Your Unpopular Red Dwarf Opinions

[Piplup2003]

The title says it all. What opinions do you have about Red Dwarf that no-one else seems to agree on?

For me, it’s that VIII is my second favourite series (behind V) and that I prefer Chloë over Claire as Kochanski (this may be partially influenced by the fact that I’ve met Chloë).

And please, no arguing.

Topic

[Flap Jack]

That’s deliberately an outlier, though, and the degradation of Lister’s
personality into something resembling Rimmer is directly commented on in
the script. He quite literally paints an H mark on his head. 

I don’t think you can call it an “outlier” when the sample size for “times Lister tries to take control of deactivating holograms” is a whopping 3. Confidence & Paranoia definitely contradicts Balance of Power by suggesting that as long as Lister had access to the physical hologram disks, he could overrule Rimmer, but that doesn’t mean Balance of Power is the outlier (especially not a “deliberate” one) and Confidence & Paranoia is normal. It just means you have a personal preference.

Plus it never actually gets to the point where Lister’s authority is directly tested – in C&P he just activates “Kochanski” as a second hologram and doesn’t deactivate Rimmer (and Rimmer secretly approves because he knows what will happen), and in Me² he has like 3 loophole options (he can deactivate 1 Rimmer as long as he doesn’t deactivate both / the Rimmers both agreed that one of them should be switched off so that’s some level of consent / Holly may have overruled Rimmer’s authority to stop the madness).

As for whether Lister could have deactivated Rimmer but chose not to because he respects him as a lifeform, even outside of Balance of Power, the evidence suggests this is not the case. In Confidence & Paranoia, before they discover a way to run 2 holograms at once, Lister explains that the reason he hasn’t activated Kochanski’s hologram is that Rimmer has hidden her disk. No mention of “I’d have to switch off Rimmer, and that would be murder” or any other reason. Just “I don’t have the disk”. The 2-hologram solution was clearly an attempt to convince Rimmer to hand over the disk willingly, but if Lister had found (what he thought was) Kockanski’s disk before coming up with that idea, I’m pretty sure he would have just switched off Rimmer.

And in Me², Lister is pretty darn untroubled about switching off Rimmer2, who is just as valid a lifeform as Rimmer1. That’s not very respectful of him! I wouldn’t trust Series 1 Lister to save Tuvix, I’ll tell you that much.

Also… Lister’s personality degrades to resemble Rimmer’s in Balance of Power???

[gerrydelasel]

Does Me² make sense as an episode title? I mean, 1² = 1, so does that mean just one Rimmer? Important questions.

[Ben Saunders]

Bodysnatcher gets a bit too insane. It’s a bit much, really. How much of that is in the original draft and how much was added later, I don’t know, but it doesn’t actually feel like a Series 1 episode to me. Then again it would have gone through further rewrites were it actually produced for Series 1, so who knows how it would have really ended up.

[Flap Jack]

Does Me² make sense as an episode title? I mean, 1² = 1, so does that mean just one Rimmer? Important questions.

Me² = 2Me

Me² / Me = 2

Me = 2

The solution is just a number that could correspond to anything. Me = 2, but that doesn’t mean 2 people. Could be arms. Or swimming qualifications.

[gerrydelasel]

Me² = 2Me

[Turk Thrust]

Bodysnatcher gets a bit too insane. It’s a bit much, really. How much of that is in the original draft and how much was added later, I don’t know, but it doesn’t actually feel like a Series 1 episode to me. Then again it would have gone through further rewrites were it actually produced for Series 1, so who knows how it would have really ended up.

I think the stuff with the bunk catching fire was all added later.

And Rimmer alphabetizing the room feels very Series VII.

[Technopeasant]

Lister should already have the self-awareness to know that living with a copy of yourself would be a disaster, especially accounting for the extra inequality of the copy not getting to have a body, and IIRC there wasn’t even a justification given for why Lister chose himself instead of literally anyone else.

Having literally just watched it, there is a reason. Rimmer hid all the other discs, missing Lister’s as it was still filed under living crew. He asked for Kochanski first. Also would still fit with the discs being absent later in the series.

and the crucial info Lister gets from Rimmer in the end is really just something Holly should have been able to tell him.

Or he could have tried using water or smother it with a quilt.

[Author]

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