Series VII Highlights

i like Duct Soup

many also see it as being one of the last of the original series, before VIII, BTE and the Dave era came along

I definitely see it as one of the last, if not *the* last series before VIII, BTE and the Dave era came along.

I’ll stand by Stoke and Blue, but the rest can fuck off.

Tikka and Stoke are two of the best episodes of the show, then -bits- of VII are really good but lots of other bits are just a bit dire. A bit.

The best bit of Duct Soup was fucking deleted from the broadcast version

Funny, I’ve always thought of V as the last series before VIII came along.

Funny, I’ve always thought of V as the last series before VIII came along.

Although ironically VIII apparently really *was* the last series before X came along.

Did none of you read the back of the case? Obviously Series X was the last series before BtE and the Dave era.

There isn’t an episode that doesn’t have at least one brilliant line, even the shit episodes. “Hello wall” is a strong example.

I always really enjoyed Kochanski’s very quiet “Van Gogh” when she’s tried to sum up, as if she’s trying to hide it from herself as much as everyone else.

There’s almost always good bits in bad Dwarf (“That Mexican dude! The one-armed bandit!”, “You came in a box? That explains everything!”, etc.) but my general consensus on VII, which has stood since 1997, is that I really like Tikka, the over the top opening sequence to Stoke… topped off by the alligator brick joke, the scene immediately after where Lister somehow managers to take his trousers off whilst still remaining attached to the AR machine, and then literally everything after that is immediately a load of fucking toss.

Never got the “Hello, wall!” line either, unless Doug’s intention was to characterise Kochanski as being as annoying and humourless as certain members who think their basic sledgehammer sarcasm counts as genuine wit.

Plus, I wouldn’t call Kryten’s character development interesting, more “one of the worst things to happen in the entire history of the show”.

Also, fuck Epideme, the annoying little bastard.

There are definitely a lot of things in series 7 to enjoy. The opening of Stoke Me A Clipper and the Rimmer Munchkin Song are so good that they almost redeem the series all on their own.

Other good stuff that sticks out:

– The Lister/Rimmer kiss (‘gay panic’ undertones aside).
– The Rimmer funeral scene (although it does leave me wondering why his post-posthumous promotion doesn’t count when he comes back… or how a hologram can even die, given that surely they could just restore his backups to a new light bee?).
– Kochanski beating the crap out of Kryten with a spanner.
– The Cat managing to say the least helpful things imaginable to Lister when he’s emotionally sensitive in both Duct Soup and Nanarchy.
– The way Kryten catches the nanobots and reprimands them by aggressively tapping the jar they’re in.
– The plan Kochanski executes to save Lister from the Epideme virus.
– A lot of Tikka to Ride, as a whole.
– Lister saving Kochanski from oblivion by harpooning her in the leg.
– Kryten turning up in a tank to pull everyone out of the Jane Austen VR game in Beyond A Joke. (“Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear. I said: supper is ready!”)

Even in the worst episodes there’s stuff to enjoy.

The keyring with a C for Kryten always made me chuckle. And Kochanski’s tiny shrunken clothes. And they’re both from Duct Soup!

Yeah, it’s intentionally sledgehammer sarcasm to counter the sledgehammer stupidity of Cat.

It’s an obscene phone call is definitely one of the best lines in the show.

I still find Tikka an embarrassing, humourless slog.

yeah but they could have done that without putting shit effects over his voice

Definitely hypnotic, but not in the right way.

>I remember finding Kryten being genuinely upset at the idea of him being neglected due to Kochasnki
…quite touching.

I always loved the ‘picking on the chickens’ line – partly because I’m vegetarian and the way I see it, we do pretty much pick on the chickens.

Also, Kryten shrieking “MISTER LISTER!” from the corridor in Epideme was always an excellent moment for me, especially because when it happens I’ve usually just forgotten that he’s dead in the relief that they’ve defeated Epideme as well.

As well as a lot of stuff people have already mentioned I like “Have you ever heard of tough love?” “Does it involve dressing up?” and the way in Ouroboros Lister embarrassedly strokes his chin, and then his floss, as if it’s a very thin beard.

The cogent paradigm joke is fantastic. I quote it frequently.

Actually reading Pride and Prejudice for High School English diminished my enjoyment of Jane Austen world somewhat. I get that it is a more of a play on the 1995 mini-series than the actual novel, but it is still very broad parody.

Also, I just realized I used the wrong “then/than” when bragging about my vocabulary…

Well to be fair I don’t think Wolfenstein 3D was particularly accurate either

> Well to be fair I don’t think Wolfenstein 3D was particularly accurate either

Why Wolf3D though?

Because half of the reason why Lister finds kissing Rimmer disgusting is that Rimmer is a man and Lister is hetero. If Lister had dreamt about kissing a hypothetical female colleague who he wasn’t attracted to, his emotional reaction would have been more like “Huh, that was weird”, not the classic horrified-waking-up-from-a-nightmare-in-a-cold-sweat reaction.

But Rimmer is not just a colleague Lister isn’t attracted to. Rimmer is Rimmer. If Lister was a woman, you’d expect an identical reaction from dreaming of kissing Rimmer. Them both being men definitely affects the viewer reaction to the scene, but the humor inherent in giving those two specific characters a kiss exists independently of it.

Tikka’s JFK hagiography gets on my tits a bit given we know from official documents released from the Pentagon that “the liberal icon” was planning a nuclear strike on Russia.

Not Dwarf’s fault, of course, but… Well, as a Russian-Jew the goo-goo-eyed encomia of this episode leaves a bad taste in my mouth.