Unanswered Questions

[Spaceworm Jim]

As long as they aren’t returning Glenn Miller.

[tombow]

I just assumed Rimmer got angry with Lister using so much paper once and lectured him on the correct way to wipe with 3 pieces.

[Dave]

“Polish your arse, m’boy, lickety-split.”

[Ridley]

“Even it out. Take out the flakey bits.”

[Flap Jack]

In Backwards, how much are the denizens of the backwards world aware of the nature of their universe? Are they actually perceiving the Dwarfers as being the backwards ones? Is free will even possible if time runs backwards? Is free will in general just an illusion?

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

It is very much presented like this is just a tape re-winding, so these people have no fucking idea that they’re running backwards or anything. To them it’s normal. And no, they’d have no free will, especially as you could look at a photo/video/newspaper etc and see exactly what you were going to be doing tomorrow/yesterday.

What is interesting is how the crew are able to perceive things as going backwards. If time, is indeed running in reverse, why is it it doesn’t immediately affect their perspective on things. In the show and the book they are able to grasp that they ought to be going the other way, even though everything else about how their body functions, food, toilet, sex etc runs in the opposite direction. Why is it their minds continue to run “forwards” whilst everything else is “backwards”

[International Debris]

It depends on how literal Kryten’s newspaper translation is. Things like being demoted straight to the bottom, roll-off deodorant, etc. all suggest they actually perceive things in kind of the way the Dwarfers do, ie they’re aware of the direction they’re going in. As opposed to the novel version, where they are literally un-learning / un-experiencing everything.

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

That’s a good point. In that case seeing someone eat an egg is no different to watching someone throw up, which doesn’t sound like entertainment, or even astonishing. Just weird.

One thing that always slightly annoys me about Backwards, is the fact all the writing is mirrored too. Which also suggests it’s more than a just rewinding of a tape and is actually a very distinct “reverse” universe. A combination of backwards and mirrored.

[International Debris]

Some of the letters are the same way round as ours, and others aren’t.

It’s almost like they didn’t think this through.

[si]

It’s almost as if a half hour sitcom wanted to throw its audience some amusing things that look silly in reverse without the audience needing to seriously analyse what they’re laughing at.

[RunawayTrain]

That’s a good point. In that case seeing someone eat an egg is no different to watching someone throw up, which doesn’t sound like entertainment, or even astonishing. Just weird.

Well, watching someone regurgitate something *whole* would be unusual for us. Considering the reaction the backwards eating got from the real-life audience, as a novelty it evidently does fall into the category of entertainment (not high-brow, certainly, but it did its job) ;)

[si]

Considering the reaction the backwards eating got from the real-life audience

If we’re continuing with pedantry hour, it shouldn’t really get a reaction at all – the reaction would be before he’d (‘un’)eaten it.

[Dave]

The fact they get fired and then go out and do their show (presumably for many nights afterwards) has always bothered me.

Rimmer and Kryten should be the ones who turn up and see their face on posters and wonder what’s going on, go to the pub and get fired, and then do their first/last show.

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

Yeah that’s extremely annoying.

Also, if you think about it (which we are) what actually happens is the crew all arrive together on one Starbug, get separated, Lister and Cat leave without Rimmer and Kryten and then they find another Starbug crashed in the lake and leave in that.

Or something.

[Renegade Rob]

I thought the bar manager hired them for real in the dressing room, and “before” that was negotiating a contract with Kryten. “Something about a fight” and “they’ll never work the pub circuit again,” could be interpreted as “Wow that fight we just had was crazy. Anyways, welcome, and good luck, since you don’t seem to have worked the pub circuit before.”

Also, “after” the bar room brawl, Lister ate the guy’s pie, presumably as a taunt, and the guy punching him was the “last” punch in the rumble.

Always thought the implication was that it’s fine if there are logical plot holes in terms of backwardness vs. forwardness, since all that can be explained by the fact that there’s an orange swirly rip in spacetime that exposes forward and backward universe to each other and is just there in the sky. Time anomalies are afoot even from the backwards “POV” of the denizens of Backwards Earth, as if the backwards natives were experiencing White Hole shenanigans.

