Review: Red Dwarf: Gunmen of the Apocalypse and Emohawk

Series Six, Episode Three - Gunmen of the Apocalypse
"You only play Wimbledon because you're having off with that jailbait ball girl!"

This episode won an award. It's a classic; Red Dwarf at it's height of ambition. And yet it's one that drags away from the hard sci-fi element of the previous two episodes. It's as if the effects of the Series Five - Six interim never happened; that we're still in Series Three. It's just so out of place in the series as a whole that it's hard to compare it to the other episodes in Series Six.
          Lister is revealed to be playing frequently on an AR machine, and his main past time within the machine is to have sex. Kryten goes into one of Lister's game to reveal to him that the area they're in is a Simulant hunting zone. (The simulants, last seen in Justice, although given a better explanation here.) The simulants contact the ship and Lister and The Cat disguise themselves for the camera. Unfortunately, when the disguise proves too ridiculous, a simulant appears on the ship and unveils them.
          To make them better sport to hunt, the simulant knocks them out and upgrades the ship to be faster and more offensive. As a surprise move, Starbug simply shoots out their weapons. The ship then transmits a computer virus which locks Starbug onto a collision course with a moon. Kryten chooses to connect himself to the system so he can create an antidote program.
          Kryten tells them, before he goes under, to watch his dreams, and they do so, seeing that Kryten's fight against the disease is being personified in a Wild West environment. Unfortunately, they see that in this reality, Kryten is the drunkard town sherrif. To help him, they use the AR machine to enter the dream.
           In this reality they have special powers, which they demonstrate in a bar brawl. When they fight the Armeggeddon virus, which takes the form of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, these powers are removed, but they provide enough of a distraction to give Kryten enough time to create the dove program and steer the ship back on course.
           It works very well not only because it contains the sci-fi setup of this series as well as the mad make-believe of Series Two. And that's not a bad thing. It's not the most witty of episodes, but it works on many other levels which make it just as entertaining.

Series Six, Episode Four - Emohawk - Polymorph II

"Explain to me why the winners in all the wars of history were the ones with the shortest haircuts?"


The question arises... did Series Three's Polymorph need a "sequel"? Or are the producers just running out of ideas? It would have been at least a bit better if the Polymorph's productions were original; in fact, they are simply previous variations of the character. Despite that, the beginning has an interesting scenario and is worth the effort alone.
          Rimmer tries to scramble the crew in an emergency drill to make sure that the crew are safe, but they are having none of it. A power surge is knocking the ship off course, and the ship responsible is revealed to be Space Police, who want to execute them for looting derelicts. They escape into the Gelf zone (GELFs, last seen in Camille, Genetically Engineered Life Forms) which houses tales of Gelfs skinning people alive. They land on a safe planet, but their oxygen generator is broken. Approaching one of the friendlier tribes, they find that they have the parts they need - in exchange for Lister's hand in marriage.
          Lister marries the Gelf and gets the part, but escapes. The Gelf father sends his pet, the Emohawk, after the escaping crew. The Emohawk is basically a domesticated Polymorph, designed to collect and store emotions, which are the currency on this planet. Nevertheless, there is some fun slapstick, and the emohawk manages to take Cat's "cool" and Rimmer's cowardlyness, transforming them into Duane Dibley and Ace Rimmer respectively. Ace decides to sacrifice himself and Duane to save the rest of the crew, but the other two manages to intervene.

Thanks.

