Mundane observation dome

[International Debris]

 

[Dave]

[Flap Jack]

[Flap Jack]

[Dave]

[Formica]

[Warbodog]

[clem]

[Warbodog]

[Nick R]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[International Debris]

[Starbugger]

[Dave]

I hit the randomiser on the Smegadrive and this came up:

Which seemed like a weird mixing of eras and made me wonder what the High and Low versions of Norm-Holly would be like.

[Warbodog]

High Holly would probably be boring and talk like Conehead Holly. Low Holly would look like Uncle Fester. But I just really cannot imagine Norman in the IV-V visual era (maybe still III).

[Dave]

[SmegHammer]

Cruel, but very funny

[clem]

[Moonlight]

Cruel, but very funny

To be fair, Norman looks way better in TPL than Skipper so it’s really more mocking the bad lighting / makeup combo.

[Dave]

Oh yes, it was definitely that. I’m not shitting on him for ageing, just mocking that infamous first still of him from Skipper.

[SmegHammer]

100% it’s down to the bad makeup and lighting but it’s not the most flattering shot of his aging face. I was really just atoning for my own laughter at his misfortune

[Dave]

The new series of The Cleaner features two characters engaging in a gladiatorial mop battle.

[Warbodog]

We all know that the original concept of a black-and-white hologram effect was deemed impractical and abandoned – but did they kind of do it lo-tech anyway?

They didn’t goth Chris up like McIntyre (who was presumably made up like that for introductory emphasis), but Rimmer’s costume (and by extension the crew uniform) is pale and fairly monochrome, down to the silver H, in contrast with Lister and Cat’s living loudness.

Everything else being fucking grey anyway makes it hard to tell how symbolic this was supposed to be. There’s some colour in the embroidery, which goes against the theory, but I don’t think Rimmer gets more colour in his outfit variants until Me2, by which point they’re making self-referential gags about the grey sets and desperate to inject more colour generally.

I checked Rob & Doug’s Original Assembly commentary for insights and they do criticise Rimmer’s hologram entrance as just looking the same as he did when he was alive with an ‘H’ slapped on, suggesting there should be more distinction. I suppose Series III’s reflective fabric would be that kind of added suggestion.

[Warbodog]

Either that or it’s just Alien with a tie.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Warbodog]

For a black-and-white character, he ended up pretty colourful.

[Unrumble]

[loadoftottnumb]

Despite not being aboard Red Dwarf, Rimmer and Lister were still ‘together’ in the ‘Ace/Spanner’s’ Dimension. 

A few thoughts occur 

1. That’s nice 

2. I wonder if they did both start off on RD, hence how they knew each other. 

3. Either way it’s some destiny shizz. 

[Formica]

You could imagine they’re all the exact character, if they:

– Still wound up three million years out with the cats evolved, at least Rimmer survived but knowing Ace maybe more,

– Still met Kryten and still Parallel Universed to unlock Hillyface,

– DNAed Kryten permanently, and with Ace’s genius expanded it to work on Holly too,

– Went back. Stasis Leak? Time Drive? Spanners, under Ace’s guidance, Invents Time Travel?

[Stabbim]

Despite not being aboard Red Dwarf, Rimmer and Lister were still ‘together’ in the ‘Ace/Spanner’s’ Dimension. 
A few thoughts occur 
1. That’s nice 
2. I wonder if they did both start off on RD, hence how they knew each other. 
3. Either way it’s some destiny shizz. 

and doesn’t Lister mention in passing that Ace has told him Spanners is married to Kochanski as well?  Throws a bit more fuel onto the fire for 2 (and even 3).

[Flap Jack]

Despite not being aboard Red Dwarf, Rimmer and Lister were still ‘together’ in the ‘Ace/Spanner’s’ Dimension. 

A few thoughts occur 

1. That’s nice 

2. I wonder if they did both start off on RD, hence how they knew each other. 

3. Either way it’s some destiny shizz. 

Lewis Pemberton has entered the chat.

[Warbodog]

The weird coincidental similarities in Ace’s dimension (Rimmer and Lister still being together and other characters happening to have their mates’ bodies) can be headcanoned as the reason he ended up in a dimension where things were superficially recognisable. (The drive in the novel had parameters you could set for how similar you want the dimension to be).

