Refresh For The Memory: Series III Byte 2

[Jonathan Capps]

You asked for it. Ahead of the forthcoming 35th anniversary poll, the G&T community is embarking on a big old rewatch, tackling half a series (or one feature length special) per week. This is your designated thread to make notes, share observations and start pondering your rankings.

This week, we’re watching BODYSWAP, TIMESLIDES and THE LAST DAY. Have at it!

Previous threads:

Series 1 Byte 1
Series 1 Byte 2
Series 2 Byte 1
Series 2 Byte 2
Series III Byte 1

Topic

[Loathsome American]

If Cat really hates that earring that he gives to Kryten, why was he wearing it as recently as Bodyswap? 

Because he’s worn it already! Now it’s passé. 

Don’t know if it’s the intent, but in my head “Uncle Frank” is a friend of the family given the honorary title of “Uncle” and not literally a sibling of a parent, and so his daughters would not be Rimmer’s cousins. 

[Warbodog]

– The Uncle Frank accidental (?) paedophilia naturally dominates the memory of Rimmer’s “first French kiss” story, but, umm, why exactly was Rimmer hoping to kiss his cousins? Bit weird, mate.

I always assumed it was ‘uncle’ in the ‘parent’s friend’ sense because of that, but… Rimmer was 14, and I think that’s more a young childhood thing. Unless he was a long-time friend and the term just lingered. I really don’t know.

Nice use of “accidental (?)” there too, making me consider that story in a different light. Thanks.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

 – Minor error in Cat’s species being identified as “Felix sapiens” instead of “Felis sapiens”. Or maybe his real full name is Felix Sapiens.

I am going to call him that from now on.

– We’re used to bazookoids, but Lister just has a straight up shotgun at the end. Brutal.

Where’d he get that from? And why do we never see it again? Granted, there’s probably more bazookoid ammo than shotgun shells lying around on a mining ship…

– Hudzen classifying everyone as a non-human for the sake of the joke and of the drama is a bit of a stretch, but I think the explanation that his software has become bugged out by the epochs of hunting Kryten is good enough.

Isn’t that why Kryten said anyway?

Lister having spiritual beliefs but not necessarily subscribing to mainstream religions doesn’t seem too out of character (even if Timothy Spall disagrees)

As much as I dislike the idea of committing to Lister’s beliefs or lack thereof one way or another, I always figured “the ultimate atheist” was less aimed at his actual beliefs than the fact that his mere existence would seem to disprove the existence of God in that context.

[Flap Jack]

That’s a good idea about Uncle Frank. I never considered that. He could even be a godfather to one of the Rimmer children. Let’s say… Howard.

Isn’t that why Kryten said anyway?

He did, yes, but it’s not made explicit whether that was about everything Hudzen did or just his general demeanour and enthusiasm for violence. You could think that Hudzen is clearly malfunctioning, but that his scanner was still correct in identifying Lister as “barely human” (in a “this is a comedy world” kind of way). So I’m just saying I endorse it as a full explanation.

Something else just occurred to me. Putting aside the spelling mistake, how does Hudzen’s lifeform scanner know about the cat race? He must have met some cat people over the years before he got to Red Dwarf. Hello, Big Finish? Hudzen prequel series plz.

[Unrumble]

 That was the original version of the scene with the infamous Hologram Box before they refilmed it, it’s in the deleted scenes.

I did wonder about that, but I probably only watched the deleted scenes once, when I first got the dvd. Which is getting on for 20 years ago, good lord… 

[Unrumble]

Star Trek Crap

– studying the open montage, realised it’s heavily weighted towards the first three eps.

Clips:

Backwards – 5

Marooned – 3 (if you count the shots of the meteorite approaching, then hitting Starbug, as 2)

Polymorph – 4

Bodyswap – 1

Timeslides – 1

Last Day – 1

Thanks For the Memory – 1

Not sure which ep the closeup of Holly is from.

Don’t know that I have any point to make about this… I’m sure it doesn’t reflect on what those involved in production thought of the quality of the eps, as surely the scenes were selected purely to make a dynamic, intriguing sequence that flowed well with the music.

– the officers club decor is tacky as hell

– another great moment for Hattie, “it’s probably lethal to androids…”

– what gets Holly drunk? We already know she has to ‘sleep’ (“I’m jiggered, man!”), but intoxication…? Did she just simulate it to join in with the rest perhaps? 

– nice obsequience from the Cat when being threatened by Hudzen, but is it in or out of character? 

