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Red Dwarf: Better Than Life [1988]
Country of
Origin: UK
Date(s) of Broadcast: 13 September 1988
Running Time: 25 mins
Format: colour
Sound:
CREDITS
PRODUCTION
Production Company: Paul Jackson Productions
Executive Producer: Paul Jackson
Producer: Ed Bye
Production Manager: Mike Agnew
Unit Manager: Kelvin Jones
SCRIPT
Script: Rob Grant, Doug Naylor
DIRECTION
Director: Ed Bye
PHOTOGRAPHY
Lighting Director: John Pomphrey
Camera Supervisor: Melvyn Cross
OB Lighting: David Parker, Gordon White
OB Camera: Rocket
Vision Supervisor: Len Greenhalgh
EDITING AND POST
PRODUCTION
Vision Mixer: Jill Dornan
Videotape Editor: Ed Wooden
MUSIC
Music: Howard Goodall
SOUND
Sound Supervisor: Tony Worthington
MAKE UP AND
COSTUMES
Make Up Designer: Bethan Jones
Costume Designer: Jacki Pinks
SPECIAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects Designer: Peter Wragg
DESIGN AND SET
CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Paul Montague
Prop Buyer: Mike Fallon
Graphic Designer: Mark Allen
MISCELLANEOUS
Production Team: Helen Campbell, Kate Preston
Technical Co-Ordinator: Andrew Cowley
Assistant Floor Manager: Dona DiStefano
Production Assistant: Ann Zahl
CAST
Craig Charles [Dave Lister]
Chris Barrie [Arnold Rimmer]
Danny John Jules [Cat]
Norman Lovett [Holly]
John Abineri [Rimmer's dad]
Debbie Ash [Marilyn Monroe]
Jeremy Austin [Rathbone]
Nigel Carrivick [the captain]
Tony Hawkins [McGruder]
Tina Jenkins [newsreader]
Ron Pember [the Outland Revenue taxman]
Gordon Salking [Gordon]
SUMMARY
A post pod catches up
with the Red Dwarf bringing bad news for Rimmer - his dad
had died even before the accident which killed him. But
Lister has just the thing to take his mind off things -
Better Than Life, a total immersion videogame in which
the players enter a virtual reality world. But will
Rimmer's psyche be able to cope with a perfect existence?
CAPSULE REVIEW
One of the Red Dwarf
classics. Poor Rimmer's response to the possibility of a
perfect life is wonderful as are Cat's fledgling affairs
with Miranda [half fish / half woman] and Marilyn Monroe.
This wouldn't be the last time we saw Better Than Life
which would return with a vengeance in the excellent Back to Reality [1992].
AVAILABILITY
UK
Television Distributor: BBC
Video Distributor: BBC
TIMELINE
1988
September
13: UK - television broadcast [on BBC2]
2001
August
4:
UK - television broadcast [on UK Gold]
REFERENCES
BOOKS
Red Dwarf Programme Guide [3rd
edition] pp.76-78
review, synopsis
OTHER SOURCES
screen
credits KEYWORDS
spaceships; cryogenics; cats; holograms;
computers; virtual reality; computer games;
authoritarianism
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