Review: Red Dwarf: Demons and Angels and Back To Reality

Series Five, Episode Five - Demons and Angels

"The chances of it blowin' are about one in... 'big explosion' ...one"

"peers out" Are you sure this episode isn't Rimmer centric? Sure? Ok, this is a full-group focus, with the main advancement being pressed lightly onto Lister, for the first time in two series. It's yet another interesting idea that looks at the basis of morality but never takes itself too seriously.
          Kryten has perfected a triplicator, which replicates matter into two copies with a limited lifespan. He tries it on a strawberry; Lister finds that one copy is divine and delicious, the other is filled with maggots. They try and reverse the process, but then find that Red Dwarf has dissappeared and two copies have appeared. From the readings on Starbug, they see that one is idealised and perfect while the other is degraded and evil.
          The Heavenly ship is white and pristine, with each member being a holy buddhist-style monk. Unfortunately they only have half of the triplicator on that ship, and so must explore the evil side. When they get there, they find that Kryten is a mad, blackened android, Lister is an insane pirate, The Cat is primeval and Rimmer is a frightening/hilarious dominatrix. They kidnap Lister and use some strange tech to control his remotely.
          After getting both halves of the replicator, they reverse the effects and return to Red Dwarf. (Status Quo is god, after all.) Lister gets some small lessons about evil, while everyone has a good laugh. It must have been fun to film, what with the sheer madness of the "evil" sides.


Series Five, Episode Six - Back To Reality

"Are you saying this haddock committed suicide?"

Perhaps one of the best known episodes of the entire series, bar the award-winning Gunman of the Apocalypse in Series Six, Back To Reality is an episode exploring the theme of virtual reality while, for the first time in a while, giving some character development.
          The crew discover, on an ocean world, the wreck of the ocean vessel SS Esperanto, which was supposed to be using the ocean to accomplish amazing feats of advancing evolution. (Something about cramming five million years of evolution in three years.) However, they scan and find that there is only one life form left on the entire planet. On the ship, they find many creatures, including ship members - and a haddock - that have killed themselves. Apparently, as Kryten finds out, there is a creature known as the Despair Squid which uses, as a defence mechanism, an ink designed to create intense dispair. They escape before finding any effects, after which the squid attacks their ship and they apparently all die.
          Then, they wake up, being told by an attendant (OMG IT'S TIMOTHY SPALL) that they've just woken up from a virtual reality game known as Red Dwarf, in which people are enveloped in the Red Dwarf premise. As they move to the recooperation chamber, they identify themselves; The Cat is Duane Dibley, an unstylish idiot, Kryten is Jake Bullet, Cybernautics ("Maybe that's just traffic control"). Lister and Rimmer are the Doyle brothers, sharing the same mother. Rimmer, "Billy", is still a failure, while his brother Lister, "Sebastian" is a high ranking police chief.
          When they leave the gaming building, they find themselves in a fascist state. A policemen reveals to Lister that in this reality he is one of the people responsible for keeping the state as oppressed as it is. Kryten kills the officer and the four go on the run in Lister's limo, while we are given the perspective of Holly. She uses override commands to make Kryten release an emotional stabliser, bringing them out of hallucination.
          They realise that everything they experienced was a hallucination to induce despair, in a reveal that was brilliant at the time. The episode really manages to really tap into the characters, and it's a welcome change from the light-headedness of post Series Two.

Thanks.