Your Unpopular Red Dwarf Opinions

[GlenTokyo]

That’d mean they’ve paid a model maker to make them out of more suitable model materials like ABS and resin parts, and if they’ve done that, why wouldn’t they just pay The Model Unit to rent out their proper Starbugs and scan those in? You’d imagine that’d be cheaper than paying someone to make some even if The Model Unit are pricey per hour.

If they were 3D printed for crashing purposes, then that’s a bit daft mechanically and financially, you wouldn’t make it with binder jetting, because it just breaks (as the behind the scenes stuff shows, where it crashed and the arse fell off).

There’s a video of them scanning a Starbug on their website and that has the sort of sandy texture of that kind of 3D print so who knows.

[Katydid]

I might have said this before, but as good as the opening few scenes are I think Parallel Universe utterly falls apart as soon as they meet the female crew and becomes one of the weakest episodes in the original six series.

People who dispute that this episode isn’t that good overall always cite me moments from those opening few scenes.

[Flap Jack]

Parallel Universe has some decent bits later on too, but it’s hard to top the opening. Really, instead of it ending with the cliffhanger about Lister being pregnant, it should have ended with the reveal that the trip to the gender-flipped universe was all a dream, but Tongue Tied was real.

[Renegade Rob]

But then you’d lose the continuity callback to the twins in Future Echoes.

The idea that Act One of Parallel Universe is pretty great but deteriorates quickly upon their arrival on the female Dwarf seems pretty well-agreed upon (that disco scene too goes on FOREVER, like a quarter of the whole episode is them twatting about at the disco).

What’s weird to me is that each series is usually pretty consistent, at least in the Grant/Naylor era, like even if there are ups and downs, the tone, production, and general quality are pretty static series to series. But unlike the other five Grant/Naylor series, Series II has this weird outlier where it’s like GREAT, GREAT, GREAT, GREAT, GREAT, A BIT RUBBISH.

It’s weird, because even other “not great” episodes of the bubble are of a type with the rest of their series. Waiting for God gets some guff, but it’s still pretty firmly a Series I episode, not too far off from the rest. And Emohawk is clearly the weakest VI episode, but it’s not part of a series where every other episode is a stone-cold classic. But Parallel Universe is just a bizarre anomaly, weighing down what otherwise is essentially a perfect series.

[Katydid]

Series II and V were my highest rated on the poll. Both have their respective weak spots, but Demons & Angels is probably a better episode than Parallel Universe.

[International Debris]

Apparently my unpopular Red Dwarf opinion is that I really like Parallel Universe.

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

Same. The back half is no more middling than Thanks for the Memory. It’s just a story playing out with some gags. Nothing ground breaking but it’s fun enough. I really enjoy seeing Arlene coming on strong to Arnie and him being really uncomfortable.

Dog is a bit rubbish, but that’s the only thing I’d take out I think.

[By Jove its holmes]

turning men into women must be a British comedy writer thing – Leaving aside Monty Python, Roger Price’s “You Can’t Do That on Television” – the episode where Valerie Prevert wishes for a daughter and Doug Ptolemy is magically turned into one (from the character’s dismay and mournfulness it can be inferred that Doug has realized he is now a she in the private area in addition to the dress).

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

Character gender/sex swapping isn’t a mind blowingly original idea, especially in comedy and sci-fi where body swapping and alternate versions of characters is a thing that comes up from time to time.

It slots into the out of character troupe sci-fi does a lot where it takes the characters you know and adjusts them in someway so they behave, well, out of character. And Red Dwarf relies on that heavily to explore its characters and happens with regular occurrence.

[Shoes Have Soles]

I don’t particularly like the opening post II guitar theme tune. I know that is probably a hangable offense. I just prefer the original, more downbeat version in I-II.

[International Debris]

Yeah, I’d quite happily take the original credits over the guitar & clips version.
No idea how they’d have done it for VI and VII, though.

[Dax101]

I think the series 1 and 2 opening gave off a really lonely and isolated feel. which i think would work for series 1-5. 6 onwards is were that tones aren’t quite there anymore. even the Dave era where you could argue puts everything back to status-quo still feels like a fairly populated universe to work for that tone.

[Pete Part Three]

The original opening makes me feel weirdly nostalgic for the first time I watched show.

(I watched Series 1 and 2 for the first time a few weeks before seeing 3 for the first time, so that makes no fucking sense, but there we are)

I think they should have brought back the original opening theme for the start of The Promised Land to lend it a more cinematic style. I’d have also preferred the actor credits just accompanying new footage rather than clips of the, em, film you’re about to watch.

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

The series 1-2 opening would have fit TPL better. It even hints that it’s transitioning into before baiting and switching and going into the guitar theme.

I get why though. For streaming they split the episode in two, so two sets of opening and closing credits so creating a montage titles sequence for that makes sense.

[Katydid]

Not to get too off-topic, but the TPL opening montage felt very spoilery to me. Like you’re seeing all the most visually impressive things in the entire special right away with little left to surprise you.

Same. The back half is no more middling than Thanks for the Memory.

You forgot to specify that Thanks for the Memory being middling was your incredibly unpopular opinion.

[By Jove its holmes]

Rimmer himself says *exactly* why Thanks for the Memory is cruel to people in the audience who have suffered in life and been offered false hope: “You’ve destroyed me, Lister”.

[Flap Jack]

Yeah, I’d quite happily take the original credits over the guitar & clips version.

No idea how they’d have done it for VI and VII, though.

They’d redo the entire thing with Starbug as the object instead of Red Dwarf. The theme song would be mostly the same arrangement as Series 1-2, except it would be performed on the kazoo.

[GlenTokyo]

Yeah, I’d quite happily take the original credits over the guitar & clips version.

No idea how they’d have done it for VI and VII, though.
They’d redo the entire thing with Starbug as the object instead of Red Dwarf. The theme song would be mostly the same arrangement as Series 1-2, except it would be performed on the kazoo.

I’d actually like to see that.

It starts on Kryten cleaning Starbug’s windscreen and then it pulls out and you realise he’s in space and he’s tethered himself to Starbug’s leg with his groinal attachment hose.

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