconsistency as Rimmer reprimands Lister for reading books. This scene probably would have worked better had the reason for Rimmer’s distain been that Lister is too stupid to take in anything intellectually stimulating (such as in ‘The Inquisitor’ from series 5, in which Lister is reading the comic book version of Virgil’s ‘Aeneid’). Instead Rimmer is portrayed attempting to dismantle the work of Shakespeare – something he once tried to defend from being burned. Despite this it is a pretty funny scene: “I wasn’t even toilet trained when I was five” “You’ve barely mastered it now!” I was also glad to see Kryten acting more like his old self, as opposed the whiny scoundrel he became in the later series’.
We are then introduced to the main plot of this episode, when the crew receives a ‘rejuvenation shower’ (somehow) from Sweden (somehow!). The jokes about Swedish flat-pack furniture have been done in many other comedy series already, and given this show’s deep space setting they seem a little out of place. However, this didn’t prevent the infomercial jokes from ‘Trojan’ from working, so I can’t complain too much, and I did laugh at the hash-job the crew made of assembling the shower, as well as the line about parts left over at the end. Something goes wrong, and the crew are transported to 23AD.
Rimmer deduces that they need lemons in order to create a battery to get them back to Red Dwarf, and this leads to the crew walking 4,000 miles to India, as lemons don’t yet exist in England/Albion.  The joke about potentially going back to England once they had the lemons was funny, but I’m glad it was only a joke and not a plot device.
The crew then accidentally stumble upon Jesus, which dominates the remainder of the episode. From here onwards the material is very hit and miss. Once again there are inconsistencies with Rimmer’s character, who acts as though he is a big fan of Jesus, despite previously having stated that he thought Jesus was a hippy: Well he was, he had long hair and he didn’t have a job!” although it is good to see that the writers haven’t forgotten that his middle name is Judas! The ‘Last Supper’ image was a funny visual gag.
There were lots of possibilities once the crew brought Jesus back on board Red Dwarf, but nothing much really came of it. The prospect of Jesus learning about all the wars caused by Christianity was very rushed, and lead to the eventual reveal that the ‘Jesus’ this episode revolved around, wasn’t the real Jesus, as Jesus was a fairly common name in those days!
Overall there were some good jokes in this episode, and a couple of decent call-backs which were reminiscent of the show’s earlier seasons. The main storyline was a bit messy in its delivery, and missed out on some interesting possibilities – as not many sitcoms could plausibly get away with bringing in Jesus as a character. Nevertheless it was a fun episode, and as long as that is the case with this new series, any complaints I have are effectively nullified.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Red Dwarf X - Episode Two: Fathers and Suns


The second episode of the new series is not quite up to the standard set by the series opener, as the content is a decidedly mixed bag. There is some good material here, and one of Lister’s best scenes to date. But there are several jokes which not only fall flat but go on to frustratingly die a slow death as they outstay their welcome. The structure of the episode is all over the place this week, which gives the indication that the production of the episode was quite rushed. By no means is the episode a bad one, it just has one too many misfires which detract from the viewing experience.
Anyway before I get into my gripes about the episode I’ll talk about what I did enjoy. Just as last week’s episode belonged largely to Rimmer, this was Lister’s episode. Craig Charles did a great job with the ridiculous ‘he-is-his-own-dad’ storyline, and the scene in which he has a father-son exchange with a pre-recorded video of himself is the best scene this new series has so far offered up. The pay-off to this scene, with the cardboard cut-out guitar was one I genuinely didn’t see coming, and for that I have to applaud the writers, as well as Charles for the way it was delivered.
The storyline involving the ship’s new computer, Pree, was rather hit and miss, introducing itself with a drawn out joke in which the once prudish Rimmer demands an enlarged breast size for the new computer’s design. This joke goes on for far too long, and also comes across as rather creepy considering how much older the actors are now. There were some funny scenes involving Pree, mainly revolving around the computer’s predictive functions and anticipating the outcome of conversations before they happen. The best of these jokes comes when Pree does a terrible job of repairing the ship, having predicted that Rimmer would have done a terrible job, and so did it for him. The fast exchange between Lister and Pree worked well also: “I’ve got a task for you” “I know!” but the joke quickly becomes overused, and there is a limit to the number of times you can find the same joke funny.
The biggest misfire in the episode is the running gag involving the vending machines and whether Chinese Whispers are racist. It wasn’t a particularly good joke to begin with, but that could have easily been overlooked had it not continued to re-emerge throughout the episode. The point where one of the vending machines talks with a heavily laid-on Taiwanese accent, was where the joke should have known it had gone too far, but it continued beyond that. Worse still was the lack of any punchline, which begs the question: why did this one joke take up so much time in this episode? There must have been a shortage of material when this episode was filmed, which hopefully won’t be the case for the remaining episodes.
