It’s Filosophy, innit News Posted by John Hoare on 17th May 2007, 07:55 Red Dwarf and the Meaning of Life. Oh, and The Holoship Enlightenment has a review of Queeg. That is all.
I find it delightful that Red Dwarf is appealing to philosophy enthusiasts, physics experts, and fans of great comedy. Also, thank you for the plug. Very nice of you ^_^ .
‘Ah, The Inquisitor and Queeg, easily two of the best episodes of this programme we call Red Dwarf.’ Well… no. The Inquisitor’s overpacked plot impacts on the humour and I wasn’t very impressed by the ‘you fell for the reversing time gauntlet trick’ resolution. If we look back on the ‘Heavy Science’ approach of Series 5, it is overshadowed by episodes that get the plot-humour balance right like the truly great episodes Back to Reality and Quarantine. Though I do like it and it is much better than Demons and Angels.
Oh man, I love The Inquisitor. I think it’s got plenty of laughs…definitely one of my earliest favorites. And I never did quite understand the lack of love for Demons and Angels.
Series V is wholely excellent but The Inquisitor is a choice cut. If I were to pick my 6 favourite episodes that would probably be there. Let’s see – Future Echoes Thanks For The Memory The Last Day Dimension Jump The Inquisitor Gunmen I honestly didn’t mean for that to come out as one per series.
As someone who is doing a PhD about International Relations theory (I don’t know why either), I do tend to think about philosophy, and have considered the Inquisitor. I have found, like the writer, that the methods the Inquisitor used are flawed, because the basis that there can be a clear demarcation is not possible. It can be argued that people such as Hitler and Mussolini would be judged to be worthwhile- certainly Mussolini, who was the father of Fascism. On the other hand, many inspiring leaders have, once looking over their careers, said that they have not achieved as much as they have hoped- this especially applies to people involved in civil rights movements. They will certainly be cut under the Inquisitor’s method of judgement. However, I doubt that Rob and Doug were readers of writers such as Kant :P
I also love The Inquisitor. I can’t see it as being any more plotty than any other Series V episode – after all, most of the second half is just running around avoiding the guy! If any episode sacrifices humour for plot, it’s Back To Reality – although it doesn’t matter, because it’s so fucking good. I also love Demons, although I do think it’s the weakest episode in V. But I’ve always thought it brings up some interesting questions as to the nature of good and evil. It’s hardly healthy for the Highs to not actually care that the Lows are going round murdering everybody. Just accepting murder is not actually “succulent and divine”. And liking horror movies is not “low and base”, either. In fact, they’re COMPLETELY the wrong way around…
The fact that Demons & Angels is (arguably) the weakest of series V just shows what a brilliant series it is. V and II (sorry, I mean ‘2’ of course…) are the best by a cuntry mile.
