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

[Flap Jack]

I agree that, generally, the flip flopping of whether Lister or Rimmer is “the dumb one” in a given scene is fine, because it’s believable that they’d both be ignorant, just about different topics.

But admittedly it’s not consistent. Between Series 1 and Series 2 Lister goes from having no idea who Shakespeare is to using him as his go-to “famous man from history” reference point. In Future Echoes Rimmer broadly understands the theory of relativity, in Back in the Red he knows it’s a theory by Einstein but doesn’t know what it means, and then in Twentica he actively needs to be reminded of it.

[International Debris]

It’s definitely worse when it’s outside of series 1 and VIII. At first they hadn’t got a handle on the characters, and a lot of the original version of Lister is there; in VIII, any hint of actual characterisation is out of the window. VIII actually feels like Doug rewatched The End, thought “what’s an iguana?” was a great gag and decided to base Lister’s entire character on it. I don’t know whether I dislike the dot-to-dot or the Gideon’s Bible gag more. 

VIII is possibly even harder, because on the whole, the run from 1-VII feels like Lister’s character generally gets more intelligent. You get hints of his emotional intelligence later in 1, such as the whole concept of Confidence & Paranoia. The second series starts with him being better at Esperanto than Rimmer, we generally see him being more and more insightful as it goes on, by VI he’s a very skilled pilot and general adventurer, and VII starts with Kryten telling him off for talking about paradoxes in too much confusing detail. So to have him to revert to utter idiot in VIII jarring, and something I remember noticing at the time. But again, Rimmer not knowing the theory of relativity when it feels very right that it’s one of those things he picked up in his education and likes showing off about understanding (even if he only has a basic grasp of it) is similarly off. 

I think, on the whole, it’s who they are as people – their emotions and drives – that defines the characters in the show rather than their knowledge and understanding. It’s easy to forgive lapses when you get more insight into Rimmer’s own self-loathing, the complex issue of his upbringing and how it affects him – and how he allows it to affect him – or Lister’s moral stances and maturing as a character.

[Warbodog]

In Parallel Universe, Lister berates Rimmer for treating women like some kind of alien species that are difficult to understand. Then they meet some women who are literally from a different universe and Lister doesn’t do the necessary research.

Just an obvious ironic level I didn’t really get before. Rimmer had enough to gloat about at the end anyway. My appreciation for that episode’s growing all the time, maybe someone can even convince me that Dog isn’t shit.

[Moonlight]

So did they speed up Cat’s dancing in the disco because they thought it went on too long (which is what I assume is going on with the bit in the basketball game from Pete), or was it just a Remastered-level bad idea for an edit? The fact that analogue speed changes raises the pitch of the audio as well just makes it very hard to suspend your disbelief that this is meant to be literally happening in-universe, in a way that I don’t usually feel with Red Dwarf.

Maybe it’s because speeding up the footage for comic effect is something I associate with corny old sitcoms like Gilligan’s Island, but it just feels like a bizarre choice to me that doesn’t work. And hell, Gilligan never sped up the audio so I can buy him running away from the Skipper brandishing his hat more than I do Cat dancing at 2x speed.

[Dave]

So did they speed up Cat’s dancing in the disco because they thought it went on too long

This is what I’ve always assumed. It’s always stood out to me as awful. 

[Moonlight]

We should complain to Doug about this on Twitter. I think he would appreciate the feedback.

[Dave]

At the end of Backwards, why exactly does the Cat decide to have a shit in the bushes, rather than back on Starbug where there are adequate toilet facilities?

[Flap Jack]

It’s hard to be sure if you can technically even make decisions on Backworld. There was a turd in the bushes that belonged to Cat, and if he left without first sucking it up into his arse, the fabric of space-time would break.

[Dave]

Ah, now I’m having flashbacks to the book club discussions.

[Unrumble]

Looked up this quote to send a modified version to a friend… I’ve thought it was “lamp” for the last 25-plus years… 

In retrospect, lamb makes more sense in the context of the scene. 

[Flap Jack]

[Unrumble]

[Ian Symes]

[Dave]

[loadoftottnumb]

[Dave]

[clem]

[Hamish]

As someone who is both a shepherd and who just barely avoided being evacuated for wildfires, you lot now have me concerned over spontaneous lamb combustion.

[Rudolph]

[Warbodog]

I’ve just learned that ‘Coke Adds Life’ was an actual advertising campaign in the 70s, about drinking Coke while you’re doing fun things or something, and not Grant Naylor’s sarcastically inaccurate health claim as I’d always thought.

[Rudolph]

Watching Timeslides, I’ve noticed for the first time that Rimmer’s toy soldiers from Marooned are on young Rimmer’s bedside cabinet. It’s a very pleasing bit of continuity.

[Dave]

That’s excellent. 

[Warbodog]

Timeslides was recorded the week after Marooned, which might have helped. Can’t expect continuity from Grant Naylor over a longer period.

[Rudolph]

Timeslides was recorded the week after Marooned, which might have helped. Can’t expect continuity from Grant Naylor over a longer period.

The only thing I can think of is Lister’s Titan Hilton blanket, last seen in Parallel Universe, popping up in The Inquisitor. But it’s not really in the same league I suppose as the plot-specific model soldiers.

[GlenTokyo]

Timeslides was recorded the week after Marooned, which might have helped. Can’t expect continuity from Grant Naylor over a longer period.

The only thing I can think of is Lister’s Titan Hilton blanket, last seen in Parallel Universe, popping up in The Inquisitor. But it’s not really in the same league I suppose as the plot-specific model soldiers.

It’s on his bunk all through the Red Dwarf based series.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

He’s also wearing it when he passes out on the way to the medbay in Confidence and Paranoia.

