Back to Reality (Red Dwarf)

"Back to Reality"
Red Dwarf episode
In the despair induced hallucination the characters believe that they are (from left to right) fascist police chief Sebastian Doyle, homeless outcast William Doyle, cyborg traffic officer Jake Bullet, and charmless nerd Duane Dibbley.
Episode no.	Series 5 Episode 6
Directed by	Juliet May & Grant Naylor
Written by	Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
Original air date	26 March 1992
Guest appearance(s)
Timothy Spall as Andy Lenny Von Dohlen as Cop Marie McCarthy as Nurse John Sharian as New Lister Anastasia Hille as New Kochanski Julian Lyon as New Rimmer David Lemkin as New Cat Scott Charles Bennett as New Kryten
Episode chronology
← Previous "Demons and Angels" Next → "Psirens"
List of all Red Dwarf episodes

"Back to Reality" is the sixth, and final, episode of science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf Series V and the 30th in the series run. It was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 26 March 1992, written by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor and directed by Juliet May & Grant Naylor. The episode often tops polls or surveys as the best in the series runs. The plot features the crew waking up from a crash to discover that the last four years of their lives has been spent in a 'Red Dwarf Total Immersion Video Game'.

The Red Dwarf crew takes Starbug to investigate the wreckage of the SSS Esperanto, a ship conducting marine seeding experiments at the bottom of an ocean-covered moon. The ship had great success on its mission to accelerate the planet's evolution, surpassing even their best projections. However it appears that all life on board the Esperanto committed suicide, right down to a haddock which closed its gills and suffocated itself. They discover the deaths are due to severe depression caused by a hallucinogenic nerve toxin. Attempting to evade a gigantic squid, Starbug crashes and explodes.

Instead of finding themselves in little pieces, they wake to discover that for four years they have been playing 'Red Dwarf - The Total Immersion Video Game'. It transpires that not only have they spent four years playing a game, they also played it very badly - for example, early on Rimmer was meant to work out an "obvious" puzzle which would lead to the discovery of a microdot hidden on his swimming certificate, the possession of which would have unlocked his secret identity and a number of special skills. Lister briefly gets to watch the action as another group plays the game as it was intended to be played - the scenario observed involves the team having fabulous space opera adventures in outer space and interacting in a far less dysfunctional manner, and a resurrected Kochanski in a passionate relationship with Lister.