Red Dwarf III Episode 6: "The Last Day"

Kryten finds out that he's going to die so the others throw a party. In my opinion, this rivals "Marooned" as the strongest episode of Series III. There's some good characterisation for the newest member of the crew, some amusing satire about the purpose and intent of organised religion, and a memorable antagonist at the end. My only significant criticism would be that I think some bits of the party scene are a bit twee or naff (take your pick) and some of the gags in the finale are a touch weak, in addition to a very poor sound mix making a lot of the dialogue in the climax difficult to hear. Other than that I'd say it's a solid episode and a satisfying conclusion for the series.

Obviously the episode delivers a somewhat Marxist attack on organised religion, an "opiate of the masses" type interpretation in which artificial intelligence is duped into serving humans with the promise of a post-life reward, just as the argument goes for the traditional working classes. If you think about it, it doesn't seem terribly necessary. Wouldn't programming be enough to ensure the subservience of intelligent androids? Nonetheless, it also serves as a complementary piece of satire to that explored in "Waiting for God", which largely interpreted religion as one of the many excuses people develop for war and violence. While the parodies of Bible verses raise a slight smirk, the best line has to be Kryten's retort to Lister about "human heaven": "someone just made that up to prevent you all from going nuts."

It's also nice to see Lister caring about Kryten's welfare, much as he did in "Kryten" in Series II and would go on to do in "Camille" and the like. By contrast, Rimmer is typically blasé about the whole thing: "Well it's all very sad, Lister, but what can we do?" His explanation of his parents' religion also allows for some more satire, this time of Biblical literalism. There's also something intrinsically funny about Sunday lunch involving the wearing of "sou'westers and asbestos underpants". The "Lemming Sunday" story is what you'd expect of Rimmer, and "mind that bus, what bus, splat" is a classic line. Chris Barrie also gets a nice, albeit brief, chance to impersonate Kryten with the joke about the "employment of time in a profitless and non-practical way."

I like the scene with the Marilyn Monroe robot, especially the gargantuan foot and "look at the face that comes with the kit." It seems that the possessions of the long-dead Petersen are an endless source of useless junk. The party scene contains some good woofers, although I don't think it starts that well; I find the "special mechanoid menu" to be rather twee, largely, although I like the gift giving. Rimmer's Patton sinus fluid, Cat's hated earring and the lumbering, hastily-assembled robot are all entertaining elements in their own way. The "Jackson Pollock" gag in the drunk conversation is okay, but the highlight is certainly Rimmer telling Lister that he's "forbidden passionfruit" and that there's a possibility that his parents "were brother and sister". He wasn't far off, was he? At least in Doug Naylor's imagination. Cat's "Yeah, on both feet" is an amusing interjection. Rimmer's story about Uncle Frank is pretty weird. If Rimmer fancied Uncle Frank's daughters, wouldn't that mean he fancied his own cousins? Perhaps they were step-cousins or "Uncle" was an affectation. At face value, however, the story is unsettling well before we discover that Uncle Frank "accidentally" molested Rimmer during the night.

The hangover scene and the confrontation with Hudzen round out the episode well. I like Kryten's damage control report, which suggests as its final course of action "replace head", followed by Kryten saying "Boy, what a night!" Lister wondering "where the smeg I got this traffic cone" is a top gag too. I'm not as fond of Hudzen karate-chopping a brick in half with his knob, but when he arrives the costume and makeup on Gordon Kennedy are really good, and I think the idea of him becoming deranged after pursuing Kryten for millions of years is clever. The sound effects used to make his movements more mechanical really add to the scene as well, and he has a particularly good line: "You'd better leave an address with your body so I can mail it to your head." Rimmer's threatening speech is good, as is Lister's interruption: "What's he going to do, drop his trousers?" I also like Rimmer's little confused run when Hudzen starts attacking. Some of the sound mixing at this point is really off, such that lines become very garbled, and I'm also not fond of how intimidated Cat is, but Hudzen's final exchange with Kryten is a classic moment to end the series: "but where would all the calculators go?" I don't know why I find that line so funny. I guess it's the odd singling out of calculators in particular, as if they're some particularly devout device. It's a nice triumphant ending for the series that gives Kryten the character development he needed as a new addition to the cast, establishing him firmly as part of the ensemble with equal footing to the other characters. This is definitely another of the highlights of Series III.

