Why Rimmer IS Red Dwarf (Link) News Posted by John Hoare on 16th July 2005, 00:05 You know the last time we did an article? February 24th. Nearly five months ago. It’s a fucking disgrace, frankly. So, to compensate, we thought we still wouldn’t do any work, and make the lovely Tanya Jones do it instead. So here it is. Enjoy. I’d write long pieces about characters myself you know, but I’m too busy wondering about what kind of cameras they used. As for future G&T plans, sadly BIG DJ SURPRISE has fallen through… but we might have a SMALL DJ SURPRISE instead. And watch this space for more stuff soon…
“With the crew liberated from Red Dwarf, there are fewer instances of character-based comedy, but Series III throws up some corkers, such as the conversation between a marooned Lister and Rimmer in, er, Marooned, which reveals that Rimmer was so emotionally scarred by his sadistic father that he divorced his parents at the age of 14.” Rimmer said that he divorced his parents at the age of 14 to Lister when they were in the Obervation Dome in “Better Than Life”. The rest of the article is very good. I really want to read the article about Rimmer in series VII and VIII if it is written.
Series III also contains ‘The Last Day’ – itself responsible for much character stuff. Lister pool table stuff for example. Does anyone else *really* love this episode? Quite underated – a lot of back story is present, packs an emotional punch and is a lot of fun.
Yes, actually. That’s my favourite episode of series III, by quite a long way. Some of the snappiest lines (“Star Trek crap” and all that), and the party dialogue scenes are great. And it’s got Rimmer’s finest “Alright, miladdo!” moment.
Yeah, The Last Day is one of the top ever episodes in my view. Any episode where the crew get pissed seems to be great (‘Memory’ is my all-time favourite). I think I prefer Last Day over Marooned because it features all the crew, and because Robert really nails it big time. Anyway, it’s a great article but I wouldn’t say that Rimmer alone IS Red Dwarf. Of course, it’s considerably more shit without him, but it’s mainly to do with the Rimmer/Lister dynamic. Sure, Rimmer is a way more interesting character (he’s a ‘damaged’ character, perfect to explore in writing), but he needs Lister, just like Lister needs Rimmer. Me2 perfectly illustrates this – when Rimmer thinks he’s finally gonna be in decent company and away from Lister it just doesn’t work. Same goes for Lister. He lives to wind up Rimmer, so when he can hum all he wants in the quarters it’s pointless because it isn’t pissing off Rimmer. When Holly says he brought him back to keep Lister sane he wasn’t lying. I agree that Lister is usually seen as the main character because he’s the ‘everyman’. The last human. The first two series begin with ‘Dave Lister, a lifeform that evolved from his cat, and his dead bunkmate’. That straightaway sets him up as the main character.
Well, of course all the best episodes are the Rimmer centric ones. For example, the best episode of Series VIII – Cassandra, the best bits of VII – The Rimmer Experience and bits of Stoke. Lovely article by that Jjones woman.
>Confidence & Paranoia becoming dull every time the focus is taken off Rimmer. Am I really the only person who enjoys this episode? Ahem. The rest of the article… Very nice, well-written. I can’t argue with any of it because it’s something of which I convinced myself already: Rimmer is the emotional / psychological / literary crux of the show…you’ve done a very good job illustrating that, even picking up on quite a lot that I hadn’t. Way to go, Tanya.
>Rimmer said that he divorced his parents at the age of 14 to Lister when they were in the Obervation Dome in “Better Than Life”. Oops a daisy. That article was written in a hurry before my trip to India, so I suppose I was bound to miss out something. Ta!
