Red Dwarf: Back to Earth
Encyclopedia
Red Dwarf: Back to Earth is a three part TV miniseries continuation of the science fiction
sitcom Red Dwarf
, broadcast on the British
television channel Dave between 10 April and 12 April 2009 and subsequently released on DVD on 15 June 2009 & on Blu-ray on 31 August 2009. It was the first television outing for Red Dwarf in over ten years. The storyline involves the characters arriving back on Earth, circa 2009, only to find that they are characters in a TV show called "Red Dwarf".
(Chloë Annett
) is dead and Holly
is out of commission because Lister
(Craig Charles
) left a bath running in the officer's quarters for nearly nine years and the Skutters still have not finished drying him out. The crew have noted water supplies are low, and discover the cause - a giant squid in their water tank - after they go to investigate. After they barely escape the encounter with their lives, the squid proceeds to vanish, and Katerina Bartikovsky (Sophie Winkleman
), a former Red Dwarf science officer, materialises. Informing Rimmer
(Chris Barrie
) he is to be switched off in twenty-four hours, she uses the ship's equipment to analyse the leviathan's DNA and manages to turn a mining laser into a dimension cutter, in the hope of opening up a portal so that Lister can find a mate and restart the human race.
Part Two begins with the discovery that the Red Dwarf crew inhabit an "invalid dimension". Zeroing in on the nearest valid reality, the portal sucks the crew to Earth
in 2009, only to find that in this world, their adventures have been a fictional television show called Red Dwarf
. As a result of the discovery they quickly accept that they themselves are merely fictional characters, and find a DVD of the "Back to Earth" special. They are alarmed to discover that they are to die at the end of the final part. They resolve to track down their creators and plead for more life and Lister finds out that Kochanski
, his former lover, is not dead in this reality.
In Part Three the crew track down actor Craig Charles
on the set of Coronation Street
and ask him to reveal the location of their creator. After locating him, the Creator (Richard O'Callaghan
) reveals that he intends to kill the crew, having tired of them, but is himself killed by a now keen to remain alive Lister. Shortly afterwards, the crew discover that they are in a shared hallucination caused by a female relative of the despair squid that uses joy, rather than despair, to subdue victims. Kochanski appears before Lister, tempting him to remain behind, but having discovered his Kochanski may still be alive in his own reality, he chooses to wake up and return with the others. As the crew head back to their sleeping quarters, Cat
(Danny John-Jules
) admits that he brought the female despair squid to Red Dwarf, and they reflect on the ridiculous idea that anyone could consider them fictional characters.
appeared on Seattle public television station, KCTS 9. In an interview, he revealed that BBC Worldwide
, in collaboration with another party, had invested in 72 minutes of new Red Dwarf to be filmed in early 2009. Grant Naylor Productions announced that it had been "on the cards" since February 2008. It subsequently transpired that UKTV channel Dave would screen four new 24-minute specials to celebrate the twenty-first anniversary of the show. The new episodes form part of an effort by Dave to screen more original programming, instead of just repeats.
It was subsequently announced in January 2009 that the new special was to be a brand new two-part story titled Red Dwarf: Back to Earth, broadcast over the Easter weekend of that year along with a "making of" documentary and a one-off entitled Red Dwarf: Unplugged, which was intended to be an improvised episode. On 20 February 2009, it was announced that Red Dwarf: Back to Earth would now be a three part special and that the "unplugged" episode had been postponed. Unplugged had been described by Craig Charles as "just the four of us - and some chairs - trying to improvise, or rather trying to remember, classic scenes".
"Back to Earth" itself was not filmed in front of a studio audience due to budgetary constraints. Although this was not the first time this has happened (series seven was filmed entirely without a live audience), it is the first time a laughter track is not added for broadcast. It was also the first time Red Dwarf was filmed in high definition, this time using the Red camera system. It is shot at a very high, 4K resolution.
On 13 March 2009, SFX
magazine announced that they had released a limited edition of issue 181 onto the newsstands. This edition was limited to 50 nationwide and featured the cast of the Back to Earth series instead of the standard Doctor Who
cover. The magazine also plays an important part in the episode itself; Dave Bradley, editor of SFX is quoted as saying, "Our cover plays a key part in the storyline." In the show the magazine cover helped to illustrate the fact that Red Dwarf was just a television show, and it also led Lister to investigate the nature of Kochanski's disappearance after seeing an article about the actress who plays her.
