Duane’s First Scene In Emohawk

[Andrew]

Just been looking at the Duane Dibbley stuff in Emohawk and the mechanics of his first post-transformation scene suddenly REALLY stuck out for me.

Having been drained of his cool and style, ‘Duane’ emerges to talk to Rimmer in the mid-section. Only, it’s not Duane. The hair and the teeth are there, but he still *completely* has the Cat’s personality. He complains about the dorkiness, the spot cream and dandruff. The change is entirely superficial.

The next time, though – once Ace has appeared (and he’s fully-formed right away) – he HAS become Duane. He wants to change into geekier clothes, and the voice has altered.

It’s one of those things that clearly happens when scripts are coming in very late, there’s just no time to press the logic holes. But it’s weird how they get away with it.

(To be fair, in the original Polymorph Kryten had a brief moment of plot-exposition dialogue before exhibiting his change. Everyone else either falls unconscious or is cut away from.)

Topic

[TheLeen]

I don’t get why taking away the cat’s cool changes him into an entirely different person anyway. Make him clumsy, ok. Change his teeth… uhm how? I suppose I just stop asking *any* questions at that point.

[Anonymous]

Maybe it takes a while for the changes made to the psyche by the Polymorph to set in.

Remember the first Polymorph, when Kryten has his guilt removed there’s a few seconds of him speaking as himself, reflecting on the fact… which is swiftly followed by “Oh, screw you hadron head!”

[Pete Part Three]

Part of the reason that Emohawk just seems like fan-fic. Good fan fic, but a little contrived.

I dislike the way that Cat and Rimmer narrate their transformations and I guess that’s the only reason for that Non-Duane scene. It’s just exposistion. Really needed Holly or Kryten there to explain what was happening.

“It’s removing my bitterness, taking my negativity, slurping out all my snidieness.”

Oh, yeah…because we all know what THAT feels like!

[Anonymous]

I think it’s definitely the weakest of Series 6. Really does feel like Duane, Rimmer and the poly-morph are shoe-horned into it as a fan pleaser.

The last “What a Dibbley!” bit is toe-curlingly lame.

But I still love it!

[Baz]

Doesn’t quite manage to explain how the transformation can extend to the physical level, including apparently clothes and props. Reconfiguring Rimmer to Ace, yes, he’s a hologram, ok, but Dwayne? Or perhaps the Cat keeps a parka, thermos, sandwiches, corn plasters, telephone money, dandruff brush, animal footprint chart and one triple thick condom handy because, well, you never know!

[Anonymous]

Indeed. It don’t make sense!

And don’t get me started on Rimmer being a hard-light hologram whilst playing the locker game in the Series 7 flashback…

;)

[Pete Part Three]

And what the hell is up with those kippers in the deleted scene from Dimension Jump?

[Anonymous]

I had no idea what was going on with the “I’ll smoke him a smegging kipper!” set-up at the end of Dimension Jump until I saw that deleted scene.

[Phil]

>And don?t get me started on Rimmer being a hard-light hologram whilst playing the locker game in the Series 7 flashback?

He’s not, though. Lister does all of the physical work during that scene…Arnie doesn’t touch anything at all.

And the “blue suit?” Well, there’s no reason Rimmer can’t change his clothes based on whim (which, indeed, he does several times)…but I always just chalked it up to Lister mis-remembering the scene. The last time he saw Rimmer he was hardlight/blue, and it’s not unlikely that this is the wardrobe with which he remembers him best.

[Anonymous]

Or the production team could have just made a mistake. ;-)

From all evidence previously in the series it does seem to be that blue = hard light.

[TheLeen]

> but I always just chalked it up to Lister mis-remembering the scene. The last time he saw Rimmer he was hardlight/blue, and it?s not unlikely that this is the wardrobe with which he remembers him best.

Oh, how nice! It makes sense! It makes my red dwarf universe a little wholer! Thanks.

[Phil]

>From all evidence previously in the series it does seem to be that blue = hard light.

Well, quite, but that doesn’t render Rimmer incapable of selecting it one day…it could well have been a change for him as meaningless as his shift from green to red. Or, indeed, grey to green. Neither does it change the fact that there is no physical evidence that he is hardlight at all. If he were, wouldn’t he be physically participating in the game?

It’s a mis-remembrance…that’s all it takes to bring everything in line with continuity.

