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]

When adult Lister first felt Krissie’s va

[Starbugger]

When Parallel Universe was filmed, did Holly survive his computer rashes?

Where are you from?

[International Debris]

When adult Lister first felt Krissie’s fo

[tombow]

When Don Warrington arrived on set for his scene in Holoship was he surprised not to see Leonard Rossiter playing the holo captain, in what would have been a fine homage to their previous roles?

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

When they filmed Ouroborus were the cast surprised Kochanski looked and sounded nothing like Kochanski 

[tombow]

When Dave era Lister played the tennis VR game was he surprised to find that the ball girl, like Rimmer, had aged with him and was now a hard smoking mid 30s aged coach?

[Nick R]

When you first watched Officer Rimmer, were you surprised tha

[tombow]

from Rihanna Pratchett’s Twitter (after being asked if her father ever watched RD)  – 

“Oh yes. We even had dinner with Craig Charles (who was/is a Discworld fan) and his wife many years ago. Then we watched The Keep and an episode of Red Dwarf. My family dubbed the room they stayed as ‘The Craig Charles Memorial Suite’. We should’ve got a plaque really”

oh to have been a fly on the wall for that visit…?

[tombow]

Imagine this for a 70s cast –

Lister – Richard Beckinsale

Rimmer – Don Warrington 

Holly – Leonard Rossiter

Kochanski – Frances de la Tour

The Cat – Leo Sayer

[Unrumble]

If Don Warrington plays Rimmer, who plays Binks in ‘Holoship’? 

[International Debris]

A teenage Chris Barrie.

[Ian Symes]

Cos I’m just a teenage Chri-is Barrie,

Yeah I’m just a teenage Chri-is Barrie,

Listen to the Joe Rogan podcast, baby, too much.

[Warbodog]

Was Chris Barrie surprised when it was 2023 and the vaccinated masses still didn’t have Borg xenomorphs exploding out of their stomachs?

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Cos I’m just a teenage Chri-is Barrie,
Yeah I’m just a teenage Chri-is Barrie,
Listen to the Joe Rogan podcast, baby, too much.

I’ll take the opportunity to say if you ever get the chance to see Wheatus play live they are an incredible band that only play small venues but have a really dedicated following and put on incredible shows.

Teenage Dirtbag is easily the let down of the night as every other track is fantastic.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Was Alan Rickman surprised when he tuned into Red Dwarf for the first time and saw that he hadn’t been cast as he made the correct decision to go to LA and be even more surprised by being thrown off Nakatomi Towers

[Unrumble]

Cos I’m just a teenage Chri-is Barrie,
Yeah I’m just a teenage Chri-is Barrie,
Listen to the Joe Rogan podcast, baby, too much.

I’ll take the opportunity to say if you ever get the chance to see Wheatus play live they are an incredible band that only play small venues but have a really dedicated following and put on incredible shows.
Teenage Dirtbag is easily the let down of the night as every other track is fantastic.

[tombow]

last night I happened upon some old RD discussion over whether Series 6’s “Gunmen” and the Western themed Star Trek TNG ep from around the same time could have ripped each other off, and marvelling that they were both made by coincidence at the same time. What no-one thought of is that Jurassic Park’s forthcoming release was being hyped up then (early 93), putting all Michael Crichton’s work back into the public eye, including WESTWORLD.

[Dave]

So it’s like James O’Brien always said, TNG wouldn’t have existed without Crichton.

[Flap Jack]

So it’s like James O’Brien always said, TNG wouldn’t have existed without Crichton.

[Warbodog]

[IrisVinEverec]

Wild West themes were popular at the time anyway… I was barely alive in the late 80s/early 90s and Westerns aren’t my favourite but off the top of my head there was City Slickers (1991), Maverick (1994), Young Guns (1990) and Bon Jovi did Blaze of Glory as part of the soundtrack, Cher’s Just Like Jesse James (1989) and Dr Quinn Medicine Woman (93 I think?).  Probably loads more too. 

[IrisVinEverec]

And Red Dwarf had a nod to the Wild West popularity in season 1 with the Scutters liking John Wayne. 

[Moonlight]

[Warbodog]

Yes, it’s confirmed on screen.