Review: Red Dwarf: Psirens and Legion

Series Six, Episode One - Psirens

"Ah; Smug Mode"

And so begins Series Six of Dwarf, in which we've had... wait! Reboot Number Two! Differences with this reboot? Well, Red Dwarf, the ship, has apprently been stolen; the show now takes place entirely on Starbug, which has a got a roomier set design.
          Lister wakes up, amnesiac, to discover Kryten. He explains that the crew have been on in deep sleep for two centuries. Lister is repelled by Kryten's description of his personality and traits, and knows very little about where he is. Then Kryten resets Rimmer, and his memories come back immediately.
          There's some exposition and we learn about Red Dwarf's predicament. In their 200 years, they've managed to catch up to Red Dwarf, which is on the other side of an asteroid field. They get a video message from the asteroid field which shows evidence of Psirens, gelfs that are designed to look like whatever the person they see desires. Unfortunately, they also then eat the brain matter of whoever they find.
          They get a series of messages which are obviously Psirens, including Kristine Kochanski. Then, they send two illusions; the first is a fireball heading towards the ship (Kryten sees that the radar has no reading and therefore convinces the crew of its nature) and then the illusion of the radar pattern as the real fireball hits the ship and makes them land on the asteroid.
          Lister has to leave the ship and use a bazookoid to free the ship, where he is confronted by a Psiren in the form of one of his old friend's sister. Eventually another Psiren dressed as Kryten comes along and they kill each other. As he returns, it seems that two identical copies of Lister have come on board. They get both Listers to do some assorted tasks, and when one Lister plays the guitar well, he is shot immediately.
          Unfortunately, the Psiren isn't that injured, and manages to stumble away into the cargo decks. (They weren't there before...) The Psiren makes itself into Kryten's creator and crushes him in the trash compactor, and then goes off to eat The Cat and Lister. Kryten survives, and jumps onto the Psiren, killing it.
          All around, a good episode. It's got good exposition, comedy and it's got a harder sci-fi streak while still being lighthearted. Holly's gone, and now The Cat gets a look-in as Starbug's chief pilot. The smaller space also allows for a greater amount of character-based dialogue than before, and it's refreshing to see Lister get some development.


Series Six, Episode Two - Legion

"Just a bit of Bangalor Belly."

Generally regarded as the second-best episode of the series, Legion is inventive and risky. The humour is sparse in some areas, while it has some odd slapstick, mixed in with wit.
          The ship gets trapped by a ship, which appears to have no life. When they enter the ship, an odd man appears and introduces himself as Legion. His ship is covered in works of great science and art, as well as rooms which cater to each ship member's heart's desire. When the crew try to leave, it is revealed that Legion was composed entirely of the personalities of the crew, melded together. Kryten eventually diables him by knocking all of the other members unconscious.
          Aside from switching Rimmer to the new Hard Light function, this episode isn't as complex as the previous, but gives focus to every member of the group in a way that previous episodes didn't.

Thanks.

Overview: Red Dwarf: Series Five

A continuation of the quality of the previous series, Series Five showcases its parody of the way that most science fiction is an assortment of philosophical ideas placed in a Sci-Fi setting. This is the first series since the first reboot after Series Two that actually manages to make a decent balance between action, comedy and character, despite still having some of the light-headedness.
          The focus on Chris Barrie as the main character lead is starting to be a little jarring, as it's as if the other actors are beginning to work around him. Meanwhile, Holly has lost all exposition value due to the take-over of Kryten, and The Cat has been dropped to being nothing more than a one-line wonder every episode. While Cat's mannerisms may have been annoying in the first three series, they at least marked him out as a character; the problem with the softening of characters' polarisations is that they often come to fit the same, empty character type.
          Other than that, this is some funny stuff. This was the last series before the complications with Rob Grant and the penultimate series of the Golden Age. It was the last truely imaginative series, and we shall miss it dearly.

Thanks.

