After meta-fictional forays in the worlds of Blade Runner and Coronation Street; a stretch in prison on board a fully-manned Red Dwarf; and even a short run with the smoking hot Chloë Annett standing in for the otherwise-engaged Chris Barrie, the boys from the Dwarf are finally back for a run of cosmic comic capers that, to my delight, already seem to be evoking the claustrophobic charm of Red Dwarf I to VI.
Back in front of a studio audience, the show’s cast are each on top form, particularly Barrie, whose character is served particularly well by Doug Naylor’s scathing season-opening script. Like the finest Dwarf episodes, “Trojan” explores Rimmer’s long-held but futile aspirations of becoming an officer, but this time inverts them, allowing the holographic charlatan to laud it over his almost-as-weasely brother, and in doing so prove that he’s so insuppressibly shallow that he’s actually flat. Corrie star Craig Charles fares almost as well, however, as Lister spends almost the entire episode incensed on the end of a telephone, being passed from pillar to post in a call centre manned by droids so infuriating that they cause even Kryten to blow a gasket. I love how, whether it’s produced in 1988 or 2012, Red Dwarf remains almost absurdly contemporary in spite of its supposedly futuristic trappings.
Whether Red Dwarf X will truly mark a return to the series’ halcyon days remains to be seen, but, on the strength of this opening instalment, I have very high hopes indeed. With upcoming episodes focusing on Lister’s (poor) parenting of himself; making time-travelling batteries out of lemons; “groinal exploders”; a snack dispenser ménage a trois; not to mention a finale appropriately entitled “The Beginning”, the laddish Freeview channel named after this show’s loose-fitting hero might finally have mined some gold.
Red Dwarf X continues tonight at 9pm on Dave.
