Red Dwarf IV retrospective: Sci-fi phenomenon
Published: Sunday 1st September 2024
From the debut of Ace Rimmer to the affirmation of the Boys from the Dwarf as a quartet, Series IV was the era of Red Dwarf that saw Series III's dramatic changes bed in. Recording late in 1990, production of the series moved away from Manchester to the then more high-tech Shepperton Studios. The show had entered a new decade. Doctor Who had just been sensationally axed, leaving Red Dwarf as the only major science fiction series being made for the BBC. It was a huge responsibility, but it was also an incredible opportunity for the world of sitcom.
There were no big changes in this series, only small shifts, one of the more obvious being a 'retconning' of Lister and Kochanski's relationship. Their history was changed from Kochanski being a mere crush of Lister's, to there having been a brief period in which the pair had actually dated; and although she didn't make an appearance in this series, it was a significant change to the couple's backstory. Kryten had also changed slightly. He was now more assured than he had ever been and, elevated from his position as a 'service droid', he had effectively become the crew's oracle. Series IV also saw him develop a love interest (in Camille) and even become human (in DNA).
It's a well-known fact that Robert Llewellyn's future wife, Judy Pascoe, played Kryten's would-be girlfriend, Camille. It was a genuine on-screen romance as Red Dwarf's writers, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, knowing of their relationship, coyly suggested that she take on the role. The result was arguably Red Dwarf's most charming episode. Very few TV series could manage to make a romantic plot line featuring a huge green blob succeed, but with a script based upon the writers' love for Casablanca, it all somehow came together and there were some killer lines, such as the evergreen favourite, said when Kryten is trying to persuade Camille to meet the rest of the crew:
But you haven't met them, you'll like them! Well, some of them... well... one of them... maybe.
Llewellyn's delivery was nothing short of sublime. With a cast so utterly in-tune with their script writers, every syllable was squeezed for comic potential. The very same episode saw Kryten learn to lie and call a banana a small, off-duty Czechoslovakian traffic warden, in scenes that now define the series.
The episodes in Series IV were as follows:
Camille
DNA
Justice
White Hole
Dimension Jump
Meltdown
White Hole became the fan favourite of Series IV. It was the episode that featured an intergalactic game of planet-busting pool, the masterfully delivered line: 'So what is it?' from Danny John-Jules and the return of David Ross, the original Kryten, to the series. His new turn as the voice of Talkie Toaster became the stuff of legend. The simple idea of a chirpy A.I. toaster who was fixated on the making of any variety of grilled bread products is still the most beloved minor character in all of Red Dwarf.
However, Talkie wasn't the only classic character to debut in Series IV, with Ace Rimmer arriving in Dimension Jump, an episode born out of Barrie's desire to play a heroic character for a change. At this time, alongside Red Dwarf, Chris Barrie was recording the first series of The Brittas Empire (which would debut the following year). He had expressed to Rob and Doug that he was getting tired of playing such banal characters; thus, the James Bond-style persona of Ace was born. Barrie loved the character and was especially fond of the wig - the fact that in subsequent appearances of Ace they weren't able to find exactly the same wig was something Chris Barrie couldn't forgive. Of course, it was said that it went back into the BBC costume department, but rumour had it that it was such a good wig that it was stolen...
Despite Ace Rimmer's popularity, Dimension Jump was an episode that created a few cast tensions; particularly when Ace and Lister were battling the storm raging outside Starbug. Both Craig Charles and Chris Barrie struggled to film the scene, and as buckets of cold water hit Barrie full in the face, Charles recalled himself winding up his co-star: 'We're meant to be space heroes,' he joked. The pair share a brotherly friendship these days, but in that moment they were freezing cold, wet and struggling against a giant wind machine. In a word, it was tempestuous. Charles later likened their relationship throughout Series IV's production to that of an old married couple, and commented further on how well that had worked for what has been dubbed the 'golden era' of the show.
It is a curious thing that, through the years, the progression of their off-screen relationship seems to have mirrored that of their on-screen personas, culminating in the most tender scene that the duo had ever shared together, a conversation about moonlight in 2020's The Promised Land. Without their unique chemistry we wonder if the show would have had the same spark and comedic energy. Simply, Red Dwarf may not have worked without it.
Another issue with Dimension Jump concerned Cat's persona in the alternate universe from which Ace Rimmer had arrived. In the original script, Cat's character was a cleaner, but fears raised during the script read-through over this being seen as a racial stereotype caused his alternate incarnation to be rewritten as a wise old padre. Reflecting on this controversy years later Craig Charles said:
Sometimes you just don't think about these things, and you know, it's easy to just flip it. Rimmer's a git in real life let's make him a superhero, the Cat's super cool in real life, let's make him a slob. But there are other implications that sometimes you need to think about.
One of the many impressive feats of Red Dwarf was that it was a top-rated BBC sitcom in which race was never an issue: it was set in the future, a place where race, colour or creed is extraneous. "Race won't be an issue in the future," Craig said, "and I think that's one of the 'goods' that comes out of Red Dwarf."
Danny added: "It's ridiculous because we had the most politically correct show on telly anyway."
