Director: Doug Naylor
Cast: Craig Charles, Chris Barrie, Danny John-Jules, Robert LLwellyn
Certificate: 12
Extras: ‘Making of’ feature, ‘Smeg Ups’ blooper reel
Though RED DWARF X is only the seventh best season of the long-running sitcom, after the catastrophic lows of seasons VII, VIII, and (dare we even mention its name) ‘Back to Earth’, it’s a welcome surprise.
Thirteen years after the last full season – and 19 years since the last decent episode – RED DWARF X takes a ‘back-to-basics’ approach. Whilst VII and VIII made failed attempts at enlisting new members to the regular lineup (even resurrecting the ship’s crew 3 million years after a radiation leak wiped them out), writer Doug Naylor reinstates the series’ original concept – Lister, Rimmer, Cat, and Kryten floating aimlessly in deep space from one mini-adventure to the next.
But let’s not crack out the JMC-issue champagne quite yet. The central performances may be solid, and the production design ranks amongst the series’ best, but it doesn’t take long for the script to churn out the narrative shortcuts that became commonplace in the previous three seasons – there’s no shortage of rogue droids, dodgy gadgets, and other plot contrivances. It is, however, pretty funny – in fact, the funniest RED DWARF has been in a long time. And as long as the laughs keep rolling in, it’s easy to overlook its shortcomings. Check out dialogue-heavy episode ‘Dear Dave’ – in the absence of any hokey plotting and SF it has a touch of the old RED DWARF magic, and remains the Season X’s finest moment.
Though not a complete return to form (the show never truly recovered from co-creator and writer Rob Grant’s exit in 1993), Season X has made RED DWARF fun again – years after the show had been written off as just another comedy that had outstayed its welcome. With strong viewing figures and a good critical response, it’s likely the boys from the Dwarf will be back for another run, something to which fans can genuinely look forward – which no one thought would be the case in 2012. Smegging hell indeed.
Extras: On previous RED DWARF DVDs, the appeal of the ‘Making of’ feature has been nostalgic interest. That’s far from the case here, and the documentary is overlong and for the most part flat. It does, however, highlight numerous production issues Season X faced and various effects these had on the writing (hopefully Season XI will be afforded a bigger budget to avoid these problems). In addition, the ‘Smeg Ups’ are amusing enough albeit fairly standard by now.
RED DWARF X is available on Blu-ray & DVD 19th November
