Eleven for XI: The Top 11 Ways Red Dwarf Can Improve for Series XI

[Renegade Rob]

I came up with this wishlist after Series X, but now that XI has formally been announced, I thought I’d put this up. I smegging loved Series X, and felt that it recaptured much (if certainly not all) of the series’ past magic. But Series X did have its share of kinks, so I thought I’d make this general Top-11 wishlist for the next two series. I think of it as just a constructive response to a great series, but others might see it as an obsessive twat telling a genius veteran like Doug Naylor how to write. Both interpretations are valid:

#11. Kryten Should Stick to Saying ‘Sir’ Only Once Per Sentence

Series X Kryten was easily the best version of the character since VI, and it was interesting to watch him in servile mode and interacting with the characters in a series that on occasion strongly resembles Series I & II. During those seasons, Rimmer and Lister were just screwing around on the ship, pretty much sans Kryten, and even in Series III, Robert Llewellyn hadn’t fully settled into the role of Kryten, so the fully-settled Llewellyn Kryten in a I-II context was both warmly familiar and refreshingly new.

That being said, Kryten needs to cool it with the ‘sirs.’ I get that it’s a performance thing and that it’s a placeholder word like ‘um…’ but all the same, one sir per sentence. It’s a nitpick but it’s the one thing about Kryten that was hard to ignore. Easy fix.

#10. Explanations Should Be A Little More Fleshed Out

On the whole, X nailed the sci-fi elements. The quantum rod was an imaginative idea, and having a predictive computer led to some great comedy dialogue. But there were a couple moments in X where the sci-fi was a little fuzzy but could have been easily elaborated on. Now I get that Red Dwarf is just a comedy sci-fi show, but on some level it’s still kind of ‘hard’ sci-fi. It’s certainly not Doctor Who where any old technobabble can be pulled out of nowhere to do anything, like say, have Catherine Tate be half Time-Lord and embarrassingly cause an army of Daleks to spin around. Ugh. I hate that scene so fucking much. Anyways, part of what makes Red Dwarf so great is that it, in its own way, has RULES. There were moments in X where the sci-fi was softer than it should be: How did the Rejuvenation Shower lead to time travel? How did Cat saying ‘choke’ lead the BEGG’s to choke? Were Howard and Sim Crawford really pulled into the future? Now these ideas did work, but some better explanations would benefit these concepts exponentially, especially since they’re crucial to the plot. Especially the quantum choking with the BEGGS. Quantum theory is NUTS, and I think I really get what Doug was going for there, but it would have been fun to explain and delve into a little more what was going on there scientifically. Series X showed some gaps and nebulousness when it came to explaining what the smeg was going on, forcing the viewer to connect dots, which never really happened in the classic series, where explanations were more comprehensive. Again, another nitpick and easy fix.

#9. The Dwarfers Actually Need to Give a Crap When People Die

This was an actual problem with Series X. The Dwarfers, by and large… OUR Dwarfers, are highly flawed but are essentially decent people. Except maybe, sometimes Cat. Rimmer and Lister, though, underneath all their bullshit, are full human beings. But their reactions (or lack thereof) to Howard and Irene’s demises were COLD AS FUCKING ICE. I mean what the hell.

Rimmer was reunited with his own brother, whom he had been separated from for years, but took the opportunity to taunt Howard as he was literally dying. What? This is the same Rimmer who was extremely upset upon hearing news of his father’s death after he already knew that everyone he knew was already dead. Now he’s literally face to face with his brother and revels in his death? Even for Rimmer, that’s low. And Lister. Don’t get me started on Lister. As funny as the “Have you got a pen?” punchline was in the moment, you still can’t help but think, “Jesus!” A woman just died, and Lister’s kind of like “That sucks.” A whole other person just died. Also, one of the last remaining humans in the universe, but that’s neither here nor there. Even if she was a robot, she would have been a good robot. Red Dwarf’s always been dark, but the characters’ coldness was out of character. Now balancing dark humor with comedy is a tricky thing, and I think these are just instances of mining comedy from dark humor at the expense of character. It happens. But these moments fall too far outside the leeway point. It’s not that they’re in bad taste (though they probably are), it’s that they’re not true to the characters. This is the kind of crap you’d get from Seinfeld or It’s Always Sunny, where the protagonists are truly horrible people. The Dwarfers, for all their flaws, are not this. The Dwarfers are human beings, and all we ask for is a little follow-through. Kill off whoever you want, but the Dwarfers should at least be irked. They’re misfits, not psychopaths. You know when the Inquisitor killed the alternate crew? Lister said “Oh my God!” and sadly remarked on how he got Rimmer and the Cat? That’s all we’re looking for. Just a little humanity.

