Red Dwarf (1988– ) User Reviews

The life and times of Red Dwarf

[snoozejonc · 8/10 · 19 January 2021]

The adventures of 'the boys from the dwarf', otherwise known as the surviving crew members of the Jupiter Mining Corporation ship Red Dwarf.

I love Red Dwarf for the sci-fi concepts, humour, themes and characters, but it is a show that I have experienced highs and lows watching over the past thirty-something years.

The plot follows Dave Lister, Arnold Rimmer, The Cat and eventually Kryten as they travel across space and time, play pool with planets and get up to all kind of mind bending sci-fi shenanigans on board Red Dwarf and its shuttle craft Starbug. Continuity has never been a strong point in the writing but it's not really meant to be taken seriously. Circumstances are often contrived to present cool sci-fi concepts, lampoon shows like Star Trek and put the characters into funny situations.

A number of great ideas have been used over the years. Some of it clearly spoofing other sci-fi movies and shows, whereas others feel quite original. Importantly the initial premise of what happens to Lister in the very first show, setting the scene for the next 3 million and 30+ years, is one of the most ingenious sit-com ideas of all time. Along with the sci-fi a number of interesting themes have been explored such as friendship, loneliness, psychology, humanity, religion, war, slavery, fate, elitism, capitalism and totalitarianism.

The humour is character driven, with The Rimmer v Lister, odd couple dynamic powering everything. Two polar opposite characters ironically stuck with each other for what seems like eternity. Add to the mix the excellent supporting characters and the freedom to put them in almost any situation. When its works it's superb and when it doesn't work and it's pretty poor.

All performances are brilliant with Craig Charles' distinct persona stamped upon Lister. His acting in the early days wasn't as strong as the later years but he got by on charisma alone back then. Danny-John Jules played a very one-dimensional character as The Cat, but he lives and breathes it with epic timing. Robert Llewelyn is an excellent character actor and plays Kryten in a number of different comic ways, the best of which being dry, excellently delivered one-liners. Norman Lovett the short-lived Red Dwarf computer Holly is pure gold. His deadpan persona is incredible and it's a shame he was so underused.

Saving the best till last. Chris Barrie brought to life a quite magnificent comedy creation in Arnold J Rimmer. For me he's up the with a number of classic comedy characters such as Basil Fawlty, David Brent, Richard Richard, Edina Monsoon, Harold Steptoe and Derek Trotter. He is one of the reasons it works so well.

Personally I find it's early years to be the most enjoyable (series 1 - 6) and it gets back into the swing of things later on (series 10-12). What came in between didn't work for me (7-9) and this is mainly down to the writing losing its way, possibly for the sake of syndication.

There are several great episodes such as 'Thanks For The Memory', 'White Hole', 'Marooned', 'Dimension Jump', 'Skipper' and my favourite 'Back To Reality'. The average episode always entertains for the majority as the characters are naturally funny whatever they are doing. Beware there are a number of weaker efforts in the middle years where the writers were experimenting with different styles and dynamics that didn't work.

(Updated - August 2023) - You can currently watch all episodes on BBC iPlayer.

Overall I feel the show is a 7.5/10 but I always round upwards.

Possibly the Best TV Comedy ever...............ruined!!!!!!!!!!!

[richy1611 · 8/10 · 30 July 2006]

I would have rated Red Dwarf 10/10, but unfortunately, when rating the show in its entirety, you must consider the final two seasons/series.

Series 1 - 6 will always be what I remember about the show. It was funny and original. You could relate to all characters (all the actors deserve the highest praise), and although there were plenty of plot holes, and continuity problems, there was a classic blend of good story lines, mixed with classic British-style humour.............it was unlike anything else before or since. Pure quality. Every episode was a classic, and I can watch them all again and again and laugh until I get a stitch.

Then after series 6 (one of the best series') Rob Grant left the show, the production budget increased, and series 7 was given that stupid 'film look'. Also Rimmer was replaced halfway through the series with Kochanski (Listers long lost love). Basically it seemed like someone had pressed the show's self destruct button, and its never been the same since. All the humour seemed forced, and the story lines got so deep, you actually forgot you were supposed to be watching a Sci-Fi comedy.

.......Then things got worse. Series 8 came out. The less said the better. I know there are hard core fans out there who say that series 8 isn't that bad. But try watching episodes from series 3, then watch series 8 and you'll realise how much the show went into freefall.

Its such a shame because in the early days of Dwarf, there simply wasn't anything better on TV.

