Unanswered Questions

[Dave]

Who took the picture of young-Rimmer’s dorm room that he uses to go back in time, in Timeslides? And how is adult-Rmmer in possession of it in the future?

The more I think about this the more it bothers me.

Topic

[By Jove its holmes]

Wonder if the AR suite games are as ethical as ours, ie would you get to experience terror bombing and such in the WW2 simulation game Kryten borrows the tank from?

[Jenuall]

What is current under tension?

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

What is current under tension?

a raisin in a vice

[GlenTokyo]

What is current under tension?

Seems it’s just a strange outdated way of saying something has power going through it, so the end of what Rimmer’s trying to work out would be current under tension is equal?… to voltage over the resistance.

If he doesn’t know that he should stick to dried fruit.

[Jenuall]

Well now I’m just hungry

[By Jove its holmes]

the AR might have safety protocols, like the holodecks of Trek.

[Jenuall]

Amazing how often those safety protocols got disabled. It was almost as frequent an event as “transporter accident”. Which is all fortunate really as otherwise we’d just be left with episodes about people sexing it up with ghosts

[Moonlight]

Now I’m asking Jeff Martin if he remembers anything interesting that happened during that time. I’m sleuthing.

It appears my quest ends here. He never got back to me. Although I have messaged Mike Reiss a bit more, and that’s pretty cool.

[Jonathan Capps]

I am now telling Jeff Martin *exactly* what he can do with his information about anything interesting that happened during that time.

[By Jove its holmes]

What would Jeff Martin do with a life-time supply of chocolate?

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

What would Jeff Martin do with a life-time supply of chocolate?

Shove it up his bum.

[By Jove its holmes]

Does Mr Burns end up having the Rolling Stones killed?

[Warbodog]

He’s been putting ointment on them, I think. A kind of lanolin-based ointment. That you rub in and… makes it alright.

[By Jove its holmes]

Ointment is what you need for when your head’s been cut off.

[Jonathan Capps]

Mouth is open Nursie, should be shut.

[By Jove its holmes]

I took her to see India, AT THE OVAL!

[Warbodog]

Is the Rimmer song from Blue (the episode, not the boy band) based on an established/traditional melody? The verses bit. My wife’s been singing the tune without proper words, but she doesn’t know what it is, nor what Red Dwarf is, really (still thinks Cat’s a vampire).

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Is the Rimmer song from Blue (the episode, not the boy band) based on an established/traditional melody? The verses bit. My wife’s been singing the tune without proper words, but she doesn’t know what it is, nor what Red Dwarf is, really (still thinks Cat’s a vampire).

It’s kinda circus music isn’t it, with a bit of a military feel to it too. Which is likely deliberate.

So I don’t think it is anything in particular but it’s drawing on a lot of generic but broadly known influences.

[Pete Part Three]

It was based on melodies originally whistled by Doug Naylor.

[By Jove its holmes]

We obviously don’t see Kryten’s full history lesson on screen in tikka because early in the episode Lister knows little of Jeff Kay because it wasn’t covered at his high school but later when confronting Kennedy, Lister knows that death will make Kennedy a progressive icon.

[Hamish]

Considering how much time passes for them in Tikka, it is not unreasonable to assume that discussing Kennedy’s impact was a subject of conversation.

[By Jove its holmes]

Considering how much time passes for them in Tikka, it is not unreasonable to assume that discussing Kennedy’s impact was a subject of conversation.

Perhaps after Rimmer, Kryten, and the Cat finished beating Lister to a pulp at the end of the episode :)

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

In series VII Starbug is 212% bigger, but is that just internally? Has it become a TARDIS of sorts?

because externally it appears the same size, and the internal geography doesn’t make sense. There’s that room the leads off the midsection where the airlock/exit used to be that clearly wouldn’t fit without an extension to the exterior.

[Dave]

Has it become a TARDIS of sorts?

It’s the only way any of it can make any sense, and even then not much. It’s one of the weirdest things the show has ever done, for me. It’s just baffling.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Has it become a TARDIS of sorts?

It’s the only way any of it can make any sense, and even then not much. It’s one of the weirdest things the show has ever done, for me. It’s just baffling.

