The series takes place aboard the eponymous mining ship, in which the entire crew was wiped out by a radiation leak. The sole survivor is the unkempt and lazy Third Technician David Lister, played by Craig Charles, who was serving eighteen months in suspended animation for smuggling a cat on board. He emerges to find that the ship has been drifting in deep space for three million years.
Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately), Lister has some company: Chris Barrie as Second Technician Arnold Rimmer, a hologram of his deceased (and despised) superior; Danny John-Jules as a humanoid who evolved from his cat; and Holly, the increasingly senile ship's computer played by Norman Lovett and later Hattie Haybridge. Robert Llewellyn later joins the main cast as the service mechanoid Kryten.
The show mainly follows the skeleton crew's interactions as they try and make their way back to Earth while trying not to succumb to cabin fever. Lister and Rimmer provide a good contrast. Lister is a self-described bum who does little in the way of work, but at times displays a good head for machines, with his sole desire being to return to Earth. On the other hand, Rimmer is more interested in furthering his career, but is completely incompetent and neurotic.
The science fiction aspects are minimal at first, but as the series goes on, the crew deal with numerous external threats. However, none of these threats are aliens. Anything they do encounter is always explained as being man-made. The most notable encounter is with the Polymorph, a Genetically Engineered Life Form (Gelf) which feeds on negative emotions and can alter its physical appearance to anything. That creates a story very similar to Alien, but here it's played for laughs.
Life forms aside, a lot of people will hate me for this, but my favourite episode is Queeg. After the crew loses their faith in Holly, the ship is taken over by Queeg, a backup computer whose rule is a lot less lenient than Holly's. There's plenty of funny lines with some physical comedy as well.
You can get the first eight seasons on Netflix UK, and I highly recommend it. I think the third and fourth seasons are the best.
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