The death of the comedy giant Rob Grant earlier this year, reminded me of one of my earliest ever published works (hence me calling it “Juvenilia”) – a distinctly vicious review of the eighth series of Red Dwarf published in TV Zone magazine issue 122 in 1999 . Don’t worry, it’s not disrespecting him at all as this was the second series without him involved and, frankly, I think the show never really got over his departure.

Certainly on the face of it. I didn’t like the preceding series (also without him) one bit… see if you think that comes through!

Red Dwarf VIII – Volumes I and II

Overall: 6/10

A curate’s smeg

The advent of Red Dwarf VIII brought with it more than its fair share of trepidation; a tangible fear that more of it’s predecessor’s ilk was about to spew forth across the nation’s screens. Those fears vanished slightly as the first ten minutes proved to contain more jokes than series VII in its entirety. Some of us even uncovered our eyes and started breathing again. Even so, in the final analysis the results just aren’t as good as they could or should have been.

The truth is that RDVIII relies too little on its strengths as a comedy with Back in the Red and Pete desperately trying for film-length narratives and science fiction story arcs. Whilst it’s nowhere near as bad as its predecessor, all ‘sit’ and no ‘com’, whenever the plot cranks up the action becomes padded with repetitious humour (a joke only needs one punch-line, Doug), computer-game effects sequences and indulgent self-referencing. Okay, so some people may think this adds texture, but so does Tofu.

Where the show really scores is in its return to the character-based humour of the first two series, most obviously between Lister and Rimmer. It proves that the characters work best when responding to simple situations and never when trying to advance the plot. The banter and interaction between the various groupings are the highlights of every episode, and consequently the stand-alone episodes are the ones which work best. It’s a shame there’s only the two of them as both Cassandra and Krytie TV are the freshest Dwarfs in a long time, the heroes benefiting from the new supporting characters and situations provided in the season’s scenario.

Hopefully, series VIII is transitional, its over-plotted sci-fi blending with the sparkling character-interaction which I feared was trimmed long ago. If it focuses on the latter then Red Dwarf IX could be a return to past form, but you can’t hide from the fact that this series is a bit inconsistent. At the end of the day, though, even the out-takes are funnier than the wretched spectacle of Season Seven.