Regarding Lister’s imprisonment in Stasis

[Tonguetied]

Right, a certain aspect of Dwarf early histoire has been niggling at my brain like a hungry woodpecker on a night shift; that aspect is regarding Lister’s smuggling of Frankenstein onto Red Dwarf and his motivations behind it. Now The End presents us with a view that he just bought the cat for companionship, then when he is summoned before Captain Hollister he is shocked to discover that due to his lack of discreetness (the photograph sent to the ships lab) he has been found out. Now that is all and fine and Lister is sent off to stasis, he is none the wiser, he just wanted to protect the cat from dissection. So Lister survived due to a series of events where he was indeed stupid enough to bring an unquarantined pet on board; therefore it was his foolishness that lead him to be incased in the stasis booth and survive the radiation leak. This is a funny premise and works so well, however then we are presented with a different scenario, Come the novel Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers: Lister bored with his status on Red Dwarf, annoyed with Rimmer, fed up over his break up with Kochanski and just generally smegged off. He concocts a plan, having heard about pet regulations and subsequent punishments from Peterson, he decides to stowaway a cat on board hoping to get caught and therefore spending the rest of the trip in stasis, thus nulling his bored existence on the ship. So this is what is annoying me, in the tv series we never get a mention of this ingenious plan. Now I know that the novels are set in one of the many different universes from the tv series, but is this little bit of information canon for the series but just not mentioned? Was the Lister in the tv series hoping to get sent in to stasis, or was it just a cock up on his part for being so stupid?

Topic

[Seph]

I don’t see why TV series Lister would intentionally get sent into stasis, since he never went out with Kochanski to break up with her.
Also in the TV series it seems as if Lister wanted to join the Space Corps, rather than in the novels where he just wanted a quick ride back to earth.

[Ian Symes]

Condensed version of Tonguetied’s post: is the thing about Lister being sent to stasis deliberately canon for the TV series as well as the novels?

Answer: it’s up to you. Personally, I’d like to think yes, as it’s a great piece of thinking and there’s nothing to contradict it. But if you choose not to think so, it doesn’t matter; it’s like whatever explanation of Lister having two appendices you like to believe. I always used to assume in my head that TV series Kryten accidentally killed the crew of the Nova 5, even though that wasn’t confirmed until Ouroboros. And in my head, TV series Lister signed up for Red Dwarf because he woke up pissed on Mimas and needed to get home, even though there’s nothing to confirm or deny this in the series.

[Andrew]

Rob and Doug began the show the same was the writers of Steptoe did – we’ll write two guys talking and work out who they are as we go. And with the continuity retro-fits, as Ian says, it’s up to you.

For me, Series I Lister is a working guy. He’s doing the latest in a series of shit jobs. He just rescued a stray cat and incorporated it into his daydream, which also included a woman he liked but had never dated. All this takes place in the 21st century.

But once you get to Series IV, ALL these points are up fro grabs. The novels go another way many early implications, and the show itself directly alters others. Which means it’s entirely up to the viewer. (I, for example, see the pissed-on-Mimas thing as a strictly novel thing; Lister’s doing the job for money, not travel. But it’s a preference, not a fact.)

Mind you, the movie version would make this whole discussion even more interesting…!

> even though that wasn?t confirmed until Ouroboros.

I find it fascinating that Ouroboros included that stuff for Kryten at the same time as augmenting the cat stuff. The line “So report it, get me put into stasis for six months” and what follows suggests (to me anyway) that Lister’s doing this to escape his bad relationship – not out of stupidity, or as a plan to get home ‘quicker’.

But it also fits either of the other readings if you want it to.

[TheLeen]

Of course Lister has a plan! His five year plan! Now 18 months in stasis (or him missing out on 18 months worth of wages) would make Lister’s 5 year plan a 6.5 year plan. Just because he’s BORED?

That doesn’t make much sense, does it.

The question *I* have been asking myself: who did he think would take care of Frankenstein for those 18 months? He must have had a side-kick… and… probably not C. P. Kochanski.

[Seb Patrick]

Condensed version of Tonguetied?s post:

Do you mean : “How did the war start?”

[Danny Stephenson]

“yeah.”

[Jonathan Capps]

There was, however, one small problem with Tonguetied?s post…

It was bollocks.

[Phil]

Jonathan Capps please get your own catch phrase please my pork-loving friend

[Tonguetied]

Don’t write anything Johnny boy if you don’t like my posts. Savy?

[pfm]

> Mind you, the movie version would make this whole discussion even more interesting?!

Post the relevant script pages.

[Paul Muller]

Lister, is that a threat?

[Seb Patrick]

Don?t write anything Johnny boy if you don?t like my posts.

Erm, that’s not really how a forum works. As we’ve attempted to explain to you before, you have no right whatsoever to try and control a discussion, even if you’ve started it. If you want to do that, start your own site. But by posting in a public, unmoderated forum, you’re obliged to accept that people will say whatever they want to in response.

[Pete Part Three]

Condensed version of Seb?s post:

Piss off.

[Pete Part Three]

> The line ?So report it, get me put into stasis for six months? and what follows suggests (to me anyway) that Lister?s doing this to escape his bad relationship – not out of stupidity, or as a plan to get home ?quicker?.

Him becoming a non-event mass with a quantum probability of zero isn’t much of an escape though; he’ll feel exactly the same way (crappy) when he gets out as when he went in.

