Aaaaaan, it didn’t record again. Anyway, I enjoyed both episodes. This was my first time watching Red Dwarf. The laugh track threw me but, overall, I quite enjoyed it. If you’re a fan of the show, recommend me some more can’t miss episodes!
Since you’re here, have another 2025 Crime Read recommendation….
The Summer Guests by Tess Gerritsen
After a teenager goes missing from a seaside hamlet, former spy Maggie Bird and her ex-CIA friends race to uncover the truth behind some long-buried secrets.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal has apparently gotten hold of a letter Donald Trump wrote Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday. Pretty damning…
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Damnit! I was looking forward to this one but couldn’t listen live.
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I watched Quantum Leap as it aired, watched reruns, and bought the DVDs as soon as they were released. It’s one of my favourite TV shows of all time. And I can’t really explain why. I love sci-fi but, other than the time travel gimmick in order to make the story happen, this is mostly a straight drama. And it can’t be nostalgia because I wasn’t alive for most of the dates that Sam travels to. Maybe it’s the thrill of the unknown. Sam gets thrown into the deep end each week and needs to learn to swim anew every time.
This wasn’t my pick for best Quantum Leap episode. While it was cool to see Sam and Al’s roles reversed and we get to see the “present” for the first time since the pilot, as far as actual leaps go, it’s pretty simplistic and not indicative of how most leaps go. Even so, this one episode managed to instil more life and love for the 1945 characters than the re-launched 2022 version of the show ever managed with its period characters.
My pick was “The Leap Home” where Sam leaps into a younger version of himself and tries to save his dad from having a heart attack and his brother from dying in Vietnam. It’s such a heartbreaking two parter.
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My love of Red Dwarf was instant and enduring. I remember the first time I heard about this show. I was at work, my first proper job after leaving high school, and we had a work experience student helping out for a couple of weeks. She told me about this new show that had just started called Red Dwarf. As a long time purveyor of British comedies this sounded right up my alley so I watched the very next episode that was aired. I can’t remember what episode it was but it was still early in the first series, episode 2 or 3 probably. I was hooked! I’d been reading and re-reading The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy books and watching and re-watching the 1981 series of the same. I knew that sci-fi comedy was absolutely my favourite thing in the whole world. It was inevitable that I would become a Red Dwarf fan.
“Back To Reality” is my favourite episode. It was especially powerful when watching it at the time. We’d spent four years with these characters. There had been no official announcement about a sixth series being commissioned and there were strong rumours that the show wouldn’t be renewed. Then “Back To Reality” drops as the series finale where the crew wake up from a VR game and we learn that the previous four years was all just a game. For most of the episode I legitimately believed that this was how they were going to finish the show. It got me good.
Timothy Spall is great as Andy the VR game technician. Harry Potter fans will recognise him as Wormtail. And we see the iconic first appearance of Duane Dibbley.
While I was living in the UK I had the privilege of attending the recordings of two episodes, S10E06 “The Beginning” and S12E02 “Siliconia”. While the episodes won’t go down as classics it was still a bucket list experience.
Recommended episodes (other than “All of them!” of course):
S01E01 “The End”
S01E02 “Future Echoes”
S02E03 “Thanks For The Memory”
S03E01 “Backwards”
S03E03 “Polymorph”
S04E05 “Dimension Jump”
S05E04 “Quarantine”
The show peaks around series 5 and then starts to go downhill. It’s still great but I think the acrimonious split between the two creators hurts the show. Rob Grant leaves the show after series 6 and I feel that he was the writer that brought more sci-fi elements to the stories. Once he leaves the stories drop a lot of the heavy sci-fi and are more character driven. Still good, just not as good.
Read about the falling out as part of my deep dive into the show. Sad.
I loved this episode but wished they hadn’t tipped the fact that the Despair Squid’s toxin can cause hallucinations.
There’s more Duane Dibbley? I’m intrigued.
Thanks for these recommendations.
Red Dwarf. My favourite Sci Fi comedy show / comedy EVER! Attended several episode recordings, and the “laugh track” IS the actual audience, maybe slightly edited but it isn’t canned. Even recorded it one series at a preview showing as no audience for that series ( think it was Series 7 ).
After series 1, and part of series 7, there is no real story arc so most episodes can be enjoyed in isolation.
Several best episode polls out there, but I’d suggest S1 ep 5 – confidence and paranoia
S2 ep2 Better than Life and S2 Ep 6 – Parallel Universe
S3 ep 2 Polymorph and S3 Ep 2 – Marooned
S4 eps 4 & 5 – White Hole and Dimension Jump
S5 Ep 4 Quarantine
S6 Eps 3,4 & 6 – Gunmen of the apocalypse, Emohawk ( polymoprh 2 ) & Out of Time ( Gunmen has won awards! )
S7 ep1 Tikka to Ride
S10 Ep 3 – Lemons
My fave series I think is series 6. 7&8 were not the best received. S9 is a riff on bladerunner in 3 extended episodes.
There is a NEW BluRay set of ALL episodes including out takes, behind the scenes, lost episodes and I think the remastered episodes and a couple of extended episodes. 32 discs!
Enjoy
Thanks for these recommendations!
Dwayne is seen in Emohawk: Polymorph 2, Back in the red pt 2, and on a 10th anniversary special called can’t smeg won’t smeg with AInsley Harriot ( a cooking show can’t cook won’t cook !! ).
And the “Despair Squid” appears again in a later episode… sort of ( spoiler! )