Easter Sci-Fi Eggstravaganza Part 2

Before we start, if you've not seen the new Red Dwarf yet, there will be spoilers!


It's been about 10 years since Arnold J Rimmer kneed the Grim Reaper in the bollocks declaring "Only the good die young!" cut to 9 years later and Rimmer's a hologram again, Red Dwarf appears to have recovered from that nano-virus that was killing everyone and eating up the ship and Kochanski's dead. Oh, and there's a dimension hopping leviathan in the water tank.

Red Dwarf has never done particularly well when only one of the original writers were involved, and, unfortunately Back to Earth is no exception. Sure there are some good gags, some touching moments and some good (if not far too many) nods to classic sci-fi film, and one of my all-time favourites Blade Runner.

So the "Dwarfers" use the dimension-hopping squid to travel to another dimension so that Lister can find a mate and repopulate the human race. But when they get there they discover they're actually characters in a television show! So far so League of Gentlemens Apocalypse. In fact I'm surprised they didn't have Michael Sheen play Doug Naylor, but they probably didn't have the budget.

Budget, incidentally is one of the main problems with this three part story. Most of the sets incorporate a huge amount of CGI which results in some very bizarre green screen corridor scenes and what I can only assume was a CGI vending machine. I was amazed to hear from a friend earlier on today that the budget for these 3 stories was the same as they had for Series 2 back in 1987! And I was even more stunned to hear that Doug Naylor had to spend his own money on the Smart Car for Carbug. The low budget explains the modern day Earth set plot, and trip to the Coronation St set which elicited much "Where the hell are they going with this?" from me, the sad lonely fanboy. Thankfully, the concluding episode did a pretty good job of tying the various plot strands together and giving the story a satisfying conclusion.

Looking back on it as a whole (And I think Back to Earth is suited more to a 90 minute film format.) it's actually a pretty good set-up for hopefully another series, Lister, much like the show in its last two years felt tired and run-down, with noone to believe in him. His experiences under the influence of the Despair-Squid (Or should it be Joy-Squid?) finally gave him that spark again and a new mission in life. Back to Earth showed a lot of promise, but was lacking a lot of the clever science fiction, charm and the humour that the best episodes of Dwarf display, but it did leave me wanting more.

Easter Sci-Fi Eggstravaganza! Part 1

This Easter 2 of Britain's best loved science fiction series took centre stage in the TV Schedules. On BBC1 last night there was the return of David Tennant in Doctor Who and over on Dave the past few nights we were treated (Well...not sure that's the right word, more on that later.) to 3 new episodes of Red Dwarf.

In the first part of this two part special, I'll talk about the Easter Special and possible 200th Doctor Who adventure; Planet of the Dead.

Heeelp Meeeee!

After the wonderful Christmas special, and with the knowledge that this is the first of the Tenth Doctor's last 4 hours I was looking forward to this, and I must say I wasn't blown away. That's not to say I hated it, but I certainly didn't have as much fun as I've had with most of the Christmas specials.

The main problem I had with the whole thing was a general feeling of pointlessness, grim I know, but there wasn't many plot points that seemed to make much sense or make much "point".

Firstly, a bus falls through a portal to another planet made by some creatures that are about to step through said portal and devour the planet on the otherside. A nice enough idea but I don't think it warranted an hour long episode, or indeed a trip to Dubai. (Especially if you insist on putting CGI on the dunes anyway!)

Secondly the inclusion of UNIT on the other side of the portal gave us a good performance from Lee Evans as the new scientific advisor (Even if I kept thinking that Rob Brydon could have played the role magnificently.) and a nice easy solution to the creatures that fell through the portal, blow 'em up! But once again it suffered from this horrible new attitude from UNIT, at one point the senior officer points a gun at poor Lee Evans and demands he shuts the portal. Why exactly? Can she shut the portal herself once she's lodged a bullet in his brain? It just smacked of a cheap way to stir up a bit of last minute drama, not only that but it wasn't mentioned again! Maybe it's just something she does? "Oh that Captain Magumbo! Pulled out her gun on me the other day and told me to get her a can of Coke from the little shop!" You wouldn't catch the Brigadier doing things like that!

Both aliens were diabolical, maybe if they'd spent less money on trips to Dubai and third buses and more money on CGI and costume the whole story may have been a little bit easier to watch. The fly costumes looked cheap and nasty (for the first story in High Def too! Bet you can see the zip!) and the moment they were attacked by the CGI stingray was atrocious to watch.

So, er, what was good? Tennant, as always. This was clearly an adventure written to give the Doctor one last throwaway "fun" adventure before all the final battle stuff, and he played it brilliantly. As already mentioned, Lee Evans and the ideas were good. It's just a shame that in what should be 4 momentous final hours, we opened with such a light fluffy throwaway opener. The Waters of Mars on the other hand looks fantastic! I think that's the first time I've ever given Doctor Who a kicking on this blog...I need a lie down. I'll be back soon to give my opinions on Red Dwarf: Back to Earth later.