Spoilers. Ten years after Only the Good... and we find that TV-Channel Dave wants to satiate the appitite of the Dwarf fanbase. Dave broadcasts regular repeats of Red Dwarf from all series, and so, where better to show new material?Dave is part-owned by the BBC, and so there were no rights issues to work around. Here, with original cast and crew, we have a 90-minute film.
Set 9 years after Series Eight, and after the fictional Series Nine and Ten, Holly is offline and Kochanski is believed dead. After Kryten comes back after a holiday, they find a large squid in the water tank on G-Deck. After that, a hologram appears named Katarina, a Russian scientist who is taking over from Rimmer. She creates a dimension-cutter for Lister to return to Earth, and they do.
The dimension the four end up in is in fact our reality, in which Dwarf is fictional. What results is a fun piece of meta comedy, with the four going across Britain trying to find their creator, bumping into fans. It sounds horrifically bad, but it's actually done quite well; it helps that the whole thing is written like Series Six, with the fast-paced comedy. In turn, the series has lost its laugh track and it's now a "comedy-drama". While the move towards serious drama, this time done much better than in Series Seven, affects the film, it is still much funnier than most of Series Eight.
The good? The CGI is now more convincing and used to better effect, the writing is powerful and evocative and, most importantly, funny. The bad? Not only does the crew visit Coronation Street, they also end the show with the twist from Back To Reality, in that they've been under the influence of a Despair squid.
It's a much better episode than all of Series Eight, and a good semi-pilot for the next two series in 2011. I'm looking forward to it. I think that the series still has some heart left in it, and as long as that remains, there could still be some good, high quality Dwarf.
Thanks.
It was sort of good, but had no laughter track, faked or not, and far too many Blade Runner references.
ReplyDeleteThe Rimmer midgets were funny, though.
I suppose the references tended to go over my head, myself having never seen the series. It must be irritating for someone who has, though.
ReplyDeleteI don't necessarily think that a laugh-track is all that important in a modern comedy, but it does sour Red Dwarf's already tired track record. It feels a little like Series Seven all over again.