Red Dwarf Series X Episode 1 - Trojan
It’s been a long time coming. Finally, Red Dwarf is back on
our screens with a proper full series, a live studio audience, and (hopefully)
some damn good laughs. I had my fears. I thought ‘Back To Earth’ was more miss than
hit. FAR more miss than hit, although I was buoyed by some early reviews of Trojan. As it
turns out, it was pretty good.
There’s no update on ship life – we drop straight into the
fray as we always have done, everyone older but plodding along as they ever
have. It’s nice to see some things never change.
I was worried at the very start. The opening pig joke is one
of the lamest sequences in Red Dwarf’s history, up there with anything to do
with Holly in Series VIII (but still better than anything on E4s Phone Shop). Luckily, it’s followed up by a classic Cat line about mooses
causing road deaths (‘Well if they’re stupid enough to let them drive, what do
they expect?!'). In fact, the whole moose sequence, culminating in more classic
Cat later on, is so close to classic Dwarf it’s almost tear-stainingly great.
Kryten and Rimmer have a nice exchange about Rimmer re-sitting his Astronavigation Exam for the tenth time, doing great fan service
in revisiting the early series, even if Rimmer’s reaction to failing is a
little predictable. Turns out everything isn't as 'Hi, ho, pip and dandy' as Rimmer would wish. At least he's expecting to fail nowadays. Surely that shows personal growth.
Lister and the Cat become obsessed with ordering a ‘Stir
Master’ (saves two weeks of your life stirring drinks!) which is a great spoof
of how shopping channels will come up with any useless fact and turn it round
to sound as if it’s going to give you a new lease of life. Lister already being
on the phone when Cat says he wants one was perfectly done, starting a running
joke throughout the episode that references the time spent on hold and being
transferred between people in call centres. It maybe runs a bit too long, but
it’s something everyone can relate to. Why he isn’t first in the queue, when he’s
three million in the future and the last human alive is never quite explained…but
then it wouldn’t quite be the same joke if he was served straight away now
would it?
The crew locate a derelict ship, Trojan, a ‘quantum twister’, the pride of the Space Corps. Rimmer’s
resentment at not every qualifying as an officer and getting his own command
like this builds up, until he begins flashing blue, putting it down to a light
bee glitch. They find a ‘quantum rod’, able to connect anything in the universe
with anything else as everything is made of energy and all energy comes from
the Big Bang, so it acts as a magnet drawing things together. When it activates
and drags another ship near, it turns out to be the Columbus, captained by Rimmer’s brother Howard. There’s a killingly
funny piece where Rimmer tries to answer the hail, but presses the ‘lower seat’
button instead, sinking slowly down the whole time he speaks.
Back on Red Dwarf, the culmination of the moose joke takes
place as Rimmer tries to pass the Astronavigation Exam once more before he
meets his brother. Studying a lateral thinking question, Rimmer asks Lister,
Kryten and Cat for the answer, each of them able to correctly respond, the Cat
most hilariously so. It’s one of the best Red Dwarf sequences since Series VI,
and if the rest of the season can have plenty of moments like this, we’re in
for a treat.
Rimmer’s resentment then flairs up again, this time causing
him to freeze up, his goofy expression and ‘spinning beach ball eyes’ making
him look like a demonically-possessed hamster. It’s revealed that so much
resentment has built up in Rimmer over the years it caused him to jam, having
to be drained of it and his hard drive cleaned. He’s confident he can now pass
the exam and impress Howard, even though Lister tells him he shouldn’t have to
impress anyone who treated him harshly when he was younger (Biggles has probably never been
referenced in a sentence involving a penis and orange neon paint before).
Determined to be a lying, cheating weasel instead of
embracing honesty, the four crew members impersonate the crew of the Trojan. When we meet Howard and his lady
simulant, Crawford, he’s as shocked as you’d expect at finding Rimmer to be Captain of one
of the Space Corps finest ships (‘But you were an utter twat!). Rimmer
introduces the crew, his reasoning of having a mechanoid rather than a simulant
because he likes to work with the underprivileged being the highlight.
As Rimmer and the Cat show Howard and Crawford around
the ship, Lister and Kryten get increasingly frustrated with the customer
service. As Howard congratulates Rimmer on his ship and command, he also suffers
from the resentment shutdown. Once they’ve repaired him, Howard has a
confession – he too is a vending machine repairman. It’s something that I don’t
quite think works, as too me it seems like a bit of a forced plot point, to
allow the simulant to show her true colours and try to take over the ship, but maybe it's something in the Rimmer genes. As this
is happening, Lister finally gets through to complaints team for the ‘Stir
Master’, and when he refuses to not go and pick up the phone, Howard sacrifices
himself taking a bullet for Rimmer. The Cat loads the resentment files into
the simulant, Lister gets to the phone just too late, and Howard dies hearing
Rimmer confess that he too lied to him – not about his vending machine repairman past, but that he only has one lambourghini, not two.
That’s Rimmer through and through, and it’s great to see.
Lister and Cat get their ‘Stir Master’ in the end although
not quite as intended, and Rimmer’s joy that he won’t build any resentment
towards his brother again is cut short by the announcement that Red Dwarf is to
be renamed the SS Howard Rimmer.
All in all, it really is a decent episode of Red Dwarf. Everyone
slides effortlessly back into character, as if they've never been away. If
anyone deserves the man of the match award, however, it’s the Cat. He has
several lines that should end up being classic Cat moments, particularly about
mooses, and as ever, Danny John Jules’ facial expressions are worth the
admission price alone. Only Lister seems a little left behind, reduced mostly
to jokes about being on hold, but overall it’s great to see the cast together
again, a feeling which wasn't quite as true with Back in The Red.
I've seen a lot on forums about Kryten’s new costume. It
doesn’t seem too bad in this episode, but I've seen clips from later on and
there’s definitely something strange with his nose. The new model shots of the
ships however are nothing short of superb, and bring a great nostalgic feel to
the episode. Shooting in front of a live audience was exactly the right thing,
helping to extend the laughs in a couple of places, and if audience feedback
proves true then it appears things are going to get even better from here.
A minor nitpick, but in Better
Than Life, Rimmer tells Lister that everytime he takes an exam he tells his
mother that he’s passed, after she addresses the envelope to ‘Read Admiral
Lieutenant General Rimmer’ (or something like that). Surely she would been
telling his brothers about his progress, so his being in the Space Corps
shouldn’t be too much of a shock to Howard? Unless that rank isn’t in the Space
Corps. Too picky? Maybe.
So, overall, ignoring the terrible opening 30 seconds, it’s
a good start to the series, bringing a nostalgic feel for Series I-VI, and
having some genuine laugh out loud moments. Here’s hoping it maintains its
momentum over the next five weeks.
7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment