Red Dwarf VII Episode 3: "Ouroboros"

Kochanski joins the crew and Lister finds out that he's his own dad. To its credit, "Ouroboros" makes a reasonable effort trying to establish a new protagonist for us who is meant to be Lister's longstanding love interest but is played by a different actress and who has a different characterisation. When framed in relation to the show's retcons, particularly the Series IV material establishing that Lister had a brief relationship with Kochanski rather than simply fancied her mostly from afar and hardly spoke to her, it works, but feels peculiar given that the original Kochanski, portrayed by Clare Grogan, only appeared one Series earlier (albeit several years earlier) in a hallucination. In prior series, Kochanski is incredibly "mythologised"; what starts as Lister's disappointment in discovering she's a pile of white powder in the drive room in "The End", and wishing to activate her hologram in "Balance of Power" and "Confidence and Paranoia", is transformed into an inexplicable belief he develops that somehow he'll "get her back" despite the fact that she's been dead for three million years; this arises in "Stasis Leak", "Queeg", "Back to Reality" and "Psirens".

Thus when she appears in "Ouroboros" there's almost too little fanfare; the whole thing feels kind of off, which is exacerbated by the fact that she's a parallel universe version of the character (a plot element quietly dumped after Series VII and barely referenced after the fifth episode of). Perhaps if they ditched the whole "she has her own Lister" element it'd feel less weird, but maybe that would have eliminated a point of conflict between the characters. That aspect, however, is ultimately not dwelt upon enough to matter. Furthermore, if Holly resurrected someone to keep Lister sane, wouldn't he have done the same for Kochanski? Why would he have resurrected Lister? Wouldn't he have resurrected one of her friends or something? Perhaps she asked him to do it; why am I thinking so much about this? Ultimately, I think if they'd explained a little more clearly why she's such a different character the introduction might seem a bit less anticlimactic. It also strikes me as really odd that despite being reunited (sort of) with this woman he's been pining away for over the course of years, Lister doesn't really ever talk to her about anything significant; he only has a single one-on-one conversation with her near the end of the episode.

What's funny in "Ouroboros"? Kryten's little titter after he declares how "hideous" Lister's broken tooth cap is raises a smile, although Lister's declaration that the Cat is "losing it" as he himself tosses tooth floss behind his ears requires too much repetition; it'd be better if he just shook his head and said "He's losing it, he really is." The "obscene phone call" after Lister shoots Kochanski in the leg is kind of funny, I guess. I like it when Cat says "You came in a box? That explains everything." Some of Kryten's whining about Kochanski and fear of abandonment is kind of amusing as well, but as I already stated the characterisation is pretty ridiculous and I don't like the way they altered Kryten's character so much. Too much of his jealousy also manifests in ways that objectify and sexualise Kochanski, which makes the character's role in the ensemble feel one-dimensional; the "make love to me you horny dude" line is pretty dodgy. I do find amusing the way he says Rimmer "didn't have any in-and-out bits, hardly at all."

The use of the GELF ship attacking the weird blue interdimensional tunnel in order to separate Kochanski from her own crew is pretty weak, and the second use of it at the end of the episode is pathetic, especially given that after blowing a hole in the tube it never appears again. I also don't like the way they rehash the "GELF bride" from Series VI either. Weren't they fairly technologically limited? Where did they get the starship from? It comes back to the contrived introduction of Kochanski. All they needed to do was travel to a parallel universe and find her in stasis in a derelict Red Dwarf that was falling apart or something. There's no need for the blue tunnel, hologram Lister or any of the rest of it.

