For the third time since Red Dwarf's revival, I find myself sitting down to review a series finale, and pondering the very nature of what a series finale ought to entail. The Beginning went for an emotional resolution, leaving the characters very much in a place where they can be picked up again, but providing a satisfying full stop to their adventures if the worst came to the worst. Can of Worms didn't have to do that, and indeed it wasn't initially designed to be the final episode; it was placed at the end presumably because it was deemed to be one of the strongest, with an attention-grabbing premise to raise expectations.

Skipper aims to tick both of those boxes, and yet in many ways it's like no Red Dwarf finale that's been before. While it shares with Back To Reality the threat of a fundamental change to the show's formula, it packs so many big and varied ideas into its running time that it feels more along the lines of a Doctor Who finale - throwing handfuls of elements from the history of the series together, jumbling them all up and turning everything up to 11. It super-serves the hardcore fans and hooks in the casual and lapsed ones with a much-publicised returning guest star, then hits them all with surprise after surprise when it gets underway.

Such a unique episode of Red Dwarf needs to be tackled in a different way. The story can be split into three distinct stages, both in terms of the progression of the plot and the journey of the main character. So let's deal with those stages one by one.

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