Customer Reviews

Red Dwarf: Series IV

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Well, I've seen these episodes a countless number of times thanks to PBS and I must say that each season is better to the one before. Although, season III is really hard to top, season IV comes really close! There really isn't much I can tell you about this show if you've already seen the first three seasons. But, I can recomend this and the three before (and two afterwards, once they become avalible) to everybody who a) loves sci-fi or b) everybody who looks British humor (the only REAL sort of humor, if you ask me)

Red Dwarf is a great comedy series that is a toss up between a sci fi comedy, or a comedy sci fi. For me, it's a comedy set in space, sci fi sounds to geeky to describe this hillarious and long running series.

season 3 & 4 is even funnier then season 1 & 2. and has some hillarious and all time great comedy moments. if you cant enjoy Red Dwarf, you must be a total smeg head.

- EGGS -
disc 1

- Easter egg - Literally.
Accessing this one is different to your average egg. On the main menu, select the "select episode". Now, as the animation is travelling through the corridor, just before it turns right, where one of those droid things are, press enter, there is nothing to select, just press enter, and you will access an Easter egg scene.

- Comic Relief-
Go to the episode selections. And go into the menu for DNA. Once in there, click on "Next". You should now see a chicken drawn into the menu in the middle of the screen. Highlight the `menu' text and press up; you should now have highlighted the chicken's egg. Click ok to watch a scene of the cast doing a commercial for charity.

Disc 2
- Animated Commentary-
Select the "extra features" button from the main menu. Then when it asks if you want to view the animated, or text menu. Select the text menu. On that menu, highlight the "back" text button, and press left on your remote. You will highlight that warping device. Click enter on it and you will watch the producers visual commentary, presented in a flash style cartoon.


these seasons keep getting funnier then the previous

The crew of the Red Dwarf are back with series four. Dave Lister last man alive and the last man to eat indian food. Arnold J. Rimmer ships hologram and the only man to fail his astronavagation exams more times then anyone in the history of the space core. The Cat whose wardrobes are so vast they take up most of the hold space on the ship. Kryten he maybe the cleaning mechanoid, but he's also the brains of the crew. And Holly the insanse ships computer that still has to beat her head against the screen to figure her sums. Togeather they travel deep space in search of adventure, action and hopefully a way back to Earth.
This time around the crew encounter a gelf that becomes one's perfect lover. A alien ship that can change DNA and for one of the crew its a step up! After finding a spacepod they discover it was on its way to a penal colony. An experiment has turned Holly back into the super genius she and the crew has to deal with a whitehole. Rimmer geets to meet an alternate version of himself and he's called "Ace" Rimmer test pilot in the space core. Rimmer wants to be very sick now. The crew with the aid of a device that Kryten managed to complete has traveled to a world where waxdriods have come to life and are fighting for thier very exsitance in a war of good versus evil. Will the crew help them?
All this plus many more laughs then you know what to do with. So come onboard and check out what the crew are up to in series four.

If your are a Red Dwarf fan then I'm sure your on your way to owning every series. My younger sister and I began watching Red Dwarf when it was broadcast on PBS in America. We had to stay up until 11 pm on Saturday to see it. Way past our bed time but it was so worth being sleepy during Sunday school the next day. I wonder why smeghead never caught on.

The fourth season of Red Dwarf is interesting in that it is the only one without any major format changes. Some of the behind-the-scenes changes were quite big, most notably the moving of production from Manchester to the far superior Shepperton Studios near London, but otherwise the status quo from Season 3 remains unchanged.

The season begins with Camille, starting a brief two-year tradition resulting from the season beginning on Valentine's Day. In this episode Kryten recovers a female mechanoid named Camille from a wreck, but once back on Red Dwarf it's clear things aren't as they appear, as Rimmer sees Camille as a hologram and Lister sees a human woman. As for the Cat...I'll let that remain a surprise, as it's a classic Red Dwarf moment. It's quite a funny episode based around Casablanca, featuring some ripe misquoting of dialogue and some corny lines, but at the heart of it is some very interesting character development for Kryten, putting him back more or less where he was at the end of his first episode in Season 2, which was probably overdue.

The second episode, DNA, continues the theme of basing an episode around a major SF concept. In this episode the crew discovers a machine that can alter DNA and transform any biological entity into any other one. The upshot of this is that Kryten (whose brain is based on organic technology) gets transformed into a human. Cue some rather Star Trek: The Next Generation Data-esque musings on the nature of humanity and some rather more traditional Red Dwarf musings on how Kryten can cope with his new human sexual organs. This plot thread, though amusing, is thankfully cut short by a far funnier sequence where Lister ill-advisedly runs his mutton vindaloo through the DNA machine, resulting in the creation of a ravaging curry monster.

