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

[Technopeasant]

On the plus side, that presumably made actual caviar seem less gross.

[Dave]

I don’t think Ouroboros ever really gets credit for its structure. The last shot of the episode being the same as the first shot, making the episode itself an ouroboros that can keep going round and round in time if you loop it, is a nice touch, but never seems to get mentioned.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I don’t think Ouroboros ever really gets credit for its structure. The last shot of the episode being the same as the first shot, making the episode itself an ouroboros that can keep going round and round in time if you loop it, is a nice touch, but never seems to get mentioned.

I’d never noticed. 

[Podey]

I would actually find it weirdly comforting if someone made an infinitely looping livestream of the episode that you could just pop on whenever you felt like it and think, oh, look, they’re still going around and around in time.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Warbodog]

Doesn’t the episode skip the opening titles to make it more of a loop (…apart from end credits)? The Smega Drive uses the Xtended versions that all restore the intro, and I won’t have seen the original version since 1997, but I think it’s this one.

[Dave]

I would actually find it weirdly comforting if someone made an infinitely looping livestream of the episode that you could just pop on whenever you felt like it and think, oh, look, they’re still going around and around in time.

The Ouroboros channel.

[Unrumble]

[clem]

Just as the fairground ride cart thing comes to a stop at the end of the Rimmer Experience, you can see somebody’s hands on the front of it.

[Flap Jack]

Turns out a third felis sapiens was left behind. He was secretly on Starbug during Series VI and VII, and they just ran him over.

Good spot, clem!

[Warbodog]

They’re still in AR, so it’s conceivably Rimmer munchkin ride staff in universe, I guess.

There’s one of those in Farscape that I looked forward to on every rewatch.

[Dave]

Without the audio track to clue you in on what’s happening, this just looks like Kryten shoving cutlery up his arse.

[Moonlight]

Apparently when the commercial break started on Lemons they just cut without warning to this clip and I remember everyone said exactly what you just said at the time.

Speaking of Lemons…

This line always felt like Robert was just fucking around in rehearsal and it got into the episode because Doug hadn’t slept in two weeks.

[Warbodog]

[Dave]

[Rushy]

This line always felt like Robert was just fucking around in rehearsal and it got into the episode because Doug hadn’t slept in two weeks.

Doug is always one step away from making an episode where Robert just bellows random noises for 25 minutes 

[Rudolph]

There’s one of those in Farscape that I looked forward to on every rewatch.

This guy in Babylon 5 is the funniest for me, as he’s just standing there going through his notes whilst this very serious scene is happening in front of him.

[Dave]

This reminds me of the Buffy reframing for widescreen.

[Moonlight]

Doug is always one step away from making an episode where Robert just bellows random noises for 25 minutes 

Is that not Ouroboros?

[Technopeasant]

There’s one of those in Farscape that I looked forward to on every rewatch.

This guy in Babylon 5 is the funniest for me, as he’s just standing there going through his notes whilst this very serious scene is happening in front of him.

In fairness, is that something that couldn’t be happening in the scene?

[Rushy]

Doug is always one step away from making an episode where Robert just bellows random noises for 25 minutes 

Is that not Ouroboros?

YOU’RE LYYYYYYYYING

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Technopeasant]

Checking that was indeed David Ross lead me to this lovely thing:

https://randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com/reddw/2/1.html

[IrisVinEverec]

In It’s a Wonderful Life, a dead man, Clarence (Angel, 2nd Class) is sent to save George Bailey. If he succeeds, he will gain his wings and be promoted to 1st Class. 

Obviously I was aware of the link between the film and Red Dwarf and I knew the plot, but not having actually seen this film since I was a child, I was pleasantly surprised to see this little link between Clarence’s mission and ambitions and the reason Holly brings Rimmer back as a hologram to “save” Lister and keep him company. 

[Technopeasant]

And in Timeslides we got to see a world where Lister never existed, kinda.

[Moonlight]

I hate the way this door opens unevenly.

[McKenzie]

Hi everyone this is my first post. I dont have a massive amount of interesting things to say that havent been said but I have enjoyed reading the Refresh for the memory threads.

My first episode I saw of RD was Backwards. And then I had all the VHS tapes from III to VI. When I eventually saw I and II my mind was blown a bit.

Series III and VI have always been my favourites, maybe for nostalgia reasons rather than actual quality, I’m not sure at this point. 

Possibly due to discovering alcohol and going out I completely missed VII. I did watch the first episode of VIII and I absolutely loved it. Obviously that didnt end well. And then I missed all the Dave era until lockdown when I bought them all on prime and binged watched them all. A mixed bag!

