Customer Reviews

RED DWARF, Series VII, Byte One ~ 1997 Programs (Tikka to Ride / Stoke Me A Clipper / Ouroboros) [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Series 7 of Red Dwarf is considered the worst of the lot (and Series 8 isn't all that great either) but these three episodes are quite good, if not on a par with the best of Series 6. 'Tikka To Ride' wraps up the last episode of Series 6 and shows the consequences of Lister's lust for curry and the change in American history which results. The final scene where Lister gets his comeuppance and gets the vindaloo (substituting 'vindaloo' for a four letter word beginning with either 's'or 'c') stomped out of him is classic Red Dwarf-I guess they got tired of picking on Rimmer all the time and for once Lister gets what Rimmer has always suffered through- a good whipping. We get to see Ace Rimmer for the last time in 'Stoke Me A Clipper' and Lister gets to find out about his past in 'Ouroboros,' a slightly cathartic episode.

Unfortunately, 'Ouroboros' introduces Kochanski, who is depicted as snooty, smarmy, stuck-up and in general not likeable (although she is a good navigator and Lister has the hots for her-but will Lister give up his gross habits and curry in order to get lucky with her?). In other words, a female Arnold Rimmer. At least, Rimmer had a few redeeming qualities (everybody needs a scapegoat and Rimmer was the perfect one)and the interaction between the crew was what made RD so special. Kochanski doesn't fit in and maybe Kryten was right when he tries to get rid of her. Cottage cheese with pineapple chunks? I would rather drink chilled vindaloo sauce and sprinkle onions on my cornflakes!

I think a certain prolific reviewer may well be out of his mind. Better than series 5? I've followed every series as & when they have aired on the good old BBC and series 7 is without doubt the worst of the crop. Stevie Wonder could see that the introduction of Kochanski as a central character was destined not to work & was the mark of a show wondering where else to go. It seems every negative review gets marked down as unhelpful but trust me, I'm not saying this for the sake of it or to be misleading as I'm a truly massive Red Dwarf fan, but this video simply isn't worth the bother.

Gmph. Well, here we go. Whilst the three episodes on this type are of reasonable quality... the episode 'Ourroborros' (or something) being paticulary good in its expanding of a previous throwaway joke to a curiously pathotic conclusion and the Ace Rimmer one also getting in a fair share of laughs along with also, a curiously pathotic conclusion... the scriptwriting fails to meet the high standards of the previous six series. What's worse is that it is down hill from here. The new Kochanski is stupendously irritating with two expressions, one bland and expressing anger, the other bland and, um, expressing annoyance. Claire Grogan made a far better, quirkier and downright sexier Kochanski. Kryten gets idiotic material in a vain attempt to lift him back above the 'exposistion droid' he was in previous series. The characters do incredibly stupid things with little reasoning and... gagh... and... yet...

The acting barring Chloe Annett is still of a pretty high class. There is still the genuine camaraderie and there are a few fun plot twists and the script delivers... ("Hurrah!" - Dwarfers)

Up to a point. ("Kill him" -Dwarfers)

The inherent problem is that whilst the first 6 series were co-written one of the writers left for this one. I imagine that the jokes came about in the previous series with the banter between the two down at the pub, as well as putting each others ideas through pretty tough editting. This led to a tight, efficient incredibly funny series. Sadly no longer. The genuinely funny jokes are now very sparse and many revolve around pitiful jokes about curry, personal hygine and the space corp directive cliche. Even worse we appear to have either canned laughter or audiences threatened with violent dutch-rubs unless they laugh at every second line. Frankly I'd stick with the previous six very funny series, save your money for 'Back To Reality', 'Backwards' and 'The End' and put your fingers in your ears and hum real loud if anyone tries to show you series 8 or the second half of this series, where it makes a bold leap from below par to excrutiatingly unfunny.

Chloe Annett. Doh!

P.S: I AM a HUGE FAN of the previous Six. Buy them. And Blackadder.

I am a BIG fan of Red Dwarf. Series I - VI are well written and well conceived. Series VII is truly awful! In this series, one of the writers left; it really shows who was the inspiration behind Series I - VI. My recommendation is don't bother with this tape. The whole of Series VII isn't worth anything. I'm saddened that the minimum rating I can give is 1 star

The gap between Seasons VI and VII are due to the following: Red Dwarf co-creators Doug Naylor and Rob Grant severed their partnership, leaving the former to form other writing teams. Craig Charles (Lister) was falsely accused of [assault] in 1994 and sentenced to three months on remand. Log entry ends--review proper begins.

