the man with the ‘H’ on his head

[hummingbird]

A question about Doug’s commentary over the scene when Cat reveals that he brought the squid on board

… here we have the explanation … it turns out Mr Cat, and … er … also that says, I suppose, a few interesting things about who the man with the H is on his head, and I think it can be only be one of one person if … erm … the cat’s explanation is right. So, there, that’s something to think about, I guess.

Forgive me if I’m being thicker than the offspring of a village idiot and a TV weathergirl, but I really can’t see what he’s trying to say about Rimmer here. Is Doug referring to the effect that the squid had on Rimmer? Or that he must have had some part in bringing the squid on board? Either way I don’t get it.
Have I missed something really obvious here?

Topic

[ChrisM]

I?ve decided to just believe that?s what did happen, and that the two Rimmers changed places. I think VIII Rimmer would be a better choice for the job, which would then allow ?our? Rimmer to return to the Dwarf without breaking the chain.

I wondered if they swapped roles too, although I doubt human Rimmer is better for the job, essentially being the Rimmer before the character development of 7 series! It would be amusing if human Rimmer was tricked into the role though…. Maybe he was rendered unconcious and deposited on Wildfire and sent away on autopilot. Imagine the shock when he woke up…

[Ilinga]

That does sound like something ‘our’ Rimmer might do to him!

I suppose what I mean about VIII Rimmer is that, even though he’s esentially the same as Series I Rimmer at the start, by the end of it all he is his own man. Both Rimmers went through vastly different experiences and grew in different ways. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always thought that Nano!Rimmer would make for a more believable choice as the next Ace. I never really bought Rimmer flying off so quickly in Stoke Me A Clipper. I always imagined that at some point after leaving, whether hours or days or weeks later, it would all catch up to him and he’d be left wondering what the hell was he thinking letting himself get swept up in it all.

[Wilbur]

It makes sense- afterall, we do know that in all the dimensions encountered by the original Ace, he never met another Rimmer who was as cowardly and weasely as the version encountered upon Red Dwarf, therefore it would make perfect sense for Rimmer to stuff up being Ace, return to his original dimension and ‘seduce’ (for want of a better word) his rebuilt version into taking on the role.

But to fill in the massive gap between Series VIII and BtE, how did it happen? My original thought that Ace could have showed up at the end of OtGD and convinced Rimmer that becoming Ace was better than staying on the ship getting eaten by the virus, but that leaves the plothole that the original Rimmer was trapped in a mirror universe away from the rest of the crew- but then so was the rebuilt Rimmer!

Maybe someone has already formulated a theory to cover this and I’ve just not been reading closely enough…

[Pete Part Three]

>and ?seduce? (for want of a better word) his rebuilt version into taking on the role.

‘Convince’? ‘Ask’? ‘Cajole’? ‘Creampie’?

[Wilbur]

Nah, stil going with seduce.

[Ridley]

But to fill in the massive gap between Series VIII and BtE, how did it happen? My original thought that Ace could have showed up at the end of OtGD and convinced Rimmer that becoming Ace was better than staying on the ship getting eaten by the virus, but that leaves the plothole that the original Rimmer was trapped in a mirror universe away from the rest of the crew- but then so was the rebuilt Rimmer!

Maybe someone has already formulated a theory to cover this and I?ve just not been reading closely enough?

Would much, much rather the BTE Rimmer is the nano version but Rimmer wasn’t trapped in the mirror universe and Ace could have just dimension jumped even if he was anyway…

[Author]

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