A truly inventive futuristic British comedy

[AlsExGal · 9/10 · 1 May 2010]

Aboard the deep space mining vessel Red Dwarf, Dave Lister, a vending machine repairman, smuggles aboard a pregnant cat. When he is found out he is confined to suspended animation for refusing to surrender the animal to the captain for dissection. During his time in stasis, his annoying self-important bunkmate and supervisor Arnold Rimmer is forced to perform his maintenance duties alone and bungles his repairs to the drive plate, causing it to blow and subjecting the entire crew to deadly radiation.

3 million years pass until the background radiation level has fallen such that human life will not be threatened. At this point Holly, the ship's computer, releases Lister from his long sleep and also resurrects Rimmer as a hologram to be a companion for Lister, basically the last person Lister would want to listen to all day. After the initial shock, Lister realizes that he has the run of the ship, allowing him to be, basically, himself: a lay about slob.

Rimmer and Lister discover that the cat had been sealed in the ship's hold during the accident and has bred there for the last 3 million years and evolved into a race of man-like creatures, one of whom is still on the ship. The rest of the cats mistook Lister's laundry list as navigation instructions to a planet of refuge and crashed and died in space. With his evolved cat at his side, Lister decides to complete his dream of owning a farm on Fiji and orders Holly to set a course for Earth. Much of this first season involves Rimmer trying to still boss Lister around even though he is just a hologram, the cat coming to grips that he is the last of his kind alive, with Lister constantly trying to get Rimmer to "turn himself off" so Lister can replace him with Christine Kochanski's hologram. Kochanski was the attractive officer Lister had a crush on before he went into stasis.

The series starts off with Lister quite determined to get back to earth, but as time passes that mission takes a back seat to all of the adventures the group has. The series is at its peak, in my opinion, after the mechanoid Kryton is rescued from a long ago crashed vehicle, and joins the crew of Red Dwarf. These five together - the vain and somewhat dim cat, Lister who knows he's a slob yet is happy with himself, a bossy Rimmer who fixates on trivial details to avoid dealing with the fact that he is not happy with himself, the intelligent and inquisitive but over-polite mechanoid Kryton, and the ship's rather ditzy computer Holly who is suffering from silicon senility after several million years of use are a perfect comedy team as they go traveling about the universe. There is comedy on the basest and most physical levels, but there is also much ridiculing of social, political, and religious orders - a true iconoclast's delight.

In seasons six and seven the series sags a bit, as the crew has to abandon Red Dwarf and travel about in the smaller transport ship StarBug. In season eight there is a completely changed situation for the original crew, but the series just gets worse having seemed to lose track of what made it so brilliant in the first five seasons. In spite of the slower pace of seasons six and seven and the outright mediocrity of season eight, I'd highly recommend the entire series to anyone who likes British comedy. The first five seasons and parts of six and seven are just that good.

One of the funniest British comedies around

[alainenglish · 26 September 2002]

One Britain's great science fiction comedies, "Red Dwarf" is one of the United Kingdom's finest television exports. This is due to the fact that alot of the comedy, through the characters, satirizes British stereotypes (slobs, snobs, neurotics) and makes its own commentary on the bleakness and absurdity that is human life.

The format, which has become considerably more flexible in recent years, started thus. Set in space, some two or hundred years or so in the future, on an enormous mining ship called Red Dwarf, working class slob Dave Lister (Craig Charles) finds himself placed "in stasis"(frozen in time) as punishment for illegally hoarding a cat on board the ship. Awakened by the ship's senile computer Holly (Norman Lovett), Lister is shocked to discover he's been in stasis for three million years and the rest of the crew have been killed by a freak accident.

Asides from the now-senile computer, Lister's only company is a vain, narcissistic lifeform who evolved from his cat (Danny John-Jules) and a hologram of Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie), his bossy and officious superior.

This was the set up for the first two series of Red Dwarf. The format changed in series three when Holly swapped sexes and became Hattie Hayridge, and the crew recruited Kryten (Robert Llewllyn), an eager-to-please mechanoid with an overactive guilt chip. In series six, Red Dwarf and its computer were abandoned, and the crew were forced to survive in modified shuttlecraft Starbug.

Chris Barrie left as Rimmer in series seven and was replaced, courtesy of an alternate universe storyline, by Kochanski (Chloe Annett), the love of Lister's life. The ship, complete with resurrected crew, returned for series eight and saw the adventurers, along with a back-from-the-dead Rimmer, thrown in the ship's brig for their adventures in the previous series.

In the first two series with a minimum main cast, the much-despised grey sets lent an appropriately barren, lonely backdrop to the very character based comedy. Most of this consisted of intimate comic banter between Lister and Rimmer, occasionally livened up by the Cat's hilariously self-obsessed prescence or an off-the-cuff joke from the laconic Holly.