#8. When In Doubt, Err on the Side of Simplicity

If you look at the three arguably least well-received episodes of X, Fathers & Suns, Entangled, and Dear Dave, they all have one thing in common: narratively, they’re a little all over the place. (Perhaps that’s a little too unkind to Fathers & Suns, which I freaking loved, but that’s neither here nor there. They’re all good episodes, but clearly Trojan, Lemons, and the Beginning are objectively better). I think a big factor is that those three episodes are narratively and structurally all over the place. Look at almost any episode from the classic series and you realize that there’s usually only an A plot, and if there is a B plot, it will connect directly with the A plot by the end. Red Dwarf isn’t the Big Bang Theory where Leonard and Penny do their bullshit, Sheldon does his bullshit across the hall, and across town Howard and Bernadette do their bullshit. Even when the Dwarfers are just fucking around in the bunkroom, conceptually, it’s all pretty cohesive and streamlined. Everything relates to the central plot or concept. There’s actual deep shit and/or cool concepts being explored. The classic series was efficient and economical in its storytelling, and X by and large was as well. But even though Fathers & Suns was mostly great, the Taiwan Tony C-plot was really extraneous; I wasn’t that irked by the accent thing or even the joke behind the whole plot, which was fine, but the problem was the opportunity cost. Every second with Taiwan Tony or Chinese whispers was a second not with Pree or Double Lister. Red Dwarf is best when it picks one (or maybe two concepts) and efficiently uses its runtime to draw those concepts out and elaborate on them. It’s not an ADHD network sitcom that shifts between Plot A and Plot D and Plot C and hopes nobody notices that there isn’t really a story going on. Series X mostly wasn’t that, thankfully, but it started to lean in that direction slightly. Red Dwarf is a deep, rich show of substance, and that substance comes from the way it efficiently handles it uses its time to expound on its characters and concepts where more inferior shows bounce around more without purpose. There are a lot of modern sitcoms out there with that bad habit, and I humbly hope that Red Dwarf sticks with its Dwarfiness instead and keeps its plots tighter.

#7. The Universe Needs To Be A Little More Serious

Red Dwarf is, at the end of the day, a sitcom, so it makes sense that that the things and people the protagonists encounter are funny… except Red Dwarf is a strange bird. The wonderful universe it originally set out for itself from day one suggests that while Rimmer, Lister, the Cat, and Holly are funny characters (or at least funny when stuck in a ship together), the rest of the universe is serious and bleak. Remember Hollister in the early days? His scenes in I-II were funny, not necessarily because he himself as a character was funny (chicken suit notwithstanding), but because he became funny when Lister and Rimmer’s shenanigans bounced off him. Consider his meeting with Lister in The End, and even the cutting-of-the-cake scene. He’s a mostly serious, competent character who would work well in a sitcom, or equally well in a more serious sci-fi show. Many of the Dwarfers’ most iconic villains weren’t silly in their own right…. The Inquisitor, most of the Simulants, the Despair Squid, the Psirens, hell… even the holo-virus wasn’t necessarily hilarious until it infected Rimmer of all people. Otherwise these could easily all serve as serious villains on serious shows. The Inquisitor making people be judged by themselves is actually a pretty heavy concept. But when that’s applied to Rimmer and the Cat…. comedy gold. Human-hunting simulants aren’t necessarily funny on their own… but trying to trick them with an eye stuck on your upside-down chin as you claim you’re a different species… comedy gold. The point is, whatever humor occurs in an episode is generated in some way from the wacky characteristics and actions of the Dwarfers themselves. They don’t live in a Mel Brooks Spaceballs universe, a cartoon, farcical outer space where every little thing is independently goofy. The Dwarfers make their own funny, and it’s distracting when external characters are independently goofy.

Of course, again, there’s some leeway, since the world can be a funny place, and the Red Dwarf crew don’t own being wacky. In many ways, they’re not even that special. So perhaps you can have Caligula and Elvis, you can have Hudzen 10, you can maybe, MAYBE even have Ace Rimmer as he appears in VII, crocodile-surfing and sky-writing (it was an alternate universe, after all). What I’m saying is, it’s important to make sure the level of silliness external to the Dwarfers remains at least kind of consistent with the universe as a whole; and indeed, arguably most of the Dwarfers’ most epic and well-loved adventures are those where the villain is serious and/or the Dwarfers generate their own problems. That was one of the problems of VIII. The was no reason for all of the resurrected crew to be that farcically silly (no matter how admittedly good Mac McDonald himself was in VIII); part of the charm of the Dwarfers is that they bring the wacky in an otherwise predominantly bleak, indifferent, and neutral universe.

