Back To Reality (Red Dwarf)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

"Back to Reality" is the sixth and final episode of the fifth series of
science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...
''
Red Dwarf A red dwarf is the smallest kind of star on the main sequence. Red dwarfs are by far the most common type of fusing star in the Milky Way, at least in the neighborhood of the Sun. However, due to their low luminosity, individual red dwarfs are ...
'', and the 30th in the series' run. It was first broadcast on the British television channel
BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...
on 26 March 1992, written by
Rob Grant Robert Grant is an English comedy writer, television producer and co-creator of the ''Red Dwarf'' comedy franchise. Since ''Red Dwarf'', Grant has written two television series, ''The Strangerers'' and ''Dark Ages (TV series), Dark Ages'', and ...
and
Doug Naylor Douglas Rodger Naylor (born 31 December 1955) is an English comedy writer, science fiction writer, director and television producer. Life and career Naylor was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England, and studied at Chetham's School of Music ...
and directed by
Juliet May Juliet May is a British television director. She has directed television shows such as ''Dalziel and Pascoe (TV series), Dalziel and Pascoe'', ''Hope and Glory (TV series), Hope and Glory'', ''New Tricks'' and ''Miranda (TV series), Miranda''. ...
and Grant Naylor. The plot features the crew waking up after a crash to discover that the last four years of their lives has been spent in a "Total Immersion Video Game" called ''Red Dwarf''. This episode marks the final appearance of Hattie Hayridge as Holly. The episode often tops polls and surveys as the best episode in the entire series.Survey Results, Red Dwarf Smegazine, issue 10, December 1992, Fleetway Editions Ltd,


Plot

Dave Lister David Lister, commonly referred to simply as Lister, is a fictional character from the British science fiction situation comedy ''Red Dwarf'', portrayed by Craig Charles. Lister is characterised as a third-class technician (the lowest ranking ...
,
Arnold Rimmer Arnold Judas Rimmer is a fictional character and one of the main characters of the science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf'', played by Chris Barrie. Rimmer is a second-class technician and the de facto leader of the mining ship ''Red Dwarf''. Portray ...
,
Kryten Kryten is a fictional character in the British science fiction situation comedy ''Red Dwarf''. The name ''Kryten'' is a reference to the head butler in the J.M. Barrie play ''The Admirable Crichton''. Originally referred to as a Series III mec ...
and
the Cat The Cat may refer to: Nickname * Mathilde Carré (1910-2007), French spy, double and possibly triple agent * Peter Bonetti (1941–2020), English footballer * Greg Cattrano (born 1975), American lacrosse player * Ernest Miller (born 1964), Amer ...
take a ''Starbug'' to investigate the wreckage of a ship called SSS ''Esperanto'' on an ocean-covered moon. The group discover that the ship was conducting marine seeding experiments that included accelerating the evolution of life on the planet, but find that all life on board, and even some of the sea life, had committed suicide. Kryten discovers this was caused by a mutated form of squid ink that contained a
hallucinogenic Hallucinogens, also known as psychedelics, entheogens, or historically as psychotomimetics, are a large and diverse class of psychoactive drugs that can produce altered states of consciousness characterized by major alterations in thought, moo ...
nerve
toxin A toxin is a naturally occurring poison produced by metabolic activities of living cells or organisms. They occur especially as proteins, often conjugated. The term was first used by organic chemist Ludwig Brieger (1849–1919), derived ...
, and that the suicides were caused by the toxin giving its victims severe depression, stating that he, Lister and Cat are now being affected by it. Finding that the ink may have come from the only remaining life form on the moon, a giant squid, the group attempt to escape it, but crash ''Starbug'' and are killed in the explosion. A moment later, the crew awaken from Artificial Reality machines and discover that they have been playing "Red Dwarf – The Total Immersion Video Game" for four years, gaining a score of only 4%, and that the return to reality has left them with temporary memory loss. The group discover who they are in time—Lister is Voter Colonel Sebastian Doyle, head of the secret police in a
fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
state; Rimmer is Billy Doyle, Lister's half-brother and a tramp; Cat is Duane Dibbley, a dorky human; and Kryten is Detective Jake Bullet, a half-human traffic officer. The group feel despair at finding out who they are, Kryten initially being pleased at his "real" existence until he is forced to take a human life to save another, and prepare to commit group suicide. However, before they do this,
Holly ''Ilex'' () or holly is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...
manages to wake them up, revealing that they are still onboard ''Starbug''—their crash and the "reality" they were in were just a hallucination. Holly and Kryten deduce that the squid was the culprit: a Despair Squid which used ink to induce despair in other species and make them commit suicide. Holly confirms that she has killed the squid, and ''Starbug'' leaves the planet.