Red Dwarf III Episode 5: "Timeslides"

Kryten accidentally invents an extremely implausible time machine and Rimmer eats a banana and crisp sandwich. "Timeslides" has got to be one of the most peculiar representations of time travel in any show I've seen. Photographs move, playing back the time period they were taken in. If they're projected onto a screen you can walk into them to travel back in time somehow. If the past is changed, sometimes people are aware of it and sometimes they aren't. It's all fairly arbitrary and doesn't make a terrible amount of sense, again tying somewhat into the "gimmick" quotient of Series III along with "Backwards" and "Bodyswap" in which video effects seemed to have a fairly large impact on the plot. The thought occurred to me recently: do the photos just keep showing the time period forever? Do they repeat or does time within them just keep passing indefinitely? If we left Frank Rimmer's wedding photo, for instance, would the guests clear off and normal life resume in the picture? Who knows. How come Holly and Rimmer are aware of Lister changing time, but Lister himself isn't? If Lister never joined Red Dwarf, why would Rimmer's hologram have been activated? How can Rimmer become human but not realise? How can developing fluid "mutate" when it's not a living substance? It's really not worth giving too much thought to. It's also very odd that, despite the fact that physical objects can be removed from the photo, no one tries to bring a person through. Didn't Lister have an old photo of Kochanski somewhere? Didn't Rimmer have one of himself?

The most interesting part of the whole thing is probably Lister's sense of frustration, something that could have been set up more and developed further, especially since it doesn't come up much after this, perhaps not until "Back to Earth" in fact. It seems like a sensible character element that could have been given more attention. This also sets up Lister and Cat's amusing discussion about all of their "ingenious ways of wasting time", the highlight being Lister's description of "unicycle polo": "two grown men on unicycles, belting a beach ball up and down a corridor with French loaves." Cat's cued up applause for the miniature golf is great too, and it's a nice juxtaposition of the attitudes of Lister and Cat; Cat, as a cat, is a comparatively solitary being who seems to be just as capable of enjoying himself alone as he is in company. He doesn't care that he's trapped on a space ship with only four other people. Lister, by contrast, is starting to get worn down by the loneliness, something somewhat implied by what he says in "Marooned" about his guitar. It's a bit of a shame, then, that the episode plumps for the typical "if in doubt, make it be about Rimmer" method, as the episode becomes more or less about him and his efforts to set things right or take Lister's place, such that at the end of the story there's no payoff for Lister at all. Lister, Cat and Kryten just wander out of the photo lab without a backward glance, almost as if they don't know why they're there. Perhaps that's meant to be implied to be the result of all the time-travelling. The gag with Rimmer being human at the end (which causes all sorts of continuity problems of course, but I won't go into that) and then accidentally blowing himself up always seemed like a weirdly Blackadder-y ending to me for some reason. In any event, it gives us the episode's other rather strong scene, Rimmer dropping in on Lister at his mansion in the changed timeline. Robert Addie is particularly good as Gilbert. I get the impression some "fans" object to Ruby Wax as Blaize Falconburger, a part originally intended for Graham Chapman, but I think she actually suits the part well.

