TV review no.1 - red dwarf: the promised land (2020)

Red Dwarf: The Promised Land - 2020                 

Rating - 12

Directed and Written by - Doug Naylor

Starring - Craig Charles, Chris Barrie, Danny John-Jules, Robert Llewellyn

Run time - 87 minutes

Red Dwarf: The Promised Land is the 2020 TV movie spinoff of the long-running sci-fi comedy sitcom Red Dwarf. The one-off TV special was broadcast on comedy channel Dave who has owned the show since 2009 and this programme was its highest show in ratings in seven years. 

So if you haven't seen Red Dwarf before I’ll give you a quick recap - 

The show follows Dave Lister (Charles), a third technician chicken soup machine repairman on the deep space mining ship Red Dwarf set sometime is the 22nd/23rd century. Lister, a self-proclaimed slob, when six months into the mission, gets caught with his cat Frankenstein, who he snuck on the ship unquarantined. He either had to put down the cat or go into stasis throughout the rest of the 18-month journey and give up his wages, he chose the latter option. Though, during his time in stasis, there was a massive radiation leak which wiped out everyone except Lister, who, of course, was in stasis and Frankenstein, who was safely sealed in the cargo bays. Lister wasn't released until three million years later, only left with the company of the ships' computer, Holly (Norman Lovett), a descendant of his cat (John-Jules) a self-centered perfectionist who's race over the centuries have morphed into human form with the characteristics of cats, Arnold Rimmer (Barrie), a hologram of his dead bunkmate who mutually despise each other, and in series 3 onwards, Kryten (Llewellyn), a sanitation droid from the Nova-5. Together, they fly hopelessly in space on their many adventures.

The film is mainly based around the concept of feli-sapiens (cat humans) and how they evolved over thousands of years in the cargo bays of red dwarf and later escaped in their own spaceship to build their own empire. Though these cats are nothing like The Cat we know and love, these cats are megalomanic and horrible to other people. Their leader Rodon (Ray Fearon(who later turns out to be Cats' brother), is outraged by people worshipping Lister or "Cloister" as they call him as they believe he's god. Rodon believes the only god cats should believe in is himself. So when three worshippers of Lister escape the cat fleet and arrive on the iron star, a ship the posse discover and attempt to use its hologram enhancer to temporarily make Rimmer into a "superhero" which he calls himself "The Mighty Light" or as Lister says "The Shitey Sprite". Later on in the film after fighting the feral cats, getting buried alive after star bug stuck on a sand moon and when the cats realize that Lister isn't really god, they go for a final showdown with the cat army. Surprisingly, Rimmer is the one who saves the day by using his new superpowers to blow up the headship of the cat people.

Then, they return the cats to the main cat ship where they claim Rimmer as their new god.

There's not much of a plot aside from the feral cats but it's still is a great watch if you're a fan of the boys from the dwarf or wanting a good watch during the lockdown. I'm a big Red Dwarf fan so I was really excited when I heard about the film fans have been waiting for over 30 years and frankly, I'm really happy with the result. This still holds the same fantastic writing and originality as it did so long ago, the actors are still superb and its an invigorating watch to take your mind off the coronavirus situation.

Score - 8/10