Part II, Chapter XLI: "Back to Reality"
“Much as it was criticised for being ‘White Dwarf’ by some of the fans, I think that the American Red Dwarf series is a lot better than many people give it credit. It really became its own thing by the end of our run, and it wasn’t necessarily any better or worse than the British show, just different.”
- Robert Llewellyn speaking about
Red Dwarf USA.
With 1992 came the fifth and final season of
Red Dwarf. Many fans were disappointed by the lack of future seasons, but it was clear that with Chris Barrie busy with
Brittas Empire and Robert Llewellyn in America to film
Red Dwarf USA, the cast would not be able to convene to film further seasons within the immediate future.
The initial air date of the fifth season was given as 20th February 1992, and the first episode to air would be “Holoship”. It was Grant and Naylor’s hope that the story could help the series to ramp up towards the finale, as “Camille” had for the fourth season.
List of Episodes of Season 5 of Red Dwarf:
Holoship
The Inquisitor
Terrorform
Quarantine
Demons and Angels
Back to Reality
The final episode, “Back to Reality”, is often considered the show’s best, leaving the show on a high note.
But this would not be the end of
Red Dwarf, as an American version was in development. With science fiction media at a high in the US, it was Grant and Naylor’s hope that the show could be adapted for an American audience.
The initial American pilot has done well with audiences, but bombed with producers, and they were forced to produce a second pilot with a smaller budget and new cast. Robert Llewellyn and Jane Leeves kept their roles as Kryten and Holly from the first pilot, but Lister, Rimmer and the Cat would need to be recast.
With a very short deadline and tiny budget, Grant and Naylor decided to reuse clips from the first pilot and the British show to reduce the need to film new scenes. Therefore, only those scenes involving Lister, Rimmer, or the Cat would need to be refilmed.
The new actors to fill out the main cast were Ray Romano, Anthony Fusco and Terry Farrell, playing Lister, Rimmer and the Cat respectively. The entirely Caucasian cast led Craig Charles to dub the new series “White Dwarf”, a term still used disparagingly by some fans. [1]
With the second pilot, NBC decided to pick up the show, setting a release date for the first season of September 1993. The first season of
Red Dwarf USA would be shorter than the others, and consist entirely of reworked stories from
Red Dwarf’s first three seasons.
One major change from the British series was that the hologrammatic characters would be rendered entirely in black and white, a technique that was deemed too costly for the BBC version.
List of Episodes of Season 1 of Red Dwarf USA:
The End
Balance of Power
Waiting for God
Better Than Life
Future Echoes
Me^2
Stasis Leak
Confidence and Paranoia
Queeg
Backwards
The first season of
Red Dwarf USA would perform well with American audiences, and NBC decided to renew it for another season. [2]
[1] Thanks to @unclepatrick for this cast suggestion for Lister. Other than that, it's the same as the cast for the second American pilot of OTL.
[2] As I've hinted, the show will grow to be distinct from its British counterpart. Future seasons will involve episodes we got in OTL that were never made ITTL, and a few original ideas.