I'm not quite enamoured of the "young Lister" and "young Rimmer" scenes, as I think they're both a touch dry. The name "Smeg and the Heads" for Lister's band tends to strike me as a touch self-referential, although Craig Charles's brother Emile is good as the teenage Lister, and I like that in Rimmer's dorm room there's another instance of "Bonehead", the nickname first attested in Series II. Rimmer's reaction to his younger self telling him that he's got extra rugby practice is amusing as well, as it appears to stir up memories of childhood humiliation. The background song "Cash", performed by Craig Charles's band, fits in well. Chris Barrie's turn as elder Rimmer brother Frank in the wedding photograph seems to provide a bit of inspiration for Ace in the voice if nothing else. It's interesting seeing Robert Llewellyn's Kryten in photos that are clearly meant to be from the Nova 5, and the effects work on having the multiple moving photographs while the camera is panning across them is very effectively done. It's also amusing to note Kryten having to develop photographs in a darkroom and listening to music on a cassette tape. Perhaps he's just into vintage technology. One thing I do like is seeing Kryten dancing around a bit and playing air guitar as he develops the photos. It's a nice little bit of background characterisation that I wish we'd seen more of.

The all-time great line from this episode is of course "It's my duty; my duty as a complete and utter bastard", although Rimmer gets some other good ones, including comparing rich Lister's life to "me, with... what I've got" and referring to himself as "old iron balls." The way Gilbert the butler pronounces "fish 'n' chip" as "fish nuh chip" has always tickled me. A good early one is when, by comparison to Rimmer going to school with Thickie Holden, Lister says he went to school with the famous "Charles Keenan", who was famous because he "ate his wife." It's the kind of classic example of the difference between Rimmer and Lister's backgrounds that you don't see enough. It's a bit odd to think that young Lister doesn't know what the H on Rimmer's head stands for, although I suppose you could imagine that holograms hadn't been invented yet back then or he'd never seen one before. I feel like the absurd idea that Hitler had a "banana and crisps" sandwich deserves a bigger laugh. Other than that, I have to say that "Timeslides" might be one of the weaker instalments of Series III. It has some good moments, but at times it feels a bit directionless, the characters aren't really explored in great detail despite the opening, Cat and Kryten have scarcely more to do than they did in "Marooned", and the way the time travel works is all a bit wobbly. Then again, there's always the enjoyment of Cat telling Lister "You can carry your own damn flags!"

Red Dwarf III Episode 4: "Bodyswap"

Rimmer loses Lister's arm and his watch too. Personally I think it would have been better if the actors hadn't dubbed their characters' voices over the performances after the swapped bodies in this one. This isn't just because Chris Barrie can already do a decent Craig Charles impersonation, which can be observed in the Series III deleted scenes (although I personally think Chris Barrie's Lister always sounds like he's feeling a bit sad about something). I just think it would have been funnier in general, and allowed more opportunities for humour to arise by the cast taking off each other and doing humorous versions of each other's vocal mannerisms. Perhaps it would have required more preparation than they were willing to do. In the episode as broadcast, Rimmer-in-Lister's-body always sounds a bit "off" because of the way Chris Barrie is trying to match Craig Charles's physical performance as Rimmer. Lister-in-Rimmer's-body is arguably a bit closer due to the fact that Chris Barrie was doing more of an impersonation, but overall the dialogue tends to feel a touch stilted due to all the dubbing.

Nonetheless, Craig Charles does a pretty good job as Rimmer, particularly focusing on the rather "military" walk, the smirking facial expressions and the general posture which tends to typify Rimmer in a good mood, as he is with the recovery of a physical presence and senses. I tend to think that the episode perhaps focuses a little too much on Rimmer's abuse of Lister's body, to the extent that it becomes a bit farcical. It would have been interesting to see how Lister coped with being a hologram, and how perhaps that might have put him in a position of feeling some empathy with Rimmer's situation and how that would balance against Rimmer's abuse of his body. Arguably a little too much time is spent on Rimmer scoffing lots of fatty food, smoking cigars in the bath and the like, which certainly reminds us what an untrustworthy bastard Rimmer is, but becomes a touch repetitive after a while.

