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I’m almost certain there are yellow corridors too but I can’t go hunting through the smegadrive at the moment.

Rimmer and Lister’s quarters seem to be on Yellow Corridor 348 in Future Echoes.

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I’ve never been overtly keen on Parallel Universe. I think it says something that my favourite things about it are from the Talkie Toaster interviews on TOS: Arlene Rimmer going off to be the next Ace Rimmer, and Deb Lister’s pregnant dog being called Dracula.

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I vaguely figured he’s trying to spin a story to charm more information out of the receptionist. Or it’s a bit of ad-lib dialogue from Craig that we’re not really meant to notice, as the focus of the shot is Cat looking around and talking to the suitcase.

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I never thought Rimmer was specifically imitating Cat in Queeg, just that the screeches and spasming was basically like static/interference. Cat being a bit dim interpreted it as an impression of him.

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I think I always assumed that having them on his pyjamas was a
personal affectation of Rimmer’s. He’s so obsessed with rank and
hierarchy (“you ARE your job”), not to mention military history, that I
can easily see him stitching on/asking Holly to simulate official badges
on clothing that doesn’t require them.

It ties in with a neat little observation about Rimmer, that he’s the only crew member who seems to adhere to uniform standards. Even senior officers like Hollister, Todhunter and Kochanski dress a lot more relaxed – no tie, open collar, sleeves rolled up etc. – and nobody seems to care that Lister’s only concession to a uniform is wearing his technician’s shirt over a London Jets t-shirt.

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I’ve no idea how Red Dwarf had enough food to support the entire cat
race for 3 million years and still has anything left over, but that’s
another question.

I’ve always had a theory that the botannical gardens mentioned in a few episodes were one of the areas sealed off from the radiation leak, and that the Cats used it for farming. It gave me the idea for an episode, where the crew venture deep into this miniature jungle in the belly of the ship and find the Temple of Cloister.

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I always get the impression that, pre-accident, they kept non-essential chat to a minimum.

I’ve always found Lister’s story in Marooned slightly incongruous. The one about the bar room brawl. It seems to imply that Lister and Rimmer willingly spent time together on shore leave, going to that night club. I can’t imagine Lister inviting Rimmer on a night out, or Rimmer wanting to tag along with Lister and his deadbeat mates.

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Wasn’t the original idea it was going to be viewed through a vent or something, but this was the closest they could get?

I think there’s unused footage from Remastered where the shot was reframed, so the shot of them through the grate was smaller, and we’d be looking in from one of Red Dwarf’s cargo bays.

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I’m always a bit annoyed how the window in Mr and Mr Rimmer’s quarters couldn’t possibly work, as it backs onto the corridor Lister walks down to get to it.

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Given Rimmer’s poor academic performance, coupled with his parents dislike for him, I figured that Rimmer Sr. considered it a waste of money to send Rimmer off to the Academy and made up an excuse to justify it.

Rimmer does appear to have some sort of tertiary education, though. He did take a maintenance course at Saturn Tech, and did go to cadet school where he beat his drill instructor at Risk. Although these might’ve been part of the Space Corps basic training he mentions in Me², or extracuricular studies in order to qualify for promotion to Second Technician.

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Part of Red Dwarf’s charm for me is the way the future it predicts is neither utopian or dystopian (as is all too popular with science fiction), but “dumb” and sub-optimal in a way that is so recognizable from our real world.

I love that too. Red Dwarf’s future is just now, but with better gadgets. Rimmer and Lister aren’t any more particularly enlightened than the average twentieth century person.

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Lister sings “I can’t stand still/I got Rastabilly Skank!” in Balance of Power, which feels odd if it’s the name of an artist.

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I’ve always wondered whether Rastabilly Skank is meant to be a particular song, a genre or a band.

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Yeah, I’ve always figured it meant you don’t want to hang around anywhere too long, with your private parts exposed, where there are dangerous creatures.

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– Continuity Watch: Lister worked at a supermarket for 10 years
before he worked for JMC, so I guess supermarkets are just straight up
hiring children in the future. It fits Lister’s background well, even if
it seems odd for Lister to be in the same job for that long.

I always assumed that it started off as a Saturday job for Lister aged about 15, that he transitioned into a career after he left school properly at 16.

Lister’s age is all over the place, admittedly. He’s 25 in Future Echoes, comments in Kryten suggest two years have passed since he was revived from stasis, they celebrate at least the first anniversary of Rimmer’s death in Thanks for the Memory, Rimmer implies he’s been dead for three years in Stasis Leak, Queeg says Red Dwarf has been flying off course for fourteen months in Queeg and yet Lister is still 25 in Backwards.

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Even though this was half-accidental due to the reshoot, I like how Holly is essentially not a character until Lister goes into stasis, and there isn’t even really any indication he has any sentience. It demonstrates well how the 3 million years are what made Holly into what he is.

Of the many mistakes Remastered did, adding in Holly jokes – like the one about cheating urine – are what stick out to me most. They really undermine the idea that centuries of isolation are what drove Holly bonkers, rather than the rot having already set in before the nuclear accident.

– One of those bits of novel/revised/implied canon I’ve always taken
for granted is Rimmer being resurrected to keep Lister sane and in
check, but Holly’s explanation here seems to be that it was just about
word count and he didn’t really think it through. Maybe he’s just not
letting on.

