Podey

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Yes, I’m assuming it’s an old clip, though the fact he looks exactly like he did at the convention a few weeks ago in terms of facial hair made me think there is a slim chance it’s current.

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Danny appears to be being fitted for a new set of Cat fangs…

https://www.instagram.com/p/CwH4-FJoTWU/?hl=en

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So I find it weird whenever people headcanon the novel stasis plan into the TV show, because to me that’s just making the story and character worse on purpose.

In my defence I am not headcanoning anything, I genuinely just forget that it isn’t in the show because Infinity Welcomes.. is as much “old Red Dwarf” as old telly Red Dwarf is to me, having read them both when I was younger. I would guess I’ve probably read the book more times than I’ve seen ‘The End’, too, so it’s just imprinted on my mind. 

It being better or worse is highly subjective but I’ve always considered the first book to be the best version of Red Dwarf that exists, Stasis reasoning included. 

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It did occur to me recently that the cat race evolved *entirely* through inbreeding, so mutated developing fluid may be preferable… 

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Yeah that’s true, I’m always conflating the book vs TV motivations because the book makes more sense, especially as I don’t think Lister is stupid enough to send off the photo to be developed without knowing he’d be caught (though Rob and Doug probably thought he was when they wrote The End). 

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He is knowingly committing a violation in order to receive the punishment for his own benefit so I think it’d be hard to argue he’s in the right, though I prefer the ‘Infinity Welcomes….’ version of events where he actually did make sure the cat was healthy and disease-free before smuggling her on board and so wasn’t *actually* putting the crew at risk, which is somewhat redeeming.

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Just been down a horrifying mental rabbit hole after pondering the question “why the smeg was there dog food on Starbug?” 

It seems unlikely that there would be sanctioned pets on board since we never see any crew members with a dog (unless you count Smeg Ups as canon), but then I remembered Holly’s “lasts longer than any other kind of milk, dog’s milk” line. This implies access to dogs but, again, they don’t seem to be on board as pets. 

Unless….. oh god, is there a level on Red Dwarf for farming and milking man’s best friend?!  

The other thought that occurred was that perhaps the dog food was for people who undergo the “man to dog” operation that Holly alludes to and that these transformed humans are the only “dogs” on board, though this has disturbing implications RE: the source of the dog’s milk.

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I do wish this show about a spaceship 3 million years in the future ran by a possibly senile possibly not computer that performed a head sex change operation of themselves and then went back at some point with no one mentioning it, with the man that’s a cat and the man that’s made of light and the robot that was turned into a man and then went back and the man that got pregnant and the no aliens but there is GELFs and Polymorph and BEGGs and spaceweevil and a sentient universe with a phone number and some dinosaurs and the grim reaper and Johnny Vegas in a pink helmet would at least TRY and keep things realistic. 

For the example I gave at least, it is more a case of not following it’s own internal logic than not being realistic. There’s a difference.

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The main thing that has always struck me about the luck virus (can’t be arsed to read everything so sorry if this has been mentioned) is the fact that Kryten gives it to Lister but Lister doesn’t correctly guess the door code, missing the last digit. It is Kryten who points out that he needs to press the last one, suggesting Kryten is the one that the luck is affecting, but that obviously makes even less sense than the luck virus itself. 

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I for one wish this hadn’t been on screen.

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Moonlight isn’t the co-creator of the programme this website is about

Shit I’m on the wrong site.

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It’s not helped by the skin tone, that’s for sure.

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Lister would more likely turn into an Australopithecus or a Homo Erectus (jest-ye-not-madam) or even a Cro-Magnon.
On an aside note: it’s a chimpanzee. I know it’s a chimpanzee and a chimpanzee’s not a monkey, I just forgot the name and used monkey as a quick shorthand.

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any (living) human character would have turned into a monkey in that scene.
That’s a fallacy; 

It’s not a fallacy to say that that’s what would have happened *in that scene*, which is what I said. 

This comic strip is not, in fact, a nature documentary.

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I’m sure it’ll make an interesting discussion point on a future Smegazine Rack, anyway!

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If I recall correctly, the machine works in the same way as that one that turned “Pete” into a dinosaur and so everyone is just reverting to an earlier version of whatever they are (in the case of Kryten and Rimmer, earlier versions of loosely-associated technology), so any (living) human character would have turned into a monkey in that scene. 

But yes, it’s not the least problematic imagery I’ve ever seen. I remember being confused by Lister’s skin tone in this as a kid because I didn’t even realise that Craig Charles was black at that age, such was the lack of diversity in my life at the time. 

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If anyone wants to own some original Smegazine artwork then I’d recommend keeping an eye on when Roger Langridge is doing comic cons. I mentioned loving the strip he did in it when I saw him at Thought Bubble and he still had the entire thing in his collection of pages that he was selling, I bought this one:

(As is the norm with old comics lettering, the word balloons are on an acetate sheet overlay)

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I have a really hard time separating art from artist personally, so modern life is like someone new wiping their arse on my cultural comfort blanket every few months.

For me it depends on if the problematic aspect of the artist is reflected in the work and if the work is on-going or in the past.

It’s not all logical though. I’ll never watch Louis CK again and yet there are Megadeth songs full of right wing conspiracy nonsense that I think are absolute bangers.

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On the other hand, Danny decided he wanted my back-up copy of the poster that I was carrying (I was basically mugged 😂) so he’s taking a copy home with him* which is mad! 

* or, you know, stuffed in the hotel room bin

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Norman must have some amazing redeeming features when you get to know him because he’s never not sounded like an absolute nightmare to me.

Keep it light Norman ffs, it’s only a signing.

