It's perhaps a tribute to Red Dwarf that most British sci-fi of a certain description will immediately warrant comparison... even if the premise of Red Dwarf hasn't really been truly imitated.

The similarities between Red Dwarf and the new comer "Hyperdrive" are thin on the ground. They're both British... they're both sci-fi and they both have a ship as the main background for events to unfold. There the similarities end.

The most glaring one? Hyperspace simply isn't funny. The basic situation being a spaceship, flown by a crew of inepts, advertising Britain to an indifferent universe is - at best - thin. This isn't even slightly assisted by the blandness of episodes. Perhaps the only original idea they have is making the main female character sinfully ugly but then, that's hardly a trade worth emulating because she isn't particularly funny.

That isn't to say that there aren't good actors... Kevin Eldon - from innumerable British comedy shows - and Nick Frost - Sean Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz - have proven themselves many times over... but there simply isn't the material for them to work with. Eldon - as the totally barmy and unhinged security officer - is the only one who really gets a chance to shine. Frost feels like he's struggling to wring as much out of the lines as is possible... but then, there's only so much you can do with a bad script.

Despite entering its second season, the show still feels like many of the BBC's subpar comedy. As if it were treated like an essay by a recalcitrant student, left until the last possible minute and then hurriedly rushed with the minimum of thought and effort. It's clear an attempt was made to create a dysfunctional crew - the mentally impaired cyborg, the angst ridden (and ugly) first officer, the mediocre wannabe captain, the demented security officer and the rest, who are just there to provide bodies.

The best it ever manages to elicit is perhaps a smile or a vaguely amused exhalation but really, there's no punch. It's nigh on impossible to highlight any single failing because the show fails on so many levels. The highest accolade that it can be awarded is that it's about thirty minutes of fairly inoffensive sci-fi related watching. Occasionally, it might warrant a smile or a giggle but it falls into a banal space between different comedic styles.