Red Dwarf Series X Episode 3 - Lemons *Spoilers*

Red Dwarf Series X Episode 3 – Lemons

It’s been a solid start to the series, with two good episodes so far, going a long way to alleviating the fears of long time ‘Dwarf fans that the show might be past its sell by date. While not hitting the dizzying heights of Series VI, there’s been plenty to smile about and some genuinely belly laughs to rival the show in its prime. There’s also been the odd bit of the shockingly bad, but luckily that has been relatively sparse, and once again this week we’re treated to a solid outing. Lemons is centred around the crew actually being sent back in time to 23AD, when a ‘rejuvenation shower’ that they cobble together incorrectly malfunctions. Whilst trying to find lemons to make a battery, they meet a rather famous historical personality, who goes by the name of Jesus.

There’s been a few jokes so far this series that have built to a climax throughout the episode, and the start of the episode sees another of these, involving Lister barbequing some meat, the Cat stealing it, and then severely regretting that decision later on when Kryten explains what the meat actually is. Preceding this was a joke about a mini golf tournament that earned some ‘polite’ laughter from the audience, but really was probably the episodes’ weakest moment. Although it’s not on the same level of rubbish as the opening pig racing joke to Trojan, it’s starting to look like each episode is going to have a poor opening gag that suggests Doug Naylor just couldn’t think how to begin each show. This problem wasn’t in any of the previous series that he wrote solely so I can’t think why it’s happening.

Quickly though we’re into familiar Lister vs Rimmer territory, with Rimmer chastising Lister for attempting to read as it ‘messes you up’. It feels like we’re back in the early days here, and there’s some lines that wouldn’t be out of place in the early days of their post-accident relationship (Lister: ‘I wasn’t even toilet trained when I was five; Rimmer: ‘You’ve barely even mastered it now!’). Continuing last week’s decision to try for the engineering exams, Lister is reading a book on ‘The Most Influential Humans’, which will play a role towards the end of the episode. That’s it for the episode on the mention of engineering study, but it sounds like we’re going to have more from this plotline before the end of the series. The two briefly discuss their admiration/hatred for Shakespeare before Kryten interrupts to tell them about the ‘rejuvenation shower’ he has found, which can restore anyone to a point in their prime.

However, just as Rimmer fears due to it being Swedish flat pack furniture, there are rather a lot of bits left over at the end, and the malfunctioning device sends them all back to Britain in 23AD (Lister: ‘Weren’t Britain’s all nutters back then? Running around sporting blue tattoos, out of their heads on booze, fighting, vomiting, passing out?’ Kryten: ‘It’s a phase that doesn’t end anytime soon, Sir.’). Upon discovering that the remote control to send them back has run out of battery, Rimmer makes a surprisingly intelligent suggestion for once, suggesting a battery made out of potatoes as he once did at school, and then lemons when Kryten informs him that there aren’t any potatoes in Britain. The nearest lemons are in India, so six months later they stumble upon an Indian market. After gathering the various items they need, the crew are all set to prepare the battery and return home, when they accidentally come across Jesus sitting at the table behind them. After discussing whether or not to approach him, Rimmer can’t resist, especially as his middle name is Judas, and Jesus invites them to join him for food. The meal is interrupted as two Roman soldiers appear to try and capture Jesus, and the crew are able to hold them off long enough to finish the battery and return to Red Dwarf, with Jesus in tow.

As Jesus discovers the joys of future technology, particularly the simple bag (‘I’m DIZZIED by its genius!’), Kryten diagnoses a kidney stone. He offers to remove it, explaining that he’s been operating on Lister for years with Rimmer’s permission and nothing has gone wrong there. He points out that he has removed Lister’s spleen amongst other organs, whereupon the Cat suddenly twigs as to the source of the meat at the start of the episode. Although Lister is uncomfortable with the idea of removing a kidney stone through Jesus’ little member, they proceed with the operation, Rimmer delighting in the chance to be the one who gets to hold the messiah’s truncheon.

Whilst recuperating, Jesus discovers the book Lister had been reading, and finding out about himself, heads back to 23AD and starts to move away from his peaceful teachings to trash his reputation, so that ‘this Christianity thingeth, never taketh offeth’. There’s some analysis about the validity of the ten commandments (‘He wrote them in a rush!’), before the crew return to convince him that he will make a worthwhile contribution to the world. It’s here that we learn that Jesus is Jesus of Caesaria, son of Samuel the Chicken Stealer, not Jesus of Nazareth and so happily the crew didn’t have to operate on the little soldier of the Son of God. Although there’s still time for him to turn up…

There are some great gags in this episode, particularly the Cat’s curiosity about Jesus’ age (Kryten: ‘23AD, this is when he was supposed to be alive’; Cat: So how old would he be?’), and the Cat’s assessment of Rimmer’s legacy in history (Rimmer: [Judas] became someone who was sneered at and reviled throughout history’; Cat: ‘Just like you!’). In fact, more so than anyone so far this series, the Cat has consistently been the funniest character, adding several lines to the Red Dwarf pantheon of classics. Rimmer has been spot on as his usual, smegheaded self, and Lister has had plenty of shining moments, especially in Fathers and Suns, but it’s really Kryten that I feel has been underutilised. He’s still there playing his part as the narrating drive behind the plot, but I’m still waiting to see him given the top notch lines that we’re used to, although his explanation of how the lemon battery works was great. Robert Llewellyn’s performance is as brilliant as ever of course, I’d just like some more top quality Kryten lines.

Although it’s strange hearing Jesus played with a North-Eastern accent, it’s a great portrayal by James Baxter, bringing excitable energy to each scene he’s in, especially his delight at discovering the bag, and future career as the inventor of said bag.

Again, this episode isn’t a classic, but it’s very good, featuring some hilarious moments, and it’s brilliant to be off on a trip to an outdoor location like often happened in the third and fourth seasons. If only they can iron out the gags that drag on or just genuinely aren’t funny then maybe we’ll see the episodes move into excellent territory.