Red Dwarf

[Neon Ignition]

Timeslides
"You call this happiness? Surrounded by toadying lackeys and paid sycophants? Living with a love goddess, sex-bomb model megastar. You call this contentment? Y'know, I stand here now, and I look at the two of us, and I ask one simple question: who is the rich man? You, with you fifty-eight houses, your private island in the Bahamas, your multi-billion pound business empire, or me, with... with... with what I've got?........ it's you, isn't it?"
Another great one but it feels like it's easier to point of weaker episodes than it is strong ones. From the initial back and forth with Cat and a depressed Lister, meeting Hitler, the Omm Song and Rimmers attempt to alter time this one is packed with good scenes.

The Last Day
"I woke to find a tongue stuck in my throat. I couldn't believe it... it was Uncle Frank"
I always remember this one less than the others in the series and I'm never sure why as like those it relies heavily on the characters telling each other tales so for much of its runtime leans a little towards the Marooned model of storytelling though not quite as packed.

RDIII > RDII > RDI

[QualityChimp]

With WandaVision finished, I needed something short to watch in a lunch break when I was working from home and found myself rewatching this.

Just finished "Me2" and about to start "Kryten".
Obviously, I won't inhale these as fast as Neon, but it's lovely to revisit.

Fair play to Chris Barrie for playing the totally odious Rimmer.

Interesting to see Cat develop as the series progress.
He's really self-absorbed in the first season to the point where he's unlikeable.
The scene where the cat priest is dying and he just wants to talk about his feet isn't funny (to me), it's painful to watch.

Anyway, it's still a great show and am loving watching it again!

[Dogg Thang]

I'm very divided on Cat because I totally agree with you about how he was in the first season (although Rimmer is pretty unlikeable too) but I found that Cat then later got watered down to sometimes being a bit redundant as a character. He kind of lost the cat thing. I still think he plays it well throughout but I have always wondered if he'd have been better used as a character who just pops up once or twice an episode, especially after Kryten got added. I don't know. Maybe not, but I felt he just got a little weaker after a while.

[QualityChimp]

I agree to an extent, but I guess I'd rather see the character a little weaker than more dislikeable.

Strong and likeable is even more prefereable, but you get what you can.

[Neon Ignition]

You've got a problem with Cat?

[Dogg Thang]

If they'd really wanted him to be likeable, he would have been Dog.

[QualityChimp]

You've got a problem with Cat?

I was literally thinking of that scene as an example of how Cat is like Cat, but likeable.

[QualityChimp]

If they'd really wanted him to be likeable, he would have been Dog.

No.

[Neon Ignition]

Cat's interesting as well because for a show that's run for 34 years it's clear no-one who has written for the show knows what to do with him. Even the very few episodes that focus on the Cat race aren't typically about Cat himself. It really felt like around series 3 onward they settled on him being mostly a safety cushion for Lister, someone to bounce off with jokes that wouldn't work with Rimmer.

[Asura]

I just remember when [MENTION=16665]Blobcat[/MENTION] and I met the Red Dwarf cast, Danny Jon-Jules was the only person who really didn't seem like he wanted to be there

[Neon Ignition]

Camille
"Ooo, what a body! All six of my nipples are tingling!"
This is a good episode though probably one I'm less fussed with other others as it kind of sags a little as it goes on and the real Camille is revealed pretty quickly and without much done from a plotting perspective. It's still fun the way they play each characters reaction to her though.

DNA
"Is that normal?" "What?! Taking a picture of it and showing it to your mates?!"
I feel like this is the first episode that really hits that well worn Dwarf structure of the crew scavenging a derelict, having a somewhat horroresque moment and then switching to the comedy fallout. The whole Kryten as human sequence is pure gold, probably the only weaker bit again is the latter end when RoboLister is deployed against the monster just because it's less sharp than what comes before it.

Justice
"Stick a Black and Decker drill on the end and I can make it through walls boy!"
There's not much to say on this one other than how the justice field is a neat idea, a lot of the fun of the ep hanging on Rimmer's trial.

White Hole
"Given that God is infinite, and that the universe is also infinite... would you like a toasted teacake?"
Three distinct acts with this one and I think all three land perfectly, other than the what is it meme this ep doesn't get held as loftily as it should be. Gold.