In Justice a long-standing plot hole is addressed: we learned in Season 1 that Rimmer was (albeit inadvertently) responsible for the accident that wiped out the crew of the Red Dwarf, but this was never really developed. This episode makes up for it when the crew visit an abandoned space prison only for the controlling AI to determine that Rimmer must stand trial for his crime, leading to a classic sequence where Kryten has to prove that Rimmer is innocent by virtue of being an incompetent, deranged and self-delusional half-wit ("If I have full access to your personal date files, I could perhaps put together a winning case by maybe lunchtime,"). This is another very solid episode, notable in the Red Dwarf mythos for introducing the simulants, a human-built race of psychopathic mass-murdering androids who return to plague our crew in future seasons.

White Hole spins off an idea raised in the second Red Dwarf novel, except there it was a traditional black hole causing problems. The episode is also notable as the second (and last) to feature Holly in a major role as Kryten successfully restores her super-brilliant IQ but in doing so radically shortens her lifespan. Events culminate in Lister being entrusted with the firing of a thermo-nuclear device, which is really not a very good idea...

Dimension Jump is one of the series' bona fide classics, introducing a parallel universe where Arnold 'Ace' Rimmer is a test pilot in the Space Corps Special Service, the best of the best, and is entrusted with piloting a faster-than-reality starship across dimensions. Arriving in 'our' reality he makes contact with the crew of Red Dwarf and is rather taken aback when he discovers that 'our' Arnold Rimmer is a rather different character. This is a great episode because is gets back to scouring Rimmer's backstory and psyche to find out what makes him tick, and it works well with Chris Barrier delivering a barnstorming performance as a super-handsome, heroic incarnation of Rimmer (complete with a Top Gun-esque soundtrack and a rather bizarre catchphrase).

Meltdown is another one of the series' unsung high points. Kryten constructs a matter-transmission device which teleports the crew to a planet thousands of light-years away. However, the planet turns out to be a 'Waxworld' where the wax-droid inhabitants have broken their programming and have divided into two factions fighting an endless war. Cue some brilliant scenes where Rimmer takes command of the 'hero' army and puts the likes of Mahatma Gandhi ("Don't eyeball me, Gandhi! Drop to the floor and give me fifty!"), Pythagoras, Jean-Paul Satre and Stan Laurel through advanced combat training with the help of Kryten and his second-in-command, Sergeant Elvis Presley. Meanwhile, Lister and Cat are captured by Adolf Hitler and forced to witness the (thankfully offscreen) execution of Winnie the Pooh by a firing squad led by Al Capone, before being tortured by Emperor Caligula and Rasputin! Events culminate in an impressive (and ludicrous) battle sequence between the forces of good and evil, with a rather unexpected outcome. A completely barking mad and brilliant episode with some of the show's most enduring quotes.

The fourth season of Red Dwarf doesn't rock the boat and happily continues the formulae from the third season, and as it's a formulae that works, this is not a problem. The characters of Kryten and Rimmer are explored in greater depth, but Lister drops into the background slightly more, becoming more of an observer and the viewers' surrogate stand-in for exposition scenes. The Cat has some great lines and scenes but isn't really focused on much. Holly gets her own episode, but there is already a notable reduction in her lines going on, as again much of the show's exposition goes to Kryten. These problems will become more apparent and will be addressed in the fifth and sixth seasons, but for now remain under control.

The best way to describe this show is to take the odd couple, throw them onto the Star Ship Enterprise, blow up the crew, and then sprinkle the results with some of the whacky aliens from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I think I might not be right on, but kind of close.

David Lister is alone in space, three million years from Earth. He is stranded with a hologram of his former roommate, who he is the complete opposite of, a man who evolved from the cat he smuggled onto the ship three million years ago, and a Service Mechanoid who is slowly deprogramming himself and taking on more human aspects to his personality. In the midst of all this, David Lister speaks with his future self, gives birth to twin boys, and comes face to face with an assortment of space critters who want to eat his brain, marry him off to their hideous daughter or simply kill the Dwarfers.

I would have to call it a "Sci-Fi Dramedy," for the fact it is hilarious and keeps me on edge for the next episode.

I began watching RED DWARF after hearing from a host of people how good it was. But I found Season One to be pretty close to be downright bad and Season Two not a great deal better. Season Three, however, was easily the best so far, partly due to dramatically increased production values, but primarily the addition of Robert Llewellyn to the cast as the robot Kryten. He had been a guest in an episode in Season Two, which was sufficiently well-received that he was invited to become a permanent cast member. The results were dramatic. He instantly added a degree of chemistry to the cast that the show had previously lacked and he became the nexus for most of the funniest bits of the show. He also changed the dynamics of the other relationships. While the always stressful relationship between Rimmer and Lister dominated the show in the first two seasons, Kryten increased the possibilities of conflict. Rarely have I seen a show improved to such a degree by a single addition of a character.

