Back to Earth: Episode Two

Forever Dwarf wrote:

There has been a much more positive critical reception with this episode. Or, perhaps the miserable people have went for some sleepy time, and won't get around to complain and impose their *superior* opinions until tomorrow

KingDando wrote:

I will need to buy a Blu-Ray dvd eerr video!

stevie

SPOILER ALERT: I loved the joke about how videos replaced DVD's, because of how people forgot to put them back in the case. An absolutely fantastic way to justify old technology on an old TV show is to explain that "old will be new", in the future. Well done.

Dwarfer Stu wrote:

yeh i know it was going to be a 2 parter. but what i'm getting at is the fact that they decided it was gonig to be a 3 parter before they finished filming the episodes (proven by the dialogue). So any plans for part 1 ending at that moment were long gone.

Ok, now we know why Doug said their could be a series 10 but no series 9(Because series 9 is mentioned as having already taken place)
It's definately a spoof of Blade runner with Cat making those little Gold origami type thing's, Lister being able to read Chinese makes me think he's possibly not really Lister at all and all this will come together tomorrow, I dont think we've seen the last of Katerina with her being the favourite to be the Leviathon although I wouldn't be shocked if it turned out to be someone else.............

Anyway I laughed a good few times and the jokes were good..

Scenes that spring to mind are the one with Lister telling Rimmer how he cleaned his bum using the sink and handryer holding his cheeks apart trying to catch some breeze and this whole Neurotic/Hilarious scene with Rimmer Waiting for the bus reading about himself in SFX magazine....

Rimmer: "Neurotic, Im not neaurotic, never been neurotic, neurotic, neurotic, are they insane who write's this stuff, I wan't even neurotic when I was a kid, didn't have time I was too busy washing my hand's"
(After a short pause)
Rimmer: "Hilarious, In what way am I hilarious, name one way in which Im hilarrous, one, just one, one way"
Kryten: "Well your a pompous without reason sir and you have hilariously unrealistic life goals"
Rimmer: "When Im Lord of the star fleet Kryten you'll pay for that remark"

All in all Im quite pleased so far and thing's appear to be setting up a future series
Roll on Sunday

I also noticed the music playing when they visit the nose guy was very Vangelis-esque

Makes me want to listen to the Blade Runner soundtrack again.

cyberkilla wrote:

I'm sorry, why is my opinion automatically disenfranchised by you because I don't think this special is amazing? Would you not suggest that by that very attitude, you are enforcing what you consider to be your *superior* opinion? *sigh*

I'm not _miserable_, I am just having issues with this fourth wall breaking and general self-referential PAIN it's inflicting. I think the _characters_ , despite being within what I consider a horrible not-plot, are their same old lovely selves and that is very nice to see Am not dissing the actors or characters, am dissing the plot.

CJ MAK wrote:

did they say in the episode though that (when reading the dvd case) that this 3 parter took place after season 10?

ah so chances are that this is all real and they will just go back to red dwarf knowing they are a tv show? and thats why doug says there will not be a series 9, but maybe 10

stin wrote:

Videos don't get lost so easily

hello I’ve recently joint as a member but have been a fan of red dwarf for a long time now and was excited about back to earth and i still love red dwarf and think its is great to watch its just i feel there are less jokes which made red dwarf appeal to me I thought the idea of making it so they come back to earth and see them self on a dvd also felt a little to much and maybe they could have gone down a different root like lister finally gets back to earth and the first place he takes everyone is his local curry house. in reply to a previous comment I think the laughter tracks that gets played are as much a part of red dwarf as the cast are in the sense that it makes the jokes stand out more for the outside audience and I feel it works well with the show just as it did for another one of my favourite programs friends. Thanks for taking the time to read my comment and all in all I still think red dwarf is a quality show that I hope has more than just the back to earth series to come in the near future and im also looking forward to the conclusion tomorow.

Hmmm a saddly dissapointing episode.
I liked the bladerunner plot elements, but the whole breaking of the fourth wall and the tired "self referencing" plot is terrible and just a sign of someone scraping the bottom of the "plot bucket".

And yes I understand its not a "new series" but that does not excuse it for being so poor so far. But then I never understood this strange attitude that "specials" had to be somehow lesser than the program they were related too.
Dont get me wrong there was some very funny bits in Part 2, but they could not make up for the poor wuality of the rest of it (I still think the best bit so far was how Cat was the only one to land safely through the portal

I am hoping its all going to be something similiar to the despair squid...Just baddly implemented.

Faith Lockhart wrote:

Lister can't read Chinese.... IT actually said 'Noses are we'... my wife is Chinese, check out the 'eyeball soup' translation on the radio times behind the scenes pictures we did

Ohhh dear.

After reading some optimistic comments on here, I feel slightly better... but tomorrow had better be one heck of a good twist to restore my faith.

