Best worst Red Dwarf viewing order

[Warbodog]

A good game that rewards bad Red Dwarf viewing, as compensation for those people never really being able to grasp this extremely serialised show.

Score 1 point per episode number of the first episode you saw in each respective series (1-8 points).

Score an extra series bonus point for the number of the series you saw first (1-13).

Unseen bonus points of 2 points per episode you never watched, to reward stubbornness/principles, however misguided.

(The Promised Land counts as a series (officially) and an episode 1 of 1).

Me:

Waiting for God 4

Kryten 1

Timeslides 5

Justice 3

Quarantine 4

Legion 2

All disappointing 1s from there

Series bonus: 4

Total: 26

Topic

[tombow]

I’ve said it before but Out of Time was the first episode I saw as a kid (must have been on its premiere broadcast). It really disturbed me. Then somehow I saw Queeg, Marooned and then the rest of the series from Polymorph on. I read the novels but I didn’t see the first 2 series until the remastered videos.

[Warbodog]

I read the first two books before I saw the episodes  they adapted. But I had seen plenty of other Red Dwarf, I don’t get to be that cool.

[Rushy]

I’m extremely boring and just watched the entire show in order. Then read the books in order. 

[Warbodog]

Yeah, this is unapologetically biased in favour of being old, poor (not having satellite TV/videos) and/or stupid (not realising you can rent videos; missing your bonus points from your total score).

[Technopeasant]

I honestly can’t remember what I first watched when I was six. I can say I saw V and II last of the bubble, but otherwise…

[clem]

The first episode I ever saw was Parallel Universe, repeated on BBC2 in 1994. I continued watching the rest of that run, with changed episode orders for IV and V and Psirens missed out. I’m pretty certain that when I eventually saw Series 1 I saw The End first, and everything after the bubble I saw on original broadcast.

So 1+6+1+5+6+2+1+1+1+1+1+1+1 = 28

Plus a Series Bonus of 2 even though I only saw the last episode before moving on to III, and of course I’ve seen every episode, so no Unseen Bonus.

Final score: 30

[FutureEchoes]

I first caught Red Dwarf in bits and pieces on reruns and On Demand (where I saw I and II in order) before I finally did a full series run through to fill in any of the gaps I was missing.

I – The End 1
II – Kryten 1
III – Backwards 1
IV – Dimension Jump 5
V – Quarantine 4
VI – Rimmerworld 5

VII – Ouroboros 3
VIII – Pete Part I 6

(Then 1 point for all of the Dave era)

Series Bonus – 3

Final Score – 31

[International Debris]

Terrorform was the first episode I saw, but after that I either watched full series repeats or full series via video, so it’s not even worth adding up the points.

[RunawayTrain]

I *might* have watched BtE when broadcast before my friend officially introduced me to Red Dwarf and we watched it from the start on DVD.  If that’s the case then I score a bonus 9 but I can’t be sure!  I recall it ringing a bell once we reached it in our watchthrough though.  So my score is either 13, for episode 1 of each series, or 22 if BtE was my first.

[Moonlight]

I saw everything roughly in order from about Series III on. The last “new” episode I ever saw pre-BtE was Duct Soup which I had somehow missed the first time around renting the DVDs (VII was the last one I got my own copy of).

[Ben Saunders]

I was far too young to retain the memory of exactly what order I watched Red Dwarf in. I think I started with The End. I seem to remember only having Byte 1 on VHS, so did I have to wait until the DVDs to see the last three episodes? I simply don’t remember. But we were even into the DVDs before I was like 10, I remember having IV on DVD specifically because our off-air VHS of it was horribly degraded and would play all slow, low and glitchy like some analog horror. I remember being obsessed with DNA when I was 8.

I never saw Epideme/Nanarchy until I was very much older, because our off-air stopped at Beyond A Joke. Did my dad forget to record the final two episodes because he assumed it was a six-episode series? Would the final two episodes simply not fit on a standard-length videotape? Did he think VII was shit and not bother recording the rest? Who knows.

VIII is a strange one, because I know for a fact we had all of Back in the Red on an off-air. We might have had Cassandra too. But anything beyond that? I don’t know, the tape might have had something else on it as well, limiting the space for Dwarf. Only the Good might even have been the first episode of VIII I saw, because my brother downloaded it off of Limewire and showed it to me when I was about 8, skipping over the fantastic period bit. Did I see Krytie TV as a child? You’d hope not. Pete? I have no idea.

So pretty much, everything in order except maybe the last 3 episodes of Series 1 and VIII and potentially Only the Good first. Probably. I should have written all this down as a seven year old. 19 points?

