Rudolph

[Rudolph]

I donated a load of old BTLs, think the first fifteen or so, to the fan club about ten years ago. Glad they were made available.

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When was the last time we saw Lister smoke a cigarette? I’m thinking The Inquisitor. If that’s the case, that’s a point in his favour for looking after himself better.

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I might be forgetting dozens of really obvious examples, but I feel like for all they make jokes that Lister doesn’t bathe and wears his underpants for six weeks at a time, they don’t really make jokes that directly state that he smells bad. Well, they sort of do, but it’s pretty much always about his used socks, and on like two occasions his breath. I seem to recall the reaction of Rimmer getting a whiff of armpit funk in Bodyswap but I can’t remember what scene it was and that’s the only moment I can think of that actually implies Lister smells bad and not just his socks or orange moon boots. I just got home and I have a bunch of free booze from work and that feels like a better use of my time than tracking down that scene in the SmegaDrive.

My main point is you’d think, as a 90s comedy for the lads, they’d make more jokes about Lister stinking up the joint that aren’t just about his socks.

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Outside of Red Dwarf, on Sin Bin Island he sounds keen on a TV or movie adaptation and said he would be disappointed if it doesn’t happen.

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I dunno, the smoke monster seemed to react specifically to individual characters’ memories. And he also almost killed Locke at first. Coupled with the fact that for the first few series  he was referred to as Cerberus and the island’s security system and things, as well as Ben revealing he can summon it, it feels like the generic villain he turned into later was totally different. I honestly believe the original idea was for there to be another big bad and the smoke monster would have played a more ambiguous role, but that changed somewhere down the line.

To be fair, the idea of the monster being a security system comes from Danielle Rousseau in Exodus, who isn’t playing with a full deck of cards, and has only her observations of the monster’s behaviour to base things on.

Ben does say later on in What They Died For that he believed now that the monster responding to his summons in The Shape of Things to Come was another manipulation tactic by the monster to trick him. Part of Ben’s character arc is that he wants to believe he is something special, when really he’s nothing of the sort. The monster feeds his ego by acting as his attack dog, meaning he’s susceptible to his command later on in Dead Is Dead to follow Locke’s orders, as penance for getting his daughter Alex killed.

What Ben doesn’t know at this point is that Locke and the monster are one and the same now, as he’s still under the impression Locke returned from the dead in Whatever Happened, Happened thanks to another miracle performed by the Island.

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Battlestar Galactica (’03) had a much-criticised but perfect ending.

Another example of the writers making it up on the fly. The opening titles teasing the Cylons having some grand plan was something thrown in by one of the producers as a dramatic hook, with no idea where it was leading. Same with the plotline with Helo and Boomer on Caprica. The intent in the miniseries is that Helo would have died after giving up his seat to Baltar, but a positive audience response to the character saw him return.

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It’s about spillage, and it has three eggs on it. No I will not reference the show to check.

And Holly was right to worry, given some egg yolk or sauce spills out and runs down Chris Barrie’s hand onto the floor.

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I hate the way this door opens unevenly.

Installed by the same people who put in that over eager airlock hatch aboard Starbug.

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There’s one of those in Farscape that I looked forward to on every rewatch.

This guy in Babylon 5 is the funniest for me, as he’s just standing there going through his notes whilst this very serious scene is happening in front of him.

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I’ve been following this guy’s videos on Lost for ages, and he’s done an excellent job of mapping the Island and the various journeys taken by character’s across it. His new project is mapping all of Springfield into one comprehensive map.

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On the subject of longest-running shows, wasn’t there a bit of a to-do a few years ago, where the Guinness Book of Records awared Stargate SG-1 with the longest running sci-fi show award? It ran for ten years, but then some clever clogs pointed out that Doctor Who had ran for more-or-less twenty-six years straight.

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I’m utterly convinced we watched an educational video in science lessons, I think about weather or global warming, that was Chris Barrie and Sylvester McCoy presenting. I’m sure at one point Chris starts singing ‘Singing in the Rain’ under an umbrella.

I’ve also wondered for years if anyone still has all of the sound clips recorded for Red Dwarf Mobile alerts, where you had Norm and Hattie as Holly alerting you to text messages or your phone ringing.