What about Lister being his own dad? Kochanski says that she's "already in" the fertilisation device so it contains her genetic material. Wouldn't that mean that with every repetition of the time loop, each Lister was a bit more Kochanski than before? But I suppose you could argue that because it's a time loop, there would be no non-Kochanski genetic code, because every Lister would be part Kochanski and part himself, himself being also part Kochanski and part himself, which was part Kochanski, and so on. So really it'd be all Kochanski, all the time. Not only does it not make sense, but it isn't funny; it's just stupid. The only benefit of this absurd plot development is that it paid off fifteen years later with the Series X episode "Fathers and Suns", which actually does explore the comedy potential of a man being his own father. It also once again shows Lister using the time drive to go back to where he was found as a baby. Then why doesn't he just go straight back to Earth in his own time? It makes no sense. If Red Dwarf was just a comedy sci fi with unlimited time and space travel, a sort of Doctor Who with jokes (or New Who with jokes that were actually funny), it wouldn't matter, but the whole point is that they're trapped three million years from Earth. It also doesn't really make sense that the show is suddenly, out of the blue, interested in concocting a story about Lister's origins. It's certainly a mistake trying to do it at the same time as introducing a new character, and it's pretty sad that the very first time a woman is added to the main cast the plot becomes about children and reproduction.

There are some funny bits in "Ouroboros" but the story is overcomplicated and tries to do too much in a single episode.

Red Dwarf Series VII Overview

There are a few different ways of looking at Series VII of Red Dwarf. You can think of it as the series that began the show's decline into mediocrity. You can look at it as a series that introduced some now-classic elements to the show. You can look at it as the series that convinced Chris Barrie to not permanently leave. Personally I think Series VII is a mixed bag: a series with a number of funny moments let down by unsuccessful core concepts. It's hard to put my finger on exactly what it is about Series VII that doesn't quite agree with me. I should probably, first of all, point out what I actually don't dislike about the Series. Firstly, I don't actually mind that Rimmer isn't in all of the episodes. That's not to say that I don't think the show would have been better off with him still in it. I do. Nonetheless, I don't actually mind the Lister-Kryten-Cat-Kochanski team. I actually think it works well enough. I also don't have a problem with the introduction of Kochanski. I think she freshens things up a bit, but I'll go into more detail on the character later.

One of my issues with Series VII might be a visual one, with the filmised video and a greater focus on single-camera shooting making the Series feel visually inconsistent. At times I feel Series VII is a little too glossy and shiny; something about it just doesn't look right to me. Whenever I think of Series VII I tend to think of it as something that visually sticks out from virtually everything else. The way it was filmed also means that it lacks the energy and atmosphere that comes from shooting in front of an audience. I don't believe that the show should slavishly have an audience; I think "Back to Earth" is fine without one, for instance. I just think that in this case everything seems a bit hyperreal and odd. In a way the whole of Series VII is a bit like the Rimmer Experience: there's a feeling of being somewhere in the uncanny valley. Obviously I'm also one of those people who prefers model work to CGI, and isn't too keen on the CGI used in Series VII.

Probably the main issue with Series VII, however, is the stories. We get a bizarre time travel story that completely contradicts the previous episode, a daft sendoff for Rimmer that is far too abrupt and simplistic, an incredibly overcomplicated introduction for Kochanski and absurd revelation about Lister, a bottle episode obviously made to save money, the show obsessing over Rimmer despite his departure, a nonsensical episode about Kryten, an episode with an annoying talking virus and a finale with a rushed resolution to the plot of the previous series. Some have described Series VII as "comedy drama", and while I don't think that's entirely justified, it's worth noting that "comedy drama" shows tend to occupy a longer time slot; usually forty-five minutes to an hour. Half an hour works for sitcoms; more plot-heavy comedy-drama writing needs more time.

As with the series to follow, Series VII I think tries to do too much. It's trying to carry on the Starbug-bound narrative of Series VI, write out Rimmer without writing him out too much, introducing a new main character, drive several episodes with a conflict between Kryten and Kochanski, inject some drama into proceedings and resolve the "search for Red Dwarf" narrative. It's odd to think that the show had been off the air for three years for various reasons, yet that elapse of time doesn't seem to have provided the people making the show with an opportunity to really establish what they were trying to do with the revived series. Series VII was the first time that a series of Red Dwarf ran for eight episodes rather than six, supposedly as a means of approaching the golden number 52 which would allow the show to be shown in syndication on American television. The problem is, in my opinion, that the humour couldn't sustain itself across eight episodes, with the effect that a few episodes seem to be pretty lacking in much memorable comedy.

