Refresh For The Memory: Series XII Byte 2

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Quantum Leap is a great show. Incidentally, the person who introduced me to Quantum Leap was also a huge Red Dwarf fan, a freelance transcriber from Maine with a soft spot for Jamie from Doctor Who. Ay, she was a timorous beastie.

 – Rimmer and Kryten both have worryingly specific knowledge about Michael Jackson’s exact weirdness levels over the course of his life.

– The space-time lesion is a major problem, but it could have been way worse. It could have worked off the decisions they were actually making in their heads, rather than just the ones they declare out loud and/or start to act out. Then not only would they not be able to resolve the problem, but Lister and Cat would quickly die, because every time they decided to eat or drink they’d end up not doing it.

Wouldn’t make for a very enjoyable episode though, would it?

He doesn’t mention Earth and getting back there in a way that could be planned for is not going to happen in his lifetime

To be fair, he’s already passed up multiple opportunities to take a shortcut back to Earth. I get the impression he almost doesn’t actually want to know what happened to Earth and the human race because he already knows the answer.

(3) They happily let Rimmer take the quantum skipper with him, when surely if Kochanski were still out there it would be better to hold onto it, so if they find her they can take her home.

Assuming Lister doesn’t revert to some weird immature pseudo-Series VII characterisation and try to sabotage it so she’s stuck with them again.

– Alternate pre-accident Holly is still a bit senile, with the whole “I failed the tests” thing.

Is he? It’s an easy enough mistake to make, not flipping the page. Even Arnold’s been caught out by that.

 – The radiation leak happens A LOT slower here than how it was described in Universe Prime

I’m still assuming this is a case of Back in the Red logic where the action will conveniently slow itself down to make time for dialogue.

– Interesting how there are no headline changes in Universe 1, it’s just the past. We can infer things like “George is alive”, “Hollister is a coward” and “radiation moves slower”, but those are ambiguous. Nothing here couldn’t happen if this were just time travel.

Aside from George being alive at the time of the radiation leak.

– Impressive that alternate Red Dwarf managed to find a planet rich in helium 7, when they were only operating within the solar system. Must have been hiding in plain sight. 

They never said it was Red Dwarf that found it; it could just as easily have been another JMC ship operating interstellar.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Incidentally,

[Flap Jack]

Wouldn’t make for a very enjoyable episode though, would it?

Indeed, it certainly wasn’t a complaint!

Is he? It’s an easy enough mistake to make, not flipping the page. Even Arnold’s been caught out by that.

I mean, for a person, sure.

Aside from George being alive at the time of the radiation leak.

Right, I did mention George, but like I said, you have to infer that instead of it being explicitly confirmed. Most likely the intention was “Nobody’s dead” means “Nobody’s died since I last spoke to you, and the crew are generally fine”.

Also beside any inferred differences, it’s not anything that actually changes the course of events.

They never said it was Red Dwarf that found it; it could just as easily have been another JMC ship operating interstellar.

Good point! Pleased to have that explanation.

I think I was mentally inserting the novel continuity of the human race having already decided that interstellar exploration wasn’t worth bothering with. But maybe interstellar flights still happening fits better with Todhunter being slightly surprised that Lister hasn’t travelled interstellar before.

[Flap Jack]

Oh, but to be fair to me, this line does kind of imply that Red Dwarf was the one to find the helium-7.

“They” is implicitly the JMC, which suggests that “we” is him and Rimmer / the rest of the Red Dwarf crew.

The other interpretation still works if you assume “They” is actually just the JMC executives who offered him the payout and “we” is the JMC as a whole, but I wouldn’t bet on Doug writing it with that intention.

[International Debris]

To be fair, in this reality Red Dwarf goes beyond the solar system: 

 

(I don’t like it either)

[Flap Jack]

Ah yes. That does contradict the Todhunter/interstellar thing then.

I guess that regardless of whether Red Dwarf travels the solar system or the galaxy, the point is still that its path would be pre-ordained, with not much expectation to stumble into new planets.

But a galaxy is really, really big to be fair, so maybe it’s more likely that the mining expeditions would be exploratory in nature in that case.

[Ian Symes]

But a galaxy is really, really big to be fair, so maybe it’s more likely that the mining expeditions would be exploratory in nature in that case.

