Red Dwarf - Anniversary Edition Complete DVD Box Set

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The BBC’s seminal sci-fi sitcom blasted off in 1988 and never looked back.  Over 8 series it survived several reinventions – from dour grey sets to sparkly new ones, from cute model effects to ropey CGI – by mixing laughs with thought-provoking ideas.  

The plot follows space-bum Dave Lister (Craig Charles) stranded 3 million years away from Earth aboard the titular mining vessel Red Dwarf.  With him are the senile computer Holly (Norman Lovett/Hattie Hayridge), the Cat (Danny John-Jules), who’s descended from, well, cats, and a hologram of Lister’s incredibly annoying superior Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie).

The early series are a solid start and creators Rob Grant and Doug Naylor make up for a low budget with some inventive episodes about time-travel and virtual reality videogames.  But it’s in series III that Red Dwarf really finds its feet with new regular Kryten (Robert Llewellyn), a guilt-ridden mechanoid who’s talent for plot exposition allows the crew to get into more bizarre predicaments.

The Red Dwarf ‘golden age’ from series III -  V contains the biggest laughs but also genuinely intriguing science fiction elements; an Earth running backwards in Backwards, a waxwork theme park gone mad in Meltdown and a mechanoid who eradicates useless people from history in The Inquisitor.

Series VI finds the crew stuck in the confines of the shuttle Starbug and on the trail of a lost Red Dwarf.  It’s here that the show starts to falter, relying more on formulaic gags, and series VII attempts to bring it back to being more character-based with the introduction of Lister’s love interest Kristine Kochanski (Chloë Annett).

The later series’ filmic look and resurrection of the entire Red Dwarf crew divided many fans but they still retain a certain charm.  As space comedies go, Red Dwarf is often imitated but never bettered.

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