Review: Red Dwarf: Demons and Angels and Back To Reality

Series Five, Episode Five - Demons and Angels

"The chances of it blowin' are about one in... 'big explosion' ...one"

"peers out" Are you sure this episode isn't Rimmer centric? Sure? Ok, this is a full-group focus, with the main advancement being pressed lightly onto Lister, for the first time in two series. It's yet another interesting idea that looks at the basis of morality but never takes itself too seriously.
          Kryten has perfected a triplicator, which replicates matter into two copies with a limited lifespan. He tries it on a strawberry; Lister finds that one copy is divine and delicious, the other is filled with maggots. They try and reverse the process, but then find that Red Dwarf has dissappeared and two copies have appeared. From the readings on Starbug, they see that one is idealised and perfect while the other is degraded and evil.
          The Heavenly ship is white and pristine, with each member being a holy buddhist-style monk. Unfortunately they only have half of the triplicator on that ship, and so must explore the evil side. When they get there, they find that Kryten is a mad, blackened android, Lister is an insane pirate, The Cat is primeval and Rimmer is a frightening/hilarious dominatrix. They kidnap Lister and use some strange tech to control his remotely.
          After getting both halves of the replicator, they reverse the effects and return to Red Dwarf. (Status Quo is god, after all.) Lister gets some small lessons about evil, while everyone has a good laugh. It must have been fun to film, what with the sheer madness of the "evil" sides.


Series Five, Episode Six - Back To Reality

"Are you saying this haddock committed suicide?"

Perhaps one of the best known episodes of the entire series, bar the award-winning Gunman of the Apocalypse in Series Six, Back To Reality is an episode exploring the theme of virtual reality while, for the first time in a while, giving some character development.
          The crew discover, on an ocean world, the wreck of the ocean vessel SS Esperanto, which was supposed to be using the ocean to accomplish amazing feats of advancing evolution. (Something about cramming five million years of evolution in three years.) However, they scan and find that there is only one life form left on the entire planet. On the ship, they find many creatures, including ship members - and a haddock - that have killed themselves. Apparently, as Kryten finds out, there is a creature known as the Despair Squid which uses, as a defence mechanism, an ink designed to create intense dispair. They escape before finding any effects, after which the squid attacks their ship and they apparently all die.
          Then, they wake up, being told by an attendant (OMG IT'S TIMOTHY SPALL) that they've just woken up from a virtual reality game known as Red Dwarf, in which people are enveloped in the Red Dwarf premise. As they move to the recooperation chamber, they identify themselves; The Cat is Duane Dibley, an unstylish idiot, Kryten is Jake Bullet, Cybernautics ("Maybe that's just traffic control"). Lister and Rimmer are the Doyle brothers, sharing the same mother. Rimmer, "Billy", is still a failure, while his brother Lister, "Sebastian" is a high ranking police chief.
          When they leave the gaming building, they find themselves in a fascist state. A policemen reveals to Lister that in this reality he is one of the people responsible for keeping the state as oppressed as it is. Kryten kills the officer and the four go on the run in Lister's limo, while we are given the perspective of Holly. She uses override commands to make Kryten release an emotional stabliser, bringing them out of hallucination.
          They realise that everything they experienced was a hallucination to induce despair, in a reveal that was brilliant at the time. The episode really manages to really tap into the characters, and it's a welcome change from the light-headedness of post Series Two.

Thanks.

Review: Red Dwarf: Terrorform and Quarantine

Series Five, Episode Three - Terrorform

 "It has an eye the size of a meatball"

We look at Rimmer. Again. But at least this time it's blended in with a more fantasy setting; something that is welcome after so much abstract.
          Kryten wakes up, heavily damaged and on an asteroid. He sends off his hand, a small robot, to get help from Red Dwarf. At first it scares Lister and The Cat, but they soon find Kryten and fix him. Kryten explains that he and Rimmer were out moon-hopping when Rimmer went to claim a moon, when the planet started to erupt around him. Kryten tried to go and get help, remembering Rimmer's look of fear.
           They track his light-bee and find that the moon in question is a Psi-moon, which terraforms to personify the mind. This planet has personified itself into Rimmer's self-loathing, and so is trying to kill him. Eventually they save him from the Self-loathing beast, but his lack of self-esteem means that the ship is sinking into the bog. The crew raise Rimmer's self-esteem to a point at which they can escape.
          An interesting and funny episode, with a good concept, it tries to advance Rimmer's background but fails, mainly because we've had all the background possible.


