Retro Flashback.. The Sci-Fi Comedy Red Dwarf



Red Dwarf Series LogoRed Dwarf is a British sci-fi comedy series that ran from 1988 to 1999.  It was such a big hit, that the series was brought back in miniseries form in 2009, and again for full seasons in 2012, 2016, 2017 and for a 90 minute TV special in 2020.  Can you imagine?  A series coming back and picking up in the thick of the storyline some 21 years later, and then still garnering interest and going strong ever since?

Back in the day, Americans could watch the series on PBS if they were lucky, but videos were also abundantly available at movie and book stores (back when those still existed) which is where I used to buy all my VHS tapes of the series.  For those who haven't had the pleasure of watching this great show, here's a quick rundown..

The series takes place on a mining spaceship called 'Red Dwarf' which is 6 miles long, 5 miles tall, and 4 miles wide.  The series focuses on the lowest ranking crew member and last human being alive named Dave Lister, his bunk mate Arnold "Judas" Rimmer, a humanoid feline named 'Cat', an android named Kryten and the ships computer whose name is Holly.



The Cast of Red Dwarf Sci-Fi Comedy
 From left to right:  Arnold Rimmer the hologram, Kryten the mechanoid,
Dave Lister (The last human being alive) and Cat.


Red Dwarf Mining Vessel from the Jupiter mining corporationSome shoddy work on the ships drive plate by Arnold Rimmer, resulted in the whole ship being flooded with lethal radiation. The accident ended up killing everyone on board except Lister and his pet cat.  The only reason Lister survived, was because of being put in suspended animation as punishment for smuggling his cat "Frankenstein" on board.



The spaceship STARBUG from Red DwarfFrankenstein who ended up being pregnant, was locked safely in a cargo hold and gave birth.  Her offspring evolved over the course
of three million years into a humanoid race, which eventually leads to the emergence of "Cat" who is the last of their kind.  The ships computer kept Lister in stasis until the radiation reached a safe background level, which unfortunately ended up being three million years.  Upon Lister's awakening, Red Dwarf is turned around and starts heading back towards earth. 



KRYTENArnold Rimmer is brought back to life by the ships computer in hologram form (hence the letter H on his forehead.  Towards the end of series one, the crew comes across a mechanoid named Kryten who later becomes a permanent fixture from season two on.  During the crews voyage back home, they start encountering different species and space anomalies of every manner.


The series was side-splittingly funny, and I never missed an episode.  When it got pulled from my local PBS stations programming, I turned to the movie and book stores to start building my collection of VHS tapes.  I've always meant to get them on DVD, but never did, as I can now stream them anytime I like.


Below is a clip from the show to give you a taste.  In this clip from the episode "Camille", Lister is trying to help Kryten break his programming so he can become independent.





And another..
In this clip, the crew learns there's a shape shifting alien on board.






I was a huge fan of Red Dwarf right from the get go, but the show definitely got better with time due to bigger budgets and the evolution of special effects.  If you're a fan of comedy or Sci-Fi, do yourself a favor and check out Red Dwarf.


Visit Red Dwarf online


 The Red Dwarf YouTube channel




Comments

Post a Comment

What do you think? I'd love to hear from you!

Popular posts from this blog

RIP Hostess Raspberry Filled Powdered Donuts

Image
I wrote an article close to a decade ago, to share my dismay with Hostess for discontinuing their Raspberry Filled Donuts. That article was still getting an unreal amount of traffic and interaction to this very day. In fact, no other article I have written has brought the amount of traffic to 'The Retro Dad' that this one has. It's still a subject that lots of folks are interested in, so I have dusted off the article and updated it for the snack cake loving masses in 2023. Enjoy.. Hostess Raspberry Filled Donuts were originally called 'Hostess O's'. I rememeber when we called them O's, and I believe the name was changed in the late 70s. I don't eat a lot of donuts now, but.. Over the last year and a half, I've developed a much healthier relationship with food. The other day while shopping with my wife, I did something that puzzled her. She couldn't believe I was perusing the snack cake aisle intently. A few years ago she wouldn't have even bl...
Read more

Retro Review - IRISH SPRING vs. ZEST. Battle of the Old School Bar Soaps

Image
I've been on the hunt for new bar soaps to use in the shower lately, and the road traveled has led me to several old school soaps. I decided to give the two oldest soaps that I remember from my childhood, a side by side comparison to see how they hold up against one another. IRISH SPRING $0.97 for two 3.2 ounce bars This soap has had many slogans over the years, but the most famous one very well may be..  leaves you as fresh and clean as a whistle . It may sound a bit corny, but this is the experience I had with Irish Spring. The soap was incredibly efficient at removing dirt and grime, without an excess of suds. Perhaps the the lack of suds equates into the soap not breaking down as fast. The reason I lean towards that reasoning, is because my bar of Irish Spring stood up to daily showering (sometimes twice a day) for 10 days. Dirt seemed to just slide right off of my skin when I used this soap, and I'm impressed with how good it cleans. I used the bar for hand washing as well...
Read more

Cookie Crisp Mascots. Then.. and Now

Image
Theretrodad.com experienced a huge bump in site traffic during the month of July. Upon checking my site stats, I saw massive amounts of Google searches for 'Cookie-Crisp' that were directing viewers to an older Cookie Crisp article I wrote. Therefore, I decided to dust off that old article, and add some more in depth history about the cereal, as well as the mascots we've seen over the years. Ah, Cookie Crisp Cereal. What a sneaky way to get kids to eat their breakfast! Not to mention an equally sneaky way to trigger me into late night snacking. I can't even begin to count the bowls of Cookie Crisp I ate while watching late night TV, or while working on blogs and web-sites late into the night. Launched in 1977 by Ralston Purina, Cookie Crisp was an instant hit right out of the gate. It was originally available in chocolate chip, vanilla wafer and oatmeal flavors. My absolute favorite was the vanilla variety, with chocolate chip being a close runner up. Other flavors intr...
Read more