It would be interesting to see an episode where the reverse happens, where a time hole brings “backwards” space travelers into the forwards world.

[Dave]

So why does Cat have a shit in the bushes when Starbug is right there?

[Ian Symes]

There were a fair few stairs to climb. Sometimes it’s just that time-sensitive.

[By Jove its holmes]

Sometimes you need to pee or poo and you need to do it NOW!

[clem]

Do we know whether Cat usually uses toilets or a giant litter tray, or what? He has a shit in Rimmer’s wardrobe in Me².

[Dave]

I suppose Dear Dave suggests he’s graduated to toilets and loo roll by that point.

[Pete Part Three]

Why does Cat choose to go and hunch over a freshly laid turd?

[Ridley]

Maybe it sort of… bounced up there from a freshly buried spot. Presumably the area has the hint of his scent.

Plus Cat’s poop is probably a layered mousse in a glass with dessert fork and wafer shape or something.

[RunawayTrain]

From series X:
Why does Kryten moan that he always knew the human race would let Lister down, that they were never good enough for him? He didn’t know Lister until all others were extinct already.

Given that humans are extinct apart from Lister, are artificial life forms running JMC? For whom – ALF society?

How are they able to receive an electronic communication from JMC via the computer about Rimmer’s record?

Who or what is in charge of budgets and different departments on Red Dwarf? Where would they return the toilet rolls for a refund, and who would give it to them, and what use does the medicomp have for money in the first place? On the ship there are only two humanoids to use the toilet roll, and we know they’re running low on supplies like anaesthetic. I can run with the idea of external trade but I’m not sure how a crew of 4 would justify having different internal departments beyond food, energy, other supplies directly used by organic humanoids, and maintenance. Surely all in the third category would be amalgamated and decided based on need, not budget size.

I also haven’t quite understood why or how they encounter the M-Corp upgrades in XII – basically the same question as number 3. I have paid attention in that ep, wondering about this, but not for quite a while.

[Ian Symes]

Given that humans are extinct apart from Lister, are artificial life forms running JMC? For whom – ALF society?

[Ian Symes]

Although funnily enough, I stumbled across an old article of mine the other day in which I put forward the theory that all that JMC computer stuff is completely automated, and that it’s always been running in the background, it’s just that previously Holly had been around to countermand it.

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

Although funnily enough, I stumbled across an old article of mine the other day in which I put forward the theory that all that JMC computer stuff is completely automated, and that it’s always been running in the background, it’s just that previously Holly had been around to countermand it.

This makes the most sense. Kryten does say “as far as the computer is concerned, we’re just moving things around” or something. The computer is just a basic AI running inventory and accounts on all the stock, so you remove an item it updates the ledgers, you return an item it does the same.

It has no ill will towards the crew, just that its books need balancing, which gets in the way of the crew just using the supplies.

It does make sense that Holly would have overwritten all this before, but equally you’d expect him to have just turned all those background processes off.

It’s one of those things that in reality you could just ignore, but it made for some interesting tv.

[By Jove its holmes]

If Rimmer can give himself Kochanksi’s form and any other crew would he also be able to give himself the form of the characters from the entertainment films stored on holo discs – perhaps Henry VIII or Casablanca’s Rick Blaine?

[International Debris]

Yeah, it’s basically the automated personification of JMC bureaucracy. Now that Holly’s gone, everything has to be done ‘by the book’.

One thing that does bother me about it is that, up until IX, Holly was the JMC computer. The idea that there were two separate systems running seems a bit odd. But obviously there’s a very practical reason for it, re: Norm.

In terms of them getting the update, I assume it’s much like the post pod, in that it’s been on its way to meet them for millions of years and finally caught up.

[RunawayTrain]

Although funnily enough, I stumbled across an old article of mine the other day in which I put forward the theory that all that JMC computer stuff is completely automated, and that it’s always been running in the background, it’s just that previously Holly had been around to countermand it.

Ah, excellent article! Yes that makes sense that what they now call JMC is the computer.

(Also, I did not know there was a sitcom called ALF! I do now.)