Like Kochanski’s first name being spelled with a C.

[cwickham]

Whilst I believe I have mentioned this here before, the Robot Wars entrant Scutter’s Revenge was originally entered with the correct spelling of “Skutter’s Revenge” but the producers asked them to change it to avoid any possible legal issues, and possibly takes some blame for the belief it’s spelt “Scutter” given it and its follow-up Spawn of Scutter appeared in the show at the peak of its popularity.

[Podey]

I seem to recall there was a robot entered called “The Inquisitor”, too?

I remember a gold exchange between Craig and the contestants.

C: Where did you get the name ‘The Inquisitor’ from?

C*: A little show called ‘Red Dwarf’

C: Never heard of it.

* Contestant. Probably should have gone with a less confusing labelling system, tbh.

[Podey]

[Dave]

In Backwards, when Cat says “Everything’s Backwards?” at the bar, his accent totally disappears for a brief moment.

[tombow]

In Backwards, when Cat says “Everything’s Backwards?” at the bar, his accent totally disappears for a brief moment.

I think there’s a handful of times he slips into his own voice during S6 too, during some of the more demanding dialogue-filled “smell rader” scenes.

[Podey]

It has literally just occurred to me for the first time that the backwards-text thing in Backwards doesn’t fit in with the internal logic of that episode, does it? There’s absolutely no reason that the sign wouldn’t still say “London”, it’s the people for whom time is running in reverse that would read it as “nodnol” as they’d go from the last letter to the first. 

I know the episode is full of logic plot holes, but I’m amazed I have not noticed that one before. 

[Dave]

Yeah it’s one of the aspects that doesn’t carry through to Rob’s novelisation, presumably because it makes so little sense.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

It’s a great visual cue to the audience, but yeah the text etc shouldn’t be backwards or mirrored in anyway. 

[Rudolph]

Same with the job adverts. They suggest an awareness on the part of the backwards reality people that time is going in the ‘wrong’ direction.

[clem]

It has literally just occurred to me for the first time that the backwards-text thing in Backwards doesn’t fit in with the internal logic of that episode

Yeah it’s one of the aspects that doesn’t carry through to Rob’s novelisation, presumably because it makes so little sense.

Although it is in Better Than Life. ‘Retsil Divad’ 

[Veeva]

Miss Tracey is listed as the shortest member of the Nova 5 but is clearly the tallest of the three in the photo.

[Flap Jack]

Obviously she’s standing on a box.

[Ridley]

Brylcreem, it’s called

[Dave]

[cwickham]

Are their names meant to be given surname first?

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Are their names meant to be given surname first?

Tracey Johns

Jane Air

Anne Gill

I’ve always assumed Jane Air and Anne Gill are meant to be plays on Jane Eyre and Angel … Tracey Johns has always stumped me.

[Warbodog]

Tracey Johns has always stumped me.

The bloke in Thunderbird 5, because it’s also a 5?

[Nick R]

(Tracy Johns) Works in civil service
(Tracy Johns) It’s steady employment
(Tracy Johns) Is a golfing fanatic
(Tracy Johns) But her putt is erratic

Every day she got closer
She knew in her heart she was over
“I’d love to stay here and be normal
But it’s just so overrated”

[Jonathan Capps]

Why did those three specifically have an official picture taken together before the accident?

[tombow]

I always assumed that the Blur song and N5 crew member were both referring to some older UK figure I hadn’t heard of. But I never bothered to ask or google it.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Why did those three specifically have an official picture taken together before the accident?

They were the only three crew members?

[Jonathan Capps]

Nah, I’m not having that

[loadoftottnumb]

They were the 3 female officers. The male officers died on impact. The non-officers Kryten didn’t give a shit about, might have died, might have survived. 

[Formica]

They were the 3 female officers. The male officers died on impact. The non-officers Kryten didn’t give a shit about, might have died, might have survived. 

Isn’t all of that novel-exclusive lore?

[Dave]

Isn’t all of that novel-exclusive lore?

It’s a lore unto itself

[loadoftottnumb]

Not the first bit. The bit about the non-officers I made up, not sure if it’s in the novels. 

[Author]

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