The episode Meltdown was probably the most ambitious undertaking of Series IV. It saw a huge cast of famous lookalikes join the Dwarfers in 'Wax World' - an abandoned theme park full of wax droids, who over years of neglect had gained sentience and had separated themselves into 'good' and 'evil'. In doing battle against one another, everyone from Stan Laurel and Marilyn Monroe to Hitler and Napoleon were involved, and many of these professional lookalikes turned up to the shoot in full costume, much to the amusement of the cast and crew. Most memorable of all was Elvis, who was also given the privilege of performing a classic rendition of the theme tune worthy of the King of Rock 'n' Roll himself.
Red Dwarf continued to be loyal to Tony Hawks (then their studio warm-up man). Tony made his most memorable appearance in the series as Caligula, repeatedly slapping Lister whilst declaring, "Rasputin, I'm very cross!". Hawks joined a long line of studio audience warm-ups who managed to get in front of the camera, the most famous examples including Bill Pertwee, who became a Dad's Army regular as Warden Hodges; Felix Bowness, who co-starred in Hi-De-Hi!; and Kenneth MacDonald, who was initially only supposed to have a brief one-off appearance in Only Fools And Horses, but went on to become the much-loved Mike the barman of The Nag's Head.
Come broadcast, there was some controversy about the series debuting at the outbreak of the Gulf War. Meltdown was rescheduled to the end of the run as a result, with the BBC fearing that it could cause offence. Despite the unnecessary cruelty to Winnie-The-Pooh, it's hard to see why the episode would upset people. Looking back at the decision for the Series IV DVD documentary, Danny remarked that it was "PC gone mad".
A second Red Dwarf novel was published at the end of October 1990, just ahead of the series' recording. Written by both Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, it was entitled Better Than Life and featured the plot of the famous Series II episode of the same name wrapped around other plotlines from Series II, such as White Hole, and the Series III episodes Backwards and Polymorph. This slightly confusing concept took a leaf out of Douglas Adams's book. It was something he often did, weaving a familiar plot from an earlier point in the series and then working it into a brand-new scenario for the novel, often at an entirely different point in the storyline.
In the case of Better Than Life, the concept of the total immersion video game became more sinister, as the players are tricked into forgetting their real-lives and instead become completely consumed by their simulated one (a concept which would be explored again in the Series V fan favourite, Back To Reality). It is only when they leave the game that they are thrown into the events of White Hole.
According to Doug Naylor, Red Dwarf IV was costing roughly £200,000 an episode to produce but the entire series managed to come under budget by £150,000, something that perturbed him, as all that money could have gone on-screen. However, it probably helped keep Red Dwarf in the BBC executives' good books - not that they would have needed much persuading to commission another series, as Red Dwarf was not only doing well in the UK, but was also now picking up an audience across the pond.
It was at the end of Series IV that the cast realised that the comedy had become something of a cult classic. It was now less of a BBC sitcom and more of a science fiction phenomenon. And there was still so much more to come.
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Love comedy? Find out moreRed Dwarf IV
Red Dwarf Series 4, like its predecessors, comes as a two-disc set complete with full cast commentary for every episode, an extensive retrospective documentary (mostly featuring the cast reminiscing), deleted scenes and lots of other fun bits of trivia.
First released: Monday 16th February 2004
DVD DVD 
- Distributor: 2 Entertain
- Region: 2
- Discs: 2
- Minutes: 180
- Catalogue: BBCDVD1307
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- Released: Tuesday 2nd May 2006
- Distributor: 2 Entertain
- Region: 1
- Discs: 2
- Minutes: 180
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- Released: Monday 12th September 2016
- Distributor: BBC Worldwide
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Red Dwarf Radio Show - Better Than Life
On board Red Dwarf, Lister, Rimmer and the Cat are playing a danger game of "Better Than Life" in the minds. It is up to Kryten and Holly to sort out the mess.
First released: Monday 5th October 2009
- Distributor: Laughing Stock
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Red Dwarf - Complete Series I - VIII
For the first time, own the first eight series of the smash hit British comedy on Blu-ray - remastered in high-definition.
Chicken soup machine repairman and intergalactic loser Dave Lister awakes from suspended animation to discover he is the lone survivor of a radiation leak and is now three million years into deep space and the last surviving member of the human race.
Dave is soon joined by Arnold J. Rimmer, a hologram of his dead bunk-mate, a life-form who's evolved from his pet cat and Kryten, a neurotic sanitation mechanoid. Together this unlikely bunch of heroes attempt to find their way back to Earth, under the guidance of Holly, the ship's senile computer. Along the way they'll be brought back to reality, lose their mothership, become stranded on Starbug, bump into Lister's ex-girlfriend and find themselves back on Red Dwarf where the original crew have been resurrected by nanobots.
First released: Monday 14th January 2019
Blu-ray- Distributor: BBC
- Region: B
- Discs: 19
- Minutes: 1,466
- Subtitles: English
- Catalogue: BBCBD0441
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Red Dwarf: Better Than Life
The book is based on the author's comedy science fiction/fantasy series which has been screened by the BBC. It is written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor who were head writers of Spitting Image for three years. They also wrote Radio 4's award-winning series Son Of Cliche and the previous novel Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers.
First published: Thursday 25th October 1990
- Publisher: Viking
- Pages: 240
- Catalogue: 9780670835478
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- Published: Thursday 4th April 1991
- Publisher: Penguin Books
- Pages: 240
- Catalogue: 9780140124385
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- Published: Sunday 1st December 1996
- Publisher: Laughing Stock
- Catalogue: 9781897774816
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