Red Dwarf - Series 7 (DVD)

...6 of the sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf finished Rob Grant decided to give this series a miss, leaving Doug Naylor to take the helm, although he chose to ask for some support from others to finish the series. But regardless of the loss of Grant, some of the episodes are just as good as ever, especially as Ed Bye returned to direct the show.
Not only had Grant dropped out but Chris Barrie also took the rather strange choice to drop into the background ...
...been mentioned several times during Red Dwarf’s lifetime. (Chloe Annett as Kockanski).

There were some other differences in this series, such as the removal of the studio audience and a more movie like camerawork, leading to a rather different finished product indeed.

==** WHAT IS RED DWARF..?==

Red Dwarf is the name of a sci-fi comedy which was initially created in 1983 with the first series being aired ... more

Writers: Doug Naylor, Paul Alexander, Kim Fuller, Robert Llewellyn and James Hendrie
Director: Ed Bye.
Stars: Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, Robert Llewellyn and introducing Chloe Annett as Kochanski.

When series 6 of the sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf finished Rob Grant decided to give this series a miss, leaving Doug Naylor to take the helm, although he chose to ask for some support from others to finish the series. But regardless of the loss of Grant, some of the episodes are just as good as ever, especially as Ed Bye returned to direct the show.
Not only had Grant dropped out but Chris Barrie also took the rather strange choice to drop into the background of the show, due to having other commitments, deciding from the on set to appear in only four episodes, leaving the writers to bring in a new character, choosing one who has been mentioned several times during Red Dwarf’s lifetime. (Chloe Annett as Kockanski).

There were some other differences in this series, such as the removal of the studio audience and a more movie like camerawork, leading to a rather different finished product indeed.

** WHAT IS RED DWARF..?

Red Dwarf is the name of a sci-fi comedy which was initially created in 1983 with the first series being aired on the BBC.
Red Dwarf is actually the name of the Jupiter mining ship which is about the size of a small town, housing hundreds of crew members.
Unfortunately, in the beginning, there was an on board radiation leak, (caused by an incompetent Technician named Rimmer), which killed everyone on board apart form Lister, who was imprisoned in ‘Stasis’, (suspended animation) for possessing an illegal life form, ( a cat he had found on a planet and sneaked on board Red Dwarf), and was held there until the radiation leak was made safe by the ships computer, Holly, but the background radiation took over 3 million years to clear.
During those 3 million years Listers pet cat had evolved into a new species, becoming a human/cat, or feline sepias to give it its proper name. So when Lister was finally released from ’stasis’ his only companions became the cat, aptly named ’Cat‘, and a hologram of Rimmer, who was Listers immediate superior, who Holly believed would keep Lister from going crazy, although it actually has the opposite affect as Rimmer is probably the most arrogant and cowardly person in the entire crew.

As the crew travel through space in Red Dwarf, with Lister searching for home, they come across many things, including a service mechanoid who they enrol when they find him serving a ship full of dead people.
Later on during their travels they somehow mange to lose the Red Dwarf mining ship, searching for it in a smaller ship named Starbug, encountering many hassle, inconveniences and even some near death experiences, all in the hope of finding Listers beloved planet Earth.

**LIST OF CHARACTERS…

Dave Lister, (Craig Charles), is the only surviving human on the ship, of you can call him human with his rather sloppy manner and terrible guitar skills.
He is a liverpudliun who loves his ale and a good vindaloo, spilling most of them all over his clothes. He is so laid back that he’s almost horizontal, seeming to enjoy the dangers that approach.
He has one pet hate, unfortunately, that pet hate happens to be the hologram of Rimmer, his once superior officer, which Holly chose to keep him sane, but although he comes across as hating Rimmer deep down there is a little bit of respect for the arrogant man with a desire to hide from trouble.

Arnold Judas Rimmer, (Chris Barrie), is a Hologram of Listers superior officer. He is a very arrogant and very pompous coward who plays everything by the book, quoting regulations willy-nilly, having a tendency to misquote the regulations, leading to some embarrassing moments, especially when he is corrected by Kryten.
He believes himself to be a great leader, comparing himself to the likes of Napoleon, but in honesty he couldn’t lead a horse to water, his cowardice, snobbishness, arrogance, fear of failure and inability to actually get his hand dirty really do let him down.
** Note… Rimmer is only in the first two episodes of this series

Cat, (Danny John-Jules) is the descendent of Listers illegally held cat which ahd him put into ‘statis’ 3 million years earlier. Cat has evolved into what can only be described as a cat/man with an ego which only just fits inside the spaceship. He loves nothing more than to preen himself, finding it hard to pass a mirror, or even a shiny object, without combing his fur/hair. He is constantly looking for a mate, (and I don’t mean a friend ‘mate’ either), but as there are,(thankfully), no others like him around he simply tends to admire himself in everything he does.

