RED DWARF's new episode online
Monday, April 27, 2009
After a decade off the air, the BBC sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf has returned as a series of specials on the UK's upstart channel Dave TV. Right now I've only had time to watch these first 10 minutes online, but I'm posting it for you now because I've learned the hard way that UK TV tends to get yanked off Youtube in a hurry. (The BBC has OCD when it comes to preventing me from being able to see most of the shows I want to see.)
Red Dwarf was a wildly uneven show. It started as a kind of Odd Couple in space, a sharp, character-based comedy about the last human in the universe (the slobby Dave Lister) and his hologram roommate (the fussy Arnold Rimmer,) together on the immense startship, Red Dwarf. The series gradually became more broad and silly, and by the last few seasons there were some episodes that were just agonizingly bad. But even then the show could still surprise you with some interesting sci-fi ideas, and the characters remained lovable despite it all.
By almost all accounts the new specials are rough going, but from these first 10 minutes it doesn't look bad to me. It's startling to see the cast suddenly looking older. Most of them have actually held up pretty well, with Chris Barrie being the one who has aged most visibly - a bit unfortunate, given that Rimmer is supposed to be an ageless hologram. But these guys have literally been playing these characters for decades, and that old chemistry is still there. (Click the image above to buy the complete BBC series on DVD.)
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