Let’s Talk About Officer Rimmer (on UKTV Play) News Posted by Jonathan Capps on 7th October 2016, 08:30 Officer Rimmer will be strutting its way onto the interwebs at some point this very day, in which we’ll finally see Rimmer utterly failing to learn the lessons of Me2. If you want a comfy place to discuss the newest of new episodes then park yourself right here for the foreseeable future. OFFICER RIMMER IS NOW ONLINE As is customary by this point, we’ll be publishing our big Talking Points for the episode this evening, and following up with a more in-depth Review in the coming days. Finally, we’ll be casting the pod that we broadcast LIVE last night discussing Give & Take. It also says here in my notes that Ian would like to thank everyone who listened live and joined in the discussion last night. It’s true, he really does care about you.
Ian called me someone who just recreates things. And he’d be right, the big flaxen haired sod, he’s seen through my nonsense.
Officer Rimmer will be strutting its way onto the interwebs at some point this very day, in which we’ll finally see Rimmer utterly failing to learn the lessons of Me2. And Rimmerworld.
The make-up job on the ship captain is genuinely unnerving close-up, the hard ridges between the incorrect printing is giving me the heebie-jeebies.
Right, apologies for clogging up this thread so early but has Doug had a stroke and lost the ability to end an episode on a woofer? That just hard cut to the credits, no final joke, no little 30 second ease-off from the main plot and danger element, no exploratory thoughts about Rimmer relinquishing officer status or anything of the sort. ONE of those would’ve done nicely. That was a great, great episode, completely fucking ruined by the ending. 1/10. I’m really annoyed right now.
I’m going to have to watch this one again before I post. I really didn’t like it (which is pretty sad, because it was the episode I had the highest expectations for).
No kidding that the ending is abrupt. Another good episode overall, but I hope they will consider taking a second editing pass on XII. The endings are all way too abrupt, and if I hear that same musical sting again I might cry.
Well i kinda enjoyed it, i would have liked to have seen more of the Rimmer printed clones though as thats the part i found the most fun, the effects were good and Chris performed all of the Rimmers very well. Although the promotion and de-promotion techniques i dunno if it makes much sense, a bio-printed captain ranks him as officer making it legit, even if we looked at it like to Rimmer its legit it was still odd all Rimmer had to do was say he resigns and everything is fixed. The use of the word “Fags” is one that took me by surprised, its like dougs trying to make the crew use british slang for comedy alot more then they used too.
Whats interesting is how if you look at Series 10 there is a feeling that doug is trying to do multiple plot stories whole with this episode and the last episode it kinda still feels like way even though its all one story, there seems to be stuff happening in the first 20 minutes and then the next 10 minutes or less is the more ambitious plot which ends up feeling abit rushed. I put that down to doug really trying to be ambitious, or maybe over ambitious. The Rimmer Monster though i liked, id have rathered the majority of the episode been about crew putting up with the bio-printed Rimmers tbh.
So, I’ve just watched it. Yeah… not sure how I feel to be honest. Kind of mixed right now. I’ll know for sure after a couple watches, but I’m going to try to wait till broadcast for the next watch. I will say I thought that much like Samsara, I was surprised once the credits rolled. I felt like they could’ve done with just one more minute and an extra scene.
Rushed ending aside, that for me was the strongest ep so far, in an already very strong season. The crew’s dynamic, the comedy grounded in both character and concept, the sheer ambition and the inventive use of sci-fi ideas. All stone cold brilliant. Yes, I’d have wanted a small coda to wrap up but that was still a slice of prime Red Dwarf. I’m delighted with series XI!
The ending was completely jarring but I have to say that’s probably my favourite episode thus far. I was pretty shocked with the body horror elements. Really creeped me out.
Quite a letdown of an episode for me. It started very strongly and unravelled in such a way as I’ve ever known a Dwarf episode to do. Plus it has another of the abrupt endings this series is enjoying. Only more so than its predecessors. Shame. Least satisfying episode of XI so far in my eyes. Maybe even of the Dave era.
Now that’s what I call a sudden ending. Seems intentional as if the effects shot of the Rimmer monster exploding didn’t work and they decided to cut it short. But considering the episode is on the shorter end already, it is an odd decision not to have final scene with them all back in the bunkroom. Terrorform mixed with Rimmerworld. Overall result? Terrorform or Rimmerworld.
In typical Red Dwarf fashion we should have had the monster explode, the crew look at the Rimmer remains, there is a joke, episode ends. Trim abit down early in the episode doug and you could have had that in under 20 seconds of screen time I like the idea of the episode though, it was fun, but like with Holoship where they cut alot out and managed to fit in into a 30 minute this episode was only struggling on the faults of the lack of editing
Enjoyed that, lots of great gags, but fewer and further between than the previous episodes. Really nice plot, good to see Rimmer fucking over the rest of them again, which is something we haven’t seen for quite a while. Hints of Balance of Power and Quarantine in that, but a definite continuation rather than just copying ideas. Rimmer Monster was fantastic, really quite sinister. But Jesus Christ that ending was horrendous. Samsara at least ended on something resembling a resolution, but this seemed to cut out halfway through a scene. I have no idea what’s going on there and I don’t like it. Despite the V-esque lightning, it felt overall like a IV episode to me. Still enough of the ‘life aboard ship’ stuff of the earlier days, bookended with some action bits. Really didn’t like the black tie on Rimmer’s officer costume. Made it look really ill fitting for some reason. Good performances all round, apart from Chris who was very Rimmer-esque at times, but sometimes stepped way too far into broad performance. Overall it was on part with Twentica for me – as good as the best bits of X but not quite as great as the last couple.
One thing i will say is the episodes this series are more enjoyable and fun then Series X, they really are pushing the boat out to do series 3 to 5 type episodes but there are times where the ambition outweighs the execution.
Yet to watch the finished article, but yeah..the ending seemed particularly odd when it was recorded. Ray Peacock/Ian Boldsworth had to tell the audience the episode was finished and there was a discernible “huh?” from the crowd. Even a creaky “Rimmer, you’re so self-absorbed” line would have done. Pretty sure I preferred this to Twentica. Certain I preferred it to Samsara. Looking forward to seeing the finished article.
The first episode of XI that has disappointed me so far. That ending was pathetic. I was genuinely confused when the credits started rolling; I assumed they were doing an Ab Fab and would properly wrap up the episode after, but no, it was just over. I know I’m just stating what everyone else has already said, but the point needs to be hammered home; you can’t just end an episode like that.
I can’t believe I’m about to say this. ‘Only The Good…’ no longer has the worst episode ending in Red Dwarf. YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS, NAYLOR?
I’m not sure if I’m knee-jerk reacting here, but I really really hated that episode. I barely laughed and the ending is atrocious. Ugh. Sorry but that’s a thumbs down from me.
Sadly, I’m right there with you redhead65. For me, it’s the only episode of the entire Dave era that I’ve felt this negatively about on a first watch (and I liked the previous episodes, faults included). The concept really should’ve made it work, but the writing, the acting (for the most part), and that ending … It just didn’t do it for me I’m afraid.
The bio-printed Rimmers was such a rich comedic idea and while we have seen multiple Rimmer episodes before i think they could have done more with it for this episode, its a shame Doug didn’t. I thought chris held up the episode quite well though.