Dave started a viral marketing campaign in March 2009, when www.listerscominghome.co.uk was introduced to the public. The site shows a postcard, and reveals minor details of the show to the viewer. Dave also released several videos on their site, including a mock-advertisement for the "Carbug", a modified Smart Fortwo
to fit the shape and style of Starbug. On-set videos also were released, along with short teasers (under ten seconds), with some 30 second teasers as well. Cast members have also written for the Dave blog, releasing small bits of information about the shows. The viral campaign went on to win a Broadcast Digital Award for Best Use of Digital Technology.
It has been noted that the final episode in particular is heavily influenced by Blade Runner
, "the film that inspired series creators Rob Grant and Doug Naylor to put pen to paper in the first place," though questions have been raised over the artistic success of this homage.
Channel head Steve North reported some months after the event that the Dave network was "delighted with how the new shows have gone" and responded coyly to rumours that a new series had been commissioned. However, speaking on BBC Radio 2
, Craig Charles confirmed that two new series were being produced, and that filming begins in January 2011. Chris Barrie revealed that the new series will be counted as series 10.
Series 10 is slated to premiere in summer 2012 consisting of 6 episodes.
" in which all three episodes have been edited together into a single feature length programme, with a few lines of dialogue trimmed, such as Rimmer's bemoaning it being a three-parter, but no extra scenes or dialogue were added with the exception of "The End" being typed on a typewriter following extended end credits. There is also a Smeg Ups compilation (outtakes) and featurettes, including the broadcast Making Of, and a new-to-DVD Part Two, which is nearly twice the length of the first.
Continuing the metafictional theme of the storyline, during one scene Lister is shown reading the back of the DVD case for Back to Earth - what he reads is similar to what is printed on the real-life DVD case, and the two-disc clamshell is formatted the same way (although the inner labels are different).
A Blu-ray version was released on 31 August 2009, containing the same material as the DVD but all in 1080i except for a few features (it was encoded in 1080i rather than 1080p to preserve the original play-speed of the broadcast and DVD version) followed by a US DVD & Blu-ray release on 6 October 2009.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
sitcom Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
, broadcast on the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television channel Dave between 10 April and 12 April 2009 and subsequently released on DVD on 15 June 2009 & on Blu-ray on 31 August 2009. It was the first television outing for Red Dwarf in over ten years. The storyline involves the characters arriving back on Earth, circa 2009, only to find that they are characters in a TV show called "Red Dwarf".
Plot
Part One begins on Red Dwarf, nine years after the events of Series VIII. KochanskiKristine Kochanski
Kristine Z. Kochanski is a fictional character from the British science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf. Kochanski was the first console officer in the navigation chamber on board the spaceship Red Dwarf...
(Chloë Annett
Chloë Annett
Chloë Victoria Annett is an English actress, best known for her role in series 7 and 8 of the British sitcom Red Dwarf.-Early life and family:...
) is dead and Holly
Holly (Red Dwarf)
Holly is the ship's computer on the science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf.The character is played by Norman Lovett in Series I and II and, following a "head sex change" to look like his parallel universe alter ego "Hilly", played by Hattie Hayridge in the series 3 episode Backwards, is female...
is out of commission because Lister
Dave Lister
David "Dave" Lister, commonly referred to simply as Lister, is a fictional character from the British science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, portrayed by Craig Charles...
(Craig Charles
Craig Charles
Craig Joseph Charles is an English actor, stand-up comedian, author, poet, radio and television presenter, best known for playing Dave Lister in the British cult-favourite science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf...
) left a bath running in the officer's quarters for nearly nine years and the Skutters still have not finished drying him out. The crew have noted water supplies are low, and discover the cause - a giant squid in their water tank - after they go to investigate. After they barely escape the encounter with their lives, the squid proceeds to vanish, and Katerina Bartikovsky (Sophie Winkleman
Sophie Winkleman
Sophie Lara Winkleman is an English actress who has worked extensively in television, film and stage. On 14 February 2009, she became engaged to Lord Frederick Windsor, the son of Prince Michael and Princess Michael of Kent. They married in Hampton Court on 12 September 2009...
