Plastic Percy

[Plastic Percy]

Bullshit. Not one person did that.

Oh get to fuck, you cretin. Ian wants to draw a line under it and I’m respecting that. So piss off.

[Plastic Percy]

TIKKA TO RIDE

Lister goes back into the deep sleep unit and comes out a few weeks later when they find yet another derelict with enough curry to keep him happy for a couple of years.

[Plastic Percy]

so Lister had Frankenstein in a cupboard but she never made noise when Rimmer was there?

He couldn’t hear her over the sound of his ‘Learn Esperanto While You Sleep’ tapes.

[Plastic Percy]

Got a source?

Not really worth it, it just really pissed me off.

[Plastic Percy]

Just clicked on there and seen people bashing Seb.

So go get fucked with a rusty bread knife.

[Plastic Percy]

That’s all pretty true. It’s a bit like Last of the Summer Wine – that innocence and carelessness of a second childhood.

On another website, where people were discussing what the beam of light he arrives in means – is he an alien? is it symbolic of an ordinary man being cast into the spotlight? – I remember as a kid taking it quite literally and thinking he’d had some misadventure and fallen off a lamp post.

[Plastic Percy]

I don’t know if it’s because I’m in a rather bleak place at this time due to looming redundancy, but Mr. Bean has become a sort of odd comfort food to me. He lives such a charming, innocent life (when he’s not being deliberately mean) – enjoying hobbies, going on days out, holidays down the coast etc. – and I have a sort of odd nostalgia for eighties and nineties life, fashion and leisure – maybe because I’m a bit tired of social media and, like people in the UK back then, I’m being fucked over by Tory incompetence and greed. I find Bean charming to watch in the same way as the Tim Nice-but-Dim sketches.

[Plastic Percy]

You’re right there. I’ve fond memories of Ship to Shore, Round the Twist, The Silver Brumby etc.

[Plastic Percy]

The prison tower is one that always throws me. We’re told the Tank is on Floor 13 (on a spaceship with thousands of floors, this doesn’t make sense aside to sound cool – unlucky 13 and all that) yet there’s a skyscraper which appears to be just wing of it somewhere in the ship.

With Holly’s claims about creating little distractions for Lister to keep him busy, I thought this was a point that should’ve been discussed a lot more than it is, as it implies Holly has manipulated or set up some events in the past and it would shine a light on a few things. Obviously, Queeg is the best example – playing a nightmarish practical joke on them to get them to show him some respect – but are there any other examples? Did he deliberately pilot Starbug into the timehole? Lie about the cluster of black holes?

[Plastic Percy]

I don’t particularly rate Polymorph. Kryten’s lament over what he said about Rimmer’s mum goes on far too long, to the point where his crying just gets awkward, and the episode ends rather too quickly and conveniently.

The one thing that always throws me about III – in Backwards and Marooned especially – is how shoddy the Starbug cockpit looks. It’s a few keyboards, styrofoam tubes and some fold up chairs. Even the Blue Midget set – which looks like Rimmer, Cat and Kryten sitting on crates in a cupboard – looks better.

[Plastic Percy]

Craig has said he remembers III in black and white as he was hungover for most of the studio filming. Bobby mentions in various interviews that when he was leaving the hotel in the morning to go to makeup, Craig and Danny would be just coming back from the Hacienda.

[Plastic Percy]

Backwards the novel is utterly grim in places. Spanners watching footage of the other Ace dying, ‘our’ Ace sacrificing his life, Holly being ripped out of Red Dwarf, the disfiguring of the crew in AR game, Rimmer and Kryten’s deaths and, of course, Cat mutilating a vagina with his barbed wire cock.

[Plastic Percy]

I think I slightly preferred Ashes to Ashes as three series gave the show more time to breathe, and allowed to feel like more of an ensemble show. Chris got to be more than the bumbling simpleton and went to some really dark places, and Ray was allowed to move on ever so slightly from being just a racist pig and explore some really tough issues relating to trauma.

[Plastic Percy]

I’ve seen reports that are suggesting the series will be a show-within-a-show concept and called ‘Tyler: Murder Division’, and that Graham is actively seeking John Simm to return for it. I’m not sure how I feel about that as a concept.

[Plastic Percy]

The Polymorph attacking Rimmer is something that always bothered me, given that he’s soft-light at that point. I figure his light bee has to be exactly at that position on his forehead at the time, so the Polymorph is making contact with the light bee, mere millimetres into Rimmer’s soft-light form, so it just looks like he’s licking his forehead. As for how he can be affected by such biological mechanisms, idk dude.

The Polymorph turned itself into a hologram.

