Red Dwarf (TV Series) Give & Take (2016) User Reviews

Strong episode comparable with the early years

[snoozejonc · 8/10 · 8 January 2021]

The crew explore a seemingly empty space station.

I enjoyed this one for it's clever plot, decent sci-fi concepts and fairly consistent humour.

The story feels like something that could have come out of the show's early days with a nice mixture of character driven plot and sci-fi elements. The concepts are pretty good, particularly the time travel angle making earlier parts of the plot relevant.

For the majority of the episode the humour is pretty strong, albeit on par with the type of comedy it produced back in the 80s and 90s. All characters contributed equally and the script makes the most out of each one's personality traits.

All performances are great as ever, with Chris Barrie just about standing out in his amusing interactions with the artificially intelligent mechanisms.

Will Lister get his kidneys back?

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 5 October 2016]

This episode sees the crew of the Red Dwarf discovering a disused space station that is about to be destroyed by a meteor storm. They go aboard looking for anything useful to salvage and Kryten finds what he thinks is the greatest medical robot of its time… unfortunately what he has found is Snacky the Snack Dispenser! Lister and Cat do find the famed medical droid but it has gone insane and attacks them. Kryten and Rimmer rescue them but by then Lister has had his kidneys removed. Kryten installs a chip that acts as a dialysis machine but it won't last long; if Lister is to survive they will have to persuade Cat to donate one of his kidneys then get the famed medical robot to re-sequence its DNA… they still don't know they took the snack machine. When they discover this they will have to find another way to save Lister.

This was another fine episode; the story could have come from when the series was at its peak. There were lots of laughs to be had from the start, where Rimmer is arguing with the lift, to the end, where the lift is getting its revenge on Rimmer. In between the visit to the space station and Lister's subsequent problems provide a good mix of laughs and drama… and this being Red Dwarf even the moments of danger are pretty funny. The cast to a fine job; Danny John-Jules stands out this week as he depicts Cat at his most selfish and hypocritical. The final solution to Lister's lack of kidneys is imaginative and nicely refers back to apparently irrelevant moments at the start of the story. Overall another really good instalment; three episodes in and series eleven is still one of the better ones.

Give & Take

[MrFilmAndTelevisionShow · 9/10 · 2 September 2021]

A really great episode, very enjoyable, classic Red Dwarf one might say. The dynamic was a unique twist on the kind of Kidney troubles other TV shows have had, the SImpsons spring to mind.

Give and Take

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 7 October 2016]

This is the first time in years where Red Dwarf feels like Red Dwarf, the series at its peak where it was more than just a cult sci fi comedy on BBC2.

The crew find a disused space station that is about to be destroyed by a meteor storm and hop abroad to take a look. What they find is a murderous medical bot. They also find a snack dispenser bot called Snacky that looks like it has turned up from the movie, Forbidden Planet.

Lister has his kidneys taken from the medical droid, Kryten and Rimmer rescue them but with Kryten installing a chip that temporary keeps Lister alive until Cat can be persuaded to donate one of his kidneys.

This is an episode where the laughs come regularly. Kryten deletes his memory banks and forgets who Rimmer is and starts to call him names. Cat gets the spotlight as we see his selfish side. Snacky initially gets mistaken for a medical bot and everyone things he can fix Lister.

As befits a sci fi comedy there is actual timey wimey used so Lister can deal with his lack of kidneys. An episode that makes you go back in time like 20 years or so itself.