SYNOPSIS
The cult comedy and International Emmy winner made a triumphant return this past April in the UK, 21 years after its initial launch into eight successful seasons. Never before seen in the North America, this all-new special finds the not-so intrepid crew hurled through a portal back to Earth of the 21st Century, only discover they are just characters from a TV series. Knowing they will die in the final episode, the Dwarfers - in best Blade Runner tradition - decide to track down their creators to discover how long they have left to live.
REVIEW
It’s rare in this day and age where a show is returned to our screens after being off for over a decade – however Doctor Who managed to do it with aplomb. So it was with great excitement that we heard Red Dwarf was to return our screen via the Dave channel.
Some worried that the show would not have the budget on the independent satellite channel, but to be honest – it looks better than ever. The first episode looks great, ok – you can tell it’s CGI for the most part, but it still looks miles better than the last series.
However, there is a but.. The storyline of this miniseries is really poor. Not to say that it doesn’t have its moments of Dwarfness (Lister rewriting the event’s of the story is inspired) – yet these are few and far between and bring back memories of the last series ‘ of the show, which weren’t the best.
The first episode stands out as the best, with the crew still on the Mining Ship Red Dwarf, indeed with the new digital effects, the ship looks more gigantic than ever – and you really get a sense of desertedness on the ship that wasn’t really achievable with the technology available back in the 80/90’s - only when we get to earth, is it that the plotline starts to wane.
The director’s cut of this series, actually plays out better that the 3 episodes shown earlier this year – listening to the commentaries – the story was initially a two-parter and only changed at the studio’s request. You can actually see this when stretched over the three episodes – indeed the Directors cut could probably have got away with more cuts. It’s great to see the crew again, and Cat’s outfits (John Jules still has the same body after all these years? The guys a legend).
Even though the cast have aged, remarkably this has no effect on the show, which I thought it might. Lister (Craig Charles) is a gross as ever, Rimmer (Chris Barrie) is as obnoxious as ever, Cat (John Jules) is as self absorbed as ever and finally Kryten (Robert Llewellyn) is as concerned about the space time continuum as he is the ironing. Overall then, this series needs to be in any dwarfers collection, and although not up there with the original series, it still makes for a good 70 minutes of entertainment.
There are quite a few Special features on the disc, the making of and smeg ups are highlights, however it’s the cast commentary that makes for the most fun viewing. Listening to the whole cast taking the piss out of Grant Naylor and his Red Camera makes the whole DVD worth it.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Cast Commentary
- Director Commentary
- All-New Exclusive Documentary
- The Making of Back to Earth
- Deleted Scenes
- Smeg Ups
- Featurettes
- Trailers
- Web Videos
- Photo Gallery
- Easter Egg
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