Top 10 Episodes of Red Dwarf

Red Dwarf has always been one of my favourite TV shows. To those who don’t know it’s a show about some goofballs on a mining ship in space 3 million years after a radiation leak on the ship lead to everyone on the ship dying.

That is to say, it killed everyone except slobbish scouser Dave Lister (Craig Charles) as he was in stasis at the time for smuggling a cat on board. But he is not alone on the ship. There’s also a hologram of his dead bunkmate, the extremely up tight and anal Arnold J. Rimmer, BSc, SSc (Chris Barrie) and an evolved descendant of his cat, um, Cat (Danny John-Jules). These members of the ship are constant, but others include Holly, the ship’s AI (Norman Lovett for series I, II and VIII, and Hattie Hayridge for series III-V), Kryten, an android (one episode in series II by David Ross, then by Robert Llewellyn) and Kristine Kochanski, Lister’s crush (permanent member of the crew for series VII and VIII, played by Chloë Annett).

The show follows these characters as they try to get back to Earth, if only to find out what has become of it. It’s a brilliant premise and there was an amazing amount done with it. The science fiction aspect is great, but isn’t so complex as to alienate the non-scientifically minded of us. It’s funny, dramatic, intense, but mostly funny. The characters work so well together and their relationships feel real.

And there’s another series coming. The special Back to Earth I found to be rather disappointing, but it got enough buzz around it that another series was commissioned. I am so excited. So, with the new series coming soon it’s time to celebrate Red Dwarf with a top 10 list of my favourite episodes.

10. The End (Series I)

How fitting that the first episode on this list is the very first episode of the entire show. The End was the introduction to the entire series. Whilst it didn’t have a lot of the science fiction fun and adventure of Red Dwarfit is still a brilliant episode and probably one of my favourite introductory episodes to a series.

In this episode we are introduced to the rocky relationship between Lister and Rimmer, who quite clearly do not get on. We also get introduced to their characters, Lister not particularly caring about his job and is slobbish whilst Rimmer takes it seriously and is incredibly fussy. Everything feels very organic and when the show advances to 3 million years later Lister seems to take everything in his stride, but still feels sad for his dead companions.

A brilliant set up for the series with some brilliant jokes, this list would not be complete without it.

9. Back in the Red (Series VIII)

Okay, I’m kind of cheating here because there are three parts to Back in the Red, but I’m including them all in this one entry. Personally, I feel that you can have one episode without the others, so I guess I’m justified there. Also, this is my list, so my rules!

Series VIII isn’t entirely well received amongst Red Dwarf fans and I can understand that, though I still like it, even though it isn’t as good as other series. Regardless, the Back in the Red episodes were brilliant, though sometimes a wee bit self-indulgent. After tracking the big crimson one through space after they lost it (long story) and having Kryten’s nanobots rebuild it and the crew (long story) the Dwarfers are arrested for stealing and crashing a Starbug, one of the ship’s transport vessels.

The following events follow the posse as they try to escape from Red Dwarf so they are not thrown in the brig with incredibly violent inmates, whilst a recently resurrected Rimmer tries to cheat his way to becoming an officer. The episodes are hilarious and call back to a lot of favourite Red Dwarf episodes throughout every series. They are also quite dramatic at times with some amazing scenes and brilliant plot twists.

Though Series VIII was lacking I do love this episode, though most others would probably disagree with it being on here.

8. Confidence and Paranoia (Series I)

This is considered one of the weakest episodes of the early series, but I really enjoy it. Lister contracts a mutated strain of pneumonia from looking around an area of the ship that hadn’t been decontaminated. Due to this, he gets solid hallucinations, such as raining fish or the 1546 Mayor of Warsaw spontaneously combusting. He also creates the embodiment of his confidence and paranoia. Confidence is a tanned game show host, whilst Paranoia is greasy and looks like Stan Laurel.

The fact that these ideas are embodied into what Lister views as confidence and paranoia is really interesting to me and sets up some great jokes. It even shows the lengths Rimmer has gone to to preserve himself rather than let Lister be with a hologram of Kochanski. It’s also possibly the only time we see the characters on the exterior of the ship during an episode.

7. Backwards (Series III)

Series III is one of my favourite series of Red Dwarf and it is in part due to this episode. This is the first episode that Kryten is a main part of the show and for his first adventure they send him and Rimmer through a time hole to the future-past... thing. Let me explain: time is backwards on Earth, with people being paid for spitting tea into teacups and getting jobs as dish-dirtiers. It takes place in the past for the Dwarfers, but technically it is in the future, after the Big Crunch (The opposite of the Big Bang. It’s a serious theory, too). Of course, shenanigans ensue.

