So, how do you like them? Well it, there has only been one aired so far, with another one coming out this evening, but that single one I've seen has surprised me very pleasantly. After the miniseries Back To Earth I've not believed that Red Dwarf will ever be as good as it used to, but... They've pulled it off! It's amazing! The same humor, the same crappy visual effects, it's got everything!

I haven't seen it. But, it's reassuring for you to say that you were pleasantly surprised. I wasn't particularly keen on the miniseries, but it could have been a lot worse.

Some things were inevitable, Chris is that much older now, and holograms aren't supposed to age. Which, I pretty much just had to ignore, but things like that are inevitable sometimes. It was probably less distracting than replacing him with somebody else.

I'll go watch it right now, I bet I can watch it on the BBC player.

I'm quite amazed that after, what, thirteen years, they managed to get the original core cast back (except for Holly, unfortunately, but hopefully he'll be back at some point).

But yeah, I thought it was damn good. I really hope they keep that standard going for the rest of the season.

One of the things that I remember from the set I bought was that it was a phone call from KCTS 9 in Seattle which cemented that next season. I remember watching the show the second time it aired in the US in 1990, and it was just so different from anything else I'd ever seen.

It still astonishes me that that UK press were so thoroughly incompetent as to not know what the show was until it became popular overseas.

Red Dwarf just got better and better and peaked with the JFK episode and then abruptly jumped the shark at the excact moment the second incarnation of Kochanski appeared on the screen. So I'm sceptical to any new Red Dwarf episodes.

I had no idea there were new Red Dwarf episodes. I thought there was a very dramatic drop in quality during ... whichever was the first season to take place on the Star Bug ... and it never really recovered. Is Kochanski still around? Because she was boring.

You'll struggle with that - the new series is exclusively on the 'Dave' channel in the UK

Ah, well, being in China, I'll probably have to find alternate means of procuring it. I'm guessing before too long it will be either on PBS or BBCA.

It's 'back to the roots' sort of thing. As far as I can tell, they basically said "screw you" to everything that happened from 5th season upwards, and just started doing quality comedy again. Do note, however, that I loved Red Dwarf up until the last season, with the exception of miniseries - and I didn't necessarily hate those as well, I just thought they were rather meh. You can actually watch it over here until the new episode gets uploaded. Yeah, me neither. And then, all of the sudden, this appears. I was happy. (well, I am)

That's more or less my view, so it sounds like it's promising. Seasons after 5 weren't as good and they went full Sci-Fi, which IMHO wasn't right for the series. But, I did still enjoy those series, I just think they forgot that it was a comedy in space, not Sci-Fi. Rather ironic given how much trouble that caused them early on.

The miniseries was kind of interesting, I think meh sums it up. The thing I did like about it the most was that it wasn't a serious scifi miniseries.

I think that the later series were much closer to the Red Dwarf novels, which is, I presume, the original concept that stood behind it. Needless to say, I didn't particulary like the books exactly for that fact that they were much more serious.

Yes, I'm pleased to report I was pleasantly surprised by last week's episode too. The tone is back to how Red Dwarf was at its best (when it was still a sitcom that had science fiction elements).

I think a big part of why Back to Earth was weird was because it wasn't filmed in front of an audience, same as why series 7 was weird (I personally think 8 was better than 7).

I just realised last night why Rimmer is a hologram again. Series 8's Rimmer was resurrected with the rest of the crew of the ship but it's safe to assume he died at the end of that series (he tried kicking Death in the balls but I doubt it worked).

Ah, but Lister, Cat, Kryten and Kochanski went into the mirror universe. So, even if Rimmer did die at the end of Series 8, there was a living Rimmer in the mirror universe (who was captain of the Red Dwarf).

Basically, the Red Dwarf timeline got royally screwed up and now has a massive continuity hole. But honestly, I think it is now at the point where it really doesn't matter about the continuity any more. Kochanski is gone again. She's not in the new series.

I am really amazed they managed to dig up the old charm back.