[Plastic Percy]

Series III is way overrated. For some reason, way more so than Series II or IV, there’s something about III that’s sloppy and doesn’t age very well. The effects, the humor, and even the storytelling (which can be really stream of consciousness) seem sort of loosey-goosey and not in a good way. Series III is often held up as one of the best, but it’s fine. Also, Polymorph, while having some good jokes, is a piece of shit and definitely not a classic.

I agree. Parts of the set – the corridors made of white pallets and the cargo bay full of cardboard boxes – are really disappointing and dull to look at. There’s a weirdness to seeing the lovely new sleeping quarters on the awful old BBC cameras, compared to how it looked from IV onwards. Overall it just feels really dingy and dull to look at.

Starbug’s cockpit is an absolute shambles of a design early on, with it looking particularly unfinished in Backwards. And I really can’t get past the obviousness of the wire extending from Chris, ready to eject him out of the cockpit roof.

Kryten in III is the absolute worst mask Bobby Llew has worn. It looks clammy and fleshy, and gives Kryten quite a gaunt face.

[Plastic Percy]

Like all the other amazing coincidences that seem to come Ace Rimmer’s way, I just presumed that even if Ace wasn’t mortally wounded, he would still somehow die in the presence of his counterpart who would be suitably galvanised into taking up the mantle by Ace’s heroic sacrifice.

[Plastic Percy]

DNA

Cat remembers to take his antihistamine and Rimmer is successfully cloned.

[Plastic Percy]

I always get it confused with Escape from Jupiter/Return to Jupiter, the Australian children’s show from the 1990s.

[Plastic Percy]

Regarding Stasis Leak, I’m referring to how Future Lister goes, “In five years time, you find another way to go back in time.” But then we never see this followed up on (which is fine, but still an unanswered question).

My theory is that the Future Lister and Rimmer from ‘Stasis Leak’ are the younger versions of the 15 Year Later Lister and Rimmer from ‘Out of Time’.

Presumably, they found a stardrive they were able to combine with the timedrive, and Lister decided to go back and rescue Kochanski. They already seem to be enjoying the life of luxury they grow accustomed to, given Lister’s expensive looking suit and ability to rent the Honeymoon Suite in a fairly expensive looking hotel.

When Lister had his accident, Kochanski dumped him – having become as shallow and selfish as the others.

[Plastic Percy]

PARALLEL UNIVERSE

The pregnancy test is blue.

[Plastic Percy]

If it’s not called Hallo, Spaceboy – the perfect 90s Bowie title – I’ll be disappointed.

I’m relatively excited for it, but wondering what they can really do after revealing Gene Hunt is a post-modern Charon, ferrying dead coppers to the afterlife.

If Life on Mars was The Sweeney and Ashes to Ashes was The Professionals, I’d quite like to see them go for an Inspector Morse theme this time around. An ageing, verge-of-retirement Gene Hunt tooling about the Oxford countryside in a Jag.

[Plastic Percy]

Danny DeVito as Cat.

[Plastic Percy]

Kochanski works better as an ideal, a goal for Lister. That she’s out there, somewhere, in the great mishmash of time, space, life and death. The hope that he’ll someday be reunited with his ex-planet and his ex-girlfriend keeps him going.

I don’t think we really need an explanation for what happened at the end of VIII, it’s been effectively handwaved in the same manner that Lister’s pregnancy and the Future Selves attack were. Something happened, and they were able to save Red Dwarf.

The way I see it, the crew got back in the nick of time with the cesiumfrancolithicmixialibidiumrixydixydoxydexydroxide and Ace Rimmer turned up to train Nano Rimmer as his replacement, returning to his rightful place aboard Red Dwarf.

[Plastic Percy]

I’m grateful for any new Red Dwarf we get. I’m just glad that even if this is the end, it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger like VIII did.

[Plastic Percy]

Come back Jawscvmcdia, all is forgiven.

[Plastic Percy]

What’s that saying? If you have three flakes of Chris Barrie’s dandruff, you’re a rich man.

[Plastic Percy]

I could really go for a piping hot steak and kidney pie like he eats in ‘The End’, though.

[Plastic Percy]

I could’ve sworn that somebody – either the props guy or Craig in the commentary – said that the space weevil was made from marzipan.

[Plastic Percy]

Rob Grant not remembering him probably puts a kibosh on this idea, but comedians can and do sell jokes to each other.

[Plastic Percy]

I remember briefly playing it with a few friends at university. We had a Waxdroid of Jerry Springer and a creature descended from the ship’s parrot (imaginatively named Parry).

[Plastic Percy]

I don’t think the story has been about saving Data, more about preserving his legacy.

[Plastic Percy]

Soji’s denial of reality – everything around her is an illusion or a trick – sits fine with me. Nobody can predict how any one individual will respond to learning in the space of a few hours that they’re not Human, their past is a lie, their boyfriend is their executioner, their sister is dead and they’re an outlawed form of life considered obscene in the eyes of most civilisations.

