Review: Red Dwarf: Duct Soup, Blue and Beyond a Joke

Ok Dwarf. You've got most of the major changes out of the way. Now it's time to really get down to some fun, inspiring comedy that leaves us not only laughing but entertained as well. Oh, and this is the 100th post, by the way.

Series Seven, Episode Four - Duct Soup 

"I've never had to comfort a crying woman before. I don't quite know the technique. 'tries the heimlich movement' "

Oh Dear. Here we get a rather weak offering that tries to emanate the close-quarters character development of earlier series and fails dramatically. Naylor just can't do it. What's left is quite a bland excercise that fails to do much at all, towards anything.
          No title sequence, other than a five second image of "SERIES VII", and we find Lister boiling in his bed due to some temperature problem. Kochanski keeps being annoyed at a pipe that makes a series of noises. We devote a very long minute to an agonising sequence in which Kochanski berates the pipe for being out of tune. Instead of being funny, it just feels random and out of place. Both try their best to overcome their problems, but they, of course, fail. Kochanski confronts Kryten about how much she hates the ship. Lister and The Cat kill time by watching Kochanski's underwear spin dry.
          Kryten informs them of Kochanski's troubles and then finds that one of Kochanski's two outfits is horrendously shrunk. Lister goes to Kochanski who laments some more, and then he shows her that he has tidied his quaters for her to sleep in, built her a bathtub and found her a new dress. Kryten comes in, and, as Naylor dictates, fears the worst (he even has a hallucination of them getting married and throwing him off the ship.) Again, there's just something about it that prevents anything funny going on.
          Kryten storms out. The ship quakes and the lights go out, and Lister guides Kochanski by torchlight and finds Kryten and the Cat. Kryten explains that the generator has gone, and the backup comes on. As, for whatever reason, they go back into Lister's quarters, the back-up fails and they're locked in. Kryten reveals that the only way to get back to the generator is through the service ducts, which Lister is nervous about because he now (as Naylor commands) has claustrophobia. To take Lister's mind off the phobia, Kochanski reveals to Lister that his parallel counterpart was actually gay. Lister goes along with it, but then he realises that she was lying for that purpose. She goes away, and the Cat comes and is the helpful self he always is.
          Kryten, meanwhile, is accusing Kochanski of being in love with this Dave. The Cat hears water surging down a passageway, and Lister gets them to evacuate as the vents are self-cleaning. They all make it out anyway, and Kryten reveals that he could have overrided the doors at any point.
          It's just... it's trying so hard, and yet falling so short of being a good episode. It's unwatchable in some placed. Just painful. Do I have to continue? Really?

Series Seven, Episode Five - Blue

"How do you iron a bra, sir?"


This episode is about Arnold Judas Rimmer. Yeah, him. Remember that guy? I'm gonna stay brief on these plots now, because too much detail is just...eugh... . This is the last of Rimmer's roles in this series and it'll be another eleven episodes before we see Hard-Light Hologram Rimmer again.
          Lister is trying to clean himself up, most likely to be more attractive to Kochanski, including abandoning Curry. Kryten is finding it hard to cope with looking after women, (despite LOOKING AFTER THREE WOMEN ON THE NOVA 5 FOR TWENTY MILLION YEARS). They've found the co-ordinates of the tear in the universe and so are on their way to return Kochanski. Lister, as well as being annoyed at being about to lose Kochanski, is also beginning to miss Rimmer. He starts reminiscing and dreaming about him. To help Lister get over it, Kryten builds a Rimmer experience, accentuating all of his negative features.
          This episode is about really having a go at Chris Barrie. You know, this series' catalyst. The rest of the stuff is just re-treads of things done to death in the previous episodes. There were a few small giggles, most from Rimmer's brilliance, but the rest of the episode gets a little bogged down in sit-com drama. Although the Arnold Rimmer song is genius.

Series Seven, Episode Six - Beyond a Joke

"Supper is ready! 'fires tank gun' "

By this point, you actually begin to find Naylor has really stamped his boot into the series. The ideas themselves can be interesting but the execution is awful and there's no comedy to back it up. Well. There's no good comedy.
          To celebrate the supposed anniversary of Kryten's rescue from the Nova 5 (back in Series Two) kryten has prepared a full lobster dinner for the crew. Unfortunately, Kochanski takes Lister and Rimmer off to the AI machine, to visit the fabled, "Jane Austin World". Lister and The Cat want to get it on with one of the five sisters from Pride and Prejudice, while Kochanski is trying to introduce them to culture. Kryten, angry, visits the world himself and usues a WW2 tank to force them out.
          However, Kryten can't cook, and when Lister asks for ketchup he is so offended that his head explodes. They try to use spare heads but they all instantly blow up. They go on to a derelict that should have some mechanoid parts on, and it does, but it also contains a Rogue Simulant (my god I love those guys. Remember? Justice, Gunmen of the Apocalypse and Rimmerworld). They manage to remain undetected and plan to disguise themselves as GELFs to get supplies from the simulant. There's some conveniently good disguise work and they take Lister, undisguised, as a prisoner. They trade successfully, but while they're gone Starbug has been ravaged and Kryten stolen.
          On the ship, we reveal that the Simulant's accomplice was another 4000 series mechanoid called Able, who repairs Kryten. Able is mad, as well as addicted to a form of mechanoid drug. (Curiously, they're both played by Robert Llwelyn, except able has green armour and a stouter head.) In order to stop the ship from escaping, Kochanski decides to fly at full speed away from the ship, thus fooling the Simulant into thinking that there's a bomb on board his ship. It works. They beam on board and hold Kryten hostage.
          The simulant persuades Kryten to open the only file in his database that he has never opened. Inside is the truth about his creation; the inventor, Professor Mammet, designed the entire 4000 series after her ex-boyfriend, who she hated. This makes him deppressed. Before the Simulant can strike, however, Able knocks them out and saves the crew's lives. Kryten talks to Lister about the situation and how all of his negative emotions get stored up in a file, until it overloads. Lister tells him that he has evolved.
         The simulant catches back up to them, and chases them through an asteroid belt, where they're hiding. Able, high on the drug, falls on the controls and lets the Simulant find them. Able heads off, in an escape pod, towards the ship, where he uses Kryten's negative emotions to somehow make the Simulant so deppressed that he self destructs.
          Ok, this episode was watchable. It had an interesting story with a few laugh-out-loud moments, and some good story. Good work. Shame the last two episodes are interlinked.

Thanks.