One thing this series tries to do is generate a new conflict, this time between Kochanski and Kryten. At times I think this works, but at times it makes Kryten annoying. I also think it's let down by the fact that Kryten's just being irrationally jealous; Kochanski isn't particularly interested in Lister. It's also not really a conflict between their personalities, because Kochanski isn't given enough eccentricities. If they'd made her more peculiar their disagreements would be funnier and more interesting. I also wish they'd given Cat more to do. We never really get a strong impression of his opinion of Kochanski, for instance. Perhaps too much of this series was written in the belief that the abandoned "Identity Within" episode would be released and therefore the lack of Cat reflects an ultimately unfulfilled expectation that he'd be the focus of a whole episode.

I'm not overly keen on some of the costume choices in this series either. Lister's outfit is okay, but Cat's more uniform ensemble with changes of jacket over that set shiny undergarment thing is a bit visually uninteresting. That odd element of highlighting on the angles of Kryten's head always struck me as a strange choice which seems to emphasise the feeling of artificiality which permeates the series as a result of the other visual decisions. Kochanski's costume is dreadful and they really should have gone with something else; her more combat-oriented getup in Series VIII is much better, but completely underutilised.

SPECULATION

How could Series VII have been better within the limits of the practical restrictions in play? These are my thoughts.

1. They should have handled the character changes more carefully. Instead of writing Rimmer out and then writing in Kochanski in the subsequent episode, they should have had some overlap. I'm inclined to argue that Kochanski should have joined the crew in the first episode while Rimmer was still around. Secondly, I think they should have used Chris Barrie's availability more effectively. Instead of writing Rimmer out in the second episode, I think they should have kept him around for as many episodes as they could manage; another one or two at least. If you put together the stuff from "Ouroboros" and "Blue" there's at least room for an episode in which he features fairly prominently and one in which he's in a more supporting role.

This would have had two major impacts. Firstly, it would make Kochanski look less like "Rimmer's replacement", due to a more smooth transition occurring in which one character arrives as another departs. Given that Kochanski probably would have been introduced anyway to make the show more marketable in anticipation of the (ultimately unproduced) film which seemed to be on the cards at the time, this makes sense. Secondly, an overlap of the characters would avoid the awkward situation, which transpires in the series as produced, in which the show keeps reminding us of Rimmer despite his absence, making the viewer simply feel disappointed that he isn't around. While "Blue" is a decent episode which contained some important moments, I think the whole idea of it is a mistake.

2. They should have written in Kochanski differently and with a somewhat different characterisation. While I think the "she's from another universe" aspect is an acceptable method of introducing a long-dead character, the whole way it's established is ludicrously overcomplicated. My opinion is that something like this should have happened: they try to use some sci-fi method to get back to Red Dwarf, but it takes them to an alternative universe version of the ship that is falling apart. Before the ship fatally collapses, they find a stasis booth inside with Kochanski in it, take it and wake her up. Bam. Simple.

In my opinion, the problem with the way Kochanski's story is handled in Series VII is that it clashes with the rest of the setup. In Red Dwarf, the characters are stuck together by circumstances; as Lister points out in "Timeslides", it's like a prison you can't leave. The conflict comes from their clashing personalities. Kochanski, however, comes from a better life that she wants to get back to, which puts her at odds with the other characters due to circumstances, not personality. The idea that she has her own, better versions of the characters that she wants to get back to just make her seem like a visitor, not a new addition to the team. It also makes any romantic subplot to the series seem very out of place given that she has her "own" Lister (a concept that seems to be dropped after this series).

