Podey

[Podey]

I do also sometimes say this as an affirmative note if I know I’m amongst fellow smegheads.

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My most common Red Dwarf brainworm is a weird one because it’s actually the sound of the correct door code being entered (with the help of the luck virus) in Quarantine.

I have a password set up for my PC, right. When I type it in, the placement of the specific keys and the time it takes my fingers to travel between them produces the EXACT same rhythm as the ‘Quarantine’ door code so I always hear the “bleep blooip bleeeep… blooipblooipBLEEP… bloip bloip… bleep!” over my key presses.

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Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together on a JMC Mining Ship Grooving in Groove Town:
Hamsters are to animals in Red Dwarf what “Frank” is to names in Red Dwarf:

Lemmings are not far behind:

Plus a few gerbils:

Also some mice (“albino mouse droppings” – “Mickey Mouse? We ain’t even Betty Boop!” – “Wait, I know this game, it’s called ‘cat and mouse’.” – “It’s not a mouse, ma’am. It’s Archie.”) and of course: 

You’re not going to believe this but I’ve just noticed they reference a cat in EVERY SINGLE EPISODE, too.

(superb post, clem)

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I don’t mind the X mask as much because it manages to retain the flat surfaces and sharp edges but the more recent efforts are comparatively amorphous. 

So lumpy! I think it’s also the fact that they lowered his “cheek bones” by 3/4 of an inch which makes his head look rounder.

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God how did they get so bad at making Kryten’s mask between Back to Earth and Series X? 

X is passable, to be fair, but BtE is the last time Kryten looked like Kryten, for me. Ironically he does start to resemble a giant half-chewed rubber-tipped pencil after that.

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Not been feeling quite grubby enough lately so thought I’d resurrect this thing.

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Why don’t I remember any of this Birdman backstory? Is there some kind of expanded universe lore I’ve missed here?

https://reddwarf.co.uk/features/fiction/birdman/

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Ah, I was also trying to find where I had read that his time in the hole had “sent him a little doo-lally” which is in the Captain’s Notes, though in the heightened reality of series 8 I suppose that could easily be a week.

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That’s an assumption that Birdman was in the hole pre-accident. Who is to say Birdman didn’t find Pete in a canary mission post resurrection and thrown in the hole after.

Birdman says he was in the Canaries “in his younger days” and would go out on missions “like the young lads do today”.

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Yeah that makes sense – I was thinking that the pre-accident crew would be aware of planets and moons that have been terraformed by humanity and that those wouldn’t qualify as “unknown territory” but I guess the the Canaries would be used to monitor them.

Obviously it’s different when our post-accident crew encounter stuff like Waxworld because they’ve been out of the loop for 3 million years, so they are more likely to find signs of humanity in unexpected places.

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I know it’s a parody, but where are we supposed to think birdman got a pet bird from in space? Is he another smuggled animal like Frankenstein?

According to Birdman’s Talkie Toaster interview he found Pete on a Canary mission on a forest moon, on the sole of Kill Crazy’s boot. And named him after Peter Beardsley. 

Now you mention it, I remember reading that when G&T did the feature on those articles.

Pete being discovered on an unexplored forest moon does present us with a problem in a universe that’s meant to be devoid of alien life, though…. convergent evolution?

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I know it’s a parody, but where are we supposed to think birdman got a pet bird from in space? Is he another smuggled animal like Frankenstein? Are there non-smuggled animals on board Red Dwarf that are OK for people to have as pets? Much as there’s a whole prison deck we’d never heard of, is there a “nature” or zoo level?

I would have suggested Pete being a robot bird would be the most consistent answer alongside Lennon and McCartney, but then the time wand would have regressed him into a calculator or something. 

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I’ve always wondered why that pile of potatoes never looked remotely like a “pile”, now I’ve seen that screen grab I think they just laid them flat on a green screen in the vague shape of a pile and then super-imposed it. Rubbish.

Question: is Skipper’s “posh Lister” funnier if you know Craig’s “luvvie” impression from the commentaries etc? I feel like half of my laugh was one of recognition.

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12 definitely urinates on 8 from a great height (otherwise known as D-deck) in terms of set design and lighting. 11/12 have distinct visual identities and look very stylish IMHO, 8 just looks garish.

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In fact here is an interview with them confirming that they cut out us “nuking Antarctica” (to release trapped methane and water vapour into the atmosphere – an idea that sounds even more Dwarf!) because they didn’t have the screen time for that plot point: https://www.polygon.com/project-hail-mary-movie-vs-book-changes-interview/

That’s a shame as I was hoping we’d get some of the cut stuff in deleted scenes, though hopefully there’ll still be some juicy extra bits. 

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Fair enough, its absence just irked me because it was one of my favourite details from the book. 

