Red Dwarf rewatch

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I remember my Dad yelling about it now 25 years later.

Have you tried taking him off speakerphone?

[Lemming]

S10E04 Entangled

After a solid opener with Trojan and two great episodes in Fathers & Suns and Lemons, Series X finally trips up in quality. This episode, taken as a whole, is a mess. What's odd about it is that it feels like two episodes spliced together - one of them is another solid and funny Series X episode, while the other is just bafflingly off-kilter. You can pinpoint the exact moment this change happens, too, which I'll write about later in the post.

We start with Lister eating a MEGAKEBAB in the drive room, and Rimmer getting predictably pissed off. It's a good scene to start with, and it introduces us to our first plot thread. Rimmer's introducing a new safety system aboard the ship to avoid disasters like the infamous drive plate fuckup happening again, and Lister will need to fill out a 20+ page accident report form for dropping his kebab on one of the computers. Naturally, Lister can't be arsed, not least because there's a moon with life signs that he wants to go down and check out.

Meanwhile, Cat's roaming around the ship as usual when he bumps into Kryten, who's experimenting with the crystals he got from the quantum rod (in Trojan, nice bit of continuity). Exposure to the crystals causes Cat and Kryten to become "quantum entangled", meaning their brains are in sync and, like with the luck virus all the way back in Quarantine, the chance of strange coincidences happening to them is drastically increased. This is explained as such: with their brains intertwined, they experience heightened emotions which leads to heightened "psi abilities", which results in them being able to subconsciously induce coincidences. Load of bollocks but, again, not significantly different from the luck virus, which presumably would have to work a similar way.

Later, Lister's locked outside the ship, stuck in space and hovering spookily at the bunk room window until Kryten hears him calling for help and lets him in through the airlock. Bad news: he's lost Starbug in a poker game against some BEGGs (GELFs designed to eat refuse). Worse news: in an attempt to win Starbug back, he bet Rimmer, and lost him too.

Rimmer's on the hunt for Lister to badger him into filling out an Airlock Risk Assessment Form, and there's a fun little farce-y scene where they're talking at cross-purposes. Rimmer, after learning the truth, suggests just fleeing the area, but there's yet more bad news: Lister's got a GROIN EXPLODER stuck to his crotch, which will blow him to pieces in a set number of hours unless the BEGGs deactivate it, which they'll only do if he delivers Rimmer to them.

The crew head down to the BEGG encampment where Rimmer pretends to be senile and useless in the hopes that the BEGGs will accept an alternate trade. The next part is so bizarre that I think it might be some of the worst writing Doug's ever done. Completely batshit: Lister manages to convince the BEGGs into a final decisive poker game, and says that they're gonna "choke". They then start literally choking to death, simultaneously, all three of them. They die, leaving the crew with no way to shut off Lister's knacker-attacker.

What happened? I honestly don't get it. The obvious explanation is that Cat and Kryten's psi abilities caused it, but the episode goes out of its way to say that that wasn't the case, and "this event was always going to occur". Bewildering. I almost feel like I'm missing something obvious, because what the fuck is this? The episode has been good up until now, but here's where it starts to go south. We're about 17 minutes in though, so hey, there's a lot to like in the first chunk of the episode at least.

Kryten and Cat's entanglement leads to another coincidence, which gives them a clue on what to do next - go to ERRA Station, a research station where the groin exploder was made. It's a station made entirely of scientists who were pathologically wrong about everything, totally mistaken in all their beliefs and supremely, unthinkably shit at everything. Presumably this place is where Doug found Paul Alexander.

There's a stasis pod with one of the researchers inside on board the station, but it's behind a locked door, so Rimmer changes to soft light and phases through. That's really cool, but I don't get how his light bee went through the door... either way, it's nice that he gets to use his holo-abilities for a change. He opens the stasis pod to discover that the scientist, Professor Edgington, has turned into a monkey due to a failed experiment. "Can't be Kochanski, she went for me groin" made me laugh.

