Least favourite Red Dwarf episode?

[Jonathan Capps]

I’m the treasurer, but unfortunately I’ve spent our last remaining petty cash on a quite delicious looking steak bake.

[Arlene Rimmer BSc SSc]

I?m the treasurer, but unfortunately I?ve spent our last remaining petty cash on a quite delicious looking steak bake.

Will you at least share? Considering that technically is the club’s property and all.

I suspect I already know the answer to this one…

[Dave]

I’ve just seen Red Christmas, Part One. It has made me re-evaluate my least favourites.

[Jonathan Capps]

> I suspect I already know the answer to this one?

I’m afraid the steak bake has already been ‘filed’ ‘away’.

[Danny Stephenson]

I can’t believe you shoved it up your arse Cappsy. You could have just eaten it…

[Phil]

I love this town.

[Dave]

This town ain’t big enough for the both of arse

[Jonsmad]

Nice to see Duct Soup, five times bashed, Marleen, that gets a big, thumbs up from me. It’s always been my least favourite. I’ve hardly ever rewatched that one. Dull soup I call it.

In VI they put the crew on Starbug to make it “more confined” for better drama and comedy, then at the start of VII made it expand, then in Duct soup squash everyone into some confined duct water system in order to try and create more confined drama/comedy again. Which is the point at which for me, starbugs layout starts to make the least sense ever.

I’d overlook this in a better episode but I find lots of the character dialouge, traits and jokes boring in this episode. I normally really like sitcom episodes that follow the small environment setup, like “beast in the cage” in One Foot in the Grave, but it’s been discussed elsewhere how the look and lack of audience in and VII’s action/comedy/adventure direction feel becomes totally wrong for a small environment sitcom setup, where Dwarf has excelled in the past in this.

Cat’s lack of tact I find dull, the gay theme with kochanski I find dull, Krytens antics are grating by this point. Lister gets maybe one good comedy speach, and
then it feels like it’s marooned 2 only there isnt a good 2nd character to bounce off. In no other episode do I miss Rimmer and Chris Barrie more.

The very end of the episode Krytens speach sounds more like notes on the episodes setup, and is far too knowing, and those pipe noise sounds at the start and end, annoy me as much as they were supposed to annoy kochanski.

It’s better with the Squeaky Gibson story in, which just adds salt into the wound of the broadcast version that the best bit was cut for timing or taste.

[Pete Part Three]

>It?s better with the Squeaky Gibson story in

I thought that was awful and couldn’t understand the hype from CC. It’s just a story without a punchline. The pipes stuff is horrible but I find Cat’s lack of tact moderately amusing.

It’s better than much of VIII though. Sure, it’s not particularly funny but it has a beginning, middle and an end, as opposed to a load of running around and mugging.

[Anonymous]

Don’t mind Duct Soup. It’s not particularly funny, but in my estimations it’s not offensively awful like the most of rest of VII.

Squeaky Gibson went nowhere, Cat’s lack of tact seemed a bit out of character, the pipes business is shite…. oh and the water effect is completely unconvincing.

As is Lister and Cat’s comedy “rolling down the duct” bit.

Cringe-worthy stuff which rarely occurred in the earlier series…bar the Justice boots. Always hated that bit but forgave it as it took place within a very funny show. Occasional cheap laughs are excusable.

[Dave]

The worst bit for me has to be the old Kryten-had-the-map-upside-down-all-along gag. To think they were worried about Beyond A Joke ending on a ‘groaner’.

[Seb Patrick]

>starbugs layout starts to make the least sense ever.

For me it was when it turned out that Starbug had a massive wind tunnel in it. You couldn’t even claim that it was there for secretly testing super aerodynamic advances, BECAUSE THEY’RE IN SPACE.

[Pete Part Three]

It does seem to be a case of a cool location influencing the writing rather than the other way round.

[Anonymous]

Yes indeed. Why not write it into another episode? Why not let it be part of the Leviathan in Epideme?

[Rhodan]

My “nightmere season” would be probably this:

Balance of power (just becouse it?s most boring of it?s season)
Stasis Leak (primary for continuity issues)
The Last Day
The White Hole
Demons and Angels
Rimmerworld
Nanarchy
Only the Good

But I?m not fond of Emohawk, Duct Soap and Pete (both parts) either.

Still I would probably regard The Last Day. Extremely boring and forgettable.

I also don?t get why Waiting for God is so hated. It?s not exactly masterpiece but I?ve never thought about it as a bad episode.

[ChrisM]

It does seem to be a case of a cool location influencing the writing rather than the other way round.

Agreed. I don’t mind too much that they expanded the Starbug set in series 7 but the whole ‘increasing by 200%’ whatever it is wasn’t really needed. I assume the expansion only happened inside the craft, TARDIS style since the ship would look very strange from the outside. Actually I do think the outside proportions are different, to me the back section (the bugs thorax if you like) looks a bit bigger in relation to the cockpit than it does in most of the other series. The corgi model follows that schematic whilst the playset appears to follow series 3-6.

For expanded sets I think they should have stuck to what we see of the cargo holds in the added ending (you know the Kryten-pop-out-eyes, leave-Lister-stranded scene?) It was more than we saw in previous shows but still believable. That huge hall with the fan though, that didn’t work although it did look very cool.

[Author]

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