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

[loadoftottnumb]

Handy they originally picked a gender neutral name to begin with, this could have got more complicated if Norman Lovetts character had been called Geoff 

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Handy they originally picked a gender neutral name to begin with, this could have got more complicated if Norman Lovetts character had been called Geoff 

It sort of begs the question why Holly has a different name in Parallel Universe 

[Warbodog]

[Nick R]

It sort of begs the question why Holly has a different name in Parallel Universe 

I think we’ve experienced this period of time before, sir.

[Flap Jack]

[Warbodog]

It sort of begs the question why Holly has a different name in Parallel Universe 

Dramatically, it slightly covers up the reveal that everyone (except Cat) will have a direct female counterpart, as you could assume it’s more of a different character, maybe. In which case, it was relevant for 30 seconds or so.

[Nick R]

[Unrumble]

[Warbodog]

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

[Nick R]

[Stabbim]

still feel like Low Holly’s name should be spelled with a gratuitous and mostly silent IOUX in the middle

[Moonlight]

[Dave]

[Moonlight]

[Dave]

[Jenuall]

[Nick R]

[Unrumble]

[Dave]

[Ian Symes]

[Ian Symes]

[Flap Jack]

[Unrumble]

Not sure how I managed to mis-spell on mine…

[Dave]

[Dave]

[clem]

[Ian Symes]

[Dave]

[Nick R]

[Unrumble]

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

I thought about doing something like this but I bottled (in part on the urging of a friend). Though mine would’ve had VELLY at the start so that’s probably even worse.

[Nick R]

[International Debris]

[Warbodog]

I thought about doing something like this but I bottled (in part on the urging of a friend). Though mine would’ve had VELLY at the start so that’s probably even worse.

Dave’s friends:

[clem]

[Dave]

It wasn’t racist or ironically racist, it was making fun of the awfulness of Taiwan Tony. I didn’t think that was particularly controversial. 

[Nick R]

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

It wasn’t racist or ironically racist, it was making fun of the awfulness of Taiwan Tony. I didn’t think that was particularly controversial. 

Yeah but somehow it doesn’t always telegraph very well.

[Frank Smeghammer]

[Flap Jack]

I regret to say that repeating or mimicking a racist impression for a joke, even if the joke is about how bad the impression was, does fall under the umbrella of ironic racism.

That doesn’t mean that ironic racism humour is wrong or inappropriate however. That’s more of a case-by-case-basis thing, and I’m sure we all understood Dave’s intent.

[Dave]

I regret to say that repeating or mimicking a racist impression for a joke, even if the joke is about how bad the impression was, does fall under the umbrella of ironic racism.

I don’t necessarily disagree, but in this case it isn’t someone doing an impression, just a Smegadrive image with a caption. The meme is obviously about pointing out a well-known example of the show being awkwardly racist. Doing that isn’t a racist act in itself, ironic or otherwise.

[Dave]

Anyway, I don’t want this to derail a fun thread so I’m happy to leave it there. I feel like the point of the joke was clear and I don’t think a silly Smegadrive meme warrants this level of attention either way.

[Warbodog]

I was too keen to make a stupid gif to consider I was light-heartedly libelling someone. I would apologise, but that’s what got us into this situation.

[Dave]

I was to keen to make a stupd gif to consider I was light-heartedly libelling someone. I would apologise, but that’s what got us into this situation.

I thought that one was pretty funny.

[loadoftottnumb]

Let’s get things back on track with a good old fashioned penis gag shall we? 

[Nick R]

[Warbodog]

[Unrumble]

[Rudolph]

[Author]

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