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

[Dave]

TBF ‘White Hole’ aired 34 years ago and I don’t think any of us had thought of them just going to Starbug before this conversation so I’m not sure it’s *that* obvious, unless we’re all just thick.

I mean, they do eventually go to Starbug in the episode, so it never occurred to me to think of it as an alternate scenario. It would be like wondering why they don’t get around the Camille thing by just asking her to appear in her true form once they realise what she is.

[Spaceworm Jim]

Has anyone done the Rimmerworld shot with Kryten saying, ‘or we could just go to Starbug?’ If not, I would like to apply for the job.

[Android 72264Y]

Rimmer gives off ‘Neurodivergent Dad’ aura. 

[Cardinal_Hordriss]

Maybe it’s because I write a bit myself. With sci-fi people are always waiting to pull apart the smallest thing so as a rule I try to cover all bases and make sure that what the characters do is either their only option or a deliberate choice with adequate justification.

[pi r squared]

But in Red Dwarf, usually the rule is that the comedy trumps the sci-fi – so aren’t we better off with one or two more gags, than some shoehorned-in exposition closing down a relatively minor plot hole?

[Rushy]

But in Red Dwarf, usually the rule is that the comedy trumps the sci-fi – so aren’t we better off with one or two more gags, than some shoehorned-in exposition closing down a relatively minor plot hole?

– Doug Naylor, 2009 

[International Debris]

I mean if you started treating Red Dwarf like that, you’d end up pulling almost every episode apart. It’s chock full of plot holes (can something be ‘full’ of holes? Wouldn’t that make it empty?)

[Moonlight]

Red Dwarf is swiss cheese.

[Ben Saunders]

If you tear a hole in a net it will have fewer holes in it than it did to begin with. This has nothing to do with Red Dwarf.

[Ben Saunders]

Swiss cheese is a consipracy to sell you less cheese.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Swiss cheese is a consipracy to sell you less cheese.

Same with Aeros, Polos and doughnuts

[clem]

The holes in Aeros give them their lovely bubbly texture. Curly Wurlys, on the other hand, are a fucking rip-off. 

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

The holes in Aeros give them their lovely bubbly texture. Curly Wurlys, on the other hand, are a fucking rip-off. 

Without the holes it would just be a longy straighty 

[Dave]

You guys are going to be fuming when you hear about Hula Hoops.

[Nick R]

Swiss cheese is a consipracy to sell you less cheese.

Same with Aeros, Polos and doughnuts

Why would Danny John-Jules betray us like this? :(

[Warbodog]

You’re mostly paying for empty space between subatomic particles anyway.

[Rushy]

Tony Hawks is sadly more of a prick than I could have thought

https://x.com/BBCSheffield/status/1947024420632932432

[Warbodog]

Depends how his son feels about it, I don’t particularly want anything from my parents or feel entitled. Though we’re probably not talking the level of the Tony Hawks estate, so that’s not such a big statement for me to make.

[loadoftottnumb]

We only have a slither of the overall context but doesn’t seem so bad. Maybe his son had already had a leg up, has a mortgage free home, and as the video suggests, a decent job. Setting up a charity for the less fortunate isn’t the worst thing to do with your money.

[International Debris]

He did a radio series exploring the topic recently, looking at how fair or unfair the idea of inheritence is. 

[Ben Saunders]

Is nepotism bad or are children entitled to their famous parent’s estates? Please discuss for the next 50 pages

[Ben Saunders]

He did a radio series exploring the topic recently, looking at how fair or unfair the idea of inheritence is. 

…or make a radio show about it I guess

[Moonlight]

Why does the working class, the largest of the groups, not simply eat the rich?

[Rushy]

Is nepotism bad or are children entitled to their famous parent’s estates? Please discuss for the next 50 pages

Personally, I believe that if you’ve done a good job parenting, your children will use the estate wisely. 

It also depends how much there is. If it’s like 40 million, they won’t need all that. But if it’s 1 million, then it’s like… come on now. Don’t be a dick. Help your kids out. 

[Jenuall]

Always annoys me how little effort they made to not make this look like a flat screen TV circa 2015. 

They didn’t even take the fucking stickers off saying it supports DVB etc! 

[Rushy]

This, of course, was the peak of space age futurism

[Flap Jack]

Well if you don’t take the stickers off it’s easier to return it afterwards.