Probably my favourite bits in the episode are rather incidental to the central concept. I like the idea of the warning system being wired to the food dispenser but not the bomb, and the idea that Holly "got rid" of the bomb "ages ago". I also like the chase sequence after Rimmer steals Lister's body, even if it initiates the overuse of that shot of Starbug spiralling around. It's interesting to see the last time Blue Midget would appear until Series VIII, and the last time the classic Blue Midget model and Blue Midget cockpit set would be used in the show. The effects of Starbug crashing are, as usual, excellent. By contrast, I find the mind-swap idea to be perhaps a little too hastily and arbitrarily introduced by Kryten, in full-on exposition mode in a way that would become, in my opinion, overly common in later series.

There are still good gags to enjoy, my favourite early one being Cat's "It's lucky you didn't order a double cheeseburger." It's odd to note this opening, as in "DNA", featuring Rimmer being rather professional and competent when it comes to ship maintenance, something he at other times, including "Fathers and Suns", is depicted as being as bad at as he is at everything else in his life. Rimmer telling Lister "you sweat madras sauce" is good. I like a lamb madras, myself. His joke that he saw Lister's shadow and "got the fright of my life; I thought it was Alfred Hitchcock," is classic Rimmer nastiness, and the thing about the frog with its belly and "spindly little legs" hanging underneath is certainly evocative. The bit in which he inspects Lister's genitalia is a bit confusing, although I suspect the implication is meant to be, judging by other episodes, that, if I'm to put this clinically and bluntly, Lister has a substantially larger penis than Rimmer does. The "jozxqyk" bit is another good joke for Cat, especially in regards to "if you were reading in the nude and you closed the book too quick." Rimmer's excuses about the girdle or "hernia prevention belt" have always stuck with me, and I like Lister's claim that his lungs feel as if Rimmer's "smoked an entire Cuban tobacco harvest" and that his stomach is so large that "paint 'Goodyear' down me side and you could float me over the superbowl." Rimmer's "Go ahead punks, make my day" always struck me as an odd line from him. Rimmer's joking about losing Lister's arm and then flipping him a double bird is a good bit. One of my favourite elements from the end is when the guilt-stricken Kryten apologetically gives Lister's shoe a little stroke and Lister swats his hand away. The best aspect of "Bodyswap" is obviously the two leads impersonating each other's body language and the like, but it's perhaps a little underdeveloped and suffers a tad from the slightly gimmicky plotting of some Series III episodes.

Red Dwarf III Episode 3: "Polymorph"

The Dwarfers get menaced by an emotion-sucking mutant that is meant to be the "ultimate warrior" yet barely seems to ever perform any physically violent acts. Another classic episode which delves a little into the characters, the highlights are probably Cat's increasingly disgusted reactions to Lister's meal and, of course, the meeting after everyone's emotions have been removed. Kryten trying to remove Lister's polymorph boxer shorts elicits quite the response from the audience, but perhaps it doesn't quite have the same level of impact after you've seen it a few times. As I indicated at the start, the Polymorph is an interesting creature but doesn't make a terrible amount of sense. It's not entirely clear why removing emotions makes it a more powerful warrior other than perhaps making its enemies more reckless; it almost never seems to do anything particularly violent to the crew apart from trying to strangle Lister while in kebab form. It's also a bit surprising and convenient that it's able to extract the emotions of androids and holograms as well as organic beings that actually have hormones and the like. It is memorable, however, as our first introduction to a GELF, although that term wouldn't be used for another series. It's obviously a takeoff of Alien, but the semi-serious, semi-comedic Red Dwarf spin gives it its own sense of originality and makes it clearly a part of the show's fabric.

