Good Moments, Bad Half Hours

There’s always *something*, no matter how small. There’s not one episode of Red Dwarf that’s failed to raise at least one laugh, even if I didn’t like any of the other 28 minutes. Even Krytie TV has the synchronised leg crossing. And the B Movie parody is alright as well.

Finally.

The conversation with Birdman i find hilarious.

Yes the vending machine is very Dwarf.

The majority of Cassandra is awesome I have to say, there’s a lot of good stuff in there, but I think it’s of a general consensus that Cassandra is a good episode.

Series VII: Robert’s ‘Oh, my goodness, it’s Princess Leia’ lines cracks me up every time.

Obviously there are more, but these are a few of my favorite things.

Opinion is devided over some of the other series episodes as well.

In answer to your 7, 8 and BTE. I like most of BTE anyway. I loved series 8 when it airred, except the odd gag, and why was krtyen doing beedle when he wasnt current TV anymore, beyond that I loved most of the rest of the series. Then I got educated by the kind of moaning buggers who hang around here and now I can see all the faults, and how it’s not a patch on earlier dwarf, and I realised I’d been laughing at a sketch show. Best bit in Krytie TV is probably the “we are leaving” when they are watching the showering, torn between the moral drive and the sex drive. Or is the lister kryten speach in that one “exboyfriend tim” that was ok, but not as good as the documentary makes it out to be.

I hate duct soup, it’s my all time least fave I think, a bottle show that expands starbug for no real reason and is dull through out. The bit i like in it, is the squeaky gibson story that was cut and is in the extended version.

For the last few months, rather than having ‘marathons’, I’ve been slowly making my way through the whole lot. I got to series VII this week, and like I said at the time, it is a lot of good stuff but it’s just not a good series.

Good bits:

Series VII: The opening of Stoke Me A Clipper. The Rimmer Experience. Pride and Prejudice World. “What about Sex?” “Not here, it’s too sandy.”

Series VIII: BitR part one – I like it, anyway. Kryten painting his foot. With nail varnish. The first ten minutes of Pete part one – better than you think. And Tony Slattery’s vending machine – just about Only The Good’s only redeeming feature.

I never used to like Meltdown, but now… it’s actually rather brilliant isn’t it?

I find lots to like in Series VII, apart from Beyond A Joke. Not a big fan of that one at all really.

The US Pilot I’m oddly fond of. Bierko’s Lister is different, but funny, and he got some great lines, and had good delivery. And Kryten’s ‘Fire Exit’ sign moment is worthy of inclusion in the UK show, hands down. The US pilot certainly feels more ‘Dwarf’ to me than series VIII did.

> And Kryten’s ‘Fire Exit’ sign moment is worthy of inclusion in the UK show

> That was the one moment in the US pilot that I always thought was quite good.

Agreed, it was the one decent laugh out loud that pilot got from me.

>Agreed, it was the one decent laugh out loud that pilot got from me.

Yeah, I even remember smiling at that in the synopsis in the Programme Guide.

>“I owe my life to him” is the best bit of Blue.

Indeed. Never found the Munchkin thing particularly funny, especially after the first verse.

Holly: What do you want, the long version or the short version?

Lister: Long

Holly: You’re finished

Cat: What’s the short version?!

Holly: Bye

> I also like “Hello Wall, what do you think?” in Beyond a Joke

Watched that yesterday. *Hate* that line.

The knowledge is power exchange from BITR Part Whatever is good. Rimmer Experience is good, but then again I like nearly all of Blue.

There isn’t one second of salvageable material from Duct Soup…and that might be the only episode I’d say that about. My opinion would change if the Cat’s “me” speech made the final cut, because that was pretty great.

> I don’t rate Cassandra highly because of the ridiculous Roverostomy gag

I actually like that bit. And for the record what’s everybody’s problem with the iguana line?

I think the problem comes with the fact that the audience doesn’t react to the line, which makes it stilted and odd.

For me, the only half hours of Dwarf I’d unreservedly describe as bad occur in VIII. I’m not keen on Emohawk or Duct Soup, but they both have a lot to redeem them.

With the exception of Duct Soup and whiny Kryten, I enjoy most of VII.

I genuinely like Tikka To Ride, with the exception of the stupid beating of Lister at the end (why bother setting up a comedy/drama angle for 28 minutes and then go for a no-consequences slapstick cartoon ending?)

>Even Krytie TV has the synchronised leg crossing.

