The Beginning Review

What can I say about his episode, it was everything I wanted from a new Red Dwarf episode. I really hope if there is a Series XI we get more episode as good as this. I really don't have any negative points about this episode, so let me throw some things i liked at you:

• The opening scene at Io Polytechnic, the actor playing young Rimmer nailed this performance and it was the best opening scene of the series. I really wouldn't mind a few internet sketches using this guy about Rimmer's early years.
• Hogie the Rougie was a great character, I love the idea of a rouge droid turning up when he is bored and challenging them to duels across time and space purely for entertainment.
• 'How about we look out of window?' A classic style Dwarf gag.
• The Simulant committing harakiri scene is great, good guest performances. The scene was funny and the Dominator still came across as menacing. 
• Rimmer's battle plan timetable was amazing, have a look.

• How the Series VIII cliffhanger was dealt was great, who cares how it happened, the crew got out of it and that is all that matters and it was funny. Look if you are bothered you have the mythical series IX so just make it up if you are bothered, use your imagination.
• The reveal of Rimmer's dad was interesting I don't think I will affect his character to much. I look forward to seeing where it leads.

The only real issue I have is with some of the effects, especially the wibbly gun and the crew falling through the floor. 

Oh and Rimmer saying to Hogie that shouldn't steal from a Simulant death ship, because they come after you and then asking Kryten should be worried about a Simulant death ship, was just weird.

Overall, this was a great episode. The best of series X.

9/10

Dear Dave Review

You know what I love about Red Dwarf is great plots with character development, all while laughing my tits off. So this episode delivered everything I want from a Red Dwarf episode…  oh wait no it didn’t, but it did deliver lots of laughs and that is why I watch comedy, isn’t it?

 

It was very sketch show-esqe episode of Red Dwarf, which is one of my criticisms of Series VIII, but this worked just because the jokes were, well, funnier. So the ‘plots’ well we had Lister finding out he was a father, Lister in a love triangle in with vending machines, Rimmer trying to prove that he been a good reason not to work for the last 3,000,000 years to the JMC computer, Kryten moving toilet rolls and Cat needing a shit.

 

Positives

• Despite the opening scene going on too long, Lister and Kryten talking about the human race like an ex was pretty funny and got over the loneliness of Lister predicament.
• The vending machines were good too, with hardly anyone to talk too; you would talk to anything with an artificial intelligence.
• Rimmer’s subbuteo stretching was a great bit, as well as his Jacobean chat up lines later on.
• The Cat again was brilliant, the charades scene was over long, but that made it even funnier. The back references to the old episodes were a lovely touch. Oh, Cat’s pink suit was amazing.

 

I want this suit

• Fuck it, Cat in the ‘don’t think about it’ scene was again brilliant and the joke about the finger wetting machine working overtime was an absolute woofer. Despite only having a few scenes he stole the show with two of them.

Negatives

• The JMC onboard computer, it feels like the JMC is a company that is still an operating company. The scene explaining that Rimmer needs to prove he has been guilty of gross dereliction of duty, it just seems like the JMC onboard computer has just been quickly written in to use as a cheap antagonist.
• The whole ‘budget’ plot line was weird, why does Red Dwarf have budgets anymore now the crew is gone.
• Slag! I am not offended by the word slag or the context it was used in.  It doesn’t seem to out of character for Lister, he is a working class slob after all and his has used game machines to have sex with jailbait ball girls (ok she wasn’t jailbait, she was 17). I would have liked more stuff about Lister dealing with the fact that he was going to be a father, it would have validated the use of Slag, with her cheating on him and the child not being his.

I don’t know it was just too much of a sketch show for Red Dwarf, but the jokes were funny and for that reason it gets a decent score.

 

6/10

Entangled Review

Smegging brilliant, I really enjoyed that episode of Red Dwarf, the feel of it was perfect. You could maybe criticise it for borrowing for previous episodes, mainly ‘Emohawk’ and ‘Quarantine’, but it wouldn’t be the first time Red Dwarf has done this and they were different enough that I didn’t give a shit.
 

I wonder if Kochanski was meant to be in this episode, as we now know the last two episodes were meant to have her in them, but had to be rewritten due to the cost of the location shoots. Doug Naylor has now said that she isn’t going to feature in them, but is that just a red herring. It’s is just that the scene on E.R.R.A space station and with the coincidence thing, it felt the monkey reveal should have been her. I know Kochanski isn’t the most popular character on the show, but I am all for it as long as her character is well written and it isn’t just period jokes like in series VIII.

 

 

A few good points:

• The opening gag, the best one yet. The whole scene was great from Lister’s ‘There is something on little monitor two, weird small, really massive, what is it?’ to Rimmer lecturing about the new health and safety rules. Maybe you could say it was a bit Brittas, but Gordon Brittas has always had a slight bit of alternate reality Rimmer about him.

 

'Eeeexcellent!'

• Cat, again was great, Danny John-Jules really has his mojo back, the scene where it is revealed that Lister lost Rimmer in a poker match, he just stole that scene completely.

'Does not help, does not clean, will have sex with anything.'

• Kryten drying the spoons
• The scene with the BEGGS was brilliant, Kryten translating was great, especially ‘So you return with my winnings hahaha.’
• Kryten’s long dialogue about the E.R.R.A. station and how it specialised in wrongness, with it ending in ‘Did it work?’ ‘No it didn’t.'
• Professor E always being wrong and therefore fancying Rimmer, simply gag but great.
• Great final gag, ‘Have you got a pen?’ Wonderfully delivered by Craig Charles.
• Soft light Rimmer, really really nice to see.

I am going to stop now, I don’t just want to go through the entire episode in a typically disjointed fashion

  

A few bad point (There wasn’t anything major that annoyed me, so just a couple of nit picking bits):

• Kryten has weird yellowing of round the eyes of and lips, I didn’t know droids could get jaundice.I didn’t like the fact that Irene wore her glasses upside down, was a bit much.
• The E.R.R.A. stuff and about everything being wrong was a great concept, I think this could have been used for an entire episode. 
• How did Lister talked to the BEGGs in the first place, they didn't reveal they spoke English until the entire crew went down to the moon.

Really that is it, this episode up there with the best of VII and beats anything from VIII, well the only one really worth comparing it too is ‘Cassandra’. I have never really made a list of my favourite episodes of Red Dwarf. I am going to have to do that when this season finishes.

 

8.5/10