So after all that tot, we finally bring the discussion back to X, which, mostly is actually fine. Howard and Sim Crawford reach the right level of plausibly funny without going overboard. However, that stupid gurn when the holograms short out from resentment… that did not fit in the Red Dwarf universe whatsoever, to the point where it was distracting. The idea of the resentment crash is great, but should have been represented in a slightly more serious way. Now, all the goofy programs and vending machines on Red Dwarf… most of that has been part of Red Dwarf since the beginning. Talking toasters, talking toilets… the vending machines are fine because they’re still in the bubble of consistency (Taiwan Tony is really on the edge, though his existence isn’t entirely implausible). Hell, even the Medi-Bot is almost forgivable. (Not only have I met people like the Medi-Bot, I’ve met doctors like the Medi-Bot.) Is he overly wacky? Yes, but he might not inconsistent considering historically the number of other crazy AI Red Dwarf’s had on board. (Besides, I’d take 100 Medi-Bots over one Blaize Falconburger any day). Now, Lemons often danced the line in terms of acceptable external wackiness. Jesus, while mostly excellent, really approached the threshold with lines like “oh bugger” and him threatening to punch Lister’s teeth out. Yes, it not “the” Jesus, and while everything he said, particularly in the final act, was damn funny, he approached being a little too Mel Brooks/Monty Python-y, in a manner inconsistent with the Dwarf universe. Irene Edgington may have danced the line too but falls within the leeway zone, even if only just, if for no other reason than she doesn’t stick around long enough for her implausibility to dominate. Hogey the Roguey, too, approaches the line, but is compelling enough and consistent enough with what we’ve seen before to pass scrutiny; and arguably, he’s kind of an honorary Dwarfer, so falls comfortably within their bubble of wacky.

And then we come to the Simulants in The Beginning. I god damn loved these guys, and every moment they were on screen was a joyous triumph (yes, even the ‘sycophant’ scene, which the political science major in me loves almost as much as the hari-kari scene). That hari-kari scene is perhaps not just the best scene in X, but belongs in the Dwarf pantheon along with other classic scenes. However… while I was laughing my ass off, the little nitpicking dickhead inside me was getting concerned. Why? Because perhaps I was laughing at these scenes for the wrong reasons. Sure the Simulants were freaking hilarious, but in a Spaceballs/Monty Python kind of way, not in a Red Dwarf kind of way; it’s hard to picture the Dominator and Chancellor from The Beginning existing in the same universe as The End. Indeed, it kind of feels like I’m watching a different show; that kind of scene with none of the main characters has rarely been done before in Red Dwarf. The Simulants are overtly wacky all on their own, far more so than the Simulants of old. And yet they work. Is this okay? Do they fall within the acceptable level of external wackiness along the same lines as Hudzen 10 and Caligula, or is their excessive wackiness and inconsistency with prior Simulants forgivable because of the humor factor? Do laughs win out at all costs?

Now I’d reckon that against all odds, these Simulants pass scrutiny, but only because they fall under the exception that they were freaking god damn hilarious; anything short of that, and they’d fail, and risk being the Simulant “who doesn’t get invited to birthday parties” of VII. I’ll admit, I’m a weird guy; I can’t measure how good I think something is by how much I laugh at it. I can laugh my ass off at something a lot but not really enjoy it, like a bad episode of South Park, or Saturday Night Live. So I can’t accept the argument that “If it’s funny, then it works and all is forgiven, period.” Because if something is funny, but not the right kind of funny, I may well not really enjoy it. Thankfully, I did enjoy these Simulants. They worked. I hope, though, that while these Simulants did work, they won’t lead to a trend of increased external wackiness. The point is, the bleak neutrality of the Red Dwarf universe should be kept in mind with regards to whatever the Dwarfers encounter on their adventures in XI, and when in doubt, erring on the side of less independent wackiness may well actually enhance the humor and the narrative.

#6. A Little More Internal Consistency Would Go A Long Way

Of the several things I really liked about Dear Dave, the main one was the return to the theme of Lister’s loneliness in deep space, as the last member of his species, without a mate or any other kind of true human kinship. Early episodes like Balance of Power and Timeslides covered this well, but once the show started really getting into more adventures, Lister had less time to mope and instead had to fight for his life. Then Kochanski happened. Then the crew got resurrected… Back to Earth finally allowed things to circle back, and now with Dear Dave we finally get another episode dedicated to one of the core themes of the entire show. Lister has no other human company, and especially no more female human company, and that’s a sad fate indeed….

Oh wait, except there was that human woman walking around only one freaking episode ago. Remember her? Lister didn’t seem to make a big deal then. It’s just something that’s impossible to clear from one’s mind when watching Dear Dave, the fact that the thing Lister’s pining for was right in front of him just moments previously, when he wasn’t really affected by it. And yeah, I get that Entangled and Dear Dave had production problems and last-minute rewrites, so there wasn’t exactly time to smooth out the continuity. And if I were being super, duper charitable, I could argue that Lister’s depression in Dear Dave was brought on by Irene’s death in Entangled (thus also addressing my earlier jadedness gripe). Those are perfectly legitimate counterpoints. But those don’t detract from my general point here, which is that if nothing else, XI should at the very least have a solid continuity between the episodes in its own series, and especially between two adjacent episodes.

