Refresh For The Memory: Series 2 Byte 2

[Warbodog]

G&T’s summary “Lister has a really elaborate wank” is more classic than the episode.

[Unrumble]

Queeg’s Company 

– never noticed that big scary rabbit thing in the corner before!

– Love Chris Barrie’s enunciation of ‘Vatican’.

– An all time favourite: “You are a total, total… a word has yet to be invented to describe whatever it is you are, but you are one, and a total total one at that”

– “I look like you in your best clothes” is probably my fave Cat line from this ep.

– that toast is dry and cold as fuck. I wonder if Craig was supposed to eat some of it, but justifiably decided to put it down surreptitiously.

[Unrumble]

Parallel Lines

– Never noticed before, there’s an edit in Tongue Tied near the end where Rimmer and Lister suddenly swap from one side of the stage to the other, too quick to have moved. Not a goof as such, if you apply ‘dream logic’ to what is an actual dream. 

– kudos to Chris & Craig for their admirable performances in this sequence. Danny’s in his element, but I know they’ve spoken about how taxing it was learning all the choreography etc. 

– Rimmer’s hypnotism story perfectly summarises his slimy, misogynistic ‘sad, weasly’ attitude towards women. This whole sequence with the chat-up line scenario is probably the highlight of the episode, and I’m no hater of the doubles-stuff. 

– Chris’ sarcastic “oooh, I can’t wait to see it” is perfectly delivered. Craig’s “rock and roll!” at the end, less so. 

– Ditto: “we’re going to diiieeee”. I’ve used that so many times over the years, regardless of whether I’m around people who’d get the reference. 

– the character may be a bit weak, but I think Matthew Devitt’s performance as the dog is decent enough 

– however, I always found it a little odd that Lister essentially blanks the Dog when he finds him and Cat. No introductions, no “wow, so your opposite IS a dog, get outta town”. He regards him almost like a small child who doesn’t need acknowledging while the grown-ups are talking. 

– so… why is Arlene so sexually forward and aggressive compared to Arnold, but Deb and Dave don’t show any obvious differences? I know Lister points out that she has the same attitudes toward the opposite sex as Rimmer, but the way this is conveyed isn’t the same, as he’s buttoned up and repressed about it. (acknowledging Warbodogs “Her lechery can be explained as her having more to drink than Arnie.” as a decent explanation) 

– welcome Hattie. Great audition.

– “ooooooooooooohhh Listy” 

[Jenuall]

Parallelogram Universe

– This is an episode that has steadily gone down in my estimation over the years, I still think it’s got some good gags in there and the central premise actually had a lot of promise, but yeah it hasn’t aged particularly well. I think watching this as a youngster back in the VHS days I was attracted to the fact there was a bit more “going on” compared to some of the other episodes?

– The opening is obviously great, Tongue Tied is a fun comedy song and the performance is surprisingly elaborate and well done – hence why people were getting pissed off with how much of the shooting/rehearsal time it was taking up!

– Holly’s inserts into the musical sequence are kind of fun, but feel very “tacked on” – wonder if Norm kicked up a fuss about not being in the sequence and so they had to shoehorn him in?

– Everything about the chat up lines/ get girls by hypnosis sequence is great – there are some fantastic gags in here, the performances are excellent and we get some more depth to the characters (that we might not want to know!) as well. 

– Holly Hop Drive box is a great visual gag, and for a show that is often quite retro in its depiction of technology this is surprisingly forward looking – minimalist user interfaces are all the rage now, plus it’s wireless! To be fair to Holly as well, it’s not as if previous tech has looked high end, the Hologramic Projection Box is hardly convincing!

– Dog is a bit shit yes, but he does setup some good conflict with Cat which results in some nice lines “You wanna smell my what!?!”, “Boy I could smell you if you was on Mars!” etc.

– I can get what they were going for with Arlene and the general “gender roles are reversed” stuff, it just needed to be thought through better.

