Red Dwarf/Back to Reality

Back to Reality
Season 5, Episode 6
Airdate	March 26, 1992
Written by	Rob Grant, Doug Naylor
Directed by	Rob Grant and Doug Naylor
← 5x05 Demons and Angels	6x01 → Psirens
Red Dwarf — Season Five

Back to Reality is the sixth episode of the fifth season of Red Dwarf, and the thirtieth episode overall.

Guest Stars: Timothy Spall (Andy), Lenny Von Dohlen (Cop), Marie McCarthy (Nurse), John Sharian (new Lister), Anastasia Hille (new Kochanski), Chris Barrie (Billy Doyle), Craig Charles (Sebastian Doyle), Danny John-Jules (Dwayne Dibley), Robert Llewellyn (Jake Bullet)

Plot Overview

The crew have discovered a crashed ocean seeding ship, the S.S.S. Esperanto, on the ocean floor of a nearby planet. Aboard the ship they discover that the ocean seeders, using a new technique, had unexpectedly gotten five million years of evolution in just three solar years. The question that nags at Lister is; if they were that successful, then what happened to all the ocean life?

They go on to discover a number of bodies, all of whom committed suicide. This coupled with the discovery of a hallucinogenic substance that contaminates them, leads Kryten to believe that some kind of giant squid must have attacked the ship, using its hallucinogenic ink to cause despair and suicide. As they hurry back to Starbug, they begin to feel the effects.

Rimmer announces that there is a huge blob on the scanner (the Despair Squid), approaching fast. Back at Starbug they take lithium carbonate to stabilize their mood. They lift off and try to outrun it. After a valliant attempt, the ink catches up, and they crash shortly afterward.

---

A status display appears over the visual of the crash. It says "GAME OVER" in large letters. Additionally, we see that the player(s) were on machine 16, in a game called "Red Dwarf", and they scored only 4%! A recorded announcement begins to play:

For the last four years, you have been engaged in the total immersion video game "Red Dwarf". As with all role-playing adventures, you will experience a certain amount of disorientation on leaving the game. It will be several minutes before your real-life memories return. So in the meantime, please disengage the game-playing machinery and relax until an attendant is free to answer any of your questions. On behalf of Leisure World International may we be the first to say, "Welcome back to reality."

When the attendant arrives, they learn there is a two-year waiting period to play Red Dwarf -- they only have 20 machines. Andy, the attendant, chats with them a bit about the game. When they tell him how they died, he says, there's no way the Despair Squid should have gotten you. You should have used the laser cannons on the Esperanto.

The others dont's see why they should be expected to have known that, but Andy says "Esperanto" ... "hope" ... "hope defeats despair" ... "The Despair Squid" ... "it's a blatant clue!" They go on to find out that they missed the best parts of the game! Eventually Andy runs the bunch of losers out of the game room, to make room for the next set of players.

In the recuperation lounge everyone is still without their real-life memories, when a nurse drops in asking for Dwayne Dibley. The person we know as the Cat is actually Dwayne Dibley! In his luggage are unfashionable white socks, plastic sandals, a nylon shirt, a Cardigan, and a key to the Salvation Army hostel.

Kryten is a detective with the Cybernautic Division of the Police Department. And although Rimmer and Lister turn out to be half-brothers, Billy Doyle (Rimmer) is a bum. Sebastian Doyle (Lister) on the other hand has a job and car in the car park (parking structure).

They decide to leave before their real-life memories have returned. Still sticken by his recent revelation, the only thing the former Cat can say is "Dwayne Dibley?". As they are sneaking out, Lister peeks in on the new Red Dwarf game, where he sees the new Lister and new Kochanski ...

New Kochanski: Are you crazy Lister? Are you totally nuts? You risked your own neck, and everybody else's just to save my life! You do that again and I'll kill you!

New Lister: Hey Kochanski ...

(the new Lister pulls the new Kochanski close)

New Lister: Shut up.

(the new Lister kisses the new Kochanski. She stuggles at first, but soon surrenders to Lister, the hero)

Knowing how much he could have had, if only he had played things differently, deeply saddens Sebastian (Lister).