I also think a problem lies in the way that the writing tends to plump for a couple of soft options in the characterisation. Firstly, too often she's written, as the attractive female protagonist in a TV series often is, as the eye-rolling straight man tutting at the absurd behaviour of the eccentric men around her, rather than being particularly eccentric herself. She's just a bit nerdy and a bit posh, almost like a version of Rimmer without the arrogance and failed career. This has the added effect, as pointed out in the Series VII cast commentary, of making it a little difficult to imagine her and Lister ever being a couple, however briefly. They could have played up her desperation to be popular and liked by the others, or given her some other character trait to generate humorous conflict, although without making her just seem annoying. It's hard to imagine what these traits might be, however. What are the flaws of a successful, well-educated, well-presented person likely to be? I'm almost inclined to think that, in order to avoid the character being unlikeable, they could have made her someone who was over-enthusiastic or too inclined to be helpful or positive even when it wasn't necessary or useful, as a result of her desire to be liked. It's worth noting that, in the version of the flashback scene in "Ouroboros" used for Chloë Annett's audition for the role (which can be found as an Easter Egg on the Series VII DVD Disc 3), Kochanski actually does have this characteristic, telling a story about an accident with a truck driver whom she later drove around because she didn't want him to resent her. Why didn't this characteristic make it into the show as filmed? Similarly, while I don't have any problem with Chloë Annett and think her casting was fine (in fact I think she fits in surprisingly well, and obviously gets along well with the rest of the cast), given that she wasn't from a comedy background I wonder if perhaps the writing and direction needed to take this more into consideration. Non-comedy actors can do comedy, and do it well, under the right circumstances, but I'm not sure Series VII managed this, especially as the return of longtime director Ed Bye might have encouraged a "back to normal" approach which didn't necessarily account for all possible consequences of the changes made to the show.

3. They should have written Rimmer out differently. Bringing back Ace was, for starters, just the show re-hashing something they'd already re-hashed in Series VI. Furthermore, it's just too implausible; in the space of half an hour we're expected to believe that Rimmer is at least good enough to become a replacement to Ace. I realise they thought at the time that Chris Barrie was leaving permanently, although in the long run it turned out he wasn't actually leaving for very long at all. Nonetheless I think they could have written him out in some other way that made it feel more like the character could come back in the future. Of course he did anyway; I just think the way he's written out is too unlikely to work and kind of spoils the point of "Dimension Jump", which emphasised how much people were shaped by small experiences. If Rimmer can simply "become" Ace despite all of his enormous character flaws it just seems pointless. I'm almost inclined to say that they should have come up with some reason for Rimmer to be temporarily offlined (maybe his light bee got damaged or something, I don't know) so that the character could be more easily brought back, rather than trying to rush a meaningful departure for a character whose whole purpose is to be a useless, arrogant bastard (albeit one for whom we can feel a little sympathy at times).

I think Series VII had potential but some unwise writing and design decisions made it a flawed production.

Red Dwarf: "Back to Earth"

I really like "Back to Earth". I know that's not the most popular opinion among Red Dwarf fans. I've only ever been to one Red Dwarf convention in my life and even the MC felt the need to take a crack at "Back to Earth", and Craig Charles was almost apologetic about it, which I think is unnecessary. It's fair to say that it's not exactly bog-standard Red Dwarf, but that's surely the point; it was a set of specials celebrating the show and testing interest for a TV revival. I also hate to be one of those people who says that its critics have missed the point of it... but I kind of think its most vocal critics have missed the point. It's not meant to be three more episodes of standard sitcom fare, but more of a tragicomedy with a sci-fi premise.

Nonetheless, let's get what are, in my opinion, the major weaknesses of "Back to Earth" out of the way first.

1. The premise is a repetition of "Back to Reality", as both involve a group hallucination in which the characters appear to discover a terrible revelation about themselves. They even derive from the same source, a hallucination-inducing squid, albeit a different one (of course) to the one encountered in Series V. Nonetheless, it's another group hallucination, the main difference being that the world it takes the Dwarfers to is more realistic than the world of "Back to Reality" and they're not in nearly as much danger.

2. The idea of breaking the fourth wall is not particularly original. Self-aware storytelling can potentially come across as the place that narratives go to when they've run out of other ideas. It might also be said that even with the in-story explanation, something feels a bit off about the characters walking around in the 21st century looking at, and talking about, Red Dwarf merchandise and stuff; it feels a tad inconsistent with the tone of a lot of the programme.

3. The Coronation Street element might seem effortless and like a ratings ploy, depending on your view of Coronation Street. I don't really know much about it, but if you're aghast at the idea of soap operas receiving acknowledgment in your favourite sci-fi comedy show, this element could be considered annoying, reminiscent perhaps of that Doctor Who thing, "Dimensions in Time", although in this it's a fairly small element which only takes up about five minutes of the third part.