Series Five, Episode Four - Quarantine

"The king of the Potato People won't let me."

Saying that this episode is a classic is somewhat of an understatement. It is the funniest and more innovative episode of this entire series; combining the sci-fi aspects of the series with some good olod British absurdity, as well as the innocent cross-dressing. Oh, and this is a Rimmer episode. Again.
          The crew find a spaceship said to contain the hologram of the legendary biologist Hildegarde Wernstrom. Rimmer is decidedly annoyed that the crew follow the orders of Kryten over his, and so doesn't come along to the ship. Kryten leaves Rimmer with a copy of the Space Corps directives, which Kryten regularly quotes. When they go onto the ship, they find that Lanstrom has gone mad with a form of hologrammatic virus. Once she accidentally kills herself, they explore her work, which is composed of positive virusses that take the form of luck, sexual attraction and other concepts.
          When they return to the ship, Rimmer exploits the Directives and puts them in quarantine, giving them only the bare minimum. After a day they ask Rimmer for a recount, but they find that he has contracted the hologrammatic flu and gone mad. Using Lister's luck virus, they escape the quarantine and construct a device which cures Rimmer.

Thanks.

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.

Taking a weekend break.

Instead of the promised Doctor Who Classic:Earthshock, I'll be taking a break until Monday. Next week, I'll be reviewing Series Five and Six, after which I'll be going on holiday and will have no posts until two weeks after. I'll also not be publishing my Alton Towers Gardens review, for various reasons.

Thanks.

Overview: Red Dwarf: Series Four

Series Four continues the style and theme of Series Three, while not actually bringing in everything particularly innovative. It is a mainly Rimmer based series, and due to Chris Barrie's excellent variation in character, this is not to its detriment.
          Luckily, Kryten is also utilised a lot more than before, his status last series as a mere intelligent hanger on. Here he provides the exposition as part of his natural dialogue, and his more mechanical tendencies serve as plot devices and solutions.
          Rimmer, Rimmer, Rimmer. Even in the episodes in which he isn't central figure, this series is a vision of his negative side, incarnated. Dull, obsessive, cowardly, greedy. All of these are showcased in this series, as well as a deeper exploration of the reasons for Rimmer's character traits. Unlike other series, which may reduce characters to a few base traits, Dwarf attempts to explain and elaborate on them, making deep characters.

Thanks.

Review: Red Dwarf: Dimension Jump and Meltdown

Series Four, Episode Five - Dimension Jump

"What a guy!"

And it's another Parallel Dimension episode, but this time it's the opposite of what one would expect. It's another deep exploration of Rimmer as well as his potential. Chris Barrie is as good as ever.
          We see a point in Rimmer's past, in which his mother, oblvious to him being hung upside down from a tree, opens a set of results as to whether he will stay behind a year at school. We then go forward twenty years, where Ace Rimmer is good at everything and universally loved. He embarks on a trip to a parallel universe.
          We then come back to the Dwarfverse and all of the crew have planned to go fishing without Rimmer. He wakes up and finds them, and is deeply offended. Rimmer is then invited to the fishing trip. On the way his more obsessive tendencies start to gnaw at the crew. Then, Ace's ship crashes through time and throws Starbug off course. They crash into a planet and Cat is injured. Ace flies down to the planet and introduces himself to the crew, putting them in awe (well, everyone except Rimmer.)
         It is revealed that Ace was the one kept back a year, as the bullying he suffered as a result made him tougher and more intended to succeed. This episode, despite being one with multiple renditions of all characters, focuses definiely on Rimmer, and the contrast between what Ace is and Arnold isn't is striking enough to make the whole episode worthwhile.

Series Four, Episode Six - Meltdown

"I'm watching you Ghandi!" and "They're tieing Winnie the Pooh to the stake?!"