Kryten, (Robert Llewellyn) is the strange shaped head mechaniod who was found serving drinks to a table full of skeleton on a ship.
His only desire is to serve humans, although his desires become more confused the longer he spends with Lister as he seems to be turning more human, but his ’behavioural protocols’ always seem to keep him under control.
Although he is programmed to serve his human host he still has no trouble with belittling anyone with his quick dry wit and cracking emotionless square head.

Kristine Kochanski, (Chloe Annet) was the navigational officer on Red Dwarf millions of years earlier, dying during the radiation leak. Her parallel self becoming stranded on Starbug with the crew. Lister has always had a crush on Kochanski, trying many times during his time to bring her back to life.
She is a little prim and proper, sometimes looking down on Lister appearance, but deep down her feelings are totally different indeed.

** SERIES 7

1) Tikka to Ride
Starbug and the crew are brought back from the dead due to a paradox..? (after being blown to pieces at the end of the last series), and the little green ship has been vastly improved.
Unfortunately, supplies are running low and Lister is not very happy indeed, especially as he realises that the curry supplies are gone, leading him to take desperate measures, coming up with the idea of travelling back in time to pick up a few hundred Indian food dishes, much to the disagreement of the other.
When he finally manages to convince them, with the help of a very bizarre Kryten, they all go time travelling. But unfortunately, in true Red Dwarf manner, things don’t go quite to plan, leading to them having to reset a very important historical event or face extinction.

2) Stoke me a clipper
Lister is sick of life floating round space and decides to relieve some boredom by cheating on an artificial reality game, where he fights for the chance of spending a night with the Queen of Camelot.
Meanwhile, an injured Ace Rimmer, Arnold Rimmers heroic parallel self, appears on board Starbug and needs to try to convince Arnold Rimmer that he is not a cowardly wimp he makes out to be in the hope of getting the coward Rimmer to take over from Ace. So it is up to Lister, Cat, Kryten and Ace to prepare Arnold to become the next hero of outer space, but in doing so they realise he will have to leave the Red Dwarf crew to do so.

3) Ouroboros
A flash back reveals Lister as a baby, being found under a pool table, later uncovering who his parents really are, with some surprising result.
Whilst back in reality the three remaining crew members, (with Rimmer having departed to become a hero), discover a rip in time, which allows them to travel into an other dimension, where they discovers a parallel version of the Red Dwarf and, much to Listers delight his beloved Kristine Kochanski.
But when an old enemy of Listers attacks the ship Kochanski realise that she can’t spend the rest of her life with the curry smelling Lister and tries to get back to her real, albeit parallel, world, much to Krytens delight as he tries to help her succeed.
Unfortunately, as with the typical Red Dwarf luck, things don’t go quite to plan, leaving Kochanski and Kryten disappointed, although Lister delighted.

4) Duct soup
Now that Kochanski seems to be a permanent member of the crew Kryten is showing an emotion he can’t quite understand, believing that Lister likes her more than him, and Krytens emotions become worse as Lister makes Kochanski feel at home.
But things come to a head when there is an emergency on board Starbug, with the ship heading for certain doom whilst the crew are trapped in Listers room.
It soon seems to become a race against time for the crew as they battel there way through narrow tunnels in a bid to regain control of the ship before it flies straight into a meteor storm.
Only things are not quite how they imagine as the truth begins to emerge, much to Listers annoyance.

5) Blue
Kochanski is still trying to get back to her parallel life, where her real love Lister is, but even with the over keen Kryten helping she still finds it difficult
Meanwhile, Lister may be losing the plot a little as he finds himself having strange dreams about Rimmer, so Kryten uses a rather unorthodox method to try and help him. Unfortunately, Kryten makes a slight misjudgement about Rimmers past and causes more anger and hilarity than he wished for, but alls well that ends well.

