Red Dwarf: Back In The Red, Part I

Red DwarfThe 45th episode of the science fiction comedy Red Dwarf airs on BBC 2. The first part of a three-part story opening the eighth season, this episode brings back Chris Barrie as Rimmer on a full-time basis, though in an attempt to reboot the show, neither Rimmer nor the rest of the Red Dwarf crew are holograms. Norman Lovett also rejoins the cast full-time as Holly. Read more

Red DwarfStarbug has returned home to Red Dwarf, but somehow it’s just not the same Red Dwarf. Now, setting aside for the moment the fact that Red Dwarf is far too large and then begins shrinking, and setting aside a rather unpleasant incident involving mammoth rodentia, the real problem with the nanobot-reconstructed Red Dwarf is its crew. They’re perfectly alive and well, and really don’t seem to appreciate Lister and Kochanski – along with a couple of unknown stowaways – crashing a Starbug through their ship. The ship’s psychiatrist tries to psychoanalyze Kryten, only to be baffled by the revelation that Kryten is, technically, from his future.

Lister is imprisoned and quickly finds that Rimmer is still alive aboard this Red Dwarf too. Not the more seasoned Rimmer who recently left to become Ace, but the overzealous, trumped-up, incompetent vending machine repairman with a Napoleon complex…the Rimmer of old. (Granted, the above could serve as a description of Rimmer at any time, but let’s not dwell on that.) Lister’s only hope of proving his story – that Red Dwarf is, in fact, over three million years away from home, and that its crew has been mechanically recreated – is to trust Rimmer to bring the evidence to Captain Hollister. Unfortunately, that evidence includes the sexual magnetism virus, which Rimmer decides to try for himself.

So much for Lister’s defense…

Order the DVDswritten by Doug Naylor
directed by Ed Bye
music by Howard Goodall

Cast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Chloe Annett (Kochanski), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Norman Lovett (Holly), Paul Bradley (Chen), David Gillespie (Selby), Mac McDonald (Captain Hollister)

LogBook entry by Earl Green