Red Dwarf VIII is flawed

[Rubber]

Controversial statement, of course, but I rewatched recently and there were some aspects of the series which didn’t sit well with me:

1. What actually goes on with Holly in BITR3? He says he creates a second set of nanos — what? Is that then proven wrong because they’re in AI when he says it? How do you put a computer in AI if it doesn’t lick envelopes? Do both bighead Holly and prison Holly have the run of the ship’s circuitry, or is prison Holly only able to move between the watch and the cell screen? Never ever really followed any of this tbh.

2. Rimmer is subject to two serious sexual assaults in the first half of the series but they go unpunished. How is this acceptable?

3. Rimmer uses coercive control on Kochanski and nobody seems to mind. Appalling.

4. I asked this before but I still can’t get a handle of the scale or location or configuration of the orange prison tower in the CGI exterior shots.

5. Who does Cat live with?

On the plus side, Rimmer’s dad’s ‘conception sperm alibi’ was at least borne out to be true, a decade later.

Topic

[Dave]

I hadn’t ever considered that VIII could be seen as anything less than perfect, but this is certainly food for thought.

[si]

Red Dwarf VIII is flawed

“And today on ‘No Shit’… “

[Rubber]

Red Dwarf VIII is flawed

“And today on ‘No Shit’… “

I think the end of your post is missing!

Ackerman update: Google ‘Graham McTavish shirtless’ for a nice surprise.

[Plastic Percy]

The prison tower is one that always throws me. We’re told the Tank is on Floor 13 (on a spaceship with thousands of floors, this doesn’t make sense aside to sound cool – unlucky 13 and all that) yet there’s a skyscraper which appears to be just wing of it somewhere in the ship.

With Holly’s claims about creating little distractions for Lister to keep him busy, I thought this was a point that should’ve been discussed a lot more than it is, as it implies Holly has manipulated or set up some events in the past and it would shine a light on a few things. Obviously, Queeg is the best example – playing a nightmarish practical joke on them to get them to show him some respect – but are there any other examples? Did he deliberately pilot Starbug into the timehole? Lie about the cluster of black holes?

[Renegade Rob]

Series VIII is intentionally flawed because, in a Steven Moffat-esque stroke of genius, the entirety of Series VIII was a mere feint to serve as the first phase in Doug Naylor’s 13-year-long master plan to set up that one joke at the end of Series X.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

The prison tower is one that always throws me. We’re told the Tank is on Floor 13 (on a spaceship with thousands of floors, this doesn’t make sense aside to sound cool – unlucky 13 and all that) yet there’s a skyscraper which appears to be just wing of it somewhere in the ship.

There is a way of solving this I think.

We know there are “Levels” on Red Dwarf, but there are also “Decks”. Presumably no more than 26 decks as we know there is a Z deck but nothing after that.

So I’d suggest the ship is divided into 26 decks, all with multiple Levels/Floors on.

Given Holly say’s “the brig on floor 13” and Lister replies “there isn’t a floor 13”, you could read that to mean he has literally never heard of this place existing. Not that there isn’t a level 13, or a deck M, but a place on Red Dwarf called “Floor 13”.

What “Floor 13” could mean is a hidden deck, of multiple floors, in a corner of the ship, with this multi-stacked prison cell spanning down it. It’s probably easier to hide something like that going vertically in a small area of the ship than it is to assume you could hide an entire 5mile long level.

So we could say “floor 13” is the official name of “the tank” which is space across multiple levels, hidden on a deck somewhere towards the back of the ship where people don’t go very often.

You only then need to explain away the lift having a floor 13 button … but that could be one very specific lift that goes to that one very specific place.

It doesn’t actually make sense for all the lifts on the ship to travel to all floors. You’d have lifts that traveled between decks (the X-Press Elevator seen in Stasis Leak) and then on each deck separate lifts that travel between the floors on that deck.

[Ben Saunders]

It doesn’t have to actually be floor 13, btw, it can just be called that

Quinn did just say that pretty much tbf

[Rubber]

The prison tower is one that always throws me. We’re told the Tank is on Floor 13 (on a spaceship with thousands of floors, this doesn’t make sense aside to sound cool – unlucky 13 and all that) yet there’s a skyscraper which appears to be just wing of it somewhere in the ship.

