Red Dwarf: Back to Earth - Part Two

Really glad I didn't try to watch this one drunk. Think my head would have exploded.

The gamble with attempting this type of storyline is alienating die hard fans. Doug Naylor could not possibly think that nobody would find fault in adverts for a DVD release and a TV channel in the middle of his script, as meta as the references were built to be. Make no mistake, he has every right to write Red Dwarf however he chooses - i'm not one of these nerd types who believes they own the show, but as somebody who's bought the show pretty much twice over (and of course I now learn eventually I have to buy it on video again) I think i'm entitled to an opinion.

Based on the first two parts if I had to write the rest I'd link it to the Back to Reality storyline. It could be a suicide inducing group hallucination brought on by the squid from last night. If they wanted to really screw up the storyline forever they could write off everything after RD5 claiming the whole thing wasn't real - think I recall that theory from past geekdom. Wouldn't like that though as RD6 was fine by me and two not so much episodes but events from RD7 (Lister's Time Loop and Rimmer becoming an Ace) were significant enough to want to hang on to. Would happily forget RD8 but I can't think of a possible ending that sorts that out. Hell they haven't really even explained anything so far so I dunno why I expect this to all wrap up and make perfect sense.

Pushing a hard light hologram under a moving vehicle - wasn't hard light practically indestructable? I doubt she's gone. If she is gone it was a big hole for a quick visual gag.

Overall I enjoyed this one a little more than the first. More happened and we got some idea of the direction. Doesn't sound like I enjoyed it I know but I'm genuinely looking forward to the last part.

Even so, this little experiment has been quoted as being a move by Dave to show more original programming. If that's all this is supposed to be then they've done it, but I think i'd have preferred something a bit more like the actual show.

I can't tell where this is headed. A lot of threads. Is Dave Lister going to be tracking down Craig Charles and Doug Naylor? For a moment it looked like he might be tracking down Chloe Annette but moments later he's being told her character is still alive as a result of whatever happened in fictional ninth and tenth seasons (yes they said seasons, in the show - that'll upset the Wikipedia guys who want it to say series everywhere).

So, finally for the first time in what seems like years two things I'm looking forward to watching are on TV at the same time tomorrow night. A most anticipated episode of Lost and what is surely the last Red Dwarf ever. Not a problem in this day and age - just gotta decide which one to watch first.

I liked my post on part one better.