Red Dwarf rewatch

[Hey Kidz]

I guess he started reading it, or I just told him. It's the opening scene of the book and it's a bit grotesque, so I assume it was the Rob Grant one based on the comment above. You all know what I'm talking about.

[Replies From View]

I actually haven't read the solo books.  I got Backwards as a hardback when it first came out but never got around to being arsed once series 7 and 8 had knocked the sheen off it all.

[Hey Kidz]

Don't be sorry either way.  No threads are more designed to be repetitive than Red Dwarf ones.  We circle obsessively around the same topics and always somehow manage to come up with new things to say.  I love it.

Yes. Reading this thread has made me realise that I'm kind of obsessed with Red Dwarf even though I know a lot of it is flawed or actively bad.

[JamesTC]

Which is the one that starts with the Cat having sex? My uncle inappropriately bought it for me for a Christmas present when I was a child and my dad confiscated it.

Last Human starts with Lister and Kochanski having sex. Backwards has Cat reverse mutilating a girl with his barbed penis in the first third or so.

[Replies From View]

Backwards has Cat reverse mutilating a girl with his barbed penis in the first third or so.

The concept of a warm shit behind a hedge snaking up into his arsehole was quite fine enough in this regard.

[JamesTC]

The concept of a warm shit behind a hedge snaking up into his arsehole was quite fine enough in this regard.

Could be worse, they could all be repeatedly wanking cum back into their penis. Oh wait...

[Hey Kidz]

The concept of a warm shit behind a hedge snaking up into his arsehole was quite fine enough in this regard.

My dad also refused to explain this joke whenever we watched Backwards and I didn't get it. Took me years to figure it out for myself.

[Marner and Me]

The whole bar fight in Backwards didn't make sense. surely Lister and Cat eating that blokes food would be at the end of the sequence?

[ajsmith2]

A phrase that sticks in the mind from the 2nd book Better Than Life is the description of The Cat's buttocks being squeezed so tight in fear that they 'became one ball' :/

[JamesTC]

The whole bar fight in Backwards didn't make sense. surely Lister and Cat eating that blokes food would be at the end of the sequence?

They also brought a bike back to a man who was angry at them while they rode past.

[Lemming]

The whole bar fight in Backwards didn't make sense. surely Lister and Cat eating that blokes food would be at the end of the sequence?

Right at the end of the fight, Lister helps the man sat in the corner by punching him in the face to give him his tooth back. This is the last thing that happens in the fight sequence, meaning that the fight started because - when the events are played forwards - Lister went up and punched a guy for no reason, so hard that his tooth broke.

Supporting this is the fact that, immediately before Lister hits the guy, about five guys are beating on Lister specifically before chucking him out the window - so, when played forwards, the bar patrons clearly attack Lister and ignore the others because Lister's the one who started the violence.

But then the episode does indeed undermine itself by explicitly having pie guy start the fight, even though the pie was, as you say, eaten "after" the fight.

Thinking too much about Backwards never ends well. I mean, since the laws of physics are apparently reversed to the point where Cat shits into himself and Lister un-drinks beer, surely Starbug shouldn't be able to crash into the lake at the start - it should somehow... backwards-crash, or be sucked down towards the lake.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

I have a distinct memory of reading Backwards as a kid, not knowing what 'gonad electrocution' was and so asking my dad what gonads were. He calmly looked up from his newspaper, considered how to proceed, said, "Testicles," and we both returned to our respective reading, each happy to pretend it had never happened.

[ProvanFan]

I have a distinct memory of reading Backwards as a kid, not knowing what 'gonad electrocution' was and so asking my dad what gonads were. He calmly looked up from his newspaper, considered how to proceed, said, "Testicles," and we both returned to our respective reading, each happy to pretend it had never happened.

Same happened with me and my dad, except I hadn't asked him anything.

[Marner and Me]

Right at the end of the fight, Lister helps the man sat in the corner by punching him in the face to give him his tooth back. This is the last thing that happens in the fight sequence, meaning that the fight started because - when the events are played forwards - Lister went up and punched a guy for no reason, so hard that his tooth broke.

Supporting this is the fact that, immediately before Lister hits the guy, about five guys are beating on Lister specifically before chucking him out the window - so, when played forwards, the bar patrons clearly attack Lister and ignore the others because Lister's the one who started the violence.