Another look at Rimmer (This entire series has just been about Kryten and Rimmer.) as his military tendencies mix in badly with a fun situation. A decent finale if a bit absurd.
        Rimmer is telling Lister and Cat an absurdly dull story about a game of Risk, and Lister tries to alert him to the fact that no one is listening. Kryten is perfecting his "Matter Paddle," which he found in the research labs. The paddle can home in on a planet with a breathable atmosphere, and they find a planet several light years away. Rimmer and Kryten go first and then send the paddle back.
        Both sides find themselves on a Waxworld, an old theme park made up of wax-based androids. When the humans left, the androids fought back against their programming, and a war began between the most evil people in history and fiction and the other, considerably smaller side, made up of pacifists and scientists.
         Rimmer takes on the pacifists and turns them into an aggressive war machine, appearing to go slightly mad. His main plan, however, consists of getting Kryten behind the lines to turn the planet's temperature up to the wax-droids' melting point.
         Does it work as a finale? Yes, in my opinion. It has a fun splattering of concepts, like the android theme park and Rimmer's light bee, as well as impressions of many different characters from history. Also, this is Marylin Monroe's third appearance on the show. Mad.

Thanks.

Review: Red Dwarf: Justice and White Hole

Series Four, Episode Three - Justice

"He's been on a ten-day hike through the combustion engines!"

This episode moves away from Kryten at long last, and it focuses more on looking at Lister in the first half and Rimmer in the second. It introduced the concept of Rogue Simulants as well as containing some interesting concepts.
          Lister has space mumps, which results on a large grotesque growth on his head. He laments to Kryten that no one but him has visited him during his time. Kryten slips the fact that a capsule has been taken into Red Dwarf that may contain a woman. He gets up immediately.
          The Cat starts the defrosting sequence on the capsule, when Rimmer then informs him that because the capsule was ejected from a prison ship on which the prisoners mutinied, the person in the capsule is either prison guard Barbara Belini or a Rogue Simulant, a sort of super-strong android that has devolved to detest humanity. Worrying about what the capsule may contain, they head to the prison ship from which the capsule was ejected.
          As they enter the ship, each is probed to test for criminal activity. While the other three are released (despite Lister confessing to some petty crime) Rimmer is convicted for seveal thousand years for negligence in the fixing of a drive plate 30 million years ago, resulting in the death of all but two life forms on Red Dwarf.
          Rimmer is trapped in the "Justice Zone," in which any act that contradicts the law is immediately punished by a similar offence against the offender i.e. Lister tries to burn a sheet at Rimmer's request, and his back sets on fire. Kryten convinces the central computer that Rimmer is extremely incompetent, and therefore is only guilty in his head. After they escape, they find that the capsule has opened and it is a Simulant. He chases them into the Justice Zone, and dies trying to kill Lister.
          This is a funny, but thoughtful episode that gives us a look at both characters while still showing us the concept of the Justice Zone and being a tightly scripted affair.

Series Four, Episode Four - White Hole

"I'm a computer with an IQ of 12000. Don't you see? I know the MEANING OF LIFE!"

One of the more absurd and sci-fi episodes of this series, this episode is inventive as well as calling back to earlier series.
          Kryten fixes the Series One snarker Talkie Toaster, this time voiced by the original Kryten. Kryten explains why he did so; he has increased his intelligence while shortening his run time. He plans to do the same with Holly. He does so, but instead of increasing her IQ to 6000 as predicted, it raises it to 12000, and she becomes a hologramatic head. Unfortunately, she only has three minutes left, and the ship is powered down.
          The crew find out what happened and now know that the power (including oxygen and food recyclers) is limited. After some bickering, they realise that time has started to repeat itself. This is because, as Holly tells them, of a White Hole, which spews time and space into the universe. Lister is able, with help from Kryten, to use explosives from the ship to knock a planet into the White Hole, resetting everything to before they came into its range.

Thanks.