Crap for me. It has really weak storyline and lot of weird scenes trying to be funny. Whole stuff with wending machines is a big load of rubbish. Only thing I like is Cat's charade.
Crap for me. You can tell it was rushed. I wasn't blown away by much of series X. Lemons and The Beginning a side, the rest were hit and miss.
Well, I voted for 'fun', and so far I'm the only person to choose that option. Currently it's 3-1 in favour of 'crap', which actually doesn't surprise me considering the very negative reviews I've seen of the episode over the years. I can understand why some other people (actually almost every Red Dwarf fan except me it seems) don't like Dear Dave, but I really like it, and it's an episode that to me has good rewatchability. I liked it on its first airing back in 2012 and it's grown on me more and more since then. I like the storyline and the season 1 and 2 feel to the episode. About the only part of the episode that doesn't work for me is the 'Cat doing charades' scene, which goes on far too long and isn't funny in the least.
I voted for Crap because of the vending machine nonsense. I really did not like that. But I did like the concept of Lister getting drunk to send fathers days messages to himself and really enjoyed those segments.
That was Fathers & Suns. That wasn't even Dear Dave. Dear Dave was the one about Lister's old girlfriend who might have had his children and wrote him letters. And also Rimmer writing his special report and taking all the toilet paper. And also the vending machine nonsense.
I went for fun. I mean the episode's not 'fun' in the traditional Dwarf sense (an adventure or monster-of-the-week type scenario), but I've always found Dear Dave to be quite a nice, relaxed episode. I think it's pretty funny as well, which always helps! I get the hate on the episode to an extent though. Series X does have a few tonal issues (XI's a massive improvement in that regard) but then I really do like X, so I'm sort of more willing to let it slide, e.g. the vending machine nonsense in Fathers & Suns doesn't bother me as much as it used to on the first few watches.
the vending machine love triangle is my favourite part of Dear Dave and X as a whole tbh. there's just something rather adorable about lister trying to cheer up the vending machine at the end and her getting all excited and happy.
wait no i mistyped, not my favourite part of X as a whole. i mean ONE of my favourite parts. my actual favourite part of X is The Beginning
It suffers from the same thing as alot of the Dave Dwarf stuff, and that is that in one episode alone some of its good and some of it is dreadful. Lister bonking the dispensing machine has to be one of the worst visual gags in the shows entire run as not only is it not visually convincing but the idea in itself has been done before but way better. The Rimmer Subplot about being demoted is very dull to the point where i barely remember what it was even about. The stuff with Lister and the letter has its funny moments though.
It wasn't one of my favorite episodes, but had its points. Its near the bottom of my lists for episodes....... bottom third anyway. Actually me and talkie3000 must have exactly opposite tastes in humor as what I found funny he didn't and vice versa.
I voted for fun but only just. On one hand I do think it has some of the very funniest comedy of series 10 with obviously the finger-wetting gag, Rimmer-Lister football/Subutteo jokes, the whole letters plot but it also has a literally crap pay off for the special report sub-plot. Still overall most of the times I have watched it I have appreciated its laid back - a sort of bottle type - series 1/2 vibe but because of its weaknesses it is only just an above average RD episode and therefore only just makes it into the “fun” category. So yeah while there are some definite issues including that infamous Lister and the vending machine scene going on too long and the misogynistic “slag” comment, on the other hand some of the most comical moments of the 2012 run IMHO can be found in Dear Dave.
It felt contrived that we're in Series X and a new ex-girlfriend is being pulled out of the hat. It did my head in trying to work out how it made sense to get the letter now and not in the earlier post-pods if it was sent very soon after Lister joined. In Better Than Life Lister gets junk mail addressed to him and Rimmer tells us that's not their first post-pod and that Lister writes away asking for junk mail to be sent to him. It was a flimsy set up for a flimsy episode. I do like the idea of lonely everyday life onboard existential type episodes, but this didn't do it for me. I also thought the cheating was handled flippantly and Cat narrating their imagined infidelity was crass and uncomfortable. The vending machine stuff was fine, that's exploring the last man idea, so lonely he's talking to vending machines. But the bit at the end where he shags it was too much. There was some unrelated sub-plot to give Rimmer something to do, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. Was it this stuff about fiddling supplies to get money from the ship's computer-accountant?
Rimmer is accused by JMC, because he hasn't been going to job for 3 million years. He should be demoted to the third technician, but Rimmer and Kryten make up a plan, how to escape this threat. They want to prove, Rimmer was ill all the time, so he couldn't go to job. Rimmer obviously wasn't ill so they need some money to bribe the Medi Comp (or Medi Bit or how is this stuff in X called?). Kryten takes toilet paper from ship's toilet and somehow "return" it to the supply fund (translation of the czech name). He got some money so they give this money to Sanitary fund, to make it not look as a bribe. Medi Bot/Comp accepts these money and thanks them... They need new plan. Rimmer could prove he has been caring of Lister. So bassicaly, they need a prove, Lister isn't sane. The CCTV camera captures Lister's love scene with a vending machine. This is the prove! Oh yeah! And happily ever after! I always thought this part was quite funny, but now, when I wrote just the important parts of the story, it looks like complete crap too...
Well Lister hasn't been going to his job for three million years either. What happened that the "JMC mainframe" suddenly noticed Rimmer's absence? I don't like this business about the JMC mainframe still thinking everything's normal. If they can tell it about Howard Rimmer being killed, they can tell it about everything else. I would have preferred it if it had been Lise Yates. We don't know precisely when they went out, it could have been right up against him joining Red Dwarf. In fact she dumped him for not having a career, so that would make sense. How many more ex-girlfriends does Lister have up his sleeve that we've never heard of.
Rimmer had written to JMC aksing for some medal for good service. JMC checked this problem and found out he hasn't been going to job.
Oh, right. Whereas Lister hasn't applied for any medals because he's Lister. Fair play then, I guess I've blotted a lot of it out!
I rewatched Dear Dave yesterday and it ensured me I was completely right when I put it to the last place in the Pearl Poll.
