[rating 4.5]
(WARNING: Significant spoilers follow!)
Red Dwarf has, over the years, touched on religion here and there. I remember Rimmer (Chris Barrier) once famously saying he doesn’t believe in God, he only believes in “sensible” things, like aliens (which, it is worth noting, the Red Dwarf universe doesn’t contain). We also had Rimmer once mentioning that he and his family were Seventh Day Advent Hoppists (“Faith, hop, and charity, and the greatest of these is hop”). Of course the whole subject of religion was tackled extensively back in the third season, when Kryten (Robert Llewellyn) was convinced he was going to go to Silicon Heaven, but that human Heaven didn’t exist. “That’s just something someone made up to keep you all from going nuts.”
When I heard that this episode featured the crew traveling back in time and getting stuck in Roman-era Britain, my mind flashed with imagines of Queen Boudicca, ancient Londinium (…hmmm…my spell checker was able to correct my misspelling of Boudicca, but doesn’t even recognize Londinium), and the legions marching. It did not, it must be said, fill with images of “Jesus” running around India.
Yes, the crew ends up back in time when Lister (Craig Charles) leads the screw-up assembly of a rejuvenation shower. To be fair, he was following Ikea-style instructions, and while I never have any problem with them, as I never had a problem programming my VCR back in the day, it’s a trope of many fictions that people have problems with these things, so there you are. The shower malfunctions and, in true BS Johnson style, sends them back to the previously mentioned Roman-era Britain. They have a remote control, so can return home, but they don’t have a battery for it.
Why they never simply use one from Kryten is never explained, but they end up on a quest to get a lemon to make a battery with. The nearest lemon is in India, so they walk (it takes six months). Once they get there, they not only get their lemons, but run into a certain long-haired fellow by the name of Jesus…things go from there.
This was another great episode for the returned series. All the actors were at the top of their games, especially Barrie, who does a wonderful job channeling Rimmer’s self-loathing while telling the story of how his mother came to give him the middle name Judas (and offering an explanation for the character that I hadn’t heard before, but found interesting). Charles and Llewellyn were good, too, but once again, Danny John-Jules was given a bit of a short-shrift as the Cat, who really didn’t get to do much. To be fair, that’s often been a problem with his character, but it seems to be a bigger problem this series.
The real quality in this episode, though, is the writing. It was intelligent and hilarious, and took the show places I didn’t expect. For example, I’d expected them to actually deal with the Roman Empire at some point, and that didn’t happen. Also, looking at the hairline of Jesus and hearing Rimmer’s comments on Shakespeare, I had entirely expected Jesus to end in a different place than he did, and I was pleased when I guessed wrong. I also really appreciated the great job the show did with pointing out the…shall we say…inconsistencies…with things like the Ten Commandments. It was, as it should be, entertaining and thought-provoking.
Really, I had no complaints beyond the fact that the Cat wasn’t given much to do. Still a solid story all around, and an easy 4 ½ stars.
We are currently seeking TV contributors on WhatCulture. To find out more about the perks of being a TV contributor, click here.
5 Comments
1) It’s Chris Barrie
2) Are you saying the Red Dwarf universe doesn’t have “sensible” things or doesn’t have aliens? If you mean aliens, what are the GELF? What’s Legion? Simulants?
Well, GELF stands for Genetically Engineered Life Form, therefore, not an alien. Legion was an amalgamation of a bunch of scientists and then the RD crew, therefore, not an alien and Simulants are robots created by humans, therefore, you guessed it, not alien. There has never been an alien on RD. despite being set 3,000,000 years from earth, these things they meet all come from humans. The Polymorph, Despair Squid, Cassandra. All the same.
4.5? Are you serious? I’m beginning to think that whatever happens on screen your still going to give it a high rating.
Trojan – 3.5/5
Fathers and Suns – 1/5
Lemons – 1.5/5
This has been the worse series so far, no troll cause I am a huge RD fan and can’t believe how bad this series is
I’m afraid I have to agree with Ben here. Too early to say it’s the worst series yet, but after the surprising quality of Trojan the last two episodes have been a bit of a turd in the face. Half of Fathers & Suns was decent, with Lemons being the worst overall so far.
I really, really hope the second half of the series sees an upturn in quality. It’s shame, because the actors are all fine (and occasionally excellent), it’s just that the scripts are a complete mess despite (or even because of) the odd great line. They just REALLY needed someone else to cast their eye over them, and give them a polish.
I didn’t think this episode was worth 4.5 stars, but i think it was easily 3.5 stars. The last episode was probably 2.5 stars, due to the whole chinese whispers joke, and the first episode i think was 4.5 stars. The problem this series has, is the whole sub-plot they are including in every episode. While the moose one i found funny, mainly because it was unexpected and well delivered, the chinese whispers one was poor, and unfunny, and you could tell the audience weren’t enjoying it. The one about SHakespeare was okay, as it wasn’t overused. THe sub-plot is being overused, and if there is a series 11, i hope they get rid of it. That sort of thing will only work for one episode, and it has to be carefully done, otherwise it loses any comedic affect.
I’m enjoying the series, but wish that it would be more traditional red dwarf-mixing seriousness with comedy, at the same time, other than this where the moments are more clearly divided. THat was mainly the problem with series 8, it was serious moment, comedy moment, serious moment, it just didn’t flow well. This series is flowing better, but still some work needs to be done. Too many long-running jokes at the moment for my liking. ALthough, it’s better than series 8, and maybe a bit better than series 1, and maybe 2. SO yeah, not that bad so far, although i was hoping that the series would get better, rather than worse as it went along, but oh well, they still have time to recover.