Fatal Extraction

In 1987, departing producer Ray Butt informed John Sullivan that he thought Only Fools and Horses had run its course and advised him to end the show with that year's Christmas special, The Frog's Legacy. Fortunately, Sullivan didn't take that advice but he did acknowledge Butt's implication that the show's formula had gone stale. Sullivan addressed this by making Only Fools and Horses less about just Get Rich Quick schemes and more about the personal and romantic lives of the Trotters, leading to a deeper emotional impact that made the series more gripping. Though this change resulted in two more series and six more Christmas specials, by 1993's Fatal Extraction the revised formula was also beginning to get repetitive. After a whole series and a couple of specials in which Rodney and Cassandra's marital strife played a prominent part, Sullivan finally reconciled them but then quickly moved onto writing similar problems for Del and Raquel. By this stage Only Fools and Horses existed only as an annual festive event and, while there was a laudable realism to the romantic difficulties these characters faced, the downbeat nature of their endless fallings out was beginning to leave a bad taste after a bellyful of Christmas pudding.

Fatal Extraction lasts for 85 minutes and for a good deal of that runtime it meanders. It often does so entertainingly, with plenty of good gags and smart dialogue to keep the interest up, but it ultimately becomes a bit wearing just following Del and Rodney from flat to pub to van and hearing them thrash out the same issues of male pride and relationship crises. The actual plot, involving an apparently obsessive dental receptionist who begins haunting Del after he cancels a date he impulsively arranged with her, is a half-hearted riff on Fatal Attraction, already a tired reference point by the time this episode aired. Fatal Extraction spends so long just hanging out with the characters that it doesn't leave itself enough time to properly develop the central premise, meaning that the strange atmosphere falls flat rather than inspiring the sense of entertaining unease at which it appears to be aiming.

There are plenty of big laughs in Fatal Extraction, including some of the best Trigger jokes Sullivan ever wrote, while other sequences are notable for their unusually ambitious staging, such as a scene of a drunken Del serenading the entirety of Nelson Mandela House, or some comparatively large scale depictions of rioting. But other moments fail to land completely, such as a highly unlikely reveal about Marlene being an old girlfriend Del was struggling to remember, or an over-the-top scene of police and rioters standing aside to let Del through in the Capri Ghia. The final image is thoroughly predictable and wholly unsatisfying, leaving the episode on a disappointingly depressing note. As Only Fools and Horses would subsequently disappear for three years, many people assumed that this would be the final episode, and what a peculiar and unfitting final note this would've been. Fortunately, Sullivan was presumably just taking the time to work out how to appropriately end a series that has clearly run its course. The subsequent Christmas trilogy of 1996 delivered that perfect ending, while the 21st century comeback episodes proved that the show really had run out of steam. If only that wonderful final trilogy had remained as the official denouement... but that's a story for another time.

In the wake of the extended disappearance of Only Fools and Horses from the festive schedules and then its triumphant return, the peculiar anomaly of Fatal Extraction was largely forgotten. It's not one of the more frequently repeated or discussed episodes and it does fall well short in terms of plot, but for fans there are still plenty of good lines and funny gags to relish.

Another hot and cold one for me. The story is quite intriguing and many of the themes are pretty serious but for some reason, perhaps because of these very reasons, some of the gags don't work.

When it's good; it's good and the actors still seem to enjoy playing their characters. John Sullivan seems to still enjoy writing them. It's just that some elements of this one don't quite work, in my opinion.

Another good but not great episode.

Not since the early 1980s had the show actually had Xmas Specials that featured Xmas as part of the story, so it was nice to finally get one that does, and what a Christmas Cracker it proved to be. The title is a play on Fatal Attraction and the episode takes the core essence of that serious thriller and turns it into a riot of gags and situations. Dentist problems, stalking, trying to get pregnant, estate riot and of course the stress of Xmas are all played out with splendid results. The screenplay gives Del and Raquel the chance to play deadly serious as their relationship hits problems, but this also produces some seriously funny moments as the fall out takes them elsewhere… Lovely Jubbly. 9/10

This is not a very good episode, neither plot-wise not comedy-wise. It feels too long and drawn out. The plot stumbles most of the time, not knowing where it wants to go. There are just too many subplots, and they are barely connected, so this feels like a bunch of random ideas thrown together and barely connected. There are too many long scenes of conversations that appear out of nowhere and lead nowhere. Del trying to remember who the girl he dated so long ago was, just pops out of nowhere and feels completely artificial. And the whole idea of Del not remembering that he dated Marlene makes absolutely no sense. He has known Boycie all his life, so when it turned out that his casual girlfriend was actually going steady with Boycie at the same time, not to mention that Boycie would marry her later, Del would surely remember that very well. The whole supposedly creepy situation with the supposedly creepy receptionist never lands and just feels like a dud. In addition, the whole affair is just rehashing of old themes, only this time it is Del and Raquel, not Rodney and Cassandra.

Most of the jokes are just not funny. Sullivan obviously couldn't think of something actually funny, so he used the old, worn out trick of going over the top instead. Unfortunately, that never works. Over the top, ridiculous or silly is not the same as funny. The Trigger jokes here are an example of that, it is just painful to watch how Trigger's stupidity is so completely blown out of proportion in pursuit of laughs that never come. And the rioting scene where the combatants stop and separate to let Del pass was just embarrassing.

Comparing the specials that came after season 7, Miami Twice was probably worse than this, but this is not much better.