PhilPagett

[PhilPagett]

Every time I watch these episodes I’m struck by just what an awful shit Rimmer is at this early stage. 

Also Craig’s delivery of “Can you just TRY and give me a black coffee?” is really quite bad. I think I could have done it better and it’s a shame I wasn’t asked.

[PhilPagett]

[PhilPagett]

Not funny, but hey.

[PhilPagett]

[PhilPagett]

[PhilPagett]

[PhilPagett]

[PhilPagett]

[PhilPagett]

[PhilPagett]

[PhilPagett]

No, he’s just never had protected sex.

Who told you you needed protection, huh? Some loser who was trying to make you feel small. C’mon, I’ll prove it to you. I’ll take mine off first.

[PhilPagett]

If they are inflated condoms, I can just about visualise it. Which is what I’ll be doing for the next few minutes.

[PhilPagett]

I don’t get “Durex Volleyball”. Like, at all.

[PhilPagett]

I wish I’d never brought this up now.

[PhilPagett]

I’m still not entirely sure what “in and out bits” are.

[PhilPagett]

Backwards – the logic is so flimsy that it falls apart even as I watch it, and for me the individual scenes are impressive technically, but not all that funny. Plus Rimmer and Lister share hardly any scenes, and Rimmer becoming a cabaret act always felt off-model to me. Why would he do that?

Meltdown has some moments I really love and the basic premise is great, but the location stuff totally knackers it. It’s completely atmosphere-less and doesn’t feel in any way like they’re on an abandoned theme park planet. It reminds me of those unofficial DTV Doctor Who spin-offs from the 90s that were shot guerrilla style in fields.

Terrorform. Beginning the episode basically in the middle of the plot is a cool idea but without any lead-in I struggle to get any purchase on what’s going on. Shirtless Rimmer being oiled just feels like a weird abstract sequence that I find mildly unsettling.

Having said all this, Red Dwarf is good.

[PhilPagett]

>>?I dunno. I just find the black bars more annoying. This looks fine to me.?

This.

[PhilPagett]

Wait a minute…how did they open the car door?

[PhilPagett]

>>Please don?t say Rob Grant.

>Why not, by the way?

Because we can take it for granted that we’d ALL like to see him do it. I very much doubt that he would though. If only.

[PhilPagett]

So…Doug then?

[PhilPagett]

The lesson here is never buy anything.

[PhilPagett]

Bollocks! Bought the boxset about 6 months ago.

[PhilPagett]

I second Iain Lee.

[PhilPagett]

I have to say, I pretty much agree with Norm’s take on Back to Earth. I’m sorry.

[PhilPagett]

> My Ghost Busters/ Ghostbusters II tape had an old B+W episode of Batman in the middle.

I had this as well. Got me hooked on B&W serials, did that. Ended up buying that Batman and Robin boxset.

[PhilPagett]

Happy Birthday, Mr Hoare

[PhilPagett]

I like Altered Images, but I think Gregory’s Girl is dull. Though Grogan is alright in it. I also think she’s poor in Red Dwarf. Though Red Dwarf itself is alright.

[PhilPagett]

I’d like to hear one about Back to Earth as a whole now that it’s had time to sink in and ferment in the memory and estimations.

[PhilPagett]

It is just a persona. In real life he loves Red Dwarf. He will be at Dimension Jump, only you won’t recognise him because he’ll be dressed as a Pleasure GELF. Fact.

[PhilPagett]

FAVES:

I: Me2
II: Queeg
III: Marooned
IV: White Hole
V: Back to Reality
VI: Out of Time
VII: Nanarchy
VIII: Back in the Red Part One
BtE: Part Two

LEAST:

I: Confidence & Paranoia
II: Parallel Universe
III: Backwards
IV: Meltdown
V: Terrorform
VI: Rimmerworld
VII: Beyond a Joke
VIII: Pete Part Two
BtE: Part Three

[PhilPagett]

VI-II-V-IV-III-VII-I-BTE-VIII

[PhilPagett]

I agree that it is one of, if not the best, Lister character moment. Although in honesty it does just make me wish that Back to Earth had been more of a character piece rather than a rather meandering Blade Runner homage/spoof.

It’s the nearest thing I think we’ll get to closure for Lister, and as such, should be relished.

I actually kind of think that Rimmer had reached his apotheosis with Stoke Me a Clipper, which when viewing the series as a whole is actually a rather neat and fitting full-stop for the character; he finally becomes somebody worthy of respect, and he achieves this through his own bravery, something which had always eluded him in the past.

Rimmer since then has been, well…just there for the sake of it really hasn’t he? In VIII he was a pantomime version of Series I Rimmer, and in Back to Earth he wasn’t really given a great deal to do other than hang a picture and affect a Northern accent. We don’t even know what Rimmer it was. If it was VIII Rimmer then fair enough, but if it was I-VII Rimmer, as seems likely from the Despair Squid back-reference, the ending of Stoke is pretty much rendered meaningless. Which would be fine had Rimmer served a real purpose in Back to Earth, but in my opinion, he didn’t.

So basically, I think Lister deserves his curtain call, and I suspect that this may be it. If it is, it’s a shame it was a few brief moments in a confusing story, but given how beautifully Craig performs them, it’ll do.

[PhilPagett]

@serafinowicz just read your Charles tweet. Hahahaha!!!

Now Graham Linehan is getting in on the action.

[Author]

Replies