– Rimmer’s misplaced bravado towards Hudzen is great. Always thought him shitting himself (right?) was a bit… shit, though. 

– a big dismantling button, right next to where you hold the thing. What a fantastic design flaw. 

– quick thinking by Holly to go along with Kryten’s lie “the whole thing’s a big con!” 

[Unrumble]

I know the answer is “because his natural cowardly instincts kick in”, but in a time before his ‘small physical presence’ has been established, why is Rimmer afraid of Hudzen harming him? They leant fairly heavily on the concept of him being impervious to harm vs Listers danger of starving/freezing to death in ‘Marooned’.

I guess see also hiding under the chair in ‘Backwards’. 

[Warbodog]

– Rimmer’s misplaced bravado towards Hudzen is great. Always thought him shitting himself (right?) was a bit… shit, though. 

I thought he was pissing himself, it seemed a bit quick for shit. At least we made it past the Bodyswap bathroom scene this time.

Last Day – 1

If that’s Kryten in the suit, that shot’s not actually in the episode. I couldn’t work out where Holly was from either.

For years I never got the ‘write his name in the snow’ gag. I assumed snow = white = semen = some sort of sex thing I wasn’t aware of.

I think I thought it was about digging with it, or some kind of college prank/dare where you strip off and make a snow angel complete with cock shape or something. One of those things I didn’t really think about until I did.

I misremembered it being a recurring phrase in the episode like “where do all the calculators go?”, but turns out it’s only repeated in series VIII.

[Unrumble]

If that’s Kryten in the suit, that shot’s not actually in the episode.

Good point, I did think it didn’t look like a reaction we see him having. They waited until the remastered montage for that, which to be fair is well done with the clip selection (crap cgi at the start and end aside) 

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Something else just occurred to me. Putting aside the spelling mistake, how does Hudzen’s lifeform scanner know about the cat race? He must have met some cat people over the years before he got to Red Dwarf. Hello, Big Finish? Hudzen prequel series plz.

[Flap Jack]

Oh wow, amazing!

Now, how good are you at writing, directing, recording, acting in, and editing radio plays.

[International Debris]

I always thought the same about the crew of the Enlightenment, although there is definitely a chance that they had met one of the arks.

[Warbodog]

Spam/backup your ranking at this arbitrary juncture?

Me² 10
Thanks for the Memory 10
Bodyswap 9
Waiting for God 9
Kryten 9
Marooned 9
Future Echoes 8
Queeg 8
The Last Day 8
The End 7
Polymorph 7
Stasis Leak 7
Timeslides 7
Confidence and Paranoia 7
Better Than Life 6
Balance of Power 6
Parallel Universe 6
Backwards 5

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Oh wow, amazing!

Too kind sir, too kind!

Now, how good are you at writing, directing, recording, acting in, and editing radio plays.

Funny you should ask…

[Stilianides]

Timeslides

I agree with the criticisms of the science in this episode, and Rob and Doug would later deal with causality in a much more convincing way. Having said that, there are so many classic moments, I would still rank this in my top ten.

‘Om’ is brilliant in its terribleness and they should probably have resisted the temptation to reference it again in later years.

I always loved the “crypto fascist” scene and Rimmer’s perky sadism.

Rimmer’s “Who is the rich man?” speech is perfectly performed by Chris.

Some of Ed’s special effects, including the moving photos that another poster mentioned above, are genuinely impressive.

Interesting that in the lockdown commentary, Rob suggests that Ruby Wax probably rewrote several of her lines.

[Unrumble]

I always loved the “crypto fascist” scene and Rimmer’s perky sadism.

Stop saying you’ve always loved the cryptofascist scene, it makes you sound like a complete git. 

[Stilianides]

The Last Day

Another classic ep and Robert/Kryten already feels like an essential part of the team. The drunk scenes make the characters seem more like friends than possibly ever before, and they seem like a crew rather than a disparate group of individuals.

The Uncle Frank scene is perfectly played and Ed’s choice to focus on Craig’s reaction really makes it.

Rimmer’s Samaritans story is great and I had always assumed that The Brittas Empire writers asked for permission to re-use it. It was amusing in the lockdown commentary for Rob to seemingly have been unaware of it.

So many other fine moments, including the Hoppists story and Rimmer’s comment about Lister’s parentage.

Another for my top ten.

 

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

‘Om’ is brilliant in its terribleness and they should probably have resisted the temptation to reference it again in later years

Did it get referenced again while Rob was still writing it? I can only remember it getting namedropped in the Doug years.