#5. Be Careful With the Prologues and Codas of Episodes

The opening and closing scenes were a hallmark of the early Dwarf episodes, which the mostly-domestic X seems to be more or less based on. Several classic episodes start with the Dwarfers goofing off early in the first act, before the sci-fi smeg enters the ring: the faffing about with cooking and home movies in Polymorph, Lister watching the romance movie in Confidence & Paranoia, the table golf in Timeslides… those are all great openings and great setups for the plots that follow. It’s important though to make sure that these have sufficient connection, if not narratively then at least thematically, with the action that follows, or else they just slow things down. And for the most part, X gets away with most of its prologues, since they set up the action to follow. Fathers & Suns, Trojan, even Entangled have pretty good and relevant opening scenes. However, Lemons is the main culprit for the least adequate prologues. The ‘soy sauce’ and Shakespeare double-prologue scenes take up the majority of the first act, and their connections to the main story just don’t justify the length of time they occupy. Maybe the ‘soy sauce’ scene is justified, since the spleen payoff later was actually superb. And if it had just gone from that scene to the Rejuv Shower, that actually would have been really good. But the Shakespeare running gag though is a drawback. There is something there, I’ll give you that. The skullet line was funny, but the expressions being said later on to Rimmer’s annoyance… however potentially funny that idea was, the question is, did the Shakespeare expressions used later on justify the large amount of time the Shakespeare scene in the drive room occupied? I would say no. Now Lemons is one of the best episodes of X, and even that Drive Room scene has some great quips. But the episode almost started to grind to a halt before the main action even started. So if an episode’s going to have a prologue scene or two, fine, but the time they take up should be correlative to the narrative and/or thematic relevance they’ll have later on.

And even codas, the ending scenes, are a trickier beast, namely because when Red Dwarf has done these in the past, it has only done so with varying degrees of success. And that’s not to say X isn’t entitled to forge its own personality and do something new, building onto what’s come before. Besides, codas are only usually very brief so typically they aren’t that dangerous or problematic. But the reality is, even the classic series couldn’t consistently nail down the type of coda where time passes after the climax to the point where the gang can get re-settled for the status-quo-restoring coda scene. That doesn’t mean those types of codas should be completely discouraged, but the codas in X kind of felt like a by-numbers aspect that had to be there for the classic vibe, and my point is, they kind of don’t. Overall, prologues and codas are fine, but only to the extent to which they setup or conclude the main action; otherwise, they run the risk of diluting the episode. Though Series X was mostly alright on these fronts, a tweak or two in these regards will make XI that much tighter and more narratively efficient.

#4. Bring On the Bunkroom

Okay, so you have the bunkroom! Fan-smegging-tastic! I can’t even describe how thrilled I’ve been about that. It looks just beautiful, and it sets itself apart as part of a new era while simultaneously paying tribute to the Dwarf of old. Stellar. I couldn’t be happier. And, the new bunkroom was well-used! Most of the scenes (or at least most of the best scenes) of the series took place here. The “A Moose!” scene, the Double Lister scene, “He Hath Risen!,” the Charades scene, all those wonderful events and more happened here, and hell, it was even under attack, (a rare mixture of the bunkroom setting and the action-adventure aspects of Dwarf)! And the gang hung out here a lot, at a rate not seen since at least III & IV. This is all great, and I’m happy and proud that Series X has done all this.

So as a typically unthankful fan, I feel obligated to request MORE BUNKROOM! MOAR!!!! (Please). Now by that I don’t mean more time of the episode in the bunkroom, but more of the classic ‘bunkroom scenes’ that were a hallmark of early Dwarf. Sure in X, they hung out in the bunkroom a lot, but the room was more of a general lounge for all the Dwarfers to come, go, and spend time in than it was a setting for the Lister-Rimmer dynamic (not that it wasn’t both in the earlier series, but it used to be both, is my point). Hell, the actual bunks were only used I think twice in the whole series, but those were general scenes (both very good scenes mind you), not ever really a forum for classic-style Rimmer-Lister dialogues. Dear Dave was really only it when it came to Rimmer-Lister heart-to-hearts, unless you count the start of the ‘lateral thinking question’ scene. Hell, I’m afraid to say that even Series VIII had more bunkroom scenes than X ever did. And they were in a jail cell then; now they’re actually back in a legit bunkroom! (Where are they now on the ship btw? Not the officers block, I’m sure. Their current residence looks simultaneously nicer and shittier than their original quarters, in the most glorious way.)