4. The Blade Runner parodies and pastiches become pretty heavy-handed fairly early on. To someone unfamiliar with Blade Runner they might seem weird and pointless; to someone who does know the film they might seem laboured and obvious. I'm certainly curious about the claim both within the show and outside it, as Doug Naylor says this in the director's commentary, that Blade Runner was a big influence on Red Dwarf. Was it? Perhaps the idea of holograms is related to the idea of replicants, but the most Blade Runnery things in the show, like simulants and planned obsolescence, only seemed to emerge in the years following the show's initial production. I can't see too much Blade Runner in Series I and II.

5. I might argue that there's not enough payoff for the character of Katerina, who features quite heavily in the first act of the sequence and then only appears in one scene afterwards. While she more or less serves her purpose as Rimmer's antagonist in the specials, I can't help but feel like that aspect of the narrative doesn't have quite the structure it could have. I feel like she could have appeared slightly more once they got to "Earth" to make this element seem more cohesive.

All right, we've got that out of the way. Those are my main issues with "Back to Earth". Other than that, and the fact that admittedly some of the jokes aren't funny, which is inevitably going to be the case in any comedy, I enjoy the specials a lot. It could be said that they suffer from the lack of a live audience or background laughter, but in this case I think this emphasises the more dramatic qualities of the specials and the sense of loneliness and isolation that this was trying to recapture. In terms of the things I enjoy about "Back to Earth", there are a few major highlights:

1. The restoration of the "classic" premise. It's just Lister, Rimmer, the Cat and Kryten alone on Red Dwarf. There's really no need for any explanation of the Series VIII cliffhanger. Suffice to say "it was resolved somehow". Lister's back to being the last human alive and Rimmer's a hologram again. I really like the idea that the characters have been together for so long that they don't really annoy each other anymore, which is captured perfectly by Rimmer's reaction to Lister ironing his sneezes, as he imagines Lister "going down to the supply decks, trawling through the crates, getting half hysterical at the thought of my face." I also like that it seems the Cat is mostly back to mucking around and singing while grooving around the decks like in the early series.

2. The design and costuming. The specials really recapture the distinctive looks of the different characters. I do think the "Back to Earth" Rimmer uniform is a little overdesigned, and prefer the Series X one, but the Kryten costume seems to capture the blockiness of some of the best past Kryten get-ups, Cat's suit is a nice progression from the old days and a transition past the "pvc undergarment with changes of jacket" ensemble of Series VI to VIII, and Lister's biker costume is distinctive and classic, matching Craig Charles' appropriately grizzled appearance.

Furthermore, while arguably the bunkroom is a little too bright and clean by the standards of previous series, it looks nice, and some great details are visible; observe for instance that Rimmer's bunk has his revision timetable, the old newspaper headlines and his duelling pistols, while Lister's has a picture of Fiji, the picture of his grandmother, his Zero-G football poster and so on. A nice addition, retained in Series X, is a couple of photos of Kochanski. There's even a book about aliens on the table, presumably Rimmer's. One thing I will say is that the table looks a bit too much like a cross between the TARDIS console and the computers from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Nonetheless, the ship looks good, including the CGI backdrops, and as the cast point out in the commentary the CGI work in the cargo bay, for instance, gives an excellent sense of how truly vast the ship is and how alone the crew are within it.

3. The exploration of Lister's character and of the concept of the revival and continuation of the show. Appropriately, these specials focus on Lister as the central character of the show, although admittedly the first part does arguably focus a little more on Rimmer. It's an interesting concept, however, because it explores the premise of Lister being stuck on Red Dwarf for what must be nearly half his life, of him losing hope and purpose and gradually finding it again. It also doesn't beat around the bush about the fact that the cast, and thus the characters, have aged, and tries to re-frame the show in relation to that. As has been pointed out elsewhere, the characters' quest for more life is Doug Naylor's appeal to the public for more interest in Red Dwarf and in that regard it obviously succeeds.