Absolutely loved that. Bloody wonderful Red Dwarf. Yes its not Me2 and they acknowledge that its in that tradition with terrorform and rimmer world and even Blue i would say. But for me that makes it, older rimmer making the same mistakes again, is so human, and this really is more like Balance of power sequel than any of the multi rimmers. But some glorious rimmer acting from main rimmer and all the little background rimmers. Some of the club entrances made me laugh. And the monster rimmer, i assume thats the thing you only saw a mock up of on the night of recording Jo? I watched this on my small iPhone screen, which maybe was for the best, will see what I think when I see It larger. So strong through out for me, the only thing that got anywhere near a quibble from me was did we get the “escape pod, Escaped gag repeated?” Someone give doug better notes if he’s forgotten series XI. I hear by dub this series. Red Dwarf: Eleve The series with the sudden endin
Oddly i got futurama vibes from the Rimmer Monster, i dunno why, its defo something i could see Rob and Doug doing in the early days, excluding perhaps the pac-man joke but i didn’t mind that one.
Ive got a better end gag. The crew relaxing all back to normal and A ship full of bio printed listers turns up called the ss cold call , asking if red dwarf wants new patio windows. They turn off the lights and pretend to be out.
That was hilarious and ambitious, special effects were amazing, character stuff was amazing, sets were amazing but that ending. Christ almighty that’s a bad ending. What’s going on, are UKTV really strict with time or something? Samsara wasn’t that bad, Give & Take was a bit abrupt, that was like a power cut. The ending really took away from it and is no doubt going to dominate discussion which is a real shame.
That Red Dwarf episode was mostly great……infact I’d even say it was an ending away from being brilliant, unfortunately it literally didn’t have an ending!
I think in reality they ran out of fx’s budget or thought it too gross to show exploding pile of rimmers. They could have all yelled “gazpacho soup” though as they went!!!
I liked that episode for the most part (although I found the Captain printed by the faulty bio-printer to be genuinely repulsive, really hard to look at for me), and the multiple-Rimmers stuff was as good as I’d hoped. It was a good classic Red Dwarf premise (although again there was obviously a need felt to acknowledge ‘yes, we’ve done this before’ with Kryten’s line about multiple Rimmers not working out well in the past) and it was brought to life well. As for the ending though, I disagree that it was a bad ending because of the sudden cut – I think it was a bad ending pretty much from the point at which the Rimmer-monster was created. At that point it felt like all of the character comedy of the episode dropped out and it became a silly monster-movie parody, which is fine in an of itself but didn’t really feel like an effective resolution to the more interesting premise of the rest of the story. A bit like DNA really.
One thing I’ve been wanting to mention – and has really bothered me the most in this episode – is frankly the over-use of Series I-II Red Dwarf fly-by music cues. Even when I was a kid watching Series VIII in it’s original airing in ’99, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way how they brought it back after so long. Yes I know they were obviously harkening back to the early days but it just never felt right to me as the show had moved from that since III, and it still doesn’t feel right to me. Especially when they use it over Starbug shots. IIRC, every Red Dwarf ship shot in this ep has the theme playing and I’m pretty sure they use it for consecutive scenes where at one point, less than a minute passes by between each model shot. Don’t get me wrong, I love the music cues and always will but I just don’t think they need to use it for EVERY model shot of Red Dwarf! I just wish there was different cues for some Red Dwarf fly-bys or even no music at all, like you’d sometimes get in III-V. Even in II, they had variations on the theme or different cues. I don’t know if it’s a budgetary thing and it’s probably only me who feels this way, but I just feel like they’ve been over-using it a bit. I’d like it if they let Howard Goodall try something new and different for some of the fly-bys, like he did in II-V.
Yeah they need to raid the music cues for a bit of variation. I’d love some of the funky ‘on a mission’ stuff from Series II – V. It’d be interesting if someone with the time and capabilities could get some of the isolated music cues off the DVDs and do a redub.
I think in reality they ran out of fx’s budget or thought it too gross to show exploding pile of rimmers. Probably wasn’t FX budget since they could easy have just not shown it and had the crew be splattered with Rimmer guts or something, how cheap would that be, thats not to say thats how it should have gone but obviously the ending we got was pretty much Doug in the editing room feeling that he didn’t wanna cut anything else out so the ending would probably be ok.
Right. Not quite as good as Give & Take, but still a ripper of an ep. I liked the whole Bio-Printing concept, and I could have sworn they would bring the Lister genome thing back at the end. The Rimmer Monster was actually creeping me out, even when Asclepius didn’t last week (not to knock a great villain though). I loved the Officers Club scene too, especially the Rimmer who just shrugs when he passes the others. This episode had quite a bit going for it. Then it ended. I’ll echo what everyone else has said – that (lack of) ending was fucking horrible. It’s put a dampener on what was otherwise a really good episode. The sudden cut right into the theme song made me think it was a time constraint problem, but if Pete Part Three said they recorded it like that, then I have no clue what Mr. Naylor was thinking. It wouldn’t take much, even if there was no room for special effects. Here’s an example: *They shoot the Rimmer Monster, cut to close-up of them shielding their eyes as blue light erupts and dies suddenly. Cut to close-up of the floor, where a scattering of pens is seen surrounded by smoke. Cue the “self-absorbed” joke PPT suggested. Roll credits.* That’s like, an extra fifteen seconds, max. If that was how it ended I’d think it was a bit abrupt but it would leave me with a much higher opinion of the episode, and it certainly wouldn’t leave me with a bitter taste in my mouth. I’m actually angry. I can’t believe I’m actually angry. I don’t think I have a right to be angry over this, but I am. Still, great episode for the most part. Still shaping up to be the best series in decades. Just end the episodes properly please. That’s all I ask, because that’s all that’s needed.
One thing I’ve been wanting to mention – and has really bothered me the most in this episode – is frankly the over-use of Series I-II Red Dwarf fly-by music cues. Even when I was a kid watching Series VIII in it’s original airing in ’99, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way how they brought it back after so long. Yes I know they were obviously harkening back to the early days but it just never felt right to me as the show had moved from that since III, and it still doesn’t feel right to me. Especially when they use it over Starbug shots. IIRC, every Red Dwarf ship shot in this ep has the theme playing and I’m pretty sure they use it for consecutive scenes where at one point, less than a minute passes by between each model shot. Don’t get me wrong, I love the music cues and always will but I just don’t think they need to use it for EVERY model shot of Red Dwarf! I just wish there was different cues for some Red Dwarf fly-bys or even no music at all, like you’d sometimes get in III-V. Even in II, they had variations on the theme or different cues. I don’t know if it’s a budgetary thing and it’s probably only me who feels this way, but I just feel like they’ve been over-using it a bit. I think this was mentioned on one of the previous episodes’ discussion threads too, and I really started to notice it here.
Hey everyone, I found the revised Marooned on the Grant Naylor server! Sorry. So that was what was missing from that episode, i knew it was something.
What i would have cut to make room for it is the tv channel joke, not only did i think it was abit odd they would have tv packages like that but it wasn’t that great.
Hey everyone, I found the revised Marooned on the Grant Naylor server! Sorry. Doesn’t end early enough, it needs to end just after Cat and Kryten walk through the door. I really want prematurely ending old episodes to become the next #dwarffacts now.