Dear Dave had some great Rimmer-Lister dialogue exchanges, and there were even more excellent exchanges in the deleted scenes (the “getting lost in the womb” conversation was a highlight). So more of that, please! X gave us episodes that delved in to Rimmer’s psyche and personal problems (Trojan/The Beginning) and Lister’s as well (Fathers & Suns/Dear Dave), and those aspects are extremely appreciated. I really enjoyed them a hell of a lot and am thrilled that Dwarf is once again throwing that kind of character humor our way. But just overlapping those psychological Rimmer and Lister aspects a bit (as I-III, and even sometimes IV, beautifully did) and making the bunkroom be used more as Rimmer & Lister’s actual bedroom and forum for philosophical and personal discussions, would put XI over the top and into the status of “really, really freaking awesome…. no, like really.”

#3. Turn Up the Rimmer Quotient But Turn Down the Broadness

If I could point to one aspect of the Red Dwarf narrative that’s made me fall in love with the show the most, it’s Rimmer. He’s, by quite a margin, the most interesting character in the show overall, the most complex, and the source of most of the humor. Everyone else is great too, but the writing for Rimmer, and Chris Barrie’s performance over the years, has been the jewel in the show’s crown. Hell, many of the best episodes of the show are those centered around Rimmer. Put simply: Rimmer is the best part of the show…

…except in Series X. Now Rimmer, both in the writing and the acting, was very good this series. But maybe it’s just because of the passage of time, but the huge lead Rimmer had in being the best character on the show is almost non-existent this series. He’s more or less on equal footing with the others. Moreover, it might well even be Lister or Cat who overtake him as the best character in X, simply because they were both just so good this series. (Kryten’s really great too, but the nature of his character was never going to make him #1 material. Though he does make a good go at it in VI…) So, what’s the problem with Rimmer? Honestly, I’m not sure. He’s lost a little of the magic he once had, and I’m not in a position to know what percent of that is the writing and what percent of that is Chris Barrie’s performance. But it seems like Rimmer in Series X is almost now merely Rimmer-by-numbers. Pompous? Check. Fails exams? Check. Family baggage? Check. All of those are well-used in X and are decent seeds for a good character, and even Rimmer-by-numbers is pretty funny a lot of the time. But Rimmer is so much more than that. One of my problems with Rimmerworld was its really broad analysis of Rimmer as a cartoon character, as if his weasily-ness was in the core of his essence and not the result of a complex upbringing and inability to channel skills (that likely do exist within him somewhere) to rise in rank, succeed romantically, and meet his ambitions, as well as the self-loathing and anguish that come with that. (The Beginning does get a lot of that right, though, but I’ll get to that in a bit…)

The main issue with Rimmer this series, I think, was just an overall broader depiction of him, both in the writing and the acting. Him complaining atop the captain’s chair on the Trojan was a good speech introducing his character but was just done maybe a little too cartoonishly when a little more anguish would have worked better (The same goes for the ‘hey ho pip and dandy’ scene.) Want proof? Look no further than Holoship, where Rimmer encounters a variation on almost the exact same problems. Taking an exam, rising in rank, aspiring to be higher. But his despair at his failures on that front give the comedy his energy. He’s legitimately suffering in Holoship, and it’s not overplayed at all (“Sorry, I’m busy Wednesday, I’m killing myself.”) True, his complaints in Trojan were more general outbursts of dissatisfaction and the situations in those episodes were very different, of course. And Trojan is still legitimately a good episode; I’m not really knocking what Rimmer says and does in it. I’m just over-examining how Rimmer is saying and doing things. As far as characterization goes, Rimmer in X is hitting only mostly triples, which, while very good, were previously and historically home runs on a constant basis.

Now I’m not ignoring everything good about Rimmer in X. It’s no coincidence that Trojan and The Beginning were two of the best episodes of the series. Rimmer’s resentment, the lateral thinking question, dealing with Howard, all good stuff. And The Beginning really is Rimmer’s chance to shine, and when given the opportunity, Rimmer really does. Chris Barrie is great “Right, you’re on report!” and the writing for Rimmer is back. (In fact, it may well just be the writing for Rimmer that’s the problem in X, because when given the calibre of writing of The Beginning, Chris Barrie does a sublime job, as he also does with the delivery of lines like “How long, you mad Goth bastard?!” earlier in the series.) But for the rest of X, Rimmer is only very good, not great. Apart from the resentment gurn in Trojan and the over-repetition of “Or was it the system?” in Entangled, Rimmer definitely isn’t problematic or anything. He’s always an asset. Rimmer’s never, ever been bad at all really. (He was far and away the most enjoyable aspect of VIII, for instance). And I acknowledge the fact that Rimmer’s been played broadly before in the classic series, and that not every episode is a Rimmer episode. But Rimmer-based episodes just dominate (and they mostly do in X), and Rimmer is always a fountain of comedy even in episodes not focused on him; in X, he’s a just little overbroad and unsubtle in both the writing and acting and thus doesn’t bring 100% on these fronts, even if he is bringing 80-90% a lot of the time. And while not every episode’s going to be Thanks for the Memory II: Return of the Holoship and require the true, sincere, subtle Rimmer pathos and anguish, the fact remains that the less broadly Rimmer is depicted, the better he and any given episode will be. So if and when XI occurs, Rimmer should be just that much more humanized and fleshed out. He’s actually really great in The Beginning, so if nothing else, let that be the template…

