Manbird

[Manbird]

Are people aware that this isn’t a full transcript of Barrie’s interview, rather the finished article by a journalist who seems to have an agenda?

It strikes me the author of the piece has taken Barrie’s comments, edited the positives and tried to suggest that the series was imploding. Check the date: it’s when the show went into its first hiatus, around the time that Grant left and a full three years before it returned with VII.

Barrie’s concerns may be legitimate, and with the benefit of hindsight they fit in very conveniently with fandom’s perception of the programme’s decline in the late BBC years, but let’s not be fooled by this and accept it as ‘fact’.

[Manbird]

Fade to black as Yello’s “Oh Yeah” plays out on the soundtrack.

Cast:

Pete Tranter’s Sister…………..Agitator

si……………………………………..Wise Man

Ben Paddon………………………2nd Wise Man

flanl………………………………….Non-Sequitor

Manbird…………………………….Witness

bloodteller…………………………Paramedic

pad_ehh……………………………Priest

Phobos And Deimos…………..Undertaker

Fade in – post-credit sequence.

Manbird: Are you still here? It’s OVER! Go to another thread. Goodbye.

[Closes laptop]

Fade out.

Music sting: #Shugga-shug-a-shig-SHIGGA#

[Manbird]

I have a Red Dwarf dream.

[Cue Land of Hope and Glory]

I dream that Dave stops showing the remastered version of Marooned.

I dream all that shtick about Lister being his own father never happened.

I dream that series VIII wasn’t a creative cul-de-sac.

I dream, etc.

[Manbird]

>Doug McClure is real?<

Yeah! You may remember him from such films as Warlords from Atlantis and Cannonball Run II.

[Manbird]

KRYTEN: Goodness me, it’s Marlene Dietrich!

LISTER: She’s a machine-mensche.

[Manbird]

The vicar’s coming round and Lister isn’t wearing any knickers.

[Manbird]

That meant to say ‘Note to self’ in the previous message… Effing lack of edit options (or, more likely, my lack of message board nous)

[Manbird]

Back to the film references, we also have a Wizard of Oz comparison, too; Lister’s Dorothy, the innocent negotiating their way through a strange land; Rimmer’s the scarecrow, the hollow man; Cat’s the Cowardly Lion and Kryten the Tin Man. Naturally, that makes Holly the Wizard – the one who can get Lister home, despite his/her fallibility..

[Manbird]

“I’ve wondered which single thing (film, TV show, book, etc.) has been directly referenced/homaged/mined for ideas by Red Dwarf the most. For a while I assumed it was the Alien franchise. Now I’m pretty sure it’s the Bible.”

I’m not that hot on Judeo-Christian theology (I’m from a Jewish-atheist background) but you’ve definitely got a point: we’ve had resurrection; Lister leading the Cat people to Fuchal in Waiting for God (Moses and Christ); Lister as Father and Son (does that make Rimmer the Holy Ghost?); the crew meeting Richard O’Callaghan’s God-like writer character in Back to Earth and discovering the rules surrounding their existence, not to mention confronting an apparently sentient universe in Krysis; Jesus in Lemons… I’m sure there’s a Solomon reference in Demons and Angels, too.

It’s Friday night, for Frankenstein’s sake – why am I posting this??

[Not to self: ask that girl you like at work out, and soon.]

[Manbird]

So.. see you all on another thread, yeah?

Nice try, Pete.

[Manbird]

Never thought of The Fly in DNA, but now you mention it I think you’re onto something… Didn’t pick up on the Die Hard reference, but then I’ve never seen Die Hard (unforgivable, I know).

The First Contact parody in Twentica kinda bugged me, I must admit: getting Lister to say what a hackneyed cliché it was reminded me of the way Doctor Who: Last Christmas conveniently “borrowed” plots of other movies only to heap scorn over them. I’ve always felt great parodies and homages were affectionate, even at their most cutting.

Gotta say, my favourite Red Dwarf movie references are Full Metal Jacket in Meltdown and The Wild One in Kryten… and was that a Right Stuff spoof in Trojan where the suited-and-booted crew walk in slow motion towards the recovered ship?

(Oh, and Clem – I agree wholeheartedly about Ishtar being unfairly maligned.)

[Manbird]

“You mean persuade Robert De Niro not to make…?”

Well, the choices are limitless, really.

[Author]

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