Red Dwarf Back to Earth – review
• Edit: I wrote this, appalled, after seeing the first episode. For a more thorough and balanced analysis check out Back to Earth: In retrospect.
All my fears confirmed – the new Red Dwarf is as incoherent, not remotely funny and totally unfamiliar in tone as I suspected it would be.
It was like watching a particularly amateurish fan film that has somehow managed to reassemble the old cast, who just about managed to get through their lines while stumbling to rediscover their old characters.
Clearly under-rehearsed, the cast do their best but there was one single line in the whole 25 minutes that raised a snigger.
Whether understandably rushed, or whether the direction received was insufficient or confusing, Craig Charles, Chris Barrie, Danny John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn looked sadly out-of-sorts.
Without a live audience to riff off, the performances seem stiff and awkward, but the woeful direction is the worst culprit. For some reason – cost-cutting at a guess – Doug Naylor has taken the helm and proved to be one of the worst directors of all time.
Edits are rough, camera angles odd and the actors ill-at-ease. Worst of all, though, Back to Earth just doesn’t seem remotely like Red Dwarf. It’s utterly unfamiliar, so there’s not even the nostalgia factor there.
This is a common problem with TV remakes, now that everything is high-def or at least shot digitally. The Beeb’s Dwarf was traditionally filmed in the old BBC four-camera studios on videotape.
Dave’s Dwarf has multi-panning fast-editing unconvincing CGI shots that move it so far away from what we know and love, it may as well be a different programme.
Holly is gone, the sets don’t look remotely similar, the characters seem once-removed from the foursome they were in the original series.
Everything that was lovable and recognisable about it has gone as a result. In all honesty Red Dwarf lost it the second Rob Grant departed, and never looked to me to get anywhere close to the highs of the first six series.
As if to illustrate the seachange in quality and tone, Dave screened Gunmen of the Apocalypse straight after Back to Earth. It was a serious error that only served to highlight just how poor Back to Earth was.
completely agree with everything you just said,unrehearsed,poor script and a distinct lack of atmosphere left me feeling completely un-engaged and dissapointed .
nic williams
14 Apr 09 at 11:45 am
La,
Spot on as ever. VII and VIII were crap – why? No Rob Grant. This was thus inevitably crap as well. Besides I was hoping given my current unemployment I would get to be the Red Dwarf equivalent of Matt Smith. Given I now sound more like Lister than Craig Charles does currently I fancied my chances.
Hoping to be in the City of Justice next week if you are about.
Citizen of Justice
14 Apr 09 at 5:35 pm
Was it worse than the last season? I only caught a clip, but it seemed at least better than the final two years.
dailypop
15 Apr 09 at 4:56 am
Thankyou for saying exactly what I’ve been trying to put into words elsewhere about Back To Earth.
The Blade Runner (theatrical release) references to full out plaigerising was just vomit inducing beyond belief. I remember having watched episode 2 and saying to my wife “If Lister says ‘I want more life smegger’ in episode 3 I’ll turn the crap off.”. Lister said it, my finger hovered over the “off” button on our TV and yet I still continued to watch episode 3 in its entirety like the slow motion car crash that it was.
Naylor, after two reasonably awful series of Red Dwarf (7 & 8 ) and this 3 parter please take the hint that your “sci-fi drama with a bit of comedy” angle isn’t working.
Bug16
16 Apr 09 at 12:14 pm
Red dwarf used to be so good then it went straight into a wall on the last 2 series, back to Earth was the nail in the coffin.
I’m now glad Firefly got cancelled after 1 series before it was reduced to toxic waste like the last red dwarfs!
Michael
30 Jun 09 at 1:06 am