), a former Red Dwarf science officer, materialises. Informing Rimmer
Arnold Rimmer
Arnold Judas Rimmer is a fictional character in the science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, played by Chris Barrie. He is unpopular with his crew mates, and is often the target of insults or pranks...
(Chris Barrie
Chris Barrie
Chris Barrie is a British actor. He first achieved success as a vocal impressionist, notably in the ITV sketch show Spitting Image...
) he is to be switched off in twenty-four hours, she uses the ship's equipment to analyse the leviathan's DNA and manages to turn a mining laser into a dimension cutter, in the hope of opening up a portal so that Lister can find a mate and restart the human race.
Part Two begins with the discovery that the Red Dwarf crew inhabit an "invalid dimension". Zeroing in on the nearest valid reality, the portal sucks the crew to Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
in 2009, only to find that in this world, their adventures have been a fictional television show called Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
. As a result of the discovery they quickly accept that they themselves are merely fictional characters, and find a DVD of the "Back to Earth" special. They are alarmed to discover that they are to die at the end of the final part. They resolve to track down their creators and plead for more life and Lister finds out that Kochanski
Kristine Kochanski
Kristine Z. Kochanski is a fictional character from the British science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf. Kochanski was the first console officer in the navigation chamber on board the spaceship Red Dwarf...
, his former lover, is not dead in this reality.
In Part Three the crew track down actor Craig Charles
Craig Charles
Craig Joseph Charles is an English actor, stand-up comedian, author, poet, radio and television presenter, best known for playing Dave Lister in the British cult-favourite science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf...
on the set of Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
and ask him to reveal the location of their creator. After locating him, the Creator (Richard O'Callaghan
Richard O'Callaghan
Richard O'Callaghan is an English film, stage and television character actor.Born on 7 March 1940, he is the son of actors Patricia Hayes and Valentine Brooke whose stage name was Valentine Rooke. As a boy actor he was known as Richard Brooke. He has led a versatile career in film, stage and...
) reveals that he intends to kill the crew, having tired of them, but is himself killed by a now keen to remain alive Lister. Shortly afterwards, the crew discover that they are in a shared hallucination caused by a female relative of the despair squid that uses joy, rather than despair, to subdue victims. Kochanski appears before Lister, tempting him to remain behind, but having discovered his Kochanski may still be alive in his own reality, he chooses to wake up and return with the others. As the crew head back to their sleeping quarters, Cat
Cat (Red Dwarf)
The Cat is a character in the British science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf. He is played by Danny John-Jules.-Character development:According to Danny John-Jules, the character of Cat is based on a combination of Little Richard's look, James Brown's moves and Richard Pryor's facial...
(Danny John-Jules
Danny John-Jules
Daniel "Danny" John-Jules is a British actor, singer and dancer. John-Jules attended Rutherford Comprehensive School, Penfold Street, Marylebone, from 1972 to 1977. He is best known for portraying Cat in the television programme Red Dwarf.-Dance and song:John-Jules is a baritone...
) admits that he brought the female despair squid to Red Dwarf, and they reflect on the ridiculous idea that anyone could consider them fictional characters.
Production
In August 2008, Robert LlewellynRobert Llewellyn
Robert Llewellyn is an English actor, presenter, and writer. He is best known as the mechanoid Kryten in the hit sitcom Red Dwarf, and for his role as presenter of Scrapheap Challenge.-Early career:...
appeared on Seattle public television station, KCTS 9. In an interview, he revealed that BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
, in collaboration with another party, had invested in 72 minutes of new Red Dwarf to be filmed in early 2009. Grant Naylor Productions announced that it had been "on the cards" since February 2008. It subsequently transpired that UKTV channel Dave would screen four new 24-minute specials to celebrate the twenty-first anniversary of the show. The new episodes form part of an effort by Dave to screen more original programming, instead of just repeats.
It was subsequently announced in January 2009 that the new special was to be a brand new two-part story titled Red Dwarf: Back to Earth, broadcast over the Easter weekend of that year along with a "making of" documentary and a one-off entitled Red Dwarf: Unplugged, which was intended to be an improvised episode. On 20 February 2009, it was announced that Red Dwarf: Back to Earth would now be a three part special and that the "unplugged" episode had been postponed. Unplugged had been described by Craig Charles as "just the four of us - and some chairs - trying to improvise, or rather trying to remember, classic scenes".
