Things you like about Back to Earth

[Rushy]

– Craig Charles’ performance in the Kochanski scenes. 

– Carbug. Especially Kryten pretending it’s a spaceship and following the proper Space Corps procedures for landing.

– The TARDIS look for Red Dwarf. I don’t know if I’d want it full time, but it looks neat. 

– Sophie Winkleman. 

– The fact that the DVD covers were designed to be identical to the ones seen in this. 

– I feel like the exterior of Red Dwarf has never looked quite as cinematic before or since. 

Topic

[Warbodog]

Pretty much just that bit.

[Rushy]

There’s something really cute about the way Rimmer and Lister refuse to ever change their little bunkbed accessories, like the no-smoking signs, the newspaper clippings, the London Jets posters. They’ve endured every incarnation. 

[Asclepius]

I think Back to Earth is pretty fab. I enjoyed it at the time, and I enjoyed it on a re-watch. I like the tomato scene. I like the scenes with the replacement Hologram. The Coronation Street stuff is great. I like the stuff in the sci-fi shop. It has quite a few funny lines.

Considering the challenges they were up against, it’s a good piece of work.

[Dave]

[Ian Symes]

[Ben Saunders]

It’s good. I like it. No audience is weird but it allows the direction to be a little less restricted and the drama to be a little heightened. The performances are more grounded since they aren’t playing to the audience. I think it looks great and is shot well, even without the “under the circumstances” caveat. Doug’s direction on this is lightyears ahead of what he attempts with an audience. (For the most part anyway).

[Jonathan Capps]

In fact I could put in most of the Corrie stuff. If Back to Earth was that for all the actors and not so much with the Blade Runner bollocks it would have been brilliant.

[Rushy]

If they’d met the real life Norman Lovett, I would have applauded

[Flap Jack]

I would have actively booed if they’d brought back Norman but not had him play Holly.

Anyway, this was good:

For my other Back to Earth thoughts, I’ll just lazily link to the Refresh for the Memory thread:

https://www.ganymede.tv/forums/topic/refresh-for-the-memory-back-to-earth/#post-280098

[Ridley]

It’s more effort to do the linking than it is to bump the thread though.

[Dave]

The ‘bit crap’ joke is my favourite part of BTE.

[Flap Jack]

It’s more effort to do the linking than it is to bump the thread though.

Slightly, yes, but I consider just bumping a thread without actually adding anything to it to be impolite, and therefore it was not on my list of options.

[Jenuall]

[Ben Saunders]

I think about “bit crap” all the time, very funny. I also like the “ask the psi-scan, it knows everything doesn’t it” – “who coincidentally has a very small penis” bit. I like “there appears to be something bigger than God heading straight for you.”

[Jenuall]

The “something bigger than god” section with Rimmer on the scanner could have been good but it obviously suffers in comparison to the direct equivalent scene in Back to Reality which is just better in every way. (obviously it’s always going to be unfair to compare anything to Back to Reality but there we are – blame Doug for trying to reference it so much!)

I always quite liked Rimmer’s throw away murder of Katerina and Kryten’s fourth wall breaking reference to it

[tombow]

the stuff with the squid feels epic and like how I imagined the novels looking/feeling, especially the very end

[Dax101]

Is it more or do the bunks look too small for the actors? Like they couldn’t actually fit in them.

As for what i like… I guess BTE has some of the best effects the show has ever had… Yeah i think thats all the things i like.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

They look a little enclosed, but the set was repurposed for X so they obviously do fit in them 

[Technopeasant]

The scene where Katerina first shows up helps sell the massive size of the ship possibly better than any other in the show. Mind you, I realize why this wouldn’t work for a studio audience set.

Rimmer saying “I hope so” to Cat meaning tentacle is a rare example where carrying on the bit actually helps it breathe.

[Jonsmad]

All of it. (Almost).  Among the great episodes of Red Dwarf that I like.Which is most of them. (Almost) (Not Duct Soup)

It gave me a real fun weekend watching 3 new promising episodes of my favourite show back after nearly ten years in the wilderness. A weekend of Event TV that I enjoyed at home on a big projector TV, alongside the great G&T reaction coverage. Enjoying online fandom alongside the broadcast show for the first time.  Although the early Tomato onboard ship stuff felt drawn out and lacking atmosphere to the point i was scared the show wasnt funny like series VII extended feel, this turned as kryten and the cat brought in more story and energy and things took off. It was then a hilarious and thrilling ride. It was surprising the meta stuff, although we knew a little from advance leaks, my worries faded and i was thrilled by the story and accepted the blade runner parody angle, some of which i got on first viewing and some i didnt. I wasnt surprised it was a sequel to Back to Reality, that seemed clear to me, and it was well justified given the place in the public consciousness that both the show and craig as a rehabed soap actor was. I thought it was a triumphant return and all the more impressive when i discovered how it was done on favours and a clip show budget. It was a digital ratings triumph and an investment by doug in getting us to X XI XII and TPL all of which bring greater returns to it’s suceess.  I still see it that way.   I am aware that fans coming later to it as an experience or were already wanting something different from Dwarf, Including those who like X-TPL, have turned to story into the fact it was one of the worse parts of the shows history. It never was to me. It was always superior to the worst moments of VII or VIII and even more fun than a couple of the classic era’s slower ones for a rewatch.  I watched the directors cut as much as any era of the show on loop many a night in my single days in my flat. I’ts a brilliant little red dwarf movie closest to tennant era dr who vibe of a show, but mostly better. 

[Dave]

I thought it was a triumphant return and all the more impressive when i discovered how it was done on favours and a clip show budget. It was a digital ratings triumph and an investment by doug in getting us to X XI XII and TPL all of which bring greater returns to it’s suceess.  I still see it that way. 

Yes to all of this. As much as anything else, I think it’s important just for jump-starting the second big bang for the show and giving it a future again.

[Dax101]

Im sure there were better ways to do that.

[Rushy]

Im sure there were better ways to do that.

Yes. I mean, I applaud Doug for getting ambitious, but a lot of it just isn’t very funny or even well thought-out. 

I would rather they just travelled around on Carbug trying to get whatever they need to build a ‘dimension cutter’ and return to home. Like a mix of Lemons and Backwards. The funniest part of the show was seeing them react to normal everyday things as sci-fi characters. 

Maybe the final conflict would be that Lister wants to stay on Earth, but then Kryten tells him Kochanski is still alive somewhere and he ultimately gives up home to go find her. 

[International Debris]

I like the dramatic stuff in the third episode. I like the stuff in the comic book shop. I like that it’s less abysmal than VIII. And I like the fact that it brought Red Dwarf back.

Otherwise I think it’s a humour-free, frequently poorly scripted slog that I was pretty embarrassed to watch at the time. 

[Moonlight]

I think I like Back to Earth more than it deserves because it was the first new Dwarf I ever got to see when it went out – new episodes of a show that was long dead when I’d gotten into it – and I can’t detach it from the excitement and positive feelings I felt at the time. But I also don’t think it’s that funny and almost never rewatch it.

Granted, the fact that it’s 70 minutes is a big factor in not casually throwing it on because I like The Promised Land waaaaay more and I’ve probably only seen that like six times since it aired.

[Author]

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