6) Beyond a joke
Kryten manages to prepare a slap up feast for the crew to celebrate the anniversary of his rescue from the Nova 5, but soon becomes annoyed when his plans are spoilt by Kochanski’s plans to educate Lister and Cat.
But things go from bad to worse for Kryten when Lister asks for some brown sauce, sending the mechanoid into a head melt down.
With the need to repair Kryten things get even more serious when they go in search of spare parts, but as they are doing so Kryten is kidnapped by looters, leaving the crew of Starbug searching for their lost friend.
Meanwhile Kryten soon discovers that his Kidnappers have more for him than he first realised, uncovering some horrible truths about his own creator, with some depressing results for the mechanoid.

7) Epideme
When the crew comes across another ship they are astonished to find a frozen survivor onboard, much to Listers delight as he recognises the icy maiden.
Unbeknown to them when the body begins to defrost it unleashes a deadly virus on Starbug, infecting Lister, causing him to lose more than his mind, much to the curry loving mans horror.

8) Nanarchy
Lister has to deal with the loss of something he held deeply close to him, even if he is being pampered by Kryten. But when Kochannski puts a stop to the mothering Lister becomes annoyed.
Fortunately, Kryten comes up with a plan to stop Lister from sulking, using a rather special little something from his first aid kit to restore more than Listers pride, the only problem being that they can’t find the first aid kit.
As they go in search of the kit, in order to help Lister, they come across a very familiar sight, but, as in true Red Dwarf fashion, things aren’t quite what they seem, with things being a little on the large size.

** IN CONCLUSION…

If I said that I enjoyed all 8 episodes in this series as much as every other episode then I’d be lying a little bit, so I won’t say that.
Don’t get me wrong, this is still your typical Red Dwarf humour but once Rimmer departed I felt that it was more desperation than logic to bring in the slightly snooty Kachanski, even if we’d heard all about her from the love struck Lister.
The first episode in this series, ‘Tikka to ride’, is without doubt one of the funniest episodes out of the entire series so far. Taking a very well known historical event, adding a twist or two, slapping in a few weirdly dressed characters and creating something which should only be seen in a very costly Hollywood movie. This episode alone is worth the money for this DVD set which is series 7.
But after this opening episode the show, for me, seems to nose dive a little bit, like a drunken swan approaching a frozen pond, it just seemed to come down the comedy shelf a little.
As I said, don’t get me wrong, the other 7 episodes are well worth watching and there is still a lot of that same dry wit and cracking banter, but it misses that hilarious combination of Lister and Rimmer, which is totally gone in the third episode.
Kryten still has many moments of madness, usually at the expense of the other, and his connection with Kachanski does add some good humorous stories, especially with the jealousy side of the mechanoid seeping out of his hard drive.

The story lines continue to be as daft as ever, although I feel that Rob Grant is a little missed in some episodes, but Nayler and his team do a good enough job to keep the ‘Red Dwarf’ science-fiction-situation-comedy alive

The acting is brilliant, even if some of the episodes fall a little short of a true Red Dwarf fans expectations.
Charles continues to crack me up with his scruffy attire and exceptionally dry witted character, Lister, his scruffy manner is such a delight to watch, although in this series he does begin to change somewhat. Maybe it’s the love of a good woman, or maybe it’s old age.
Barrie is simply fantastic as the cowardly Rimmer, sadly departing in the beginning of this series. not just in the opening episode. He just cracks me up every time he opens his mouth, coming out with some rather bizarre comments and some very comical quotes, although he does seem to become a different man in this series.
John-Jules continues to make me laugh as he portrays the weird creature known as Cat, with his seriousness and cracking witty comments, still stating his rather strange proverb at the most inappropriate moments.

And Chloe Annett plays the new addition to the crew, Kochanski, pretty well indeed, seeming like a breath of fresh air in the show, maybe trying to stop it going stale. Her sense of humour isn’t quite up to the Red Dwarf standard but then again, she hasn’t had the many years of practice living amongst the regular ’dwarfers’, although no doubt, she will soon catch up.

In all, although not as good as the previous six series this 7th edition to the Red Dwarf saga does have some laughs and some good enough story line. Even if I do feel it fell a little short of what it could have been, and should have been, it is still worth the £4.98 that it will cost you from www.amazon.co.uk if you do decide to get a copy. And for a 3 disc set, containing nearly 4 hours of Red Dwarf madness, including some ’smeg ups’, deleted scenes, interviews with the cast and crew, a special episode and more, it is certainly worth the fiver you spend
 

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