It is hard to believe it is just over twenty years since 'Red Dwarf' blasted onto our television screens. I watched the first episode for two reasons; firstly, it was the work of Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, writers I knew from their work on 'Carrott's Lib' and 'Spitting Image', and secondly, it combined two life-long interests of mine - comedy and science fiction.
The premise is this - mining ship 'Red Dwarf' has suffered a disaster in space, meaning most of its crew are dead. The only survivor is Dave Lister ( Craig Charles ), a slob who loves getting drunk and eating curry. Also around are a life form descended from a cat he smuggled on board, called 'Cat' ( Danny John-Jules ), who acts like James Brown, and Arnold Rimmer ( Chris Barrie ), a hologram of an unpopular technician. There's also a conceited computer called 'Holly' ( Norman Lovett, then Hattie Hayridge ).
I was disappointed by the opening episode, so like the Smeghead that I am did not bother with the show again until it reached its third season. 'Backwards' opened with a hilarious conversation between Lister and Cat in which the former expressed a secret desire for Wilma Flintstone. It convinced me that the show had changed for the better ( I later caught up with the ones I had missed, and found they were not bad either ). The same episode brought in as a regular 'Kryten' ( David Ross, then Robert Llewelyn ), a robot who speaks in a Canadian accent and who by his own admission looks like Herman Munster's stunt double.
The show could have been called 'Lads In Space'. The cast were superb, particularly Barrie as the conceited 'Rimmer', the scripts cleverly exploited the fine line between comedy and sci-fi, and for my money it was one of the best sitcoms of the '90's, alongside 'I'm Alan Partridge' and 'Father Ted'. Among the many first-rate episodes were 'Demons & Angels' ( the boys meet evil versions of themselves ), 'Gunmen Of The Apocalypse' ( the boys in a space western ), 'Timeslides' ( Rimmer tries to change the course of his own history ), 'D.N.A.' ( Kryten learns what it is like to be human ), 'Dimension Jump' ( Rimmer meets a heroic version of himself - 'Ace' Rimmer ). Best of all was 'Back To Reality' in which the boys think that their 'Dwarf' experiences have all been part of a Virtual Reality game. Cat's cries of 'Dwayne Dibbley!' were hilarious! With such a strong cast and production crew, the show attained a peak of perfection unseen in British comedy for years previously - and some would say, not since. It was also a hit in America, and they attempted their own version, from all accounts it was not very good.
Naylor and Grant eventually parted company, and the seventh season was written by Naylor and others such as Kim Fuller. Robert Llewelyn himself co-wrote one. The absence of Grant, plus a move onto film, and Chris Barrie only appearing in a handful of episodes, resulted in Season Seven looking a bit patchy. The inclusion of a new female character - 'Kochanski' ( Chloe Annett ) only made things worse. She was to the boys from the Dwarf what Zeppo had been to the Marx Bros.
Things perked up a bit in Season Eight. Rimmer came back full-time, Norman Lovett returned as 'Holly', and Naylor wrote every episode alone, ensuring the comedy was more consistent. Bringing back the entire crew, including the Captain, was a mistake though ( as was the retaining of Kochanski ). The show simply did not need them.
And that sadly is where the 'Red Dwarf' story ends. It is now ten years since Season Eight. Naylor tried to get a feature film made but without success. I wish he had devoted the time to writing more episodes.
In 2009, Sky Television announced 'Red Dwarf' specials for transmission on the 'Dave' comedy channel. 'Back To Earth' featured the original cast. Having plunged through a portal, they discovered they were characters in a television show, and that their creator ( Richard O'Callaghan ) was going to kill them off in the final episode. It had its moments, but not nearly enough to make it anything more than a half-hearted revival. Still, it was nice having the boys back even just for a short time.
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