Mundane observation dome

[Warbodog]

Do you have any miscellaneous insights on the series that may be worth contemplating for a few seconds before moving on with our lives? Here are some of mine.

1. The four regulars have names that can work any way around, though this would have been more obvious if David Ross had stayed and wouldn’t work if Chris Barrie used his real name.

2. The series’ lax attitude to continuity extends to the setting. Outside of Holly’s distress calls, I don’t think three million years is mentioned all that much after series I and before VI (not sure about later years). Instead, we get the extremely fudged “dead for centuries” and “travelling for thousands of years” – not actual retcons, but suggesting a more conventional setting for casual viewers tuning in and the sort of stories they’re telling. It’s only millions when they need it to be.

3. 200 years of stasis between series V and VI means that the earlier series took place in their equivalent of the early 19th century by comparison (e.g. Blackadder the Third). Since they didn’t run into a long-lived Camille or one of her great-great-etc grandchildren, it didn’t come up.

4. Although Lister is routinely slagged off in the series, he’s spared the level of seemingly authoritative character assassination that Rimmer gets, because the audience is aligned with Lister’s viewpoint most of the time. For example, we see Kochanski Camille belittling Rimmer’s interests, but we don’t get the equivalent of Hologram Camille reacting to Lister’s pickup lines, we’re left to form our own opinions on those. This flimsy point has not been considered much beyond this single example.

5. Cat’s costumes are overwhelmingly referenced more than anyone else’s in the series, but the least discussed by fans.

6. Ace Rimmer and Duane Dibbley were so seemingly ubiquitous in canon and tie-in merchandise through the 90s (Smegazine strips, T-shirts) that they still feel overused today, even though it’s been over 20 years since they appeared. Maybe they’re allowed back after all.

7. Only series III & V and maybe XI & XII (not as familiar with those) don’t have any sense of an arc whatsoever (though IV’s minor Kryten disobedience arc was already fucked up by episode shuffling). Series III is just about the only series where no episode directly references any previous episode, but it still has the Backwards scrolling text and general references to Rimmer having died and stuff.

8. One of the series’ most famous and quoted scenes – everybody’s dead, Dave – is a straight-up 2001: A Space Odyssey homage and would have been received that way at the time, but doesn’t work like that for most people coming to the episode later on or new viewers who are young or don’t watch old films.

9. Sometimes dismissed as lightweight and gimmicky today, Backwards was designed as an innovative interactive experience to reward extracurricular effort. As well as inviting fans to work out the backwards events and filming logistics, Arthur Smith’s eugolonom is teasingly long and “you scoundrels” is clearly a cleaned-up translation gag even before you’ve heard it. Unfortunately, by the time technology caught up with the intent and the ability to reverse media files properly on home computers became commonplace, Backwards Forwards came out and everyone just cheated with the walkthrough.

Imagine the quality of the musings I left out!

Topic

[tombow]

it’s the worst old lady starring BBC sci fi comedy since 1978!

[Doomitron]

Also the trailer looks a bit pony.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002y3f6/ann-droid-trailer-series-1

Well I’ll assume I’ve been spared by region locking and carry on with my day then.

[Moonlight]

I can’t wait for the Dwarfcast episode about this.

[Dave]

Fucking hell, I can’t imagine enjoy 6 episodes of that. 

It looks like a parody.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Fucking hell, I can’t imagine enjoy 6 episodes of that. 
It looks like a parody.

It’s clearly taking the piss out of things like Humans and Subservience.

Thankfully I’ve never been a fan of Diane Morgan and I’ve not interest in seeing Sue Johnson in the bath again (sorry Warbo) so I don’t feel like I’ll be missing out. 

[tombow]

I saw in the library this week that Lionel Shriver (author of the big 2000s school shooting drama We Need To Talk About Kevin) has written a novel called Mania with the Timewave/Incompetence scenario. I gather she’s become some kind of conservative commentator in the last few years (and her newest novel is a satire about people taking in a migrant and having it all go wrong in some way). Anyway, even from the back cover I just thought Mania sounded strangely similar to the 2 Grant Naylor stories.

[Warbodog]

(sorry Warbo)

I was just being complimentary (with the less flattering implication that she must have looked prematurely aged already in The Royle Family), I didn’t mean to get a reputation.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

(sorry Warbo)
I was just being complimentary (with the less flattering implication that she must have looked prematurely aged already in The Royle Family), I didn’t mean to get a reputation.

I think she’s permanently looked retirement age 

Even in Crime Traveller

[Technopeasant]

It’s called Ann Droid, yet the character is called Linda? Are they fucking idiots?

Have to admit, that was my exact thought too.

[Rudolph]

If they’re looking for theme tunes ideas…..

Surely they’ve just nicked the idea from Robbie’s Robot Carer in Viz.

[tombow]

I’ve got a feeling it’ll be similar to My Hero. But with a robot instead of a superman.

[Author]

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