Customer Reviews

Red Dwarf - Series 1, Byte 1: The End [VHS]

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

The three episodes on this tape set the scene for the greatest sci-fi comedy ever. Dave Lister, (all-round slob) Arnold Rimmer (hologram and boring git) and the fashion-obsessed Cat make their first appearance on screen. 'The End' explains the premise of the series, the destruction of the ship's regular crew, and the survivors' attempt to get home. The following episode, 'Future Echoes', is one of the funniest thirty minutes of television ever. The gang start seeing visions of their own future, which leads to Lister discovering he has mere hours to live. 'Balance Of Power' concerns Lister's attempt to become an officer, (and thus outrank Rimmer) which worries Rimmer greatly. ("Lister, the man who changed the bog-rolls outranked us.") Buy this video - it's smegging brilliant.

Here it is, the beginning of the Red Dwarf universe (aptly titled "The End"), the beginning of some truly wild times. The first season was a little clumsy, new to the actors, and certainly underbudgeted, but it was the start of something wonderful, and contained glimpses of that wonder as well.

The End is really good, particularly for a pilot episode. The premise of the show is complete. Dave Lister emerges from stasis 3 million years into the future. He is alone in deep space with the computer Holly, the hologram Arnold Rimmer, and The Cat, a humanoid evolved from domestic household cats. This episode is a necessity for anyone trying to grasp the full picture of Red Dwarf.

Future Echoes is the finest of the first season. When the crew travels faster than light speed they catch glimpses of actions they have yet to do. Lister decides not to return to stasis and Rimmer whines a fair amount about being dead.

Balance of Power has always irritated me as it is inconsistent with Red Dwarf episodes to come. Lister complains about never having asked Kochanski for a date, but by the fourth season she is referred to as his ex-girlfriend. I suppose I shouldn't blame this episode itself, which contains a great scene in which Rimmer is saddled with Olaf Peterson's arm, but I can't help it...

If a crazy, whacked-out British Sci-fi comedy that specializes in the rampant use of the word "Smeg" sounds right up your alley, than check out Red Dwarf! It's brilliant!

When I first got this tape, I didn't think I'd like what I was about to see. After seeing the first episode though, I was hooked. I'm already half-way into the series and have heard a movie will be released in 2002, so life is just getting better.

The premise of the first season involves Lister, a slob who won't get rid of his cat and Rimmer, a self righteous coward, who serve onboard The Red Dwarf. After Lister is told he'd have to get rid of the cat or face punishment, he take his punishment and is banished into a cryo-chamber. He awakens to find out the crew died from a radiation explosion 3 million years ago and finds his only companions include a holographic version of Rimmer, an evolved humanoid version of his cat and the ship's computer. With a crew like this, who needs enemies. In any case, the series starts here.

Unlike most great TV shows that have terrible first seasons (Seinfeld, Simpsons, MST3K), Red Dwarf was funny from the start. Although the first episode isn't filled with tremendous laughs, it does a great job of setting up the premise and introducing the characters. Probably the least funny episode of the entire 8 series', but still well worth watching. The 2nd episode is when Red Dwarf started to shine, and the 3rd episode was even better. Although the series got better and better throughout its years on the air (until seasons' 7 and 8), the first few episodes are surprisingly good. Weel worth the purchase price.

The problem I always had with the serious sci-fi programs, i.e. Star Trek, and (shudder) Dr. Who. Is that the characters seemed so different from real people. Nobility, courage, and comradeship are commonplace. I'm not saying you won't find the premise of Red Dwarf unbelieveable, but the characters portrayed are much closer to the real thing than any "serious" sci-fi I'd ever seen. They're peevish, self absorbed, cynical, fun loving, and a little drunk. They argue, conive, and only stick together when the chips are down. The entire Red Dwarf series is a blast, but the first volume sets the tone. Since they didn't have the capacity for high tech visuals, they rely on excellent character developement, cunningly contrived by Grant/Naylor (the creators). Be careful this stuff is addictive and a hell of a lot of fun. This tape is for all those people who would have just ONCE liked to have heard Data tell Jordy to go Smeg himself!!