[Dave]

Did it get referenced again while Rob was still writing it? I can only remember it getting namedropped in the Doug years.

It was referenced in Krytie TV, then a few times in XII, I think.

But I took the “they” to mean the people making the show, not just Rob & Doug.

[Stilianides]

Did it get referenced again while Rob was still writing it? I can only remember it getting namedropped in the Doug years.
It was referenced in Krytie TV, then a few times in XII, I think.
But I took the “they” to mean the people making the show, not just Rob & Doug.

Indeed.

[Rudolph]

Has anyone noticed the relative lack of corridor sets in III. I can only think of the bit of corridor outisde that the Polymorph ball bounces along (with what looks like a repurposed Starbug door), and the white grating section that Kryten finds the dinner suit hanging up in The Last Day. All action seems to take place in either the sleeping quarters, the science room or Kryten’s utility closet.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

These are all ostensibly corridor scenes, but they do feel more like an after thought than a deliberate corridor set.

Given III was filmed in Manchester, I suspect main sets were Bunk Room/Science Room/Starbug with little room for corridors.

The only real corridor scene is this one – which is more like a specially built guest set.

[Dave]

There’s also this, which isn’t exactly a corridor but is kind of a corridor scene.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Yeah I deliberately left that out as it wasn’t a set.

Its interesting how, even though they were still at Manchester, the didn’t continue to use the gantries of 1 & 2 and went out of their way to find other locations to shoot non-set ship shots.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

To be fair, I think they were a tad concerned about the safety of shooting up there, though in all probability they probably thought it would be more interesting to shoot in new, larger locations.

[Stilianides]

A small point, but the deleted scene featuring Kryten’s, “Maybe I’ve never scored a century or even hit a boundary, but I’ve snicked a few away into silly mid on,” seems like one of the most sensible cuts that they made. Particularly as it suggests that Rob and Doug have never played cricket in their lives! :)

[clem]

Freaky Fursday

Everything before they bodyswap is the best bit. Chris and Craig do a good job of taking off each other but some of the lip-synching is poor and I find it distracting. I think it might have been better if they hadn’t bothered with the swapped voices. Like other III episodes it’s an admirably bold idea, if a bit gimmicky, that doesn’t quite work for me. 

The canary gag is an early example of overexplaining a joke, just slightly. Obviously nothing like as bad as some of the Series VIII instances. 

[clem]

Timeslides

The nonsensical time-travel stuff is irritating but it’s got enough funny moments to make up for that. One that nobody’s mentioned is Craig’s perfectly timed delivery on “… It was called ‘Om’.” 

So Rimmer’s blow-up doll is called Rachel now. What happened to Inflatable Ingrid?

– Most obvious plot hole – why do they even need to develop photos? I know it’s often speculated that the Red Dwarf future is one where the internet was never invented, but it’s stretching it a bit that they couldn’t even manage digital cameras. Maybe film cameras come back into fashion like vinyl records, but it seems like they’re just universally used.

Of course the whole show hinges on Lister sending photos to be developed in the lab. If only he’d used a Polaroid camera to take pictures of Frankenstein. 

[clem]

Another case of the last (filmed) episode of the series feeling like a transition into the next, it feels like whatever people like or vaguely have against series IV starts here.

Yep. Right now The Last One is my top Series III episode and one of my favourites so far. Bobby ups his game for this one (except for clearly reading the computer chip specs) and I like the general bonhomie of the four of them and the way Kryten and Lister’s relationship is foregrounded for the first time.

Gotta love pissed Holly.

That Prince-esque version of the theme is brilliant.

Cat defending Kryten is a far cry from “Heck, no, I don’t even care about you!” in Backwards. He’s a bit too selfish throughout much of III, and not in a funny catty way like in the first two series. I feel like in the next series they tone down that side of him and make him more vain instead, which is better. 

I’ve enjoyed III more this time than I was expecting but really I have to be in just the right mood for most of those episodes. It always feels like they reined themselves in a bit on IV, in a good way.

[Flap Jack]

Chris and Craig do a good job of taking off each other but some of the lip-synching is poor and I find it distracting. I think it might have been better if they hadn’t bothered with the swapped voices.

I get why people often say this, but after watching the deleted scenes again, it’s clear that Craig as Rimmer just sounds like Lister. I’m convinced the overall effect would have been worse if they hadn’t dubbed each other.

Of course the whole show hinges on Lister sending photos to be developed
in the lab. If only he’d used a Polaroid camera to take pictures of
Frankenstein.

