Red Dwarf: Back to Earth Series 10 written and directed by Doug Naylor (2009)
20 April 2009I have literally been waiting years for this, and have had hopes of them making a movie (which it seems will never happen now), and maybe because of all the high hopes this is a bit of a disappointment. Sure it is great to have everyone back, and with the new effects, the stuff of Red Dwarf looks amazing. And I did really enjoy the opening, and the ending, but honestly the whole middle on Earth is a bit dragged out, and not as funny as it could be. And the fact that they have just skipped over a ninth series, but acted as it happened, has only served to make me long for more Dwarf instead of a 3 episode special that could have easily been 2 episodes. Lets have a whole new series or the much vaunted film which would be so funny! And I must say there was a little too much Blade Runner references in this to make it all together funny. Just watched the blu-ray, and it looks spectacular (who knew Red Dwarf could ever look so good, guess shooting on the RED really does make a different), and it includes 2 excellent docs on the making of, which are hysterical, and the actors really do seem to be enjoying themselves. Now if only they will do the feature, or at least series 11 (or I would be happy with series 9!)
9 years after Series VIII, the Dwarfers are still going alone on Red Dwarf, but much has happened (a missing series it seems). Dave Lister (Craig Charles) spends his time either playing pranks on Arnold Judas Rimmer (Chris Barrie) or mourning the death of his love Kristine Kochanski (Chloe Annett). The Cat (Danny John-Jules) spends time being the Cat, and the andriod Kryten (RObert Llewellyn) has been on vacation. They discover their is a problem with the only remaining water supply, it seems their is a giant squid monster in it. So Rimmer runs the controls, while Dave, Cat and Kryten go in a diving bell to fight the creature and are almost killed, but manage to just survive. Just then a new ships hologram arrives, this is Katerina Bartikovsky (Sophie Winkleman) a former science officer on the crew, who gives 24 hours to Rimmer before she will shut him off, and then plans on helping Lister repopulate the species. She uses the dimension hopping capabilities of the squid to open a portal back to Earth, though it claims that their dimension is fake, and they begin to get sucked into the portal.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Back on modern Earth in a Television store some customers discuss getting a new TV, and the fact that Red Dwarf is returning to TV, while the crew comes flying out of the TV set into this reality. They find the DVD’s of their adventures, and realize they are in fact not real, and they must seek out their creator, and since the last DVD says they are going to die, they want more life.
They seek out their fans, and use them to find a man who worked on noses (instead of eyes like in Blade Runner) and go to find Craig Charles, traveling in a fans car converted to look like Starbug (now that is damn cool!). They end up meeting Craig, who is tripped out by meeting the characters they play, and sends them to meet their creator Doug Naylor,
Naylor living in the tower much like the Tyrell corporation in Blade Runnertells them he plans on killing them, and they can do nothing about it, and they all die in a Blade Runner like scene running through glass and getting shot, but instead they end up killing their creator, and Lister takes over the typewirter, making them do what they want, but when they realize stuff is happening out of their control, they realize this is a fake world, and they must wake up.
Lister refuses, realizing he can be with Kochanski here, so Cat, Kryten and Rimmer wake up back on Red Dwarf finding that the squid was in fact a female despair squid, that Cat had kept and lost, and instead of Despair it made happiness.
Dave realizing that Kryten lied to him and told him Kochanski was dead, when she actually dumped him, decides he has to go back to reality to find her, his real true love, and he awakens from his coma. And the crew is back together.
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Funny enough, but not as funny as it should have been. I do love the new sets and effects though, which look fantastic (and even better on blu-ray). Here is hoping this does well so they will do more Dwarf, because even mediocre red dwarf is much better than no Red Dwarf at all for years and years and years!
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