One aspect of the shit writing pervading pretty much everything from season 7 onwards which disappointed me the most on rewatching this recently was the objectification of women, specifically Kochanski. The series 2 finale Parallel Universe was such a wonderfully unpretentious commentary on the male gaze, especially when you remember it aired in 1988. It managed to confidently breeze through issues (which are sadly just as relevant 30 years later) within the confines of a successfully established sci-fi sitcom, and it has a lot of fun doing it. The later years are a complete u-turn, with Chloë Annett in sexy red latex trousers, "lol aren't women moody and annoying" menstruation gags and series 8's fucking monstrous Krytie TV, the premise of which involves Kryton filming inside the women's showers for the entertainment of the male prisoners and, worst of all, concludes with absolutely zero retribution against the men whatsoever. I came away from that episode not just cringing but actually disgusted.
Series 8 is pretty terrible in general for portrayal of women, the whole running sexual attraction virus thing coming straight from an adolescent male fantasy.
These are the two things I remember most about series 8, other than t-rex shit. I share your feelings on Krytie TV, I remember getting quite upset about it as a kid and it's one of the big obstacles to scale on a full rewatch. There's also the scene (not sure which episode) in which Lister tries to rape Kochanski with the magnetism virus (LOL!!!). Oh, and the knee-slappin' subplot in Cassandra where Rimmer's elated to have sex with an unwilling Kochanksi, who resigns herself to it because the big computer demanded it or something. Doug Naylor is clearly fucked in the head but there's plenty of shit misogynistic """jokes""" in earlier series, too, the one that stands out to me being that Rimmer apparently raped Yvonne McGruder while she was concussed, which I think is in series two.
Parallel Universe is ace, it's one of the best episodes, because in addition to explicitly undermining Rimmer's sexism when his own pitiful pick-up shit is turned against him, it also (accidentally?) makes a statement that's still very progressive today. It seems to imply that any perceived behavioural differences between men and women are entirely socially constructed and that, in a universe where the only difference to our own is that males had been historically oppressed on reproductive capability instead of females, everything would be
exactly the same only with everyone's bodies switched, given that Deb Lister and Arlene Rimmer are the
exact same people as in "our" universe. I always wondered, given the show's track record, if it was meant that way or if they were just going for a "LOL FEMALE RIMMER IS HORNY AND FEMALE LISTER IS GROSS!" thing and ended up writing something really cool by mistake. Or maybe the episode was Rob Grant's work, with Doug Naylor not contributing as much to that one? Who knows.