Kryten manages to turn her back into a human (cue a really awkward scene where she apparently just stands there completely silently and completely still while naked so we can get an unfunny series of jokes), and we're introduced to the Professor. This is such a weird concept that it's hard to explain if you haven't seen the episode, but basically, she's wrong about everything. Literally everything - so she wears her glasses upside down, she perceives that Rimmer is "charming and brave", she estimates that Lister is an expert guitar player, etc. I've defended a lot of this series' conscious shift towards slightly surreal silliness, but this one's a bit too far for me. It just doesn't really make much sense on any level, even after accepting that the show runs on slightly cartoon-y logic now.

Edgington designed the groin exploder (lucky she was the only survivor aboard the station, right?) so she can help with shutting it down. A code of symbols will need to be entered in the correct order - get it wrong and Lister's bollocks will fatally detonate. Edgington gives the code, but of course, you have to pick the symbol she doesn't tell you to pick, because she's wrong about everything. The "Irene E" solution is just terrible. Anyway, Lister's saved with seconds to spare.

Cut to a bit later and Edgington and Rimmer are getting on fantastically - and get this, she's going to have SEX with him!!! But oh no, a bunch of Airlock Risk Assessment Reports have been left by the airlock, and she trips on them and falls in!!! And since she's wrong about everything, she hits the open airlock button and vents herself into space! Tee hee hee! Lister even makes a joke about it! Roll credits.

The reality is that there's just too much going on here, too many plots put together. Lister losing Rimmer in a card game and getting stuck with a groin-exploder could be an ace plot all on its own. Same for Rimmer's new safety regime, which gets a lot of laughs in the first half. Same for Cat and Kryten getting quantum entangled - though I wasn't too enthusiastic about that one - and same for the research station and the professor (though this was just a bad concept to start with).

As with other Series 10 episodes, there's an attempt to tie all the plots together, but it just doesn't work. The safety report stuff is only brought back for the end joke that I'm pretty sure everyone will agree is tonally disastrous and makes Lister look like a psycho, and the quantum entanglement stuff goes nowhere beyond magically giving them the solution to the code puzzle. The first 17 minutes were enjoyable, and I wish the episode had just continued in that vein - there was a much better episode in progress that suddenly changed direction completely when the BEGGs inexplicably choked to death. Seeing the crew continue to bargain with them or trick them as the Bollock Exploder Countdown ticked away would have had a lot more comedy potential and resulted in a much more cohesive episode.

Looking for positives in the ERRA Station half of the plot... the actor playing Edgington manages to get a couple laughs despite being stuck with crap material, and the "she went for me groin" joke properly blindsided me. But other than that, there's nothing much good happening in the final act of the episode.

It's a shame, because most of the episode up until "they're choking!" really was good. So the episode's not a total write-off, but you might as well just tune out in the BEGG camp scene and just imagine your own, better ending.

[JamesTC]

The guy in the monkey suit could only work in short bursts. The production team were not aware of this so the final act of the episode had to be completely re-written and recorded in the pick-ups week. Everything up to the monkey transforming into Irene was recorded on the night and then everything after was in the pick-ups week.

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This is such a weird concept that it's hard to explain if you haven't seen the episode, but basically, she's wrong about everything. Literally everything - so she wears her glasses upside down, she perceives that Rimmer is "charming and brave", she estimates that Lister is an expert guitar player, etc. I've defended a lot of this series' conscious shift towards slightly surreal silliness, but this one's a bit too far for me. It just doesn't really make much sense on any level, even after accepting that the show runs on slightly cartoon-y logic now.

It's very odd what Doug decides is objectively wrong, isn't it.  It's essentially his mirror universe from 'Only The Good...' again.

Cut to a bit later and Edgington and Rimmer are getting on fantastically - and get this, she's going to have SEX with him!!!

She'll - I dunno - blow Lister's spunk up Rimmer's cock or something.  And carefully tidy up her hair as she's doing it.  Am I guessing your thought-process correctly, Doug?

Haha, the exact opposite of what is correct.

Chuckle!

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The guy in the monkey suit could only work in short bursts. The production team were not aware of this so the final act of the episode had to be completely re-written and recorded in the pick-ups week. Everything up to the monkey transforming into Irene was recorded on the night and then everything after was in the pick-ups week.