[Asura]

White Hole
"Given that God is infinite, and that the universe is also infinite... would you like a toasted teacake?"
Three distinct acts with this one and I think all three land perfectly, other than the what is it meme this ep doesn't get held as loftily as it should be. Gold.

Part of me thinks this is the show's best episode. I've seen it so many times but happily rewatch it.

[Neon Ignition]

Dimension Jump
"If you're interested I'll be in my quarters later covered in taramasalata"
This is a good episode but watching it back again I think a lot of rides on the appeal of Ace Rimmer. In comparison to a lot of the other episodes the joke ratio isn't as strong and mostly rests on Rimmer being bitter and making jibes at Ace and Lister crushing on each other.

Meltdown
"Don't eyeball me Ghandi"
We're getting deeper into a phase the show goes through that I'd never really noticed before but there's a real run of episodes here where a lot of them are very Rimmer orientated, possibly reflecting how he's the deepest of the characters so his neurotic personality gives a lot to mine. Here it's him most at his power mad, the wax works are fun and not over used though I liked revisiting the scene with Lister and Cat imprisoned with a window view of Winnie the Pooh.

Holoship
"I'd just like to say that over the years... I've come to regard you... as people... I met"
I'm going to somewhat come back on this one in another thread I think but this one once again puts Rimmer central but in very much the opposite role as the previous episode. I think I struggle to think of another episode where Rimmer veers so clearly through to being somewhat decent. Child Neon used to have quite the fondness for Horrocks in this too.

The Inquisitor
"I have brought joy to the world because I have such a beautiful ass!"
This one probably best encapsulates the darker tone of Series III-V whilst also containing the right beat of jokes and smart plotting as it juggles alternate versions of the characters, time travel and its banter. Again one of the best episodes.

Terrorform
"You don't have a taranshula with an eye the size of a meatball setting up a nest in your joy department"
Rimmer centric once again, I always enjoyed the opening though. The crash site sequence still looks good considering the budget nature of the show and the whole sequence from Kryten coming back on line, through sending his drone hand for help and his recovery is probably one of the best bits. The rest of the episode is fun but more a continuation again of making Rimmer suffer for his negative characteristics.

RDIV > RDIII > RDII > RDI

[Asura]

The Inquisitor
"I have brought joy to the world because I have such a beautiful ass!"
This one probably best encapsulates the darker tone of Series III-V whilst also containing the right beat of jokes and smart plotting as it juggles alternate versions of the characters, time travel and its banter. Again one of the best episodes.

This is among my favourites, from a scripting/narrative perspective.

Firstly, I absolutely loved the premise - the idea that everyone one day faces a judge who takes the form of themselves, and has to arbitrate if that person deserved the gift of life. Like this could've been a very good high-concept Star Trek episode, but it's a Red Dwarf show.

Secondly, though, how this was used to great effect in giving us something about some of the characters. That Rimmer might hate himself, but has almost made peace with that. That The Cat really is that shallow, with practically no hidden depth at all. But, of course, the best part; that while Rimmer is always presented as the under-achiever who hates where he ended up in life, that really, it's Lister and Kryten who really could've done better with themselves, who were capable of contributing so much more out of their lives.

Hell, Kryten's dialogue:

INQUISITOR: Well Kryten, justify yourself.
KRYTEN: I'm not sure I can.
INQUISITOR: But surely your life is replete with good works. There can
be few individuals who have lived a more selfless life.
KRYTEN: But I am programmed to live unselfishly. And therefore, any good
works I do come not out of fine motives but as a result of a series of
binary commands I am compelled to obey.
INQUISITOR: Well then, how can any mechanical justify himself?
KRYTEN: Perhaps only if he attempted to break his programming and conduct
his life according to a set of values he arrived at independently.
INQUISITOR: Your argument invites deletion.
KRYTEN: The rules are yours, not mine.
INQUISITOR: Do you wish to be erased?
KRYTEN: Well, I am programmed not to wish for anything. I serve.
INQUISITOR: In a human, this behavior might be considered stubborn.
KRYTEN: But I am not human, and neither are you. And it is not our place
to judge them. I wonder why you do?

It actually reminds me of the diction effected by Vision in the Marvel movies.

[QualityChimp]

It actually reminds me of the diction effected by Vision in the Marvel movies.

Yeah, in the final episode of WandaVision, Vision's monologue about Trigger's Broom was brilliant.