Seasons three to five broadened the scope of the series, making it more experimental with different science fiction concepts. The added prescence of Kryten helped this, his 'groinal socket', susceptibility to the whims of a sometimes deranged Rimmer and increased attempts to break his restrictive programming brought new comic dimensions to the series.

Series six and seven reverse the comedy-science fiction ratio of the series in that the former now takes a back seat to the latter. In other words the comedy of the series accentuates the main science fiction based plots. The comedy emphasis was restored for series eight, although, much like series seven, this element was alot weaker than before.

The series benefitted from alot of strong characterisation. Craig Charles embodies carefree slob Lister, while Chris Barrie turns in a wonderfully uptight performance as the hopelessly neurotic Rimmer. Dancer Danny John Jules brings alot of colourful charm to the Cat, while Norman Lovett is wonderfully sardonic as Holly, whose almost apathetic stupidity allows for alot of comic misunderstandings. After being replaced by Hattie Hayridge for a few seasons, Lovett returned in series seven.

Robert Llewellyn, his entire head covered in a prosthetic mask, has some fine moments in a character that is very much a comic take on the android "Data" from "Star Trek:TNG". Chloe Annett is wonderfully superficial as Kochanski, but is attractive enough to make plausible Lister's attraction to her.

Series eight was helped considerably by the return of Mac MacDonald as Red Dwarf's hapless Captain. During the two-part episode "Pete" he is subjected to a series of increasingly hilarious indignations, prompting a wonderfully humiliated performance from MacDonald.

Time will tell whether or not the series will return, but the series remains one of the definitive comic staples of British television.

What a show!

[mujali-48677 · 10/10 · 23 April 2021]

One of the very best British sitcoms ever, there's nothing quite like Red Dwarf, and never will there be again. Just a good-hearted, fun show, with great writing, a nod back to a wonderful era and the passing of my youth. Its strange to think these guys are now old. But Lister, Rimmer, Cat and Kochanski will be forever young!

I watch this with my son (such an annoying dad thing to do I know) and even though it must look dated now, he loves it, which truly warms my heart.

Fun fun fun... in the sun sun sun.

"A sci-fi comedy? nah...that'll never work."

[kixbooty · 10/10 · 7 September 2007]

"A sci-fi comedy? nah...that'll never work." That's what many people originally thought about the comedy classic Red Dwarf when the idea was first brought up in the mid 80's. But little did they know it would be so unexpectedly successful that it would actually have a cult following from all over the world.

The brain child of Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, Red Dwarf is unlike any other comedy. It has a unique British humour, and its sprinkled with dry wit and hilarious one-liners, but any fans of this show will know that there's something more to Red Dwarf than any other comedy ever made.

The characters are the most mis-matched bunch of low lifes in the cosmos, but put them together and they work perfectly! Rimmer: the most misunderstood man in the universe? perhaps, but its more likely he's just a great big jerk. He has no redeeming qualities what so ever, and yet it's impossible not to love him.

Lister: 50% Space scum. 50% Barely human slob. 100% Absolutely hilarious. The last man alive and he can't even microwave his own socks? Cat: whose 3 main traits are vanity, stupidity and, well, vanity, cat cares only for himself and finds his crew mates disgusting.

Kryten: where would the crew be without the humanoid Kryten? I absolutely love this show and have seen all 8 seasons several times, and I plan to watch them many times more. Watching Red Dwarf not only makes the viewer laugh, but the characters are so likable that watching it gives a deeper form of entertainment because the characters almost become like friends. The characters and actors do make this show, who could imagine anyone as Rimmer other than Chris Barrie? Or a better Lister than Craig Charles? The writing is truly very clever and incredibly unique, with subtle jokes as well as obvious rip offs and hundreds of hilarious one-liners.

This is one amazing, fantastically unique show that will never be equalled.

After Series 6 it all falls apart

[LivingDog · 8/10 · 29 August 2008]

For me Red Dwarf was an enigma. I saw some of the episodes aired on a public TV station and then nothing for years. NETFLIX membership allowed me to watch _all_ of them, from the start, and at my leisure. Wonderful ... until series 7 - it hit the fan and stayed there all gooey and smelly.

I had to do some research b/c I knew something went wrong on the creative side of the show. Rob Grant and Doug Naylor (thus the nom de plume: Grant Naylor) wrote the first 6 series and then split up. The show took an obvious turn which was not to my liking at all.