By the late 1980's, Doctor Who was in its dying days, with plummeting ratings. Meanwhile, based in Manchester, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor came up with ideas for a sci-fi sitcom called Red Dwarf. It was the name of the title ship, the size of a city, with a crew of 169. The weekly show debuted on 15 February 1988, and this video comprises the first three episodes of Red Dwarf's first season, which are its freshest and funniest stories in the canon.

For the majority of the first two seasons, the beginning of each episode, starting with "Future Echoes" began with this intro from Holly, the ship's computer. "This is an SOS distress call from the mining ship Red Dwarf. The crew are dead, killed by a radiation leak. The only survivors were Dave Lister, who was in suspended animation during the disaster, and his pregnant cat, who was in the hold. Revived three millions years later, Lister's only companion is a lifeform evolved from his cat, and Arnold Rimmer, a hologram simulation of one of the dead crew." Holly would then make a smart-aleck remark, like "I've got the IQ of 6000, the same IQ as 6000 PE teachers." Ouch! And love that rock-guitar title theme, which has a girl singing lyrics during the end credits.

The debut episode "The End", introduces us to the situation that befell Lister and to the cast who will star for the first two seasons. There's Lister (Craig Charles), the lowest ranking member of the crew, third class maintenance technician. He's an Afro-British, with a bunch of rasta pigtails hanging down his back, cheery, laid back, fun-loving, lazy, wanting fun and excitement. In contrast, his immediate superior Rimmer (Christopher Barrie) is uptight, sensible to a fault, irritable, and wanting to become an officer to the point of writing exam answers on his bare legs and arms. Then there's the Cat (Danny John-Jules), who's got a lively personality, call him a jive-talking Morris Day, Little Richard, and James Brown rolled up in one. He is funny, obsessed with how he looks, and with even fangs of a cat, and a fancy dresser at that. And Holly (Norman Lovett), the ship's computer, who appears as a disembodied head on a screen and speaks in a deadpan manner with some personality--it's his lines that are funny. Oh, this introduces us to the classic Red Dwarf insult--smeghead.

When one goes into faster than lightspeed, one sees "Future Echoes" which involves catching up with things you're about to do before you've actually done them. The scene in the drive room between Rimmer and Lister is a hilarious example of that. Another highlight, is Rimmer, who wanting a crewcut, gets rude and calls Holly a "stupid, jumped-up filo-fax." In retaliation, Holly gives Rimmer a Helen Shapiro hairdo, which is sidesplitting.

In "Balance Of Power" Lister is missing Christine Kochansky, Red Dwarf's navigation officer he saw as his ideal woman. He wants to bring her back but Holly can only sustain one hologram at a time, and we know what that means for the "obnoxious, ruthless, insensitive, single-minded" Rimmer. Lister decides that outranking Rimmer is the only way to get Kochansky's hologram disk. The lively party scene Lister reminisces over is a highlight, as is the Cat getting fish from the food dispenser.

This is a blend of creative story ideas and side-splitting dialogue, with an assorted bunch of gags in each story. In one, Lister is happily spraying his underarms. He then sprays another bottle on his chin, stares aghast, only to realize he had accidentally sprayed shaving cream on his underarms. Rimmer also advises Lister to listen to more classical music, "Mozart, Mendelssohn, Motorhead." American audiences who haven't seen Red Dwarf may remember Christopher Barrie (Rimmer) playing Lara Croft's butler in the first Tomb Raider movie. And Claire Grogan (Kochansky) was the lead singer of the Scottish 80's group Altered Images, who later fronted Universal Love School.