I really like the way the cargo hold of Red Dwarf is handled in this episode, with some studio lifts and piles of boxes in a darkened room standing in for a cavernous expanse in a way that actually works and is convincing. I also think that the shot of the heat-seeking bazookoid missiles burning through the box the Cat holds up is startlingly effective. This is moderated, of course, by some fairly average bluescreen work that dates it a tad, but it's generally all quite nice, although I do think the sequence of Cat running around avoiding the heat-seekers is a little bit too long and drags a touch. The puppet used for the Polymorph's small form is reasonably amusing, as is the killer kebab, although some of its transformations are a bit naff and once again contribute to a slightly twee feel that Series III occasionally has.

There are certainly still plenty of laughs to be had despite the occasional corny moment. Cat gets a great variant on his Series I "How am I looking?" jokes with "Something smells good. What is it? It's me! I love this aftershave." His dismissal of Lister's dinner preparations with "This isn't a meal; this is an autopsy!" is classic as well. Kryten's fish lines after accidentally insulting Rimmer's mother are memorable without being hilarious, although the delivery helps. "You'll bonk anything" is of course timeless, and I personally like Rimmer's remark that the Polymorph "turned into a sort of splodgy squelchy thing and squidged off down the corridor." We see the first appearance of Space Corps Directives here, although Rimmer's "Osmond Family" joke isn't up there with "No chance, you metal bastard." Kryten's dramatic "It's insane" seems to be the first of such deliveries, later followed by "No sounds to hear" of Series IV, "Blood-chilling terror" of Series V and "Pure evil" of Series X. I like guiltless Kryten referring to Rimmer as "Bonehead", and I feel like he gets surprisingly few laughs, as the character is quite funny. The Polymorph as Mrs Rimmer is of course quite entertaining, and pretty much all of her remarks, including "he was like a set of pistons in an ocean liner engine room", "I honestly think my false teeth were going to fall out" and of course, "the things this boy can do with alphabetti spaghetti" are all suitably amusing for imagining Rimmer's embarrassment despite the fact that he must surely realise, as Holly tells him, that it's the Polymorph. There's a good cameo for "proper thesp" Frances Barber here as the Polymorph in its vanity-stealing form as well.

Obviously in the meeting pretty much all the best lines go to Rimmer, Lister having already delivered "I say let's get out there and twat it" in an earlier scene, although "Anyone who gets in my way gets a napalm enema" is a good one too. I have a personal fondness for Rimmer's description of the Polymorph as a creature that "salivates unspeakable slobber" and of course the "clitoris" gag. Ultimately, it's his hand gestures and manner that make the scene, although the suggestion of defeating the Polymorph with "street theatre" is a standout bit. I notice various reviews trying to attribute some kind of political satire to Rimmer's appearance in this, but I prefer how Chris Barrie describes anger-less Rimmer in the Series III documentary as a "Morris Minor driver", sort of tediously patient, egalitarian and nonviolent to little real purpose. Some attention must be given, in addition, to Robert Llewellyn's delivery of "disgusting, pus-filled buboe." I also like his response when his guilt is restored at the end: "Naturally, I will commit suicide immediately." By and large it's an entertaining episode, and arguably gives us some insight into the characters, including a largely suppressed violent side to Lister that only emerges on occasion and Rimmer's desire to be in charge and organised, even pacifistically. At the same time, it could be argued that this set the standard for the show's preponderance in later series, such as Series VI, for monster-of-the-week style "romps" that are less character-driven than some of the show's previous strongest outings. It really depends on the kind of Red Dwarf you prefer or are in the mood for at one time or another.

Red Dwarf III Episode 2: "Marooned"

Lister and Rimmer get stranded and Lister acts like a surprisingly bigger bastard than we'd expect. "Marooned" is in many ways the logical extension of the "bunk room" scenes from Series I and II embellished to essentially constitute an entire episode. It gives us some pretty serious insights into the differences between Lister and Rimmer and the nature of their relationship. It's interesting to note that the two of them get along fairly well in this episode, which shows the extent to which things have evolved past the first series at least, and more or less establishes their attitude towards each other for the rest of the series, as two people who don't have that much in common and don't feel very much affection for each other, but don't seem to actively dislike each other as much as they once did.