– And yeah as others have said the ending redeems things quite well, linking back to Future Echoes nicely, including some good gags in the tension build up and eventual reveal of the pregnancy. Pregnancy test kids have gone backwards over time though, they’ve gotten bigger and now take 30 minutes!

[Stilianides]

Queeg – 

A deservedly revered episode and there are numerous great gags throughout. It features many of Holly’s best moments throughout the whole of the show’s existence and Norman’s performance is pretty much perfect. 

Smart Shoes is a nice gag and it was interesting in the commentary to hear Rob specifically crediting Clement and Le Frenais for influencing that type of humour. Very often (understandably) it is the sci-fi influences for Dwarf that are discussed, so I always appreciate when the sitcom elements are focused upon.

Porky Roebuck is a classic and brilliantly bizarre story.

A great stunt from Craig and it feels like everyone was on top form at this point.

The Remastered version added some dodgy interference to Rimmer which, again, only distracts from Chris Barrie’s impressions.

[International Debris]

I honestly think the gender stuff is fine. Transferring toxic masculinity into women to show up how weird and horrible it is is straightforward but effective. Obviously the major issue is that Rimmer starting the episode saying he doesn’t know how to talk to women doesn’t tie in with Arlene acting in an overly confident, flirty way, as have often been discussed. Their initial conversation in the bar is the only bit that feels natural. Again I think it makes a good point, but sadly feels very crowbarred in. And of course the female skutter not only misses the logic of the episode but also falls back on feminine stereotypes at the same time.

On the whole though I think it’s very funny.

Lister’s pregnancy is a great way to wrap up this first two series block, but of all the sci-fi nonsense in the entire show, Lister suddenly growing a womb and being able to incubate a child, even when he gets back to his own universe, really is utterly stupid.

Remastered comparison: the composite of two Red Dwarfs is a billion times better than the CG version. 

[cwickham]

I’ve asked this before, but does anyone have a screenshot of how the VHS version of the episode with the onscreen title added looked?

[Stilianides]

Parallel Universe – 

An underrated episode with several memorable moments. The artificial nose story, Holly’s countdown, ‘I’m in there’, and the very bold Tongue Tied opening. Plus, of course, the Holly Hop Drive. The whole opening ten minutes is very strong.

I think back on the period when this was made and I think Rob and Doug did a pretty good job with the gender stuff. It’s not always subtle, but it does highlight the stupidity of some male thinking at that time and (hopefully) shows how some things have changed since. I cringe at the memory of girls at school being dismissed as, ‘frigid’.

The guest actors all do a fine job and I am one of those people who will stick up for Suzanne Bertish. 

The pregnancy story at the conclusion allows Rimmer to be at his sadistic best, but it was always going to be near impossible to resolve that cliffhanger successfully.

[Warbodog]

This very flat ‘asteroid’ shot is much less impressive than the Thanks for the Memory moon. Works fine when it’s shrunk on the monitor, but then they go and use it full screen anyway.

PU’s noticeably lost popularity over time, from coming 6th/7th in mid-90s polls to 34th/36th in the 2010s (and not mainly a result of all the extra episodes since then). It’s the main ‘bubble’ episode I’ve noticed placing at or near bottom of various personal rankings (I put it 46th last time, depends how it fares against all the new ones). Some people just hate it.

[clem]

Holly’s “12,000 car park attendants” line is just a lazy rehash of the “6,000 P.E. teachers” line, so I’m not a fan.

Also in Stasis Leak, the gag about Hollister’s wife’s photo is very similar to the one in Me2 about Rimmer’s mother’s photo. Clearly Rob and Doug just could not be arsed with this episode. 

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Parallel Inverse. I don’t have any comments on the episode, I just wanted to put the pun out.