Yeah, it’s basically the automated personification of JMC bureaucracy. Now that Holly’s gone, everything has to be done ‘by the book’.

One thing that does bother me about it is that, up until IX, Holly was the JMC computer. The idea that there were two separate systems running seems a bit odd. But obviously there’s a very practical reason for it, re: Norm.
In terms of them getting the update, I assume it’s much like the post pod, in that it’s been on its way to meet them for millions of years and finally caught up.

I sort of see it as Holly (and Gordon, and their equivalents on other ships) being AI overlaid on top of the pure programming of the core computer, if that makes any sense at all. So the computer can run without intervention but for all intents and purposes the personified AI pretty much *is* the computer ordinarily. Sort of like how our brains control all of our automatic functions as well as being our consciousness, and can still keep the automatic processes functioning even if parts that affect our personality and ability to make conscious decisions become damaged or are missing.

For the updates, do you mean similar to how Star Trek sends messages through subspace – so the signal’s been travelling for all that time and has met up with them? That would make sense.

[Dave]

Also, I did not know there was a sitcom called ALF! I do now.

Remember ALF? He’s back, in JMC form.

[si]

Also, I did not know there was a sitcom called ALF!

Youngsters today. Do they teach them nothing?

[RunawayTrain]

Youngsters today. Do they teach them nothing?

Apparently not! Most of it was literally before my time … but then so was the beginning of Red Dwarf so I guess that’s no excuse ;) I’m going to blame it on growing up without a TV and then no Freeview channel showing it 20+ years later (which is how I got into Star Trek).

It actually looks quite interesting, hmm.

[Ridley]

Looking interesting is the best ALF’s got.

[Unrumble]

Holly (and Gordon, and their equivalents on other ships)

Awesome his intellect, I tell ya. How come he’s such a genius? Don’t ask me.

[By Jove its holmes]

OT: it’s only been weeks but I already miss the days when people he’d banned would run to here and say “Who’s a Dictator? Don’t Ask Sebby P., Ask Me!”

[tombow]

I’ve just been wondering whether Norm’s Holly ever interacted with Bob’s Kryten. I guess it would have had to have been in S8 if they did.

My auntie had a teddy of Alf but I never really knew what he was. I’m guessing the show was E.T. influenced.

[clem]

I’ve just been wondering whether Norm’s Holly ever interacted with Bob’s Kryten. I guess it would have had to have been in S8 if they did.

The only instance I can think of is in Nanarchy, when Kryten welcomes Holly back online. Holly doesn’t recognise him and asks if his face is like that because of a cheap razor.

[Ian Symes]

Nanarchy was the first time. It was a joke about Holly not recognising Kryten because of his senility, which always struck me as odd because these two incarnations of the characters wouldn’t necessarily have recognised each other, even though they are in fact the same characters that knew each other in the episode Kryten and throughout III-V.

[RunawayTrain]

I’ve just been wondering whether Norm’s Holly ever interacted with Bob’s Kryten. I guess it would have had to have been in S8 if they did.

The only instance I can think of is in Nanarchy, when Kryten welcomes Holly back online. Holly doesn’t recognise him and asks if his face is like that because of a cheap razor.

Oh, that made me snorfle – maybe Nanarchy is worth watching again just for that joke.

[Dave]

Nanarchy was the first time. It was a joke about Holly not recognising Kryten because of his senility, which always struck me as odd because these two incarnations of the characters wouldn’t necessarily have recognised each other, even though they are in fact the same characters that knew each other in the episode Kryten and throughout III-V.

I always felt the same, the casting issues confuse the joke.

[Dave]

I’ve just been wondering whether Norm’s Holly ever interacted with Bob’s Kryten. I guess it would have had to have been in S8 if they did.

On top of Nanarchy there’s also Promised Land.

[tombow]

actually when I heard that joke it never occurred to me till now that the two Hollys are actually the same.

[evilmorwen]

I just wondered whether Norm and David Ross’s Kryten even had a scene together and checked. Holly drops out of the narrative – and doesn’t have any more lines – in “Kryten” after they arrive on the Nova 5. But of course there’s that beautiful moment in the cleaning montage.