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I wouldn’t be averse to this but again it feels very backwards-looking and unimaginative. Which is also part of what makes me feel inclined to believe it.

I think there’s a mentality that because Big Finish gives fans what they want, that general audiences will want it as well.

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I do like that Rimmer’s textbook in Back to Earth is just a fake cover over an Argos catalogue, but doing a parody of the ‘…for Dummies’ book range felt a bit outdated in 2009.

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I remember people getting annoyed at the blueberry muffin Rimmer gives to Hollister in Back in the Red clearly being from Tesco.

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Okay, but what does Reform say about it?

Reform’s problem with Red Dwarf is brown dwarf Craig Charles.

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Were Rob and Doug possibly inspired to name a certain cybernautic detective after the Masked Superstar’s role in 1989 cocaine-fuelled Hulk Hogan film, No Holds Barred?

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Russell is very performative. I don’t think he really cares about any of that stuff being racist or not.

Someone described him to me as a ‘sixty year old man trying to be progressive via the lense of Tumblr, circa 2013’ and it just feels very apt.

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they’ve quoted Frank Cottrell-Boyce twice on the TOS update for Sin Bin Island! with different quotes! at opposite ends of the list! wonder if one should have been attributed to someone else or what happened there exactly 

Red Dwarf having a surplus of Franks isn’t something new.

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Is Rimmer’s badge in Marooned the shonkiest looking prop or costume element in the entire history of the series? It genuinely looks like a child made it.

I’ve never liked that Cat has one on his jumper in Timeslides. I’m guessing Howard Burden was in a rush and had to stitch it on to cover up a brand logo.

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From the 1987 sci-fi series ‘Star Cops’ there was this little gizmo named Box, a sort of talking handheld computer. 

Also from Star Cops, Andy in Back to Reality is wearing one of the moonbase technician’s overalls.

And before that, in Bodyswap, an upside down ESL logo from the show pops up on the mind-swapping machine, right above Lister’s head.

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It’s mentioned in Holoship that the crew do a bit of scavenging from derelicts, which feels like more of a VI activity.

We know they’ve previously run out of After Eight mints, cow’s milk and Shake n’ Vac – and later strawberries in Demons & Angels – but it’s a bit interesting they do this whilst still living in relative comfort aboard Red Dwarf.

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Just to be clear, has Chris actually outright come out as the antivax, or are we just reading into the naturally healthy thing?

I don’t think so. Just that he’s posted guff about globalism and woke before, which usually goes hand-in-hand with ‘plandemic’ conspiracies.

Whatever health scare he’s having, I hope he feels better soon.

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My heartland is the III – VI look of the show, what I believe the kids are calling ‘cassettepunk’ these days. It worked very well in Alien: Romulus recently, so I’d quite like the future to be all CRT monitors and dot matrix printers.

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My ideal is always a six episode series, but will settle for a feature-length special.

I’m also a bit against the idea of a definitive ending. I’m happiest with them just riding off into the sunset, on to new adventures that we just won’t be privy too. Something like the end of The Beginning basically.

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The obnoxious prefect Grant Naylor named him after.

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I dunno if it was Moffat who said this or people just invented it but a common idea is that the Doctor simply doesn’t know how old he is. He just makes up whatever sounds cool. His given age varies a lot in the Classic series, though “around 900” comes up quite often, particularly later.

It’s not entirely consistent, but for fun, this is how often the Doctor mentions or implies how old he is in the original series:

– The Tomb of the Cybermen: 450
– The Brain of Morbius & The Seeds of Doom: 749
– The Robots of Death: 750
– The Ribos Operation: 759

– The Power of Kroll: 760
– Revelation of the Daleks & The Trial of a Time Lord: 900
– Time and the Rani: 953

The Doctor admits to rounding down his age in The Leisure Hive, something Romana teased him about twice – his claim of being 756 in The Ribos Operation and 750 in The Creature from the Pit. Although she’s guilty of this herself, given she’s said to be nearly 140 when they first meet, before slimming it down to 125 for City of Death.

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has the Bill Bailey we know ever commented on sharing a real name with Axl Rose?

And has Axl Rose ever commented on how his name is an anagram of Oral Sex?

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