5. Last Human
Theres something comforting in knowing that the last human being in existence in 3 million years is a blue collar, slobby, smoking, beer swilling everyman---and that his status as the last man alive isnt enough to change him into something else. Dave Lister will always be Dave Lister because thats what makes the show work. A large part of the problems with Series VIII were that the shows working formula was changed. The entire crew is now resurrected, and Lister and company find themselves serving 2 years in prison. Few shows can survive a format change of this type. Laverne and Shirley was never the same after they moved to Hollywood. Scrubs never recovered after they moved the action from the Hospital to the Medical school. In Back to Earth, Series VIII was not only ignored, the following Series (IX in case youre counting) that would have tied up loose ends is mentioned as the shows best but is never going to be filmed---the ultimate in continuity gags; +1 to the Dwarf Team. At any rate, Back to Earth re-establishes Lister as the last Human and series X is set to continue this trend. Getting back to the original format is not only exciting its what most fans have been waiting for since series VI!