The 10 best Red Dwarf episodes

Red Dwarf has been with us for a long time. The first series was broadcast on BBC2 in early 1988 and the most recent feature length special was shown in 2020, with the same actors playing Lister, Rimmer, Cat and Holly. And despite long periods when it was off the air, it’s still racked up a very impressive 74 episodes.

But which are the best? Well, inevitably, that’s up for debate, but having recently immersed myself in the world (or universe?) of Red Dwarf for the purposes of writing what I hope will be the definitive book on the subject, I think I could pretty easily give you my personal favourite top ten.

10 | The Promised Land (9 April, 2020 - Dave)

'Red Dwarf the Movie', never got made, other attempts to tell longer stories have tended not to find favour with the fans, but the most recent outing, a ninety-minute special is full of great jokes, clever plotting, lovely guest performances and a bit of heart — which works not least because we’ve been hanging out with these guys for over 30 years.

Behind the scenes: Over 500 visual effects shots were created by two different graphics companies. A far cry from the cardboard-and-string aesthetic of the early BBC shows.

Best gag: On hearing Holly’s plan to detonating the very moon they’re on to help them get back, Lister asks “Is that safe?” Holly replies “I’m miles away, I’ll be fine.”

9 | Me2 (21 March, 1988 - BBC2)

The very first season ends in this triumph which combines the science fiction conceit of two different hologrammatic recreations of the same character sharing a room, with the brilliant comedy of how much they hate each other, with a tragic cold soup related backstory. A brilliant early triumph for all concerned.

Behind the scenes: This was a last-minute replacement after the original episode two was scrapped. Rather than end the series on a cliffhanger, the writers carried on the plotline from the end of what was now episode five, which also means this episode wastes no time on set-up.

Best gag: I won’t spoil it here, but Lister’s last line is absolutely perfection.

8. Kryten (6 September, 1988 - BBC2)

And my next choice is the very next episode, kicking off the second series, but this might not be the Kryten you remember. David Ross was unable to reprise the role when the obedient android was made a regular character and Robert Llewellyn immediately made the part his own. But this self-contained story of a robotic manservant who learns to rebel is a gem and a great showcase for the main cast as well.

Behind the scenes: The fate of Kryten’s charges was concealed from the studio audience behind black drapes so as not to spoil the surprise. A plan marred only by the fact that a stage hand took all the drapes down during a scene change and completely spoiled the surprise.

Best gag: I adore the Cat having to be physically dragged away from the mirror in which he’s admiring his reflection.

7 | Officer Rimmer (13 October, 2016 — Dave)

It’s never easy to recapture past glories, and some fans of the BBC shows couldn’t get on board with the Dave reboot. But this episode from Series XI can go toe-to-toe with any of the classics, and features Rimmer at his most horrendously smug and detestable.

Behind the scenes: Robert Llewellyn’s first day on this series consisted of him laboriously getting into a new version of the Kryten costume and make-up and then finally clomping on to the set to be told that pre-filming had finished for the day and everyone could go home.

Best gag: Rimmer’s officer class lift is a triumph of writing and set design.

6. Queeg (4 October, 1988 — BBC2)

Norman Lovett’s Holly only featured in the first two series, before being replaced by Hattie Hayridge and then the character being written out altogether. But he’s an essential part of the DNA of the show (as subsequent return visits proves). This is a rare Holly-centred episode and he’s wonderful in it.

Behind the scenes: Writers Rob Grant and Doug Naylor had written themselves into a corner and didn’t have the ending to this one until the day before the script was due.

Best gag: “We are talking jape of the decade.”

5 | Bodyswap (5 December, 1989 - BBC2)

The journey of the show through the first three series shows a progression from two-men-who-hate-each other but it happens to be in space, to a fully-fledged science fiction sitcom. Here’s a wonderful example of the possibilities of the latter, with incredible work from Chris Barrie and Craig Charles, impersonating each other’s mannerisms and dubbing each other’s voices.

Behind the scenes: This was inspired by a conversation Rob and Doug had about what it’s like borrowing someone’s car. Rob recalled that there was often a laundry list of things to watch out for: "When you steer to the right, you need to oversteer, because the back wheel comes out a bit, because the handbrake’s never truly off." What, they wondered, would it be like if you borrowed someone else’s body?