Kryten and Rimmer realise that their forwards ways are a novelty, so become srehtorB esrsveR lanoitasneS ehT whilst Cat and Lister, who are searching for the others, think they are in Bulgaria.  This leads to some really intelligent use of the backwards footage, as well as the concept of feeling the effects of a fight that hasn’t happened yet (which is incredibly fun to watch). There’s even some hidden fun that can only be found when watching Backwards, uh, forwards (?), which is found on the Series III DVD.

6. Meltdown (Series IV)

If an AI breaks its programming and thinks independently does it now have a right to life? This is what Red Dwarf asks in the episode Meltdown. Not particularly a fan favourite, but a favourite of the cast, this episode has the crew go to a planet that is overrun with wax droids, like a robotic Madame Tussauds. Rimmer and Kryten go there first and are immediately taken captive by Elvis Presley and the Pope. Then Lister and Cat go there and appear in the company of Adolf Hitler, who then captures them. Yep, these things happen.

Turns out that this planet, Wax-world, has two warring factions: the good side and the evil side. Rimmer, being a lover of the military, decides that it is his time to shine and commands the good droids to help them defeat the evil droids. It’s clear Rimmer has gone quite insane, wishing to lead a charge under the cover of daylight. This leads to a final fight that is both funny but kinda hard hitting if you get into the plot enough.

The episode has a great balance between jokes and drama and seems to be a really under-rated episode that deserves more recognition.

5. Dimension Jump (Series IV)

Ace Rimmer. People familiar with Red Dwarfshould already be thinking “Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast” and “What a guy!” at the mere mention of the name. Ace Rimmer is probably the best character in all of Red Dwarf simply because he is so freaking cool.

Dimension Jump does something great with the idea of a multiverse, having a new version of Rimmer who is better than him in almost every respect because of one choice in his life. Because of this choice he is completely different. Now he is heroic, confident, charming and modest. You know, the opposite of Rimmer.

If only for Ace this episode is brilliant. The episode itself is brilliant, but there isn’t a massive amount of plot, mostly focussing on the idea of the multiverse and pulling it off fantastically.

4. Quarantine (Series V)

Remember when I said that Series III is one of my favourite series? Well, Series V is my favourite. Partially thanks to this episode.

This episode has Rimmer contract a holo-virus and go slowly insane whilst also using the Space Corps Directives that Kryten has been using on him to his own advantage. Rimmer’s descent into insanity is laugh-out-loud hilarious, having Chris Barrie wear a gingham dress with military boots on. It also introduced a fan favourite character, Mr. Flibble, a penguin glove puppet that is sadly never seen again.

Quarantine also introduces the idea of positive viruses, such as luck, which gives the infected incredible amounts of luck until the immune system fights it off. The idea just really speaks to me and seems like brilliant science fiction.

The episode is probably one of the funniest episodes in all of Red Dwarf, with fantastic lines, an amazing performance from Chris Barrie and a perfect ending.

3. Marooned (Series III)

Rimmer and Lister don’t get on. At all. So why not have an episode where they are stuck together and have to make conversation!

Marooned is a brilliant episode. I wouldn’t say so for the humour value (it is funny) but rather the story. Through the characters’ conversation the characters are a lot more fleshed out and it really seems that they may have got off on the wrong foot initially, that had circumstances been different for both that they would have got along rather well.

It’s a really introspective episode that studies these characters, individually and as friends. You can tell that they do at least care about each other in some regard.  Well, that is unless it means Lister burning his guitar...

2. Queeg (Series II)

There aren’t many episodes that focus on Holly. The AI is always just kind of there, not really doing a massive amount, only chiming in for exposition and comic relief. He’s really taken for granted at times.

That’s essentially what Queeg is all about. After messing up multiple times the crew get increasingly pissed off with Holly. Suddenly, a new face shows up on the screens where Holly is usually shown: Queeg 500, the ship’s back-up computer. He’s there in case Holly’s actions endanger the crew.

At first the crew enjoy having Queeg around, but they slowly tire of him sticking strictly to regulations. He ultimately crosses the line when he forces both Lister and Cat to work for food. It’s then that they wish they had defended Holly when Queeg tried to take over.

This episode is absolutely hilarious from beginning to end with a fantastic twist that will just keep you laughing. In fact, it seems Norman Lovett was having trouble trying to fit his lines in at times due to the audience laughing so much. This is classic Red Dwarf at its finest.

But of course, there’s still one more episode to choose. Of course, it has to be:

1. Back to Reality (Series V)

Have a poll among Red Dwarf fans and it’s pretty much inevitable that Back to Reality will come out as number 1. I didn’t even realise that this episode was this popular before I started doing some research for this list. Back to Reality has always been my favourite episode of Red Dwarf and it isn’t hard to see why so many others love it either.

The final episode of Series V, it really raises the stakes and pulls out some brilliant comedy and drama. The fact that it changed the setting for the entire episode was a massive gamble, and would leave people wondering what the hell was going on. I’m getting ahead of myself a little here.

