First V Extra Classified
Let the months of extras speculation begin. Although this one is pretty easy. After all, what else could RED DWARF SERIES 5 - DVD EXTRA - THE BEST RED DWARF EVER! (lasting precisely one minute) be but Craig's introduction to Christmas 1995's repeat of Back To Reality, voted the best episode evur, sorry, ever, on a BBC2 vote. Amazing how it's always the unusual episodes that are quite different to the rest of the series that win these things, isn't it?
Not only will this be an excellent extra (I've not seen it since it was on, as I'm a twat who didn't record it), but its also a sign that GNP really are searching out interesting nuggets like this. And by the time of V and VI, interesting nuggets like this become rather more frequent...
Comments
It's possible that they could only have remembered it existed after looking at your DVD section...
Nice to have it confirmed, though it's probably of academic interest at the most...
Posted by Darrell Jones at May 28, 2004 06:27 PM
I think they know, seeing as I had to use Time Hole to check the details...
I really can't remember whether it's any good or not, though. Presumably, it was shot at the same time as the links for Smeg Outs.
Posted by John Hoare at May 28, 2004 06:30 PM
It's interesting how BTR often wins best episode ever, you know, when it PATENTLY ISN'T.
Possibly one of the best excecuted sci-fi ideas (not original, but *very* well done, and not an overused idea in 1992); and obviously very good from a characterisation POV - but it's not the funniest ep by a long, long way. Not to say it's not great, or very amusing - but I would never say its the best episode ever, purely because it doesn't make me laugh as much as many other episodes.
Posted by John Hoare at May 28, 2004 06:34 PM
I don't particularly like Back To Reality at all, if I'm honest. My least favourite series 5 episode by some margin.
I don't even get on with Dimension Jump that well, the 'classics' don't correspond too well with my faves list.
Just as well I love Future Echoes, Polymorph and Gunmen then...
Oh, and before you bring it up, I think Queeg's
great, but BTL, Memory, Stasis Leak and Parallel Universe are funnier.
Posted by Darrell Jones at May 28, 2004 06:40 PM
BTR is the best episode ever, clearly.
See my powers of argument.
Posted by Ian Symes at May 28, 2004 08:57 PM
They've buggered off along with mine, I think.
Posted by John Hoare at May 28, 2004 09:24 PM
I prefer The Inquisitor to Back to Reality, to be honest. The Inquisitor is brilliant.
"While I'm standing here explaining this to you, the Inquisitor jumps me from behind, like this."
Posted by Austin Ross at May 28, 2004 09:30 PM
"Sir, we have to go."
Used in BTR and The Inquisitor. It's an odd choice of phrase; and it's odd that it's used twice, and then never again. Always struck me as weird.
The use of 'Bay 47' in Quarantine *and* BTR is very amusing, though.
Posted by John Hoare at May 28, 2004 09:37 PM
Somehow people seem to remember 'the one where they wake up and, guess what, they've just been playing a game for the last five years and in real life they look stupid'. Probably because it's an idea used a lot in sci-fi (except for the 'they look stupid' part). People just vote for what they can remember, or what makes an impression on them
People like Dwayne Dibley. However, I much prefer certain other episodes with alternate personality crew like Out Of Time. Everyone likes different episodes, but BTR gets mentioned most along with Gunmen, Dimension Jump and Marooned. My favourite out of those is Gunmen, but I prefer episodes like Thanks For The Memory and The Last Day.
Posted by overmydeadbody at May 29, 2004 05:59 AM
I never realised that Bay 47 link!
I really am slow at times.
Posted by Mr Flibble at May 29, 2004 10:28 AM
I did record it, but the VCR was buggered at the time, and whenever I try to play it, it plays it at four times the natural speed. Worth having, mind.
Posted by si at May 29, 2004 12:29 PM
I too only saw it once - I didn't tape it as I didn't know there'd be an introduction.
IIRC, it was Craig Charles playing Lister at a Christmas party, and he had the results written on a piece of naan bread. However, after reading the episodes at 5-2, he ate a big chunk of it and lost the winning episode. He had to turn round and shout "Kryten, what is it?" and that.
Posted by Ian Symes at May 29, 2004 12:54 PM
Soudns like a Paul Alexander special.
Posted by Cappsy at May 29, 2004 02:39 PM
*sounds.
Posted by Cappsy at May 29, 2004 02:39 PM
Well, yeah...but they couldn't have Lister announce the winning episode as it wasn't live.
And Back to Reality rocks. I don't know why. It just does. Best scene is Lister watching the alternate RD crew. A glimpse of how RDUSA would have ended up?
Posted by Pete Martin at May 29, 2004 04:47 PM
Thanks For The Memory does it for me. One of the best overall conceits, Chris Barrie's finest performance bar none, a genuine expansion on the nature of the main two characters, and some of the best dialogue ever to grace the programme. And I agree with Darrell - all those other S2 episodes are better than Queeg (which is still brilliant, mind).
Posted by Seb at May 29, 2004 04:52 PM
Back to Reality has one of my all-time favourite shots in it - the cut between the car park and the cockpit when Kryten says "I killed him..."
It's a wonderful episode - and it probably has been my favourite in the past. (My favourite keeps changing, so I haven't really got one.) It's oddly un-Dwarflike in some respects - quite unrepresentative of the series. It's exactly the episode they would have shown as the episode for Best British Sitcom. I really hope it's not the one shown for Comedy Connections.
I think it works very well on pretty much everything - the SF elements, the dramatic elements, the production elements, the characterisation elements... but it's just not the funniest episode. It's very very funny, but other eps surpass it. Therefore: not my favourite. I love RD for the comedy more than anything.
Posted by John Hoare at May 29, 2004 05:05 PM
> Well, yeah...but they couldn't have Lister announce the winning episode as it wasn't live.
It wasn't a live vote; it was taken from the latest fan club poll, which had already been published. He announced the rest of the top five after all - this was a shitty bit of suspense.
Posted by Ian Symes at May 30, 2004 05:51 PM
"...it was taken from the latest fan club poll, which had already been published."
Are you sure? I'm pretty sure Gunmen had finished first in the fanclub poll prior to this. And there was an address to send your votes printed in the Christmas issue of the Radio Times.
Posted by Pete Martin at May 30, 2004 07:09 PM
I am undoubtedly wrong. But I do recall BtR coming top in the polls after V and VI, then GotA winning the one after VII, then BtR winning both subsequent ones. Chronologically, BtR will have been the latest winner.
Posted by Ian Symes at May 30, 2004 07:43 PM
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