One thing I’ve been wanting to mention – and has really bothered me the most in this episode – is frankly the over-use of Series I-II Red Dwarf fly-by music cues. Even when I was a kid watching Series VIII in it’s original airing in ’99, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way how they brought it back after so long. Yes I know they were obviously harkening back to the early days but it just never felt right to me as the show had moved from that since III, and it still doesn’t feel right to me. Especially when they use it over Starbug shots. IIRC, every Red Dwarf ship shot in this ep has the theme playing and I’m pretty sure they use it for consecutive scenes where at one point, less than a minute passes by between each model shot. Don’t get me wrong, I love the music cues and always will but I just don’t think they need to use it for EVERY model shot of Red Dwarf! I just wish there was different cues for some Red Dwarf fly-bys or even no music at all, like you’d sometimes get in III-V. Even in II, they had variations on the theme or different cues. I don’t know if it’s a budgetary thing and it’s probably only me who feels this way, but I just feel like they’ve been over-using it a bit. I’d like it if they let Howard Goodall try something new and different for some of the fly-bys, like he did in II-V. I enjoy hearing the early Series music cues as the remastered version had a different version that was also used in Series 8 and back to earth so its nice hearing the original series 1 and 2 versions back as they were much better but i do agree that they may over do it abit with repeated cues, maybe they could take some from Series 3 once and a while which may not have been as good but it gives some variation and is similar enough.
What i would have cut to make room for it is the tv channel joke, not only did i think it was abit odd they would have tv packages like that but it wasn’t that great. TV/Game packages were alluded to in Father and Sons. I’m not opposed to the idea that there would be different packages available on board the ship, and that since Lister came out of Stasis he has just been running the absolutely everything package or whatever because he can and doesn’t have to pay for it. Now Rimmer has come along and somehow tampered with a setting somewhere. My only complaint with this bit is that he did nothing but serve as another example of Rimmer’s power getting the better of him. They could have done that another way with vending machines refusing to dispense food or something, but I guess Doug wanted to get the TV stuff in there for some reason.
Hey everyone, I found the revised REVISED Marooned on the Grant Naylor server! I’m really, really sorry.
Hey everyone, I found the revised REVISED Marooned on the Grant Naylor server! I’m really, really sorry. This is why they’re re-releasing them on Bluray isn’t it?
As rushed as the endings in Twentica and G&T were at least they wrapped the stories up nicely. Just half a minute more would have done it. Look at the ending to DNA – curry monster defeated, quick Lister gag, reaction shot, credits. We don’t get to see Kryten or Lister being changed back but it still works as an ending. Such a shame that this is what Officer Rimmer will be remembered for because I chuffing loved everything else about it!
Hey everyone, I found the revised REVISED Marooned on the Grant Naylor server! I’m really, really sorry. Fantastic.
I personally absolutely loved this episode. I think it’s the most coherent and best structured story wise so far. Something that has been getting stronger with each episode. Sure the ending was very abrupt, more so than other episodes this series, however, it doesn’t make me feel so negative about it that it has some of you apparently. To say it turns it into a 1/10 is a bit extreme in my view but there we go. I’m one that appreciates the journey regardless of the destination (which is why I love Lost). I think my favourite gag was probably Kryten telling Lister how to wipe the templates of the body printing machine, Roberts delivery there was spot on. The Rimmer monster was cool, though I kinda wish they had savoured the reveal a bit, have them chased by a large figure in the shadows for a bit before we see it, but whatever, it was another great concept to add to the rest from this series. Oh, and I think we can expect another asteroid mission in the game now too, which will make at least 3. Kinda get the feeling Doug was maybe writing these episodes with the game in mind, write scenes and plot that can be turned into a game levels etc. Actually on that point, a lot of the game levels are from bits of the story not seen on screen. Maybe there’ll be a bit in the game that ends this better than the episode managed to
What i would have cut to make room for it is the tv channel joke, not only did i think it was abit odd they would have tv packages like that but it wasn’t that great. TV/Game packages were alluded to in Father and Sons. I’m not opposed to the idea that there would be different packages available on board the ship, and that since Lister came out of Stasis he has just been running the absolutely everything package or whatever because he can and doesn’t have to pay for it. Now Rimmer has come along and somehow tampered with a setting somewhere. My only complaint with this bit is that he did nothing but serve as another example of Rimmer’s power getting the better of him. They could have done that another way with vending machines refusing to dispense food or something, but I guess Doug wanted to get the TV stuff in there for some reason. The TV packages is very much what Doug is into now days and thats social commentary, in the early days the idea was to be futuristic and ahead of its time while now Dougs trying to make the future an over exaggeration of the present which is not a bad thing like with the bio-printed stuff but perhaps one of the reasons the early series of Red Dwarf still holds up today is because they didn’t try to be of the moment. I hope there is enough material in these TV packages 3 million years in the future ;p
There were a few things that I didn’t like in the first half. The overwriting seemed to have crept in a bit (the lift sequence could have been tighter, for example), and I didn’t really like the “wacky printer” prop. But I was happy with everything overall. Pretty great. Then in the second half it really fell apart. It started off okay (Skutters in hard hats…Oh dear.) and then Kryten did his “If you think I’m going to help you out” bit, and the Rimmers started turning up. It was all very ‘LOL’. Let’s all suggest an ending. VOLLEY OF BAZOOKOID FIRE. LISTER (to freshly demoted Rimmer) “You really are a steaming pile, aren’t you?” Cut to smouldering heap of Rimmers. A monkey rides past on a penny farthing, blowing a trumpet. ROLL CREDITS ?
This would have been my favourite episode if it didn’t pull a Soprano’s with the ending……thankfully in this case though, it’s not the final episode. Still I think that ending really let down an episode that was by and large a really fun and ambitious episode, and I appreciate seeing Dwarf go down the Body Horror road.
I enjoy hearing the early Series music cues as the remastered version had a different version that was also used in Series 8 and back to earth so its nice hearing the original series 1 and 2 versions back as they were much better but i do agree that they may over do it abit with repeated cues, maybe they could take some from Series 3 once and a while which may not have been as good but it gives some variation and is similar enough. What were the differences between the music cues used in Series I & II and Re-mastered/ VIII ? They sound exactly the same to me.
After the volley of bazookoid fire, maybe they should have cut to an aftermath scene where Rimmer is in dirty overalls on his hands and knees having to clean up all the body parts/detritus/pens left by the exploded monster, as Lister is pointing out that the ship’s rules expressly state that Third Technicians aren’t classed as qualified to dispose of bio-matter (but Second Technicians are). Or something like that, but funnier. Basically, I think it needs a gag that humiliates Rimmer and ties back into the issues of class/rank of the rest of the episode.
For me I would rank the episodes so far as: Twentica – 8 Samsara – 5 Give And Take – 8 Officer Rimmer – 7? (might be higher is that ending stops bugging me as much as it does now)
Very disappointing sadly. And the Peter Key / Absorbalof villain from Doctor Who returning as the Rimmer Monster was uninspired. Given that old school Dwarf played with class and the system built upon it, I would have liked to see more focus on that during the plot. Not to mention a longer rendition of the Rimmer Quartet. All in all a half hearted episode created entirely to make Chris play multiple Rimmers and to play with the special effects a bit more.
I agree the ending is a problem but for me – an abrupt ending doesn’t undo all the good that went before it. Still super stuff. As of now… Twentica – 7 Samsara – 7 Give And Take – 8 Officer Rimmer – 9
I do like that Doug is seemingly more willing to take Red Dwarf down bizarre roads again to the point it becomes somewhat surreally comedic. From what I heard from the set reports, that seems to be a road that series XII travels down more. Much of the time series X felt like Doug was really playing it safe, but this series he really seems to be running with his imagination more.