Production

"Back to Reality" was the first script written for series 5, and it was thought of at the time that this would be the final series as there looked like there would be a cast availability problem:
Chris Barrie Chris Barrie (born Christopher Jonathan Brown; 28 March 1960) is a British actor and comedian. He worked as a vocal impressionist on the ITV sketch show '' Spitting Image'' (1984–1996) and as Lara Croft's butler Hillary in '' Lara Croft: ...
was starring in the increasingly popular sitcom ''
Brittas Empire ''The Brittas Empire'' is a British sitcom created and originally written by Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen. Chris Barrie played titular character Gordon Brittas, the well-intentioned but hugely incompetent manager of the fictional Whitbury Ne ...
'', while
Robert Llewellyn Robert Llewellyn (born 10 March 1956) is a British actor, comedian, presenter and writer. He plays the Android (robot), mechanoid Kryten in the Science fiction, sci-fi television sitcom ''Red Dwarf'' and formerly presented the engineering gam ...
was appearing in '' Red Dwarf USA'', a ''Red Dwarf'' pilot commissioned by American production company
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
, with the possibility of being committed to that for several years.Interview: Grant Naylor, Red Dwarf Smegazine, issue 6, August 1992, Fleetway Editions Ltd, Although the budget for the series had increased, certain sets were still able to double for different scenes. The corridors of the holoship, from the episode of the same name, were adapted for the Artificial Reality suite. The interiors of the SSS ''Esperanto'' were filmed at Sunbury Pumphouse, and were the only scenes directed by Juliet May. Several model shots of the Despair Squid were filmed but it was decided that they did not work well. Instead, a superimposed shadow was used to illustrate the squid closing in on ''Starbug''.
Lenny Von Dohlen Leonard Harold Von Dohlen IV (December 22, 1958 – July 5, 2022) was an American television, film, and stage actor. With a 40-year career that primarily featured work in independent films and guest appearances on numerous prominent series, he w ...
, known for appearing in ''
Twin Peaks ''Twin Peaks'' is an American Surrealist cinema, surrealist Mystery film, mystery-Horror film, horror Drama (film and television), drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It Pilot (Twin Peaks), premiered on American Broad ...
'', agreed to appear as a policeman after speaking with former guest star
Frances Barber Frances Barber (née Brookes, born 13 May 1958) is an English actress. She received Olivier Award nominations for her work in the plays '' Camille'' (1985), and '' Uncle Vanya'' (1997). Her film appearances include three collaborations with ...
(who appeared in the series 3 episode, " Polymorph", as the Jenny Mutant). The episode also featured a new ''Red Dwarf'' crew for the new Artificial Reality game.
Anastasia Hille Anastasia Hille (born 1965) is an English film, television and theatre actress and ceramicist. Early life Born in Lambeth, London, her mother was Finnish. Hille was a student at London's Drama Centre and won second prize at the Ian Charleson ...
, in her first-ever TV role, played Kochanski, David Lemkin played the Cat, Julian Lyon played Rimmer,
John Sharian John Sharian (born John Shahnazarian; 1964) is an English actor of Armenian descent. He appeared in the film '' The Machinist'' (2004). Education Sharian attended the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut and later Kenyon College in Gambier, Oh ...
played Lister and Scott Charles Bennett played Kryten.
Timothy Spall Timothy Leonard Spall ( ; born 27 February 1957) is an English actor. He gained recognition for his character actor roles on stage and screen. In 2000, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. S ...
and Marie McCarthy played two employees, a staff worker named Andy and a nurse, respectively, attending to the 'Red Dwarf Total Immersion Video Game'.


Reception

The episode was originally broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 26 March 1992 in the 9:00p.m. time slot, and is generally considered to be one of the best of the entire series' run.Red Dwarf Smegazine: Survey Results, issue 10, December 1992, Fleetway Editions Ltd, It has been described as a "classic episode
hat A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...
questions our certainty about what is real. It has us believing that what we thought was real was only a simulation of dream, only to reveal later on that the waking up was actually a falling asleep." Another review said that it was "one of the best and most clever episodes ever made—here we see the birth of Dwane Dibbly—'nuff said."
Rob Grant Robert Grant is an English comedy writer, television producer and co-creator of the ''Red Dwarf'' comedy franchise. Since ''Red Dwarf'', Grant has written two television series, ''The Strangerers'' and ''Dark Ages (TV series), Dark Ages'', and ...
has described this episode as one of his favourites: "that was a show I was sorta in the director's chair for and personally it's a gobsmackingly good show in terms of RD shows." At the end of 1992 the episode helped the fifth series gain a nomination for an
International Emmy Award The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. Bestowed by the New York City, New York–based International Academy of Televisi ...
,News From The Dwarf, Red Dwarf Smegazine, issue 11, January 1993, Fleetway Editions Ltd, and in 1995, following a BBC viewers vote, it was repeated on 22 December 1995 as 'The Best-Ever Red Dwarf'.


References


External links

* *
Series V episode guide at www.reddwarf.co.uk
{{Red Dwarf episodes Red Dwarf V episodes 1992 British television episodes