Out in the car park Kryten helps a girl who stole an apple to escape from a policeman. This earns them a summary death sentence, but when the policeman sees Sebastian (Lister), he immediately becomes apologetic. Sebastian Doyle, it seems, is a fascist: Section Chief of CGI, head of the Ministry of Alteration (where they kill people).

Seeing her chance, the girl makes a run for it, and the policeman tries to shoot her. Jake (Kryten) puts a stop to that. He shoots the man. He has killed a human being. He cannot bear to go on living with that knowlege.

---

Suddenly and inexplicably, we hear Holly's voice say "You're halucinating." Now we can see that instead of being in a car park, the group is still aboard Starbug, acting out a group hallucination under the influence of the Despair Squid's ink. Holly has been trying to get their attention for some time.

They continue to act out their halucination, using crates as seats, and other incidentals for various props. They flee the scene in Sebastian's car (sitting on crates), dodging motorcycles, rocket launchers, and helicopters. Dwayne (the Cat) even sustains a make-believe injury!

---

We see them back in the full halucination again, hiding in an alley outside of a burger bar. Everyone is hopelessly depressed because their lives are in utter ruin. Each one of them has become something they cannot bear to live with. So, they all decide to commit suicide (like the other victims of the Despair Squid). They all line their heads up to use the one, lone bullet that Jake (Kryten) has.

But Holly is able to influence Kryten to release lithium carbonate (a mood stabilizer), and at the last possible moment, they come to their senses.

---

Holly had already destroyed the Despair Squid with limpet mines. She just had trouble keeping the others from killing themselves.

Arc Advancement

Characters

• This episode marks the first appearance of Dwayne Dibley, the Cat's alter ego, whom we will see again.

Trivia

The Show

• Starbug can "fly" underwater.
• The S.S.S. Esperanto
  • a class D, Space Corps ocean seeding ship.
  • Mission: to introduce oceanic life to potential S3 planets.
  • The word esperanto means "hope" in the Esperanto language.

Allusions and References

• Rimmer says the first body they encounter looks like Norman Bates's mum.
• Rimmer says the blob on the scanner is the size of New Mexico.
• Dwayne Dibley has a key to the Salvation Army hostel.

Memorable Moments

• Aboard the ocean seeding ship, they discover a human male with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Then they discover another human who hanged himself. Then another who committed Seppuku. Then they discover a fish (similar to an Earth haddock) that has voluntarily suffocated itself. The Cat thinks that there just might be some sort of pattern.

• When disccussing their various failures in the Red Dwarf game with the attendant, they discover that they missed the Planet of the Nymphomaniacs -- some people spend years on that! Also, Rimmer was supposed to have figured out that he was a hand-picked, special agent of the Space Corps. The microdot hidden in the "i" of Rimmer's swimming certificate was a blantant clue! Instead he spent the entire four years being a "twonk!"

Quotes

• The people whom we have come to know as Lister, Kryten, the Cat, and Rimmer, are getting out of the gaming machinery at Leisure World International ...

Lister: This is a very, very bad dream, right?

(he stummbles into a frizzy-haired Rimmer)

Rimmer: I'm not a hologram.

Kryten: I'm half-human.

Cat: What the hell happened to my teeth?

(he has a dorky haircut and a massive overbite)

• On more than one occasion, Andy the attendant, astounded by their stupidity, tells the group, "It's a blatant clue!"

• When Kryten finds out that he was a cop named Jake Bullet he has this to say:

Jake Bullet ... That sounds like the kind of hard living flat foot who gets the job done by cutting corners and bucking authority. And if those pen-pushers up at City Hall don't like it, well they can park their overpaid fat asses on this mid-digit ... and swivel ... swivel till they squeal like pigs on a honeymoon.

• When they finally come to their senses at the end of the episode ...

Cat: I'm not Dwayne Dibley?

Kryten: No.

Rimmer: I am Rimmer?

Kryten: I'm afraid so.

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