Well that was completely bonkers wasn’t it? I was really enjoying it and then it suddenly ended right in the middle of an action scene. Weird. Good to see monster chases through corridors again (I can see the Pac-Man Rimmer Monster becoming a game, or part of the game). Any episode with Rimmer overflowing with smugness is good in my book. This time we had two skutters! Me2 meets Rimmerworld was as fun as I thought it would be, especially the Officer’s lift, corridor, club and the Rimmer Quartet. Lots of memorable moments in this episode, just finished too abruptly.
Was that the same missile from The Beginning? I for one usually like an episode more than it deserves the first time I see it, but I have to say I’m more a little surprised by the pretty overtly negative reaction. Feel free to lynch me, but I really didn’t feel jarred by the ending at all. I think it actually worked perfectly fine for this episode. Yes, it would have been more like old Red Dwarf to explode the Rimmonster and for Lister to say “Rimmer, you’re so self-absorbed” or some such thing but to me that doesn’t feel necessary to pile on top. We know the Rimmonster’s about to get exploded resolving the story, and the final jokes about the list to me served as that final jokey exchange that would normally have come after the bazookoid fire. I don’t think it needed to end like DNA is what I’m saying. I found Twentica’s ending jarring on initial viewing. I found Samsara’s ending jarring on initial viewing. I did not at all find this one jarring on initial viewing, and I’m not gonna argue that you didn’t feel jarred because obviously if you did, you did, but I would argue that on additional viewings you might find a lot less of a problem with it. Now for my bit on what I generally liked: The idea of copyrighting human DNA and selling bio-printed copies of people for labor is a nicely relevant piece of satire on things like Monsanto copyrighting their crops, which is definitely not a concept you’d see in the early ’90s. Kinda like that Series XII idea we heard. The Rimmonster was a beautiful piece of work right out of John Carpenter’s The Thing, definitely not something I was expecting to see even see even as the bio-printer was jammed full of bodies. I was just kinda expecting a 15 foot Rimmer or something like that because I am uncreative. I really can’t wait to learn more about how the Rimmonster was put together on the DVD. Fucking barbershop quartet of Rimmers. I’m so happy this exists. It’s fun seeing just how far our ability to duplicate actors has come since Me2. The Pac-Man joke might be too silly but I laughed harder at that than any joke in the series so I think being something a lot goofier than you would expect to see based on XI’s episodes thus far benefited it massively. Actually same goes for the bio-printer in general, not just the jam but the way it’s a giant inkjet, which was made all the better by the fucking dot-matrix sound effects. That was great. Hell, overall this episode was abnormally silly in places (the bio-printed captain’s face was great), but in the context of the rest of Series XI (which we know isn’t too silly) I think being extra over the top in places makes it special. Very good that it came fourth and not first, on that note.
>What i would have cut to make room for it is the tv channel joke, not only did i think it was abit odd they would have tv packages like that but it wasn’t that great. I didn’t like that bit either… Plop.
Major points for that one close-up fly-by of Starbug that didn’t feel 2D. This episode definitely had the most impressive space sequences thus far. But I have to say, did they just not make that many model shots of Red Dwarf this year? I know the original repeated the same few, but I was expecting a bit more variety in 2016, especially given that they went to the trouble of building that giant bigature. I hate the word “bigature”. How about macroture or something with a little class?
I enjoy hearing the early Series music cues as the remastered version had a different version that was also used in Series 8 and back to earth so its nice hearing the original series 1 and 2 versions back as they were much better but i do agree that they may over do it abit with repeated cues, maybe they could take some from Series 3 once and a while which may not have been as good but it gives some variation and is similar enough. What were the differences between the music cues used in Series I & II and Re-mastered/ VIII ? They sound exactly the same to me. the remastered used the same music cue over and over and it sounds like a cheaper version of the series 1 and 2 cue, its hard to explain without a comparison
Absolutely loved this episode!! My fave of the series so far!! Just a shame it needed 5 more mins I think to have been perfect.
Oooh, the ending was rather abrupt, wasn’t it?! – agree with others who say even just another 5-10 seconds with a predictable ‘insult Rimmer’ gag from Cat or Lister would’ve tied it up better. This one didn’t make me actually laugh out loud half as much as Give & Take, but I liked the plot nonetheless. Also agree they could have explored more of the duplicate Rimmers and the barber’s shop quartet. Did love the multiple Rimmer monster, and being able to stop it in its tracks by using its own personality against it (cf. Pree, Legion, etc.) Incidentally, it made me chuckle that the background music in the Officer’s Club was actually an instrumental/flute version of the Munchkin Song, which I thought was a nice nod.
All in all a half hearted episode created entirely to make Chris play multiple Rimmers and to play with the special effects a bit more. TRANSLATION: “I didn’t enjoy this, therefore they were not trying.” You did not enjoy something =/= It was lazily made and objectively sucks Doug did not spend so long fighting to get Red Dwarf back to the screen just so he could “play with special effects”. I don’t care how much you hated the episode, you cannot possibly believe that was actually the case. I think the ending worked fine, but I’m not going to declare that because I liked it nobody else found it jarring. Actually do you guys think the ending would have been improved if they had fired and cut to credits as the Rimmonster exploded a second or two later? From my experience video editing, even the littlest changes in timing can make all the difference.
Major points for that one close-up fly-by of Starbug that didn’t feel 2D. This episode definitely had the most impressive space sequences thus far. But I have to say, did they just not make that many model shots of Red Dwarf this year? I know the original repeated the same few, but I was expecting a bit more variety in 2016, especially given that they went to the trouble of building that giant bigature. I hate the word “bigature”. How about macroture or something with a little class? I was thinking that, it feels like theres 2 or 3 really close shots used for scene setting / time passing that all focus on the front of the ship / the name. I think the reason is, the “bigature” (yeah hate that word too) is one small section of the ship whereas in years past they had the whole ship to do close ups on.
Maybe its the context of the ending that we are actually missing because we are thinking to hard about it as red dwarf has ended unusual ways before, just look at stasis leak for example.
It didn’t need a whole scene. It didn’t even need a particularly good joke, or a joke at all. But it at least needed a *line*. Even something as basic as Lister saying “C’mon Second Technician Rimmer – let’s go and see if there’s any of that corridor champagne left.” would have given them a clean out. I’m really surprised that it got past so many levels of scrutiny like this, especially as this is seemingly the way it was scripted during filming.
Maybe its the context of the ending that we are actually missing because we are thinking to hard about it as red dwarf has ended unusual ways before, just look at stasis leak for example. That’s a really nice point. Especially with Stasis Leak which also ends without a resolution per se. It’s not quite the hard cut that we get with Officer Rimmer, but it is in the middle of “action” so to speak. Better Than Life is probably even closer, with them discovering they’re still in the game, Lister getting a hammer to thumb where it cuts before or just as contact is made … and again, no resolution as such. Neither of those felt as though they were particularly missing a beat though. I suppose I would liken this to Time Slides, imagine if it had ended on Rimmer blowing himself up, rather than the very last 2 or 3 seconds of Cat and Lister just totally not noticing which goes to punctuate that final scene. As I’ve said above, I don’t mind the ending as much as others, I think it’s just Doug trying at new ways of doing things, which is good otherwise the show would get stale and we’d have nothing to divide us and discuss to death for a week haha
My only complaint with this bit is that he did nothing but serve as another example of Rimmer’s power getting the better of him. They could have done that another way with vending machines refusing to dispense food or something, but I guess Doug wanted to get the TV stuff in there for some reason. That’s also been done in Queeg.
