Review: Red Dwarf – Back To Earth

This review contains major spoilers for the just-aired-in-the-UK Red Dwarf three-parter Back To Earth which are unsuitable for folks who haven’t seen the show yet and people of a nervous disposition.

You have been warned.

In the weeks leading up to the broadcast premiere of Back To Earth, aired in three parts over Easter weekend on UK cable/satellite comedy channel Dave, just enough got out about the plot, shooting locations and more to paint a picture of a show that wasn’t going to just break the fourth wall, but drive a whole damned asteroid-sized mining ship through it at high speed. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in thinking “We’ve been waiting so long for this show to make a comeback, please don’t screw it up.” The reviews seem to indicate a sharp divide between those who loved it and those who loathed it.

So help me, I actually liked it.

I find myself in the odd position of being a “remake/continuation apologist” these days, defending everything from new Doctor Who to new Battlestar Galactica to the new Star Trek movie due out next month, on the grounds that maybe we should hold our fire and wait to see if the new story “breaks the universe.” I’m still a staunch defender of the much-derided 1996 Doctor Who TV movie and the 2005 big-screen adaptation of “Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy”. I liked the Star Wars prequels. Sue me.

Back To Earth does not “break the universe.” It breaks the fourth wall, sure, but if you’re watching closely, you can – as I did – figure out what the “escape hatch” for the modern-day Earth plotline is as far back as part one. For, despite being the first new Red Dwarf in ten years, Back To Earth is a sequel/remake of sorts of a very popular episode going even further back than that.

Back To Earth is essentially a flashier, extended, more surreal remake of season five’s Back To Reality (hell, the first clue is in the title). The scenes in which Rimmer hangs back to watch the sonar while the others dive into danger is almost a replay of a similar scene from Reality. Where things diverge is in the fantasy induced by the despair squid’s venomous ink: Back To Reality plunges the characters into a dystopian future, but Back To Earth drops them off in modern-day London with the sobering realization that they’re merely TV characters whose every trial and tribulation and triumph has been concocted for the amusement of others.

That in itself might be an interesting vein of metaphysical material to tap, except that the execution goes a little bit awry, and comes dangerously close to being an infomercial for previous seasons’ merchandise. It’s cute in a way, and irritating in other ways. The saving grace throughout all three parts of Back To Earth is the main cast members: they keep everything afloat, even when the script’s a little bit dodgy, with their absolute conviction, and major kudos on this front have to go to Craig Charles, who actually brings some proper dramatic chops to the table (and who apparently doesn’t mind the true-to-life gag about a coke flashback in part three – here’s a hint: it doesn’t have anything to do with soft drinks). That the characters have been allowed to age becomes a strength here.

If there’s one major weak spot, it’s part three’s insistence on going whole hog with the Blade Runner homage. Now, to be fair, this isn’t the first time that an entire Red Dwarf episode has been spent paying tribute to another media entity – witness Camille‘s shameless replay of Casablanca. Back To Earth‘s unabashed leg-humping of Blade Runner is a bit riskier, though. Casablanca‘s been around long enough that it’s almost a cliche in and of itself, and it doesn’t deserve that fate, but nevertheless, there it is: people who have never even seen Casablanca can rattle off lines from it because it’s seeped into the pop culture consciousness. Blade Runner isn’t at that point yet, but more to the point, the blatant homage/rip of Blade Runner is a ballsier move because the movie is damn near sacrosanct among serious science fiction fans of a certain age – dare I say it, the same people who have been pining for a Red Dwarf reunion? – so the show is effectively carving up a sacred SF cow into sides of comedy beef here. (I admit it – the mathematical mangling of Blade Runner‘s “light that shines twice as bright shines half as long” dialogue made me laugh louder the longer it went on.) In over-serious SF circles, making fun of Blade Runner is right up there with trying to milk comedy out of Schindler’s List. Those fans who are panning the Blade Runner connection are overlooking the fact that Red Dwarf’s already done Casablanca just as overtly.

In short, Back To Earth doesn’t do anything that Red Dwarf hasn’t done before. And in the end, perhaps that’s actually its biggest failing. After watching and rewatching Back To Earth, I’d love to see Red Dwarf picked up and carried forward; Doug Naylor seems to have a similar view, as a carrot is clearly dangled before Lister – where has Kochanski gone? – that gives the character a quest arc for the future. More Red Dwarf would be great…but it needs a better story, and one which isn’t so slavishly paying tribute to other media, or to the show’s own past. Despite that, Back To Earth is highly entertaining and highly recommended…and so help me, I want the Kryten action figure and the miniature Carbug.