(Though seriously, Thanks for the Memory II: Return of the Holoship would be a killer episode for XI. Just saying. I look forward to receiving credit in the documentary.)

#2. Channel the Classic Series Without Echoing It Directly

Okay, this one’s really kind of unfair, I admit that. X is endeavoring to recapture the magic of the classic series, and here I am as an ungrateful fan saying “Aaaaaah stop! You’re recapturing it too much!” But the truth is, there were noticeable points in Series X that were direct echoes of specific events and exchanges from the old series, and it was distracting. The “practice rectum” conversation overtly draws from both the kebab scenes in Polymorph and the golf scene in Timeslides. Lister ‘humping’ the vending machine, with Rimmer catching him, is a direct echo of the boxer shorts gag from Polymorph, (though in my mind the vending machine scene is better set-up, less contrived, and more thematically relevant to its respective episode). Now sometimes, this direct echoing can be a good thing. The “don’t think about it scene” between Lister and Cat directly channels the ‘pit bull scene’ in Nanarchy, but builds on that scene and is vastly superior to it. So it does swing both ways. And even the other scenes listed above are decent in isolation. But when you reach a point where a gag overlaps too much with an old gag done before, no matter how funny it is in isolation, it severely injures the effectiveness of the gag. It just does. Now, that being said, I really laughed at all the jokes I just listed, so an injured gag surely isn’t a dead gag.

And I will say this. Recapturing the classic essence of a show is an inexact science, and if having a few gags overlap is the price to be paid for a series that seeks to mostly have its own identity while channeling and homaging the best aspects of the classic years, then it’s a price I’ll gladly pay. And it does seem like a large part of X’s identity is in fact a unique patchwork of the classic series, which is a very interesting and worthy endeavor, and one that I think mostly succeeds. The Drive Room of X simultaneously channels the Drive Room of Series I, the Science Rooms of II-V, and the cockpit of VI-VII, all while presenting a new and unique location (spiral staircase, hells yeah!). That right there tells you so much about X and its style. So when attempting a style that simultaneously forges a new identity and tries new things, while also re-establishing the formats and characterizations of old, there’s room for slight missteps, which are mostly forgivable. Strive to far too the past, you get a “practice-rectum” scene that almost shamelessly over-channels Series III. But if you experiment too much, you get the problematic Chinese Whispers subplot. The endeavor is tricky, but highly admirable, laudable, and encouraged, and I’m willing to grant a great degree of leeway, especially because each of the echoing scenes was pretty good, even with the distractingly apparent channeling of old gags. It’s just important that XI is careful; even X was mostly careful, but this was just something big and noticeable that should easily be tweakable for XI.

And now we’ve almost reached the end! So now, the #1 thing XI could do to improve over X is….

#1. Increase The Conflict Between the Dwarfers

It’s clear that one of the major aims of Series X was to hit the marks set by the classic series, and indeed, the vibes of II-IV are heavily present, (with a dash of I and VI, though not a lot of V for some reason). And X does hit most of these marks. Characters returned mostly to their classic, iconic settings? Check. Return of the bunkroom and domestic setting? Check. Return of a ship to go exploring? Check. The list of classic standards goes on, and X arguably meets most of them, even if only just. But there are some standards X doesn’t meet.

If there’s one aspect of Series X that separates it from the classic series and prevents it from reaching the highs of those glory days, it’s the absence of conflict and animosity between the Dwarfers themselves. It’s just a fact that the Rimmer, Lister, Cat, and Kryten are extremely chummy in X, likely moreso than they’ve ever been before. And really, that makes loads and loads of sense. After many years together, the gang have grown closer together. Rimmer, the cause of most of the antagonism, has especially grown, a fact best demonstrated in Stoke Me a Clipper, where not only does he have to grow a pair to become Ace, but the affection he and Lister have for each other becomes especially apparent. It’s what gave rise to the admittedly clever development in VIII of bringing back a new version of Rimmer, a snidey one without all that development. And being in prison probably brought the Dwarfers together even more. But it’s clear that the Rimmer of BTE and X at least is related to the original version, likely even the original version having come back home because he missed the other Dwarfers so much (then, pretending to be mortally wounded, tricks the nano-Rimmer into taking his place as Ace before revealing that he’s fine and resuming normal life as Rimmer. Seriously, that would be awesome. But now I’m getting distracted).