See, in this episode the crew crashes after discovering a squid that causes people to try to commit suicide, killing them all. But not really, as it turns out that they have been in the total immersion video game “Red Dwarf”. That’s right, everything up to this point has been in a video game and have spent the last four years playing it. The crew are no longer who they were before, but rather a random foursome who must now work together their real identities.

These identities are nothing like their characters. On top of that, an attendant to the game, played by Timothy Spall giving a spectacular performance, lets them know that they have done terribly, missing out on most of the clues within the game and only scoring 4%.

The rest of the episode involves them trying to get to grips with their new identities, such as the fan favourite Duane Dibbley, the dork that Cat has now become. It’s dramatic, dark and hilarious, but this is never jarring. It also has probably one of the best chase sequences ever, but you’ll have to see that for yourself, I don’t want to spoil it for you.

Back to Reality is just a brilliant episode. Probably the best written episode of the lot with a lot riding on it. It was risky, but it paid of incredibly well.

So there you go, my top 10 episodes of Red Dwarf. Of course, many of you will have a different opinion to me and that’s fine. Some of those episodes I know many don’t like, but I still really enjoy them. Also, there are many that I left off that I wanted to put on there, such as Holoship, Future Echoes, White Holeand Stasis Leak, and if this list was longer they would all be on there. But I challenged myself to put up only 10 and these were the ones I chose.

If you have any other episodes you prefer then please do comment.

Spec Ops: The Line

Reviewed Platform: PS3

Other Platforms: Xbox 360, PC

Today’s video game market is flooded with modern day shooters that all seem to make you seem like the hero, but Spec Ops: The Line is a modern day shooter where you feel like anything but. Do you hate life? Do you wish that there was something that would make you feel horrible for simply being human? Do you feel that Apocalypse Now wasn’t interactive enough? Then Spec Ops: The Line is definitely the game for you.

You are Captain Martin Walker, a soldier in the United States Army who goes into a ruined Dubai, which had been hit by horrendous sandstorms, in order to find out the fate of a battalion who were supposed to be evacuating Dubai, but then suddenly dropped off the map. On entry, however, the state of Dubai is a lot worse than at first expected.

Sure, this may sound similar to your generic modern shooter that we see on the shelves every two weeks, but this is nothing like it. It isn’t the gameplay that stands out, though. The third person cover-based shooter aspects are fairly generic (you take cover and shoot at people). There’s nothing exactly revolutionary in there, even with the ability to use the environmental sand to take out guys not really serving much purpose.

No, it isn’t the gameplay, but rather the story that is of interest. The game revolves almost entirely around morality. No, this doesn’t mean that there’s some arbitrary karma meter that you can fill up that will either give you the good ending or the evil ending. Instead, it’s more so the morality of war, in keeping with its inspiration: Heart of Darkness. Is it okay to be doing these things? Is there another choice? Sometimes, there is absolutely no better choice, you just have to choose from what you feel is less bad and in keeping with you own personal morality.

At one crucial point in the game you are almost forced to do something so horrible that will make you feel terrible. Personally I had to stop playing the game for a while. Spec Ops: The Line had made me feel completely and utterly disgusted with myself for doing something so awful, even though I should have known better and not have done it at all. It is at this crucial point that you start to see the changes in the characters.

All three characters become increasingly angrier throughout the game. What were originally stern and commanding orders at first are now littered with cursing and angry tones. Characters start arguing with each other as battle warps their minds, leading them towards insanity. It’s so striking that even though you should hate these characters you start feeling how they do. The game openly admits that they are no heroes, and challenges you to hate them.

But there also seems to be something rather meta about the entire affair. Spec Ops: The Line critiques the shooter genre at almost every turn. Some scenes seem somewhat reminiscent of other popular games, such as Call of Duty, and suggests that what you are doing is in no way heroic but rather barbaric. The game even goes so far as to have loading screens later on in the game question you about what you are doing, suggesting that it is ridiculous killing is okay for entertainment, asking you is you feel like a hero. Even the choice of Nolan North as the main character seems to be stab at his heroics as Nathan Drake from Uncharted.

The entire game is proof that games can be viewed as artistic, with a lot of the story and message being open to interpretation. It tells an incredibly compelling story that will have you hooked throughout. I have been careful not to say a lot about this game as it should be experienced. Though the shooting is fairly generic, it is incredibly challenging and unforgiving, which seems to complement to story aspect. Definitely pick this game up at some point because it has an emotional value that is not often seen in video games and is incredibly hard-hitting.

Indie Games: Gravity Bone

This is one of my favourite independently made games. Just putting it out there. Gravity Bone, made by Brendon Chung of Blendo Games, isn’t a very long game at all, maybe taking up to 15 minutes on your first play-through, but those are 15 minutes well spent. I also advise playing it first, then reading the rest of this. The link has already been put in the name of the game earlier, but here it is again.

