Red Dwarf: Back To Earth

[Crazedwraith]

...Coming this Easter

BBC NEWS
Red Dwarf voyages back to Earth

Cult comedy Red Dwarf is returning to TV, 21 years after its initial launch.

The show has been resurrected by digital channel Dave for a two-part Easter weekend special, which sees the cast finally return to Earth.

Written and directed by Red Dwarf co-creator Doug Naylor, the new show reunites the line-up, including Coronation Street's Craig Charles.

The hit show, which ran for eight series on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999, won an International Emmy award.

'No holds barred'

Set three million years into the future, the show followed the exploits of Dave Lister, slovenly crew member of the mining ship Red Dwarf - and the last man in the universe.

He was joined in his weekly attempts to make it back to Earth by a cast of oddballs including human hologram Arnold Rimmer, mechanoid servant Kryten and Cat - a preening half-man, half-animal who evolved from the ship's cat.

At its peak, Red Dwarf pulled in around eight million viewers and was broadcast in more than 25 countries.

It has sold more than seven million DVDs and videos.

The new two-part series Red Dwarf: Back to Earth will be followed by a "no holds barred" episode without sets, special effects or autocue.

The weekend will climax with Red Dwarf: the Making of Back to Earth, a behind-the-scenes special from the new episodes.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/e ... 851989.stm

Published: 2009/01/27 00:38:55 GMT

© BBC MMIX

Considering the last episode left them in parallel dimension sans Rimmer, I wonder how this is going to work out and how much material from Doug's novel (The last Human) will be included.

[Vympel]

Fixed the typo. I always found Red Dwarf's concept so deliciously insane and depressing at the same time. Last man in the universe ...

[Minischoles]

I wonder if they are returning to Earth if they're going to ressurect the original idea for the end of the 8th series.
Which for those of you who don't know involved them crashing straight into Earth on Red Dwarf, totalling most of the planet except the Taj Mahal (Lister: That'd be sacrilege man) and ending with Rimmer getting out to exchange insurance information with what was left of the evolved humans.

[Themightytom]

Book spoiler!
Spoiler

In the book, lister gets stranded on an icy rogue planet, which starts to defrost, and forty years later they find him on a defrosted earth, riding a giant cockroach. Apparenlty Earth was a landfill for quite a long time. and it became such an eysore they eventually ejected it from the solar sytem.

This movie better feature Ace Rimmer some how...

[Admiral Valdemar]

What if they find Earth is nuked and devoid of humans? How will they fight off Cavil?

Ah, wait. Wrong universe.

I sure hope Lister didn't leave that bathroom light on.

[weemadando]

I'm not sure what I'd want more - the season 8 finale or the book return to earth. Lister as King of the Roaches would certainly be amusing.

[Joviwan]

I feel like I want to be excited for this, but... I just can't. I can't even build up pretentious "cautious optimism," seasons 7 and 8 left that much of a bitter taste in my mouth. I love the show and the cast, but any kind of revival, even a two-part special, seems like a waste of time for some reason.

[Stark]

It shouldn't really be a surprise that the announcement to cash in on resurrect a show that struggled badly through a previous cash in resurrection and has been almost totally removed from it's cultural relevance should be greeted with lukewarm enthusiasm. I grew up on Red Dwarf, and I have no interest in watching this. I simply don't care. Let's bring back... Young Ones. The kids of today would love it!

[Admiral Valdemar]

I'll have to echo Joviwan and Stark here too. While I liked RDVIII over the mediocrity of VII, I'm not happy about resurrecting old shows even if they deserve a better ending. The Beeb has a tendency of milking franchises that ended on a spectacular note, Only Fools And Horses for instance. It could happen again.

That said, I will no doubt watch this and open to the possibility of pleasant surprise at being wrong.

[Rye]

I expect it to be shit. Red Dwarf needs both writers to be good, not just Doug or some newbies.

[Minischoles]

Book spoiler!
Spoiler

In the book, lister gets stranded on an icy rogue planet, which starts to defrost, and forty years later they find him on a defrosted earth, riding a giant cockroach. Apparenlty Earth was a landfill for quite a long time. and it became such an eysore they eventually ejected it from the solar sytem.

This movie better feature Ace Rimmer some how...

Spoiler

It wasn't an eyesore, it was the planet that was voted to be the dump of the solar system, then one day during a delivery a dump ship driver manages to set off some of the trash and cause an explosion that propels it clean out of the solar system

Also, didn't they already have the ice planet that was featured in the books? where Lister used it to trick shot another planet into a white hole?

[Jade Falcon]

I'll have to echo Joviwan and Stark here too. While I liked RDVIII over the mediocrity of VII, I'm not happy about resurrecting old shows even if they deserve a better ending. The Beeb has a tendency of milking franchises that ended on a spectacular note, Only Fools And Horses for instance. It could happen again.

That said, I will no doubt watch this and open to the possibility of pleasant surprise at being wrong.

I remember liking one of the specials of OFAH, and that was the one where they went to Normandy was it, and there was a whole town that looked like Uncle Albert, but they did spin it out far too long.

Hell, even Minder is being brought back with Shane Richie.