Other than the ‘quick, somebody put a quid into Red Dwarf’ lack of ending, which clearly none of us are getting past any time soon, that was the most effortlessly enjoyable episode for a very very long time. Completely plot led and the jokes came out of that, and it felt the most organic the show’s been since V. I vote for Jonsmad’s suggestion that a single FX shot and a massed “GAZPACHO SOOOOOOOOUP!” would have turned no ending into a perfect ending. Seriously though, that was as good or better than plenty of the IV-VI era it was going for – it was actively outdoing episodes/scenes it was echoing, which was refreshing. And it featured the best monster Red Dwarf’s EVER had bar none. Only one other gripe – I think they mucked up the dub on the barbershop song, it got a bit lost under the audience. Still, rather that than the over-quiet laughter on the first two shows. Last week’s and this sound like there are people close by having a good time as it should be, and I suppose obscured Howard Goodall is a price worth paying. After being unsure of Twentica and downright concerned after Samsara, XI has more than redeemed itself. Sweet relief.
Oh, something I forgot to mention in my review – I know it’s subjective, but what was with the massive applause after Kryten told Lister not to push the button to delete the DNA patterns? I mean sure, it was an amusing moment, but it didn’t seem to be round-of-applause funny…
An interesting thought, but I wonder if Doug placed this episode after “Give and Take” to imply it’s the same asteroid storm in both episodes? I mean I know that likely wasn’t the idea at the time of writing them, but maybe it swayed his decision for the episode placements.
You’re all reading the ending wrong. Lister didn’t shoot the monster. He shot the episode, killing it instantly.
I’m reminded of Peter O’Hanraha-hanrahan. The fourth episode is now winding up, THE EPISODE I’M IN IS ENDING. IT’S ENDING, CHRIS. I’M OUT, I’M OUT.
You’re all reading the ending wrong. Lister didn’t shoot the monster. He shot the episode, killing it instantly. When shooting the climax of the episode, Craig Charles accidentally fired the bazookoid at the camera, meaning that the recording had to come to an end. #DwarfFacts
That’s a really nice point. Especially with Stasis Leak which also ends without a resolution per se. It’s not quite the hard cut that we get with Officer Rimmer, but it is in the middle of “action” so to speak. Better Than Life is probably even closer, with them discovering they’re still in the game, Lister getting a hammer to thumb where it cuts before or just as contact is made … and again, no resolution as such. Neither of those felt as though they were particularly missing a beat though. I agree that these endings were fairly sudden too. However, they were a lot more satisfying. It could be because they sort of end on a joke, or it may be because we know they’re coming. Samsara’s ending for me has become more acceptable on repeated viewings for this reason. Time will tell if I get used to Officer Rimmer ending as abruptly as it did. Oh, something I forgot to mention in my review – I know it’s subjective, but what was with the massive applause after Kryten told Lister not to push the button to delete the DNA patterns? I mean sure, it was an amusing moment, but it didn’t seem to be round-of-applause funny… I imagine it’s something that plays well to an audience live. Having been at a recording myself, I know that you’re a lot more hyped up by the excitement of being there than you would be at home. I did actually applaud at that bit, on my own, at home, like a complete saddo. Maybe I’m just easily pleased!
That’s a really nice point. Especially with Stasis Leak which also ends without a resolution per se. It’s not quite the hard cut that we get with Officer Rimmer, but it is in the middle of “action” so to speak. Better Than Life is probably even closer, with them discovering they’re still in the game, Lister getting a hammer to thumb where it cuts before or just as contact is made … and again, no resolution as such. Yeah Red Dwarf has had a couple of quite random endings like that, but i guess the question is does this ending fit in with those sorta endings or is there good reason to be critical of this ending? I mean if Doug wanted to do an ended similar to those i’d be fine with it as i’d rather it not become a thing where the show has to end a certain way every episode.
I will need to give this one a rewatch before I decide how I felt about it, but it’s the first episode of Series XI not to blow me away. I don’t think there’s necessarily anything bad to take from the episode (except the ending) but the good bits just aren’t good enough. I just felt very “blah” after watching it. I’ll watch it again tonight and see how I feel on 2nd viewing.
http://noiselesschatter.com/2016/10/07/review-red-dwarf-xi-episode-4-officer-rimmer/ I reviewed Officer Rimmer but I already posted my best joke above, so just ignore this.
Just watched it, a lot of good stuff in there but not quite sure what to make of it yet. Will probably benefit from a second viewing. Alternative ending idea #437: Kryten, Rimmer and Lister go to dismantle the bioprinter and find the officer’s club populated by copies of Cat, extremely happy with himselves. Barbershop quartet optional.
i don’t think you needed an extra scene really, maybe if you had Lister say he has always wanted to shoot rimmer and then he aims at the monster and shoots as the episode ends then its sorta like a joke. Thats just an off my head example of how you could make it work without needing more time.
Really funny episode, was laughing my head off a lot. I’ll admit, the abrupt ending kinda threw me off a lot when I saw it, I was expecting a scene after the credits like in ‘The Beginning’, but on second rewatch, I didn’t mind it that much.
Did anyone else notice that in the officers club scene that the music playing in the background subtly has the tune of the Rimmer song from Blue?
Do you think Doug lost some sort of bet and had to give up the last five minutes of every episode as capital? That aside – I liked this one a lot. Like every episode in XI so far there were too many cringey moments for me (the Rimmer monster in this case, or the Ham Salad Beast as I’ll be calling it) and too many repeated ideas (at some point we are going to have to draw a line under ‘Rimmer clones himself for company’) but I still laughed a lot and really enjoyed the way the four of them bounced off each other. ‘I’ve got a cravat’. Neat SF idea, well explored, good character stuff, such effort and so many crowd-pleasing self-references, which I’m still not sick of. Bloody hell, I never thought we’d hear from ‘I’ve always got a pen’ again. I got out of my chair and cheered. I feel like I sound negative here, but I’ll watch this one loads of times and love it. And once again, Chris and Danny are really killing it this series. That’s so lovely to see.
Alternative ending idea #437: Kryten, Rimmer and Lister go to dismantle the bioprinter and find the officer’s club populated by copies of Cat, extremely happy with himselves. Barbershop quartet optional. That would have been a brilliant ending! I know a lot of people are saying how great it was, the ending aside, but I think it’s easily the weakest so far. The opening scene with Lister and the dream stuff is fucking woeful, excuse my french… (Doug really is short-changing Craig this series, so far). That wasn’t the only poor dialogue either. Also, I actually think it was Chris’s worst performance of Rimmer this series, despite it being his episode! He was much better last week, in G&T, IMO. That isn’t to say there aren’t moments of brilliance, most of them visual. The bio-printed Rimmers and Rimmer monster (especially the shots where they’ve pasted Chris’s head on several times) are an unreal feat! The most impressive the show has ever been, from a technical pov! It can’t be stressed enough how many hours of hard work there is on screen in this episode.
Did anyone else notice that in the officers club scene that the music playing in the background subtly has the tune of the Rimmer song from Blue? Third appearance now and counting! Pleasing shades of Tongue Tied hiding in Better Than Life and Stasis Leak (fun connected fact I only realised recently – every episode of II has a special, diegetic musical number in it), and the theme tune being resurrected as a leitmotif once more in the incidentals from X onwards. God, I love Howard Goodall. There are other nice quotes like that – the end of Dimension Jump quotes the “Saga Continuums” music from Backwards for a couple of bars (nice to know ‘scrolling text in Red Dwarf’ gets its own theme!), and the Camelot fanfares in Stoke Me A Clipper quote the Ace Rimmer hero theme. Oh, and there’s the hold music from Trojan being a solo re-recording of the Xpress Lift muzak from Stasis Leak, for what I’m sure has an explanation somewhere. It pays to keep your ears out – I really hope he puts out a X-XII download album so we can give it the full forensic treatment it all deserves.