First of all we had 4 buds who, despite their incessant irritating and obvious issues, got along with each other. No matter what trouble they got in they were always there for each other - through thick and thin. It was a wonderful ride following these guys get in and out of trouble. The first 6 series are just such a wonderful pleasure that I felt I knew them. It was clearly a 10/10 performance.

After that the show was quirky in a bad way and annoying to watch. The thrill, adventure and pure fun was gone. Beyond that these series aren't worth mentioning.

So for me the Red Dwarf is stuck in Series 6, floating in space 3,000,000 years in the future and maybe, just maybe, one day, I might run into them.

A bientôt mon amis.

-LD

______________________________________________

my faith: http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/jbc33/

Great sci-fi comedy

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 14 June 2019]

This long running sci-fi comedy series is set aboard the eponymous Red Dwarf, a Jupiter Mining Corporation spaceship, three million years after an accident killed all but one of the crew. It is centred on four main characters. Dave Lister is the sole survivor; a lazy Scouser who was in stasis because he smuggled a pregnant cat aboard the ship; Arnold Rimmer, Dave's annoying immediate senior who has been brought back to life as a hologram; Cat, a being that evolved from Dave's pet; and Kryten, an android they find in series two and becomes a regular in series three. There is also Holly, the ship's computer and, for a couple of series Dave's lost love Kristine Kochanski who is rescued from a parallel universe.

Over the course of the series the characters get into a number of scrapes; encountering Genetically Engineered Life Forms (Gelfs), rogue simulants and a creature genetically created from Dave's favourite curry to mention just a few... and Lister and Rimmer irritate each other almost constantly.

I first started watching Red Dwarf as the third series aired and have since watched the first eight BBC series several times as well as watching the later Dave era series and while some episodes are inevitably better than others I don't think there were any episodes I didn't enjoy. The sci-fi elements are a lot of fun but it is the characters that make the show as good as it is; in particular the dynamic between Lister and Rimmer. Craig Charles and Chris Barrie are great in these roles; I can't imagine anybody else in the parts. Danny John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn also impress as Cat and Kryten; two very different characters who add a lot to the series. I also really liked Chloë Annett's performance as Kochanski even though she is only in two series and one of those is the weaker than usual series eight. The special effects, especially early on may seem poor to modern viewers they are more than acceptable to those who grew up watching classic 'Doctor Who' and 'Blake's 7'. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to any sci-fi fan who also likes a good laugh... hopefully we won't have to wait too long for series thirteen.

Smegging brilliant from series 1-6.

[Howlin Wolf · 10/10 · 16 July 2007]

I admit I'm not a fan of the last two series, but to produce 36 episodes of consistently good quality has to be recognised as an achievement, anyway. My current favourite episode is "Legion", although today is a Monday, so this choice is subject to change within the next 24 hours... ! Each member of the crew has their own instantly definable personality, and I just love it that even when greeting members of other civilisations, the toadying Rimmer cannot help but bluff about his high level of sophistication:

(Paraphrasing)

Rimmer: "Ah, an excellent example of modern art, no doubt. Note the precise cubic structure and its bold, sweeping lines... What is it?"

Legion: "My light switch".

R: "Can I buy it?"

L: "Not really. I need it to turn my lights on and off... "

I'm torn between whether I prefer on the whole the stark, bleak and basic environment of the first two series, or the polished, more modern look of series 5 and 6. In the beginning, the drab and ordinary nature of the sets allowed the focus to be more on character comedy, but in later years the more colourful design went hand-in-hand with ever more bizarre and interesting stories. Although the writing style changed as we became more comfortable with the characters, in half a dozen runs the quotient of laughs was kept remarkably high. This is the most important thing for a comedy, and above all, the clever and rapid-fire jokes are what helped "Red Dwarf" to achieve its own unique and seismic impact.

Series 1-6...9+ stars. Afterwards 8 descending.

[mcrocket-33814 · 9/10 · 19 May 2023]

For those who do not know. The series was created and initially, exclusively written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor.

This lasted until Series 6.

And each series - to me - just got better and better. To where 5 and 6 were just outstanding overall.

Then - after Series 6 - Rob Grant left the show.

And Doug Naylor brought other writers onboard to help him create further series.

And, sadly, the show dropped noticeably in quality.

It's heart was still in the right place. Even a bit 'nicer' and 'warmer' than the other series.

But the pacing and the humor went noticeably down.

The former made the show seem almost cartoonish.

The latter was just dumbed down a bit. And physical gags (though some were very funny) became the main source of humor. As opposed to verbal ones.

It just felt like the show had gone from originally written by seasoned, very-talented sci-fi writers/creators.

To - later - a series created by intelligent college students who were sci-fi fans.