Interesting how it changed from eighteen months to six months. A different space corps punishment in an alternate reality, or just a case of Doug forgetting.

Incidentally, I hate the stuff with Lister and Kochanski in that scene. Nauseating.

[Tonguetied]

I’ll leave when I wish, it’s my post, I created it and I have a right to send feedback, just like you. So hush up those snappers baby. I don’t mind the Lister Kochanski banter, I prefered Clare Grogan’s banter with Lister, well what there was of it, much more natural.

[Seb Patrick]

I’m not telling you to leave, I’m not telling you you don’t have a right to post. I’m telling you you don’t have a right to tell other people what they can and can’t say.

And I DO have more rights than you round here, so there.

[Mr Flibble]

What I find odd (and I can’t remember hearing this before, but it must be in the PIP) is that by going into stasis, he’s not really giving up 18 months wages, because for that 18 months he’s not going to need any pay… And when he comes out, he’ll still be the same age, so it won’t affect his pension…

[Turk Thrust]

Personally I think that the stuff written by Rob and Doug together has to be separated from what was written by Rob and Doug alone. The Lister character (and the other characters) had changed into something slightly different by that point so it’s difficult to directly link them with the earlier series.

[Tonguetied]

Seb your delusional, you have the same rights as me, ”so there”. I bet you stuck your tongue out when you wrote that, petty. What you meant to say was, you have more of an arrogant air about you. And yeah I totally agree with you ha.

[Tanya Jones]

Tonguetied, Seb is admin, and therefore can ban yo’ ass. As can I.

[Baz]

True. Save that she doesn’t come across as a bit of a prat, really. And for smeg’s sake, it’s YOU’RE. It’s a contraction of “You are”, hence “You’re”.

As to the actual question, while Lister in the book getting into Stasis is a very well planned idea, I always had the impression that the Lister in the TV series gets put in there because he has been rather stupid. Nothing in later series really contradicts that for me.

[Tonguetied]

Still he doesn’t need to brag, nor do you. You’re still human, you smell in the morning , therefore we are equal midear.

[Tonguetied]

Happy now, Baz you nitpicker.

[Pete Part Three]

Oh don’t ban him, he’s a constant source of amusement with his holier than thou attitude and densely written paragraphs on continuity. Admist it all, he raises the occasional interesting point.

[Seb Patrick]

I’m just wondering where I missed the edict that Tonguetied was now in charge of our website, and so had a right to tell people what they should and shouldn’t be saying, including the people who founded and run the place.

OH WAIT. THERE WASN’T ONE.

[Tanya Jones]

>True. Save that she doesn?t come across as a bit of a prat, really. And for smeg?s sake, it?s YOU?RE. It?s a contraction of ?You are?, hence ?You?re?.

Can you not recognise a humourous affectation?

[Tanya Jones]

It would help your sarcasm if you spelt it right yourself, Baz.

[Baz]

No. Just bad spelling. Nice retention of the “U” in “humourous” there by the way. The old British spelling, don’t see it much nowadays. Oo, if we got a word wrong in a label in the old museum where I worked, our librarian, well, she’d give you a look she would.

[Baz]

The edit bug is screwing things up, put my last comment above Tanya’s

It’s bad typing rather than bad spelling as such. And it wasn’t sarcasm, the “U” really is the British spelling, which I should use myself, save that I don’t. It looks… wrong somehow. Our librarian would insist on it though.

[Tanya Jones]

I’m glad to hear that they would!

[Somebody]

Mr Flibble:
What I find odd (and I can?t remember hearing this before, but it must be in the PIP) is that by going into stasis, he?s not really giving up 18 months wages, because for that 18 months he?s not going to need any pay? And when he comes out, he?ll still be the same age, so it won?t affect his pension?

So, when he comes out faced with an eighteen-month rent/mortgage bill on his [NORWEB :)] home that HE CAN’T PAY?

Or how about his gran’s medical bills? Or the computer that keeps ordering a curry every night? Or the light he left on in his bathroom? :)

I’m being a bit silly, but you get the point – just because he nominally ceases to exist doesn’t mean *all* the drains on his cash automatically cease to exist too.

Baz:
As to the actual question, while Lister in the book getting into Stasis is a very well planned idea, I always had the impression that the Lister in the TV series gets put in there because he has been rather stupid. Nothing in later series really contradicts that for me.

Ditto.

[Pete Part Three]

>>Baz: As to the actual question, while Lister in the book getting into Stasis is a very well planned idea, I always had the impression that the Lister in the TV series gets put in there because he has been rather stupid. Nothing in later series really contradicts that for me.

>Ditto.

Apart from Ouroborus.

[TheLeen]

Well, Ouroboros play in the book-based Kochanski-is-Lister’s-ex universe though.

[Pete Part Three]

As does DNA. So, um, later series contradicts it.

[Andrew]

> Well, Ouroboros play in the book-based Kochanski-is-Lister?s-ex universe though.

That scene plays in BOTH universes, surely? In one universe the cat meaows, in the other it doesn’t. The early events – Lister returning from planet leave with a cat, miserable following a break-up with Kochanski – belong to both. It’s the discovery/non-discovery of the cat that causes the split.

[TheLeen]

I didn’t mean the split though (maybe shouldn’t have used the word “universe”), just the original version of the story (Lister hitting on Kochanski but not actually having been her boyfriend at any point) and later, adjusted, true to the book version.

[Author]

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