[Dave]

Pun-a-lol Universe 

[Flap Jack]

Parallel Universe – Ah, yes, the Waiting For God of Series 2. Somewhat fairly criticised for very surface level social commentary and often regarded as the worst of Series 1-VI because of it, but on a rewatch, actually pretty solidly good and underrated. For sure, the gender swap concept is kind of shallow, but for what it is it’s decent enough. It’s funny throughout, and the guest actors are all great. (OK, Matthew Devitt is just good, but he didn’t have much to work with.) Better than Stasis Leak CONFIRMED. 

– Tongue Tied, yes! It makes the episode worthwhile all by itself honestly. The fact that it’s so elaborate and it has nothing to do with the plot just makes it even better. And it spawned one of the greatest pieces of Red Dwarf merch: a single with way too many tracks on it.

– Rimmer’s weird staring and bad chat up lines are definitely skeevy, but they feel in character for him, and the episode makes it clear that this is a crappy way to behave. Unlike Lister doing upskirting, which is both worse in general and doesn’t get called out.

– It’s a nice touch how when they use the Holly Hop Drive, it cuts to what at first looks like a normal exterior scene transition shot with the appropriate music cue, but the music cue cuts out and the ship disappears.

– Good restraint for them not to make the parallel Red Dwarf a different colour.

– And of course we get another instance of Rimmer thinking something is aliens. I should never have started guessing when the last time would be. He probably does it in every single episode of the BBC era and I just forgot about it.

– The Cat says it smells worse than Lister’s moon boots. Bookending the series by referencing Kryten?

– The music at the disco is an arrangement of Tongue Tied, which cements that Tongue Tied is a real pop song in the Red Dwarf universe (or one of them at least). I wonder what the ‘original’ version sounds like. I assume it wasn’t an instrumental to begin with.

– Cat says “Rimmer” again in this episode, but I don’t think it sounded nearly as weird here as it did in Better Than Life.

– Surely if you’re from the late 21st/22nd century you wouldn’t refer to the 1960’s as “the 60’s”.

– They mention the author of The Male Eunuch, Jeremy Greer, but they don’t mention how transphobic he was, and how outdated his masculinism was. Bit of an oversight.

– Does “The Dog” have an actual name and we just don’t learn it? If we import the logic from IWCD that The Cat doesn’t have an individual name due to feline vanity, then surely that logic wouldn’t apply to a dog too. (Or a rat, for that matter.)

– Hattie Hayridge is pretty good, you know. If only they could have contrived a reason for her to appear in more episodes.

– The fact that Arlene is so sexually aggressive towards Arnold but not vice versa is a little strange, but I think it can be chalked up to Arlene being on home turf. Arnold is on the back foot after travelling to a universe where the gender roles are topsy turvy and so lost his confidence. Having said that, Arlene’s behaviour is still a bit too over the top. If our Rimmer behaved like that in an episode, it would be character-breakingly over the line.

– Deb and Dave’s rapport as counterparts is well done; it has an authentic feel to it. I also like how Deb and Arlene get a short but very Rimmer and Lister-y conversation with each other, just with them.

– In a way this is the spiritual sequel to Series 1’s finale. Me² is “Could you move in with yourself?”, Parallel universe is “Would you fuck yourself?”.

– I can’t think too much about how Lister (as in Dave) could get pregnant. Aside from anything else, surely he would lose the ‘equipment’ once he returned to his home universe? It’s just magic, I guess. I mean, the skutters mate with pink skutters that have lipstick and make baby skutters, credulity has well and truly left the building.

– “My mother was a woman” says Lister. How does he know that? He was found in a cardboard box. Don’t think he’s getting out of this just because that hasn’t been revealed yet.

– The way this pays off the “how do I get two babies?” mystery from Future Echoes is so good. It even explains why he wouldn’t get an abortion (because he knows that he doesn’t) and why Bexley would end up looking so similar to him (because the mother and father are the same person).

– Is there any truth to what Rimmer said about there being male baboons in the 20th century that gave birth?

