Red Dwarf 1-01: The End - Part 2

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm still writing about Red Dwarf's first episode, somehow. The episode's just 30 minutes long! I don't know why this is happening! It's just that whenever I go to type something about it all this useless trivia comes out of my brain. Like this:

Red Dwarf first aired on February 1988, about five months after Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered and a year before Doctor Who went on its long hiatus. Next Gen was the biggest fish in the TV sci-fi pond in America but it took three years to air on the BBC so Red Dwarf had plenty of time to establish itself as the top sci-fi show in the UK. The End got 4-5 million viewers, which is about what Doctor Who manages at its worst, but it was pretty good for a low-budget UK sitcom and the ratings grew over time. In fact Red Dwarf is still being made to this day (assuming they can get the legal problems sorted out) and would be Britain's longest running sci-fi series if Doctor Who didn't have the unfair advantage of starting 25 years earlier.

Anyway, if you're looking for the first half of this article, CLICK HERE. If you're looking for the conclusion you're already in the right place. Be warned though, there are SPOILERS ahead (for this one episode, not the whole series).

Red Dwarf 1-01: The End - Part 1

Episode:

1

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Writer:

Rob Grant & Doug Naylor

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Director:

Ed Bye

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Air Date:

15-Feb-1988

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm finally writing about long-running British sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf! The series started way back in 1988, so if I'd been a bit quicker about it I could've written this in time for the 30th anniversary four years ago. Still, I can't feel too bad as the series did nothing for its 30th either, despite airing new episodes in the two years leading up to it.

People joke about British shows having ridiculous short seasons, but Red Dwarf must set some kind of record for managing just 73 episodes in 30 years. Part of the reason for this is that British sitcoms typically have only one or two writers who work their asses off to get six scripts done a year. In fact Red Dwarf was scripted by former Spitting Image head writers Rob Grant and Doug Naylor for the first five years and then Naylor basically handled the rest of it on his own after Grant left. I was kind of hoping they'd sort their problems out and get back together, but last I heard Naylor's in a legal battle to get the rights back from his former friend so it doesn't seem like the rift's going to heal any time soon.

SPOILER WARNING: I'm going to be analysing this sitcom episode scene by scene, so I won't just be spoiling the story, I'm going to be ruining all the jokes too. I'll not be spoiling later episodes though.