Season Four was more of Season Three, only even more polished. It was also funnier. I think that Rob Grant and Doug Naylor found more inspiration in the new cast dynamics and were inspired to write the best stuff on the show to date.

After the excellence of Seasons Three and Four, I can now account myself a fan of RED DWARF, even if I'm not as crazy about the show as others seem to be. But while I watched the first four seasons largely out of a sense of duty (I am in the midst of a project to watch just about ever Sci-fi series that is available on DVD), I'll be watching Season Five as much because I want to as because I need to.

This season/series was loosing it's way. If you like British silly sci-fi comedy, you will love this series! The early and the later seasons were the best. Some of the middle seasons had good episodes, but not all of episodes were good. I own all of the series and can't wait for the movie.

love the dvd's of Red Dwarf, I buy them for my son, got hooked on the show a few years ago, really like the sub title options so I can tell what "them brits" are saying

Series 4 of Red Dwarf, though just as colourful and watchable, isn't one of my favourite series. The dialogue isn't as punchy, the acting's a little hammier at times, plus there's hardly as much character development as there was in the first three series. The comic and dramatic timing seems to be rushed in a few places too. It doesn't matter too much, I can watch these episodes again and again, it's just not the series I'll usually reach for if I'd like to watch some Red Dwarf.

In this series of the sci-fi comedy show, space slob Lister, stiff and selfish hologram Rimmer, vainglorious Cat and the neurotic Kryten the mechanoid continue to roam the galaxy, stopping at something interesting in each and every story.

Here's a rundown of the six episodes of the series:

"Camille" sees Kryten discovering a marooned spaceship and a female mechanoid, the same type as himself, named Camille. He quickly falls in love, and as Camille is taken on board Red Dwarf, so do the rest of the crew. A human, a hologram and a cat falling in love with a female mechanoid? What on Earth do THEY see in her?

Another spacecraft floats their way in "DNA". This one is abandoned, and tangled up in strange grows. A three headed skeleton is discovered, a skeleton that was once human. Something has gone wrong here, and thanks to the Cat, something else will go wrong too, something to do with the genetic structure of the crew...

"Justice" is probably one of my favorites in this series. We see Lister sick with space mumps, we see Rimmer put on trial for accidentally killing the original Red Dwarf crew 3 million years ago, and we get to see some fancy spaceboots that walk by themselves. There's all that, and a fair bit more, set around a space-prison that does to the criminal whatever crime they choose to commit there.

A "White Hole", according to the fourth episode, is the opposite of a black hole. It spits out time and space. The Red Dwarf passes one in this story, and leads to adventure with talking toasters, "interplanetary" pool, silly distortions in time and narrative and a smart Holly the computer!

"Dimension Jump" introduces a character who'd go on to be quite popular among some fans, Ace Rimmer, an alternate dimension version of the Red Dwarf's Rimmer. Unlike the Rimmer we know, Ace is a friendly, heroic, hansome fellow, full of talent and wit. What a guy, that's all I can say!

"Meltdown", according to the commentary and documentary on the DVD, isn't very popular with fans, though all the cast and production team like it. I like it too, actually, another of my favorites in the series. It's set on a planet of "wax droids", robots who look like famous figures in history. 3 million years of neglect has left their programming decayed, and the "villain" droids have waged war on the "heroes". It is up to Rimmer to save the "heroes", or so he thinks, and becomes their general. There are some very silly moments in this. Lots of things and people getting blown up, and something of a message at the end.

The special features on the Red Dwarf DVDs get better and better, I reckon. Series 4, along with being really well put together, comes with a whole stack of goodies. There are the commentaries, which are always fun to put on, a making of documentary, the deleted scenes, the outtakes (smeg ups), a couple of original television trailers from the 1990s, model shots and a photo gallery. There's also a couple of talking book chapters (read by Chris Barrie, who plays Rimmer), and the background music from the show which you can play on cue just by selecting the track with your remote (including the theme song, the theme song played on Hammond organ, and the theme song sung by an Elvis impersonator). There's also two "clip show" featurettes, one featuring clips to do with love, and the other full of clips from Ace Rimmer adventures, that particular featurette "hosted" by Holly. There's a couple of easter eggs too, of which I've found one so far (watch out for the scutter holding the videotape in a hallway and press ENTER on your remote as you see him). I think the biggest treat, though, is an episode of the British cooking series "Can't Cook, Won't Cook" called "Can't Smeg Won't Smeg". As the title suggests, it has a Red Dwarf theme. It features the main cast in character (from Series 7 or 8, I think) and is a pretty silly affair. They divide into two teams and try to cook the best dish, but there's a lot of cheating and nonsense that goes on in between, which infuriates the host. Fun stuff, as good as an episode, I think.

A reasonable addition to the series, and though it's not my favorite, has quite a few laughs and will sit very nicely in most any DVD collection. Recommended for sci-fi fans, lovers of comedy and all things British.