A galaxy is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to a galaxy. Listen…

[Warbodog]

It didn’t seem worth bringing up about Timewave, considering all the other stuff, but Rimmer’s opening line claimed they were in an “unknown galaxy.” I assume it meant in the ‘unexplored’ sense, since the alternative is too stupid. But along with the Skipper line and the galaxy map in The Beginning, there is a sense that they’re zipping all over the universe in the Dave era.

Doug isn’t science/sci-fi illiterate enough to not know how ridiculous those distances are, even with an ‘FTL’ drive (which Red Dwarf is said not to have). Oh well, it’s a comedy isn’t it, doesn’t matter.

[Dave]

but that’s just peanuts to a galaxy

Surely adding peanuts to a Galaxy is just a Mr Goodbar.

(NB. I was going to use Snickers as the punchline to this joke, which would have been funnier, but less accurate.)

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Another thing worth mentioning regarding the whole solar system thing is that there may still be other bodies orbiting further out that we can’t see yet because they’re too far from the sun for us to see it, and it’s been speculated that one such body might be responsible for certain gravitational anomalies further out that they’re still looking for an explanation for. Could be there’s one within the solar system that happens to be rich in Helium-7 and the Dwarf just happened to stumble into it on the way out?

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

but that’s just peanuts to a galaxy
Surely adding peanuts to a Galaxy is just a Mr Goodbar.
(NB. I was going to use Snickers as the punchline to this joke, which would have been funnier, but less accurate.)

Rule of funny.

[Rudolph]

Not that it helps, but Red Dwarf has been interstellar since VIII. The prisoners on Floor 13 were destined for a penal colony on Adelphi XII, which suggests Red Dwarf was planning on going out past Pluto at some point.

[Formica]

Was it ever really explained why original Red Dwarf was equipped with exactly two stasis booths? Since it presumably wasn’t for interstellar travel, but it seems unlikely they’d have that along just for punishment? Sounds extremely expensive to equip a ship with that in case someone misbehaves. Surely they’ve got a prison cell or two if you’ve just been a little nasty and can space you if you’ve been rea0 naughty. “Stasis” is a genuinely bizarre punishment (and may be an indication that Hollister never actually knew what he was doing as captain).

[desbug]

Was it ever really explained why original Red Dwarf was equipped with exactly two stasis booths? Since it presumably wasn’t for interstellar travel, but it seems unlikely they’d have that along just for punishment? Sounds extremely expensive to equip a ship with that in case someone misbehaves. Surely they’ve got a prison cell or two if you’ve just been a little nasty and can space you if you’ve been rea0 naughty. “Stasis” is a genuinely bizarre punishment (and may be an indication that Hollister never actually knew what he was doing as captain).

Perhaps there was a special on stasis booths when the JMC bought RD and they threw them in just in case. Corporate procurement incompetence (that looks shiny, who cares if we need it?) can explain lots.

Suspect the real answer is “how can we get someone to be stranded 3 million years in the future” and working backwards from there

[International Debris]

Surely they’ve got a prison cell or two

Careful, it was someone saying something like that that led to VIII.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Careful, it was someone saying something like that that led to VIII.

Alright, which one of yous was it?!

[NeverLeavingFred]

Believe it or not, I only just caught up with Series XI, Series XII and The Promised Land over the Xmas/New Year’s Eve period. I don’t know why you wouldn’t believe me, because you’ve no idea who I am and it would be a weird thing to come in here and claim if it wasn’t true. But it is anyway.

I enjoyed it all, and Skipper was one of the best episodes… but yes the thing mentioned in this thread that I am to believe has been discussed ad nauseum since it first aired is indeed pretty distracting.

Hello by the way.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Was it ever really explained why original Red Dwarf was equipped with exactly two stasis booths? Since it presumably wasn’t for interstellar travel, but it seems unlikely they’d have that along just for punishment? Sounds extremely expensive to equip a ship with that in case someone misbehaves. Surely they’ve got a prison cell or two if you’ve just been a little nasty and can space you if you’ve been rea0 naughty. “Stasis” is a genuinely bizarre punishment (and may be an indication that Hollister never actually knew what he was doing as captain).

In the books its many more.

In the show, who knows.  At least taking VIII as canon we can assume they was meant to be more but cutbacks meant there were only 2.  At that point you’d take them all out but presumably sheer incompetence meant they were just left.

[Ridley]

Believe it or not, I only just caught up with Series XI, Series XII and The Promised Land over the Xmas/New Year’s Eve period.

