The Promised Land is weak on story, but rich in thrills, laughs and character.
PLOT
After a confrontation with Holly forces the crew to flee Red Dwarf, they stumble upon a Cat civil war between a feral despot named Rodon and the religious fanatics worshipping Lister. Rodon is determined to kill Lister to secure his own rule.
ANALYSIS
There's a marked improvement from series 11 and 12. Whether that means that Doug paid attention to criticism or if he was just trying to create something truly memorable and cinematic in lieu of the long-awaited Red Dwarf film, I don't know. But in terms of overall presentation, The Promised Land is definitely the best that the Dave era has to offer. Gone is the obnoxious blue lighting, gone are the painful script issues, gone is the lack of pathos.
It's a fairly simple storyline, bordering on being 'pony' (as Danny John-Jules would put it). Holly's behaviour is pretty much recycled from Pree, the loss of Red Dwarf is pure series 6 and the Cats aren't exactly three-dimensional. Aside from harkening back to Lister's grief over being considered a God (something that Waiting for God already explored), they exist purely to be typical space baddies chasing and shooting at our heroes. It's your basic action-adventure romp, with nostalgia flavouring. The Anubis Stone in particular stands out as an extremely generic and convenient MacGuffin, and its existence is never explained.
That being said, the lack of an intricate or even clever plot does allow for a lot of runtime to be spent on other things such as the crew's banter, always the best part of any Red Dwarf story. The space battles are great fun. You don't have to think hard, but there are rewarding moments shared between the long-running characters if you keep an eye out. If the Promised Land nails anything, it's being an eminently rewatchable lazy Saturday afternoon movie, and that's not a bad thing at all. There are many great movies you'd rarely want to sit through, and many good ones you'd want to see time and time again for thrills. The Promised Land is the latter.
CHARACTERS
As stated above, Lister gets to deal with his shame of having led the Cat race to ruin all over again, except now he's actually among them. What I really liked about it was that he repeatedly tries to do the right thing. First he wants to admit the truth. Then, when Kryten persuades him otherwise, he takes responsibility for the Cats and does his best to look after them. It's very sweet and appropriate for who Lister is supposed to be. His inability to actually directly tell them the truth and forcing Kryten to do it instead (who, after all, had delayed the inevitable) was very funny also.
Who could have guessed that the show had more to mine from Rimmer? Certainly not I! I think I've made my feelings clear on the stagnation of Rimmer in the Doug-only episodes (specifically in my review of Trojan). But not only is Chris Barrie's acting blissfully toned down, the decision to go back to the root of the character and explore how he feels about being a mechanical copy of a dead man is genius. Now I'm wondering why it took them this long to really address it.
The moonlight scene left me with mixed feelings. Because on the one hand, I love how it leaves the actual metaphor somewhat ambiguous. Is the moonlight generated by the sun and the moon meant to be the friendship between Lister and Rimmer, or Rimmer's existence in general? Does Rimmer live for the friendship, or does he decide that he's okay defining himself as being alive because of Lister ("I think, because Lister thinks I think"). I think both interpretations have merit. But the downside is that I don't think it's the kind of simile Lister would ever use. It's far too poetic and earnest. Every time I hear it, I can't help expecting Rimmer to mock him. It doesn't work quite on the same level as the simple conversations they used to have in the observation dome.
Given that the film is all about the Cats, one might think that the Cat would take center stage, but he doesn't and honestly I think it makes sense. Outside of the possibility of mating (which, let's be fair, Cat might be getting too old to care about), why would he really care? Unlike the ferals and the believers, he's basically the equivalent of a housecat. That doesn't mean Danny John-Jules is left without material though. It's the Cat's cruel and thoughtless jabbing at Rimmer that causes the latter to enter a mid-life crisis. There's the wonderful gag about the Cat having made clothes of the ship's landing parachute. And we do get two moments of pathos, where the Cat briefly joins the Cloister cult (only to abandon it just as soon as he gets bored, which is also very Cat-like) and when he refuses to leave Red Dwarf because it's his home. So I'm a happy camper.
