Last two stories plus lots of extras
OK, drama-comedy is drama-comedy, but what happens in "Epideme" seems to go beyond that barrier. The title refers to a synthetic, man-made virus that was created as a rival to the nicotine patch, which malfunctioned and kills anyone who contracts it. The Red Dwarf crew find it while siphoning for water on an astro-glacier. Lister contracts it from the last victim, found aboard a ship, who resembles the Centerfold for Play-Zombie. Kryten and Kochanski come up with the only solution--amputation.

There are lots of funny lines here. After kissing the last Epideme victim, Lister says he needs to "gargle with a toilet duck." Kryten also describes what makes Lister happy in bed: "A large packet of extra spicy tortilla chips and a horror movie, preferably some scantily clad kung-fu fighting lady vampire." And looking at the Epideme-stricken Lister, he does indeed "look worse than the Grim Reaper's passport photo." Fans probably anticipated this as the link where a future Lister has a mechanical arm in the second story of the series, "Future Echoes".

However, none of them deflect the real tragedy that occurs. (Rating: 3.5 out of 5)

The highlights of "Epideme" are revisited in the pre-titles segment of "Nanarchy." Lister is coping being one-armed after his ordeal. The Cat is totally insensitive to him during a conversation that ultimately causes Lister to lose his temper. Kryten tries to fit Lister with an artificial arm so he will be more independent. Remember now, "arm-pick-up-the-ball!" What makes this episode exciting is that they eventually find out who stole Red Dwarf... and why. Oh, and Norman Lovett has a guest appearance. Remember who he played in the first two seasons? (Rating: 4 out of 5).

Thus concludes Season VII, which led to the abysmal Season VIII, but wait! There's "Red Dwarf A to Z", a scrapbook documentary on all things Dwarfian, with recollections by Norman Lovett (Holly), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Christopher Barrie (Rimmer), as well as commentary by Stephen Hawking, TV critic Garry Bushell, and two Daleks. And Patrick Stewart shows himself to be a real admirer of this series, wishing that some elements were used in Star Trek-The Next Generation. Hawking has it right when he says that Red Dwarf succeeded because it didn't take itself seriously, that it didn't bother on being PC, and it touched stuff that Star Trek didn't. As for the entries, D is for Dave Lister, F is for fans, G is for Grant And Naylor, the creators of the series, and S is for, yes, Smeghead. Footage from the 1997 RD convention in Coventry, the Noel Edmonds Show, and of course some of the episodes. (Rating 5 out of 5)

Then there are Smeg-Ups from Season VII, i.e. bloopers, with Danny John-Jules in particular having trouble saying, "You mean we are carooming out of control in space with zero expertise at the helm?" and mixing up "ping-pong championships" with "yo-yo tournaments." Richard Llewellyn is notorious for flubbing lines is no different here. And a special mix of the Munchkin song from "Blue" finishes it off. (Rating 5 out of 5)

In retrospect, an ending more along the lines of "and they had many more adventures" and finishing the series there would've been fitting instead of doing Season VIII. Overall rating: 4.3, rounded down to 4.

Epideme/Nanarchy
Red Dwarf series 7 started off excellently but after Rimmer left in the second episode (though he was briefly seen in episodes 3 and 5) this seventh series started going downhill. It was good as a science fiction series, but somebody forgot it's meant to be funny. The A to Z of Red Dwarf makes this video one not to miss, however.

fan-smeging-tastic!!!
Red Dwarf series 7 , I noticed, is mostly dedicated to answering the Red Dwarf Questions... Lister's birth?, Where did Red Dwarf go to?, etc. I did miss the dialoge between Rimmer & Lister. The interaction between those 2 crewmates where the bread and butter of the whole show. Overall this was a series no smeghead should not miss. We fans waited a long time for this series 7 to come out, and it doesn't disappoint.

Fantastic
One has to watch Red Dwarf, even just one episode, to fall in love with it. Please give us more Grant & Naylor. P.S. Order the books also: 'Red Dwarf', 'Better Than Life', 'Last Human' and 'Backwards.' (The last two are available from amazon.co.uk)