Red Dwarf VIII is the eighth series of the British science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf. It consists of eight episodes and was broadcast on UK television channel BBC2 in February to April 1999. It was written by Doug Naylor (with two episodes co-written by Paul Alexander), and was directed by Ed Bye.

The series follows the return to the spaceship Red Dwarf of Dave Lister (Craig Charles), Cat (Danny John-Jules) and Kryten (Robert Llewellyn), and Kristine Kochanski (Chloë Annett) and their subsequent imprisonment by a resurrected crew that they are surprised exists.

The series features the return of Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie), Lister's former boss and now his cellmate, and Holly (Norman Lovett), the ship's computer, as regular characters, along with the reappearance of Mac McDonald as Captain Hollister.

Writing and production Red Dwarf VII was the first after creator and writer Rob Grant had left; the other creator, Doug Naylor, had written episodes solo or with co-writers, and the series moved to a largely single camera setup without a studio audience.

Series VIII was mostly written by Naylor solo, with Paul Alexander co-writing on two episodes, and returned to having a studio audience.

The opener, "Back in the Red", was originally planned as an hour-long special, but over-ran. Additional scenes were written and filmed to make three full episodes. "Pete" had originally been intended as a single episode, and the series would have ended with a two-parter involving the crew returning to Earth; but due to budgetary issues "Pete" was instead extended to two parts. An originally planned ending for "Only The Good..." was abandoned after being shot and left as a cliffhanger.

With 52 episodes, the series was now in a good position for international syndication and the prospect of a feature-length film increased.

Casting The regular cast, including Chloë Annett's Kochanski returned, along with Chris Barrie, portraying a recreated version of Arnold Rimmer before the accident and Norman Lovett's Holly.

They were joined by a large cast of supporting characters, including Mac McDonald reappearing as Captain Hollister and new characters such as fellow prisoner Kill Crazy and prison governor Ackerman played by Jake Wood and Graham McTavish. Selby and Chen, who had appeared in Series I, also reappeared, played by David Gillespie and Andy Taylor. Mark Williams and Robert Bathurst, who had played Petersen and Todhunter respectively, were not available.

Guest stars included Geraldine McEwan as the title character in "Cassandra" and Ricky Grover as fellow prisoner Baxter in "Pete" and the finale "Only the Good...". Director Ed Bye makes a small appearance as the Grim Reaper in the final episode.

Plot

In the opening story, the three-part "Back in the Red", the crew, arriving to a newly reconstructed Red Dwarf on Starbug, crash, and are arrested, discovering that the original crew has been reconstructed as well. By the end of the story, Lister, Kochanski, the Cat and Kryten are placed in a previously unrevealed Red Dwarf prison deck, with Lister and Rimmer bunking together, as they had earlier in the show.

Episodes after this feature a mix of Porridge-style prison plots, along adventures outside of the spaceship using the conceit that Lister and company have signed up for the Canaries, a disposable team of prisoners sent to investigate hazardous environments.

Broadcast and reception

The series was broadcast by BBC2 starting in January 1999 and received Red Dwarf'''s strongest audiences, with 8.05 million viewers if the Sunday repeat is included.

KTEH, a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) station in San Jose, California, broadcast the entire series on 7 March 1999. As a result, they broadcast the last five episodes of Series VIII before they were aired in the UK. "Cassandra" was also broadcast on other PBS stations on that date, as well.

Writing in 2015, Den of Geek ranked Red Dwarf VIII the worst full series of the show, saying that although that "it's fun to see Captain Hollister and co for a while, the novelty wears off fast. In contrast to previous episodes, too much of the writing here simply fell flat with Naylor clearly struggling as sole writer." In 2018 CultBox agreed that it was the "weakest series", saying that "Although the seventh series has its problems, it still feels like Red Dwarf, whereas the eighth frequently feels like it belongs to a dumber, broader, lazier show.".

Episodes

Home videoRed Dwarf VIII'' was released on VHS in November 1999 and January 2000. It was released on DVD in March 2006.

References