I actually think it was one of Chris’s better performances because while it was a little broad I think he actually had a reason to be like that since he was also like that in meltdown when he was given a sense of authority. It’s every other episode that he is broad that bothers me because it becomes more like a caricature.
A Red Dwarf soundtrack album you say? Culled from the DVDs, tarted up and given its own artwork and everything? Now that you mention it… I’ve also been working on that as well.
I’m going to have to watch that again. Some fun, interesting elements in there, but the warm fuzzy feeling of delight that I’ve enjoyed with XI so far was distinctly absent. In fact, it felt like a Comic Relief special. I’m a little concerned that Rimmer’s ‘I dream of flying all the time’ gag was taken from a Series XII recording I attended. Sadly, I don’t think it fit any better here than it did in that. If the run time was so low that we’ve had to pull in dialogue from another episode, how on Io was the ending so… argh, a word has yet to be invented…
Well, I think I might really love this one. LOVE: – A Rimmer episode, yay! Lots of great jokes that thoroughly mine his personal issues for comedy value. – Some well explored themes, not just around the class system and abuse of power but also the potential issues of cloning. – Printer jokes! Maybe some of these were a bit too close to the Ikea furniture and sales call jokes of series 10 but I quite liked them. It would have been so easy to have the cloning device be something generic but making it printer-based allowed for some fun, relatable humour. – Rimmer quartet! So much fun, and way better than the Rimmer dolls from series 7. – The horror! A lot of the episode really felt like a horror film. The Rimmer-Thing was truly disturbing and made the perfect villain. I’m impressed at the quality of the effects as well as Chris Barrie’s pained, haunting expressions. – Great pacing. By the time the ad break came around I already felt like we’d had an episode’s worth of story. There was so much packed in. – Rimmer being a complete merciless git. Ever since Rimmer committed holocide in Back to Earth, I feel like Doug has really embraced the idea that Rimmer’s selfishness knows no moral limits. He basically killed his own brother in series 10 and here we see him fire a missile at a vulnerable ship and – it felt to me – knowingly convince the printed captain to end his life. What a git. I love how dark he’s becoming in his old age. – Kryten’s nod to the events of Me2. That’s a nice bit of continuity for the show. DIDN’T LOVE – Kryten’s face – The ending. The joke was a bit obvious and I felt it would have made much more sense to trick the Rimmer-Thing into self-expiring by convincing him that he’s completed his mission – in the same way the captain went out.
This would have been my favourite episode if it didn’t pull a Soprano’s with the ending… Someone please put the ending to Don’t Stop Believing. I really enjoyed this episode but the ending was a hell of a letdown. Even if there was a better sound mix so loud bazookoid fire bled into the theme or Lister said the final line with real intensity in a close up. It didn’t just feel like we didn’t get a good conclusion, it felt like it was terribly edited.
The opening scene with Lister and the dream stuff is fucking woeful, excuse my french… Funny what works for some folks and what doesn’t for others. I was just thinking about how much I liked that scene – I thought Lister’s dream story set up Rimmer’s very revealing one very well. Horse and courses etc.
Not read all the comments above yet, but from the few I’ve skimmed, I can tell that everyone’s a little bothered by the ending. That was an absolutely brilliant episode, had me practically choking with laughter. But the ending…pfft. And I’ve seen someone commenting about the overuse of the primary Dwarf sting. Which I thought was being overused a fortnight ago. It’s one thing revisiting the early series music-wise, a nice touch. But RDXI, so far, has used that der-derder-derr at least half a dozen times per episode so far. BUT. Ridiculously abrupt ending and needless music loops aside, what a cracking episode. TSome excellent little touches and sight gags. The officer’s corridor, the Skutters in their little hard hats, the Barbershop Quartet and accompanying song, the pacmanalike ship’s map…that could have been an absolute grade A classic. And what a great idea! 3D printing taken to the next level, with some oldskool photocopier gags. Lovely stuff. But the ending! All we ask is just a boom, a splat and a few shreds of uniform a la Timeslides. It would have been far from perfect, but a heck of a lot better than what we got.
It’s one thing revisiting the early series music-wise, a nice touch. But RDXI, so far, has used that der-derder-derr at least half a dozen times per episode so far. It’s a really specific one as well being used a lot this series, not necessarily the same one that’s been overused in the past. It’s so specifically recognisable from Future Echoes before Lister cuts himself shaving. One thing I will say is that some of the excess stings seem to be there to dress up the ad breaks and may not appear on the proper DVD edits.
It’s the one where the melody keeps descending, isn’t it? Aren’t there quite a few in the original run?
Yep, it’s got the descending call-and-response between the trumpet and the clarinet. It’s Space #4 on the series 1 DVD…
Please don’t make #DwarfFacts a thing. Ian, Cappsy, erm… the rest, please don’t. They’ve been a thing for 2,713 days and counting.
They could have done that another way with vending machines refusing to dispense food or something… Surely that would have drawn criticism, as being identical to Queeg though?
…is a nicely relevant piece of satire on things like Monsanto copyrighting their crops, I’m not going to get into the minutiae of this on a Red Dwarf fansite, but I can’t let this comment slide by unchallenged, so I fixed it for you: “…is a nicely relevant piece of satire on things like many agriculture companies patenting their crops,”.
Sooooooooooooo….. What happened to Snacky? :D The rimmer monster ate him. Lol. No. See my head cannon in the other thread, that he died last week at the bottom of the enhanced lift shaft. If he never comes back. He was squashed there.
A cracking tour de force by Chris Barrie. Classic Dwarf of taking a sci-fi concept and building a really funny episode around it. The results of the bio printer were funny/fucking terrifying. Great stuff. Do we think Lister’s cravat line was improvised? If so, props to Craig Charles as it was a great line. I’m a little surprised at how mixed the reaction is on here. The ending was abrupt, but I still loved the episode on first viewing.
Watched it once and, overall, liked it a lot. I’m usually one of the first to complain about too-broad performances in more recent series, especially Chris, but I thought he was spot on in this. Really felt like Rimmer himself was wallowing in his newfound power, and deliberately going OTT to wind up the others. I was definitely getting series 1 and 2 vibes, not VIII ones. Found his reaction to being promoted a second time especially hilarious. Having said all that, I’m a bit torn between thinking it was just great to see Rimmer back to his old weaselly, horrible self, and that sort of flying in the face of the mellowing of his character over the years, and the developments in The Beginning. Might have been interesting to address this. Maybe Lister could have brought it up, used it to try and make Rimmer see the error of his ways? Lots of great moments. Loved “I’ve got a cravat”, the Officer’s lift and corridor, all the multiple Rimmer stuff including the barbershop quartet, the make-up job on Captain Herring and the whole, disturbing concept of bio-printing, and the monster. Wasn’t so keen on the printer jokes (the bio-printer being that much like an actual printer was slightly too silly), Lister selling his genome or the dream stuff at the beginning. But all in all I loved what a bat-shit crazy episode this was, full of ideas and humour I feel like only Red Dwarf could do. Very funny, with really good character stuff as well as jokes stemming from the sci-fi ideas.
> DIDN’T LOVE – Kryten’s face Yeah, the mask looked well dodgy this week. I did think that he had the strange Michael McIntyre look from the original promo shot going on in this episode.
