Review: Red Dwarf: Tikka to Ride, Stoke me a Clipper and Ouroboros

For the purposes of these reviews, my review pattern will now consist of two reviews covering three episodes and then one covering the last two episodes.

Series Seven, Episode One - Tikka to Ride

"Just call me badass!!"

Series Seven opens with an episode that is bearable at least, with a cohesive plot, some funny sequences and quite a bit of sci-fi. There are cracks however, in the design, acting and general attitude of the episode that forshadows other, more troubling developments.
           We get a cold opening where Lister tries to explain how they survived, and how the ship is still slightly damaged because of the stablising timelines. He talks to Kryten, who explains, sadly, that there is no curry left on Starbug. The acting here is a little forced, and I put that down to five years without practice.
           Rimmer's acting is fine, and there's a small explanation of why Starbug is now massive. They manage to use the space-time drive to travel back in time to Earth to get more curry. (Thus violating THE POINT OF THE ENTIRE SERIES.) To do this, Lister has had to turn off Kryten's guilt chip, turning him into an unstable madman. Anyway, they accidentally end up in 1963, and prevent President Kennedy's assassination, and when they travel forward to 1966 they find Texas abandoned. Kryen is able to explain that if Kennedy lived, his affairs would lead to a Mafia-controlled US, allowing the Cuban Missile Crisis to spin out of control.
        After several attempts to help the assassin, they decide that the only solution is to create a killer on the grassy knoll. They choose Kennedy himself, in the future version, who comes back and successfully kills himself.
         The sci-fi aspects of this episode, and the culmination of several running gags, pave over the initial cracks in the story, and it shows some good omens at least. The humour is mostly slpastick, as in, absent. Lets get on with it.
         
Series Seven, Episode Two - Stoke Me a Clipper

"'translated from German' What a Guy! "

Another sequel to Dimension Jump, this episode is quite brilliant. In it's best areas, it's touching and a poignant send-off to Chris Barrie, who leaves the series temporarily. And rightly so. The removal of one of the series' most important and funny characters, with around three series' worth of plot development, is a terrible decision. But, this is Doug Naylor, so we will have to get used to bad decisions.
         The cold open lasts about five minutes but it's quite a fun action sequence, in which Ace Rimmer saves the girl and does some brave derring do (the effects are a little shabby though, to be honest.) We then cut back to Dwarf, where Lister is once again using the AI machine, this time cheating in order to have sex with the queen of Camelot.
        Ace re-jumps into the Dwarf-verse, causing the ship to lose power. He appears, and everyone is glad to see him, except of course Rimmer. Ace reveals to Rimmer in private that he is dying. He shows Rimmer that he is a hologram, and that every time an Ace dies, he goes into another dimension and passes on the torch. Rimmer isn't persuaded, but mocking from Lister means that he takes up the challenge, saving the crew from one of the AI machinations that has escaped onto the ship (Lister in disguise.) Rimmer then goes off, to fight as Ace in other dimensions.

Series Seven, Episode Three - Ouroboros

"I wonder why guys have nostril hair? "

So. Two decent episodes so far, bar the fact that the best character is gone, we look set. Here to replace Rimmer is Chloe Annett, in the form of Kristine Kochanski. Lets see how they manage her introduction. This episode also gives us a juicy look at Lister's parents.
          Our cold open shows a baby Lister being found as a baby in a small box under a pool table, with the word Ouroboros on the side. We cut to present day Lister, cleaning his teeth and plucking his nose hairs. He's doing this to get ready for bed, and Kryten comes in offering him help. He's half-way through flossing his teeth (terribly), when Cat comes in with news of something on the scanner.
           They see that it is a temporal rip in space-time. They can't escape it and so head straight into it. Heading down to the Engineer deck, they find that a hyperway has opened up into a parallel dimension. There they meet their opposite numbers. A hologrammatic Lister explains that in his universe Kochanski got put in stasis and so Lister was resurrected instead of Rimmer. Kochanski then appears.
          May I take a moment to digress? Kochanski is quite an important character in the long run, despite only making four appearances before Series Seven. She was played by a Scottish actress, and had a few cameos as the woman that Lister loved above all others, a higher ranking officer. Here she is replaced by a new actress without any note whatsoever. And, as we'll find out, she's just got none of the charisma of the former actress. She can't act.
          Anyway, returning to the episode, and Kochanski explains that she wants to have a child with Dave but can't, so wants our Lister's sperm sample. While the others exchange supplies, she gives across the gamma mixer whatsit and the tunnel tears, leaving Kochanski hanging out over nothingness. Our Lister manages to pull Kochanski back up, but the gateway is being attacked by GELFs (from Emohawk:Polymorph II), and she is stranded in our universe.
           As you can apprciate, she is violently unhappy about this, but helps to fight off the GELFs with her superior knowledge nonetheless. Kryten is also annoyed, as he has gained an obsessive need to help Lister, and fears that Kochanski will steal him away. This Kryten personality is not just annoying, it's also incredibly painful. Horrible. Unfortunately, this is Doug Naylor's Kryten. Appalling.
          Anyway, they reopen the linkway and Lister finds the Ouroboros box, and realises that the tube he gave Kochanski will result in himself, and that Kochanski is not only his ex-girfriend, but his mother. Cue looks of disgust from all three men. He runs to get the test tube back, trying to ensure his own birth, and the GELFs return, firing at the temporal gateway. Kristine jumps but doesn't make it, and so fires a harpoon gun at her, saving her life (at some considerable pain.)