December 17, 2008.

Continuing to be funny.

Rating: 5
Red Dwarf: Series 2
Just as funny as Series I. It's slightly different than the version on VCR tape, so even if you have that you'll find things you've never seen before.

December 15, 2007.

Still great..

Rating: 5
The last season/series is nearly the best. 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.

December 21, 2007.

The smeg-race continues.

Rating: 5
Red Dawrf's second season, basically a continuation of the first series, and every once as side-splitting as before. perhaps more so, in some cases. This series is also the first appearence of Kryten, the robot, who shows up in the first episode, but is not seen again until series thre, when they decided he would make a good continuing charachter (he ended up being many people's favorite.)

Highly reccommended! (but only if you've seen series one to familiarize yourself with it.)

December 31, 2006.

Smeggin' Great.

Rating: 5
Brilliant! If you love Series One then Series Two will not disappoint you. All of the extra's are worth buying this DVD. See how the guys react at a convention when someone asks what SMEG means. And getting the full version of 'Tongue Tied' is fantastic. Although yellow spandex isn't Rimmer's best color choice.

December 28, 2006.

"It's a Magic Door!".

Rating: 5
Space slob Dave Lister is back, the uptight Arnold Rimmer is back, the cool classy Cat is back, and so is Holly the computer. In Red Dwarf series 2, we get more colors on board the ol' mining ship, more locations, more guest faces, more quotable banter and just as many laughs as the first series, if not... more! 4 of the 6 episodes are up there with my absolute favorites, and the other two are pretty good too. Personally, I'd start with series 1 and work my way along if I was a newcomer (that's how I did it, actually), but series 2 would still be a great introduction to this sci-fi/comedy series.

In "Kryten", the crew of the Red Dwarf find a marooned spacecraft with two lovely ladies aboard. Unfortunately, the ladies are dead, but their mechanoid servant Kryten still lives, so they take him on board the ship. He's very polite and very subservient, Lister thinks he's a little too subservient. Can he convince the robo-man to rebel against Rimmer?

"Better Than Life" is the name of the second episode, and of a virtual reality video game that truly is better than life. In it, you can see, feel, touch and taste everything your heart has ever desired. The Red Dwarf crew find a copy in a very late delivery of mail, and decide to have a go. They end up having a great time, but will Rimmer's self loathing end up ruining it for everyone?

"Thanks for the Memory" sees the crew celebrating the anniversary of Rimmer's death. Rimmer gets himself drunk on hologram alcohol and admits to Lister that he never really had someone to love. They all go to bed, but end up waking a few days later. Lister and the Cat have broken legs, a jigsaw puzzle has been completed, pages have been ripped out their diaries and Red Dwarf's black box is missing. Rimmer suspects aliens, though the others doubt it. Can the crew discover what happened in those lost days?

"Statis Leak" sees the crew finding a leak in statis. That is, they found a hole in the space-time continuum. That is, they found a magic door into the past. Rimmer wants to bring his living past self into the present, Lister wants to find his would-be girlfriend Kochanski and tell her how he feels, the Cat just wants to find a girl. Will any of them succeed? Keep a look out in this episode for former Fast Show member Mark Williams (better known for playing Mr Weasley in the Harry Potter films). He plays Lister's friend Olaf Petersen in this episode, and Lister gets to give him a big kiss.

Holly the computer has made one mistake too many in the "Queeg" episode. Not only are the crew sick of it, but it seems the ship is too. Because of Holly's incompetence, the backup computer Queeg is activated and takes over Red Dwarf. Queeg is strict and unforgiving, and the crew realise how nice Holly was to them, despite his flaws. Can they all get Holly back in charge?

"Parallel Universe" is about just that, a parallel universe. In this alternate reality, the Red Dwarf crew are all women instead of men (except for the Cat, he's still male, but in this reality he's a humanoid Dog). The Red Dwarf crew from the regular universe travel to this alternate reality, and Lister ends up getting a little too close to his feminine self. Sort of a cliffhanger ending here...

There are many special features here, as there are on all the Red Dwarf DVDs. There are audio commentaries on all the episodes by Craig Charles, Chris Barrie, Norman Lovett and Danny John-Jules. There's a documentary of sorts called "Red Dwarf from A-Z" which has little themed segments for each letter of the alphabet (A for Arnold Rimmer, S for Smeghead, etc). In this documentary there are clips from the other series, as well as interviews from fantasy author Terry Pratchett, Star Trek's Patrick Stewart, the one and only Stephen Hawking and even a couple of aggressive Daleks from Doctor Who! There's a lengthy interview with writer Doug Naylor about series 2. There's a reel of deleted scenes, though most of them are alternate and extended scenes rather than truly deleted ones. Notable deleted scenes on the reel include Cat caterwauling through some feline karaoke, the full "Androids" TV soap theme song, and a scene where Rimmer discusses the Space Masons. Other special features include an original 1980s TV spot, the full "Tongue Tied" music video from "Parallel Universe", snippets from the audio book read by Chris Barrie (he does all the voices too! What a guy!), a photo gallery, music tracks, outtakes (smeg ups), a montage of all the characters disguises and alternate personalities, special effects footage and even some hidden bits and pieces. With each series you get more and more special features, so look out! They menus have all got a great theme and look to each of them, I must say too.

Recommended for lovers of comedy, sci-fi and all things British.