Obviously there are a few odd things to note in this episode, like the fact that Starbug has little to no power but Rimmer is still working. Must have bloody good batteries in that light bee they hadn't invented yet. Why does he need a jacket? Lister himself points out that he can't feel the cold. Maybe it's just to make Lister feel better. Furthermore, he can smell burning camphorwood, which I'm prepared to imagine a light bee can do, yet two episodes later in "Bodyswap" he's rejoicing at the restoration of his senses. Probably the most startling thing is that he's quite clearly pushing a button to broadcast the mayday signal. Perhaps his light bee is in his finger again. Maybe it's a hologram interface. In any event, those are just a few curious background details sure to appeal to the inquisitive nature of the Red Dwarf nerd incapable of just watching for the comedy.

As a development of the character it's quite effective. Comparable to his established belief in aliens, we now discover also that Rimmer's willing to believe in reincarnation. We also learn more clearly something we could have probably guessed from the previous series: that he's a bit of an armchair general who has very old-fashioned romanticised views of military conflict, something that goes badly awry in "Meltdown" but which would, in some respects, ultimately pay off many years later in "The Beginning". We also see more of his fraught relationship with his father, as he treasures the camphorwood chest as the only thing of value his father ever gave him. I often see people taking objection to Rimmer's "losing his virginity" story because "Thanks For The Memory" made a bit of a big deal about the fact that his sole sexual encounter was with Yvonne McGruder on Red Dwarf, but I've always thought that it makes more sense if you imagine that the story in "Marooned" was more of an adolescent fooling-around that he's embellished into a loss of virginity story to make himself feel more sexually experienced. Rimmer's satisfaction at the "marvellous" car this incident occurred in is also an amusing instance, followed up on much later in "Back to Earth" and "Trojan", of Rimmer acquiring Chris Barrie's enthusiasm for automobiles.

On the Lister front, we see even more of his feelings of loneliness and his entirely un-sheltered youth, with the particular example of his sexual precociousness being noteworthy. His feelings of abandonment, isolation and limited sense of his own identity are put on display, particularly through the importance he attributes to his guitar. It's a characteristic, not always dwelt upon in the show, that informs a great deal of his behaviour over the years. It seems a little odd, in hindsight, to observe the fact that he destroys Rimmer's chest, having destroyed many of his other possessions, in order to avoid sacrificing his guitar. It feels like the kind of weaselly thing Rimmer would do. There are various reasons we could imagine for this, but it still seems rather callous for Lister, who at other times we're generally meant to regard as fundamentally a fairly decent person. I suppose the point is to show that while Lister is a bit more of a "good guy" than Rimmer, he's certainly not without flaws.

Other things to enjoy in this episode include, of course, the model work, and some typically amusing lines and jokes. Perhaps my favourite is Rimmer's improvised performance of the Last Post for the wooden soldiers, with the obligatory squeaky off-note, cause of so many real-life smirks and sniggers during otherwise solemn remembrance services. His speeches after he thinks Lister has burned his guitar are good too, as are Holly's lines about black holes, grit and the scanner scope, which, like the nonexistent dilemmas of so many episodes from "Balance of Power" to "Queeg" to "Duct Soup", render the whole exercise completely pointless. Lister's description of Rimmer's historical heroes as "Patton and Caesar and various other gits" is memorable, as is Rimmer's about how generals "don't stick Newcastle Brown bottles in your face and say 'stitch that jimmy'," the line being particularly enhanced by Chris Barrie's delivery. Rimmer's "you can't have been a full member of the golf club then" is classic, and I have a soft spot for Lister working himself up to eating the dog food: "it's been charcoal grilled in garlic butter and is going to taste delicious. Delicious. Delicious." I like that Rimmer starts calling Lister "Dave" by the end of the episode before he's figured out what happened to the chest. This is probably an episode that's strongest on the initial viewing when the stories are more fresh, but it's still a memorable and well-written piece.

