It’s cold outside
There’s no kind of atmosphere
I’m all alone, more or less
Let me fly far away from here
Fun, Fun, Fun, in the Sun, Sun, Sun
Aired in February 1988 despite its name, The End is the first episode of Red Dwarf widely thought of as the best mix of science fiction and comedy. I’ve seen people who say the two don’t mix, with the exception of this show.
The first episode is notably very different from the core nature of the show, because its leading into that status. As such we are first shown the huge mining ship Red Dwarf and then our main leads Lister and Rimmer doing their usual work routine, we get a clear example of their personalities right away thanks to the acting of Craig Charles and Chris Barrie.
The episode then continues to introduce elements of their characters. We continue to see how Lister has no real motivation but is on good terms with people. Rimmer has goals that he keeps failing and and yet keeps trying. The contrast between the one who can but doesn’t and the one who can’t but tries. You easily get they can’t stand each other.
We are also introduced through the funeral of one of the crew and return as a hologram, and how holograms work on this ship, as Rimmer. And on that introduction of the hologram, how a non human life form is on the ship. Quickly finding out Lister snuck a cat onboard and he tells it his one true dream of moving to Fiji after saving up enough (admittedly by not spending money on breathing and cleaning stuff).
Because of this, and the fact Lister took a photo of him and the cat which was easily found, he’s given the tough choice, have the cat taken off him (and dissected to ensure it doesn’t have any diseases that risk the crew) or enter stasis for the remainder of the job.
All this, all of it, is to get to what is technically the true start of the episode and show. Lister coming out of stasis and being repeatedly told by Holly the ship’s computer “everyones dead”. While later on Holly would be recast and played by Hattie Hayridge here they are played by their initial actor Norman Lovett who I always preferred for the portrayal.
Now we get into the core element of the show. It’s 3 million years after the start of the show. Lister this pathetic man with no motivation could be the last human in existence and all he has to accompany him is a hologram of the one person he hates (Rimmer) and a human like create that evolved from the descendants of his pet cat, which has one of the best jokes of the first season that sadly later ones didn’t use.
While the first episode is not the funniest, even of this season and I usually say it takes a few seasons to get to the high point I love rewatching, it is there for the purpose of getting that door opening from the stasis cell. You get everything you need to know about the characters going into the show. And it does that well.
But as I said earlier the best of the show is still to come, we still have Kryten to get to. But it didn’t feel right not to start with the first episode this time, unlike Voyager where there is so much bad… and no don’t expect me to in January to do Enterprise. They removed Star Trek from the streaming services I used and I’m not going to support ACME.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
