Trivia / Red Dwarf Season V "Back to Reality"

• Awesome, Dear Boy: Lenny Von Dohlen agreed to appear as the cop after speaking with former guest star Frances Barber (who appeared in "Polymorph" as Jenny Mutant).
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Rob Grant has described this episode as one of his favourites:
  That was a show I was sorta in the director's chair for and personally it's a gobsmackingly good show in terms of RD shows.
• Deleted Scene:
  • As the boys become aware of the Despair Squid, Kryten states that Space Corps Directives enable a mechanoid to take charge of a situation if a human's life is in danger. As Kryten stands about and discusses this, he is unaware that the others have long since run away. Kryten's gag was trimmed to avoid repeating a similar moment from "Terrorform", when the bazookoids had no effect against the Unspeakable One.
  • With Lister, Cat, and Kryten in the Diving Bell coming up from the Esperanto, and all of them feeling the effects of the Despair Squid's ink, Rimmer attempts to cheer them up over the intercom. Rimmer tells them he will put on his Reggie Dickson's Tango Treats music. Lister says that he's staying in the Diving Bell. As they put on their pressurised suits, and with them all sobbing, Rimmer then attempts to tell them a joke. And completely fudges the joke, at first getting it mixed up with another joke, then telling the punchline completely wrong.
  • When the crew crash and initially get their "Game Over" screen and awake on Fascist Earth, they were to first appear as 2D game characters on a screen. Cat says the "I have a bad feeling about this" line from Star Wars. The scene was removed because of the unsuccessful '2D' effect.
  • Holly interjects more in the imagined car chase, saying that they've all gone crazy. When they've all come to, Cat says that they should get out of there quickly, since the Despair Squid may have a parent lurking 'round who won't be too happy that "Junior won't be going to the jellyfish ball".
• Edited for Syndication: In a 2012 repeat, Jake Bullet Flipping the Bird before being told that the Cybernautics division might just be traffic control was cut. This creates an Orphaned Reference later on when the fascist cop tells Jake it is traffic control.
• Recycled Set: Although the budget for the series had increased, certain sets were still able to double for different scenes. The corridors of the holoship were grunged down and made up for the Artificial Reality suite.

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