[Plastic Percy]

The Doctor says “you look Time Lord” in response to Lady Christina saying “you look Human” in ‘Planet of the Dead’.

[Plastic Percy]

I figured that Holly could very likely have activated Rimmer seconds before he walked through the door. Digitally downloading the current mission status (crew dead, species dead, Lister alive, ship lost) instantly.

[Plastic Percy]

No doubt the SJWs would also expect us to accept that two of the cast members are black for no reason.

[Plastic Percy]

I kinda understand the need for the Borg Queen in the film. You need a villain to explain their plans, set up their motivation and provide a climax to the film. Its a bit like how one of the criticisms for ‘The Motion Picture’ is that there’s no real villain – V’Ger is just sort of there with its own agenda that isn’t really explained in any great detail until the last ten minutes of the film. Even the Ilia duplicate is fairly vague about what V’Ger actually wants.

I think it might have been interesting to watch ‘The Best of Both Worlds, Part I’ in context. As I understand it, there was a popular rumour that Patrick Stewart wasn’t going to return for the fourth season due to his initial three year contract being up. Picard would have died, Riker would assume command and Commander Shelby would step in as first officer.

Its also quite interesting that the initial plan for Picard’s time as Locutus would leave a physical mark. His arm would have been amputated to accomodate Locutus’ cybernetic claw, and there was an idea to suggest he’d received an artificial limb in the form of makeup. This can be seen best in Rick Sternbach’s concept art here: http://i.imgur.com/rt3SzQj.jpg.

[Plastic Percy]

LISTER: I wonder if there’s anywhere to get a curry round here?

Audience laugh.

I can confirm I’m not interested in reading any more.

[Plastic Percy]

Kochanski is mentioned as growing up in Gorbals, an area of Glasgow, and its suggested to be a posh or affluent area. I guess the joke is that at the time of filming, the area had a reputation going back years for being rife with crime and street gangs. Obviously, by the 21st/22nd/23rd century, it’s undergone significant gentrification.

[Plastic Percy]

The homosexuals and Marxists have finally got their way, is nothing sacred?

[Plastic Percy]

Suicidal mode.

[Plastic Percy]

Weren’t the spacesuits worn by Cat and Lister recycled from another show or film?

[Plastic Percy]

I loved it, and it was a perfect opening. Patrick Stewart steps effortlessly back into playing Jean-Luc Picard, but also does an admirable job of showing that he has changed in some respects in the twenty odd years since we last him. He still has the sharp intellect, compassion and morals he’s always had, but its nice that he’s a bit less rigid and informal. Arguing with his dog about him not understanding French was a particular highlight.

Naturally, the ‘old school’ fans I know didn’t like it and have whinged the creators have ruined it by making it too “liberal” and making Picard an “SJW”. Griping that yet again they’ve “forced politics into Star Trek”.

[Plastic Percy]

There were reprints last year, as I managed to buy new copies of the Omnibus, Last Human and Backwards directly from Amazon.

[Plastic Percy]

I, too, actually rather like the “pack my bags and head into hyperspace” lyrics.

[Plastic Percy]

“Man, that’s a fine present. He was probably only expecting a tie.”

[Plastic Percy]

I like how Jawscvmcdia is creeped out by people sexualising cartoon animals, but not by his own creepy stalker crush on Katydid.

[Plastic Percy]

I follow Andrew Cartmel (Script Editor, 1987 – 1989) on Twitter and he’s a Jazz enthusiast, posting about his latest vinyl finds. I figure the Doctor and Ace enjoying Jazz and meeting Courtney Pine is a bit of an ‘author avatar’ moment.

On a book tangent, I do reccomend Cartmel’s Vinyl Detective book series. The series follows an unnamed narrator who hunts down rare vinyl records for money. Some of his clients take his business card a little too seriously and he finds himself investigating murders and other serious crimes.

I’d also reccomend Nev Fountain’s Mervyn Stone trilogy – Geek Tragedy, DVD Extras Include: Murder & Cursed Among Sequels. Mervyn Stone is a washed-up Script Editor mostly famous for his work on cult 1980s sci-fi series ‘Vixens from the Void’. Making a living attending discusion panels at fan conventions, he finds himself turning his Script Editor’s eyes for plot holes and inconsistencies to solving murders.

[Plastic Percy]

Not to mention every second post you write is preceded with “@Katydid” like this is fucking Twitter or something.

Where are the power-drunk mods banning willy-nillily when you need them?

[Plastic Percy]

Character continuity was never a strong point in the BBC Doctor Who novels. Anji Kapoor, companion to the Eighth Doctor, managed to come from a liberal, middle-class family that was also conservative and devoutly religious. And depending on who was writing, she was either Indian or Pakistani.

[Author]

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