Review of Mechocracy

When they detect an SOS message from a ship being pulled into a black hole Lister and Cat download the ship's 'e-cargo'. When Rimmer finds out he is shocked that they have ignored company protocols by not checking for viruses. For once Rimmer is right; the SOS was a fake and soon the ship's computers are infected and the crew start preparing to evacuate. Luckily the anti-virus software stops the virus; that isn't the end of the crew's problems though; the mechanical members of the crew are unimpressed that they were going to be abandoned so go on strike. The crew decide to recognise their interests by giving them an official representative. Rimmer and Kryten put their names forward… which with the various scutters, dispensing machines, lifts and toasters vote for?

I didn't think the central story was the strongest of the season but the episode did provide plenty of really good laughs and some nice references to much older episodes. The episode opened with a great prolonged gag where Kryten is waiting for Lister to teach him about 'patience' but ends up being taught by Rimmer; the final twist was priceless. Once the main story got underway it made a nice change for Rimmer to be right for once. The service mechanoids aren't particularly funny, although it was fun to see the irritating 'Talkie Toaster' back again and rival campaigns were pretty funny. Overall this was a fairly average episode… thankfully an average episode of 'Red Dwarf' is still a lot of fun.