Overview: Red Dwarf: Series One

The first series of any sitcom is designed to introduce character, backstory and and a little taste of the style of comedy that the show brings. It should do all these things while being as funny as possible. Red Dwarf Series One is not the show's finest three hours, but neither is it the show's worst.
          The theme of Series One is very much influenced by this first set design. You see, a ridiculous number of sets are used throughout the eight series, to an extent that at one point during Series Five I wondered why I'd never seen this integral part of the ship before. But I had. It was just a different set. The effectiveness of the set is especially important in the first two series, in which all of the action is confined soley to Red Dwarf, which really comes across as this massive, echoing shoip, despite suffering from a low budget.
         One thing that Red Dwarf does best is character moments. While on the surface it can appear that the three leads are quite one-sided, much time is devoted to exploring their motivations and psyche without it feeling overbearing. There's also the added advantage of seeing the characters' personalies pre-Radiation (well, excepting The Cat) and how their highly exaggerated character traits soften and blend as the series go on. Rimmer in Series Seven is a wholey different man to the one you see here.
          My personal favourite episode from this series is Future Echoes, which combines the freshness of the premise with a witty and thoughtful series of events and a concept that had most audiences covered.

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