The episode also made me curious as to why there is no Holly in this series. I mentioned in a previous post that Holly was initially written out due to a lack of material, but this week a majority of the material belonged to either: Pree, the inexplicable Medi-Bot, or the vending machines. Since there is so much spare material flying around, why not bring Holly back?
I feel a bit bad with some of my criticisms of this episode. I do like Kerry Shale as an actor (in fact his performance in the old BBC version of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is largely responsible for Mr. Beaver being one of my favourite characters from that book) so it is a shame to have to direct criticism towards his input in the episode – as both the Medi-Bot and the Taiwanese vending machine. Rebecca Blackstone also does a very good job as Pree, and manages to come across as intimidating in a show which has had such a variety of impressive and unimpressive villains.
Nevertheless, while not the best episode, it was still entertaining, and I am already looking forward to next week.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Red Dwarf X - Episode One: Trojan


The series premiere of Red Dwarf X began with some familiar territory for fans of the show’s earlier series’: Lister developing an obsession with useless infomercial products (somewhat reminiscent of the mail-pod scene from Series 2 episode Better Than Life), and Rimmer once again attempting to pass his astro-navigation exams. Both of these scenes had fairly predictable punch-lines, but they were well delivered, and also contained some good comedic material in between. I enjoyed the exchange between Lister and Cat about Moose-related accidents, as well as the use of the phrase “Hey ho, pip and dandy!” which put a smile on my face. By no means was it a sensational start to the new series, but it reaffirmed my faith in the writers of the show in a way that Back To Earth failed to do.
The main storyline of the episode brought some closure to a longstanding storyline related to Rimmer’s character, in the form of the sudden arrival of his older and more successful brother Howard (who had been mentioned many times throughout the show’s history, but had never appeared until now). Before Howard appeared I half expected him to also be played by Chris Barrie, as Barrie had previously played the role of Rimmer’s brother Frank in Timeslides, but this wasn’t the case. I wasn’t too keen on Mark Dexter’s portrayal as he overacted a bit too much, but I felt that the two of them side by side looked believable as brothers.
The dynamic between the main cast was very strong once again, and I enjoyed the farcical situation of the inept crew attempting to come across as much more professional and effective, all so that Rimmer could pretend that he was a success. It isn’t an original comedic situation by any means, but it was done well, and lead to a couple of my favourite moments in the episode: the first being the crew all simultaneously tilting to create the illusion that the ship was turning, and the exchange concerning Kryten – “And you rebuilt him, gave him something to live for?” “No, we just hosed him down and gave him a hat!”
The twist that the stimulant was evil seemed to come out of nowhere, so much so that it barely even seemed like a twist. However the twist that Howard was a failure was a bit more surprising and I loved the fact that Rimmer used this reveal as an opportunity to rub it in his face. Then the ending when Howard was posthumously awarded with a high commendation for bravery, thus elevating his status, was probably the best way to wrap up the storyline with Rimmer and his brothers.
Overall I very much enjoyed this episode, it restored my faith in the show and if this is to be the final series, I will be glad to see it end on a positive note. I am aware that I focussed rather heavily on Rimmer in this episode, but that was mainly due to the fact that this episode was centred around him.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Red Dwarf: Introduction


At the time of writing this the brand new series of Red Dwarf is a few hours away from its premiere episode. I will be watching the new series, but I have very mixed feelings about what to expect. The reasons for these feelings I will attempt to validate here.
I first discovered Red Dwarf during the mid 90s, during what I think was a repeated showing of series six. I would have been only six or seven years old at the time but I really enjoyed the episodes I saw, I can clearly remember the episodes Gunmen of the Apocalypse, Emohawk: Polymorph II, and the series finale Out of Time although there may have been others. These are some of the best episodes from the entire series, so I feel that my introduction to the show allowed me to see it at its best. Series six has always been my favourite series, not just because it was the first one I saw, but because I believe that it showcases everything about the show to its fullest potential – the storylines, the sci-fi elements, the comedy – but most importantly because the dynamic between the four main cast members was never better than it was during this series.
Then a while later I was very excited to learn about the prospect of a new series (Series VII) which would be coming soon. I watched the first episode with great anticipation, and was rather underwhelmed. Everything looked different, owing to the increase in budget, the cast were all noticeably starting to show signs of ageing, and the episode itself (Tikka To Ride) wasn’t all that funny. The storyline was very dark, revolving around the Kennedy assassination, which isn’t a great premise for a comedy show. The only line I remember laughing at was spoken by Kryten: “It’s not chicken sirs [...] it’s that man we found”. Things got worse as the season went on, as they swiftly lost Rimmer (who has always been my favourite character) and then replaced him with the tragically unfunny Kochanski (who I would later discover wasn’t even the same actress who originated the role). I don’t think I watched the entire series, as I can only remember bits and pieces. Once Rimmer left, I think I lost interest.
