Glen here...

...with a review of the fourth episode of Red Dwarf, series 8. Now, this was supposed to be run on Thursday, but several rather amazing things have been going on around here the last few days, the end result of which might make for some very interesting Coaxial / AICN coverage in the coming weeks. As such, I got a bit distracted - but all for "the bigger cause".

So, I apologize to all of those who came here expecting to find the review before today - and I apologize to MRS. HIPPO as well. Such a delay should not happen again.

MR. HIPPO is out swimming around in the Atlantic, with his little dolphin friends Itzak and Stomper. He refused to come inside in time to watch and review this latest episode of Red Dwarf. As such, the lovely MRS. HIPPO is standing in for him this week.

To answer the one question which is on some reader's minds: as far as I'm concerned, the Hippo's reviews will keep coming in (more or less) realtime as the shows air in U.K. Yes, much of (if not all of) Series 8 is currently being aired in the States as part of Public Television's fund-raising efforts. None the less, a vast majority of the world does not have such a luxury, and since their reviews seem to be rather popular, I thought I'd just keep running them as the episodes originate in U.K. Seems cleaner that way.

And now, here's MRS. HIPPO:

Mrs. Hippo wrote:

Tonights episode "Cassandra" is the first stand alone episode of the series.

It opens with Holly (who is really a highlight of this series) suggesting that if Lister were to become a dog, the jail sentence would be reduced from 2 years to 14 days.

When Lister points out the obvious flaw in this idea, Holly produces a picture from a 20th century publication ( the National Enquirer) of a man who had surgery to become a dog.

The opening dialogue between Holly and Lister was the kind of quick clever funny material we expect from Red Dwarf. The episode centres around the Canaries, whom Lister believed to be a singing group so joined everyone up - they turn out to be the prison army.

They...along with the other canaries... are sent on a mission to explore a crashed unmanned space ship. Did anyone else notice that Chloe Annett looked rather out of place in the tough prison army? Is she the only woman in this prison and if she is why is she there?

Anyway, they go on board on the empty ship - and find the ships mainframe, a computer called Cassandra, who can predict the future. She predicts various things and keeps completeing everyones words for them, it was kind of reminiscent of "White Hole" but not quite as funny.

For various reasons Rimmer and Chloe are left on the ship, and Cassandra predicts Rimmer will be killed by Lister whilst making love to Chloe - he thinks he is going to die a happy man (and you think oh Chloe Annett does have a purpose) of course things do not go as he hoped and Lister returns to rescue them.

The ending is quite clever, Lister goes back to Cassandra and gives quite a serious speach about how he believes he determines his own future - as he leaves he sets of a chain of events that prove Cassandra was right. The fate of the computer Cassandra is that of the mythological one - no one belives her predictions.

Overall the beginning and end were the best bits. Although Lister's analogy between going to the toilet in a mens prison and playing golf was very funny, as was the exchange between the warden and Rimmer:

...and Kryten's observation that Rimmer has the power of ignorance, were all classic Red Dwarf type moments.

This seemed to be a really good opportunity to get rid of Chloe Annett, she really seems to be like excess baggage, the other 4 remember their earlier experiences with future echoes and it has to be explained for her (and I guess for anyone who hasn't seen the whole series).

Kryten, Cat and Holly play only a tiny part, which is a pity as all three can be so good. It's not a bad episode but its not one of the all time greats either - its somewhere in the middle.

- Mrs Hippo