Red Dwarf: Back to Earth

[davidn]

I finally got around to watching the Red Dwarf: Back to Earth specials last night, after they'd been on nearly a year ago. They were completely awful. Initially that was going to be my entire review, but in the later parts, I decided that to be fair to them, they were either an absurdist bit of series metafiction that fell a bit short of the mark, or they were actually completely awful.

And I'm leaning towards the latter side at the moment, because the whole thing felt so cringeworthy to watch - to cut a long story short, the crew fall through a portal into another dimension where they discover that they're actually just characters on a TV programme and have to find their creator to prevent their series from being cancelled, after which the whole thing is revealed to be a recycled plot from an earlier episode done significantly less well. The whole thing felt like one hundred percent fanfiction, with the jokes coming from each character being a total exaggeration of their former selves, and episodes and people being smugly name-dropped throughout. Even though it wants you to find it funny, it also seems to suffer from the same problem as Series 7, where it started wanting to be taken seriously and it just wasn't mature enough to make it - this one feels rather like the modern Doctor Who series, with the increased special effects budget and film look.

The best part - or rather one of the identifiably all right parts - was something that nearly caused me to bang my head off the desk when I first saw it, but then turned around as it got more and more unlikely - when placed among less comedic scenes the jokes are almost done in too straight-faced a way to even be deadpan comedy. It's the CSI-style photo scene (though it's in the context of a much wider reference to Blade Runner).

I used to love Red Dwarf when I was twelve, though a lot of it seems childish to me now - perhaps that's an effect of the age I used to watch it. Or maybe it just is. Nevertheless, I think I'll have to spend some time watching earlier episodes in the hope of reminding myself that it used to be quite good. Some things should be left in the past!

Comments

[pookatimes.livejournal.com]

Thing is, you see, Doug Naylor is writing a new series 10 (also to be shown on Dave) - a full series. So, as cringeworthy as Back To Earth may have been, one could view it as an easy way of rebooting the entire saga - if you remember, the end of series 8 was an inescapable cliffhanger and (flimsy plot aside) Back To Earth did manage to end with the four staple cast members alone on Red Dwarf, no ties remaining whatsoever.

There are all sorts of possible things that happened between series 8 and 9, but they don't really matter any more. All we know is: they're on Red Dwarf; that's it. And that is what made the first few series the great things they were.

So, yes. They weren't exactly good episodes, but at least they ended with grounds for continuation, and what is essentially a blank slate, and if Naylor gets to make his series 10, he'll have a lot more room to play with. And hopefully not embark on such ridiculous storylines again.

[kibet.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of the british comedy at that time was childish. I used to find Bottom funny, but if I were to watch it now, I doubt I could raise a smirk (if that Hotel film was anything to go by).

Someone was just talking about watching Red Dwarf last night, and I mentioned that with the tendency of british comedies putting in topical references (even the ones set in the future) such as Thatcher and Princess Di jokes, i think it would sound dated. Unless I am remembering it wrong.

I think the US wins in having the best timeless comedy with Sgt Bilko.

[diarytypething.livejournal.com]

A lot of the humour in Red Dwarf was quite simple and quite low-brow - the basic concept is that the last vestiges of humanity are a couple of losers who don't get on - but in the early years it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, because you can tolerate it up to a point, even if it doesn't inspire you to the same levels of fannishness that it did when you were first allowed to watch post-watershed tv. However, I haven't dared to watch the recent set of specials yet because I found everything they made after about 1999-ish completely unwatchable even when it was first broadcast.

Rob the Knob (as I have now started to think of him), who inhabits the other side of the office I work in, thought the recent episodes were a great return to form, so I'm taking this as further proof that I won't like them.