Red Dwarf X: Fathers and Suns

Trojan was an OK start to the new Red Dwarf series in my view, but I was hopeful that it would improve - and it did with Fathers and Suns.

Trojan was a Rimmer episode. In Fathers and Suns he steps back and Lister comes to the fore. It's one of those periodic episodes where Lister is concerned that he's achieved nothing with his life. Again the series could be accused of re-treading old ground, but an audience (even one comprised mainly of fans who'll know all the old episodes backwards - ahem) will generally accept this as long as it's funny and this episode was.

I'm aware that I may have come to this episode more relaxed with the visuals and the cast than I was for the first week. I was impressed that Craig Charles managed not to overplay the dissenting teenager when watching the video messages, which could have made the whole thing horribly hammy. There's always been a kind of natural performance divide within the crew, with Rimmer and Kryten benefiting from over-performing and Lister and the Cat needing a more understated and controlled style - Lister because he's a lazy bum and the Cat because he's precise and physically aware. That's so far continued this series, and may be another reason why Kochanski unbalanced the team in Series VII & VIII.

There were some nice touches of higher-concept science fiction this time with Pree, the new (temporary) ship's computer predicting and extrapolating the crew's actions and ultimately defeated by her own logic. Yes, again we have an evil woman for the crew to overcome - but then with an all male crew I guess female guest characters are always going to be preferred. This was humorously highlighted by the scene where Rimmer selects Pree's appearance and vital statistics and then doesn't give a fig for her personality or manner.

There was also a nice deconstructive touch where Rimmer decides the term 'Chinese whispers' is racist, only for the episode to then play the game unwittingly, aided by a Taiwanese vending machine voiced in a self-consciously non-PC way and referring to Taiwan as being 'a bit Chinesey'. I just hope the irony of it all wasn't lost on most of the audience.

Unlike last week, this time Lister's main character plot and the rest of the crew's subplot actually came together at the end to bring about the successful conclusion, which was another reason why I felt this week's writing was better.

Overall I found it a funny, intelligent and well-constructed episode of enjoyable TV, despite offering little that's new.