This collection of the first 3 episodes of Red Dwarf are a must to anyone as an introduction to the outrageous show.I was infected with the Dwarf bug about 10 years ago by a friend living in Florida.He came to visit one summer and brought me tapes of the first 2 seasons of Red Dwarf and I was immediatly hooked.I hadn't heard of Dwarf before because it wasn't broadcast on any of the PBS stations in my area.
The story is about Dave Lister a crew member on the spaceship "Red Dwarf",he and his bunkmate Arnold J.Rimmer are in charge of maintaining the chicken soup dispensers.
Lister is basically a simple guy with a plan,to save all his pay and buy a farm on Fiji (which sank below sea level during a volcanic eruption)so land there is very cheap.He smuggles aboard an un-quarrentined pregnant cat and is put into stasis as punishment for not turning over the kitten carrying Frankenstein.
After Lister is in stasis there is a radiation leak that kills all aboard except for Frankenstein because she was hidden in the hold and protected from the killing radiation.
Lister is revived 3 million years later by Holly the computer because the radiation has reached safe limits.After learning of the fate of his shipmates and resurrection of his bunkmate albiet as a hologram,he meets "Cat" a decendent of Frankenstein.
So begins the adventures of the crew(?) of Red Dwarf and their journey back to Earth.
I was a bit dismayed to find that the original theme was changed to one that was used in later episodes and certain scenes were changed and even the design of the ship was altered.Having the original TV broadcast episodes and seeing the changes which I feel shouldn't have been made,I still recommend this series highly.I only wish the music from the series was available.
Would I buy the collection? I smeggin would!!

Get it, buy it, rent it, borrow it, steal it, look for it on T.V.
Red Dwarf is beyond description. You simply CANNOT convey the experience of watching this show; it has to be lived thru.
O.K.
Let's be fair.
Red Dwarf is not Shakespear. Nor does it pretend to be.
It is what it is; a British Science Fiction Comedy.
It is most definetly "on par" with other greats like Monty Python, and Fawlty Towers....But most definety its own destinct flavor and identity.
The characters are engaging, the comedy sharp and the situations hillarious and imaginative.
I have "brought into the fold" over a dozen dedicated fans over the last few years.
I can't think of a single person I have shown Red Dwarf to, that hasn't thought it hysterical.
Definetly a well invested 22 odd minutes.
Trust me...Give 'er a look.
Cheers Mate.

p.s.
Do youreslf, and the show justice-->WATCH THEM IN ORDER.
:)

RED DRAWF was a long-running classic Sci-fi comedy series from BBC televison that has never come to a end. This is what brought Chris Barrie, Craig Charles and Danny John Jules to big buisness before Barrie appeared in TOMB RAIDER. The series is very good, the humor is outragous, and the adventures written and created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor takes out into a Science Fiction comic world where all spacebums great and small are the smeg heads of the universe. For those who have never seen RED DRAWF before, the series is set in the future introducing a Liverpoolian named Dave Lister who is a technian on-board a gigantic space freighter on it's way to Earth, where Lister really hates his Superior Arnold Judas Rimmer, a man who is trying to become a officer and he really hates Rimmer and the ship's computer is Holly, Holly is a computer simulation of a male's head with a IQ of 6 thousand. Lister is forced to go into stasis when he smuggles a pregnant cat on-board. Lister awakens thousands of years later to find the crew have been killed and he's 3 million years lost in deep space. Where Lister's only companions are a H headed hologram of Rimmer, Holly who hasn't been used in 3 million years and has lost his intelligence and the Cat, A Neon suited alien evovled from cats who has a big love for clothes, obessessed with women and he has no intelligence. This intro beginning really starts the best sci-fi comedy ever. The series gets better in Series 3 - 8 and this first series is a classic start to a Epic comedy show.

This is a great place to start if you wish to find more out about this phenomenon known as Red Dwarf, however, if you have a DVD player I would spring for the set on DVD of which you can now find series I and II (more soon to be released). If you still don't have a DVD player and are looking for a good excuse the Red Dwarf series on DVD is it.
The first episode "The End" - is really the beginning and explains how Lister's life is about to become a whole lot more interesting and important aboard the ship Red Dwarf.
The second installment is "Future Echoes" - one of my favorites where visions of the future provide hilarity in not only this episode but even set up jokes that are to come later in the series.
The final episode in series 1, byte 1 is "Balance of Power" provides us with Lister's struggle to outrank Rimmer and by doing so be able to shut the smeghead off.