[RunawayTrain]

Not an in-universe question, but was there ever a fan edit of Holoship with the cut scenes added back in?

[Pete Part Three]

I gave it a go a while back. https://www.ganymede.tv/forums/topic/holoship-xtended/

[RunawayTrain]

I gave it a go a while back. https://www.ganymede.tv/forums/topic/holoship-xtended/

Thanks, and the videos are still up! I’ll have a watch later :D

[By Jove its holmes]

Why doesn’t someone follow Rimmer’s prescription and give Trump two hours of W.O.O.?

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

If his covid gets any worse that’s basically what his body will do to him anyway

[Dave]

Where did they get the three gingham dresses from?

[By Jove its holmes]

it makes sense that there would be a machine that makes clothes on board in case uniforms etc. are damaged.

[Dave]

Presumably it’s where Rimmer-Lister gets his Captain Emerald costume from too.

[International Debris]

The Kinitawowi costumes are the bigger mystery.

[tombow]

I was idly thinking about why we never see Hudzen mechanoids again. I guess they were all crazy and got discontinued. I was also thinking about the “universe” in Krysis sounding like Morgan Freeman but in the BTL audio novel God sounds like Ricky Tomlinson. I know it was in the game…so I guess that’s just how Rimmer imagines God would sound.

[Dave]

Well, the very first question in this thread was finally answered on yesterday’s commentary.

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

Maybe we should be scouring this thread for questions to pose to the guys on Sunday afternoons

[evilmorwen]

where did Lister’s clothes go when he turned into a chicken?

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

Clearly Lister wears all organic clothes

[evilmorwen]

Did a Hudzen 10 turn up to replace Butler on the Nova 3?

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

He probably charmed him into turning around and going back the way he came.

[evilmorwen]

Smegging Butler, eh.

[Flap Jack]

Maybe DivaDroid’s Hudzen upgrade scheme only triggers if the mechanoid’s current residence verifiably has actual living people in it.

Krytens are probably programmed to shut themselves down if they no longer have anyone to serve (thereby ending their contract), and our Kryten only didn’t because he deluded himself into thinking his crewmates were still alive, and Butler broke his programming with the power of self-satisfaction.

[Joe]

He has him on speed dial. Calls him Hudzy.

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

the power of self-satisfaction.

I didn’t think mechanoids could do that. Plastic underpants and a trade mark and all that.

[tombow]

bit of a random event with only the slightest RD connection. The model who posed for the gothic figure on the front of Black Sabbath’s debut album, long thought lost to time, has recently been discovered to be new age healer/musician Louisa Livingstone. On finding her they have now a funko pop of her character from that cover to celebrate the record’s 50th anniversary.

https://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/EkJB1vPWAAAfuXI.jpg

The reason it came to my mind here, is that Chris Barrie’s Motoring Wheel nuts video was filmed at Mapledurham Mill, the same place as appears on the record cover, and some shots have it in the exact same place in the background. Which makes me wonder if it was in the director’s mind at the time.

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

oooh, I’m not really a Funko Pop guy (though I have the two blink-182 ones) but that looks really cool.

If they’re doing album covers now, then I want a Janine Lindemulder from blink’s Enema of the State album cover. Please and thank you.

[tombow]

it seems weird they dont have ones of the actual band. I know there are a couple of Ozzy ones, but the full band in their 70s wizard like stage outfits would be pretty cool. …are there Dwarf funkos? Wow. There are. oh..they’re custom…

I guess I should hear some blink 182, I’ve always liked US pop punk without really loving it, or without really giving it a chance to sink in. I always enjoy a Green Day, nofx or B182 album for a few minutes then forget to listen to the rest. But most of my friends growing up loved all those bands more than anything.

[Ian Symes]

Funko Pops are shit. If you want Red Dwarf Funko Pops, just take any existing Funko Pop and draw either dreadlocks, an H, fangs or some angular lines on it.

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

I sort of tend to agree that Funko’s are a bit shit. Though I can also see a charm in them for people that want something to collect.

tombow – there’s a world of pop-punk out there to explore so give it a go, if you don’t like something more on to the next thing. It’s so varied that one band is often not like the other, especially as it’s a genre spanning 30-40 years now.

blink are my fav, I’d suggest starting with Enema and then working backwards or forwards, jumping around until if you find something as even with them, most albums are quite different to the last. The only real similarities exist between Enema and Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.