But then the episode does indeed undermine itself by explicitly having pie guy start the fight, even though the pie was, as you say, eaten "after" the fight.

Thinking too much about Backwards never ends well. I mean, since the laws of physics are apparently reversed to the point where Cat shits into himself and Lister un-drinks beer, surely Starbug shouldn't be able to crash into the lake at the start - it should somehow... backwards-crash, or be sucked down towards the lake.

The other one that annoys me is the bloke in the van who asks if they want a lift, as Cat and Lister aren't meant to be there anyway, that bloke would never have stopped and asked them.

This ep is on my shit list.

[Replies From View]

There's also things like ordering beers after drinking them.  It's worth watching the entire episode in reverse if you can lay your hands on it - it's on the series 3 DVD.  Very little of it makes any sense, but the fact that words are spelled backwards on signs and so on suggests that the logic in that place is weird anyway - not just a matter of time running backwards.

[Replies From View]

Thinking too much about Backwards never ends well. I mean, since the laws of physics are apparently reversed to the point where Cat shits into himself and Lister un-drinks beer, surely Starbug shouldn't be able to crash into the lake at the start - it should somehow... backwards-crash, or be sucked down towards the lake.

And they sit on a tandem which suddenly starts powering itself backwards against the will of Lister and Cat who normally can walk forwards quite easily.  The physical laws of the world assert themselves quite randomly, not only with the Red Dwarf crew but 'backwards' people too, like the waitress who tips a box of screwed up paper onto the cafe table and plods off.  In reverse, it all leaps up into her box.

You either have to not think about it or accept that the backwards physics is somewhat arbitrary and random.

[Lemming]

S09E01 - Back to Earth Part 1

BACK TO EARTH BY DOUG NAYLOR, the title confidently reads.

Awful CGI zoom into Lister which is unintentionally funnier than anything in Series 8. Then we get Rimmer yelling at a skutter before Lister walks in. Lister's planned an elongated, elaborate plot to annoy Rimmer, which revolves sneezing on an ironing board.

RIMMER: I get it. I get it... you've spent hours planning this, haven't you? Hours. This wind-up. Because that's exactly what it is. Going down to the supply decks, trawling through the crates, getting half-hysterical at the thought of my face as you start to iron your sneezes. Was it really worth it, Lister? Hours and hours and hours of planning for eight seconds of pleasure?

It's not laugh-out-loud funny or anything, but I love this scene. It's a total return to the core of the show, as if Series 7 and 8 just never happened. And really, it's a return to an era even before that - how many times was the original concept of "two people who don't like each other - but need each other - trapped on a ship together" really explored after Series 3? But here it is again, Lister bored out of his mind traipsing around the ship, and deciding that the best and only way to keep himself busy is by harassing Rimmer.

So it always seems to me like Doug, with the newer stuff, really wants to get back to a series 1 and 2 sort of feel, with a heavy dose of Series 3's adventure-y style mixed in. Right after the ironing scene, it even cuts to a picture of Rimmer from Series 1, being hung up by a skutter, and in the background are the ARNIE DOES IT BEST news cutouts from Me2. So, amazingly, after the wonky Series 7 and the disastrous Series 8, it looks like my personal hopes for what Red Dwarf should be are in alignment with Doug's. In fact, he even changes the logo back to the original in Series 11 or so, doesn't he? The writing and joke quality aren't up there with the original series, but a lot of the time, in the best parts of the Dave era especially, you can kind of feel the original spirit there. I don't know, something like that.

Let's also address the elephant in the room - we don't know how the gang escaped the mirror universe, how the original Rimmer hologram is back, where the nanobots or the resurrected crew are, and we don't care. On one hand it's insulting to just have everything wiped like that, but on the other hand, thank god.

Lister goes to visit some weird grave thing, which holds memorials to many of the Red Dwarf crew, including Kochanski (represented by what is so obviously a Series 7 publicity shot that it's impossible not to laugh at). Anyway, Cat falls through the roof.

Cat reports that he's been attacked by a tentacle monster in the water tank. Another thing I like is the implication that Cat was off doing his own thing and just prowling around the ship, like he used to do in the earliest series.

LISTER: So where did it go?

CAT: It didn't say, and it didn't leave a note.

LISTER: This is so weird.

CAT: It's not that weird. It probably can't even write.