I’ve met him twice, including yesterday. He was lovely the first time and he was by no means rude to *me* yesterday, either, I was just a bit embarrassed that he used my artwork as an excuse to have a dig at Doug about it all.

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It’s already been posted here but I’ve been getting my ‘Smeg Dead Redemption’ artwork signed by the cast this weekend and I took the risk of asking Norman to sign it, knowing full well he might take issue with it only featuring the four main characters…. this lead to him telling Doug that he has never watched Gunmen and that he could never watch any of the stuff without him because of how hurt he was…. 🙈

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Also, just to get it out of the way:

I’m honoured 😂

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Sorry to interrupt *whatever the hell is happening in this thread right now*, but some of you might have seen Craig share this bit of art of mine yesterday that was nabbed off my Facebook and shared with no credit.  

Note to self: always add watermarks! 

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I don’t think that Kryten’s line is all that complicated, it’s just like how you wouldn’t want to argue with a loved one on the same day that you learn that they don’t have long left to live. 

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The thing is I still have all my BTL and Smegazine issues so I absolutely 100% still own whatever I think I read it in. I’m going to have to go through them all sometime and get to the bottom of it. 

(although I suddenly have a creeping doubt that it may have been in the Radio Times….) 

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I did consider that before posting this and, aside from the very likely scenario that I simply got it wrong, I think there are (at least) two candidates for a model of Red Dwarf that may have appeared at Blackpool Tower in the nineties:

A second, smaller model of Red Dwarf that was used after the original fell off a shelf and was then blown up in “Demons and Angels” according to a comment on this photo by Peter Tyler 
https://www.facebook.com/Thepropgallery/photos/a.574423632599933/735840406458254/?type=3#:~:text=To%20answer%20Darrell’s%20question%3A%20This,for%20filming%20on%20later%20series. 

Or this remastered Red Dwarf model: 

https://www.ganymede.tv/2019/06/former-models-visiting-bbc-visual-effects-1997/

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Those who have ever contracted norovirus will be nodding sagely right now 

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😂

In some cases they’re even talking about the same creative teams, there’s a lot of crossover with the artists and writers. 

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I’m going to need to take the morning off after that. Amazing.

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This has probably been mentioned but I’d highly recommend ‘Sonic The Comic The Podcast’ to anyone with an interest. It’s brilliant and full of creative 90s nostalgia.

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Why does Cat ask this? Does he think it would be better if they were killed? 

I think Cat is highlighting how underplayed the inverse implication is (ie that being killed would be a “bad sign”, which is of little use if you’re dead). 

Or that’s how I always understood it, anyway but, y’know…. bum. 

[Podey]

When I was a kid I never knew that “bum” meant someone who was a layabout and so my interpretation of that joke for many years was that Lister had simply responded to the question “Occupation?” with a silly word. And oh how I laughed.

(tbf to my young self I think I actually interpreted Lister’s confused look before answering as him not knowing what “occupation” means and then just saying any old bollocks in response)

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Aha! Suddenly it all makes sense, thanks gang.

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“Of course, lager, the only thing that can kill a vindaloo!”

As a fan of neither curry nor alcohol, I never quite understood this (though, tbf, I was also only about 9 at the time). Is the joke literally just that the tastes clash? 

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I honestly wouldn’t even know where to get any, or at least I don’t know of anyone I could get it off who I would want to ask. That’s possibly one of the main differences that legalising it would make? 

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Not really an audience reaction at all (I think?) but I was always confused by a moment in Back In The Red Part 1 when Lister is first detained and taken to his quarters, 30 seconds or so before the Rimmer reveal happens you hear a very clear laugh that sounds like Chris Barrie, but it sounds like it is a deliberate inclusion rather than something caught off-camera. An odd choice considering he hasn’t been seen at that point. 

(this is from memory so I may have gotten the placement of the laugh wrong but I think that’s right)

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I don’t have kids but I imagine that making a thread on this forum is a bit like what it’s like to watch a child you once reared go through their teenage years; unpredictable, a bit spotty and you always have that concern at the back of your mind that they’re going to go completely off the rails and end up on a cocaine bender in a seaside town, owing to some character flaw you unwillingly seeded in their developmental years. 

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I sort of get what that guy on Twitter meant RE: books, I think I might possibly get more excited about a Rob Grant book than a new series or special at this point just because it’s more of an unknown quantity and a greater realm of possibilities, but I wouldn’t say that to the cast (and probably least of all Danny!)

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James has said on his show a few times that he thinks you can nearly always guess what a person’s stance will be on multiple issues once they profess anything about being against vaccines/masks etc. IMHO I think he was just lumping Chris into a wider category on that basis.

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In this week’s episode of ‘Full Disclosure’, the podcast hosted by James “I don’t think Data in Star Trek would have been born if it wasn’t for Kryten” O’Brien, James tells guest Phil Wang that “he [Barrie] has gone a bit weird” during a brief chat about The Brittas Empire, adding “he’s gone a bit vaccine-y”, presumably forgetting to add the prefix “anti”.

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Just wanted to note that I am thoroughly enjoying this thread even though I can only just about follow what’s going on perhaps half of the time. 

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This might be controversial, but I quite like the ReMastered mashup of the two themes (not the visual aspect, though, that’s awful).

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Do you remember what your drawing was? I’ll have a flick through sometime. 

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Oh for sure… I bet there are probably even a few completed or partially completed strips that have never seen the light of day, depending on how far in advance it was cancelled!

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I mean I still have a big pile of my old BTLs (as I’m sure many do), maybe I could scan them all in someday…. though that’s not a task that particularly fills me with excitement tbh 😂 

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