Same can be said for a lot of Green Day, album to album there’s changes and evolutions etc.

NOFX you always know what you’re getting.

[Dave]

oooh, I’m not really a Funko Pop guy (though I have the two blink-182 ones)

They missed a trick if they’re not called Punko Fops.

[GlenTokyo]

I sort of tend to agree that Funko’s are a bit shit. Though I can also see a charm in them for people that want something to collect.

They do make sense for some things, like teen pop culturey stuff, stuff for people who want a collectible but don’t necessarily have the funds or space for stuff like Hot Toys figures or similar “proper” collectibles, but the vast range of seemingly completely unsuitable franchises that get funko’d is just weird.

It almost undermines the IP when you make a little fat headed figure of it, and they also sometimes kill off any other potential merchandise, I wouldn’t care at all if they also made nice replica props or in proportion figurines too but they usually don’t.

I have some Funko Pops that people have got me as gifts and while I’m usually a live and let live type, I’ve been looking at them on my shelf for years getting more and more sour on them haha

They’re poorly made too, I have some other Funko figurines that are more representative of the style of the IPs and they’re great, most of the Funko Pops I have are poorly painted and hunched over because the plastic is crap.

[evilmorwen]

does the sofa in the bunkroom in Red Dwarf X prove that Gareth Gwenlan was right all along?

[si]

My brother’s got shelffuls of MCU Funkos. I’m not too bothered, myself, but I have had some Doctor Who ones bought for me for birthdays and Christmas over the past couple of years or so, and I’m pretty fond of them BEKOS THERE FUNI.
(I’ve got Doctors 4, 12 and 13, plus Sarah Jane in The Hand of Fear, and they’re all quite cute, really.)

[RunawayTrain]

does the sofa in the bunkroom in Red Dwarf X prove that Gareth Gwenlan was right all along?

Haha! No French windows though.

I wonder what he thought of dinnerladies.

Actually ‘Allo ‘Allo had neither sofa nor French windows as I recall, nor did Dad’s Army, Blackadder, Open All Hours …

[tombow]

what I don’t get about Funkos is people who just have them piled up unopened so their house just looks like a Funko shop. I guess they’re all planning to sell them some day.

[evilmorwen]

they’re less ugly if they’re partly obscured by the box, maybe?

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

what I don’t get about Funkos is people who just have them piled up unopened so their house just looks like a Funko shop. I guess they’re all planning to sell them some day.

I’m never one about being precious about something and keeping it boxed to resell. I buy something because I want it, not in the hope I can flip it for a few quid in the future (though I do keep the boxes in case I ever do want to offload).

That said, the two funkos I have are still in the box because the box acts as a mini display case for them, they frame them and provide some info on the person they are supposed to be, which I like.

[tombow]

are the rival team who appeared in “universe challenge” on rd night still in the fan community?

[Ian Symes]

Not particularly, as far as I’m aware. Steev Rogers used to still come to DJ as fan long after he relinquished his Fan Club duties, but not since the mid-00s. Maybe there’s a feature to be had in tracking them down.

[International Debris]

When I was still a lurker here I wondered if any of them posted. I thought they must do, as this was obviously the home of the internet’s Red Dwarf nerds. I was wrong.

[Jonathan Capps]

as this was obviously the home of the internet’s Red Dwarf nerds. I was wrong.

It’s certainly the home for Red Dwarf nerds that (mostly) don’t hate our guts, which is a subtly different thing.

[tombow]

One thing I’ve been thinking about is that I don’t really get the association with Rimmer liking Hammond Organ music and being uncool, or the genre of players he’s supposed to be into. I associate the Hammond with classic hard rock – Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, The Animals etc.

[Ian Symes]

I think there was a window in the late 80s/early 90s where a) those very bands were considered a bit naff, before later being either reappraised or forgotten about, and b) the Hammond was more associated with twee easy listening muzak type guff anyway. It’s similarly a source of derision in Lionel Nimrod’s Inexplicable World.