[Andrew]

> From all evidence previously in the series it does seem to be that blue = hard light.

Oh sure, but Rimmer requires Lister to open the locker for him, and is in no way scorched by the flames. He’s soft-light in the scene…he’s just in the wrong outfit.

[Anonymous]

True that!

[TheLeen]

Rimmer from the future was hard light and wore yellow.

(Just saying.)

[Anonymous]

This is true too! Always assumed that his colour had faded / gone jaundice with age.

[Ian Symes]

Why *wouldn’t* the Emohawk be able to change the physical characteristics of its victims? It amuses me that people say that it doesn’t make sense, when it’s a made-up thing! I guess you can explain the fact that the Emohawk changes physical aspects and the original Polymorph doesn’t because the Emohawk is a different breed of Polymorph. If you accept that a creature can remove aspects of someone’s personality at will, you should accept that they can change their teeth and hair too.

[Jonathan Capps]

> From all evidence previously in the series it does seem to be that blue = hard light.

But hasn’t it already been said that Rimmer’s change to a blue suit after the conversion in Legion was a continuity error? Surely you can’t make up your own laws of the Dwarf universe and then cry foul when they’re contradicted?

[Andrew]

> But hasn?t it already been said that Rimmer?s change to a blue suit after the conversion in Legion was a continuity error?

You’re thinking of Gunmen, where Rimmer starts again as soft-light. (Or possibly the first version of the final scene of Legion…)

Aren’t you?!

[Phil]

>> From all evidence previously in the series it does seem to be that blue = hard light.

This is faulty reasoning, anyway, under any circumstance. You can’t disregard the current situation because it doesn’t gibe with the evidence that came before. If you could do that then there’d never be any way to solve mystery stories…because you could just dismiss any further evidence that lends credence to a theory of the murderer’s identity that doesn’t agree with the one you already formulated. If anything this is contrary evidence to the fact that blue = hardlight.

It’s a change of clothes, that’s all. Rimmer changing from his grey uniform to his green one doesn’t necessarily imply a complete structural overhaul of the character’s physical traits, so why should the red to blue?

It was a good way of keeping the audience clued in to the fact that a change had occurred, but in no way does it imply that blue can only be worn by hardlight holograms.

[pfm]

> It was a good way of keeping the audience clued in to the fact that a change had occurred

Exactly. It removes the natural train of thought of ‘well he doesn’t look any different’. Just the simple change of colour is enough.

[Jonathan Capps]

> You?re thinking of Gunmen, where Rimmer starts again as soft-light. (Or possibly the first version of the final scene of Legion?)

Aren?t you?!

No, I’m thinking of the Legion scene… I thought that was a clothing cock up?

[Anonymous]

It just seemed like an error as I’d always assumed that Blue quilted costume = hard light as he involuntarily turned blue when he went hard light.

It just seemed to always act as a short-hand so you knew when he switched between hard and soft light.

There are indeed ways around it, but I reckon during the locker game it was just a cock-up in the wardrobe department who didn’t think to change him back from his Series 7 costume. No biggie.

Now, as for Lister’s appendix…

;)

[Andrew]

> There are indeed ways around it, but I reckon during the locker game it was just a cock-up in the wardrobe department who didn?t think to change him back from his Series 7 costume. No biggie.

I’d say this was absolutely the case. But I love Phil’s ‘subjective memory’ get-out.

[Somebody]

Just curious – what costumes would still have been available to the wardrobe dept.?

Would the I/II beige uniform, or the III/IV/Inquisitor “Captain Emerald” costume still have been around without recreating them? [And would they have fitted CB if they did? :)]

[Anonymous]

Hehe…very doubt that they’d fit Chris these days. Should imagine the wardrobe department is quite ruthless with chucking stuff out.

The captain emerald costume always struck me as strange. I mean…it’s exactly like a Captain Scarlet costume!

Observe:

[mick]

> The captain emerald costume always struck me as strange. I mean?it?s exactly like a Captain Scarlet costume!

*bangs head on wall*

[Anonymous]

Yes, I know that the original gag referred to the same observation…

Just a strange design choice. Wonder when Mel Bibby first thought “Ah, yes…Gerry Anderson design. That’s very Rimmer!”

[Andrew]

> Just curious – what costumes would still have been available to the wardrobe dept.?

Very few. Certainly nothing from I and II, and maybe nothing at all…

[Author]

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