I really like that episode, I laughed out loud at quite a few bits. I particularly enjoyed Lister’s dream, the bio-printed oak furnitureland man (Lots of laughs and not over explained! YAY!), the Officers’ Club scenes. I actually laughed at the pac-man bit too. :P Like a lot of others I found the ending very abrupt, usually the episode would go into the end credits and they’d feel like a whole, but I felt like it threw me out of the episode, we were all a bit confused here, and it left me puzzled about how I felt about the episode as a whole. The music cue also brought me out of the episode a bit, the cue connected in my brain with resolutions/end of episode and I thought for a moment, that they were skipping past the whole bit of them solving the problem. That could well just be me though. As for the Rimmer monster, surely when they shot it, it would expire in the same way as the guy from the other ship, and multiple paper Rimmers would flutter to the floor? I do feel like we should have seen some kind of ending, I’d quite like to have seen Cat and Lister chilling in the Officers’ Club or something.
To be honest, I thought Kryten looked more like Robert than ever this week. His face looked maybe a tad too human.
Having said all that, I’m a bit torn between thinking it was just great to see Rimmer back to his old weaselly, horrible self, and that sort of flying in the face of the mellowing of his character over the years, and the developments in The Beginning. Might have been interesting to address this. Maybe Lister could have brought it up, used it to try and make Rimmer see the error of his ways? Doug has said he feels what has kept the show going for as long as it has is that the characters haven’t grown up or changed. Now obvious when Doug does episode like the beginning it moves towards character change which goes no where, same with this one actually, what’s gonna happen now that Rimmer became and officer and then resigned? Anything? Or will he go back to crying about wanting to be an officer again as if it never happened?
Ooh, lots of paper Rimmers, with the many faces of Chris Barrie, pinned up around the Officers’ Club and being defaced by Lister and Cat while they sip champagne. …maybe not, but the image I have in my head of this amuses me.
For a while I thought the business about Lister clones – besides being a decent joke – was going to pay off later, perhaps leading to an army of Daves vs Rimmers.
Loving some of the alternate endings/ideas on here! So much could have been explored! Sometimes I wish the episodes were an hour each. But then Doug would probably try and cram 2 hours worth of material into them and we’d be back to square one…
Ooh, lots of paper Rimmers, with the many faces of Chris Barrie, pinned up around the Officers’ Club and being defaced by Lister and Cat while they sip champagne. …maybe not, but the image I have in my head of this amuses me. I like that one, as well. I think we should have a print your own ending competition poll!
Just rewatched it. Loved it just as much. Really daft, but in a good way. It does have sort of post – The beginning ramifications. It’s (even after the therapy mention in Give and Take) a statement of Rimmer not accepting his working class father news, and totally wanting to still live up to his mothers instance he should become an officer still, and mainly just being unable to break the mold of his upbringing. He thinks he’s cracked it this time, by not letting his own rimmers be his equal, but by making sure he is the king of the pack, his ego mania in full flow. The rimmer monster is a bit worse on a larger screen. It’s zaphod like second heads sewn on, and then in some key scenes when it’s less moving around it’s extra real chris barries performances are composited in. There probably wasnt the budget to do this, but the one thing I would have liked is just a couple of blinks from the bio-printed captain. I’ve worked out that his brilliantly deformed face, reminds me of both captain pugwash, and robbie Coltrane’s one eye pirate in the young ones. The rimmers barber shop quartet is singing in the style of “Mr sand man dream me a dream” I like that one of the rimmers gets a salute in. That “old iron balls” is called back to. One of the lifts sounds like sandra dickinson doing the hitch hikers infinite improbability announcements. On second watch, knowing that it’s coming. There is some “emphasis” on the last few words, and a gun shot FX placed, meant to be heard and not seen like. Still strange, but I can sort of see the failed attempt at the last words being the end line of choice. Still think the story/ep deserves better.
Something old, something new, something borrowed,something blue; the swine is back???? For me this is the funniest episode so far this series but also since series 6. I had a lot of laugh out loud moments.
What the fuck was up with that zippy Starbug? Also, looks like I probably was right when I made that extremely pessimistic comment that they only did one motion control shot of the Dwarf, which is a little disappointing.
Loving some of the alternate endings/ideas on here! So much could have been explored! Sometimes I wish the episodes were an hour each. But then Doug would probably try and cram 2 hours worth of material into them and we’d be back to square one… Yikes some of the jokes would go on for ages Nah. The episodes would be padded out with Kryten’s cock being on the loose. It probably crossed dougs mind ;p
What the fuck was up with that zippy Starbug? Also, looks like I probably was right when I made that extremely pessimistic comment that they only did one motion control shot of the Dwarf, which is a little disappointing. You know what the starbug shots are better then anything in the remastered, series 7 and maybe a couple in series 6 but if you look at shots like in Series 4 with starbug heading towards justice world… yeah the early model work still looked better back in 1991.
After such a Rimmer focused episode I got to thinking… As we know the next episodes are Kryten and Cat focused I guess that means series XI has zero Lister-centric episodes. I guess that’s okay but I also find it a little odd, especially since series X was so Lister heavy. I also wonder what that means for series XII. Maybe Doug saved the Lister eps for that. Maybe even resolving the Kochanski threads.
Finally just had a moment to catch up with it and thought it was terrific. Very funny with lots of great little gags, a really clever idea and once again it looked fantastic. Was thinking I couldn’t find a single fault with it (OK, maybe Kryten’s mask) and then suddenly that ending happened. As has been already discussed, not only was it even more jarring and abrupt than the end of Samsara, it also wasn’t as if there was nowhere to go with an end gag. Still, I think it was my favourite episode of the series so far. I’d say Officer Rimmer, Samsara, Give & Take, Twentica, but it’s a pretty good sign that each person would put those in a completely different order to the next.
Random thoughts: Loved the printing joke. A life struggle we’ve all encountered. The printer looked like an HP printer from 10 or 15 years ago. And Doug isn’t new to referring to old technology. Consider the reference to VHS in Back to Earth. It also make a change to another hologram / alternative universe / squid. It was a great way to bring in a temporary character. Original and funny. Kryten talks of a history of multiple Rimmers. He could be referring to either or both of Me2 and Rimmerworld. However we need to remember that this Rimmer isn’t the Rimmer that was with us from Series I to VII. That Rimmer became Ace. This Rimmer was resurrected by the nanobots although I grant that there’s some discussion on this one having the memories of the first Rimmer (presumably given by the Red Dwarf hologram computer or Holly)
I don’t think we should worry too much about which Rimmer this is. If he can remember, say, the events of Justice (as alluded to in Samsara) then I imagine he can remember Me2 and Rimmerworld. (Kryten’s probably referring to Rimmerworld though, given that Me2 happened before they found the Nova 5.)
However we need to remember that this Rimmer isn’t the Rimmer that was with us from Series I to VII. Pretty sure that Doug has said that’s exactly who it is.
(Kryten’s probably referring to Rimmerworld though, given that Me2 happened before they found the Nova 5.) They happen the other way around in Infinity, the altered canon of which is corroborated by two separate scenes from Ouroboros. So who *really* knows/cares/gives a shit (delete as appropriate).
