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.
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