DAVE, a British comedy television channel, has released the first trailer for its upcoming continuation of the long-defunct Red Dwarf series.
For the uninitiated, Red Dwarf is a British sci-fi situation comedy which originally ran for eight series (seasons) on BBC Two before its cancellation in 1999. In 2009, a Red Dwarf mini-series, Red Dwarf: Back to Earth, was created for DAVE. It received such an outpouring of support and critical praise that the oddball channel is bringing the show back for a new six episode series – a project they’ve dubbed Red Dwarf X.
The basic idea of the show is that, Lister, a technician on a mining vessel (the titular Red Dwarf), is the sole human survivor of an accident that floods his ship with radiation.
To save Lister, the ship keeps him in suspended animation for the three million years it takes for the ship to be safe to inhabit once again.
When he awakens, he is the only remaining human being in the universe. Despite this, the show manages to have plenty of characters, including an android, a hologram, a sentient cat (descended from Leister’s own pet from before the accident) who looks like a man, and the AI of the ship itself. Mostly insular, the crew of the Red Dwarf get into lots of slapstick and screw-ball hijinx, while Lister attempts to find a way back to Earth, which is, by now, very far away. Any perceived successes toward that goal are perpetually undone.
The new series will be a return to the format of the original show, with the four man characters locked in the Red Dwarf together. Additional plot details have not yet been announced, though the episodes have already been filmed.
Red Dwarf X has no announced premiere date as yet, except that it will air sometime in 2012 on DAVE in the UK.