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

I refuse to believe there was ever a moment in time where Deep Purple were considered “a bit naff”

[tombow]

is true that glass conservatories on the back of houses only became a thing in the UK because of the TV show Dallas? I heard on some nostalgia thing that it was because the Dallas characters ate breakfast in them so people wanted their own.

also… there is only one person on Earth I know thinks Deep Purple are naff… Ritchie Blackmore…

[GlenTokyo]

I think glass conservatories have been a thing in the UK since about 1800 to be honest, so unless Larry Hagman’s Granddad was a British glazier, I think you’d be hard pushed to find a link.

I believe Dallas was responsible for the Birdseye potato waffle taking off though.

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

I think they became popular in the 80s because of the use of plastic to cheaply mass produce them, creating a boom in the industry and the markets for them.

[By Jove its holmes]

An non-Dwarf unanswered Question: Why did a British TV series have to plan to use a male Little Person rather than the existing child actress?

Is it now illegal in Britain to show smacking a child for playing up in the bath?

https://www.femalefirst.co.uk/tv/Alex+Kingston-59813.html

[Dave]

An non-Dwarf unanswered Question

There are lots of these but they don’t tend to get posted here for some reason.

[evilmorwen]

Why did Red Dwarf use a fake snake in the episode Polymorph?

Was it then illegal in Britain to show a man wrestling a snake?

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

Rimmer is played by the alive and well Chris Barrie because in the UK it is illegal to kill a person.

[By Jove its holmes]

in the UK it is illegal to kill a person.
Shame no one told the Libyans in 1988. :'(

[Flap Jack]

Why did a British TV series have to plan to use a male Little Person rather than the existing child actress?

Why did they simulate child abuse for TV when they could have just filmed the actors doing child abuse for real?

No idea, must just be one of the great mysteries of TV production.

[Renegade Rob]

Here’s a question that probably does have an answer but nevertheless I’ve always wondered… When Rimmer moves out in Me2 and Lister revels in his absence and decides to relocate to Rimmer’s bottom bunk, he calls it “the big bunk,” but is it actually bigger? The bunks looked pretty modular, at least to me. Is it a script thing where it just says it’s bigger but the set doesn’t match that but who cares, or is it possible that the bottom cubby is measurably slightly larger?

[q u i n n _ d r u m m e r]

Yeah he bottom bunk is clearly taller than the top bunk, right? It’s no longer or wider, but it had more height to it thus more space

https://www.reddwarf.co.uk/series/12/sets/sets-4.jpg

That’s clearly bigger to me.

In my experience the top bunk in actually bunk beds has always had a lower clearance given that it is right up by the ceiling so you couldn’t sit up right.

[RunawayTrain]

Yeah he bottom bunk is clearly taller than the top bunk, right? It’s no longer or wider, but it had more height to it thus more space

https://www.reddwarf.co.uk/series/12/sets/sets-4.jpg
That’s clearly bigger to me.

In my experience the top bunk in actually bunk beds has always had a lower clearance given that it is right up by the ceiling so you couldn’t sit up right.

I must have been fortunate with our bunk beds then, as I could sit upright on the top but not the bottom! On holiday in various places we could never sit upright on the bottom bunk when we had them – although caravans are almost always smaller, so sitting up on the top bunk wasn’t possible either in those.

Completely agree about the set photo though.

[GlenTokyo]

Yeah he bottom bunk is clearly taller than the top bunk, right? It’s no longer or wider, but it had more height to it thus more space

https://www.reddwarf.co.uk/series/12/sets/sets-4.jpg
That’s clearly bigger to me.
In my experience the top bunk in actually bunk beds has always had a lower clearance given that it is right up by the ceiling so you couldn’t sit up right.

Also clearly visible on the original set

[Renegade Rob]

Good point, well made. Thanks all.

[By Jove its holmes]

Has anyone wondered what Gilbert, Lister’s male maid in “Timeslides”, got up to in the repaired timeline?

[Pete Part Three]

Probably buttled for Thickie Holden.

[Hamish]

Anyone ever notice how the word “buttled” has “butt” in it?

[Author]

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