It's been said plenty of times before, but the whole point of RD was that it was a few blokes, who get on each other's tits, having to live out a fairly pointless life together. They could have been students sharing a flat, scientists in Antarctica, anything. The space stuff was a bit of extra fluff that set the scene. When they started using the space stuff as a way of perking up things and adding extra excitement was when the trouble began.
I fundamentally disagree with that. The first two series were a bit sparse. ALthough Queeg is genius.
Series 5 was where the show was at its peak - Holoship, Quarantine, Back to Reality, etc...