"Back to Earth" itself was not filmed in front of a studio audience due to budgetary constraints. Although this was not the first time this has happened (series seven was filmed entirely without a live audience), it is the first time a laughter track is not added for broadcast. It was also the first time Red Dwarf was filmed in high definition, this time using the Red camera system. It is shot at a very high, 4K resolution.
On 13 March 2009, SFX
SFX magazine
SFX is a British magazine covering the topics of science fiction and fantasy.-Description:SFX magazine is published every four weeks by Future Publishing and was founded in 1995. The magazine covers topics in the genres of popular science fiction, fantasy and horror, within the media of films,...
magazine announced that they had released a limited edition of issue 181 onto the newsstands. This edition was limited to 50 nationwide and featured the cast of the Back to Earth series instead of the standard Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
cover. The magazine also plays an important part in the episode itself; Dave Bradley, editor of SFX is quoted as saying, "Our cover plays a key part in the storyline." In the show the magazine cover helped to illustrate the fact that Red Dwarf was just a television show, and it also led Lister to investigate the nature of Kochanski's disappearance after seeing an article about the actress who plays her.
Dave started a viral marketing campaign in March 2009, when www.listerscominghome.co.uk was introduced to the public. The site shows a postcard, and reveals minor details of the show to the viewer. Dave also released several videos on their site, including a mock-advertisement for the "Carbug", a modified Smart Fortwo
Smart Fortwo
The Smart Fortwo is a rear-engined two-seater city car manufactured by Smart GmbH, introduced at the 1998 Paris Motor Show as the Smart City Coupé, and currently in its second generation...
to fit the shape and style of Starbug. On-set videos also were released, along with short teasers (under ten seconds), with some 30 second teasers as well. Cast members have also written for the Dave blog, releasing small bits of information about the shows. The viral campaign went on to win a Broadcast Digital Award for Best Use of Digital Technology.
Reception
According to Red Dwarf's official website, 4 million people watched Part One over the 4-day Easter weekend. Part Two attracted an audience of 3 million whilst Part Three earned a rating of just over 2.9 million. The Making of Back To Earth, was watched by 1.5 million people.It has been noted that the final episode in particular is heavily influenced by Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
, "the film that inspired series creators Rob Grant and Doug Naylor to put pen to paper in the first place," though questions have been raised over the artistic success of this homage.
Channel head Steve North reported some months after the event that the Dave network was "delighted with how the new shows have gone" and responded coyly to rumours that a new series had been commissioned. However, speaking on BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
, Craig Charles confirmed that two new series were being produced, and that filming begins in January 2011. Chris Barrie revealed that the new series will be counted as series 10.
Series 10 is slated to premiere in summer 2012 consisting of 6 episodes.
DVD release
Back to Earth was released on DVD on 15 June 2009. The cover of the DVD is a replica of the one featured in part 2 of the specials, with a few cosmetic changes, such as replacing "Coming Soon" with "Director's Cut" and the addition of the plot synopsis read by Lister, which was absent on the prop. There are two methods of viewing the specials, the broadcast episodes as shown on Dave, and a new "Director's cutDirector's cut
A director's cut is a specially edited version of a film, and less often TV series, music video, commercials, comic book or video games, that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit...
" in which all three episodes have been edited together into a single feature length programme, with a few lines of dialogue trimmed, such as Rimmer's bemoaning it being a three-parter, but no extra scenes or dialogue were added with the exception of "The End" being typed on a typewriter following extended end credits. There is also a Smeg Ups compilation (outtakes) and featurettes, including the broadcast Making Of, and a new-to-DVD Part Two, which is nearly twice the length of the first.
Continuing the metafictional theme of the storyline, during one scene Lister is shown reading the back of the DVD case for Back to Earth - what he reads is similar to what is printed on the real-life DVD case, and the two-disc clamshell is formatted the same way (although the inner labels are different).
A Blu-ray version was released on 31 August 2009, containing the same material as the DVD but all in 1080i except for a few features (it was encoded in 1080i rather than 1080p to preserve the original play-speed of the broadcast and DVD version) followed by a US DVD & Blu-ray release on 6 October 2009.