4. The action sequences are, in my opinion, very well put together and shot; I'm thinking here of the fight with the joy squid in the diving bell and the vision in which they run from the Creator in a parody of Zhora's death from Blade Runner. They're entertaining and, despite the limited sets, quite visually striking. The squid fight is probably a little confusing to watch, but rewards multiple viewings, especially if you look at the screens in the background while Rimmer's dancing and see Lister and the Cat furiously stabbing the tentacles and stuff. I've always liked the fact that in the street death vision they bothered to show Rimmer's light bee getting hit as he goes down.

5. The concept of the joy squid. Even though it is of course a rehash of the despair squid from "Back to Reality", and even though the idea that "the male causes despair while the female causes joy" is a pretty tired gender dichotomy, I think it's a clever and interesting idea, and a good way of catalysing Lister's character development. My one issue, probably, would be that it doesn't entirely seem to affect the other characters, although as has been pointed out, as a self-aware narrative it appropriately mainly affects Lister who is, after all, notionally the "main" character.

6. The Kochanski cameo. I think this was a really effective way of hybridising the fact that the special is a continuation of the previous show, in which Kochanski was ultimately a main character, with the fact that this special was in some ways a celebration of the "classic" concept, and therefore ought to focus primarily on the four best-known characters. Her appearance in this, as an actually rather sinister embodiment of Lister's dreams and doubts, also restores a bit of mystique to the character.

7. The opening titles. I can't quite explain why, but I personally think that "Back to Earth" has the best opening titles sequence of any Red Dwarf. It's put together well and the shots of the cast synchronise more effectively with their credits than in the Series X titles. The pacing of the clips matches the rhythm of the opening theme and despite the lack of material available the footage used is well chosen. The shots of Rimmer dancing and Kryten peeking through the mail box slot in particular have always amused me. That's a nerdy thing to like, but I've always liked it.

What else do I like about "Back to Earth"? The first joke that amuses me is "Who's next? The egg whisk? Two weeks in Mauritius?" Probably my favourite bit in the whole thing is when Rimmer dances in his chair to Ray Conniff's cheesy version of "Getting To Know You/I Whistle A Happy Tune" from The King and I, which sounds very much like something Rimmer would listen to given his love of other naff musical genres, while the others are flailing around in the diving bell fighting the joy squid tentacles. Their unique diving suits are also amusing; I like that Lister has the rugged old-school one, a nice contrast to the unflattering one from Series VIII's "Cassandra", and it's nice to see a return of Kryten's floaties (or "water wings" as I believe they're called) which he also used in "Terrorform". Rimmer's "what's in the bag" raises a smile from me as well, as does the Cat's "huge testicle" description.

The way Kryten says "Oh my gosh" when Rimmer informs him that there's a monster in the water tank cracks me up, as does his high-pitched "We're not real! What are we gonna do!" His best prop gag might be when Katerina says Rimmer is "bit crap", Rimmer says "What?!" and Kryten says "Look sir, confirmed," with the psi-scan also saying "bit crap." "Simple people, simple tastes" I always found funny, as well as Noddy at the sci-fi shop not listening to music. Noddy in general is an amusing piss-take at Red Dwarf fans, and as someone who plays with toy soldiers, his line "Sorry to interrupt the Warhammer" has always made me laugh. The two kids who talk to Lister on the bus are some of the least objectionable child actors I've seen, and the boy gets some funny lines, especially "Kiss her. I would." One of the best jokes in the whole thing comes in Part 3 on the set of Coronation Street, when Lister says "This is just like where I grew up, except there's less burning cars." Kryten's "I could get some new sponges" tickles my fancy for some reason. Lastly, Rimmer's suggestion that he could be in "a sitcom in a biscuit factory" makes me chuckle as well.

One effective thing I noticed on my latest viewing is a background element of the narrative that emerges over the whole set of specials. In Part 1, Rimmer tells Katerina that Holly is offline because Lister left a bath running for nine years. In Part 2, Noddy at the sci-fi shop has a bath prop that he says Lister was in when Kryten ran in and told him Kochanski had been sucked out of an airlock. In Part 3, he finds out that this never really happened. So what happened to Holly? Kochanski left Red Dwarf, Kryten decided to spare Lister's feelings and tell her she'd been accidentally killed, he ran in and told Lister, who jumped out of the bath he had running to find out what was going on; in his distraction and despair he never went back and turned the bath off. I happen to think that's quite neat bit of storytelling conveyed purely through incidental dialogue.