Over the years, the Dwarfers, who have long been at each other’s throats, have grown to not just tolerate each other, but actively like each other. Look no further for proof than Trojan, where Kryten, Lister, and Cat voluntarily help Rimmer put on a charade to help him impress his brother. Later on, the conversation about the Church of Judas may have included a few japes at Rimmer’s expense, but it was an earnest conversation between the four about Rimmer’s personal history. Rimmer and Lister open mail together much more amicably than they did in Better Than Life (“Yes I am over 18 although my I.Q. isn’t.”). And The Beginning… man oh man was that episode a display of Dwarfer kinship. Even if reluctantly, the gang respected Rimmer enough to ask him for a battle plan, and proudly carried out Rimmer’s plan as a united front (though I do wonder what would have happened if the missiles had collided with each other inside the Midget). These guys, whether they’d admit it or not, are proper mates. And in many ways, that’s a very good thing, especially if you’re invested in the emotional well-being and development of these characters. I sure am, and to see them stop fighting (they are “dueled out” after all) and just live amicably together as a group, is kind of heartwarming.

But therein lies the rub. Because a great amount of the humor from the classic series was generated from the animosity between the Dwarfers and the insults that resulted. Remember episodes like Balance of Power, Stasis Leak, Bodyswap, Meltdown, and Quarantine, where Rimmer was legit the villain of the episode?! That would never happen with the modern version of Rimmer (unless he got a holo-virus, or a chewed-on light bee… okay, shut up). Remember all the insults against Lister’s ignorance, sloppiness, lack of ambition, and awful guitar playing? What made Cat potentially the MVP of Series X was the fact that out of anyone else, he wasn’t above being a dick and insulting the other Dwarfers (“Your mom was really smart!”), though even he was a little restrained. That’s not to say that the Dwarfers made zero jokes and insults at each other’s expense. But when, for instance, Lister in Trojan points to Cat and says “he only has three” thoughts a day, or when Rimmer says to Cat in Lemons, “Enjoy this moment. You’re no longer the dumb one,” … those are insults alright, but they’re playful and still kind of friendly. (Even so, those sorts of lines, when they appeared in X, were very welcome and appreciated, and the friendly, playful insults are kind of a new dynamic that I kind of really like.)

But the chumminess and lack of antagonism are still a barrier. Now, if it’s decided that, ‘You know what, this is a new, modern era of Red Dwarf, we’re moving forward into new territory, character development will remain intact, and the gang will continue to be amicable because that’s the point the characters are at,” I totally and completely respect and admire that. But that closes a major door, and that door is the sharp character humor made at the characters’ expense that made Red Dwarf so awesome to begin with. I’m not suggesting forcing conflicts or contorting characters and narratives to make the peaceful modern Dwarfers hate each other again. Maybe all that’s needed is friendly competition; hell, Rimmer and Lister’s quests in Stasis Leak to get their designated persons into the one spare stasis booth were in a way kind of friendly competition. Maybe any kind of friendly competition can get the insult juices flowing again (Choux pastries, anyone?).

I remember laughing hysterically the first time I saw White Hole, when Kryten explained that turning Rimmer off with low power would make him effectively dead, to which Cat exclaimed, “Hey! Things are looking up already!” And then Rimmer exclaimed to Kryten, “No chance, you metal bastard.” And then the Dwarfers proceeded to have an argument centered around the fact that Rimmer selfishly was endangering the others by refusing to switch off, with Rimmer calling Captain Oates a prat, remarking that he himself would have killed Scott. Just that one conversation contains so many insults and examples of dark comedy, and is just steeped in animosity… and it’s a classic. I really liked Series X, but it just didn’t have that kind of dynamic. The characters are too grown up now. X recaptured most, but not all of the classic elements, and for it to complete the journey, Rimmer needs to be selfish, resentful, and snidey to a greater degree than he is now, and needs to clash with Lister such that the sparks fly as they once did long ago. Lister, despite being actually fantastic this series, needs to be a tad less tolerant of Rimmer and more willing to throw insults Rimmer’s way (he does get a few good ones in X, though). The Cat was just really, really great this series; but you used to always be able to rely on him to generate piercing one-liners against Rimmer (and even Lister & Kryten), and while he did that a good deal this series (“…who goes by the name of YOU!”), the Cat insult factor has a lot of room to increase.

But at the end of the day, though, the degree of animosity is a highly creative decision, with pros and cons in either direction. I myself love the friendly dynamic the Dwarfers have, on both emotional and narrative levels; what I’m saying, though, is that perhaps they’re just a little too amicable. Then again, the gang was sort of chummy all the back in Better Than Life, Thanks for the Memory, and even the end of Me2. So what the hell do I know? I suppose there’s every reason to believe that the animosity and/or insult factors can plausibly be jacked up at any moment, and I’d recommend that XI do that, even if just a little bit.