True. I think I pointed out the weirdness of that in the first thread too. We just have to conclude there’s a nostalgic film photo renaissance going on.

[Stilianides]

Chris and Craig do a good job of taking off each other but some of the lip-synching is poor and I find it distracting. I think it might have been better if they hadn’t bothered with the swapped voices.
I get why people often say this, but after watching the deleted scenes again, it’s clear that Craig as Rimmer just sounds like Lister. I’m convinced the overall effect would have been worse if they hadn’t dubbed each other. 

Sure. The script would have needed to be rewritten so that neither Chris nor Craig needed to do obvious impressions of one another. Rather like Steve Martin didn’t try to sound exactly like Lily Tomlin in the relevant bits of All of Me.

[clem]

I’ll have to check out those deleted scenes. The usual scenario in bodyswapping stories I’ve seen is that the swappers need to pass themselves off as the other person, so they don’t swap voices or even clothes. The only example besides Bodyswap I can think of where the actors dub each other and wear each other’s clothing is the Laurel and Hardy short ‘Thicker than Water’, so I have to wonder whether that was an inspiration for Rob and Doug. 

[Warbodog]

We just have to conclude there’s a nostalgic film photo renaissance going on.

It would be a nostalgia pandemic. I prefer it that that some(!) technologies and designs just got stuck at the late 1980s stage, or developed proportionally later or whatever. Until they suddenly looked 2010s, but I can’t be arsed with a theory/headcanon.

[Rudolph]

I like to imagine that Earth at some point in the future is conquered by the hipsters. That’s why everyone is dressing like its the 1980s and using redundant technology.

[Dave]

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Thought this may be of interest to you fucking nerds all singing the praises of Ed for that (admittedly technically impressive given the limitations of the time) effects shot from Timeslides (this one here)


I’d forgotten about this for a good while, but it just now clicked so I thought I’d pass it on, so here’s something similar being attempted live on a much larger scale back in 1978 for a TOTP type studio video for Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’ – A for effort but the results are less than stellar as the camera operators don’t seem to be on the same page when it comes to syncing up the movements.

[Moonlight]

This raises the question if those are the same actresses from the Nova 5 photos.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

I highly doubt that they are. It’s a whole year later in another part of the country and in both cases they’re bit parts.

[Moonlight]

To be fair, it never even occurred to me to look closely enough to notice those weren’t the Dwarfers until this GIF.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I highly doubt that they are. It’s a whole year later in another part of the country and in both cases they’re bit parts.

Eh, it’s the same Manchester studio used in series 2. It’s series 4 they moved to Sheperton. Unless you meant something else 

it’s possible the headshots of the Nova 5 crew were done during the week at Acton. But if it’s BBC Manchester putting the props/effects together than likely it was in Manchester 

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Thought this may be of interest to you fucking nerds all singing the praises of Ed for that (admittedly technically impressive given the limitations of the time) effects shot from Timeslides (this one here)
I’d forgotten about this for a good while, but it just now clicked so I thought I’d pass it on, so here’s something similar being attempted live on a much larger scale back in 1978 for a TOTP type studio video for Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’ – A for effort but the results are less than stellar as the camera operators don’t seem to be on the same page when it comes to syncing up the movements.

Does Gerry even want to be there?

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Does Gerry even want to be there?

He always looks like that.

[Rushy]

Bodyswap: hurts me, because the opening is one of Red Dwarf’s best moments. And I really adore the way Craig Charles plays Rimmer later on. Something about Craig’s cheekiness makes Rimmer even more fun to hate. He is such a shameless petty little shit in this, you love to hate him. The problem is that I can’t fully associate Craig’s Rimmer with the actual Rimmer. The crew keeping him online after something like this is too contrived. How can you sleep at night? Also, all the food stuff is a bit gross. Intentionally, but still. It’s an episode that’s grown on me, but I’m still conflicted over. 

Timeslides: “what if Stasis Leak was a bit better”. The closest we have to a Red Dwarf musical, between Craig’s filofax song (lives in my head rent free), the Om Song and Barrie’s rendition of Fiddler on the Roof. Hitler is surprisingly great as a guest star. One of Hattie’s best showings. It’s a strong outing, I’m fond of it. 

The Last Day: Bar none, my favourite Red Dwarf story. It’s got a little bit of everything – the crew getting to relax, the crew having to deal with a memorable monster, character development, satire, style, sophistication. It’s the one where they feel the most like a family. Hattie gets a princess crown! Absolute perfection

[Author]

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