It has to be said that after the rather atrocious TV Special "Back to Earth" part of me felt "Never Again" when it came to new episodes of Red Dwarf as Back to Earth was the worst the series had ever been, the jokes fell flat, the story was confusing, the cast were showing their age and there was a cynical attempt to tie it into one of the show's best episodes "Back to Reality."
But still I decided to watch the new season regardless and see if the Boys could regain their spark once more.
The first episode "Trojan" certainly went a long way to doing just that, the whole episode for me was a real delight as it felt like a return to the good old days again when Rob Grant co-wrote the show with Doug Naylor before his departure at the end of Season 6, the 4 characters felt like the characters, there were some good jokes and the show had some real energy to it, in short this was vintage Rob and Doug Dwarf back with a vengeance and it stands as one of my overall favourite episodes of the entire series.
The next episode "Fathers and Sons" focused more on Lister trying to be a better dad to himself with some very funny results and that scene stands as a real highlight of the overall season and really shows off how good Craig has become in the role and how his acting has matured over the years, no doubt helped by his time on Coronation Street, the episode as a whole isn't quite as good as "Trojan" and relies a little too much on Vending Machines for humour but still it was a nice episode.
Sadly, that compliment I can't extend to the third episode of this new season called "Lemons" where the crew go back in time and encounter Jesus or so they think, sadly this episode made me a little sad as "Trojan" really restored my faith in Dwarf to really deliver good episodes again whereas "Lemons" felt like the bad old days all over again, very little humour, flat premise and lagging pace that made this one the weakest of the entire series.
The fourth episode titled "Entangled" was a nice return to form with Lister getting up to mischief outside the ship and needing to set it right, after the disaster of "Lemons" I wasn't expecting a lot from this episode but this had some of the zing back from the first two episodes but still I felt that it didn't live up to the heights of "Trojan."
The fifth episode titled "Dear Dave" again focused on Lister and again relied too much on Vending Machines to generate laughs, I can't say I enjoyed this episode as much as I did "Fathers and Sons" and I wish that this episode had instead focused on Kryten as I really love what Robert Llewelyn has done with the character and to not see him get an episode with him as the focus is a sad shame, still I found this to be an okay episode, not great but not entirely terrible either.
But if the last two episodes were a bit on the iffy side, the season finale "The Beginning" would put things back on track after the promise of the first two episodes, there were some good jokes, great character moments and some very good special effects, the slime well and truly came home in this episode and it left the season on a high note.
So that was the individual episodes but some of you are no doubt thinking "How was the Season as a whole?" and I am very happy to say that despite some bumps in the road, this is quite easily the best the show has been since the Rob Grant years as the characters and comedy feel like they're centre stage rather than the Sci-Fi angle which Doug was always better at than Rob who had a feeling for the characters and the comedy.
And so in closing, I look to the future of the Boys from the Dwarf with a sense of optimism, this series has made me a fan of Dwarf again and inspired me to revisit the Rob Grant years which still hold up fantastically well after all these years and if the Boys from the Dwarf can keep up the quality of this series in future seasons then things will look very bright indeed and for Red Dwarf fans who expected the worst from this season, that is certainly something to smile about.
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