Best gag: "Keep that safe, it’s Lister’s mind." Splosh.

4 | Marooned (21 November, 1989 - BBC2)

If it is two-men-who-hate-each-other you truly want, then you can’t do much better than this virtual two-hander with Lister and Rimmer trapped in a crash-landed spaceship on an icy moon and running out of food. Craig Charles has even talked about wanting to perform it as a play. Just don’t think too hard about how nasal receptors made of light can detect the odour of camphorwood (or anything else).

Behind the scenes: A famous moment revolves around Lister having to eat dog food to survive, and for some time, Craig Charles cheerfully told fans that it was real dog food. In fact, it was canned tuna, plus some pork pie jelly. It still looks pretty nasty, if you ask me, and he spat it out off camera.

Best gag: "In a past incarnation, I was Alexander the Great… 's chief eunuch. To this day, I can't look at a pair of nutcrackers without wincing."

3 | Quarantine (12 March, 1992 - BBC2)

Expertly ramping up the tension as first the gang has to escape from a deranged deceased scientist, then Rimmer puts all of them in quarantine as petty revenge, before he finally goes nuts himself, this episode combines world class comedy with very high stakes and some amazing narrative rug-pulls. And the luck virus is an incredible concept.

Behind the scenes: Recording this episode in front of an audience was quite the ordeal as, for some reason, a perfectly ordinary interaction between Cat, Lister and Kryten proved impossible to get through, with all three getting the giggles, and nobody able to accurately recall what they were supposed to be saying. That single two-or-three-minute scene took almost an hour to record and the whole episode took around four hours.

Best gag: "I can’t let you out. The king of the potato people won’t let me."

2 | Back to Reality (26 March, 1992 - BBC2)

Capping off a triumphant fifth series, this astonishing episode is a perennial fan favourite, which seemingly reveals that all the preceding adventures have been nothing more than a computer game played by four characters trying to escape their dystopian lives. Danny John-Jules as Dwayne Dibbley is a remarkable comic creation and the concepts here are mindboggling — but it never forgets to be funny.

Behind the scenes: The audience reaction on the night was muted, and Rob Grant thought the show was a failure, but Doug Naylor spent hours re-editing it and the result was the classic which we all know.

Best gag: "You were playing the prat version of Rimmer for all that time? For four years!?"

And before we get to my number one episode (and remember, these are my personal favourites and that’s all) here are a few which are just outside the top ten: Polymorph, with Rimmer’s “Give Quiche a Chance” t-shirt; the endlessly quotable White Hole (“What is it?”); the hugely inventive victory lap Skipper from Series XII; Craig Ferguson and Lee Cornes as Confidence and Paranoia in Series I and Lemons in which the gang meets Jesus – or do they?

But for me there was only ever one choice for my number one episode…

1 | Dimension Jump (14 March, 1991 - BBC2)

The other endlessly-revisited alter-ego character other than Dwayne Dibbley is space hero Ace Rimmer, which allows supremely versatile Chris Barrie the chance to totally reinvent awful Arnold as a swaggering James Bond/Tom Cruise/Han Solo type character. Everyone gets in on the act, even Hattie Hayridge as "Mellie". What a guy! And the final revelation about what made the difference between the two men, both given the exact same start in life, is genuinely insightful. Not bad for an early evening BBC2 sitcom, videotaped in front of an audience.

Behind the scenes: Chris Barrie felt the wig was key to the character and complained that return visits from Ace weren’t as effective because the original hairpiece couldn’t be found and he had to wear an inferior substitute.

Best gag: Hattie Hayridge falling off her stool as Rimmer compliments Holly.

Of course, this is only ten episodes out of 74, so I’m sorry if I missed out any of your favourites. If you haven’t seen the show before, any of these would be a great place to start. Or you could do as I did, and watch them all in order from the very beginning…

Red Dwarf: Discovering the TV Series by Tom Salinsky will be released on 30 September 2024 and is available for pre-order from Amazon here.

This article originally appeared on Yahoo TV UK at https://uk.news.yahoo.com/best-red-dwarf-episodes-144616773.html