Red Dwarf III Episode 1: "Backwards"

Kryten eats an egg forwards and Cat inadvertently sucks a turd up into his arse. As an episode with more or less one overriding joke and a very tenuous (and by 'tenuous' I mean 'nonexistent') narrative logic behind it, "Backwards" perhaps doesn't hold up terribly well by comparison to other Red Dwarf episodes from this era. The two classic scenes are of course Lister and Cat's chat about Wilma Flintstone and the "Unrumble" bar fight, with a possible third being the conversation the four of them have about the merits and disadvantages of backwards time. Other than that, a lot of the scenes tend to constitute "stuff is funny because it happens in reverse", which is kind of funny once but fairly uninteresting on repeat viewing. Honestly, if it wasn't for lines about turning back into sperms swimming around in people's testicles and having sex with cartoon women, this would probably pass as slightly naff kids' TV of the time period. There's just something about Rimmer in his shiny green nylon and Kryten with his rubbery pink head sitting around in a generic café set that just screams "dirt cheap family-friendly BBC light entertainment" and not "groundbreaking science-fiction sitcom".

On the other hand, the Time Hole is the least irritating means by which the Dwarfers have ever found themselves on Earth in an inconvenient time period or situation, by contrast to Series VII's suddenly vastly-altered Time Drive and Series X's faulty Rejuvenation Shower. It may be an arbitrary plot device but at least it feels like there's a reasonably valid reason for them both getting there and leaving. I also note that Starbug has a convenient cloaking device in this episode that never appears again. That would have helped all those times they were being chased by GELFs and simulants and various other baddies, wouldn't it? Furthermore Rimmer, who previously needed a cumbersome cage to leave the confines of a ship's interior, now can wander wherever he damn well pleases, although the explanation for this would not arise for another series.

Obviously the backwards stuff doesn't make a lick of sense if you think about it. Everything's backwards except the Dwarfers' perception of reality, right? So when Rimmer and Kryten arrived they should have been un-fired, then the fight should have happened, then they should have done their novelty act for a few weeks, and then they should have been un-hired. This would have played nicely to the deterministic ideas presented in "Future Echoes", for instance, such that they find themselves doing things without having any intention of doing them; events would simply conspire to have them where they needed to be as effect preceded cause, from their point of view at least, which would raise fresh questions about time and free will. Similarly, the man in the park wouldn't think that Lister and Cat were stealing his bike, because from his point of view they're returning it, and the man with the van would have been dropping them off having picked them up at the pub, not the other way around. I'm obviously overthinking this as usual, but I can't help but feel like the episode might make its point about the nature of time more effectively if the presentation was more consistent. Things like the job advertisements in the newspaper make it seem like the inhabitants of backwards Earth know that time is running backwards and have a society built around it, rather than simply being forward time rewinding towards a "big crunch". Also, why are images and writing backwards? How does that correlate?

My pedantry aside, there are some decent lines to enjoy in the episode. Holly's line about being autopilot is amusing, and the ludicrous astronomical figures for "stopping distance" and "thinking time" raise a smile. Holly actually gets some more reasonable gags about the time period being "lunchtime" and how the most useful data would be that year's calendar. An early "Kryten's head" joke is "Tell them you took your car to the crushers and forgot to get out" followed up by the eventually-ubiquitous "head shaped like a novelty condom." Why does Rimmer think they should get a job? What would be the point? Cat's "They're gone, buddy!" and "Hell no; I don't even care about you," are memorable remarks that show how his character changes a bit as time goes on. I note that the "homing device" looks like a bottle of talcum powder. What the hell's the deal with the "Red Dwarf Shuffle"? Are we to imagine that Lister and Cat, who often tend to express enormous cynicism, like to burst into spontaneous light-hearted raps? At least we get Lister telling Rimmer "You already are one glorious hole", and Arthur Smith's rant which, when played forwards, tells you off for playing it forwards. The historical examples of reverse things are somewhat interesting, but we don't see enough of this in action. Rimmer's "thanks for your support" is okay, as is the visual gag of Cat having just reverse-defecated. "Backwards" is an interesting episode to an extent, but the inconsistent usage of the premise limits it somewhat, and it's pretty light on woofers. Perhaps my favourite aspect is the piss-take at the beginning with the Star Wars-style crawl rolling too fast for anyone to read, with a memorable Howard Goodall track in the background.