I’d happily accept “this reality has become unstable and there are anomalies to cope with the paradox” or whatever the exact line is …. if the rest of the series, hell even the rest of the episode, had had any such instability, anomalous, paradox-y shite going on.

[Flap Jack]

“Sirs – the altercation with our future selves caused dimensional anomalies which have expanded the cargo deck by 212%! We should ascertain that the new structure is stable.”

“Oh, right, the dimensional anomalies! Are those also why the Kochanski in my memory is now played by Chloe Annett?”

[GlenTokyo]

In series VII Starbug is 212% bigger, but is that just internally? Has it become a TARDIS of sorts?

because externally it appears the same size, and the internal geography doesn’t make sense. There’s that room the leads off the midsection where the airlock/exit used to be that clearly wouldn’t fit without an extension to the exterior.

It suggests that in the episode doesn’t it?

That it’s localised to a specific part of the ship.

Although they did scale it externally too, by making the windscreen smaller, suggesting the whole thing is considerably bigger. No measurements involved but I’d say the III-VI transparent window takes up twice as much space as the VII Starbug window, but then they threw that away when it crashed in BITR and they didn’t continue with the small windows.

[Pete Part Three]

Yes, definitely seems to be TARDIS science at work purely to justify Duct Soup and a couple of wanky location shots in Tikka with the crew just…walking slowly.

Ace’s ship obviously gets a smaller redesign in Stoke but the original version was still a one-man cockpit affair. It and Starbug are more or less a similar size in Dimension Jump, while in Stoke, it can fit snugly in Starbug’s ridiculous hanger bay (where is the entrance to that?)

[Flap Jack]

On the subject of Ace (yet again for this thread), was it explained why he acts like he already knows the Dwarfers (“I told you I’d be back for breakfast” etc.) even though it’s later made clear that he’s not the same man they met in Dimension Jump?

I could check this for myself, but, you know, Stoke Me A Clipper.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

On the subject of Ace (yet again for this thread), was it explained why he acts like he already knows the Dwarfers (“I told you I’d be back for breakfast” etc.) even though it’s later made clear that he’s not the same man they met in Dimension Jump?

I could check this for myself, but, you know, Stoke Me A Clipper.

I’ve often thought about this. Presumably when he jumps to a dimension he has been to before the computer gives him a run down of past adventures so he knows what a previous version of him has done.

He always says his “smoke me a kipper” line, so running into people a version of Ace has seen before makes sense for him to say “told you I’d be back for breakfast”

Also, he has likely met other versions of the crew that are similar enough that he knows their personalities.

[Dave]

Yeah it’s a fair bet that if they’ve met a version of Ace previously then he will have probably indicated to them that he will return in time for the first meal of the day.

[International Debris]

STARDISbug really feels like Doug having his cake and eating it, wanting to do the series in Starbug for whatever reason, but also wanting a ship with miles of vents and a landing bay and such. If he was going to bring back the time drive, it would have made far more sense to have them return to the time and place of Red Dwarf’s disappearance, make a bootstrap paradox of them stealing it from themselves, and then have the rest of VII set on Red Dwarf, thus negating any need for dimensional anomalies at all. This would have also had the bonus of meaning VIII would have been very different.

[Warbodog]

I could check this for myself, but, you know, Stoke Me A Clipper.

When fan reactions in other franchises seem ridiculously over the top, I remember how Stoke Me a Clipper felt when I was 11.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

This isn’t really a question and is a bit more than mundane observation but fuck it it’s going here …

Presumably McIntyre had to watch all in friends and colleague die horribly whilst he stood by unaffected but unable to do anything.

He’s have then have had to have had a conversation with Holly about being switched off.

Unless the accident shut him down. But that’s not as interesting to think about.

[Flap Jack]

I mentioned this before, but going by his “so if you’re more crucial to the mission than me and you die, I’ll kill ya!” line, it seems likely McIntyre would have been switched off in favour of a higher ranking crewmember (probably either Hollister or the most proficient tech person) automatically after the accident.

Although… if post-accident the ship’s mission just becomes “keep Lister alive and well” and all potential hologrammic crewmembers are equally useless to that mission for the next 3 million years, then maybe McIntyre was left on and allowed to choose his fate after all.