So there you have it. My recommendations for the Top 11 things Series XI can do to improve from Series X. I really hope this list isn’t taken as the arrogant and petulant ravings of an ungrateful fan who thinks he knows more about writing and story structure and characterization than someone who’s being doing it since before the beginning of his very existence. Let’s be clear here: I god damn loved Series X. I ate it up. More importantly, though, I god damn loved what X was trying to be, and what it represented. Series X is a freaking godsend on multiple levels. But it’s rough around the edges, and that’s undeniable. But you know what? So was Series I. And the show shook off most of its flaws for Series II. So just think of any item on my list as the equivalent of “the sets are too gray,” easily fixable with a yellow inflatable banana decoration. Series X is the first legit series of Red Dwarf in a long time, and things are gonna be rusty, and all this list is doing is making recommendations for things the show can shake off for XI, just like Series I shook off flaws for Series II.

That being said, I actually find X the most similar to Series III on several levels. Mainly, if you look at the change of the show as a linear progression from the Series I domestic bunkroom setting, set 100% on Red Dwarf, then adding more and more adventure until you get to the action-adventure setting of VI, set 0% on Red Dwarf, Series X matches up mostly with III, especially when you look at its ratio of domesticity to adventures. And let’s be fair: though III is seen by many as a peak season… it had its problems. Performances were off or just too silly (Blaize Falconburger), some stories’ sci-fi elements were under-explained (Backwards, Timeslides), and there was a lot of external silliness (Polymorph)… III was similarly rough around the edges, and moreover a lot of its problems were very similar to X’s perceived problems (Medi-Bot, Rejuv shower, narrative awkwardness, etc.). But then III became IV. And IV freaking ruled and fixed almost all those issues. And let’s be honest here: IV is just III with its crap together. If the change from X to XI is even half as positive as the change from III to IV (or even from I to II), then we’re in for something truly special, far moreso than X. All this list is doing is presenting a suggested roadmap to get there, from a fan who watches this show way too much.

Special mention has to be given, too, to The Beginning, a special episode in a lot of ways. Of all Series X’s aspects I listed above that could be improved upon, The Beginning addresses basically all of them and gets almost all of those aspects right. Subtler, more human characterization for Rimmer? Check. Explanation of the sci-fi concept at play? Check (molecular destabilizer). Efficient plotting, no saggy prologue or coda, and no scene wasted? Check. A simple, memorable plot? Check. The bunkroom actually feeling like Rimmer & Lister’s bedroom and serving as a setting for contemplative, meaningful conversation? Check. The Dwarfers getting in some good japes at Rimmer’s expense? Check. The Beginning succeeds at basically all of these levels, to the point where it feels strangely detached from the rest of Series X. But it’s a familiar kind of detachment, and I realized that it reminded me of how separate Me2 felt from the rest of Series I. That episode basically fixed a lot of Series I’s flaws (meandering narrative, etc.) and paved the way for the glory days of Series II. It’s been said that Me2 is effectively Series 1.5, and serves as a quality bridge between Series I and Series II. In that same vein, I fondly hope that The Beginning is effectively Series 10.5, and serves as a quality bridge between Series X and Series XI (if and when there is a Series XI). If the next series can continue The Beginning’s trends of characterization, action, imagination, mythology, simple and efficient plotting, sharp humor, strong performances, focused personal storytelling, strong continuity, and meaningful contemplation, then we’ll be in for a real treat for Series XI… a real treat indeed.

(If you made it this far, thanks for reading. If you’re Doug Naylor, you’re a genius, and sorry I spent the last 100 paragraphs picking your show apart, you’re amazing, keep doing what you’re doing. Also, have you guys watched that show Other Space? It’s kind of Dwarf-y.)

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[John Hoare]

I’ll review your lemons.

[John Hoare]

no characters like Taiwan Tony who seem to fall back on the lower brow humour akin to the abominable series VIII

Absolutely nothing wrong with low brow humour at all. Some of my favourite jokes ever are entirely in the gutter.

It just needs to be done well, rather than badly.

[Renegade Rob]

>It just needs to be done well, rather than badly.

Definitely true. The problem is, if you’re going to attempt lowbrow humor in a show like Red Dwarf, you have to NAIL it. And what the later series have done often is just swing wildly. If you’re going to swing wildly, do so with a bunkroom scene. Worst case scenario, it’s just 2 people we love chatting and hanging out. Lowbrow humor is a huge risk for a solidly built world like Red Dwarf because if done wrong it derails the narrative and characters and disengages the audience from the story.

[Author]

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