There is a way of solving this I think.
We know there are “Levels” on Red Dwarf, but there are also “Decks”. Presumably no more than 26 decks as we know there is a Z deck but nothing after that.
So I’d suggest the ship is divided into 26 decks, all with multiple Levels/Floors on.
Given Holly say’s “the brig on floor 13” and Lister replies “there isn’t a floor 13”, you could read that to mean he has literally never heard of this place existing. Not that there isn’t a level 13, or a deck M, but a place on Red Dwarf called “Floor 13”.
What “Floor 13” could mean is a hidden deck, of multiple floors, in a corner of the ship, with this multi-stacked prison cell spanning down it. It’s probably easier to hide something like that going vertically in a small area of the ship than it is to assume you could hide an entire 5mile long level.
So we could say “floor 13” is the official name of “the tank” which is space across multiple levels, hidden on a deck somewhere towards the back of the ship where people don’t go very often.
You only then need to explain away the lift having a floor 13 button … but that could be one very specific lift that goes to that one very specific place.
It doesn’t actually make sense for all the lifts on the ship to travel to all floors. You’d have lifts that traveled between decks (the X-Press Elevator seen in Stasis Leak) and then on each deck separate lifts that travel between the floors on that deck.

Love this thinking! Thank you. Could you draw a cross-section of the ship?

[bloodteller]

Who does Cat live with?

nigel, he’s nice

[International Debris]

What is going on

[cwickham]

Tragically, a question never asked during the production of Red Dwarf VIII.

[JamesTC]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_floor

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Love this thinking! Thank you. Could you draw a cross-section of the ship?

No. Not because I don’t want to, I just wouldn’t be able to.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Who does Cat live with?

nigel, he’s nice

in all honesty, I’d happy crash with Nigel, he seems like a proper interesting bloke!

[Pete Part Three]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_floor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirteenth_Floor (Starring Dave Lister)

[Unrumble]

After all this conjecture, maybe the thread should be renamed “Red Dwarf VIII is ‘floored'”

[Ridley]

And as usual it is left to G&T to point out the VIII-tal floor in your logic.

[clem]

I don’t care for some of the storeys in VIII.

[Flap Jack]

Red Dwarf Series VIII fails on so many levels.

[Hamish]

I don’t think Doug was playing with a full deck when he wrote VIII.

[Ben Saunders]

I think he was a bit busy making a sitcom to play card games

[Hamish]

Neither is Ben apparently.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Yeah, Ben’s comment wasn’t quite on the level.

[Dave]

He’ll be floored by you saying that.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

He’ll nivelo live it down

[Joe]

He’ll certainly deck you for that comment.

[Dave]

Diesel be worth putting in the hall of fame.

[clem]

This is getting tiersome.

[Rubber]

I love you guys.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

These cargo on much longer surely?

[Dave]

We need to Lift our spirits somehow.

[Nick R]

A superlative suggestion, sir, with just two minor floors.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I can’t stop stair-ing at this thread thinking of a good reply.

[Pete Part Three]

This is no time to carpetulate.

[si]

Someone should bring this tower conclusion.

[Dave]

Are you suggesting ceiling this thread off completely?

[clem]

It’s only a bit of fun – there’s no need to get all lofty.

[Unrumble]

Admims will surely have to take steps soon

[clem]

Before things escalate, you mean?

[Rubber]

Hey, don’t attic the thread.

[Rubber]

Assuming that was the general vibe of the past few, um, mezzaninages.

[Hamish]

Now we are all just wing-ing it.

[Renegade Rob]

Looks like this discussion is building to a climax.

[Nick R]

ERECTION.

[Spaceworm Jim]

Looks like this discussion is building to a climax.

The smeg it is.

[Dave]

Time to put this on Hold.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Admins should bungalow effort tag on this thread

[Nick R]

I don’t think the thread should end yet – not while we’ve still got more constructive criticism.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I’d hate to be walled off from the rest of the site.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

A) stop spamming, B) that looks like a hunk of junk and C) there’s a reason we hang out here and not on TOS in the first place.

[Author]

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