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It’s nothing to do with the “global dimming” argument, the sun is dimming in the story because an alien microbe from another planet is eating it, causing it to cool. And thus the fact we have a hotter climate gave us an advantage in this entirely fictional scenario of potentially being able to travel to the one star in the region that doesn’t seem to be being affected by the microbe in time to find out why and send the results back, which I think is delivered as a delicious irony rather than being at all problematic.

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I think that referencing climate change as being real in a movie would be *divisive* at this point in our history, not “not allowed” and so the studio went with the safer option in terms of making money. I don’t think it’s too out there to suggest that this is the reasoning behind not including it because the movie has more of a “gentle” and unifying tone than the book, though obviously I don’t particularly think we should worry about unifying with climate change deniers. 

The difference between that element and the other stuff that got axed for time is that those are whole sequences/complicated plot devices whereas this is just passing comments made by characters in scenes that still exist in the movie, which is why I feel that way. But hey ho, could be wrong. 

I should note I gave the movie 5 out of 5 stars btw, I bloody loved it. I have seen some negative reaction from book fans online but I, and several others from my book club who’ve read it, all thought it’s a great adaptation. I said at the time it’s the most I’ve ever felt like I was watching the book on the screen. 

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The movie also doesn’t include another Dwarf-ish element from the book, which is (minor spoiler) that our climate crisis has brought us a bit of extra time before the sun dims sufficiently enough to kill us and then they actually proceed to “speed up” global warming to buy us even more time.

I presume they cut that out to avoid being labelled as having a “climate change” agenda, which is a shame.

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Deffo read it if you’re a fan, I enjoyed both but I think Project Hail Mary is the better book. 👍 If you’ve read ‘The Martian’ then you’ll know what to expect in terms of the level of detail!

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He also helped save the life of a caller to his late night radio show who called in after taking an overdose. Kept the man on the phone for something like 30 minutes as he lost consciousness and managed to crowd-source a location from other listeners to direct the ambulance to him. An incredible bit of radio if you ever get the chance to listen.

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I annoyed Mike Skinner of The Streets on Twitter, once. 

And you know that bloke who makes wholesome, inspirational messages with balloons? I realised one day HE had blocked me…!

What famous people have *you* annoyed?

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Genuinely can’t place that one, though I’m sure I’ll kick myself.

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That’s not bad, though…

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That Charlie Kirk one – I was no fan (to put it mildly) but surely making the subject of that a victim of an actual assassination rather than a blandly inoffensive figure that you would think nobody would ever kill somewhat misses the point of the joke?

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I always presumed it was on Earth because he says “I wasn’t at home”, which implies he *could* have been, which would be an odd term to use for your bunk/cell.

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Meant to mention, I rewatched some old eps recently after reading this thread and it struck me how well the art actually captures the feel of the model shots.

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I’ve just thought of a new head canon. So, the Infinity novel tells us that every crew member has their mind and body scanned when they first board the ship, in case they need to be re-created as a hologram. So, I assume a new hologram would only have memories from when they last got scanned. So, I think, important crew members, like navigators, are encouraged to regularly update their scan, in case they’re lost in action then needed as a holo. 

Rimmer in “The End” obviously remembers most of his time on the ship with Lister, so I think he was voluntarily getting himself updated – probably daily, as a self importance thing.
Although maybe everyone on the ship had to get a daily updating – maybe it was just done automatically as they walked from their bunk every morning? Even Lister and Rimmer had important knowledge the ship didn’t want to lose, like how to repair the food machines. And George obviously remembers his friendships with everyone in “The End”.

(apologies if the novel does explain this and I just forgot or missed it)

edit  – someone on Reddit theorises this is what the original purpose of dream recorders is

There is something like that in series 12 where Lister’s memory is saved to the hologram projection suite but he hadn’t updated it in ages which is how he wound up with his younger personality again, in M-Corp I believe. 

I don’t remember enough of the specifics as to whether it perfectly aligns with what you’ve said, though.

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I noticed for the first time this week that the steering wheel is on the left-hand side of the car that they hallucinate in BtR. No reason to presume they’re on UK streets, of course but an interesting choice for a British show and immediately after the first brummy accent of the series.

I trust this is suitably mundane.

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I know that band because my dad has mentioned them but I must have learned that after last seeing the ep because I don’t recall ever noticing that reference.

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Genuinely annoyed I never realised I could go to school dressed as a Red Dwarf character for World Book Day. 

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Definitely had some of those as my desktop wallpaper back in the 00s.

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And good job, Warbodog – almost as long as runtime as Titanic, too!

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If they’d have given him a keyring with “Kryton” on it then 98% of the internet wouldn’t have gotten the joke.

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Anyone at London Comic Con this weekend? Chris and Craig are there, be interesting to hear what is said if they have a panel or anything. 

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Do we think that responses like this to threads from relatively new people could be seen as potentially off-putting…?

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The first I heard of the news last night was a post on an unrelated group with a photo of the main cast and a reference to “Rob” dying. It was extremely weird clicking the attached link to see which one it was.

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