That’s one of the reasons I’m not so crazy about Skipper. I know what infinite universes means, but seeing so many minor variations on the same setup takes something away. Dimension Jump’s counterparts were much more intriguing.

Re: 2, I don’t think Ace served aboard Red Dwarf, but that’s presumably where Lister and Kochanski still met and this is a few years on. Their happy ending and the survival of Red Dwarf without Rimmer in the picture is a great unspoken subtext of the episode.

[Stabbim]

Their happy ending and the survival of Red Dwarf without Rimmer in the picture is a great unspoken subtext of the episode.

Indeed.  One of my favorite gags from the Better Than Life novel is the bit about their being 7 alternate universes and theirs/ours is the bad one.  Anytime there’s a gag about them being objectively better off literally anywhere else, including the Dimension Jump afterword where it mentions our Rimmer is the most pathetic Rimmer Ace ever encounters.

Somewhat in that vein, also think it’s pretty funny to consider that Rimmer’s selfishness in Stasis Leak could have inadvertently been the heroic course of action: if he goes in the second stasis pod, Lister and Rimmer are both out of the picture and the task of fixing the faulty drive plate thus has to fall to someone more competent (i.e. literally anyone else) who successfully fixes the plate (because only Rimmer is smeghead enough to fail to properly fix it) and thus saves the entire crew; albeit at the cost of erasing Felis Sapiens from existence and presumably leaving Kryten to dote on the Nova 5 mummies until he runs out of juice.  [Which is also my pet explanation for why the future promised in Stasis Leak never happens; it does happen but Lister undoes it, Timeslides style, after he discovers it erases Cat & Kryten and vows to find another path to Kochanski without the collateral damage.]

[Warbodog]

One of my favorite gags from the Better Than Life novel is the bit about their being 7 alternate universes and theirs/ours is the bad one.

Same book drops the bombshell that Lister created the universe, which presumably means their particular faulty / not-backwards one (more presumably this is a “future” event initiated in a backwards universe), but then both writers forgot about that plot in their follow-ups. Stick that up your buttski, Rob.

[Dave]

I was like 99% sure we’d be getting an update before noon today announcing that Ian, Danny and Cappsy had settled their acrimonious legal battle and were now free to each individually launch three parallel versions of G&T.

[Formica]

The thought occurs to me that “making love” probably shouldn’t be in the vocabulary for sex when love is supposed to be removed from the equation. Perhaps it’s meant to reflect the start of her turn or perhaps it was borne of a clumsy trip to the thesaurus. Either way, doesn’t seem like something she should even know/think to call it.

[Dave]

“You fuck like sushi” doesn’t quite have the same cadence to it.

[International Debris]

Make love was the Grant Naylor term for sex, wasn’t it? It’s used quite a lot. 

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Might be interesting to learn more about how the meaning of the phrase has evolved. When they used it in that Marx Brothers film Horse Feathers, it was referring to Zeppo bombarding Thelma Todd with phrases of adoration.

[Jonathan Capps]

or perhaps it was borne of a clumsy trip to the thesaurus

I’m stealing this for use as non-specific innuendo.

[Ridley]

or perhaps it was borne of a clumsy trip to the thesaurus
I’m stealing this for use as non-specific innuendo.

[Jonathan Capps]

SAUSAGE???

[RunawayTrain]

SAUSAGE???

Dang, we need a Blackadder Frinki…drive…thing.

[Ridley]

[Ian Symes]

Might be interesting to learn more about how the meaning of the phrase has evolved. When they used it in that Marx Brothers film Horse Feathers, it was referring to Zeppo bombarding Thelma Todd with phrases of adoration.

And in Grant Naylor favourite It’s A Wonderful Life, it’s used when a young George calls on Mary while they’re courting; Mary calls upstairs “he’s making violent love to me, mother!”

[Warbodog]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Lmfao omg that’s brilliant Warbo

[GlenTokyo]

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

SAUSAGE???

I’m anaspeptic, frasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused you such pericombobulation.

[Formica]

[Author]

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