Another thing:  Irene was originally going to be Kochanski.  Right up until those rewrites.

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And yes - not enough has been observed about how Irene dies and Lister and Rimmer are just like "ah well, anyway loads of paperwork".


No attempt to leap out of the airlock and save her?  Just going to assume that's it, are you?  That was an actual human there.  You know?  Like you were craving throughout series 1-6?  Remember being alone and stuff?  Remember leaping out of the airlock quite swiftly in the previous episode and rescuing your guitar?

No?  Ok then, never mind.  Paperwork it is.


Psychotic is the word.

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Next week, of course:  woe is me I am the last human being, I miss the human race

[markburgle]

I liked the ERRA station as an idea, I thought it was Douglas Adamsy. It reminded me of his "ship powered by bad news" thing, the bizarre tale of a misguided idea. It wasn't used well though and the groin-exploder as a product of that station made no sense (especially given the fact that it apparently works perfectly).

That thread gave me the my one big laugh of the episode - after Kryten's big explanation of the idea of the station:

Spoiler alert

Cat: Did it work??
Kryten: No.

[close]

Robert Llewellyn's perfectly dismissive tone there just got me.

Doug including "TV Critics" in his list of wrong-headed people selected by the station though... c'mon Doug, some of them have a point.

I did also love Cat's "I'm not here to help! Read my CV". He is defs back on form this season.

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He revisits critics doesn't he in 'Timewave'.


Seems to have a beef one way or the other; not sure exactly what it is or why.

[Catalogue Trousers]

It's a complaint that's been made before, but every time the GELFs, or the Simulants, or the Polymorphs, or what-have-you, turn up again, the show dies just a little more in my eyes, even if everything else is good. It doesn't feel like continuity, like building some big, coherent Universe-view, so much as it does 'here's that thing that you liked before. Lap it up again, suckers.'

This show really was at its best when it was just three people and a computer pretty much alone in a frightening Universe, wasn't it?

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This show really was at its best when it was just three people and a computer pretty much alone in a frightening Universe, wasn't it?

Absolutely.  Especially when anything they encountered was something internal to them, projected outwards.  There was definitely more potential for that version of the show to keep going, I think.

[BeardFaceMan]

There must be people who became RD fans by watching the Dave eps first who then went back and watched the BBC series', i wonder what they thought of them? I wonder if they see as clear a divide between series 1-6 and everything else. It's changed a lot over the years and is a very different show now.

[bgmnts]

to be honest though, I'm not a fan of special/unusual earth-set episodes in general. Gunmen, Tikka and Lemons just aren't my favourite type of episode. Waxworld is one of my least liked as well.

Rimmer going Sgt Hartman on Ghandi and Jean Paul Satre is one of the big laughs in the show.

"Don't eyeball me, Ghandi."

[Lemming]

This show really was at its best when it was just three people and a computer pretty much alone in a frightening Universe, wasn't it?

Yeah, all the way. Going into this rewatch I was already of the opinion that Series 1/2 are king while 3 onwards represent a step down, but that view's really been solidified over the course of the thread.

Even in Series 3, which is still a series with many merits and mercifully before the show started putting "GELFs" and "Simulants" round every corner, the universe just feels a lot less lonely and harrowing. The nightmare of their situation, always looming in the background during the first couple series, is almost totally absent. Plus, other than in Marooned and Bodyswap, the Lister and Rimmer relationship gets pushed into the background and neutered for the sake of broader jokes and action-adventure plots.

It's amazing how the show went - over the course of one year - from Lister and Rimmer alone on the observation deck being tormented and haunted by the memory of Lise Yates, to jokes about groinal attachments and Lister fucking Rimmer's mum. Polymorph's still a very enjoyable episode, but when you contrast it to the series that immediately preceded it, it's hard not to wonder what the fuck happened there. Not to say that the first two series didn't have silly moments (Stasis Leak particularly) but the shift in priorities, characterisation and overall mood is so pronounced and so sudden as soon as the third series starts.

Absolutely.  Especially when anything they encountered was something internal to them, projected outwards.  There was definitely more potential for that version of the show to keep going, I think.