That reminds me to ask: Is the Dave era part of general awareness of the show now? Last time I interrogated a couple of normals about their thoughts on it was during X, and the reaction was still “There are new episodes?!” Plus, I had to explain what Taiwan Tony was both times.

[Warbodog]

Is the Dave era part of general awareness of the show now?

My brother grew up watching the show and will quote the classics online sometimes, but he’s got no interest in any of the Dave era. He knew there’d been a revival and has watched some clips on YouTube. I tried getting him to watch along from X this time around to get his thoughts, but he wasn’t bothered.

My dad sent me an approving email about The Promised Land after that went out, asking if I’d seen it, and he’s mentioned it a couple of times since (referencing the cats chasing the laser pointer just a few weeks ago). He talks about it as the new one, so I don’t know about his wider awareness. If he did watch any/all of the rest, they didn’t merit emails.

[Jonathan Capps]

Hello, NeverLeavingFred! Thank you for using a Dwarf reference as a user name, it really helps me know that it’s not a spam account when approving.

[Dave]

Believe it or not, I only just caught up with Series XI, Series XII and The Promised Land over the Xmas/New Year’s Eve period. I don’t know why you wouldn’t believe me, because you’ve no idea who I am and it would be a weird thing to come in here and claim if it wasn’t true. But it is anyway.

[NeverLeavingFred]

Thanks, and you’re welcome

Is the Dave era part of general awareness of the show now?

My brother grew up watching the show and will quote the classics online sometimes, but he’s got no interest in any of the Dave era.

I was certainly aware of them, but I wouldn’t necessarily consider myself typical or representative. I did watch X when it was new(ish). I also seem to recall there was a poster just outside my flat advertising either XI or XII when it was airing. I think I didn’t have access to Dave at the time; I took me a while to get the discs for no particular reason, 

It does seem there is a date stamp on entertainment for a lot of people, especially Film and TV. Once something is “old” they’re no longer interested. This isn’t a great comparison but a lot of people in my office were excited for those Live Action/”Live Action” remakes of Disney films as if it were a band doing a reunion concert; the idea of just watching the old versions simply wouldn’t occur to them. Nostalgia is big business, but it doesn’t necessarily extend to actually watching the things.

[Jonathan Capps]

That sort of attitude would annoy me but then I remember how utterly bombarded everyone is with media at all times and to be honest, I can understand people putting up arbitrary walls

[Warbodog]

My dad sent me an approving email about The Promised Land after that went out, asking if I’d seen it, and he’s mentioned it a couple of times since (referencing the cats chasing the laser pointer just a few weeks ago). He talks about it as the new one, so I don’t know about his wider awareness. If he did watch any/all of the rest, they didn’t merit emails.

Important update about my dad watching Red Dwarf. He’s now caught up and praised X, XI & XII (by number) for being like the good old days, but he didn’t think much of the ones in the prison with those blokes in charge.

[Formica]

he didn’t think much of the ones in the prison with those blokes in charge.

Siliconia & Timewave, I presume.

[Warbodog]

I assumed he meant VIII and the iconic Ackerman/Hollister double act, since we only really watched as far as VII together when I was a kid. I know I took my tape of the Back in the Reds around his house after they’d finished to excitedly screen the Complete Epic, so he’d at least seen those before, but he might have been spared the likes of Pete until recently.

[Unrumble]

[Flap Jack]

Warbodad seems pretty cool.

[Formica]

I assumed he meant VIII and the iconic Ackerman/Hollister double act,

Well I was making a joke but I hadn’t actually considered Hollister for being one of the blokes in question.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Evidently Knot.

[Moonlight]

Section Chief Blevins.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

The real mastermind behind it all.

[Warbodog]

[Moonlight]

[Moonlight]

ALTERNATELY:

[Warbodog]

Maybe not an iconic line from ‘3,’ but 10-year-old me was like,

[Warbodog]

[Warbodog]

[Warbodog]

[Moonlight]

(Mulder slaps a file on the desk)

Mulder: Have you ever heard of…the Inquisitor?

[Moonlight]

[Warbodog]

[Dave]

Brilliant.

[Dave]

[Warbodog]

[Jonathan Capps]

I can’t believe it’s taken this long…

[International Debris]

Yesssss, a series of memes I actually understand!

[Dave]

[Dave]

[Author]

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