See, the beauty of Gravity Bone is that it shouldn’t be 15 minutes long. Gravity Bone is the first couple of levels of a longer game that was never made. These are the tutorial levels at the start of a game, showing you the world and giving you instructions. But then it stops, and that isn’t at all a bad thing. In fact, it’s brilliant.

Gravity Bone’s story is hard to really explain as I’m not entirely sure there is one. There might be, but I’m not too sure. Suffice to say, it may be about a spy or a hit man or someone like that being given contracts to carry out specific work for some reason. It’s not entirely clear, but you create the story within your head, connecting the dots and possibly understanding the game. That is, unless it is complete nonsense.

But I seriously don’t think the story is important. Gravity Bone appears to be a game attempting to break apart video game conventions. Those tutorial levels I mentioned? Yeah, that is the entire game. The game is two stages of tutorial and this creates an air of safety that is broken down later on in the game. We slowly get fed a world which we never fully experience and there’s some sort of beauty in that when you get to the ending.

I might not have given too much information to really get you to play the game, but Gravity Bone definitely needs to be experienced. It is an utter joy and a game I think everyone should play. Give it a go if you’ve got some time on your hands. Yes, it’s a bit artsy, but it’s worth it, I swear.

Indie Games: Trilby's Notes

Trilby’s Notes is the third game in the Chzo Mythos by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw. This game follows the main character from the 5 Days a Stranger, the gentleman thief Trilby, after the DeFoe Manor incident. This time the wooden idol from the DeFoe manor has appeared in a hotel in Wales and it seems the curse has not been lifted. Now Trilby must investigate the effects of the curse and try to track down the idol.

The story of the game isn’t amazing. The game is mostly a massive exposition dump that chronicles the curse throughout the centuries. However, whilst the story within the hotel itself is lacking the exposition is great. This is all told extremely well and is incredibly gripping, it’s just a shame that the stuff in the hotel seems like it is there mostly to act as a link between the back story.

Though the hotel isn’t just there for that reason. The hotel parts of the game also feature a Silent Hill style otherworld that serve to create horror. This isn’t your jump scare kind of horror but your atmospheric horror, the stuff that creeps you out as you wander around the hotel. This is extremely effective and builds up the overall tension of the game, especially when the Tall Man (the entity in this game) could, in your head, appear at any time to murder you.

The gameplay of Trilby’s Notes has had a complete overhaul since the previous instalments, opting for the use of a text parser to do actions. This is implemented rather well, though sometimes it can be infuriating trying to figure out what to do at times (especially near the end).

Despite having some flaws, Trilby’s Notes is a good game. Though not as good as its predecessors it has ramped up the horror aspect and added a lot of intrigue for the final instalment in the series. If you’ve played the first two then give it a go as it’s definitely recommended, if only for the brilliant atmosphere.

Indie Games: 7 Days a Skeptic

More sequels should be in a completely different location to the original. Something about the shift from 5 Days a Stranger, set on Earth in the 1990s, to 7 Days a Skeptic, set in space in 2385, really got me. I mean, it just felt great. It did really well to set up the game and make the events from the first game feel like they had a lasting effect.

Sorry, that looks like it should come later on, but that was my initial reaction to the game.

7 Days a Skeptic is the second game in the Chzo Mythos, a series of adventure games by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw. It follows Dr. Jonathan Somerset, a counsellor on board the spaceship Mephistopheles, as he battles against the unseen force present in 5 Days a Stranger.

The story is told very well, Yahtzee’s writing still holding up. The plot really draws you in as you follow the story’s events. There is a stronger focus on horror in this instalment and several moments in the game are very chilling. This comes about from both the storytelling and some brilliant sound design. Some of the most chilling moments are when you leave the ship using the EVA suit, which cancels out all sound apart from Jonathan’s breathing (rather like 2001: A Space Odyssey).

The gameplay is very similar to the first game and is your basic point-and-click affair. However, during some parts of the game you have to run for your life as you are chased throughout the ship. These moments can be pretty irritating as you may not know what to do (especially at one notorious part of the game), though the ending chase sequence is exhilarating and admittedly heart-pounding.

There are a few issues I have with the game though that mostly comes from the writing. There are some horror movie irritations I had, such as characters splitting up when a killer is on board, as well as some questionable actions (“I need you on the ship, so I’ll let you get sucked into a vacuum!”) One moment that I found myself confused was when the escape pod took a day to function. Not a very good escape pod you’ve got there.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the game and was honestly drawn in by the plot. It’s not as good its predecessor, but it’s a great sequel. Anyone who liked 5 Days a Stranger will hopefully enjoy 7 Days a Skeptic, though I would understand if they didn’t.