[Rudolph]

Confidence & Paranoia is before Parallel Universe, which is why I brought up why it hadn’t been seen since the latter. It stopped being a feature of Lister’s bunk when they moved to the officers quarters. Although, having just watched D.N.A. I’ve noticed Kryten has it in the medi-bay scene.

[International Debris]

Ship that size and they can only afford one blanket. 

[GlenTokyo]

Confidence & Paranoia is before Parallel Universe, which is why I brought up why it hadn’t been seen since the latter. It stopped being a feature of Lister’s bunk when they moved to the officers quarters. Although, having just watched D.N.A. I’ve noticed Kryten has it in the medi-bay scene.

Depends what you mean by “a feature”, it’s not used as a main prop but you can make out that it is in the officers quarters too, it’s just on Lister’s bunk.

[Flap Jack]

Both the toy soldiers and the blanket are top tier observations. It’s awesome that this far on there’s still things about the show I didn’t know or realise.

If and when they relaunch the Red Dwarf merch store, you should be able to buy a Titan Hilton blanket.

[Moonlight]

Is it in the spirit of this thread to ask for, no, demand High & Low articles for Series XI, XII and TPL scenes respectively? Because I just read the X one and I was hoping there was at least an XI one I’d missed, but nope.

[Formica]

They’ve still got 3 years if they want to make it faster than they did the one for Back to Earth. In defense of the 10-year-late High & Low: Back to Earth, though, there was no such thing as High & Low for the first five years it could’ve been written.

I’d put my hand up as someone who’d enjoy reading H&Ls on each of I-VIII as well. 

[Ian Symes]

Oh yeah, High & Low, that was a thing. Your requests have been noted.

And the Back To Earth one wasn’t late! Both that and X were done for a specific anniversary.

[Smeg4Brains]

Great, now I want John Hoare to do an in depth Dirty Feed article on every appearance of the Titan Hotel blanket.

I bet it’s gets repurposed for Still Game or something.

[Flap Jack]

If you’re up for more series-focused High & Low articles in the future, you could continue the precedent established with the previous 2 and cover them in a seemingly random order, a la the Smegazine episode guides.

If/when it gets covered, I feel like Series VIII is a good candidate for the second ever “Low & High”.

And if High & Low: Series XI doesn’t happen, I trust that G&T will still in some way commemorate the 10th anniversary of the first ever Smegtember in 2026. 🥳

[clem]

If and when they relaunch the Red Dwarf merch store, you should be able to buy a Titan Hilton blanket.

That would be brilliant and it’s got me thinking about what other replica props would be cool. I’d probably buy a tension sheet. 

[Dave]

An actual Talkie Toaster is surely a must.

[Flap Jack]

Dear GNP,

Make the Crappola online shop from Geek Chase real.

Hugs and kisses,

Jack

P.S. Make it so Geek Chase works again first.

[clem]

One of those visual history type books that come with removable facsimiles could be good, so you could get stuff like a Reverse Brothers poster, polaroid of Lister and the babies, Rimmer’s battleplan timetable etc. I mean who wouldn’t want ‘Joureny to the Stars’ on their fridge door. 

[GlenTokyo]

The Titan Hilton blanket is perfect subtle merchandise (as long as they didn’t put Red Dwarf XIII on it somewhere) but I’m sure Hilton would have something to say about it.

[Rudolph]

Really niche, but I’d love to get my hands on some of the Zero-G Football posters. Specifically the ‘Don Donatella, Roof Attack’ one and the ‘London Jets – Season 29’ one.

They’re on Lister’s original bunk in the first two series, amongst his collage of decorations.

The Don Donatella one also pops up in the pub Smeg and the Heads are playing in Timeslides.

And they’re a nice addition to the recreated bunk room in Back in the Red.

Both posters also seem to have survived a further ten years in storage, as they’re back in Lister’s new bunk in time for Back to Earth.

But when it comes to Skipper, they seem to have finally perished and been replaced by some fairly crude reproductions.

[GlenTokyo]

I always wonder who the footballers are.

Almost certainly stock images, maybe from college football? Don’t know if they bothered checking it was alright to use them, or whether it was some sort of transformative artwork deal.

[GlenTokyo]

This is the kind of stuff that should be in a book, a proper deep dive through the GNP archives.

[Warbodog]

Archie.

[Moonlight]

HIGH & LOW – KRYTEN’S PENIS

We were all in stitches at that deleted scene where Captain Hollister is anally violated by a rogue penis on the loose! And that’s why, with nothing puerile or problematic about it, this has to make number one on our list of best Archie moments. Moving on to the second best…

(click to continue reading)

[Warbodog]

You could stretch that to a desperate article if you included all the other references and innuendos over the years, and if you were an overproductive Red Dwarf fan c.2004.

[Formica]

LOW 3. VACUUM CLEANER

Polymorph

Yes, we’ve all stuffed a penny up our cocks time to time. Why Kryten’s fairly standard reaction to this rather everyday occurrence is supposed to be a source of comedy remains one of the great Red Dwarf mysteries.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Anyone else think the Joan Hickson Miss Marple theme sounds a bit like Blackadder’s? I know there was some talk previously about Howard borrowing from Bowie for the Red Dwarf theme (which again had already been done before Bowie by Roy Wood) so I thought I’d ask around.

[loadoftottnumb]

More a mundane musing than an observation but I wonder if there is still a ‘Gee’ football in in mid 21st/22nd/23rd century (depending on which reference/line you go by) 

I wonder if Arsenal have announced Declan Rice by then….

[Dave]

More a mundane musing than an observation but I wonder if there is still a ‘Gee’ football in in mid 21st/22nd/23rd century (depending on which reference/line you go by) 

There are occasional references that make it sound like it’s still a current thing rather than just historical. 

[Author]

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