Obviously, "Back to Earth" has its weaknesses, but I've always liked it and I think it was a pleasing way of reviving the series. While the Blade Runner stuff is definitely overstated, I think it's funny and visually engaging, and a reasonably effective piece of self-reflective commentary for the show. The characters seem to reappear very naturally despite a long absence and it makes a number of sensible decisions about the premise of the show, indicating that the long hiatus after Series VIII was definitely in the show's best interest. If nothing else, it's what got us Series X, and that alone was worth it.

Red Dwarf Series VIII Overview

Publishing note: I'm going to give my thoughts on some Red Dwarf in the leadup to Series XI. I'm starting with VIII because it's the one I most recently rewatched and it's also the easiest to criticise. 

I think it's obvious watching Series VIII that by this point, after being on the air almost continually for about a decade, Red Dwarf in its original run had well and truly had its day. That's not to say I'm upset that it's back; quite the reverse. I like "Back to Earth" (although I know many do not) and I like Series X. I think, however, that the show needed a break, and a long one, in order to do a bit of soul-searching. I first saw Series VIII when it was released on DVD in late 2006, and I was excited because it was more Red Dwarf I hadn't seen. While I didn't think it was as funny as previous series, I was willing to give it a pass largely because Rimmer was back and because of how much I fancied Chloë Annett (I was about seventeen at the time). With the benefit of ten years under my belt since then, and having not watched Series VIII in probably eight or nine years, I can still appreciate the return of Rimmer (and I still fancy Chloë Annett) but I can see with the benefit of a little age and somewhat greater maturity that Series VIII, with the exception of one episode and a few jokes scattered here and there elsewhere, is shit.

[Don't get me wrong, by the way; I think the people who made this, cast and crew alike, are all very talented people, and I'm not one of those psychotic Red Dwarf "fans" who loathes Series VIII and refuses to watch it (or, as seems to be the case surprisingly often, has a negative opinion of it despite not having actually seen it). I just think that it's misconceived and most of it doesn't work.]

In Series VIII, Doug Naylor wanted to do a "prison comedy", and that's fine, but it necessitates the knobbling of the premise of the show. The resurrection of the crew of Red Dwarf and the return of Chris Barrie, Norman Lovett and Mac McDonald to the main cast means that there are now far too many main characters for eight thirty-minute episodes. Furthermore, the show's growing ensemble cast is incompatible with Series VIII's aim, which is to refocus on the traditional dynamic between Lister and Rimmer. The series is trying to be too many things at once: an ensemble comedy, a double act, a prison comedy, a sci-fi comedy; the writers can't strike the balance. Danny John-Jules and Chloë Annett have virtually nothing to do a lot of the time (and few jokes) and even Robert Llewellyn, whose Kryten character had become pivotal in previous series, is comparatively sidelined as the show largely becomes "Lister and Rimmer getting up to all sorts of shenanigans".

While this might be seen as a return to form, if one is to ignore how much it makes the rest of the regular cast redundant, in execution it's let down by the fact that virtually all of the conflict between the two characters is eliminated despite the fact that Rimmer is meant to be the "old" Rimmer of the Series I era who was so uptight and frustrated by Lister. In fact, in Series VIII Lister and Rimmer come across more like two good friends who occasionally squabble, rather than the "odd couple in space" whose conflict drove the early series of the show. Chris Barrie and Craig Charles obviously have a terrific rapport, developed over many years working together, but it doesn't gel well with the broader premise of this particular series, which is notionally about using the prison setting to revive the old Lister-Rimmer tension.