So... Series 1-6 - some of the most outstanding, science fiction entertainment that I have ever seen.

Series 7+ - a very good series with only moments of brilliance.

Cult British sci-fi with a lovable cast and characters

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 11 December 2015]

Review of Series One:

RED DWARF was a show I REALLY loved as a kid. I started watching it during series five/six which many consider to be the highlight of the entire series, so of course I was hooked straight away. I do remember going back and enjoyable all of the episodes from the beginning when the BBC showed them some twenty or so years ago.

Recently I've had access to the show again and I decided to see how the episodes have held up over the years. The first series of RED DWARF is a good example of how a format and characters could become great over the years, as the seeds of greatness are more than apparent here. However, what is also apparent is the lack of budget and the constrained feel of the sets and situations, although the character jokes are still funny. The repartee between Lister and Rimmer is what makes this first series work, as the Cat is quite annoying at this stage and the lack of Kryten really hurts it for viewers familiar with his later presence. Still, onwards and upwards...

Review of Series Two:

Series 2 is a definite improvement over the first. The jokes feel slicker and faster here, and the writers feel more assured in the way they handle various sci-fi tropes on what is still a low budget. Thus we get episodes centred around time travel, parallel universes, virtual reality, and the like. It's still a little wobbly in places - the last episode, in which the roles of the sexes are reversed, is crude, while the first Kryten is a disappointment - but this was a real step in the right direction, and 'Better Than Life' is the funniest episode thus far.

Review of Series Three:

Series 3 is where RED DWARF started becoming the recognisable show known and loved by the fans. Kryten is a fine addition to the series, even if he doesn't get a chance to really shine yet - and Llewellyn's costume still looks a bit dodgy. However, I found this to be a mixed bag of a series, with some of the episodes being way too obvious; the opening one in which everything runs backwards is too forced, and the body swap episode is predictable. On the other hand, 'Polymorph' is a fine episode that makes the best of the show's premise.

Review of Series Four:

Series 4 of the show continues to build on the previous successes, with less missteps than before. The mutual hatred between Rimmer and the rest of the crew provides endless material for humour, and the cheesy special effects are better than ever. Highlights include the courtroom-based 'Justice' and the final story, 'Meltdown', which has some hilarious fun with various historical figures.

Review of Series Five:

Many fans of this show regard series five as being one of the true highlights of its run and it's hard to disagree. The production values are the best it's going to get for this show; the acting and comic timing is spot on, and the story lines are varied and consistently engaging. Although the opening romance episode is a bit cheesy, the follow ups, involving the Inquisitor and later Mr Flibble, are absolutely hilarious. Chris Barrie really shines this series in which the spotlight seems to be on Rimmer alone, and the final episode, 'Back to Reality' is the best yet, a quite wondrous half an hour of comedy sci fi TV.

Review of Series Six:

Like series five before it, everything about series six of the show screams fantastic. Every episode is a highlight, with a fast-paced script full of very funny character jokes (the long-running one about Rimmer getting the wrong directive number never gets old). The opening episode, Psirens, features Kryten on top form and bears more than a nod to The Thing, while Legion features a great set-piece involving Rimmer getting beaten up. It's no surprise that Gunmen of the Apocalypse, a mini-classic in itself, won an Emmy, while the final cliffhanger episode had me on the edge of my seat as a kid. Sadly, due to an extended hiatus and the departure of show co-creator Rob Grant, RED DWARF was never to be the same after this.

Review of Series Seven:

This is where it all started to go downhill. There are a few highlights like RIMMERWORLD but for a lot of the time, series seven is a mess. As much as I like Chloe Annett (in stuff like CRIME TRAVELLER) she's not a good fit here and I was cringing a bit during her scenes. Plus, all of the material with the weeping and emotional Kryten is really unfunny and an embarrassment for the fans. The new film look is off, the green screen effects are very dated, and aside from tying up a few mysteries, this doesn't have much going for it really.

Review of Series Eight:

Oh dear. Series 7 was below par, but Series 8 really takes the biscuit. Red Dwarf's old crew is back, but for what reason? The old camaraderie has gone, jettisoned in favour of one stupid joke after another: random stop motion models, dinosaurs, ridiculous heavy metal sex scenes. There's a scatological approach throughout, with the emphasis on excrement and penis jokes, and smutty schoolboy humour elsewhere. Without a doubt, this is the worst series yet. It's like they weren't even trying anymore.

Never ever gets old red dwarf

[gav_c · 10/10 · 2 February 2019]

I've grown up and watched red dwarf from day 1 and I never get tired of it.