Then Series VIII came a year or so later, and I was intrigued once again to see that Chris Barrie had returned to the cast. So I tuned in to watch the new series, but once again was left feeling let down. Somehow the show had lost what made me enjoy it so much in the first place. I think I saw a few episodes from the series during its original transmission, but I remember very little about them.
For a long time the series vanished from my radar, until the show was re-broadcast late at night during December 2003, showing repeats of series 3 through 6. For me this was the first time seeing a lot of these episodes, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them. It was around this time that the DVDs of each series were being released, and I would go on to buy each series as they came out, from 1 to 6 at least. The re-broadcastings ended with the first episode of series VII, which I thought I might enjoy a lot more this time around; after all I was older, my sense of humour had developed, and I had a better understanding of the show overall. Sadly this didn’t matter, as I still failed to enjoy the seventh series. I didn’t even buy the DVD in the end, and wasn’t tempted after borrowing a copy from a friend of mine. I couldn’t believe how weak a lot of the material was in the seventh series: it wasn’t just the loss of Chris Barrie from the main cast, and replacing him with Chloe Annett. Kryten underwent serious character changes, and not for the better; he became unbelievably annoying and self obsessed; The Cat was given very little to do throughout the series; Craig Charles was looking unbelievably orange, which I still find off-putting to this day; and all of Kochanski’s material seemed to be comprised of unfunny one liners, which just served to emphasise how big a mistake it was bringing her into the main cast. The highlight of the series was the famous ‘Arnold Rimmer’ song at the end of the episode Blue, but one funny sequence was not enough to save the sinking ship that is the seventh series of Red Dwarf.
Then I re-watched series VIII to see if time had served it better, than its predecessor. Unfortunately it was even worse! The main reason for this was that the entire crew of Red Dwarf had been resurrected in a rather stupid plot twist. Characters such as The Cat and Holly (who had returned, after initially being written out due to a lack of material) had already taken something of a back seat in the previous series, but now with a load of new and uninteresting characters taking up too much screen time, they barely got a look in. I would go into a lot more detail, as it would be a lot of fun to dismantle individual episodes, but that would also require watching those episodes again, which is something I’m not willing to do. It saddens me whenever I see any clips from series 7 or 8, because they just serve as reminders of how good the show had been beforehand. In some ways I wish that series 6 had used its original ending as opposed to the cliffhanger they ended up using. Maybe the series could have ended there (even though the original ending didn’t exactly provide conclusions to the overall story).
For about ten years the series lay dormant, as the plans for a theatrical release languished in developmental hell. Then announcements were made of a three part special, entitled Red Dwarf: Back to Earth. Presumably this would finally wrap up the series with a satisfying conclusion, which would tie up any loose ends, and leave long-term fans of the show satisfied, as opposed to ending on another ‘To Be Continued...’
I was not sure what to expect, given just how much time had passed, and also due to my strong dislike of the final two series’, but I read in promotional material that the show would be returning to just the four main cast members, without any of those unfunny extras. Sadly the specials failed to deliver on laughs, and a satisfying plot resolution. I may sound cynical here, but I don’t think that I’m alone in this opinion. The specials were hardly met with glowing reviews, and the viewing figures took very noticeable drops from episode to episode. I don’t remember much about it, aside from a lot of poorly executed self-referential humour, a cringe-worthy scene involving Lister having a chat with a young child on a bus (?!) about the show, the Red Dwarf crew meeting up with Craig Charles the actor on the set of Coronation Street (What!), and an overly long and laugh-free opening scene where Lister ironed his shirt with one of his sneezes. I don’t think that the absence of a studio audience made much of a difference to the number of laughs that weren’t heard!
So, while I have numerous misgivings about all of the recent output from the developers of Red Dwarf, I’m still looking forward to the brand new series Red Dwarf X. Part of the reason for this is that despite all of the shortfalls within the series I still consider myself a fan of the show, and would like to see it end on a high. The cast is back to the principal four characters again which is no bad thing, and having taken a look at the episode titles I noticed that the sixth episode is entitled ‘The Beginning’, which when taking into account that the very first episode was called ‘The End’ I can make the assumption that the writers have finally come up with a conclusive ending for the overall series.
Will it deliver? Well, that remains to be seen, but I will certainly be watching to find out.