We jump forward ten years with our next Red Dwarf review, the “Back to Earth” special, or specials I guess, I do remember watching over several nights originally, its just the Blu-ray is edited into one feature. It’s an odd one, mainly because there’s no live audience or even a laughter track, which makes a lot of jokes come off as flat or unfunny because you’re just used hearing it. Personally I always dislike “characters come to our Earth and meet the actors who play them” storylines, it’s one of my least favourite plots of any medium, so that also strikes it down in my book. You know what though? It’s still better than most of Series VIII! Let’s take a look…

*sigh*, here we go then. This is the series I’ve been “dreading” rewatching for this run-down of Red Dwarf as I kind of liked it when it aired (though more for discussing new episodes of Red Dwarf with my friends than the episodes themselves) and then it went down in my eyes with each rewatch, to the point where I got to my first DVD watch I thought “I doubt I’ll ever watch that again…” and yet here we are with the Blu-ray version for the sake of this blog. I’d love to say the series has gone up in my estimation in the previous years, but nope. One episode still stands out as fun though flawed, but the series as a whole is definitely the low point of Red Dwarf. Oh well: let’s take a look, then THIS time I really won’t rewatch it again!

Red Dwarf’s seventh series is an odd one for me, and indeed for the show in general. Rob Grant left the writing team leaving Doug Naylor as the sole writer and his vision of the show was a lot more… cinematic and leaned heavier on the sci-fi than previous series. In terms of Series VII it works more than it doesn’t but I can’t say the same for the next two… Also VII was the first series I watched as it aired rather than through repeats / VHS tapes, so it also holds a special place in my heart for the reason… Overall though it’s a mixed bag, so let’s take a look!

I constantly go back and forth as to which is the better series out of V and VI, they both feel different thanks to yet another status quo change but both have the perfect balance of genuinely funny comedy and really interesting sci-fi plots. Basically strap yourselves in for more of me praising everything! Sadly for the last time, but there you go, few shows can keep this kind of momentum going… It was also the “final series” when I got into watching it, with me and my friends losing our minds in 1997 when we heard they’d be a seventh series, so more than anything else I see this as the end of the “original series”, at least as I watched them at home in the mid-90s.. Anyway, let’s look at Series VI, shall we?

Red Dwarf’s fifth series once again sees a shift in tone and look, leaning even heavier towards sci-fi than sitcom and coming up with some properly great ideas, though still keeping things funny. While I’d say two episodes don’t quite hold up to the other four that’s more praise towards the crazy high standard those four have than being too harsh on the other two! Let’s take a look…

Red Dwarf’s fourth series has an even higher hit-rate than Series III, with more episodes that would easily make it to my top 10 (though thinking about it I could say that for most of V and VI as well, so it would be a legitimately hard list to write!) and even the episodes that aren’t on that level are still really good, not one “duff” episode to be found here and beyond a greater scope of locations outside the main ship there wasn’t a major cast or tonal shift either. So let’s take a look!

Red Dwarf’s third series is the first of many complete shifts in setting, cast and tone that the show undergoes, this time adding Kryten as a regular cast member and setting several stories off Red Dwarf entirely. While I don’t think there is a complete dud in the series it is split in half between three all-time classic episodes and three other episodes, funnily enough in that order. Want to know more, or rather my opinions in review form? Read on!

Back with more Red Dwarf and the second series already starts to move into more sci-fi territories, introducing small craft, moon surfaces and an android (or “mechanoid”) though only for a single episode (for now!) At the end of the day though the series is still focused on Lister and Rimmer as they try and meek out some sort of existence on the massive but empty Red Dwarf…