The show never relied on massive budgets and fancy props and relied on great acting and scripts. Even now I laugh at the witty and dry humour even though I could recall every single episode off by heart.

It's definitely directed for a certain type of crowd as I find it a marmite tv series you either love it or hate it as my friends have divided opinion on this series.

But I do find this series is like only fools and horses and it's an era of tv I just honestly don't think you could bring back even if you tried.

It was great... Once.

[andrew-hill515 · 7/10 · 18 October 2018]

Series 1-6 was great. I loved the show.

It's a shame that series 7 and onwards was made, as it has pretty much hoovered crotch (clean way of saying what that means) since then. Maybe Rob Grant was the funny one of the Grant Naylor writing duo, as it hasn't been funny since series 6 ended.

If you're new to the show, watch the first 6 series (seasons for any Americans) and then stop watching. I wish I did.

mixed feelings

[oyvind1980 · 4/10 · 23 January 2008]

I cant remember if I watched 5 or 6 seasons,but I do remember that I thought the series was very funny for a while,but then it became a little more confusing and darker (I liked the first computer best),I don't know if its just me but I felt it was almost depressing watching the later seasons. maybe the whole series just got too absurd for me.. and c'mon people,is it really that funny every time someone says smeg head? is this a British thing maybe? I also feel the acting is poor,not really funny characters,well rimmer is a little funny, the cat too,but lister is terrible. but it had its moments I admit, the idea is really great and its cool that it looks so cheesy and low tech,but the crew should have consisted of other characters. Imagine David brent and Gareth (from the office)on a space ship, that would be funny!

I am hopelessly addicted to this show.

[JinDigital · 19 July 1999]

Let's get one thing straight here: I don't watch much TV. A lot of the shows nowadays really get on my nerves. But RED DWARF is different. DWARF is shown on Saturday nights on my local PBS station, and the week just isn't the same if I can't see my favorite bunch of marooned space bums. The story is a bit of a long one: Dave Lister, a technician aboard the mining ship RED DWARF, is punished for having an unquarantined cat on the ship. His punishment involves going into stasis for 18 months, forfeiting all pay (which he wants to save up so he can move to Fiji with his cat and the love of his life, Kristine Kochanski). But while he is in stasis, his supremely anal-retentive superior officer and bunkmate Arnold Rimmer fails to fix a restraining plate properly on a warp drive, and the whole ship undergoes an internal nuclear explosion. When awakened by Holly, the ship's slightly loopy computer, Lister finds out he has been in stasis for over 3 million years. Rimmer, resurrected by Holly as a hologram, is back to keep Lister sane yet seems more probable to do the opposite. Lister's cat, who was pregnant, was safely sealed away in the cargo hold of the ship. There the cats have bred for 3 million years, and the last survivor of their race pops out of an air vent, a Felis Sapiens, or commonly known as just Cat. Together, they try to find a way back home to Earth...even if it takes 3 million years!

I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good laugh. :o)

Just perfect!

[kuluvas · 10/10 · 1 November 2023]

It's one of the most perfect shows ever conceived. It's brilliantly written, acted, directed and the production quality for the budget is beyond exceptional!

If you've never seen it, watch it!

Enough said.

It's one of the most perfect shows ever conceived. It's brilliantly written, acted, directed and the production quality for the budget is beyond exceptional!

If you've never seen it, watch it!

Enough said.

It's one of the most perfect shows ever conceived. It's brilliantly written, acted, directed and the production quality for the budget is beyond exceptional!

If you've never seen it, watch it!

Enough said.

Wonderful

[ijameson · 9/10 · 20 June 2020]

Still holds up 25+ years later. Seasons 7 to 9 start to lose the plot, with season 9 being one that can be skipped over, but there is enough quality episodes to make this one on the best science fiction comedies ever made.

Honestly, it's a British CLASSIC!

[Johnny-the-Film-Sentinel-2187 · 10/10 · 29 March 2022]

Red Dwarf fuses the best of television comedy and high concept sci-fi storytelling; it's like John Cleese and Arthur C. Clarke collaborating on a story that consolidates the best of both worlds and playing to their strengths as writers of their given genres that defined their careers.

Red Dwarf was also a longtime favourite of Stephen Hawking and for good reason: it was easily the smartest television show he watched since Star Trek. The absurdity of the characters juxtaposed by their outer-space shenanigans (parallel universes, shape-shifters, accidental time-travel, and so on) is something that few shows have managed to do well with sci-fi comedy. Red Dwarf succeeds in being clever and chuckle-inducing all at once. Even the bad episodes still have something to say in its creative landscape because of the creativity fuelling the series.