Not sure if this was the correct thread to post all this but as it did seem relatively mundane I assumed it should be okay!

[Moonlight]

This thread is more for complaining about doors.

[Dave]

Welcome McKenzie!

Not sure if this was the correct thread to post all this but as it did seem relatively mundane I assumed it should be okay!

Things rarely stay on topic that long here, usually within six or seven posts we’re back to talking about Sonic the Hedgehog again.

[Rudolph]

I hate the way this door opens unevenly.

Installed by the same people who put in that over eager airlock hatch aboard Starbug.

[clem]

And the door to the Rimmers’ quarters. 

[McKenzie]

This thread is more for complaining about doors.

Dont get me started on doors

[Warbodog]

It’s not Sonic, unfortunately, but picking up on annoying mismatched spine art from 21 pages ago, check this shit out:

[Nick R]

21 pages ago

One of So Solid Crew’s more obscure songs.

[Technopeasant]

She wasn’t available on picture day, obviously.

[Rushy]

Continuing on my journey of subjecting my brother to Series VIII, we watched Cassandra (after which he found himself in a rare bit of despondency, unwilling to go further that evening) and I couldn’t help wondering why Lister keeps hiding Holly from the guards. Isn’t Holly a fellow prisoner? Don’t they know all about the Holly watch?

[International Debris]

I don’t think there’s a satisfying explanation for that, or why he got the nanobots to create another Holly, or how he ended up in AR, or how there even are two of them running on infrastructure designed for one, or where he’s officially “kept” as a prisoner, or indeed anything about him. He’s just there with Rimmer and Lister when the script demands him to be, happily obeying the cartoon logic of VIII.

[Rushy]

He’s just there with Rimmer and Lister when the script demands him to be, happily obeying the cartoon logic of VIII.

I love that description, because it fits so well with Norman’s eager performance style.

Also, I’ve no idea why they have a monitor in their prison cell (that Holly appears on). Do they get TV channels in the secret dingy prison that no one knows about?

 how there even are two of them running on infrastructure designed for one

I feel like at some point in the 90s, Doug learned what software was and decided that Holly was a program rather than a computer. 

In the early episodes of Back in the Red, Egghead Holly.exe has crashed because of hardware damage. The crew fix the damage and Hollister then mentions that they’re having trouble rebooting him. 

It’s likely that the original Holly program interfaced wirelessly with the repaired Red Dwarf hardware to try and help Lister, and prevented the crew from re-establishing Egghead Holly. Eventually, he got caught so the crew turned off the wi-fi and switched Egghead Holly on. And then Egghead Holly had him put into VR for a laugh. That’s my theory.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I made this with nowhere to put it. The final shot of every series.

[Nick R]

Mundane observation: those series ending shots are neatly grouped together by type. The first two are close ups of faces, then the next two are multi-character medium shots, then a series of effects shots (including one bit of text), then back to medium shots for the Dave series, then one final effects shot for TPL.

[Ian Symes]

Not counting the post-credits bit of The Beginning?

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Not counting the post-credits bit of The Beginning?

Well I’m not going back and re-doing it

I honestly just completely forgot about it.

[Moonlight]

Quinn, you are hereby stripped of your Clochebusters World Champion title. Please return your sash.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Quinn, you are hereby stripped of your Clochebusters World Champion title. Please return your sash.

Not until I am officially challenged in a round 2 and only if I lose. 

[Rushy]

I spared my brother from Krytie TV, and we went straight to Pete and Only the Good. Strangely, he did not wish to complete the evening with a viewing of Back to Earth. But I’m sure he’ll come around tomorrow.

[Flap Jack]

I mean I can only assume you have him physically restrained.

[Warbodog]

On the bright side, hopefully that’s his worst day of 2026 out of the way already.

[Moonlight]

I still don’t forgive morwen for editing the deleted scenes back into Krytie TV and then making me watch it. Somehow, the bits that go on way too long are actually edited down in the broadcast episode.

[Dave]

[International Debris]

Mundane observation: those series ending shots are neatly grouped together by type. The first two are close ups of faces, then the next two are multi-character medium shots, then a series of effects shots (including one bit of text), then back to medium shots for the Dave series, then one final effects shot for TPL.

Even better than that: two shocked reactions, two camaraderie moments, two Starbug shots, two silly cliffhangers, two smiley Listers. Falls apart at the end, admittedly.

[Author]

Replies