I actually think the explanation given in the American pilot – that all of the hologram chips were wiped in the accident, with Rimmer’s being the only one to survive – is a little bit more of a credible idea, rather than Holly’s cod-psychological profiling of Lister and Rimmer’s relationship. The novel clearing it up that Holly’s fibbing works a little better, but here it portrays Holly as a bit cold and calculated, rather than the senile but well meaning friend he’s been for the last two episodes.
Ultimately, the idea of giving Lister and antagonist to rail against, as a distraction from his loneliness and desire to stay sane, is quite shrewd, but doesn’t really fit with what we know of Holly so far. You’d have thought being Lister’s mate he’d want to at least give him a girl to talk to or any of the other relatively normal people on the ship.

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I enjoyed all three seasons of Final Space, and what I found interesting is that it organically grew into a solid sci-fi drama – whilst still having a lot of comedic moments – that dealt sensitively with concepts like loss, guilt and responsibility.

A minor spoiler, but a couple of episodes in the lead character loses his arm and has it replaced with a mechanical prosthetic. Not a million miles away from Future Lister having a similar amputation.

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There’s that suggestion that DNA stood for Do Not Alter, without
this being communicated to the audience. Could be Howarth & Lyons
misinformation though.

I think it’s Danny or Craig who confirm it on the commentary, that their scripts had Do Not Alter in parentheses under the title.

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The Last Day could be Shutdown, as it would fit more with the one word titles of III. And I know they were concerned due to the smutty interpretation of it, but I much prefer Natural Born Rimmers to Stoke Me a Clipper. Is there any other story where the payoff to the title doesn’t come until the last sixty seconds of the episode?

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With the current saga that is the battle for Grant Naylor Productions, I’d come out in support for whichever side promises to produce an audiobook of Last Human and Backwards read by Chris Barrie.

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Yeah, I’m cutting them a bit of slack there as it’s really just them doing their own thing, built using only donations and goodwill. Not to mention all the hoops they’ll have had to jump through to get clearence rights for some films.

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I do reccomend the Gizmoplex app. You have to register, but once you do you have free access to all the old episodes and the option to pay for the new episodes coming out. A large chunk of episodes are missing due to rights issues, but it’s nice to see some episodes in all their glory after only being able to watch them as grainy VHS transfers on YouTube.

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Grant Naylor Productions is no longer interested in the audience reddwarf.com attracted.

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The original plan was for holo-Kochanski?

I think it’s the Red Dwarf Programme Guide which gives a brief synopsis of Bodysnatcher along the lines of Rimmer goes insane and tries to build himself a new body, using parts stolen from Lister, with the episode ending with Kochanski replacing him as the hologram.

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Was Bobblehead trademarked or something? “Headknockers” sounds like an insult.

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The red tunic of V is my favourite. I believe they did switch him out of the III and IV green tunic for V because he matched too closely with the green of Starbug, where more and more action was being set.

Personally, I don’t mind the padded jacket of VI & VII, as it has ruggedy ‘combat-y’ feel to it, in keeping with the series theme. I don’t like the little changes they made to it for VII so much – adding the black stripe and red boots, though.

Probably catch some flack for this, but I also really like the BTE blue tunic – that sort of cobalt blue really suits the character, far more than the dark navy one he currently haves. Although the blue pyjamas and dressing gown from Samsara are very nice.

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I’m disproportionately upset that an obviously knowledgeable and passionate fan refers to Kryten as an ‘it’.

Technically, shouldn’t we all be referring to Kryten as ‘she’?

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Also, why was the shower on?

I just assumed that when they ‘landed’, Lister or Kryten knocked the faucet on.

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Red Dwarf exists in a world where toasters, toilets and even shoes are endowed with a personality and identity. Contraceptives seem par for the course.

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YOU WEREN’T AROUND FOR MY LAST PARTY, WERE YOU?

Boris Johnson gets annoyed when the Dwarfers gatecrash his latest work gathering.

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I remember at the time thinking it had a I & II vibe to it, as they seemed to be limited to a handful of sets – the corridor, the new sleeping quarters and the new drive room – which was painfully obvious when they performed Jesus’ surgery in the drive room. Admittedly, they did have some fairly impressive big new sets in Trojan and Lemons, but it felt a bit cheap when Blue Midget’s cockpit was just a redress of the drive room and the Simulant battleship was just a table with some black curtains. Even the flashbacks at the start of The Beginning looked like they were filmed in a corridor at Shepperton Studios.

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The future shown in Red Dwarf isn’t dystopian, just recognizably, plausibly sub-optimal. It’s one of the things I’ve always really liked about the show (and maybe something a comedy is best poised to depict).

Yeah, it’s an element that I’ve always liked. That the future of Red Dwarf is just now, but with better gadgets. Lister and Rimmer are really no different, culturally speaking, to anyone that’s around today. They just so happen to have spaceships, robots and sophisticated AIs at their disposal.

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I’ve only ever met Chris at a small convention in St. Albans, where he was kind enough to sign my copy of the Red Dwarf Omnibus. Norman did respond to an email I sent him when I was a teenager, giving me some advice on writing comedy.

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What’s the “gay ray” episode idea?

They get shot with a ray gun that turns them all gay.

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Was it the one about catching a horrible disease from Barney? That was popular in our playground.

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