Red Dwarf’s Greatest Episodes
It was 28 years ago that we first met Dave Lister and Arnold Rimmer aboard their Jupiter Mining Corporation vessel and over the years we’ve seen them time travel, defeat hyper-intelligent alien life, and even survive a trip to Rimmerworld. There’s certainly been some ups and downs over the series’ to date, with perhaps not every outing being as well received as others, but at its best the show is one of the UK’s finest comedy creations. With season 11 of the show due for release on Dave in September, fans of the Dwarf will soon be getting an all new dose of everyone’s favourite space bums. In the meantime though, here are a few of the show’s finest episodes to date.
Marooned
(Credit: Red Dwarf Wikia)
It’s a very simple set up for this episode, but it’s one that is mined perfectly for full comic effect. As you may assume from the episode’s title, the plot sees Lister and Rimmer stranded on a remote ice planet with only each other for company. Naturally the pair start off by sniping and goading each other, with Rimmer for once feeling glad he’s a hologram and doesn’t need to eat to survive. This being especially true when Lister is forced to resort to eating dog food. The episode really fleshes out the backstory of both characters as we learn that Rimmer was once Alexander the Great’s chief eunuch in a past life, and that Lister lost his virginity on a golf course at age 12. The pair’s cherished possessions also speak volumes about their nature, for Lister it’s his beloved guitar while for Rimmer it’s piles of hoarded cash and his vintage camphor wood chest. For a moment it looks like the duo have formed a bond through their shared experience, but then that hilarious final scene soon puts everything back to normal once more.
Backwards
(Credit: Red Dwarf Wikia)
The showrunners had a great time playing with a simple concept here as the Red Dwarf crew find themselves crash landed on a version of earth where everything runs backwards. Naturally this leads to Kryten and Rimmer forming a novelty act where they do regular day-to-day tasks, but forwards. Their showbiz name: “the sensational reverse brothers”. Things get even funnier however once Lister and the Cat (aka the self-titled “Smart party”) land in good old Nodnol (“it’s in Bulgaria isn’t it?”) and proceed to mess everything up for their crewmates. Plus of course we had the all-important and unforgettable conversation about the undeniable attractiveness of Wilma Flintstone.
Dimension Jump
(Credit: Digital Spy)
Ahhh Ace Rimmer. What a guy. The heroic, clever and popular yin to Arnold’s cowardly yang who arrives from an alternative reality and immediately gets Arnie’s back up by showing him everything he could have been. Rimmer always felt he was just never given the breaks in life and this glimpse into an alternative version of himself does nothing to change his mind. Chris Barrie puts on a brilliant performance as the dual characters and it never gets boring seeing cowardly Rimmer getting put in his place by his dashing alter ego.
Meltdown
(Credit: Red Dwarf Wikia)
A personal favourite episode of mine here that sees the crew visiting a planet that turns out to be a giant abandoned waxworld theme park. The isolated wax droids have become sentient and also managed to plunge themselves into a deadly war between good and evil that pits Hitler and Al Capone against Elvis and Gandhi. Rimmer sees this as the perfect opportunity to test his metal as the military commander he always knew he should be as he proceeds to lead the goodies into battle from afar. Meanwhile Lister is taken captive and witnesses possibly the most harrowing firing squad of all time when he spots Winnie the Pooh being tied to the stake. The whole episode gives us Arnold Rimmer at his very worst, and that is only ever a wonderful thing.
Back to Reality
(Credit : Youtube)
In this finale from season 5, the crew is attacked by a “despair squid” which leads to them crashing Starbug. They all then wake up back on earth and find out they have actually been playing an immersive video game for four years. This gives us a great chance to see the crew in new guises as they in effect become their polar opposites, Kryten a tough no-nonsense traffic cop, Lister is a powerful fascist, Rimmer his homeless brother and the Cat becomes the legendary Duane Dibley. It may turn out to simply be a group hallucination brought on by the despair squid’s ink, but its great fun seeing the group try to come to terms with their “true selves”, which in the case of the Cat, is “a no-style gimbo with teeth the druids could use as a place of worship”.
Gunmen of the Apocalypse
(Credit: Red Dwarf Wikia)
A brilliant episode from the show’s sixth season here in which Kryten’s battle with a computer virus which manifests itself as a wild-west scenario inside his dreams. Kryten is unfortunately a drunken cowardly sheriff and struggles to defeat the virus which takes the form of a vicious gang knowns as the “Apocalypse Boys”. This forces the rest of crew to use an artificial reality machine to jump into his dream and assist. It’s one of the crew’s most memorable outings and the transporting of the dynamic from deep space to the old West works a treat. It also has some incredible lines including Rimmer’s withering comment to the Cat, “look, we’ve all got something to contribute to this discussion and I think what you should contribute from now on… is silence”.
(Main Image Credit: UKTV)
