Review: Red Dwarf: Holoship and The Inquisitor

Series Five, Episode One - Holoship

"Lister to Red Dwarf: Displays evidence of spoiling for a rumble."

Fed up with Rimmer development? Don't worry, one more episode! Holoship comes across as another great development of Rimmer's character as well as containing one of the funniest sequences in this series. It also started one of this series' notable running jokes.
           The crew watch a mushy film in which the main character sacrifices his job for the woman he loves, despite not being able to be together. Rimmer says that this is adolescent tosh. Soon, a ship arrives that cn't be detected by the ship's sensors, which abducts Rimmer. There, he meets a beautiful hologram woman (Nirhvanah) who explains that the entire ship is a self-sustaining hologram. It contains some of the most intellectual minds in the galaxy, and the holograms have developped so as to see sex as excercise and to abandon all emotion beyond triumph. One hologram comes onto the ship to examine it, but is soon sent away in a hilarious talking down to by Lister.
          Rimmer wants to join this ship, to the light chagrin of the Dwarfers. He not only wants to do so for his own advancement, but because he has fallen in love with Nirvhanah. To do so, he must challenge one of the other ship members (who, it is revealed, is Nirhvanah herself). He gets a mind-patch to make him intensely intelligent, but that fails, and the challenge goes to recess. In between, Rimmer reveals to her that he is using the mind patch, and so without telling him she withdraws from the challenge, leaving Rimmer the winner by default.
          Upon learning that Nirvhanah was his challenger, Rimmer decides to resign from his post, to ressurrect her. His actions mirror those of the protagonist of the film at the beginning, and when he realises this he is visibly disgusted.
          This is just a good showing of how Dwarf is so much more than a comedy. It's witty, entertaining but also powerful, even with such a low budget and lack of serious thought. Rimmer is finally, after having his negatives magnified in Series Four, shown in a positive light.

Series Five, Episode Two - The Inquisitor

"Sorry to disturb you sir. Reality control."

Dude. This is not only an episode that deals with the meaning of true value in the universe, but also one with some extra sci-fi capers with Time Travel along the way.
          We are introduced to The Inquisitor, who Kryten explains is an android that took it upon itself to scan reality and delete all those who it deemed unworthy of life, replacing them with their potential genetic matchups. It arrives on Red Dwarf, judging each member using their own mind to judge their self-worth. Rimmer and The Cat are left alone, while Lister, the intelligent but lazy bum, and Kryten, who never broke his programming, are erased from time and replaced. Unfortunately for the Inquisitor, a future Kryten comes back in time and distracts him before they are truely killed, meaning that they are able to traverse the ship and reverse the events ofthe episode, killing The Inquisitor.
         A welcome addition to the sci-fi trapping of the series, as well as something deeper to ponder; what is YOUR self worth in the universe?

Thanks.