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

[International Debris]

*Taking into account the events of Psirens and Rimmerworld, it takes the crew chronologically 1000 years to recover Red Dwarf. 

Not necessarily, given the upgrade Starbug gets in Epideme – it’s 300% faster. 

[sleepey]

Well, if he needs to pass 2 different exams, that doesn’t line up with them acting as if he’s just one exam away from becoming an officer. And if he’d already passed one of them (presumably the engineering one) then surely Rimmer would brag about it at every opportunity, and Hollister wouldn’t just say that he constantly failed it.

Assuming he’s not just exaggerating how close he is to achieving his goals, maybe he only needs to pass one or the other? They sound like they’d qualify him for completely different jobs, he probably signed up for loads of random specialist courses thinking it’d improve his chances of blagging through one.

We know he didn’t pass engineering anyway because that’s the one he’s doing in The End.

[Flap Jack]

It wouldn’t make a huge amount of sense for Rimmer to go and back and forth between 2 different disciplines for these officer exams, given that the whole point is that he’s doggedly persistent despite never improving.

I’m just saying, is it really so implausible that the whole exam name is something like “Astronavigation Engineering”? i.e. the mechanical expertise required to maintain a spaceship. Rimmer is a technician, so he’s naturally going to aim for higher level technician-y type qualifications, not learning the flight controls or reading star charts or what-have-you. And Balance of Power makes it clear that he never would have considered trying for an “easier” exam that would technically qualify him to be officer-level but outside of his wheelhouse, as Lister does.

[Rushy]

It wouldn’t make a huge amount of sense for Rimmer to go and back and forth between 2 different disciplines for these officer exams, given that the whole point is that he’s doggedly persistent despite never improving.

I just assumed he chose to forget about his two worst failures, or didn’t want Kryten to know that he wrote “I AM A FISH” on his paper

[Moonlight]

OK, but we can all agree that Lister’s chef exam is a form of engineering, right? 

[Dave]

OK, but we can all agree that Lister’s chef exam is a form of engineering, right? 

No, that’s his Astronavs, which is future-speak for “cooking”.

[Rushy]

That chapter in Infinity about Rimmer trying to do his exams is my favourite Red Dwarf anything. I could genuinely read it on repeat and still get the same amount of joy out of it. 

[sleepey]

It’s short for gastronav

[Renegade Rob]

Mundane observation (unrelated to those currently under discussion): Lister’s anti-war crusade in Meltdown about how the wax droids are people with independent thought that deserve to live is slightly undermined by just two episodes earlier when he’s pretty unrepentant about murdering the Talkie Toaster. 

(Also, props where they’re due, “gastronav” is fucking excellent.)

[Rushy]

As seen in Twentica, Rebecca Blackstone actually has a 36D chest size (or close enough). 

[Moonlight]

Mundane observation (unrelated to those currently under discussion): Lister’s anti-war crusade in Meltdown about how the wax droids are people with independent thought that deserve to live is slightly undermined by just two episodes earlier when he’s pretty unrepentant about murdering the Talkie Toaster. 

To be fair, in the shooting order he would’ve been driven insane by Talkie after Waxworld happened.

[Rushy]

To be fair, in the shooting order he would’ve been driven insane by Talkie after Waxworld happened.

He destroyed Talkie before White Hole, though. It was first degree toastercide!

[Flap Jack]

Some of those wax droids were literally Nazis. Goes to show just how annoying Talkie Toaster was.

[Renegade Rob]

Okay but that’s almost worse, since maybe taking a machine life eventually drove him to take a deep look at himself and the ultimate value of sentient machine life. But if Meltdown was first, then his lack of repentance is an even bigger 180. 

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

It’s ironic Lister arguing for the rights of artificial life with a hologram

Whilst it wouldn’t be funny, I do with the show would remember Rimmer is dead a little more often than it does.

[Flap Jack]

It’s a perfectly consistent morality – you shouldn’t get people killed for no reason. Them being annoying is a reason.

Marlon Brando found this out.

[International Debris]

One assumes he considers artificial intelligence to be ‘life’ once it breaks its programming, and there’s no evidence that Talkie isn’t just programmed that way.

[Technopeasant]

And it is actually funnier if he has failed multiple exams nearly into double digits.

[Hamish]

Talkie?

[Technopeasant]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Dave]

[Renegade Rob]

[Jenuall]

[Warbodog]

Kochanski and Tim’s child.

[Flap Jack]

[Dave]

[Ian Symes]

Kochanski and Tim’s child.

I loved Knightmare.

[BlossomiestBlossom]

Watching Rimmerworld at the moment and I’m a bit confused – Rimmer had kids?

[Jenuall]

[Moonlight]

[Renegade Rob]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Seems his father did have an alibi after all …

[Ridley]

I loved Knightmare.

Kill jester.

[Renegade Rob]

> Seems his father did have an alibi after all 

Yeah, and who knows, maybe that’s why he turned out to have such a green thumb on Rimmerworld. 

[Ben Saunders]

Rimmer didn’t have kids necessarily, but his clones did. With each other. His male clones. All of his male clones had sex. With each other. Many times. Possibly many of them simultaneously. The whole planet could have been a Rimmer orgy. But our Rimmer wasn’t invited.

[Unrumble]

[Renegade Rob]

[Jenuall]

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

A mass Rimmer job.

[Technopeasant]

He was specifically trying to make a concubine though. So he presumably did have sex with one of them. Or try to. At least once he got ones with the inny outy bits.

[Rushy]

Just randomly remembered a really sweet moment from the Last Human novel.

Lister finds himself trapped somewhere a GELF prostitute who can transform into anyone he desires. He asks her to turn into Kryten, because Kryten helps him concentrate and think. I thought that was adorable.

[Flap Jack]

Please, she has a name. It’s Retrocrebbin or something.

But yes, it was a nice idea that Lister is intelligent enough to work stuff out on his own, he just needs to channel it through the persona of Kryten.

It was good enough that I almost didn’t think about poop acronyms and rape scenes for a couple of seconds.

[Rushy]

Rob must have been Doug’s Inner Critic

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Please, she has a name. It’s Retrocrebbin or something.

Rita’s Cabin

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Trevor Rabin?

[Renegade Rob]

[Moonlight]

Retro Jabun?

[Renegade Rob]

[Nick R]

“Help!” said Nick. “Can someone recommend which brand of mints I should buy? And please add my initial to the end of your reply, so I know you’re talking to me.”

Soon afterwards, a reply arrived:

“Rec: Trebor, N.”

[Author]

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