[Ian Symes]

I have a disappointingly low score of 11, because I generally watched the first episode of each series first, despite the order being all over the shop.

Back To Reality
The rest of V
All of VI in order, on first broadcast
Camille, DNA, Justice (got the tape for Christmas)
Backwards, Marooned, Polymorph (bought the tape with my gift vouchers just after Christmas)
The End (94 repeat run)
Balance of Power (I forgot all about the 94 repeat run in the second week)
Waiting For God, C&P, Me2
All of Series 2 in order
The latter half of Series III
The latter half of Series IV
Future Echoes (when I finally got it on VHS)

Everything else on first broadcast. Though with audience recordings for the Dave era, there’s an argument that I saw versions of those episodes out of order… 

[Warbodog]

Did my dad forget to record the final two episodes because he assumed it was a six-episode series? Would the final two episodes simply not fit on a standard-length videotape?

VIII was the first and last series I got around to taping myself and I specifically bought a 4-hour tape for it (in a red case as a bonus) in case it was an extra long one like VII. VII would have caught me off guard though.

You could also record in ‘longplay’ mode to double the length of videos at presumably half the quality, but I wanted to treat Red Dwarf to maximum superior overplayed VHS quality.

[Flap Jack]

I have a disappointingly low score of 11, because I generally watched the first episode of each series first, despite the order being all over the shop.

That would actually be 23, right? Because you get a minimum 1 point per series plus a minimum 1 point for your starting series.

I actually did watch the show fully in release order – because I was introduced to it after the DVD releases had started, and by a friend who had his priorities right – so my score is 14. (Unless I’ve completely misunderstood the rules.)

[Warbodog]

Camille, DNA, Justice (got the tape for Christmas)

Backwards, Marooned, Polymorph (bought the tape with my gift vouchers just after Christmas)

I only ever found Byte 2s to rent, which still gives the back halves of I, III & IV (& middle of V) extra comfort appeal.

[Ian Symes]

That would actually be 23, right? Because you get a minimum 1 point per series plus a minimum 1 point for your starting series.

Oh yes, I forgot to carry the three.

[Dave]

I only know my first episode was definitely The Inquisitor because I vividly remember seeing the opening exchange about Virgil’s Aeneid and loving it, wondering who all these weird characters were.

That sequence sold me on the whole show and the fact that the rest of the episode was such a fantastic, funny sci-fi thriller was a delight.

After that it was other V and IV episodes before catching up on repeat runs and VHSs and then seeing all of VI as it went out.

I appreciate that this slightly vague recollection doesn’t help in terms of a precise points tally.

[Technopeasant]

This thread must make no sense to anyone under 25.

[clem]

Though with audience recordings for the Dave era, there’s an argument that I saw versions of those episodes out of order… 

That didn’t occur to me but I was at the recording for The Beginning, so if that counts it bumps up my overall score to 35.

[Nick R]

The first specific episode I remember seeing was Confidence and Paranoia, in the 1994 repeat run. I remember other episodes being on TV, but only remember that one in particular because was scared by the bit where Confidence tells Lister to take off his helmet in space and then explodes.

After that, I don’t remember seeing any more of the 1994 repeat run. Next, I did see the early 1996 repeats of series VI, from Legion onwards. This also means that the subsequent stand-alone repeat of Dimension Jump was the first episode I saw of series IV – I remember thinking that it was going to resolve the Out of Time cliffhanger, and being disappointed that it didn’t.

I saw all of VII in order on broadcast.

The End (remastered) in February 1998, when it was shown before Red Dwarf Night.

Then the remastered broadcasts of series I and II. (Except I missed Thanks For the Memory.)

Around this time I also read the novels, the Soup script books, and the Programme Guide, giving me spoilers aplenty for episodes I hadn’t seen!

Then series VIII on broadcast, followed by the 1999 broadcasts of series III remastered.

Also around this time, a friend at school lent me his videos of series IV and V. But I can’t remember which Bytes I saw in which order! But for the purposes of this thread, I’m going to assume I saw IV in order, and V with the Quarantine byte first.

—

So, adding all that up:

Episodes I saw first from each series: s1e1 + s2e1 + s3e1 + s4e5 + s5e4 + s6e2 + s7e1 + s8e1 + BTEe1 + s10e1 + s11e1 + s12e1 + TPEe1 = 21 pts

Series I saw first: I’m going to say 6 because even though it wasn’t home to the first episode I saw, it was the first series where I watched multiple episodes.

Total = 27 pts

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