Robin Brown

Well. Who’d've thunk it. In the end Red Dwarf – Back to Earth came up with the goods in the third and final episode, finally giving some meaning to the resurrected Red Dwarf.

In a twist that I’d suspected since about half way through the first episode, but turned out to welcome, it all turned out to be a dream. Normally this would count as a massive cop-out, and indeed it was here.

But I’ll be surprised if there’s a RD fan out there who didn’t welcome it, so far had the new episodes gone beyond anything that was recognisably Dwarf-esque.

Still, what we’re let with is, frankly, a sprawling mess of new episodes that feel at least two rewrites away from being a serviceable TV script. While the last episode of Back To Earth rescued the series from a terrible and bizarre end, it didn’t excuse the previous two episodes of utter dross.

Many of the faults still remain. The lack of a laughter track saps the programme of it soul; Doug Naylor’s leaden and amateurish direction is a distraction and annoyance; the lack of laughs is an obvious and debilitating problem; and the sheer post-modern meta-ism of it all is confusing and discombobulating.

But what works brilliantly, in the end, is all of the famous Red Dwarf touches. In the last ten minutes of the 90-odd that made up Back To Earth there’s humour, pathos and self-awareness.

Anyone who has followed the series cares about the characters and the series’ legacy, and the conclusion of the episode delivers everything a fanboy could want.

So, the gibberish and laugh-free first episodes finally make some sort of sense, albeit massively qualified. Was it worth it?

No doubt Dave thinks so, viewing figures for the pilot were through the roof – although they fell off a cliff the next day, no doubt a reflection of the terrible critical reception the first episode received – and will have delivered the biggest audience by far the digital channel has ever received, having been spun out over a Bank Holiday weekend.

I think that decision will have made commercial sense, but it absolutely crippled Back To Earth from a qualitative point of view. Even if you factor in the Dwarf-affirming climax, its return was not a success overall. There are still too many factors to bear in mind about what went wrong – and its problems are legion.

Back To Earth is, I think, a bit of a trailblazer in how digital television will start to encroach on typical providers for original programming. It will deliver content not driven by quality, but by commercial considerations.

It makes one wonder how a resurrected Doctor Who would have fared under a channel like Dave if the BBC had never come to its senses. Badly, is the inevitable answer – whatever you think of Who under Russell T Davies.

Does all of this matter at the end of the day? I dunno. I thought Red Dwarf was past it at series seven in the mid-90’s. Having plumbed the depths in the first four fifths, Back To Earth just about pulled it out of the fire.

But though I’d lap up another series as good as any of the first six, I’d abhor another effort like Back To Earth that risks everything for one last shot. I love those characters as I loved the series. I’d rather remember them in their pomp: heroic, hilarious, human.

Better dead than smeg.