Red Dwarf X - Episode Five: Dear Dave

The penultimate episode of the new series (it has gone by really quickly!) was an interesting one, which didn’t really have a major plot-line. There were separate stories in motion, but none of them seemed particularly significant. Not that this mattered though, as there were some enjoyable scenarios and the usual throw-backs to the show at its peak. It also allowed for fewer distractions from the general antics of the crew, and to be honest it was nice to have the focus be on the main cast, without any guest appearances for a change.

I suppose that the central storyline was focussed on Lister being the last human being alive, and coming to terms with that fact. There was some funny dialogue between Lister and Kryten where they reflected on the human race, as though it were an ex-girlfriend. Lister then spent several scenes flirting with a couple of vending machines, which was a bit odd, but I suppose that being the last of your species as part of an all-male crew, anything with a female voice would seem like preferable company whenever you felt depressed. Additionally, Lister’s crewmates prove their ineptitude at making Lister feel better, all in their own obliviously tactless way.

Somewhat frustratingly, Rimmer was caught up in a largely uneventful plot-line, where he was being threatened with demotion to 3^rd technician for not reporting for duty in over three million years. There were a couple of funny moments – including a call-back to the scene in series 3 when Rimmer walks in on Lister in an uncompromising position – but this was probably one of the least interesting storylines this new series has offered up. Also, Kryten’s plotline of removing all of the unused toilet roll resulted in the mildly amusing image of a trolley stacked with hundreds of toilet rolls, but very little else. And for almost half the episode Cat didn’t appear at all, until he suddenly showed up for a nonsensical game of charades.

The best scenes for me revolved around the arrival of the mail-pod, which recalled the scene in Better Than Life. The delivery from Chris Barrie when he found a letter addressed to him was excellent, and indeed a scene I saw in a trailer before this new series began, which made me confident that the new series would be worth a watch. Then Lister finding a letter from an ex-girlfriend, who could have been the mother of his children was quite an interesting story development. Ultimately this storyline lead to something that Red Dwarf has often done very well: a good one-liner to wrap up an episode. These one-liners are at their best when they are understated, and this was the case here (and with last week’s episode as well) as they demonstrate that this is a show that doesn’t take itself too seriously – an entire storyline can be dismantled in just one line.

It wasn’t the best episode of the new series, but it wasn’t a bad one either. I’m eager to see how this new series will conclude, and whether it will mark the end of the series overall, or once again leave things open-ended, as it has tended to do in the past. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, the fact that the series finale is entitled ‘The Beginning’ a counterpart to the first ever episode ‘The End’ I have an inkling that we could be on the verge of Red Dwarf’s definitive conclusion. Will that be the case though? We’ll have to see!