Comments on: Red Dwarf : Back to Earth Special

By: Mohamad

Mohamad — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 21:09:40 +0000

you must read the book apparently thats what it says on yahoo answers

there are allot of gaps in the story but i guess they are all filled in the books

the biggest gap in my oppinion is between seasons 8 and BTE
here are some very creative ideas as to what happened (http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/forum/messages.cfm?threadid=A6024A53-0046-6608-BEC28EDE8B1557F5)
but i guess the answers are in the books

By: Johnc

Johnc — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:57:47 +0000

**SPOILERS**
Painful to watch. I was expecting a return to form and found myself subjected to something worse than the weakest episodes.
I almost gave up after episode 2. The only reason I’m glad I didn’t was to find out that the whole waste of time was nothing but a dream sequence. Phew!
Red Dwarf doesn’t need big sets or fancy special effects it needs witty banter. That’s why we love the show. Why can’t the shows producers understand that?

By: Jo

Jo — Sat, 02 May 2009 15:27:13 +0000

Utter rubbish. Poorly written, self-indulgent, unfunny claptrap. Even series 7 and 8 which are the weakest series, are better than this. The Blade Runner references were hugely irritating – I hate Blade Runner and found the constant references to things I didn’t understand self-indulgent. The story was poor, the acting actually felt wooden in ep 1, (especially from Chris Barrie who is normally very good) It had about two laughs and that was it.

By: Red

Red — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:05:20 +0000

(to above)

if you read the text on the first episode of series 3 it explains how holy was experimenting and switched sexes or something like that its a bit random. and then on series 8 the old holy gets reserected by the nano bots when they recreate red dwarf.

By: arren

arren — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:54:05 +0000

why was holly not in it (norman lovett or hattie hayridge) i mean chloe annet was in for like a minute but wats happened to them also y did the hollys get switched around without an explanation male holly seasons 1 an 2 female holly seasons 3 4 an 5 then male holly reappears in season 8 love this show got them all but thats damn confusin can any1 spread any light on it 4 me

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:10:11 +0000

AHHHHH!!!!! I am in the states and cannot watch it!!!!!!!!

By: Red

Red — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:41:16 +0000

It was just ok. I’m a massive red dwarf fan with each series on DVD but these episodes seemed a bit lacking. However I defiantly would like to see them make some more with a few improvements.

The storyline was poor, the only thing that slightly saved it was the female squid at the end but it still seemed a bit peculiar. It did not fit with the theme of classic red dwarf. And that holo women appearing from nowhere was very lame. It reminded me of the bad episodes in series 7 without Rimmer and having Kochanski instead. The fact they drove up coronation street and interacted with some coronation street actors especially annoyed me as I can’t stand that soap.

It all seemed too futuristic and high-tech. I would of proffered if they stuck with the original low budget set and did away with the cgi effects. Walking up and down massive corridors and parts of the ship wasn’t very red dwarf like. The ship isn’t supposed to be vast and good, its supposed to be a JMC low budget operation with many cut backs.

There defiantly were not enough Rimmer jokes in there. It was as if Rimmer was liked by the rest of the crew because no insults were thrown at him. This may be because the introduction of a new holo women took some attention away from him, which was lame. It did keep to Rimmers character well though in some ways, like when he pushed the holo women infront of a car and how he took a back seat operation while the rest of the crew risked there lives with the squid but it seemed a little half hearted or lacking something.

The fact they all look alot older didn’t help but the actors did the best they could given what they had, I give a plus for that. I especially liked Kryten in these episodes it seemed like he hadn’t changed from the old series.

In short it did not seem like classic red dwarf but a spin off made for comic relief or something, if that’s what they were hoping for then good job. But as a massive red dwarf fan it left my a little disappointed.

By: David Greenfields

David Greenfields — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:18:12 +0000

It was so-so and I am glad that i watched it a s i Am a great fan
It should have been made before an audience so that the feedback was spontaneous

awaiting more !!!!!

By: me

me — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:36:22 +0000

I was horribly disappointed by this; it was flat, self-serving and a very thinly veiled plea for another series or film which is frankly a pathetic way to go about it.

The storyline was terrible, an awful idea. I liked the of the squid (I hope that won’t give away anything) but the story it presented was terrible – it came across as their way of saying “look how much people used to love us, they still could if they had the chance”. The scripts seemed to have been red penned for any wit or speed, and (and this isn’t his fault, but is sad nonetheless) the character of The Cat just doesn’t work when played by a man in his 40s – he’s supposed to be young (in evolutionary terms as well as age), naive, and sprightly; Danny John-Jules isn’t and – while doing a good job considering how inappropriate he was and the scripts he was working with – doesn’t look or sound like he is either. It would have been more true to the character and the story if they’d replaced him with “the Cat’s son” and given him a half-arsed back story about settling down on a planet with an alien or something.

The one thing I will say is that perhaps they were focussing too much on trying to create a big ‘showcase’ idea for it & special effects etc – the best bits were the little asides etc, for example the way of explaining why they used videos & not DVD in the earlier series of Red Dwarf considering they’re supposed to be from the future. These were always the things that the show was good for, and perhaps should be what they concentrate on.

All in all I won’t say I wish I’d not watched it, but I do wish I could get those 2 hours of my life back.

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:34:19 +0000

I don’t think they’ll go back two seasons. I think that was meant as a minor clue to suggest that a) this wasn’t “our” universe and b) there had been events or “adventures” we had not seen up to this point.

I actually commend the fact they didn’t go explaining away the tie between this and the last series and just moved on. As has been said, I think if they had used the alt ending to season 8 there would be less need for questions (and a better ending for that season in my opinion).

I think it’s a shame that so much really didn’t hit the mark. I didn’t really get the gag about treating the car like a ship. I thought the characters were just goofing around, not that they literally saw the car as a ship. Some jokes just didn’t work, but I still would very much have them try another special and see what they learn from this experience.