Definitely, there's so many great concepts for plots that take place entirely aboard the ship without any external elements. With the personalities of the entire crew in storage and ready to be activated as holograms at any time, the potential for more mail pods to reach the ship as it continues towards Earth, and the relics left behind by countless years of Felis Sapien civilisation, there's a great wealth of ways they could have kept the S1/2 style going for years.

Funnily enough, on that note, I see that the next episode - Dear Dave - does actually involve a mail pod arriving, which sounds hugely promising. My one and only memory of the episode is Lister humping a vending machine, though, so...

[markburgle]

It's a complaint that's been made before, but every time the GELFs, or the Simulants, or the Polymorphs, or what-have-you, turn up again, the show dies just a little more in my eyes, even if everything else is good. It doesn't feel like continuity, like building some big, coherent Universe-view, so much as it does 'here's that thing that you liked before. Lap it up again, suckers.'

This show really was at its best when it was just three people and a computer pretty much alone in a frightening Universe, wasn't it?

Especially galling that in this ep they have an exchange that goes
Kryten: "This is the 2nd populated moon we've passed in 10 years, I had no idea the sector was so lively"
Lister: "Yeah it's mental round here, you never get a moment's peace"

Cake and eating it or what? That would've been a nice joke if they'd bothered to stick to their original premise but when are they ever not encountering other lifeforms for the past 8 series?

[neveragain]

Funnily enough, on that note, I see that the next episode - Dear Dave - does actually involve a mail pod arriving, which sounds hugely promising. My one and only memory of the episode is Lister humping a vending machine, though, so...

That's one of my favourite episodes of the Dave era (along with Fathers and Suns, vending machines aside), so look forward to your views. They just feel closer to recapturing the original lonely spirit than anything since s2.

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Especially galling that in this ep they have an exchange that goes
Kryten: "This is the 2nd populated moon we've passed in 10 years, I had no idea the sector was so lively"
Lister: "Yeah it's mental round here, you never get a moment's peace"

Cake and eating it or what? That would've been a nice joke if they'd bothered to stick to their original premise but when are they ever not encountering other lifeforms for the past 8 series?

And letting them die with no emotional payoff because there's easily going to be another encounter around the corner, and they have a character status quo to forcibly maintain.

[McDead]

Like a lot of people in this thread, I'm really surprised at how much I'm enjoying Red Dwarf X. It's pretty flimsy all in all, and a bit "Galloping Galaxies" compared to the show at its height, but it has a surprising amount of brio and energy considering how far down the trail we are. Every episode so far introduces an interesting SF dilemma and provides a good few laughs. The only weak link, for me, is Craig Charles. The instinctive, likeable, authentic performer of the
early years is gone; and while all the other actors have slipped beautifully into their old roles (DJJ being the highlight), Charles mugs and gurns and *acts* his way through these scenes. He seems, I have to say, like a haunted man. Which would suit the character very well, he's got to be fifty years old at this point, and he's going nowhere - but they still want him to play it chipper and youthful. They should have let the character grow up a bit, tap into some of the melancholy that now seems a significant part of Charles' demeanour. The Lister who walks away from Dream Kochanski in BTE - we need more of him.

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Yes, I've often thought that they haven't really made the most of their aging.  Maybe Doug is in denial about it, I don't know.  Also they have brought up "Last of the Summer Wine in Space" in interviews before as a thing they want to avoid, so maybe they genuinely can't see what a more mature version of Red Dwarf could be.

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I mean they fucking did do Last of the Summer Wine in Space for series 8, but anyway.

[bgmnts]

Like a lot of people in this thread, I'm really surprised at how much I'm enjoying Red Dwarf X. It's pretty flimsy all in all, and a bit "Galloping Galaxies" compared to the show at its height, but it has a surprising amount of brio and energy considering how far down the trail we are. Every episode so far introduces an interesting SF dilemma and provides a good few laughs. The only weak link, for me, is Craig Charles. The instinctive, likeable, authentic performer of the
early years is gone; and while all the other actors have slipped beautifully into their old roles (DJJ being the highlight), Charles mugs and gurns and *acts* his way through these scenes. He seems, I have to say, like a haunted man. Which would suit the character very well, he's got to be fifty years old at this point, and he's going nowhere - but they still want him to play it chipper and youthful. They should have let the character grow up a bit, tap into some of the melancholy that now seems a significant part of Charles' demeanour. The Lister who walks away from Dream Kochanski in BTE - we need more of him.

