Red Dwarf: Skipper

Maybe it's because I went into it with the lowest possible expectations, or maybe they just saved the best for last, but this episode was actually almost decent. There was even a funny bit. It was piggy-backing off one of the funniest things that's ever happened in this show, but it was a good reference and executed, well, acceptably. The rest of the episode's jokes were poor at best, but I didn't hate any of it. My biggest problem with the episode was that its premise was far too good to waste on a single episode and should have been the basis for an entire season.

Red Dwarf: M-Corp

This episode does that classic sci-fi thing of criticising a real-world issue through an incredibly ham-fisted and implausible analogy. You know, like Black Mirror. Only Black Mirror takes itself seriously and this is pretending not to take itself seriously. I think Doug Naylor wants to write for Black Mirror. Honestly, make a few minor adjustments to the characters and the pacing and this could be a Black Mirror episode.

Red Dwarf: Mechocracy

I actually timed it this time. it takes about 13 minutes (of a 28 minutes episode) for the actual plot to start. The entire first half of the episode is set-up. And if you're wondering if the pay-off is worth it, you haven't been reading these reviews. To its credit, I didn't find this episode as offensive as the previous ones, but I'm not sure that's the tag line they'd go with for the advertising.

Red Dwarf: Timewave

It's been a while (almost eight months, in fact) since I started watching this season but it's only six episodes long so I thought I might as well try to finish it. Guess what? It's still real bad. It's interesting that I concluded my last review by saying that the theme of the episode seemed to be that criticism is bad, because the message of this episode is the exact opposite of that. In fact, insulting and belittling people is good... because otherwise they might be happy and confident?

Red Dwarf: Siliconia

If the first episode was mediocre, this one is just bad. And if your assessment of the first episode was less generous than mine, this one's probably enough to put you off watching any more ever again. But here we are, season 12, episode 2, Siliconia. It's not funny, but Chris Barrie gets to show off how good he is at imitating voices, so it's got that going for it.

Red Dwarf: Cured

Who still thinks bringing Red Dwarf back is a good idea? Seriously, who? How does this keep happening? When's the last time this show was actually good? 1992? However it happens, it's happened again, and I honestly have no idea if this follows on from the previous season or if they've retconned it again. Who even cares? The crew this time consists of Rimmer, Lister, Kryten and the Cat, because apparently someone thinks there's still something of value to be mined from those four.