Does anybody have the full image of this?

[Hamish]

Yeah, go back to the drawing board and follow an actual cat around for a few days. Then write the cat race based around that.

[Plastic Percy]

<<Based purely on Cat’s “The Holy Mother? The virgin birth? No one believes that stuff!” line, I’ve always assumed that – while it obviously still had a lot of religiously devout folk – the cat race had become a largely secular society (or at least, a less orthodox one) by the time everyone abandoned Red Dwarf.>>

Well, when they left Red Dwarf they were still split into the red/blue factions, and they were on a mass exodus to discover their promised land. That strikes me as fairly devout. And they were also willing to take Lister’s laundry list as a believable holy relic.

[Flap Jack]

Well, when they left Red Dwarf they were still split into the red/blue factions, and they were on a mass exodus to discover their promised land. That strikes me as fairly devout. And they were also willing to take Lister’s laundry list as a believable holy relic.

Ah, yes, I completely forgot that was the reason they all left the ship! I am dumb. But how do we reconcile that with Cat’s line about nobody believing it?

Option A – Most of the cats genuinely didn’t believe it, but enough of the leaders, politicians etc. were religiously devout to rope everyone else into the Red Hat/Blue Hat civil war anyway.

Option B – As the cat priest said that Cat was born after the Red Ark/Blue Ark exodus, perhaps not only “the sick and the lame” stayed behind. Perhaps there were also a significant number of atheists and conscientious objectors who also stayed behind, and Cat was raised in that sort of environment, before the rest of the cats either died or left Red Dwarf as well for different reasons.

I know that the priest’s line “they left us to die” would suggest there weren’t many fit and healthy cats left behind who could look after him, but it could also just be exaggeration, or maybe he’s just talking about dying a normal death as opposed to finding Fuchal.

Option C – The Cat is actually the only one who was sceptical about the Frankenstein/Cloister story, but he’s egotistical enough that he just assumed everyone else agreed with him.

[Warbodog]

The cat religion is all about them repressing their natural instincts, which is apparently to be like Cat (only maybe smarter).

From the first novel:

The invention which proved the turning point in Cat history wasn’t Fire or the Wheel: it was the Steam-operated Trouser Press.

…

the Seven Cat Commandments: ‘Thou shalt not be cool; Thou shalt not be in vain; Thou shalt not have more than ten suits; Thou shalt not partake of carnal knowledge with more than four members of the opposite sex at any one session; Thou shalt not slink; Thou shalt not hog the bathroom; and Thou shalt not steal another’s hair-gel.’

In the Dark Ages of religious intolerance, these laws were laid down by Cat priests to keep their race in check. It was only through denying certain lusts, certain natural urges to be cool and stylish, they said, that a Cat could find redemption. Strict punishments were meted to transgressors: Cats caught slinking in public would have their shower units removed; Cats condemned as vain would have their hair-driers confiscated, and be forced to wear fashions some two or three seasons old.

© Grant Naylor etc.

[International Debris]

Cat encountering some Cat zealots who forced him to not be cool (with the rest of the crew, despite preferring his new, less narcissistic side, encouraging him to go back to ‘normal’ because it’s the true him at the end) could be a genuinely interesting episode.

[Flap Jack]

I’m now imagining other cats reacting to Duane Dibbley. They’d probably see him as some sort of wise monk.

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

Maybe that’s why Cat hallucinates himself as Duane, that is the sort of cat persona he was rebelling against as a kitten before they all buggered off and left him

[Bargain Bin Holly]

I’m now imagining other cats reacting to Duane Dibbley. They’d probably see him as some sort of wise monk.

I hope Doug is writing this down

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

I hope Doug is writing this down

We need to get it in the idea for an episode thread for maximum visibility

[Hamish]

> It would make for a proper decent Cat episode (that I guess we thought we’d get with Can of Worms). He might decide he wants to stay with his people, then realise that he has absolutely nothing in common with them or their society, and comes back to Lister et al.

RODON: Well, how do you feel now brother? You want to return to our people? Huh? You want to come home?

*Cat looks back at Kryten, Rimmer, and Lister*

CAT: I am home. This is my home right here!

Give Doug some credit, he managed to get quinn_drummer’s entire idea for an episode across in just a little over ten seconds of screen time.

[Hamish]

> Maybe that’s why Cat hallucinates himself as Duane, that is the sort of cat persona he was rebelling against as a kitten before they all buggered off and left him

And now we know they left him because he was like Duane to begin with.

[Flap Jack]

Shame we never got Peanut, Sol and Luna respecting Duane Dibbley as a wise monk, eh?

Also, based on the information The Promised Land gave us, I think that “Option B” is the most likely explanation.

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

Give Doug some credit, he managed to get quinn_drummer’s entire idea for an episode across in just a little over ten seconds of screen time.

Who do I contact for my royalty cheques?

[Author]

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