Well, in the Future Echoes episode, Lister is still quite chipper and boyish even as a man in his triple digits. Pretty sure he uses his prosthetic arm as a bottle opener in that.

[McDead]

Well, in the Future Echoes episode, Lister is still quite chipper and boyish even as a man in his triple digits. Pretty sure he uses his prosthetic arm as a bottle opener in that.

Yeah, but Craig Charles' actual real aging hasn't worked out that way, and there's no point pretending it has. I don't want him moping around the ship all the time... Actually, thinking about it, I do want that. But my point is that the actor Craig Charles seems a bit at sea doing the giggling young rogue bit. It doesn't suit him anymore.

[McDead]

I did also love Cat's "I'm not here to help! Read my CV". He is defs back on form this season.

This killed me. I liked this episode a lot, the fallout from the Quantum Rod reminded me of the White Hole effect - sci fi stuff happening in a funny way. They could've saved the Professor E bit by making the evolution ray temporary; she couldn't possibly help repopulate the human race, because she was going to regress into a chimp anyway. Shame they didn't do that.

[ajsmith2]

Paul McCartney mentions an 'Irene E' in his obscure 1983 track 'It's Not On' so I like to think she somehow survived falling out the airlock and ended up in the scenario described in this song.

https://youtu.be/wDoaZdoWwjA

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This killed me. I liked this episode a lot, the fallout from the Quantum Rod reminded me of the White Hole effect - sci fi stuff happening in a funny way. They could've saved the Professor E bit by making the evolution ray temporary; she couldn't possibly help repopulate the human race, because she was going to regress into a chimp anyway. Shame they didn't do that.

And it could have disappeared into the bowels of the ship, never to be seen again.


That would have been great, just highlighted the sheer enormity of the ship which never really seems to be a factor anymore.

[idunnosomename]

This killed me. I liked this episode a lot, the fallout from the Quantum Rod reminded me of the White Hole effect - sci fi stuff happening in a funny way. They could've saved the Professor E bit by making the evolution ray temporary; she couldn't possibly help repopulate the human race, because she was going to regress into a chimp anyway. Shame they didn't do that.

maybe that was what the chimp actor was supposed to do? bloody unions. would explain why doug had to callously kill her off

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Nah, the episode was supposed to bring Kochanski back initially.  The episode was going to end on a cliffhanger, I think, after more shenanigans with the chimp.  The cliffhanger was Kochanski's reveal.


Been a while since I've seen the documentary, so I could be misremembering a little bit.

[ajsmith2]

Was Chloe Annett in the frame to come back again or did it not get that far?

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I really can't remember, unfortunately.  And looking at wikipedia now, maybe I've somehow got the wrong end of the stick:

The episode was subject to on-set rewrites when it emerged that there were rules and regulations which governed how long performer Peter Elliott could play the role of the chimp without taking a break.[1] The ending originally planned for the episode would have seen Rimmer and Lister bickering like a divorced couple over looking after the chimp .[2] The character of Professor Edgington (played by Sydney Stevenson)[3] was a late addition to the story. The legs of Professor Edgington were actually a model as the actress playing the part was yet to be cast.[1] These problems meant that the final five minutes of the episode were not filmed in front of a live studio audience – the entire episode was later shown (with Dear Dave) at a special screening to provide the necessary laughter track for the final part.[4]

The BEGG chief was played by Steven Wickham, who, nineteen years earlier, had played Lister's GELF bride in Emohawk: Polymorph II.[5]

I was quite sure that Kochanski was due to come back, but I've no idea where I learned this.




(I am so glad she didn't.)

[JamesTC]

I definitely remember it being mentioned that Kochanski was to return, but I don't think the monkey was ever supposed to be her.

I imagine the decision not to bring her back was when the location work was dropped.