Red Dwarf: The Promised Land review – megalomaniac cats are out for revenge
As what is familiar continues to crumble around us, it makes sense that people are turning to familiar comforts. There is so much bread-baking and pub-quizzing going on that it’s as if we’ve all briefly stepped into a 1970s sitcom, though I have to say, the punchlines could do with polishing up. The return of Red Dwarf (Dave) is a bracing reminder that the sci-fi comedy has been going for 32 years, with a few lengthy gaps.
This is a perfect time, then, for Red Dwarf to both return and to try something new, airing its first ever feature-length episode of the show, The Promised Land. Over 3m years, the cat smuggled on board Red Dwarf by Lister has evolved into the cat-human hybrid species to which Cat belongs, only they are not all as friendly in their preening ways as he is. Here, an army of megalomaniac cats try to assert their supremacy by smashing a religion based on a figure known as the Holy Poppadom (or Cloister) who is, of course, our familiar slob-in-residence, Dave Lister.
Humans dressed up as cat-human hybrids are really having their moment in the entertainment spotlight right now, and whether this was conceived before the ill-fated Cats movie is unclear. You could see this as the low-budget, sci-fi spinoff – Cats! In Space! – which gives the added thrill of waiting for Dame Judi Dench to pop up in furs. Sadly, this hope remains unfulfilled.
Plot-wise, that’s about the extent of it. There is a low-level hum of existential angst, as the characters wonder what to do with time, which all feels rather apt. Lister is the last human alive, and instead of confronting any responsibility towards continuing the species, he is drinking a lot of beer and hoarding junk. It is possible to relate. Rimmer starts to wonder if he is truly alive, as a hologram, and whether he is capable of independent thought, as he believes he is, or whether the computer is only allowing him to believe this, while controlling his every move. Kryten is old and bashed about, and in need of a service, while Cat, inevitably, is the only one who remains much the same. The show has been around since 1987, after all, so no wonder they are starting to feel that midlife crisis.
As a concept, Red Dwarf has enough about it to work over 90 minutes. It is a big enough world, built on solid enough foundations, to sustain our attention for a longer period of time than a single short episode. They leave the ship, have some battles, spend a bit of feature-length budget on explosions and the like, then return to what they know. It is packed with little in-jokes and nods to the past that will please dedicated fans, and is broad enough to be perfectly watchable, even if you have never seen the show before.
I’m not sure, though, that this particular story was the one to try stretching it out with. The best Red Dwarf episodes had clever conceits. This touches on pastiche by briefly transforming Rimmer into a superhero, albeit the kind of superhero pillaged from the polystyrene, old curtains and glitter paint that’s been in the shed for a few years, and it has fun with that. Rimmer calls himself “the Mighty Light”, Cat demotes him to “the Shitey Sprite”, and there are battery issues to contend with.
But aside from turning Lister into a god, and his old scribblings into holy texts, this never really goes beyond enemies in space, battling it out. Like regular episodes, it was filmed in front of a very appreciative audience, who particularly love visual gags about things being bigger than they should be: a cat flap and a floppy disc, blown up to gigantic proportions, both earn rapturous applause. There is also a surprising number of dick jokes. The audience loved them.
It is at its best when the four main cast members are simply bouncing off one another. Early on, Rimmer tries to erase Kryten’s memory, but keeps having to redo the process. This is a simple, silly set-up, but I could have watched it for half an hour. And the same goes for Norman Lovett’s Holly, rebooted as a by-the-book jobsworth who harbours dreams of becoming “an intellectual colossus” once he has reabsorbed 3m years’ worth of knowledge. And we know how that turns out.
The Promised Land is not Red Dwarf in its prime. You get the impression that everyone involved knows it, but is trying to enjoy themselves, regardless. Like that homemade bread you suddenly felt compelled to bake, it’s a bit rough around the edges, not quite the same as shop-bought, but it is a decent enough way to pass the time.