Red Dwarf X - Back in the Black!

Red Dwarf and I go way back. Though if I'm honest I was late to the party. I got into the boys from the Dwarf when Season 5 was showing, but immediately ate up the videos from previous series. However, when Dave announced they were reviving the series I was more than a little hesitant. I remembered Seasons 7 and 8 both being quite bad, and quite a lot of time had moved along.

Back to Earth was pretty pants, but apparently it did well enough for the show to get a full season commissioned. Season X came out last year on Dave, but I only just got it for my birthday last week. Why the wait? Partly because I was very worried after Back to Earth, and partly because I forgot.

I'd heard good things about X. Facebook and Twitter had filled with people saying it was return to good old fashioned Red Dwarf. Also post-Back to Earth I'd revisited Season 8 and discovered it wasn't quite as bad as I remembered it. In fact it was pretty decent. I was ready to take the chance. When I finally sat down with Red Dwarf X I was in for a surprise.

It wasn't just good, it was really good! There were a few jokes where I was in stitches. It felt like old school Dwarf. It's up there with the better series. It's a much more closed in affair, dealing with the guys just hanging around the ship, getting into arguments and

Well except for the final episode, which returns to the more sci-fi type storyline the later seasons were so guilty of. It's easily the worst episode of the lot. Though having now watched the documentary of it being made I can understand why. Seems Dave's production of scripted TV isn't quite there yet and thanks to various internal problems, this was literally written days before it went in front of a studio audience. Interestingly it's a script from one of the movie pitches pared down into an episode format. Which I think makes up for it, getting to see it from that perspective.

Don't let my negativity for that one episode put you off though. If you're missing the Boys, and like me were wary of any revivals, Red Dwarf X is definitely worth picking up. You don't even need to watch Back to Earth, just accept Kochanski is gone - Thank God.