[Warbodog]

Is there any truth to what Rimmer said about there being male baboons in the 20th century that gave birth?

I can only find a reference to a conveniently unpublished study from the 60s where a fertilised egg was transplanted into a male for a few months for the purpose of studying ovarian cancer in humans.

In a way this is the spiritual sequel to Series 1’s finale. Me2 is “Could you move in with yourself?”, Parallel universe is “Would you fuck yourself?”

why Bexley would end up looking so similar to him (because the mother and father are the same person)

Robert A Heinlein’s ‘—All You Zombies—’ (1959) and David Gerrold’s The Man Who Folded Himself (1973) are some precursors that I don’t know whether they read, but it’s not like they wouldn’t end up there themselves. It’s funny how the provisionally last human can only carry on the species through extreme sci-fi incest, Ouroboros will get things wrong by having Kochanski’s outsider genetics involved. There might be some reflex revulsion there that contributes to this episode feeling unpleasant to some (including younger me), even subconsciously.

[Formica]

– here we are, in the ’20s, and if I talk about the ’20s here in the US, at least, the average listener will probably still assume I’m talking about the Roaring such. Maybe the 2060s were so uneventful in comparison to the 19 of the same that only one has remained as significant in cultural memory.

– Everybody loved to wonder how Skipper could fail to bring Ace Rimmer up. It’s true, that was a story that seemed to depend on Ace Rimmer never having happened (lost to the Inquisitor II?). But talk about this episode reminds me that there are probably even more events than just The End they could have called back to. I would have gone apeshit if we’d had two seconds of Arlene dropping into a universe, going “Nope, not this one” and jumping out. Hell, I’d have even taken him falling into Lister’s body in a universe where they’d stayed swapped, a canary uniform, even back into his mech body (probably the most impractical, weirdly). Yeah, it’d be very MCU of them, but is that not the point of that section of the episode?

This is an episode that has steadily gone down in my estimation over the years,

– Never heard it called that before, etc.

[Dave]

I would have gone apeshit if we’d had two seconds of Arlene dropping into a universe, going “Nope, not this one” and jumping out.

As much as I found the callbacks of XII a bit much towards the end, a return of the female counterparts is something I’d actually really like to have seen, especially as both actors seem to still be active. 

After TPL tied up the story of the cat people, Doug referred to a few other loose ends from earlier eras of the show that could be addressed in future specials. I wonder if Deb and Arlene and Jim and Bexley were one of them.

[Flap Jack]

Rewriting a gag that stuck out to me as being weak in Queeg.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

– Good restraint for them not to make the parallel Red Dwarf a different colour.

Restraint, or they didn’t have Paintbox and weren’t willing to re-spray the model?

[Rudolph]

I’ve never been overtly keen on Parallel Universe. I think it says something that my favourite things about it are from the Talkie Toaster interviews on TOS: Arlene Rimmer going off to be the next Ace Rimmer, and Deb Lister’s pregnant dog being called Dracula.

[clem]

It feels misleadingly like a ‘sci-fi lite’ episode, but it’s all about a sentient computer and it’s got the dramatic meteor impact and repair scenes early on, so more sci-fi than Balance of Power or Marooned.

With its somewhat stock “new boss worse than the old one” premise, Queeg reminds me of Joel Morris’ observation about Blackadder being an administrative workplace sitcom in disguise. Queeg is Red Dwarf doing a similar trick, just with different trappings obviously. It’s also that episode of Rainbow where Geoffrey pretends to be grumpy Uncle Bill. 

[clem]

Parallel 9 is all highs and lows for me. I really like the odd great line like “Mind you, we’ve got a pretty good conversation going on here”, plus Tongue Tied, the Hop Drive, the Dog, Holly and Hilly, and Rimmer teasing Lister about possibly being pregnant. A lot of the gender stuff is ill-considered imo and kinda spoils it for me. The pink/baby skutters are shite. 