But either way, the part where he has to witness everyone dying must have still happened.

[Dave]

Whether it was McIntyre or another higher ranking crewmember, do you think they kept on for three million years until Lister was about to come out and then they got switched out for Rimmer?

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Na not at all. I think only Rimmer has the sort of insecurity to want to remain left on as a hologram even if there is no-one around and nothing to do.

If McIntyre survived the accident (i.e. it didn’t knock him offline or there wasn’t some automated system that shut him down) I can’t imagine he’d have wanted to stay switched on for long.

In fact. The very fact Holly hurtles Red Dwarf into deep space at top speed without stopping rather than doing anything a little more sensible suggests that McIntyre probably wasn’t around as any officer would have likely made the suggestion to just park a safe distance away and send out a beacon warning people to stay away from the radiation or something similar

[Pete Part Three]

On the subject of Ace (yet again for this thread), was it explained why he acts like he already knows the Dwarfers (“I told you I’d be back for breakfast” etc.) even though it’s later made clear that he’s not the same man they met in Dimension Jump?

I think a deleted scene for Stoke reveals that the Ace is actually from a dimension that diverged from the events of Out of Time… so basically that Ace hasn’t been Ace for very long and met the original Ace during the events of Dimension Jump.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I’d genuinely be curious how many things in Red Dwarf can be explained by watching a deleted scene.

[GlenTokyo]

In my head, accident happens and McIntyre is unaffected, Holly either says “sorry George, there’s been an accident, I need to deactivate you” or just does it.

Then either Hollister is activated and does some really depressing stuff, recording messages to the dead’s family and to the JMC about the state of the ship and what happened, all while coming to terms with his own death, or holograms are altered not to have that trauma with software? Or Holly just spared him and did the warning message himself and cheesed it out of the solar system.

[Pete Part Three]

It’s interesting how Infinity doesn’t address McIntyre’s fate post-accident after spending the first few chapters of the book explaining what holograms are.

I mean, it’s a lot more elegant than The End, but he’s still a plot-device that’s swiftly forgotten about.

[Dave]

I imagine that McIntyre immediately regrets his “if you die, I’ll kill you” joke.

[Ridley]

When was George McIntyre turned off?

*McIntyre’s corpse bounces off window* “That was George!”

I’m funny.

[RunawayTrain]

Why does Lister have a toaster in their quarters? And not just any toaster, one that annoys him?

[Pete Part Three]

In the early days, Lister had found it amusing, especially since it seemed to annoy Rimmer inordinately.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

When was George McIntyre turned off?

Sort of picking up from something that mentioned in that thread, about the whole resurrection of crew in series viii, presumably they were all built like Lister in Nanarchy, and like the ship shrank down to their proper size and shapes etc. But unconscious whilst it was happening as they evidently don’t have any memory of it.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Theory, Joe killed George when he found out his wife was having an affair with him, and George is trying to make light of it so as not to show any hard feelings as they all have to continue living and work together. Joe finds this incredibly amusing as he has had his revenge and won’t hold a grudge, but his wife is not happy she is living with a murderer that’s why she takes objection to his encouraging George’s humour.

[Dave]

Theory, Joe killed George when he found out his wife was having an affair with him, and George is trying to make light of it so as not to show any hard feelings as they all have to continue living and work together. Joe finds this incredibly amusing as he has had his revenge and won’t hold a grudge, but his wife is not happy she is living with a murderer that’s why she takes objection to his encouraging George’s humour.

I think McIntyre was actually having the affair with Joe and that’s why his wife is so pissed off.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

think McIntyre was actually having the affair with Joe and that’s why his wife is so pissed off.

ooooh Matron!

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I’m watching the Starbuggers series VI doc and regarding the Emmy for Gunmen Doug says he was in the edit so couldn’t go to the ceremony, so Rob and Bobby went.

What was Doug editing because series VI would have aired by then obviously because one of its episodes was winning an award.

Only thing I can think of is the Smeg Ups tape but I can’t imagine that isn’t something you can drag yourself away from for an award ceremony

[Author]

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