Kryten talks of a history of multiple Rimmers. He could be referring to either or both of Me2 and Rimmerworld. However we need to remember that this Rimmer isn’t the Rimmer that was with us from Series I to VII. That Rimmer became Ace. This Rimmer was resurrected by the nanobots although I grant that there’s some discussion on this one having the memories of the first Rimmer (presumably given by the Red Dwarf hologram computer or Holly) Doug has said this Rimmer is the original Rimmer, he said that at the convention in 2012 And that’s probably another reason why we won’t get a resolution to series 8, how do you fix the mess that series 8 left open when It sounds like Doug wanted the original dynamic of the show back
You fix it by saying 9 years have taken place. There is less than 9 in universe years for the gang in-between The End and Only the Good. If that answer isn’t enough then go and ask Ed Bye, he knows.
Ok, so if Rimmer didn’t die in the radiation leak (because; Timeslides), how has he been restored in Back in the Red part 1 by the Nanobots?
A Red Dwarf soundtrack album you say? Culled from the DVDs, tarted up and given its own artwork and everything? Now that you mention it… I’ve also been working on that as well. We’ve all been there.
Ooh, VERY nicely picked. Every time I start my own version of this I always give up after series 2. I admire your work ethic. Last time I tried I bothered buying the correct screen-used version of See You Later Alligator and everything (the 1968 re-recording done for the Swedish market, fact fans). And I still gave up. Got a folder of all the drum rolls from Meltdown somewhere. That’s a thrilling listen.
Finally put my finger on what Officer Rimmer was begging for – barbershop end titles! That would have been a nice touch. I enjoy the few alternate ending themes we’ve had. I wouldn’t like them to do an alternate one in every series but it’s a nice little touch when one pops up. I think we’re long overdue one.
Oh, that would have been brilliant! It’s been way too long since we had alternative title music. Doug, if you’re reading, do one for XII you bastard.
They should have reused the one done for but rejected from Tikka at the end of Lemons. Fan-editors, you know what to do.
I really loved that episode. Chris’ best Rimmer performance, and managed to do something new with the multiple Rimmers idea. Great use of effects. I was loving this all the way through. The monster Rimmer was like Zaphod Beeblebrox on crack. I especially loved the deranged Rimmer face on it. Then that ending. That ending almost ruined everything. Surely they must have realised that was bad? If they ran out of time to shoot, even some editing could have saved that a ‘bit’. have a cut to black with an explosion sound effect and a quick joke over black. Anything! Such a shame because I really liked the rest of the episode.
RHowever we need to remember that this Rimmer isn’t the Rimmer that was with us from Series I to VII.) Yeah… it is the original Rimmer, though, and we’ll probably never know how or why. (runs off)
I’ve been away so no time to read any comments, but here are my thoughts after one viewing… Awful. Just absolutely awful. This episode had SO many problems, for me…. for one, the model shots looked completely disconnected from the scenes on-board. Case in point, Starbug…. I’m not sure why (since they’ve done this lots of times), but the static shot of the cockpit really looked like a studio (if you know what I mean). Perhaps it was because it was placed next to quite dynamic shots of Starbug flying, but even just a slight bit of camera movement would have helped. This is the first time I’ve had a problem with the model shots this series, but a few really stuck out and it was mostly because of the overly-dynamic motions and angles that we got. Above all that, though, it just was not funny and it felt like every scene was stilted and awkward. I will say that I didn’t have any problem with the Cat, but each of the remaining three had multiple scenes that just seemed to lack the chemistry that we’re used to. We saw way too much of the Rimmer beast. I’ll be honest, I was hating how the cloning story was going and I thought that the mangled-up monster might save it, but they kept showing it and showing it and showing it…. and then the cunning plan to defeat it was to sneak up behind and shoot it?! And we’ve talked about abrupt endings in this series but, fucking hell, that one was the most anticlimactic of the bunch. This is probably the first time I can remember actually feeling embarrassed for the show whilst watching an episode. I would put this far below Dear Dave, personally.
I have noticed the episodes seem to be ramping up with cooler and cooler spaceship sequences every time. Twentica’s Starbug crash, Samsara’s opening, the space station being torn apart in Give & Take and everything with the Nautilus in Officer Rimmer. Officer Rimmer also finally offered us a lot of shots of Red Dwarf itself, while Twentica and Samsara both only ever used that same one from the opening montage that we’d already seen as a trailer. Speaking of the trailers, that shot of the Nova 3(?) from Krysis is to me the most realistic spaceship shot in the entire show. One thing I am a little concerned is that since the episode order has been shuffled around (which also means there definitely won’t be a cliffhanger between the two series), Can of Worms will end up just feeling like another episode unlike The Beginning, which had a very distinct finale vibe to it. It was something to get excited about because we knew all the big spaceship shit was gonna go down in it. I really like finales to feel special in some way for obvious reasons, though considering we have a guaranteed next series it wouldn’t be the end of the world if there’s no finale-like finale in XI. XII lacking one would be a crime. On the other hand, maybe they moved Can of Worms to slot six because it is extra special. It is the first Cat episode after all, unless you count Waiting for God which would make you wrong. It’s about the cat race which gives them more reason to talk to him, but character of Cat is by no means the focus of the episode. Rimmer and Lister still take definitive precedence over him. But it’s just as well because Series I Cat couldn’t carry a story. That’s not what his character was for. But I’m excited to see Dave-era Cat try for it. THERE IS NO CAN OF WORMS THREAD I APOLOGIZE.
though considering we have a guaranteed next series it wouldn’t be the end of the world if there’s no finale-like finale in XI. XII lacking one would be a crime. This is it, I think. It’s almost like on extra-long 12-episode series with a gap in the middle: there’s no possibility that the final episode of XI could be the last ever episode like there was with (say) VI, VIII, BTE or X.
The set report for the last shot episode of XII certainly suggested it would be a good ‘last ever’ episode. I like big dramatic ones like that occasionally, but it does feel like we’ve had too many now – V, VI, VIII, X and probably XII.
Back to Reality definitely acts like it could be the twist ending of the show, Out of Time’s big ending is a proper culmination of its plot, and The Beginning is both the most dramatic and visually exciting episode of X. Only the Good however just kind of tried to tack a dramatic ending on the end of what is otherwise a completely unremarkable episode. Playing Adagio over a slow motion shot with fire in it at the end doesn’t retroactively make it a big finale to me, especially since the episode does nothing to earn that moment on a dramatic or emotional level. I don’t necessarily want the XI finale to be extra dramatic, I just want there be something to look forward to that makes it a bigger event than just simply the next episode. Have the series go out with a bang, not necessarily an explosion but with something special. Again, being the first Cat-centric episode ever could result in it being very memorable and unique which would fit the bill nicely for me.
I just rewatched this for the first time since seeing the repurposed ‘promotion/demotion’ scene in Mechocracy, and realised that Lister’s reference to Rimmer as becoming “Technician 2.0” again towards the end of this episode must have been intended to be a callback to that. I thought it was a bit weird that he didn’t just call him Second Technician, but at least that explains why.
Knowing that speech was written for Officer Rimmer just gives me that much more reason to consider it my favorite of XI. I don’t necessarily want the XI finale to be extra dramatic, I just want there be something to look forward to that makes it a bigger event than just simply the next episode. You poor bastard.
I just rewatched this for the first time since seeing the repurposed ‘promotion/demotion’ scene in Mechocracy, and realised that Lister’s reference to Rimmer as becoming “Technician 2.0” again towards the end of this episode must have been intended to be a callback to that. I thought it was a bit weird that he didn’t just call him Second Technician, but at least that explains why. I was rewatching series XI this week, too, and said pretty much the same thing. https://twitter.com/bromley001/status/932422325043122176