"Tikka To Ride": With Starbug's curry supplies wiped out, Lister manipulates Kryten by fitting him with a spare head, overriding said head's guilt chip and behaviour protocols, and leads the others on a curry hunt in the 22nd century using the time drive they got from "Out Of Time." They instead land on 22 November 1963, inside the Texas Depository Building, where by sheer accident, they turn a certain Lee Harvey Oswald into a giant pizza. Unfortunately, this means they have altered the timelines and land on an Earth where the Soviets beat the U.S. in the space race and hence Starbug no longer exists. Memorable dialogue: "As a mark of respect on Sunday [on the loss of curry], I thought at 12 o'clock we could have a moment's flatulence." And a promotion to first officer of Starbug for whoever can understand this temporal paradox: "...there was no time drive for them to have in the future to bring back into the present to destroy in the future the past selves in the present. Put simply, by killing us, they killed themselves because once we were dead, it was impossible for us to become them in the future and return in time to kill ourselves in the past, even though it was the present." Michael J. Shannon (Kennedy) really has JFK's Bostonian accent down pat.

Stoke Me A Clipper: Originally titled "Natural Born Rimmers", the Starbug crew run into Ace Rimmer once again, to the chagrin of Arnold Rimmer, who thinks that the remaining 3000 vomit bags won't be enough for him. However, surprise of surprises, the original Ace has "caught the business end of a neutron cannon". This Ace is the most recent hard-light holograms to succeed Ace, to take over from the previous one. Ace feels that deep insdie, Arnold wants to be a hero, and wants him to take over. Lister has his doubts, even saying, to Ace's "you can't judge a book by its cover", "you can't confuse Rimmer with a book. For starters, books have got spines." There are two nice-looking blondes here, Alison Senior (Princess Bonjella) and Sarah Alexander (the medieval Queen).

Ouroboros: After we see a baby Lister being found under a pool table of the Aigburth Arms, we flash forward 3 millions later, where the crew discover a hyperway leading to a parallel dimensional in the storage hold. Three familiar figures appear from the other side: the Cat, Kryten, and Lister, a hard-light hologram, followed by a very flesh-and-blood Christine Kochanski. In the other reality, it was Kochanski who got frozen for 3 million years for saving Frankenstein the cat and Lister who died and was revived as a hologram. A standout scene is the heart-to-heart conversation between Lister and Kryten, where Kryten acts like a jealous lover and speaks in a high-pitched voice. Another is the tender conversation between Lister and Kochanski, talking about the child they will have in an in vitro tube. Lister thinks he spent most of his life drifting because he didn't know who he was and where he came from, and he doesn't want his child to undergo the same experience.

Season VII marks the drama-comedy phase of the programme, where personal aspects of certain characters are explored, and characters have serious heart-to-heart conversations with each other. And the special effects and spaceship models are superlative for this season. Chloe Annett makes a welcome addition as Kochanski, and yeah, she does lack that cute Scottish brogue of C. P. Grogan, but a Kochanski resembling 80's MTV VJ Martha Quinn merged with Posh Spice will do.

I have been a Red Dwarf fan for several years; ever since the series first aired on PBS in our area. Since then I have purchased every episode of Red Dwarf available on VHS and just recently acquired year 7. My family and I watch each year of the series over and over and yet never seem to tire of them, unlike most other videos. Having said that; Red Dwarf 7, Byte 1 is the best of a pretty damn fine, top-notch team!. I have never found Red Dwarf to be particularly thought provoking, yet all 3 episodes of Byte 1 raised notions that, though they might make Stephen Hawking sneer with contempt, at least got me thinking! I have never considered videos that bring you down or leave you mentally and emotionally exhausted to be entertainment; therefore, when Byte 1 managed to make me laugh while it made me wonder, I gave it top billing!

An excellent three episodes. Though Series 7 was a general disappointment (especially after the award-winning Series 6 which was possibly the best Red Dwarf series ever), it started off very well. 'Tikka to Ride' is the best of Series 7, and 'Stoke Me A Clipper' is also excellently funny and contains a tear-jerking (temporary) departure. In 'Ouroboros' the past of one of the key members of the team is finally revealed. If you want good comedy then don't bother with Bytes 2 and 3 of Series 7, but don't miss this Byte 1 whatever you do!

The absolute best tv series on earth, season 7 was the worst. However even season 7 was better than any season of any other tv show.

This is a pleasant surprise, after the near-utter disaster that the previous two series were. Yes, it's not a good thing that Rimmer's gone for most of it, but here we *finally* start to get back into the more character-based episodes that characterized the first few series. It gets a bit weak towards the end (who decided to let Robert Llewelyn write an episode, anyway?), but as a whole this is quite good, with some truly great episodes (Duct Soup, even without Rimmer, stands out). I was none-too-excited about Kochanski appearing as a regular (and a different actress, to boot), but it worked out better than I had imagined it would. Very nice.

Red Dwarf is an experience that you must see to be sucked into to. Your mind will be frozen by the episodes as you peer longingly into the TV. This tape in particular contains some extroidinary episodes but all of Red Dwarf is fantastic.