Season 9 opens with Lister's day of annoying Rimmer cut short after the discovery of a dimension-hopping leviathan in the ship's water tank. This leads to the appearance of deceased science officer Katerina Bartikovsky, who begins to make plans to permanently remove Rimmer and to assist Lister in restoring the human race.
But whether you felt the comedy and atmosphere were lacking, or were wowed by the metafictional plotline, it's clear that it was a brave experiment - successful or otherwise.
For longtime fans of the series, Back to Earth is a wonderful, if occasionally muddied, send-off or a fresh new beginning for the crew of the Red Dwarf.