Whilst watching tonight, I wanted to cry. I just thought... "how can you do this to my programme????"... cheap-shots, self-referential cringeworthy moments, shallow characterisation... as if they've forgotten everything that they've done to build up these characters, and it's been written by someone who has never seen Dwarf before. Yes, it's been over 10 years, but have they not re-watched old episodes or anything between series 8 and now?? It seems a little like that.
But, hopefully, it will be something eerie and twisty involving Katerina and some artificial reality, some trick or something... despair squid again??... You have to remember how the fans were horrified at the start of Back to Reality, and that turned out to be a group hallucination. Then there's been Better Than Life (the book), in which they don't realise that the last two years of their life was VR until Kryten gets a message to them... But Dallas-esque "it was all a dream!" plot-escapes?? Surely you can do better after 11 years to write this script, Doug!! You should have let the fans write it, it seems that we have a better sense of what RD is than you do...

Children??? Criiiinge. "Kochanski's ALIVE!" - well, great, but you only gave us about half an hour to get used to the idea of her being dead. The whole bit by bit quest to the creators of RD... just, no. Pointless scenes, not very funny. And yeah, over-advertising yourself... CHEAP. Clearly this reality they're in is one where Doug was given funding for a series 9 (hmmmm) and where RD mania is everywhere, and the young whippersnappers actually watch it.

Dave has my respect for commissioning this when the BBC turned their noses (fools), but... well... it all feels a bit plasitc. Like a parody of itself, but at the same time that it's so self-aware that it's referencing itself it's also lost the "Red Dwarf-ness" that, to be honest, was slowly fading throughout series 7 and 8. At least watching the "new" Smeg Ups afterwards cheered me up and reminded me of the good old days.

But, that being said, I may be proven wrong tomorrow. I really, really hope so. However, tomorrow Lister is going to meet Craig, the "actor" that plays him, in Coronation Street. The very fact that that shite soap has ANYTHING to do with it makes me very apprehensive. Also, there's no logical way that they could be in this dimension, I mean... Stranger Than Fiction was one thing, that was a book, but this is a TV show where real people have already acted them... so somehow the characters have taken on a real essence and come to exist in an alternative universe... surely on entering our world they'd implode or something, but let's not get into that.

Don't let me down, boys. Pleeeeeeeeease.

We've known about this 4th wall-breaking stuff for months now. Remember, the actors and doug have all been saying its not what you think, and wait for the end.

It's gonna be justified in the red dwarf universe, i reckon

Sorry but that was just dull. A real pale imitation of the series. It obviously doesn't help that all the characters look a bit old now (as do we all). Even Kryten looks a bit paunchy which is weird as he's wearing a body suit. But the whole reality/not reality/smartarsed stuff is just so overdone and frankly a cliche too far, even for the dwarfers. It simply takes the whole thing out of its fantasy context and spoils it in my opinon. The Blade Runner references are all a bit tired and in my view a waste of airtime, replacing what should have been an original bit of script writing and something to move the story forwards into new vistas. Rather than just some clever references to another iconic bit of sci-fi simply for the sake of being clever.

I appreciate that the scriptwriters need to explore new avenues but this is just marking time. I guess the last episode may redeem it but I somehow doubt it. A lot of people have said how great the second ep was compared to the first. I didn't see the first one and I have to say that if its not as good as the second one I'm probably going to give it a miss.

I've been a huge dwarf fan since the very first episode (even when it was getting slated by critics at the time) and I just feel completely let down by this. Maybe I'me getting too old

And why is it being aired on a small time sat channel when the series was originally on mainsteam BBC? did they not fancy it either then?

roebeet wrote:

That was funny
Though I really dont see the need for it as I am quite forgiving of old looking or wierd tech in sci-fi prograts

Watching the repeat now... when Rimmer's light bee crashes through the cardboard sign, it does so in the shape of a person - nice touch!

Ooh and I like the financial crash reference... and must reiterate how genius that psi-scan gag is

I'm actually liking the "back on earth" concept - it's just the self-referential nonsense that grates.

hello I’ve recently joint as a member but have been a fan of red dwarf for a long time now and was excited about back to earth and i still love red dwarf and think its is great to watch its just i feel there are less jokes which made red dwarf appeal to me I thought the idea of making it so they come back to earth and see them self on a dvd also felt a little to much and maybe they could have gone down a different root like lister finally gets back to earth and the first place he takes everyone is his local curry house. in reply to a previous comment I think the laughter tracks that get played are as much a part of red dwarf as the cast are in the sense that it makes the jokes stand out more for the outside audience and I feel it works well with the show just as it did for another one of my favourite programs friends. Thanks for taking the time to read my comment and all in all I still think red dwarf is a quality show that I hope has more than just the back to earth series to come in the near future

LOVE IT... LOVE IT ALL.. Ive beed a fan of red dwarf since the very first episode
YES im a old man (not quite as old as the actors)

The ONLY thing i can say that i MISS from the OLD episodes....
is the LAUGHING CROWD

When anyone hits a punch line.. it now looks like there being serious?
apart from this its cool.