Furthermore, while the humour in Red Dwarf always involved a fair amount of the silly and vulgar, in this series it becomes incredibly adolescent and juvenile, featuring more weak puns than ever (such as "lemonade", "post's arrived" and "rock, rock, rock"), as well as relying on a fair amount of really chauvinistic comedy, in which a sexual magnetism virus which makes people irresistibly attractive to the opposite sex is treated for laughs, as women are essentially drugged into having sex with men, and later when the male characters secretly watch women in the showers. There's a particularly horrible line in the deleted scenes, which was mercifully left on the cutting room floor, in which Lister remarks that he was hoping to use the sexual magnetism virus on Kochanski the next time she was drunk. Jesus Christ. While Rimmer might effectively get his comeuppance for using the virus, Lister's treated as being disappointed when it wears off after Kochanski starts making out with him in the lift, and later he uses it to try to get Rimmer raped in prison. Who the hell thought that was the way to characterise our reasonably heroic main protagonist? It's easy to appreciate why the cast, in hindsight, and other commentators, refer to this series as "Men Behaving Badly In Space", especially given that the show's only female protagonist is completely objectified in multiple episodes, and to a far greater extent than she was in Series VII.

The show also descends into ludicrous fanwank territory in this series, with countless references to episodes of prior series, in addition to the unfortunately quite unnecessary return of Norman Lovett and Mac McDonald, who are both reasonably amusing, but clutter up the show. The opening trilogy of episodes is particularly fixated on references to prior stories, not just in terms of wrapping up the ending of Series VII and bringing back old cast members but also seeing the return of the luck virus, the idea of multiple Rimmers and Hollys, references to "Future Echoes" and "Backwards", and of course the revival of Duane Dibbley.

While the cast's performance benefits from being back in front of a studio audience again, it suffers in the writing department, with jokes being few and far between in a number of episodes, particularly "Back in the Red, Part 3" and "Pete, Part 2". It's clear that, after this, the show needed to be rested. In any event, at this point Doug Naylor was apparently fixated on making a Red Dwarf film, an ambition that unsurprisingly turned out to be rather unrealistic. It's not entirely clear to me whether the show would have continued being made if he hadn't been focused on the film project, but while it's possible to imagine that it's a "shame" that the show came to an end because of this unrealistic project and after such a weak final series, I shudder to think what "Series IX" would have been like if it had been made only a year or two after VIII, without the long break which, in my opinion, appears to have given Doug Naylor the time to refocus on what made the show successful and entertaining.

SPECULATION

How could Series VIII have been good, besides having more funny jokes? Here are a few suggestions, which admittedly include altering the ending of Series VII as well:

1. It needed to be more of an ensemble production. With five main cast members, each one really ought to have been largely the focus of a single episode, as having episodes focused on a specific character was common in earlier series (although as we know the attitude tended to be "when in doubt, make the episode be about Rimmer"). Note that in earlier series, most characters tend to be defined in terms of their relationship with Lister, but in this most of Lister's one-on-one scenes are with Rimmer, such that it turns into "the Lister and Rimmer show with three supporting characters". I don't think Cat gets any one-on-one scenes with Lister in the entire series.

2. The crew (other than Rimmer) shouldn't have been revived. Remember that in "Psirens", Kryten observes that someone has stolen Red Dwarf, which in "Nanarchy" is revealed to have been his nanobots. This is kind of funny, but if they really wanted to make the show a "prison comedy" they could at least have had Red Dwarf taken over by GELFs or simulants or someone who captured and imprisoned the characters so that the premise didn't have to be so heavily altered.

3. It shouldn't have been a prison comedy. If they continued down the nanobot route, it would have been more refreshing, after two series of Starbugging, to go back to the characters having the run of the ship. Rimmer could have easily been the only crew member revived, or even just resurrected as a hologram again, perhaps because the nanobots thought he was part of the ship or something; this resurrection would have been to everyone else's annoyance. There also would have been the possibility of humorous conflict between Rimmer, who had enjoyed being in "effective command" for years, and Kochanski, who outranked him. The "run of the ship" scenario would also have eliminated another problem with Series VIII, the fact that it becomes cluttered up with recurring characters: Ackerman, Baxter, Kill Crazy and the like. Some of these characters have their amusing moments, particularly Ackerman and Kill Crazy, but they're not needed, especially with the reintroduction of two unnecessary regulars, Holly and Hollister.

In the long run, at least Series VIII wasn't the last Red Dwarf.