BACK TO EARTH; Red Dwarf returns for an awesome three-parter that whets the fans appetite (Red Dwarf)

Member Name: sparkymarky1973

Product:	Red Dwarf
Date:	23/04/09 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Every bit as funny as it was ten years ago when it disappeared from our screens..

Disadvantages: Why oh why has it been gone soooo long?

Red Dwarf was a classic sci-fi sitcom that originally aired on BBC2 during the nineties and was penned by the writing combination of Grant and Naylor. It lasted for eight series and finally ended due in part to the breakdown of the writing partnership that spawned it, the slow decline in quality of the scripts and shows, the slow drop-off of ratings and the feeling by fans that the tightness of the plots had been replaced by CGI effects that seemed to spoil the original atmosphere of the show. No one thing lead to the show's death, more a cultimation of factors and, in fact, it was less that the show got cancelled and more that the show ended on a cliff-hanger nobody knew how to solve, that the last series' ratings had ben poor and that the characters involved all moved on to other things in the hiatus between shows that grew ever longer and longer and longer...........

Recently the show has gained new life on digital channel, Dave- a channel dedicated to reviving old comedy T.V shows from BBC2 and Channel 4 and bringing them to a new generation of fans. Some of the original series' of Red Dwarf have now aged rather badly in the special effects department but the humour remains as strong now as at the time it was filmed spawning a new cult audience strongly dedicated to The Boys From The Dwarf and their adventures in space.....

The basic premise is thus: Dave Lister of the Space Corps is a lowly Chicken Soup Dispenser Repairman on the Intergalactic Mining Ship, Red Dwarf. He is put into stasis (think suspended animation) as punishment for smuggling a cat onboard the ship and is woken hundreds of years later to find himself the last human being alive. Apparently, according to Ship's Computer, Holly, there was a nucleur reactor leak whilst Lister was in stasis and everyone else was killed. Now is the first time that it has been deemed safe to revive Lister and, to keep him sane, Holly has also brought back Lister's old bunk companion and nerdish colleague, Arnold.J.Rimmer as a holographic companion much to Lister's dismay. Before long, it emerges that there is one more life-form onboard. Over the course of hundreds of years, Lister's cat has evolved and now presents himself as a stylish fashion victim addicted to snazzy clothes and looking goooooood! Together the four remaining crew members set off into deep space- their mission the same as it is in all these old Sci-Fi shows; to return home. But first, they have to get used to living with each other without tearing each other limb from limb.

On paper, this may not sound like the award-winning formula for a highly successful sitcom that spawned countless millions in revenue, DVD sales and merchandise as well as a whole host of catch-phrases ( "You smeg-head", " Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast", " Better Smeg than dead!") but, for some reason, Red Dwarf almost overnight went on to become a cult classic that ran and ran and ran....each successive story got more and more bizarre and off-the-wall and yet, with each series, the show gained more and more fans. Kryten, a series 4000 Mechanoid, was introduced in series 3 to bulk out the characters and, in later series, Lister was reunited with his lost love, Kristine Kochanski, albeit a version from an alternate dimension. It would take forever to recount everything The Boys got up to over the course of eight series' but the show ended with them regaining Red Dwarf after having lost her around series 5, only to find the original crew recreated by nano-bots let loose on the Ship. (don't ask- no seriously!). The last show ended with that crew once again killed, this time by a virus, and Rimmer fleeing the shadow of The Grim Reaper with the choice phrase "Not smegging likely..."

It was ten years after the show had so unsatisfyingly finished that Dave announced the news all Dwarfer's had been waiting for: a new three-part mini-series had been especially written and filmed for the channel, to be shown over Easter 2009! This mini-series would be called Back To Earth...

Set nine years after events in the last series, these newest episodes begin with no re-cap of what has gone before and no explanation of how the last cliff-hanger episode came to be resolved. Instead our first scene, after an exterior shot of the Mining Vessel, Red Dwarf itself, is of Dave Lister patrolling the empty passages of the Ship. Holly is gone- apparently off-line- and Kochanski is missing, presumed dead. Once again, it is just The Boys From The Dwarf- Rimmer, The Cat, Kryten and last human, Dave Lister. Lister has resorted back to juvenile jokes and humour at Rimmer's expense but there are indications that once again, strains and tension amongst the small crew are beginning to show. Then The Cat reports the presence of a strange entity in one of the last remaining water-tanks and The Boys, minus cowardly Rimmer in his hard-light holographic body who offers to monitor them from safety, set off to investigate. The result is a bloody attack by something resembling a giant squid. It turns out that the squid is an inter-dimensional being that has become trapped in the water-tanks and cannot escape!

It is about this time that a new hologram is up-loaded to replace Rimmer; a russian scientist who died in the original accident, she out-ranks Rimmer and declares her intention to seize control after the smeg-head has continuousally failed in his primary objective to continue the Human Race by helping Lister to procreate and provide off-spring. Using the dimension-hopping capabilities of the trapped squid, this latest interloper opens a worm-hole and throws Lister and his companions into the mix to try and secure a mate. But what they find there is their most bizarre experience yet.....and that's smegging saying something!

In this new dimension, Lister and The Boys are mere characters in a T.V series. The series has been revived for a new reincarnation but it is uncertain how many episodes remain before the show ends. In a very unsubtle and very, very clever homage to one of my favourite movies ever, Bladerunner, Lister, Cat, Kryten and Rimmer set out to find their creator and plead for extended life. For surely if their show is cancelled, they as characters will cease to exist.

Although this plot has been done to death already numerous times in several different shows, still it somehow manages to fit in well with the whole surrealism that has always made Red Dwarf the comedy classic it is. The adventures of The Boys in "our" world lead to all manner of clever and witty set-pieces, which include Lister coming face-to-face with the actor who plays him- now starring in a soap opera called Coronation Street? (never heard of it, have you?)

But don't worry, because just as you think Red Dwarf has finally sold itself out, all is explained in the final episode and normality is resumed. To tell you how it all works out would spoil what is a very welcome but oh-too short return to our screens for my favourite comedy show of all-time but don't panic if you missed this on Dave because it will not be long before all three special episodes are released on DVD. The remaining writer of the original partnership which created Red Dwarf is on record as saying that the future of Red Dwarf remains gripped in the sales of this latest DVD so if you do want to see it return, you should rush out and pre-order your copy now from all good DVD stockists!! As a three-parter shown over three successive nights of the Easter weekend, this felt a tad fragmented and fragile in places, not really coming into it's own until the concluding part but, watched as a whole fused together when it was repeated on Bank Holiday Monday, it was as though The Boys had never been away. They might have all aged but the partnership that made Red Dwarf work in the first place is still there and the only stale crumb is that it has taken sooo long for this to happen!!

Please Please Please Please, help this show to make a very welcome return......buy the DVD and Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for Breakfast!

Summary: The Boys from the Dwarf finallly get home but all is not how it seems...