Post by Sailor Earth on Mar 3, 2004 7:47:44 GMT -5
(Got this from the BBC site... at least I think that's where... so no, I didn't write this myself... LOL! )
Dave Lister is the last human being in the universe. A lowly technician on the mining ship Red Dwarf, he wakes up one day to find that the rest of the crew have been killed by a radiation leak. He has been in stasis for three million years.
He is doomed to drift in space for the rest of eternity with only two companions: the hologram of his former crew-mate, Rimmer, and a creature called Cat who has evolved from a pet he smuggled on board.
From series III onwards, they were joined by a mechanoid servant called Kryten, and from series VII, by the attractive human female, Kochanski. The scenario changed in the most recent series (VIII), in which the boys (and girl) from the Dwarf find the rest of the crew have been restored to life.
Why we love it
Red Dwarf is one of the most popular shows ever broadcast on BBC TWO.
From the outset, the writers took hold of the staples of science fiction and gave them a good shake.You might expect rogue robots, body swapping and quantum leaping in any SF genre show, but never before have the heroes been so unheroic. Or, as Lister so memorably put it, " Don't give me the Star Trek crap. It's too early in the morning".
The loving parody of science fiction might have attracted a core following but Red Dwarf is much, much bigger than the sum of its gadgets and spaceships.
No sitcom works without memorable, well-played characters, and that’s what you get in Red Dwarf. In particular, the relationship between Lister, (a loveable, hygienically-challenged Everyman) and Rimmer (self-loathing personified) is brilliantly written and performed.
Dave Lister is the last human being in the universe. A lowly technician on the mining ship Red Dwarf, he wakes up one day to find that the rest of the crew have been killed by a radiation leak. He has been in stasis for three million years.
He is doomed to drift in space for the rest of eternity with only two companions: the hologram of his former crew-mate, Rimmer, and a creature called Cat who has evolved from a pet he smuggled on board.
From series III onwards, they were joined by a mechanoid servant called Kryten, and from series VII, by the attractive human female, Kochanski. The scenario changed in the most recent series (VIII), in which the boys (and girl) from the Dwarf find the rest of the crew have been restored to life.
Why we love it
Red Dwarf is one of the most popular shows ever broadcast on BBC TWO.
From the outset, the writers took hold of the staples of science fiction and gave them a good shake.You might expect rogue robots, body swapping and quantum leaping in any SF genre show, but never before have the heroes been so unheroic. Or, as Lister so memorably put it, " Don't give me the Star Trek crap. It's too early in the morning".
The loving parody of science fiction might have attracted a core following but Red Dwarf is much, much bigger than the sum of its gadgets and spaceships.
No sitcom works without memorable, well-played characters, and that’s what you get in Red Dwarf. In particular, the relationship between Lister, (a loveable, hygienically-challenged Everyman) and Rimmer (self-loathing personified) is brilliantly written and performed.