The Crimson Short One (Red Dwarf)

Member Name: The Solid Grey

Product:	Red Dwarf
Date:	29/10/01 (820 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Entertaining, fun, and a really good laugh

Disadvantages: none

Long ago in the far off days of my youth, when Doctor Who had only a year or so left to run, and Star Trek:TNG was a year or so to come, in the days when I was still at school and while Dad was at work, and Ma had control of the TV remote, she tuned into BBC Two one night at the start of, what was to become BBC Two’s greatest success, at the time though the question was would it ever continue?.

Ma, didn’t watch it again, but as for me and my sisters, we became firm fans, tuning into every episode, the longer it continued the more people watched and the ‘better’ it became, it has changed many times over the years, but its still a sunning watch.

Red Dwarf
Is a science fiction comedy programme, that ran for nearly 12 years on BBC Two (assuming they don’t make any new episodes), created and written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, eight series in total, 30 minutes for each episode.

The Cast are,
Craig Charles, as Dave Lister
Danny John-Jules, as The Cat
Chris Barrie, as Rimmer
Robert Llewellyn, as Kryten (series 3-8)
Norman Lovett, as Holly (series 1+2, 7+8)
Hattie Hayridge, as Holly (series 3,4 and 5)
Chloe Annett, as Kochanski (series 7+8)

Background
Although the TV series began in 1987/8(ish), the idea itself came about sometime in 1983, and started life on radio 4, in a sketch show, called ‘Son Of Cliché’. ‘Dave Hollins - Space Cadet’, became a regular feature in the show 1984, and is the basis of Red Dwarf.

Plot
Red Dwarf itself is a gigantic space ship owned by The Jupiter Mining Corporation, Dave Lister, the lowest rank on ship shares a room with Arnold Rimmer (equally low ranking), and they hate each other. In the first episode Dave smuggled a cat on board, and refused to hand it over and so got put into status, meanwhile; Rimmers failure to replace a drive plate resulted in the entire crew getting wiped out by a radiation leak
. 3 million years later when the radiation has reached a safe back ground level, Holly the ships computer (who had an IQ of 6,000, but has now gone senile), releases Dave from status. To help Dave stay sane Holly resurrects Rimmer as a hologram and they also they find out that the cat Dave brought on board has now evolved into a human shape (Felix Sapien).

The basic idea is that Dave Lister is the last Human alive, and is also the worst example, on the journey home - earth, they will have many strange and funny adventures. (It makes you wonder why the writers wanted to do this, having to find something new for them to do each week, would scare the - out of me, but they did, and did it well.)

So What Happens
The majority of the episodes revolve around time, from seeing future echoes, travelling in time, digitising time and playing around with it, meeting their future selves, meeting computers that can predict the future, altering time, and so on, there is also a majority of episodes that revolve around parallel universes, alternative versions of them selves and backwards universes, the rest are generally ones where they encounter the odd derelict space ship/station, and meet strange people.

Series 1 and 2
The series began with the titles being a close up of a spacesuited man painting the Red Dwarf, with slow music. It was a cheap production, and had a very isolated feel and the episodes were introduced by Holly. In the first series the crew never left the ship and the show concentrated on Lister surviving the loneliness. In the second they found a android called Kryten who appeared in only one episode and they had use of a small shuttle called White Midget, there was some continuity in these episodes, such as Lister giving birth to twins, and being the Cat’s God.


Series 3,4 and 5
All change, the titles changed to clips from the series with a faster up beat music (matching the closing titles music), the show n
ow being called Red Dwarf III, IV and so on up in each new series, Kryten became a regular cast member (this time played by Robert Llewellyn), Starbug was introduced (replacing White Midget), their quarters had changed, Lister having moved to the officers quarters, Holly was now played by Hattie Hayridge, Lister had become cool and Rimmer now wore a black suit.

The episodes were now much more self contained, and the show was much more a typical comedy, by series five the production values had become much higher, and it looked very glitzy (as I commented to my sister). Also in series five, they encountered a Holoship, a hologramtic ship and crew, their first contact with humans in nearly 5 years, and with the fact that its three million years in the future and thinking there was no life left in the universe, you’d think they want to catch up a bit, but they never even asked any questions?, makes you wonder about what the crew are aiming for?.

