Red Dwarf brought
sci-fi and comedy together in a happy marriage of chaos,
colleague hostility and farce. Perfect. Red Dwarf was the first
time serious sci-fi didn’t take itself seriously, it laughed at
itself and the genre without being (too) tacky and cheap,
although we are talking about the BBC here. Set in the 23rd
century and with all the crew wiped out by an accident, except
Dave Lister and his cat Frankenstein, who after a millions of
years (which Lister spends in stasis) evolves into a Felosapein
named imaginatively “Cat”. To add to the cast, Lister’s ex-room
mate, Rimmer, is brought back as a hologram to drive Lister mad
whilst he keeps him sane as it dawns on Lister that the rest of
humanity is dead. Later, in the third series, a robot or “mechanoid”,
as he likes to be known, is brought aboard to bring a bit of
cleaning and ironing to the ship, known as Kryten.
The
series revolves around the adventures of the main characters as
they meet hostile aliens, holograms, time travellers, wax droids
etc. and try to find a way out of their differing predicaments
through ineptness and witlessness. The main theme is the
incompatibility of the crew as they are all contradictory to
each other. Lister is a slob whilst Rimmer always has a pen, Cat
is a narcissist whilst Kryten is altruistic. This all leads to a
cutting sarcastic satire and comic hostility.
If
you’re reading this, you probably know what it’s all about and
got hooked. It hooked me right from the beginning as it worked
its way through the first season of the idealistic and slobbery
Lister to the last season where the crew is reunited in prison.
It never slowed down (although the seventh series lost Rimmer
and some of its pace) and just grew on you as it went along.
Each character was well developed and you either loved them or
hated to love them.
What
Red Dwarf had was an ability to reinvent itself, it started as a
sitcom based on the hostile interaction between the two main
characters, to a space adventuring comedy and right back to a
sitcom mixed with a few escapades into danger. The one-liners
brought in the laughs and were bounced along by the mockery and
farce Grant Naylor brought to sci-fi for the first time. Being a
Star Trek fan, it was refreshing to see something that was a
mockery of al that “Star Trek crap” (Dave Lister) whilst not
alienating sci-fi fans. Patrick Stewart professes himself to be
a Dwarfer and why not? So do I.