That was funnier when it was done in Men Behaving Badly and probably a dozen other shows years earlier.

Cassandra is OK. If it was just the core crew and didn’t have the bloody revived crew/canaries in it, it would have made a fair to good episode in IV or V.

I quite liked the use of the Luck virus in Back In The Red. Nice to have a subtle callback to a previous episode rather than trotting out Dibbley and Ace for recognition laughs.

Fair point about the slapstick stomach punch/uppercut. Mac Macdonald does the best with what he’s given, I do enjoy his performances as he brings a completely different energy to the show. The rest of VIII I can live without.

Boy, is it cramped!

I think the prison concept at least freshed up series VIII and the CANARIES was a great idea. These creative decisions were not the cause of a drop in quality, the scripts, edit and performances were. I really like Cassandra on the whole, and most of Krytie TV. Back in the Red would have really made for a great feature-length if you remove all the recaps, the layered twist of a second AR reveal and the Hollister intros (Dennis the Doughnut Boy? What a pile of shit! He was clearly very competent at his job in series 1 and 2… well, except for assigning Rimmer a job that could cost the crew their lives of course)

Not an episode’s only good moment, but a scene’s only good moment: I don’t find the opening bunkroom scene of “Back in the Red Part 1” funny at all… except for the bit where Rimmer very deliberately moves Lister’s hand out of the way of his book. I find that little bit funnier than anything Lister says in his long monologue!

And Kryten’s ‘Fire Exit’ sign moment is worthy of inclusion in the UK show, hands down.

It feels like that joke led to the scene in Rob Grant’s “Backwards” where Kryten’s reading his cowboy novel and limits himself to 0.8 words of it each day.

>I genuinely like Tikka To Ride, with the exception of the stupid beating of Lister at the end (why bother setting up a comedy/drama angle for 28 minutes and then go for a no-consequences slapstick cartoon ending?)

I actually thought the others beating the crap out of Lister was mostly justified. Let’s be honest: Lister lied to them, tricked them, dragged them on a stupid chase through time and space for a curry, got them all tangled up a national conspiracy, forced them to have to kill a man (in an indirect nature, but still), and at the end of it, he hasn’t learned a goddamn thing.

“Smeg! I forgot to ask him if there were any curry houses in Dallas!”

I’d have beaten the shit out of him, too, quite frankly.

>and at the end of it, he hasn’t learned a goddamn thing.

A far cry from Classic Lister, that, which I think is probably why it stands out to folks as being a big letdown from the rest of the episode.

>Probably would have drawn the line at jumping on his head and battering him with a truncheon though.

Bingo. In an episode all about actions and consequences, it’s ludicrous to end with the Dwarfer’s light-heartedly enacting what would realistically cause life threatening damage with all the consequences of a Looney Tunes cartoon (except not as good).

>A far cry from Classic Lister, that, which I think is probably why it stands out to folks as being a big letdown from the rest of the episode.

That too. It completely clashes with the tone of his one-on-one conversation with JFK just moments earlier.

If every episode after BITR had been a CANARIES adventure a la Cassandra, I would have been much hapier with series VIII. Great idea poorly executed bar the one high point.

I was thinking about that when typing my post above. If it had been like that, do you think a lot of us would then be complaining that Red Dwarf VIII was too repetitive?

That was one complaint made by some viewers of Red Dwarf VI. That being said, while I can see what they mean in retrospect I liked the format of that series and it is arguably my favourite of the lot. It’s probably a good thing they changed the format a bit for series VII though. (Silly size increasing stuff aside.)

I know where you’re (Carlito) coming from. I liked the Canaries concept in series VIII and I think they should have done more with it, although probably not with every episode.

> There’s a point when the elaborate winding up of Rimmer becomes actually annoying.

Are you thinking of the tomato-sneeze gag? Uggh. Lister really scraped the bottom of the barrel for that prank. (Yes, I’m aware that when the writing’s good I credit Doug (or Rob and Doug) and when it’s bad I say, “Why’d Lister do that?”)

>IMO the show works well when we sympathise with Lister. That was the original setup, that we’re on his side and root for him all the way.

Agree 100%. That’s why the end of Tikka is so repulsive.

>Rimmer: Maybe you get blind drunk?
Kochanski: That doesn’t excuse my other 4 senses

My most favorite lines in all of VIII. I can’t think of anything else in the entire series that makes me laugh every time.