Also by this time the show was much more popular and everybody watched it. A friend of mine at school, like me, had watched it from the beginning, and he’d always ask if I’d watched it the night before, and say ‘Good wasn’t it?’, and I’d agree, by series five I’d go in, and a friend who’d just started to watch it would say the same thing and I’d agree, then I’d see my other friend, but now he’d say ‘Crap wasn’t it?’, and I’d agree (two faced of me or what?).

Another comment I made to my sister was that they seemed to spend a lot more time on Starbug than Red Dwarf, little did I know....

Series 6
I read the first episode of series 6 in Waterstones, as a Red Dwarf scripts book had just come out (containing the first episode of series 6), I remember laughing my head off, it was so funny. Series 6 began with the crew being woken up from deep sleep, Red Dwarf had been stolen, along with Holly and t
he crew only had Starbug (now much, much bigger), the show now revolved around their mission to recover it. In the second episode Rimmer (now with a new blue uniform) was given a hard light drive, meaning he could now touch things (disappointing that no big deal was made of this by Rimmer, as it was pretty much what he had been wanting all along), and the end of season cliff-hanger theme was introduced that would continue through the remaining seasons.

Series 7
By this time Rob Grant had left the writing team, Chris Barrie wanted to leave the show, meaning Rimmer departed after two episodes, Kochanski, now played by Chloe Annett (rather than Claire Crogan as in the early seasons), joined the crew, the Cat became much more stupid and had a reduced part, the production values went up again (as it appears to have been filmed), the structure of the shows themselves were much different, no longer being self contained. The stories were very contrived, bring back, relying upon, and sending up its history.

Series 8
The greatest change since the show began, the crew regained Red Dwarf along with the original crew (the continuity being very bad indeed), Rimmer rejoined the crew, along with the original Holly, the captain (played by the original actor- Mac MacDonald), and several others became regular cast members. Lister, Rimmer, the Cat, Kryten and Kochanski, now being put in prison, the show centred on Lister and Rimmer, and Rimmer more than most, the last few years seeming to be wiped away, and a whole new basis for the show, giving it a new lease of life, unfortunately, there seemed to be too many regular cast members, and not enough new ideas, as the show again relayed on past successes.

In the last episode Red Dwarf was being destroyed and the entire crew abandoned ship, our heroes being left behind, Rimmer passed into a mirror universe to find a way of reversing the destruction, returning to find no one left and Red Dwarf, nearly des
troyed and the grim reaper coming to get him..............

Despite the changes over the years and the lack of continuity, it has remained a very enjoyable watch, the problems being, in later seasons, the contrived nature of the stories, and possibly not being as serious as it should have been, delving into the silly, rather than the humorous, however on recently re watching series 8, there was some really good stuff, but the show seemed to have gotton to big for itself.

Other Info
A film is to be expected sometime around December 2002, and no new series will be made before then. Four books have been written based on the series, the first two, by Grant Naylor and they expanded on how Dave joined Red Dwarf and why he brought the cat on board, the second two novels both followed on from the second book, and were written separately by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. The series has been released on video, some of which are extended version, and two smeg up/outs videos showing the out takes from the series.

An American version was produced, but never got anywhere, it was christened, by Craig Charles as ‘White Dwarf’, as all the actors were themselves white, whereas in the British version the regular cast consisted of two black and two white actors, and also Robert Llewellyn portrayed Kryten in the American version.

As with any great cult show there is a fan club, and there are conventions, and lots of merchandise and a web site, http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/

And?
I love it, even though I’m a great Douglas Adams fan, I’d have to say that Red Dwarf is probably the first real Science fiction comedy show, or rather a comedy science fiction show, because it is a comedy first, and the humour is a more generally appreciated type. My sister’s soon-to-be husband dislikes science fiction shows but loves Red Dwarf. It came in at no. 4 in a top ten of great sci/fi shows, and its really worth the watch.


I’ll leave you with a quote

‘Smeg off dogfood face’

See ya

The Solid Grey

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