Red Dwarf - final verdict

[daibhidc]

Not bad, but not great.

The Lister-meets-Craig scene worked better than I expected, and I did enjoy the way it got nicely surreal, with the Rimmer-munchkins working for The Creator and the Blade Runnery false ending. And yay, I was right about what was going on.

But, like I said, Blackadder Back And Forth syndrome. It's like it's trying so hard to be something special and different that it often forgets to be Red Dwarf. Never mind the cr*ppy effects; why are we even noticing the effects? Red Dwarf was at its best when the sci-fi was subservient to the character stuff. Some of the best scenes were Lister and Rimmer sitting in the sleeping quarters.

And I would complain that it raises all these issues that don't get resolved, but I think that's intentional; Lister's speech that you can't end the series with all these questions sounds like a message from a creative team who aren't nearly as tired as The Creator to Dave or the BBC, or anyone else who might want to continue it.

But if they do make more episodes, I hope they feel more Dwarfy. Maybe they could adapt some of the original elements from the books?

Comments

[catofsteel.livejournal.com]

It was better than series 8, but then even Rimmer's Esperanto is better than series 8.

I was thoroughly confused by the avalanche of Bladerunner references until the Creator mentioned it had originally inspired RD. (Can't see the connection myself.) The photograph scene went on too long, but then so did the Bladerunner version.

I suspect most of the Coronation Street stuff was lost on me since I haven't seen any of it since the Ena Sharples days.

I loved Carbug. And the properly squat Red Dwarf. And Katerina. And the scene with the rakes - I've loved that since I first saw Tom & Jerry do it.)

I'd give it 8/10

(10/10 would be a storyline where Kochanski (the proper one from series 7) came through a dimension rift desperate to "jump my bones" as the USians would say.)

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the only Bladerunner influence I've noticed before now is that "simulant" is possibly a play on "replicant".

[sloopjonb.livejournal.com]

Definite dearth of jokes. And what was the point of the alleged Russian? They could have had Kryten do all the sciency bit.

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

I think "Kremlin Kate" was meant to be the first clue that Something Wasn't Right; she appeared immediately the squid ink affected them, thereby giving them a clear point where reality diverted, and Rimmer points out that her presence doesn't make any sense, only for it to be handwaved away.

And I suspect the sciency bit is, in fact, nonsense even within the show, so a representative of the hallucination would logically have to be responsible.

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

Oh, and it gave us the "It's not murder to kill a hologram" "Fair enough" scene, which was one of the few LOL moments.