89) Back to Reality (Red Dwarf)

Red Dwarf is a show that should have died on its way into being. Its premise is that one man survived the extermination of his spaceship crew, living 3 million years in stasis until he is presumably the last human. Oh, and that one man, Lister (Craig Charles), is the least competent person on the spaceship, and among the least competent people ever to emerge from the gene pool. His main companion is a hologram of his anal-retentive and egotistical supervisor, Rimmer (Chris Barrie), who was picked because the computer noticed that they talked most with each other. The fact that they were always fighting was not taken into account. They are joined by the descendant of his cat (Danny John-Jules) who has evolved to humanoid levels, the ship’s computer (Norman Lovett and Hattie Hayridge), and, later, a robot named Kryten (Robert Llewellyn).

The first season was weak, and almost…