Awful joke, laughed anyway. Kryten returns from his ship-bound holiday.

KRYTEN: What a vacation, sirs! I can't remember the last time I was so relaxed and utterly carefree.

RIMMER: There's a big monster in the water tank.

KRYTEN: Oh my gosh.

LISTER: That's why we're down on water.

KRYTEN (panicking): We're down on water?!

LISTER: Yeah, and without water, me and the Cat are gonna die.

CAT: Yeah.

KRYTEN (hysterical): It's a disaster! Ow, my back! I'm one giant tension knot!

Another dumb scene which made me laugh, just under 10 minutes in and the laugh rate is already higher than all of Series 8.

Rimmer's got a plan for dealing with the tentacle monster - the crew will descend in a diving bell, armed with bazookoids and grenades, and take on the monster. All except Rimmer, who will sit back and act as mission control. The gang get kitted up and decend into the tank.

LISTER: There's something out there! I saw something moving!

CAT: My bowels, if you keep shouting like that.

Third awful joke that got a laugh out me. Maybe I'm just in a really good mood, I don't know.

Rimmer's absorbed in a classic car magazine, and thus fails to notice a Huge Bastard Squid devouring the diving bell. I liked this entire sequence, honestly - Rimmer obliviously dancing while the crew are battered by the squid in the background, Lister stupidly trying to shoot at the squid causing a bullet to ricochet around the bell, Lister getting his face smashed into the camera while Rimmer tries to work the diving bell controls. All really obvious, and very slapstick-y and silly but it was a laugh.

Kryten gives us some exposition that the squid is a DIMENSION HOPPING LEVIATHAN. Alright. There's a bright light as the squid leaves, and then Big Suze from Peep Show arrives. She is Katerina Bartokovsky, a hologram of one of Red Dwarf's science officers, and she's here to replace Rimmer as senior officer, because he is "bit crap". She lays out a plan to guide Red Dwarf back to earth.

Everyone's initially excited, but it's not long before she clashes with Rimmer - she diagnoses him as being useless, blames him for Lister apparently being such a calamitous loser, and orders him to prepare to be taken offline and erased.

Bartokovsky has also devised a way to return to Earth - she can harness the dimension-hopping abilities of the alien squid by doing some science shit with one of its discarded limbs. She successfully creates a wormhole, and that's the end of part one.

Mostly enjoyed it, which is a shocker because I remember this three-parter being utterly shit. Maybe the stuff coming up later is what colours my memory of it - I remember Coronation Street and other boring fourth-wall breaking shit, while this episode was mostly just setup. As for this first part on its own, it's fun. It's not a comedy masterclass or anything of the sort, but it's mostly good-natured, the characters generally feel like the characters we know, and there are some good laughs and small character moments along the way.

[St_Eddie]

There's also things like ordering beers after drinking them.

Also; the woman who shovels an eclair in her mouth and pours tea down her chin.

[St_Eddie]

I agree with your thoughts, Lemming.  For me, 'Back to Earth' is as follows...

Part 1 = Decent.

Part 2 = Faintly embarrassing.

Part 3 = Excellent.

Both parts one and three contain scenes which make me cry (the Kochanski memorial in part 1 and the Kochanski car scene in part 3).  It's astonishingly rare for Red Dwarf to elicit tears from me and I greatly respect 'Back to Earth' for doing so.

[johnlogan]

Absolutely the same experience I had watching it most recently.

Vividly remember watching it stony faced when it aired, properly blown away by how poor it was. I'm not sure what changed this time, but I suspect watching it right after Series 8 really helps it immensely. There's a level of competence that returns that I must have taken for granted at the time.

Although I will say the bits about Back to Earth that I found memorably bad were still bad on rewatch, that mostly concerns some stuff still to come, so I'm looking forward to what you make of that.

[Replies From View]

Also; the woman who shovels an eclair in her mouth and pours tea down her chin.

That's hilariously disgusting behaviour but it still works in a backwards-logic sense.

[Replies From View]

I agree with your thoughts, Lemming.  For me, 'Back to Earth' is as follows...

Part 1 = Decent.

Part 2 = Faintly embarrassing.

Part 3 = Excellent.

Both parts one and three contain scenes which make me cry (the Kochanski memorial in part 1 and the Kochanski car scene in part 3).  It's astonishingly rare for Red Dwarf to elicit tears from me and I greatly respect 'Back to Earth' for doing so.

