Reviewed by Stuart O'Connor
Stars Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, Chris Barrie, Robert Llewellyn, Jeremy Swift,
Sophie Winkleman, Richard O'Callaghan, Richard Woo, Chloë Annett | Written by Doug Naylor
UK certification PG | UK RRP £19.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 75 minutes | Directed by Doug Naylor
Eleven years have passed since Red Dwarf was on our screens, so it was with much anticipation that two-and-a-half million of us sat down at Easter to welcome back the boys from the Dwarf in a three-part special. Now on DVD, we have the directors cut and a bucketload of extras ... and mixed feelings about this return.
Back to Earth takes place after series 10 (although only eight series have actually been made - go figure). Kochanski is dead, and the crew are hurled through a portal and discover they are just characters from a TV series. Knowing they will die in the final episode, the Dwarfers track down their creator to plead for more life.
Red Dwarf is one of the greatest sitcoms to have ever graced the small screen, and it's great to see these four characters return. The actors really do slip comfortably back into their roles, and their costumes – as though they've never been away. The show looks as good as ever, and the production values are as good we'd expect – which says an awful lot about the crew that worked on Back to Earth, because its budget was tiny.
And yet ... the script isn't quite there. The plot rehashes a couple of episodes from the original series (and a few elements of the film Blade Runner) rather than coming up with an entirely original story. And Red Dwarf was always at its best when written by Grant/Naylor, the combination of creators Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. When they split, the scripts really did suffer. It's a shame that Back to Earth didn't manage to get them back together. The special also suffers somewhat from the lack of a studio audience (again due to the budget restraints). But moans aside, it's still wonderful to have the four boys (well, three and a bot) back on our screens – and it's so much nicer to watch on DVD without all those annoying commercial breaks.
EXTRAS **** An audio commentary; a two-part making-of featurette; a collection of Smeg Ups; deleted scenes (with optional commentary); five behind-the-scenes featurettes – The SFX of Back to Earth, Back to Earth Premiere, Cast Signing Session, Press Kit Video and Behind the Scenes Web Videos; trailers and promotional spots; and picture galleries.