Waiting for God is the most underrated episode

[Warbodog]

Classically speaking anyway, the Dave era’s still being digested.

In terms of the I-VI bubble, Waiting for God is the clear least favourite, at least after people got over Meltdown:

Smegazine 1992: 27th out of 30
BTL 1994: 35/36
BTL 1997: 44/44
BTL 1999: joint 48/48
G&T 2008: 37/52, worst of I-VI
Silver Survey: 41/61, worst of I-VI
Pearl Poll: 48/73, worst of I-VI

I know this is usually a case of it being judged the least best of a classic run rather than actually bad, but even in series one I think it’s got more going on than arguable misstep Balance of Power and certified most average episode ever Confidence and Paranoia, even before comparing it to the least best of II-VI.

Listing all of its good points would just be copy-pasting every other line of the script (“Would you steal verruca cream from a man with no feet?”), so to limit it to five:

– Spot-on send-up of religious schism, stretched interpretations and tacky paraphernalia
– Lister’s well-realised journey off grid
– Rimmer frustrated by Lister’s flagrant insubordination now he’s got his fags back
– TOT/BASTARD
– Rimmer’s faith vs. the Cat Priest’s faith, discuss

It’s not a top 10, I’m not even totally sure if it’s in the best half of series one, but I don’t see the problem. Some of the sets and props looked a bit crap? In series one of Red Dwarf? Get out of town!

[Dave]

It was one of my favourites when I first watched Series 1 so I was always a bit surprised that it was so relatively disliked. The religious stuff is great (and surprisingly heartfelt by the end) and there are a lot of good gags.

As much as people talk about Series 1 being a bit of a rough start where the show feels like it’s still finding its feet, I actually think Series 2 feels more inconsistent. Series 1 is pretty solid throughout.

[Warbodog]

I think so too. I prefer the best of series 1 (Future Echoes and especially Me²) to the best of series 2, and I’ll take a bland Balance of Power over a problematic Parallel Universe. Series 1’s strong continuity (discussed on here recently) makes it one of the most satisfying to watch as one glorious hole, and Waiting for God kind of wraps up that initial, internal set-up so we can move on to wacky space antics forever.

[(deleted)]

I voted it very highly in the Pearl Poll.

It works even better when you come back to it later after being aware of all the Beckett references, particularly Endgame and the Cat Priest being based on Hamm.

[Warbodog]

Even the image for Wikipedia’s Endgame entry suggests so.

Checking it out.

I put it 24th, but looking at some of the certified classics I’ve put above it that I don’t feel so drawn to rewatching, it should probably be top 20.

[International Debris]

I’ve always really liked Waiting for God. I think it’s my third favourite in series 1 after the two obvious classics.

[Taiwan Tony]

That looks like Blue Heaven’s Conleth Hill.

I like Waiting for God a lot too. Was there talk of animating that evolution / civil war sequence at one point?

[Dave]

I think maybe Waiting For God is only really frowned upon because the rest of Series 1 is so good. Future Echoes, Confidence & Paranoia and Me² are all top-tier episodes, The End gets a certain status just for kicking the whole thing off, and Balance of Power is mostly pretty good.

[clem]

Series 1 did pretty badly in the PP though, which I was dismayed by. On average I ranked those episodes just over 10 places higher than where they ended up, and 1 and V are the only series that are entirely within my top 36.

[Hamish]

This is without even going into the glory that is the smegging garbage pod.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

<blockquote? and Balance of Power is mostly pretty good.

it is, but I think it’s the weakest of the rest. The End maybe weakest but only because it’s rather different and the set up to the series.

I can kind of see why Waiting For God gets forgotten a little bit though, it sort of feels as though not much happens compared to the other episodes in the series

[(deleted)]

The only thing wrong with Balance Of Power is that Future Echoes was misplaced ahead of it. It’s supposed to be The End part 2, and the premature ejaculation of Future Echoes robs Balance of its plangency.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I think Balance of Power as a concept works better much later on though. I can’t see Lister immediately jumping to the idea of getting himself promoted above Rimmer, but after a few weeks of just the two of them I can see him wanting to just to wind him up.

[Warbodog]

Balance of Power would be more understandable coming bottom of the pile for me, even if there are a couple of “classics” I like less for being silly/annoying/boring.

Noel Coleman wasn’t on top form as the Cat Priest, but less grating than Clare Grogan playing Rimmer playing Kochanski and coming off as some weird third party.
The Lister/Rimmer workplace dynamic is a novelty in BOP, but I prefer its aftermath in WFG where Lister delights in his newfound freedom.

As for Cat, trout a la creme vs. shiny thing / turn this into a woman is a tough call. Cat in Confidence & Paranoia wins the entire 1988-2017 series though.

[Ben Saunders]

Whatever episode introduces beer milkshakes is better on account of that

[Warbodog]

Waiting for God. From that dispensing machine that I didn’t even notice had miraculously appeared between episodes until John Hoare pointed it out decades later.

[Dave]

Balance Of Power is one I really liked when I first saw it, but which hasn’t aged so well for me. It still has its moments though.

I always feel like the ending and its subsequent dismissal by Holly in the next episode is a massive cheat, though.

[Ben Saunders]

Is it WFG that opens with Lister crying over that film and being fucking disgusting? That always felt off to me, just not very strong stuff

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I can’t even remember what Cat does in Confidence and Paranoia …

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Is it WFG that opens with Lister crying over that film and being fucking disgusting? That always felt off to me, just not very strong stuff

that’s Confidence and Paranoia isn’t it?

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I always feel like the ending and its subsequent dismissal by Holly in the next episode is a massive cheat, though.

It sets you up for all those other dismissive endings throughout the show though.

That said it would have been fun to see the start of the next episode having Lister laud it over Rimmer and ordering him around before finally revealing to him that he didn’t really pass

[Warbodog]

Milkshake is Confidence and Paranoia. That’s the one where Cat’s at his most heartless and selfish and I love it.

The problem with people accurately ranking series one episodes is showing. They can be easy to mix up if you don’t remember the context of scenes.

[Dave]

Yeah, that’s what I mean. I don’t mind it turning out to be a lie so much, but it feels like there’s a funny development there that we should have seen.

[Warbodog]

>Milkshake

I mean, vomiting the milkshake grossly over himself while crying and having a little sneaky grin at how much he’s repulsing the audience.

[Author]

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