I feel like we wouldn’t get a deliberately crap comedy prop like the Hop Drive anymore after Series 2, except we would again in the Dave era and people would hate it.

When the Cat’s hanging on the mirrorball he’s using it actually as a mirror and combing his hair. Never noticed that before. 

Cat using the atomizer to mark his territory is a great little callback. They were doing fan service as early as series 2!

[Loathsome American]

Stasis Leak as an episode had a certain mystique for me growing up because I seemed to keep missing it when my local PBS station would cycle through the series. Add to that the novelty of getting to see pre-accident Red Dwarf, and I think I always remember this episode being better than it actually is. But watching it this time, it does seem like a lot of time travel stuff that doesn’t make a lot of sense, which might be okay if it was in service to a good story, but it doesn’t really go anywhere, and the future it promised didn’t happen anyway. This is probably my bottom of series two. 

[Rudolph]

Just thinking, Queeg does share the same basic plot as the Porridge episode Disturbing the Peace. The inmates end up contriving to get Mr. Mackay back, after his replacement turns out to be an even bigger bastard and psychopath than him.

[clem]

Just thinking, Queeg does share the same basic plot as the Porridge episode Disturbing the Peace. The inmates end up contriving to get Mr. Mackay back, after his replacement turns out to be an even bigger bastard and psychopath than him.

Cf. the Father Ted episode ‘New Jack City’. 

[Unrumble]

[Flap Jack]

“Regular character gets replaced with someone who is better in theory, then the new person turns out to be worse in practice, so everyone else realises the error of their ways and gets the original person back” is a very common plot archetype in sitcoms and cartoons.

It happened to Principal Skinner twice in the first 10 seasons of The Simpsons.

[clem]

Yeah there’s loads of examples, but the only one I know of apart from Queeg where the replacement turns out to be the same character in disguise to teach the others a lesson is that episode of Rainbow I mentioned.

[Dave]

Queeg is basically a dark version of Mrs Doubtfire.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

I think Mrs Doubtfire is already a dark version of Mrs Doubtfire.

[Ewing]

Queeg is the episode that proves Norman Lovett is sorely missed in every episode without him. I love the 3-6 series run of episodes as much as the next fan but the show is just not the same without the senile computer and his SOS signal.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

You know, it’s only in retrospect that it’s occurred to me just how sucky it must be to exist only as a corporate-owned hologram. In addition to the aforementioned problems of having no physical presence to speak of, having to come to terms with the knowledge that the real you is dead and you’re only a projection of photons, and of course fostering the emnity of the crew for both hogging a position after you’ve snuffed it that would in days of yore have gone to the next down in the chain of command, and of course for having to ask to have everything done for you and being so damn fussy about not being walked through – in addition to all those points, you’ve essentially signed away the rights to your mind, your personality, your memories, everything that makes you who you are, and they have free reign to do whatever with it – we got a taster of that in Officer Rimmer with the call centre Listers.

But Queeg shows just how extreme the moral quandaries of this can be – as the company is paying for your hologrammic existence, they have the means to dictate everything about it. What Queeg does to Rimmer is probably an extreme example, but the fact that it is possible to override the actions of the hologram is a rabbit hole in and of itself, and it opens the possibility that others could similarly abuse this for whatever reason. And just imagine living in constant dread that the company may decide your runtime would be more efficiently used elsewhere and decide to power you down.

I’m sure this is all just the tip of the iceberg as far as ethics and philosophy are concerned, but it’s only just now that I really started thinking about it.

[Nick R]

– The music sting before the pea on toast scene always makes me think of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles.

Or alternatively,

[Warbodog]

Queeg’s Company 

– never noticed that big scary rabbit thing in the corner before! 

I definitely saw Unrumble’s post about this at the time and didn’t think any more of it, so either this thing is like the Silence or I’m just going peculiar.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Are you sure that’s a rabbit?

[Warbodog]

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

[Author]

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