Back to Reality (Red Dwarf episode)
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| Red Dwarf episode | |
| "Back to Reality" | |
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| Episode № | 6 |
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| Airdate | March 26, 1992 |
| Writer(s) | Rob Grant & Doug Naylor |
| Director | Juliet May, Rob Grant & Doug Naylor |
| Guest star(s) | Timothy Spall as Andy, Lenny Von Dohlen as the Fascist Police Officer |
| Series V February 20 – March 26, 1992 |
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| List of all Red Dwarf episodes... | |
Back to Reality was the sixth episode to air in the fifth series of Red Dwarf.
[edit] Synopsis
The Red Dwarf crew takes Starbug on a recon mission where they discover the wreckage of the SSS Esperanto, a ship conducting marine seeding experiments. It appears that all life on board the Esperanto committed suicide, right down to a haddock which closed its gills and suffocated itself. The crew discovers their deaths are due to severe depression caused by a nerve toxin. Upon returning to Starbug the crew is attacked by a giant squid that releases the toxin. The crew crashes Starbug while trying to escape, resulting in destruction of Starbug and its crew. The message "GAME OVER" shows on the screen.
The crew then awakens in their chairs, having just spent four years playing the total-immersion video game Red Dwarf. They retire to the recuperation lounge to give time for their memories to return, where they discover artifacts from their prior lives. In 'reality', each character was their moral opposite. Kryten is half-human traffic officer Jake Bullet. Cat is dorky Duane Dibbley. Lister is the head of the secret police in a fascist state, and Rimmer is Lister's half brother and a tramp. After Kryten shoots a Gestapo-like police officer, the crew become involved in a high speed car chase with the police. Devestated by the implications of their "true" selves, the crew is about to commit group suicide when Holly returns them to Starbug, revealing Starbug's crash and 'reality' were just a group hallucination brought on by the despair squid's ink.
[edit] Trivia
- Along with Gunmen of the Apocalypse, this episode has been voted "best Red Dwarf episode" by fans numerous times over the years. It scored the award on BBC2's "10th Red Dwarf anniversary evening" in 1998.
- Much of the set in the arcade scene where the crew awoke was the re-used set from the earlier episode Holoship.
- Cat becomes Duane Dibbley for the first time in this episode.
- At the time of filming, Grant and Naylor were involved in the development of the American version of Red Dwarf; a running joke on set was that the UK version would come to an end through the crew discovering it really was all a computer game. However, the US pilot never got off the ground and Red Dwarf VI was commissioned.
