The UK Sci-Fi TV Book Guide: Red Dwarf: Backwards by Rob Grant

Backwards is an original novel which also incorporates the story from two episodes of the television series. Like Last Human which was written by Doug Naylor, Backwards continues from the end of Better Than Life.

Script Writers
Rob Grant and
Doug Naylor

Television Details
30 Minutes / BBC2 / Colour

14/03/91 Dimension Jump
21/10/93 Gunmen of the Apocalypse

Archive Details / DVD Releases
Dimension Jump is from Season Four (Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / HMV.com)
Gunmen of the Apocalypse is from Season Six (Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / HMV.com)

Red Dwarf: Backwards

Publisher Viking Format Hardback Publication Date 1996
Original Price UNKNOWN ISBN UNKNOWN Country UK

Red Dwarf: Backwards

Dave Lister has finally found his way back to the planet Earth. Which is good.

What's bad is that time isn't running in quite the right direction. And if he doesn't get off the planet soon, he's going to have to go through puberty again. Backwards.

Still, his crewmates have come to rescue him. Which is good.

What's bad is that they consist of a robot with a hyperactive guilt chip, a creature who evolved from cats, and a dead man. And if they fail, Lister will carry on growing younger until he becomes a baby, then an embryo...

And finally, he'll meet a very sticky end indeed.

Rejoin the trepid band of space zeroes from RED DWARF and BETTER THAN LIFE — Lister, Rimmer, Holly and the Cat — as they continue their epic journey through frontal-lobe-knotting realities where none dare venture but the bravest of the brave, the boldest of the bold or the feeblest of the feeble-minded.

Publisher Penguin Books Format Paperback Publication Date 1996 Original Price £5.99 ISBN 0-14-017150-9 Country UK

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Cover image supplied by
Anthony Forth

Cervený Trpaslík: Pozpátku

Publisher Argo Format Paperback Publication Date 2003 Original Price UNKNOWN ISBN 8072036479 Translator Ladislav Senkyrík Country Czech Republic

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In the Press

DreamWatch
Issue 23 — Review (10/10)

SFX
Issue 13 — Review (A-)

General Notes

Backwards was the last of four Red Dwarf novels to be released, all of which re-worked ideas from the TV series to a greater or lesser extent, and often in ways that completely contradicted the events on screen.

By the time Last Human was published, in 1995, the Grant and Naylor writing partnership had broken up and they had gone their seperate ways, resulting in them both writing their own Red Dwarf novels completely independently. However, in a rather bizarre twist, both writers chose to have their books carry on the story from the end of the second novel, Better Than Life...

The final two seasons of the television series, in 1997 and 1999, were primarily written by Doug Naylor, with occasional help from other writers new to the series.
The original scripts to both of the novelised episodes in Backwards have also been released in published. Dimension Jump appeared in Primordial Soup and Backwards was published in Son of Soup.