I always prefer to think of Back To Earth as the edited-together "director's cut" that is an option on the DVD.  It flows better that way.  Cliffhanger endings always bestow otherwise unremarkable moments with a kind of gravitas which they don't deserve so you end up feeling annoyed.  As just "scenes" within a longer edit, you move past them instead of thinking Doug has tried to sell you a shitty punchline.  (See also the Dibbley Family in Back in the Red - still shit, but more easily forgotten when it doesn't immediately lead into the credits.)

As separate parts, Back To Earth feels like a feature-length effort that was cut into thirds so Dave could fill three time-slots over that Easter weekend.  It feels less compromised when you're not trying to think of it as three parts.  It's better as a 70 minute episode with a beginning, a middle and an end.

[Excellent_Biscuits]

"LISTER: Yeah, and without water, me and the Cat are gonna die."

That is the worst thing that has ever been said in Red Dwarf.

The way he says it is so exempt of any emotion or danger or anything. It's just Craig Charles saying a thing off a piece of paper.

[Replies From View]

"LISTER: Yeah, and without water, me and the Cat are gonna die."

That is the worst thing that has ever been said in Red Dwarf.

The way he says it is so exempt of any emotion or danger or anything. It's just Craig Charles saying a thing off a piece of paper.

It's needless information, I suppose.  I think Doug was trying to reinsert some degree of peril into Red Dwarf after series 8 turned them all into cartoon characters that would probably bounce unhurt down a cliff.  But yes Craig Charles' delivery is overly matter-of-fact, and the line ends up seeming to come from outside the character's own agency.

[Replies From View]

The skutter is making an indeterminable sound during the hammering scene - what's it doing, laughing?  Having a fit?  It's hard to discern what the noise means, and I think it's a library sound effect.

There's a Doctor Who episode - Closing Time, I think - where a Cyberman head moves around on the floor by itself.  I'm pretty sure it's making the exact same sound as the skutter in this scene.

[Lemming]

Craig Charles even seems to weirdly smirk during the water line. It's a tough line to deliver, I guess, because it's so unnatural sounding and not something someone would ever actually say, since Kryten is obviously already well aware that humans/cats need to drink water to survive.

It's funny because there are a lot of very obvious, much more natural-sounding ways to convey the same information and set up the "Kryten starts panicking" punchline just as effectively. Just off the top of my head:

KRYTEN (panicking): We're down on water?!

LISTER: Yeah, me and Cat only have about a month left at this rate.

Something like that might work, provided Craig Charles could deliver it without grinning madly.

[JamesTC]

I always felt Charles was trying to convey that Lister is just a bit nonchalant about the whole situation. Like they have been through this sort of shit for years so they will just get it sorted.

[St_Eddie]

I always prefer to think of Back To Earth as the edited-together "director's cut" that is an option on the DVD.  It flows better that way.  Cliffhanger endings always bestow otherwise unremarkable moments with a kind of gravitas which they don't deserve so you end up feeling annoyed.  As just "scenes" within a longer edit, you move past them instead of thinking Doug has tried to sell you a shitty punchline.  (See also the Dibbley Family in Back in the Red - still shit, but more easily forgotten when it doesn't immediately lead into the credits.)

As separate parts, Back To Earth feels like a feature-length effort that was cut into thirds so Dave could fill three time-slots over that Easter weekend.  It feels less compromised when you're not trying to think of it as three parts.  It's better as a 70 minute episode with a beginning, a middle and an end.

Agreed.  I've not watched 'Back to Earth' as three separate episodes since its initial broadcast.  I've always watched the (shorter) Director's Cut upon subsequent viewings.  My ratings were simply based around the opening, middle and ending acts.  I do think that the middle act is poor whether viewed as an individual episode or as a part of the feature length version.

The skutter is making an indeterminable sound during the hammering scene - what's it doing, laughing?  Having a fit?  It's hard to discern what the noise means, and I think it's a library sound effect.

That moment is strange.  I've always interpreted as the skutter laughing though.

[Marner and Me]

Duct Soup- KK says she grew up in Glasgow, without the faintest hint of a weegie accent, or am I nitpicking? I'm just watching episodes in a random order until I'm left with Krytie TV

[ProvanFan]

This is future Glasgow, where the streets are paved with Vimto.