"Red Dwarf" Tikka to Ride (TV Episode 1997) Poster

(TV Series)

(1997)

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7/10
Strong on plot and production values, weak on comedy
snoozejonc17 December 2020
Lister and the crew cause major temporal issues whilst in pursuit of a curry.

I enjoyed this one due to the plot and sci-fi concept, but it does feel pretty devoid of the comedy present in first six series.

The story quickly ties up the cliffhanger at the end of Out Of Time and moves on to more time-travel related shenanigans that take the shape of a homage to the great Star Trek episode, The City On The Edge Of Forever. It also has a pretty cool tie-in to one of the major historical events of the twentieth century. All of this works very well and with it being caused by the search for a curry, it fits in well with Lister's character.

Comedy wise it rarely works for me due to the emphasis on plot and sci-fi concepts. Also the new cinematic visuals are so distracting it made me focus on the cinematography and effects more than I probably should do. Kryten losing his guilt has been done before and wasn't particularly that funny the first time round.

Most performances are good, particularly Craig Charles, but unusually Chris Barrie doesn't seem up to his usual brilliant standard. It might be just me, but he feels like someone reeling of lines of memorised dialogue rather than someone who is living a character as before.

I'm not sure if the departure of Rob Grant had an impact on the humour, but it feels at this point like the show is leaning more towards clever sci-fi than comedy, but I say this with an appreciation that everybody experiences humour differently, so what's not funny to me might be hilarious to someone else.

For me Tikka To Ride is a 6.5/10, but as always I round upwards.
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10/10
poignant tribute
tsf-196218 November 2006
Warning: Spoilers
On the surface, this episode is in terrible taste. It plays sort of as a parody of the legendary "Star Trek" episode "City on the Edge of Forever." Dave Lister and pals inadvertently go back in time to Dallas November 22, 1963, and foil Lee Harvey Oswald's attempt on John F. Kennedy. They soon find out that because of their actions, the U.S.A. disintegrated and the USSR won the space race. In order to set things right they go back in time to find a now impeached JFK (whose womanizing ways finally caught up with him), and persuade him to become the second gunman behind the "Grassy Knoll," thus saving his country and his place in history. In the end the episode turns into a surprisingly poignant tribute to the late president, doing a better job of conveying the meaning of his life and death than many more responsible productions. KERA, the PBS affiliate in Dallas, runs this episode every year around the anniversary of the assassination.
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1/10
The worst Red Dwarf episode
aniugflf16 March 2024
Warning: Spoilers
My least favourite Red Dwarf episode. From the very start, the jokes are noticeably weak or heavily recycled and the characters feel off. The wit and comic timing from Series 1-6 is gone, although it does return (in a way) from the next episode onwards. The canned laughter is played over not-very-funny jokes, which is jarring.

It makes no sense that they're able to go back to Earth. In the previous episode, they even made a joke about only being able to go back in time to medieval deep space. Now suddenly, they're able to return to Earth from deep space? So why didn't they go back to 22nd century Earth? Or even present day Earth just 1 week in the past? Does Lister like being stuck 3 million years in future deep space? They didn't seem shocked at all when arriving on Earth. In fact, it all seemed like run-of-the-mill stuff.

Red Dwarf has always been very silly and that's why I love it so much. In every episode though, it's silly, but there's an intelligent backdrop. This episode just throws all that out the window and is pure silly - to the point it might as well be a cartoon. Why would they appear at the exact moment the gunman's shooting JFK? Why is it Lister that knocks the gunman out the window?

The scenes in this episode seem longer and more drawn out than others. There are moments where I found my attention wondering and had to keep going back to rewatch scenes because they were so uninteresting.

I've seen every episode Red Dwarf, but this is the only one I really struggle with. How it has a good rating I have no idea.
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