The Red Dwarf crew – Lister, Rimmer, Kryten and the cat – are back, on Dave, following a 13-year break. But is there any sign that the characters' fabled chemistry is still there?

Red Dwarf returns to television tonight in a new series for Dave, Red Dwarf X, in a move that feels bang on trend. Because after a musical summer dominated by the Stone Roses and Blur, more than anything the science-fiction sitcom reunion seems like a beloved band getting back together. And one of the great bands of the 90s, at that. At its peak, BBC2's deep-space adventures featuring the last living human Dave Lister, his horrid, uptight hologram crewmate Arnold Rimmer, their android butler Kryten, and the ship's Cat (over-evolved into a flamboyant fashionista), was completely in tune with the rock'n'roll spirit of the time.

Red Dwarf was also almost the only science-fiction show on British TV when it launched: in fact it's closest cousin genre-wise is arguably Battlestar Galactica; that show brought about an awesome new swear-word, "frak", to match Red Dwarf's fantastic "smeg". Red Dwarf married space exploration with toilet humour, and while, yes, I was an adolescent boy at its peak, its reach has proven to be wider. The show was never axed: production was paused in 1999 to prep a feature film and when funding fell through during pre-production, BBC2 had a new controller and Red Dwarf was out of favour.

The sitcom has briefly returned before – in 2009 a mini-series, Back to Earth, aired on Dave – but in a format that was more clip-show/audition piece than fully fledged relaunch. Without existing sets or a proven audience, the cast and crew used what they had (mainly Craig Charles' household fame in Corrie) to tell a meta-story shot largely on location, complete with Charles' on-screen best-mate Steve McDonald. "I didn't think of Back to Earth as being back," said Craig Charles, speaking at a preview screening of Red Dwarf X yesterday. "We certainly weren't making a sitcom. It was trying to do something else, it was much more filmic. This is Red Dwarf coming back to what it does best, which is making a situation comedy."

Watching the cast interact before the Red Dwarf X premiere, the rock-band analogy still holds true. Charles, Chris Barrie, Robert Llewellyn and writer Doug Naylor – Danny John-Jules is in Guadalupe filming BBC One's Death in Paradise – riff and banter against each other in electric fashion. They have a camaraderie many actual bands would envy. "Give him an 'H' and he turns into a bastard," says Charles of Barrie, who demurs with a knowing sniff: "I'm feeling very kind and giving now. Maybe it's just the mention of the word 'Guardian'."

Any mention from Llewellyn of his sweltering rubber Kryten mask is met with a dismissive, "You've had 13 years off!" – and Charles cannot resist cupping his hand to the side of his mouth and saying of John-Jules: "Cat looks awful. That's why he's not here tonight." To sighs, Llewellyn explains that John-Jules wore a costume he first wore in 1988, and – having somehow managed to get slimmer – had to have it taken in.

Red Dwarf has chosen to acknowledge the passage of time by ignoring it. The gnarly cliffhanger of 1999 is addressed, but only at the end of the final episode. "It's like you've missed a couple of series, but then you turn it on and watch it," says Naylor, acknowledging the difference in age of the cast.

Actually, the new Red Dwarf goes further back in time. Towards the end of the run, especially after Naylor's split from co-creator Rob Grant, the show became over-concerned with being science fiction – the FX got better and the gags got lost. Red Dwarf X is far more in the spirit of the very early days – a four-hand character sitcom that just happens to be set in space.

On the basis of the mini-series and as a former adolescent fan, I'd been worried what I would make of the new episode. In fact, I enjoyed it a great deal: the jokes seemed less puerile than I'd feared and, while a show set in a deep space freighter can't exactly be packed with current references, Red Dwarf X doesn't feel as dated as recent AbFab episodes.

The flavour of the gags remains identical without feeling old: Lister is still a loveable dufus, Rimmer an awful bastard, Kryten a hopeless people-pleaser and Cat a fabulous feline. All that's missing is ship's computer Holly (Norman Lovett/Hattie Hayridge) and a female character (never the show's strongest suit – but that's a whole other conversation).

At the Q&A following the screening of the opening episode, Trojan, the cast is asked why they returned. "For the money," jokes Charles, instantly sending up the motives of most of the current crop of reforming rock stars.