RED DWARF: BACK TO EARTH DVD REVIEW
BBC DVD / Region 4 / Released December 17, 2009
Featuring Craig Charles, Chris Barrie, Robert Llewellyn, Danny-John Jules
Well the boys from the Dwarf kept telling us they'd be back and for the faithful who never gave up hope it turned out to be true! Made for UK Pay TV channel Dave and some 21 years after the first episode and ten years since the quartet were last seen hurtling through space.
For anyone who has forgotten what the show was all about it's a scifi sitcom that takes place a million years in the future where, following a catastrophic accident, Dave Lister (Craig Charles) finds himself the sole human survivor aboard the deep space mining ship Red Dwarf. His only companions of this former cleaning technician are a hologram of fellow crew member Arnold Judas Rimmer (Chris Barrie), a humanoid character descended from the ships Cat (Danny-John Jules) and a robot called Kryten (Robert Llewellyn). Over the course of 10 years and 8 series the boys tangled with all manner of alien beasties, tried to find back home and argued a lot.
Now, with slightly expanded waistlines, the boys are back, in fine style too. Looking good in high definition Back to Earth fits into classic Dwarf style of highly convoluted plotlines and sees the boys getting hurled through a time portal that sends them right back to the 21st Century where they are horrified to discover they are in fact just characters from a TV series who are planned to be bumped off in the final episode. The only thing to do is track down the shows creators and plead for their lives!
Not a full on series as such Back to Earth aired in the UK as a four part special with the three part story and a behind the scenes making of special, for this great DVD release you get all of that plus the chance to watch the 3 episodes in a feature length directors cut format.
Fans will be very pleased to see the boys back, its been a very long time but well worth the wait. The two disc set is also very liberally packed with high quality extras that include, naturally enough, the making of special, deleted scenes, audio commentaries from cast and crew, smeg ups (aka bloopers), various other featurettes, trailers, web excerpts, image galleries and an Easter Egg.
The boys are older but definitely not wiser, in fact not a great deal has changed in the years since they've been away, it's definitely not to be missed though, now if only we can persuade them to finally make the movie version they have been promising for years.
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