If I had to name some of the show's VERY best episodes, they'd be 'Backwards', 'Marooned', 'Polymorph', 'Back to Reality', and 'Gunmen of the Apocalypse'. And that's just naming a few of the show's standout moments. There's LOTS of them! Truly.

Red Dwarf is bliss for BBC Comedy fans AND aficionados of space-operas; the best of these two worlds make this show a real treat. It's become a cult-favourite for good reason.

The Best Show On Television!!!! (in my opinion)

[JustOneGun · 10/10 · 6 August 2017]

Red Dwarf is and will forever be the funniest show ever ever!!!!! Believe me, Believe! Just watch and you too will see. Witty banter, Check. Slap stick, Uh Check. A Stellar Cast so big that the writers of the show had to empty an entire galaxy for these Phenomenal Stars!

Red Dwarf is a monolithic beast. It is the longest running show I have personally watched. At the time of my review, this fall the red dwarf crew is setting high sail for yet more comedic adventures! The 12th season is just around the corner.

Red dwarf forever ever.

Deserving of its cult following

[dave13-1 · 9/10 · 10 February 2012]

The first series, made in 1988, always left a bit to be desired. The first season was characterized by Gilligan's Island level humor and pacing that dragged a bit by sit-com standards. The budgets were low and the look was a bit crummy as a result. There were a few decent science fiction and comedy ideas on display here, although the really wacky story ideas came in later years, as did better budgets and smoother pacing. The characters had a few rough edges and the cast chemistry had not yet quite come together. Still, the individual shows had enough entertainment value to be worth a look, and the series got better as time went ahead.

After stumbling about a little in season one to find their way, the creators took some time to re-tool the formula, tightened up the pace and started throwing the jokes out at breakneck speed in season two, and the improvement is obvious early on. Basically it's hard science fiction meets humans behaving badly and this is the fountainhead of the comedy as the Dwarfers make their way through human space, encountering the detritus of mad science gone wrong and exploiting weird phenomena for cheap laughs. The look of the show is improved thanks to better budgets and the cast seem more comfortable in their characters' skins and with each other.

The show went on a short hiatus of about a year and half, during which time the creators (Grant and Naylor) brainstormed science fiction ideas and picked the ones with real comedy potential... and then made TV history. The first episode of the third season, Backwards, may be the funniest show EVER seen on TV, and the rest of season three are almost as good. Smart story ideas - a backwards Earth, polymorphing personality-sucking creatures, mutant slides capable of supporting travel through time and space etc. - are squeezed within an inch of crushing to get every last bit of comedy out of them. The characters by this point have fleshed out fully and are no longer simply sitcom archetypes, and the performers have great fun with them while showing off a fantastic collective range of comedic abilities. The dialogue is very sharp, the episodes are fast-paced and filled with a flawless mix of brilliant gags and great physical comedy.

Like season three, season four absolutely bristled with wonderful science fiction ideas - squeezed for every drop of their comedy potential, and played with gusto by a group of performers who now worked together like a comedy all-star team. The resulting half dozen episodes represent some of TV's best and funniest comedy moments thanks to an almost flawless mix of physical comedy, sight gags, cross talk insults and good character dialogue. The laughs come at high speed and you can watch the shows over and over again and still enjoy them thanks to quality and sheer volume of jokes. The cheap production values of the first two seasons are in the past, and everything now has a more convincing science fiction look and feel to it. Plus, ongoing attempts by director Ed Nye to vary the physical look of the show a bit from time to time helps to keep things fresh. And the cast are brilliant, now perfectly comfortable in character and with each other. You get the feeling that anything might happen and it does.

The subsequent seasons had many high points as well, but also brought the characters back to earlier situations and re-used many by now well established gags. The eighth season is notable for having a much expanded budget and more impressive look than anything that had come before. The ninth season was something of a disappointment, bringing the characters back together after a long lay-off and trying to get some mileage out of the old chemistry, while spinning out a not very original mix of Blade Runner-esque plotting and the re-introduction of an earlier brilliant story device, the 'despair squid'.

A tenth season is currently rumored to be in the works for broadcast in the UK during 2012.

