[karajorma]

I'm sure there must be a few other Dwarfers on this board. So there's probably someone else who watched it last night.

When it comes to Red Dwarf, series 1 and 2 were probably the best thing on TV at the time. Then series 3 to 6 came along and blew them completely out of the water. However series 6 showed signs of the future, especially in the episode with the 2nd polymorph. Too much reliance on old jokes, not enough good new ideas.

Unfortunately everything since then has been poor, mildly amusing at best with long stretches of no laughs at all.  So I watched the new episode with quite a bit of trepidation.

Spoilers follow
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Almost from the start I knew that it was just going to be more of the series 9 dross unfortunately. The race was unfunny and Lister and the Cat didn't seem to be playing their characters so much as caricatures of them. The moose stuff was just a rehash of funnier stuff from earlier shows, reminding me a lot of things like the Hammy Hamster or Wilma Flintstone conversations.

Rimmer and Kryten's scene was equally unfunny. Sure it's always amusing to watch Chris Barrie emote but the jokes were predictable and telegraphed so much that when they arrived you saw them coming up to a minute in advance. This isn't the Red Dwarf I remember where there was no need for a lead up and the jokes came thick and fast and often completely out of nowhere.

The scene on the Trojan finally did make me chuckle a little (The pole-vaulter comment was pretty good, as was Lister's alternative Super Infinity Fleet motto) but the first thing to actually make me laugh was Rimmer's comm switch gag and that was nearly 10 minutes in.

But then we got to the scene with Rimmer's revision and suddenly the entire show changed. The unfunny stuff from earlier in the episode suddenly started paying off. Yeah, I knew the Cat would know the answer, but when he interrupted Rimmer, I cracked up.

After that, the show seemed to come together. Lots of great lines that really made me laugh, "No we just hosed him down and gave him a hat!" was a line of the quality of the old show, completely out of the blue, with no warning - absolutely hilarious. Still a few patchy moments but the show did feel like it was back for the second half. It certainly entertained me enough to make me stop comparing it to earlier seasons and just keep watching it.


So verdict... it could go either way. There was a lot of good and and a lot of bad in the show. Hopefully the bad was just a case of them finding their feet after so many years of not doing a proper comedy (series 9 was at best comedy-drama). Definitely worth watching but not quite up to the high standards of series 3 to 6 by a long shot.

[Flipside]

To be honest, I showed mild interest when I saw the adverts, but I think they've pretty much used up all the jokes for that series. It's ironic because the crew is visibly getting older, which could add new ideas for rejuvenating it, but I couldn't get up the enthusiasm to watch it and see if they used that opportunity at all.

[karajorma]

I'd say give it a chance. I did really crack up at some of the jokes.

[starbug]

I have to say i really enjoyed it, better than the crap of series 7, 8 and 9. Yes it started a bit thin but i thought it found its ground a few minutes in, the whole gag about being on hold had me in stitches because its really like that, Everytime i complain to BT about the faults in my broadband i speak to about 20 people answering the same questions again and agian so i found that gag extremely funny. Also i am soooooo glad they got rid of the CGI Red dwarf and Starbug and went back to using models, and this proves that using models can still give a better look to cgi. (Doctor Who take note!)

So overall i think it was a good start and the show has gone back to its roots of the series 1-3 and i think it is the better for it.

My only crit is the way the cast look, Krytens mask just looks sooo wrong and you can tell they have dyed Craigs and Chris's hair which dosent look good, why not have them natural and show that time has passed for the crew?  But i did enjoy it and have to say its better than half the crap that is only TV these days.

[karajorma]

I'd say they're closer to the style of series 6 but that's okay, I liked season 6.  Series 5 was my favourite though, at least 3 or 4 of those episodes would have to make it into my Top 10.

[starbug]

I really don't have a favourite series per say, as i have favourite episodes from each series, except 7, 8 and 9 dont have any favourites from them at all. Well i did sort of like series 7 "stoke me a clipper"
Series 1, Future Echos, Waiting for God
Series 2, Better than Life, Queeg
Series 3, Polymorph
Series 4, Dimension Jump, White hole
Series 5, Demons & Angels, Quarantine
Series 6, Gunmen of the Apocalypse, Emohawk - Polymorph 2

Those are my favourite episodes

[karajorma]

Just goes to show, personally I thought Demons & Angels was the weakest episode of that series (don't get me wrong, it was still damn good).

Quarantine, on the other hand, would probably have to be my favourite of all time with Back to Reality a close second.

[karajorma]

Tonight's highlights?

Spoiler:

Rimmer deciding on the most important specs for the new computer and Lister playing his fathers video messages