Robert Llewelyn probably gets the least to do as Kryten, but the running thread about him needing a service does lead directly to the climax, where we discover that he sacrificed his own life for Rimmer. Which is very sweet, especially after we established only a few scenes earlier that Kryten doesn't even respect the man (not that that's surprising). There's also a few solid routines for Bobby to perform, like the gender reassignment surgery and Rimmer erasing his memory.
Norman Lovett, the man, the myth, the legend. After 32 years, the unthinkable finally happened. He got good material again, AND he gave a brilliant performance. Is it quite the same as having classic Holly back? Well, no. I think the crew are just beyond relying on him now the way they would have in the old days. He's not their dad anymore... but he is rather their aging grandpa, who is a bit awkward but still incredibly endearing to have back. I don't know what went wrong for Norman in Skipper, but here he is at the peak of his powers, or at least very close to it. The charm, the wit, the laughs, they're all back. I am totally delighted and I hope to see more.
None of the guest cast are particularly fleshed out. Ray Fearon is memorably cool as Rodon, he does have a feline sleekness to his acting style. The three cat believers are relatively endearing (Tom Bennett is a bit rubbish if I'm honest, but Mandeep Dhillon and Lucy Pearman are quite adorable), but very underused. I don't mind, because it means we spend more time on the core cast, but having them stuffed in the back of Starbug was a little awkward. Al Roberts has a funny bit part as Rodon's lackey Ludo. He does the same sort of sycophantic shtick we've seen before in Doug Naylor episodes, but I think he does it the best. The way he oozes through the cat door is great.
NOTES
- It cannot be ignored that at the time of writing, this is the very last aired Red Dwarf adventure. There is absolutely no sense of finality in it, but in terms of utilising the cast and telling a good tale, it's a perfectly fine sendoff that ends things on a high note.
- How do the Cats know about Lister's past in detail? Did Holly teach them?
- I love that Kryten has no idea what to do during the emergency landing. It's a great subversion of his usual know-it-all shtick.
- Why does Doug Naylor hate the penis? All those jokes about how ugly it is... what have penises done to him?
- The characters describe Anubis as having a cat head, but in Egyptian lore, it had the head of a dog.
- I enjoy superhero Rimmer, but I miss Ace.
- The use of the laser pointer to vanquish the Cats is spectacular.
- I wish the film had opened with the classic series 1-2 Red Dwarf intro. It'd be more cinematic, more emotional and honestly I just want to see a modernised official version of it.
- Rodon seems unaware that Lister is not a God, so he must have some major balls to go up against him.
- It is kind of stupid that no one thought to reboot Holly's memory earlier, but to be fair, it's probably been decades since they've had to deal with his systems. And maybe Rimmer's Diamond Light upgrade jogged his mind a little bit.
- Also, why did no one tell Holly that Lister already served his sentence for smuggling an unquarantined cat onboard. Or did Hollister intend to fire him and just never got around to it? And Pree... I don't know, didn't have access to that record?
THANKS FOR THE MEMORY
- The film is a sequel to Waiting for God, revolving around the Cat race backstory introduced in that story.
- Rodon describes young Cat as having been uncool and also having 'crazy hair and teeth'. Possibly implying that the Cat actually used to be Duane Dibbley?
- Lister sings the Om song from Timeslides.
- (The real) Holly's first appearance since Only the Good...
- Rimmer cycles through his uniforms from the old series, except the red tunic from series 5 and the clothes worn by his nano-clone in series 8.
- Kryten's past on the Nova 5 is briefly touched on (Kryten), as is the radiation leak on Red Dwarf and Lister bringing an unquarantined cat onboard beforehand (The End).
- Rimmer reminds Lister that Holly brought him back as a hologram to keep Lister sane, something Holly admitted to in Balance of Power.
- Rimmer's love of Hammond Organ is referenced, seen previously in several series 4 episodes.
- The Cat tells Rodon that "one time, I nearly had to work!", which I think is a subtle reference to Queeg.
- The Cat mentions his visit to Backwards World.
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