Quarantine

[Warbodog]

A popular episode that doesn’t get discussed very much because it’s not annoying, series V’s silver medallist has been in the top 5 of all public polls since it came out, sometimes as high as top 3. This status seems unquestioned. Is it really that good, or coasting along on simpletons remembering Mr Flibble? What keeps it from the top of the podium?

I decided it was my favourite episode when I first saw it, probably in late 1999 after seeing most of the episodes except V. That’s still probably the case today, but not to an exaggerated extent. I think it’s the most all-round ideal episode, balancing the sci-fi, peril, gags, character comedy and striking imagery in equal measure.

That all-roundness might be where it falls down compared to episodes that commit more fully in one direction, like Back to Reality and Marooned. Gunmen has a similar balance, as does VI generally by design. The emphasis on being funny means it ends up being one of the lighter episodes of V, which says a lot about V when you consider how dark this thing is.

It’s probably considered a Rimmer episode, but he’s aff his heid for most of it and everyone gets plenty to do. More all-rounding there. Oh, except Holly, of course, who I forgot was even in it. And Lister may be short changed a bit, but he gets crackers like “a little three-seater.”

Positive viruses are up there with my favourite Grant Naylor concepts (if it’s original), and it’s down to the presentation since I wasn’t particularly impressed when I saw them earlier in VIII. The convenient ending might be annoying if that convenience wasn’t made into a joke. The laziness of this shot cracks me up:

Is there much to say about Quarantine?

Topic

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

The long gap between series 6 and 7 was due to Chris Barrie and the camera crew having to learn to skydive for the opening sequence of Stoke me a Clipper. This now famous stunt sequence, shot in one take, lead to Tom Cruise insisting on the same for the halo jump sequence in Mission Impossible: Fallout

[clem]

Rob Grant took some persuading that robotic manservant Kryten should return to the show in Series III. Co-writer Doug Naylor eventually wore him down with several more outrageous ideas for a new regular character. These included Captain Hollister’s stroppy niece Celeste, a wisecracking alien glove puppet named Frank, and Taiwan Tony.

[Warbodog]

Many fans are convinced that the explosion in Queeg killed the original Craig Charles and he’s been played by a dedicated lookalike ever since. Ironically, the replacement Craig is said not to enjoy curry very much, which is why Lister is never seen eating any curry in the rest of the series.

[Ben Saunders]

Unhappy with his portrayal of deceased crewman Arnold Rimmer, actor Chris Barrie requested that he be killed in order to better understand his role. Series III is shot on extremely cheap, old video cameras due to this fact – most of the budget for the series was spent on utilising a BBC Hologrammic Projection Suite, the first of its kind, invented specifically for Barrie. It has long been rumoured that the show’s creators Rob Grant and Doug Naylor parted ways in 1996 due to Grant and Barrie being involved in a sexual relationship following Barrie’s upgrade to hard-light status. Having been secretly in love with Barrie for multiple years, this upset Naylor greatly. Consumed with jealousy, he ate the only copy of the first complete script for Grant Naylor’s ITV sitcom, The Ooo-eee-Ooo Dimension, and the two didn’t speak to each other for years after.

[Warbodog]

The younger versions of Lister seen in Timeslides, The Inquisitor and Ouroboros were played by Emile Charles, who is Craig Charles’ nephew in real life.

[Dave]

Many fans have marvelled at the miraculous split-screen effects work over the years that has allowed Craig Charles, Chris Barrie, Danny John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn to play scenes involving doubles of themselves, 100% convincingly.

But did you know that the vast majority of these scenes were not achieved with split-screen effects after all? Conscious of their limited effects budget, penny-pinching comedy duo Grant Naylor instead went out on to the streets of Manchester and collared a few impressionable drifters, got them drunk and made them agree to transformative and invasive plastic surgery to make them look like Lister, Rimmer, Cat and Kryten.

They now earn a regular living turning up at fan conventions instead of the billed actors: none of the original cast have ever actually attended one since the very early ’90s.

[Warbodog]

Craig Charles thought Ghostwatch was real until he read about the controversy after its broadcast. The Liverpudlian star was the only member of the cast kept in the dark, partly to get an authentic performance, but mainly because they thought it would be funny.

[Warbodog]

Lister and Rimmer are unambiguously lovers.[citation needed]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

The real reason the old man in the shower scene in Stasis Leak was replaced with a hunky model, was because he did indeed have a really small penis, and Cat’s line shaming him for it made him really upset and cry.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

During the filming of Beyond a Joke, a young and eager first AD called action early, before the Pride and Prejudice cast members were clear of the gazebo, leading to their horrific deaths as the tank fired upon them, blowing them to pieces.

Thankfully all shots of them needed had been completed for the day so the cast and crew agreed to keep it quiet, promising to take it to the graves, so as not to delay the filming of series 7 any further. Unfortunately Robert let is slip on twitter almost immediately once asked but an inquisitive family member of one of the young girls because she hadn’t come home from work that day.

[Dave]

Lister’s cat Frankenstein might look like an uncooperative animal extra in ‘The End’, but you’d be wrong – she was in fact a highly sophisticated animatronic puppet requiring seven people to simultaneously operate her by remote control.

Unfortunately, after blowing the budget on the ersatz moggy, renowned skinflints Grant Naylor were left having to cobble the Skutters together with whatever they could find in a local skip.

[Warbodog]

In the original script of The End, Lister’s cat was discovered in its rather obvious hiding place and dissected, but Lister then sneakily put it back together and restored it to life using electricity, hence the name Frankenstein. When someone pointed out that Frankenstein was the creator, not the monster, this aspect was dropped due to embarrassment.

[Author]

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