Category: Season 09: Back To Earth

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Red Dwarf Season 09: Back To Earth

Back To Earth – Part 1

Red DwarfRed Dwarf continues to steam through space, Lister and Rimmer continue to get on each other’s nerves, Cat continues to be incredibly good-looking, and Kryten continues to be mildly neurotic: life goes on. But when an unforseen water shortage hits the ship, endangering Cat’s and Lister’s continued existence, it’s apparent that some other form of life has gotten on board as well. Everyone – minus Rimmer – piles into a diving bell to explore Red Dwarf’s enormous water tank, and they find an enormous squid-like creature there. Lister manages to chop off one of its tentacles before Rimmer stops panicking long enough to raise the diving bell to safety; the being then appears to dimension-jump off the ship under its own power. To make matters worse, another hologram appears – a former member of Red Dwarf’s crew who has been brought online to provide more effective assistance to the crew than Rimmer can provide. Since the ship can only sustain one hologram at a time, Rimmer is therefore expected to forfeit his existence.

Order the DVDswritten by Doug Naylor
directed by Doug Naylor
music by Howard Goodall

Cast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Sophie Winkleman (Katerina)

Notes: Back To Earth takes place nine years after the eighth season of Red Dwarf (which fits since it was filmed and broadcast ten years after that season); somewhere in the intervening Red Dwarfyears, Kochanski met a tragic fate and is still mourned by Lister. (Next to Kochanski’s photo in the ship’s memorial observatory is a photo of the late Mel Bibby, who designed the more elaborate sets seen in seasons 3-8.) Holly is curiously absent for the entire story. Unlike the rest of Red Dwarf, Back To Earth was bankrolled by UK cable/satellite comedy channel Dave (appropriately enough) rather than airing on the BBC, though perhaps “bankrolled” is a term that should be used very loosely, as the budget for Back To Earth was no larger than the entire budget for the final season in 1999. Back To Earth does not reflect the storyline developed for the aborted Red Dwarf movie project, a much-mooted project that never got off the ground in the intervening decade due to a series of equally aborted financing deals. This is also the first Red Dwarf episode without an audience laugh track.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 09: Back To Earth

Back To Earth – Part 2

Red DwarfKaterina, the hologram who is not only slated to replace Rimmer but seems insufferably pleased about it, opens a dimensional portal through which she intends to retrieve a suitable human female to help Lister repopulate the now-extinct human race. But her instruments briefly register that Red Dwarf’s own dimension is invalid. One by one, everyone but Katerina is sucked through the wormhole, landing in London in 2009. As they browse the video aisle of a store, they’re extremely disturbed to discover that their adventures have been chronicled on television: Red Dwarf, and its entire crew, are a fictional construct. As if that’s not enough to rock them back on their heels, the back-of-the-box blurb on a new DVD release, Red Dwarf: Back To Earth, reveals that they’re fated to die in the next episode.

Order the DVDswritten by Doug Naylor
directed by Doug Naylor
music by Howard Goodall

Cast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Sophie Winkleman (Katerina), Tom Andrews (Salesman), Karen Admiral (Woman), Jon Glover (Man), Jeremy Swift (Noddy), Julian Ryder (Bus Driver), Charlie Kenyon (Boy on the bus), Nina Southworth (Girl on the bus), Richard Woo (Swallow)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 09: Back To Earth

Back To Earth – Part 3

Red DwarfFollowing a tenuous trail of clues to find the creative mind to whom they must plead their case for their continued existence, the crew find their way to the set of Coronation Street, where they track down actor Craig Charles – the man who portrayed Lister on the televised version of Red Dwarf. After dismissing the Dwarfers as either his castmates gone mad or a cocaine flashback, he reluctantly points them in the direction of the writer who created them. But when they confront him to demand to be kept alive for further adventures, the discussion quickly becomes a more violent confrontation. Can the crew escape “cancellation” if the mind behind their existence is dead?

Order the DVDswritten by Doug Naylor
directed by Doug Naylor
music by Howard Goodall

Cast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Simon Gregson (himself), Michelle Keegan (himself), Richard O’Callaghan (Creator), Chloe Annett (Kochanski)

Note: The crew’s visit to Coronation Street plays off of the fact that Craig Charles stars in both shows, and the “real” Craig Charles’ mention about cocaine flashbacks isn’t entirely unfounded in reality, as the actor’s battles with drug addiction are nearly legendary. “Carbug” was a smart car customized with a green heat-shrink wrap (instead of a paint job) and planted-on prop pieces; the tightly-budgeted production couldn’t afford the car, so writer/director Doug Naylor bought it for himself and “loaned” it to the production.

LogBook entry by Earl Green