Red Dwarf Series III Overview

Series III is when the look and feel of Red Dwarf would come to be a bit more "settled". Grant and Naylor would take a more hands-on role in production, and a new look in terms of both costumes and sets was established through the work of Howard Burden and the late Mel Bibby respectively. The show also built upon some of Series II's tonal shifts to delve further into an action-adventure setup in addition to the sci-fi comedy, with a new rock-guitar fast-cut opening sequence reflecting the shift to a livelier universe than the one found in the first two series, now featuring strange space phenomena, genetically-engineered monsters, time-travelling developing fluid and deranged domestic androids.

The series is also noteworthy for two major cast changes: the recasting of Holly with Hattie Hayridge in the role and the casting of Robert Llewellyn as Kryten, turning the guest role portrayed by David Ross in Series II into a regular character and making the show more of an ensemble piece. The cast move further towards being a sort of squad or team, with their computer in support. Perhaps it's just that I knew he was coming, but Robert Llewellyn fits in effortlessly as Kryten, and the character feels like a natural addition to the cast. Holly has less to do than ever, unfortunately. I wonder, had Norman Lovett's travel arrangements been sorted out such that he could stick around, if he would have moaned and complained enough that Holly got a bigger role.

These changes also make for a bit of a departure from Series I and II's common focus on long conversational scenes between Lister and Rimmer in which they spar with each other and discuss their various life experiences. While one episode, "Marooned", is still devoted to this, these staple scenes only really crop up elsewhere in Series III in "Bodyswap", in which they largely service the plot, and "The Last Day". Supposedly this was to a degree instigated by a somewhat poor offscreen relationship at the time between Craig Charles and Chris Barrie, although the extent of this seems questionable. Craig Charles seems to attribute such a situation these days largely to his own immaturity at the time, although Chris Barrie charitably seems to accept some of the blame, describing a "competitive" environment in rehearsals. I get the impression, in any event, that stories of friction between them may have been somewhat exaggerated, and it's probable that Grant and Naylor wanted to change things up anyway. It seems highly unlikely to me that "Marooned" would have been made if the show was to any extent trying to avoid having the two actors doing that kind of one-on-one material together.

One thing I've noticed about Series III on rewatch, if I was to criticise it for anything in general, is that at times it can be a bit, well, "twee". Things like "the Red Dwarf shuffle", Smeg and the Heads and the "special mechanoid menu" come across at points as rather corny from a modern point of view, not unlike Miranda the Mermaid or some of the female-opposite jokes from Series II. I'd also argue that "Backwards", "Bodyswap" and "Timeslides" are all rather gimmicky episodes in which a central effects-driven conceit dominates the story, and not necessarily to its advantage. On the other hand, at times Series III can be quite dark and character-driven, as Lister faces apparent death with only Rimmer for company in "Marooned" and when Kryten confronts what he believes to be his doom in "The Last Day".

As is usual for Red Dwarf, the strongest episodes are those which explore the characters and what makes them the people they are, which is something we get in the two episodes I just mentioned, along with, to an extent, "Polymorph". Nonetheless, there is still a lot of good model work and the location shooting is, by and large, effective, and does not demand too much suspension of disbelief. Series III sets the standard for what Red Dwarf would find itself most consistently comfortable being, yet I feel reasonably confident in arguing that these were still early steps, setting a foundation for the show to improve in subsequent series.