Marvellous

[TG22Film · 9/10 · 30 October 2007]

Some people do not 'get' this show and I'm not sure why. I always think that they haven't watched enough to get to know the characters or they can't quite relate to the abstract brilliance of it all. Well I'm not one of them for sure, as this show has provided me with more laughs than any other. From the disgusting habits of Lister to the delightful cheekiness of The Cat to the smug remarks from Rimmer the comic moments just go on and on. And yes, the Grant-Naylor partnership was possibly key in maintaining the subtlety of the gags. Yet, I do not necessarily agree that Series 7 and 8 were a pointless waste of time. For me, these two series were worth it just for Kryten alone. His eccentricity and corruption sort of 'blossomed' in a way and I felt Robert Llewlelyn took his character in the right direction. This is a point that will probably be hounded but you only need to see the psychiatrist scenes from the final series to see what I mean.

Sadly, the other characters in the latter series seem to lose some of the magic they so brilliantly weaved in front of a live audience. However, the stories were still good enough to entice my viewing throughout all 8. My personal favourite series is series two. Even though this was when they were still (pretty much) confined to the Red Dwarf ship, the scripts and dialogues were absolutely fantastic. 'Thanks for the Memory' is so brilliantly constructed I think of it as the best half hour of comedy ever written. The way it begins with the drunken starbug flight back and ends with the discovery of what Lister has done with Rimmer's memory is pure genius. Then you have that brilliant moment where Danny John-Jules nails a one-liner so sublimely that you just have to cackle. Rimmer (played by the ace Chris Barrie) attempts a ridiculous explanation to how they've ended up with unusual predicaments after a late night party (for example broken legs) and tries to ease everyone's worries by suggesting it was alien communication. Then Cat (Danny John Jules) simply says "I wouldn't want to be around when one of these suckers is making a speech".

Anyway, I could go on and on with the praise, so I'd just like to say to everyone involved in the show.............. thanks for the memories!!

The worst aspects of Red Dwarf

[christopher-ingrid · 7/10 · 21 April 2011]

Re-watching series 1 - 8 again after many years has underlined much of what I felt upon initial viewing. First, Cat has never been remotely amusing apart from fortuitously decent lines such as, "I'd prefer chicken" when Lister reveals that Rimmer has received notification of Rimmer senior's death. Otherwise, it is staggering to me that such an utterly appalling character was deemed integral to the success of the show. Second, it is a pity that Norman Lovett left the show after requesting and subsequently being denied parity of pay with the show's main characters because his replacement, Hattie Harridge, was absolutely dire in series 3 to 5 before she was rightly dropped. Third, irrespective whether she had been played by Chloe Annett or Clare Grogan, Kochanski (featuring from series 7 onward) was a colossal mistake. She contributed less to the show than Kryten's excellent Spare Head 3 who was accorded but a few lines over eight series! Last, Kryten's consequent fawning interaction with Lister following Kochanski's arrival is embarrassingly overplayed.

Red Dwarf is a fine series but could have been so much better.

One of the greatest shows ever

[jvalcaraz · 10/10 · 17 December 2020]

I've loved and VHS recorded every single episode of this series. Funny, surrealistic...genius...

Not bad for a British sitcom

[jakebunker · 7/10 · 14 March 2024]

Note: I've only watched seasons 1 and 2 but I plan on updating this as I watch more.

I'm not really a fan of British sitcoms. I think Monty Python's Flying Circus is not that great for example. A lot of times in shows like this jokes are drawn out way too long and don't land either. Or the joke is that it is something so bizarre that I guess it's supposed to be funny? I don't know.

Red Dwarf is a good British sitcom, however, but not great. It has funny jokes and wit and the characters are pretty enjoyable except for Cat. Cat's the worst. Holly is hilarious, easily the best part. That's the British humor I want to see. So far the story is better than a lot of other comedy shows (which usually barely have any) but I'm sensing the further I go along the more it will disappear. I guess we'll see. There are also many, many inconsistencies but that's pretty common in shows like this. Definitely was surprised by Red Dwarf; didn't expect it to turn out this way.

Talking cat... Says it all

[christian-356 · 3/10 · 3 January 2007]

This series was just not working for me - Neither characters, cast, storyline, nor jokes did it for me. Sorry. I would like to stop here, but since IMDb requires 10 lines of text in every comment, here goes... The series bugged me, but maybe that's because I'm not too fond of series and fond of sci-fi movies. I think, in order to have anything work in a sci-fi setting, you have to make an extra effort to put in something new for the geeky outfits etc. to work. For me, Star Wars pulled it off most of the time (although my wife would probably argue), Star Trek never quite did it for me ["Captain, we've never seen anything like this life force before" -"Oh, well I have, last episode"] Red Dwarf doesn't pull it off, it's neither funny, nor new in its sci-fi ways, but it takes the price as the only blend of Space Balls, Eastenders, herbal tea, and James Brown. And since sci-fi comedy series has not been done a lot, I guess there is something new here after all - so I give it a 3. Cheers.