Backwards (Red Dwarf episode)
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| Red Dwarf episode | |
| "Backwards" | |
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| Episode № | 1 |
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| Airdate | November 14, 1989 |
| Writer(s) | Rob Grant & Doug Naylor |
| Director | Ed Bye |
| Guest star(s) | none |
| Series III November 14 – December 19, 1989 |
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| List of all Red Dwarf episodes... | |
Backwards is the name of the first episode of the third series of British television comedy Red Dwarf. It is one of the most popular episodes from the show. The story was eventually reformulated as a novel by the same name.
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[edit] Synopsis
The crew of the Red Dwarf wind up travelling through a time hole (first Kryten and Rimmer, followed by Lister and the Cat) and end up landing on a planet which turns out to be a version of Earth in which time runs backwards. This is explained to be because of Earth's timeline reaching the Big Crunch and subsequently running backwards until it reaches the creation of Earth. Everyone speaks and moves in reverse (the Red Dwarf crew still continue to speak and do most things forward, although they discover that some things — like eating and drinking — occur backwards for them). In addition, written words and numbers are reversed. The crew spend three weeks in "Nodnol" in the year 3991 (London, 1993). Rimmer and Kryten quickly discover that everything is backwards, and use it to their advantage, getting jobs as a Vaudville act called "The Sensational Reverse Brothers" (as the backwards people would consider their forwards actions as 'backwards'). However, Lister and Cat do not catch on right away, and believe that they are in Bulgaria. Lister and Cat discover a "Reverse Brothers" poster and go off and attempt find them.
They eventually track down Kryten and Rimmer at the club where they work, whereupon Lister finally discovers that everything is backwards. However, Kryten and Rimmer are quite content on this planet because people do not die, there is no crime, war is a good thing, and diseases make one better. Lister comments that people would consider St. Francis of Assisi a petty minded sadist who went around maiming small animals and Santa Claus an evil old bastard who goes down people's chimneys and steals all the children's favorite toys. Lister tries to convice them to come back, but they intend to stay. Right after their show, the club owner fires them for starting a fight. Kryten argues that they have not started any fight, but, as Lister has just "uneaten" someone's pie, they discover that the bar is a mess, and they realise that they did start the fight, but it has not happened yet. Lister gets punched in the face, leading a barroom brawl (or rather, a "barroom tidy") and a huge fight breaks out in reverse, restoring everything to its original state.
They eventually realise that they cannot stay in a backwards Universe, and go back to board Starbug, only to discover that another downside is that the toilet arrangement can be extremely disturbing for someone who was born in a forwards Universe (as the Cat pops up from behind a bush, and is too shocked to say anything except "Don't ask."), much to the amusement of Rimmer and Lister.
[edit] Opening crawl
This was one of two episodes to parody the Star Wars opening crawl, the other episode being Dimension Jump. The titling explains the changes that were made going from series two to three, however, the scrolling was sped up faster than someone could actually read.
The following text of the opening crawl is taken from a Red Dwarf FAQ created by the newsgroup alt.tv.red-dwarf: [1]
Three million years in the future, Dave Lister, the last human being alive, discovers he is pregnant after a liaison with his female self in a parallel universe. His pregnancy concludes with the successful delivery of twin boys, Jim and Bexley. However, because the boys were conceived in another universe, with different physical laws, they suffer from highly accelerated growth rates and are both eighteen years old within three days of being born. In order to save their lives, Lister returns them to the universe of their origin, where they are reunited with their father (a woman), and are able to lead comparatively normal lives. Well, as normal as you can be if you've been born in a parallel universe and your father's a woman and your mother's a man and you're eighteen years old three days after your birth. Shortly afterward, Kryten, the service mechanoid, who had left the ship after being rescued from his own crashed vessel, the Nova 5, is found in pieces after his space bike crashed into an asteroid. Lister rebuilds the 'noid, but is unable to recapture his former personality. Meanwhile, Holly, the increasingly erratic computer, performs a head sex change operation on himself. He bases his new face on Hilly, a female computer with whom he'd once fallen madly in love.
[edit] Trivia
- Rob Grant appears in this episode as the man smoking the cigarette.
- A hidden backwards message was placed in this episode.
- This episode marked the first appearance of the transport shuttle Starbug, which replaced the Blue Midget for series III. Later, two whole series of the show (series VI and VII) would be based aboard Starbug.
- Despite the scientific basis of the plot, the "backwards" elements of the episode are applied to two distinct things. Firstly (correctly) to time itself, which would not be observable to Dwarfers. Secondly to causality, the order in which events occur. This would not be a consequence of a scientifically "backwards" reality.
- There may seem to be a reversal of concepts, values and personalities (that the Second World War would see people coming back to life, that St Francis of Assisi tortures (rather than in notably kind to) small animals and it is considered virtuous to take money from a charity box rather than adding to it,) but this is merely a consequence of the time reversal. As in our world, millions died in the second world war, (Alive before, dead after), in a "backwards" reality, they would be brought to life. (Dead before, alive after.) There is a similar effect with the charity box, as the money was not there "before," the Cat stole it, but was there "after" he "donated" it. Also the concept of the newspaper story where a bank robber forced banked staff to accept £10,000 rather than the staff giving the money to the bank robber.
[edit] See also
- Backwards (the novel)