[Rushy]

This all being said, I do like how Star Wars has stayed very loyal to its 1970s retro aesthetic, and I wish more aging sci-fi franchises took note. 

Imagine Doctor Who, but the Doctor still talks to the villains directly through a tiny monitor. Some tropes should never die. 

[Flap Jack]

Star Wars makes for easy decision making in that regard because it’s set in a different galaxy and in the past, with no intersection with our own history. If the show/movie is trying to be a genuinely convincing hypothetical future of humanity, that’s a bit trickier.

I think Doctor Who mostly gets away with updating how the “future” looks, because so much changes over time in that show anyway, and visits to the exact same time and place across different eras are pretty rare.

[Jenuall]

This, of course, was the peak of space age futurism

Whilst I appreciate there is something to be said in terms of this not being ” a new thing” it still feels like this example fits better within the established aesthetic for the show.

Plus 1988 broadcast quality means it’s much harder to look at that and be like “ah yes I can identify the exact make and model, John and Tracey next door have the same one!”

[Rushy]

Rimmer’s H is crooked when he’s on the Simulant ship

[Moonlight]

He’s been roughed up. Be nice.

[Unrumble]

He’s been roughed up. Be nice.

Yeah… but the implication would therefore be that in-universe, it’s literally a hologramatically generated H stuck to his head? As opposed to an intangible (to him) symbol. He could just pluck it off at will and pretend he’s not a deadie.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Dave]

There is precedent.

[Rushy]

So every time Rimmer gets aroused, his H is crooked? No wonder it fell off when he became Ace. 

[Unrumble]

There is precedent.

[clem]

Yeah… but the implication would therefore be that in-universe, it’s literally a hologramatically generated H stuck to his head? As opposed to an intangible (to him) symbol. He could just pluck it off at will and pretend he’s not a deadie.

I think he can feel it, because in Skipper he can feel that it’s not there just after he arrives in the Captain Lister universe, and tell that he’s not a hologram. By which I mean he literally touches his forehead to check whether the H is there, although it seems like maybe he can sense that he’s alive even before doing that – he doesn’t do it in any of the other universes we see him skip to. The only instance I can think of where he actually touches the H is this:

[Ben Saunders]

He takes a whole to realise he’s alive in Timeslides. You’d think suddenly having a heartbeat, bladder, stomach, corporeal form in general would be a little more instantly noticeable.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I want to say you see him sort of mimic straightening it in series 1 a couple of times. In fact I’m sure Chris in commentaries said become he couldn’t touch things, he’d do that on occasion just to give his hands something to do. 

[Technopeasant]

Tony Hawks is sadly more of a prick than I could have thought

Oh thank goodness, you had me worried he was a Nazi now…

So every time Rimmer gets aroused, his H is crooked? No wonder it fell off when he became Ace. 

So it’s like Dilbert’s tie?

There’s more of a connective thread there than there really should be…

[Cardinal_Hordriss]

Tony Hawks is sadly more of a prick than I could have thought
https://x.com/BBCSheffield/status/1947024420632932432

Gordon Ramsey has said the same, that his kids haven’t worked for it… now, I’m not saying being a celebrity chef is easy… but his son is in the military. His son has probably worked harder in a day than Gordon does over six months and to sound like you’re saying that what you do as chef is more deserving of financial reward seems insane.

[Rushy]

As someone who’s been in the military: not necessarily

[Technopeasant]

I mean, I think it is pretty obvious people’s pay is not commensurate to their work in many respects, which does almost make it as much an accident of birth as inheritances. I can understand wanting to put some conditions on it though. That said, my wife and I now have an acreage largely from my grandmother’s estate passed through my mother.

[Technopeasant]

Why does the working class, the largest of the groups, not simply eat the rich?

They might not taste that good.

[Jenuall]

Fucking size of that fish. I’d have stayed on the bug if that was outside the window

[Jenuall]

And while we’re on series 3:

If you’ve crashed and have no heating/power maybe try harnessing whatever is powering that massive fucking light shining out of the exit door?

[Moonlight]

It’s Rimmer. On the way out Lister accidentally knocked the dimmer switch all the way to the right.

[Rushy]

They don’t call him the Mighty Light for nothing

[Ben Saunders]

He was knocked all the way to the right in Meltdown too

Meltdown two

[Author]

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