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March 28, 2024, 06:31:24 PM

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Red Dwarf rewatch

Started by Lemming, September 12, 2020, 07:09:51 PM

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JamesTC

The BTE CG model had a different drive section that was made to emulate the original Series I-V design.

Replies From View

Oh yeah a smaller scoop.




Yes the scoop on the later physical model is far too big.  I see what you mean about lopsided now.  Front-heavy I'd call it.  Still lovely in its detail, though.  The 'bigature' allows for some great close-ups.

Replies From View

Quote from: JamesTC on November 03, 2020, 03:07:49 PM


Do you have two DVD copies of The Promised Land, as well as the blu ray?  Also does your DVD of series 12 skip?  Mine does and I always wondered if it was an encoding error, as I returned a copy and ended up with a replacement with the same issue.


By the way you need to learn how to put numerical things in the correct spinal order lest you trigger somebody to burn your entire fuckin house down.

JamesTC

Quote from: Replies From View on November 03, 2020, 06:09:52 PM
Do you have two DVD copies of The Promised Land, as well as the blu ray?  Also does your DVD of series 12 skip?  Mine does and I always wondered if it was an encoding error, as I returned a copy and ended up with a replacement with the same issue.


By the way you need to learn how to put numerical things in the correct spinal order lest you trigger somebody to burn your entire fuckin house down.

Just the one copy of The Promised Land on DVD but I have an empty box in the outer case as I didn't want to throw it away what with it having the lovely poster on the front. You should be able to see four copies of Series X. Even that pales into comparison to 7 copies of Series I-III.

Don't have Series XII on DVD yet. I'll get it when it comes down in price.

I prefer to put spines in order of height.

Hey Kidz

Talking of the Inquisitor, in the bit right at the start, he replaces some random guy, then at the end of the scene, he says something to the replacement and there's a big audience laugh, but I've never been able to make out what he says. Anyone know?

Gulftastic

From memory, doesn't he call himself 'Reality Control'?

Phil_A

"Sorry to disturb you, Reality Control."

For years I was mystified by what he says to Lister as he's being erased, I actually thought it was just some gibberish he was spouting as he disintegrates - "What you gat! My wok, my glorious wokmobile undone!"

Now I'm pretty sure it's:

"But you can't! My work, my glorious work will be undone!"

Lemming

S05E03 Terrorform

"You must be the unspeakable one. Just to fill you in, there's been a gigantic administrative cock-up."

This one's really close to being great. The opening scene with Kryten wrecked on the moon is brilliant - establishes some proper tension but is also laugh-out-loud funny. "My short term memory is damaged. This, combined with the damage to my short term memory, has left me disoriented." Plus, "I think it's a taranshula."

The psi-moon makes virtually no sense, even by the show's internal logic, but luckily all the logic issues are blasted through in one Exposition-Bot scene. "Of course, it's a psi-moon!", we learn, and also that Rimmer is inexplicably solid while here. Fine. Total bullshit but it's a great idea, albeit one that's been done before by every work of genre fiction ever to exist.

The costumes and effects are fantastic, the kind of low-budget high-ambition stuff Red Dwarf does a lot of. The shadow people look like shit (and there's even a joke about it), but they're very memorable, and the self-loathing monster's cheap puppet shadow on the wall is somehow more disturbing than any amount of high quality CGI could ever be.

Then we get to the ending scenes. It's another example of the post-series 2 group dynamic that I'm not a fan of - everyone shitting on Rimmer while he meekly sits there looking sad. Again, the original dynamic had Lister and Rimmer pitted against each other as equals, each of them able to give as good as they got, and each very slowly warming up to the other. Now it's everyone ganging up on Rimmer, who never defends himself, and also the friendship the characters had by series 2 is gone, so it's just vitriol with nothing else to it (unless you choose to read Lister very charitably in the final scenes of this episode). The "no" at the end is crap and undermines anything the episode might have been going for.

There'd be a big danger of the ending being too saccharine or cloying without some kind of cynical joke to ground it, I know, but the writers set up the potential for a proper sincere character moment, the type of which we've not really had since the second series, and then they just abandon it. The moments in the first two series, especially series two, where the characters were allowed to express real emotion and sincerity are some of the best - the observation dome scenes from Better Than Life and Thanks for the Memory, for example. In fact, the entirety of Thanks For The Memory (best episode ever). It's pointless to complain, anyway - the show has been drifting away from that for two and a half series at this point, and Rob and Doug clearly have different goals for the show here than they did back then.

It's a good episode overall, anyway, even if I wish the ending had been a lot better than it is. It's another win for the "bring the horror sci-fi to the foreground and let the comedy breathe a little" approach. Like with The Inquisitor, there's a few less jokes than usual, and the ones that are in the script come mainly from the sci-fi.

Misc notes: Starbug has tank treads, which is fucking cool and makes sense (unlike the cloaking device from Backwards). Lister says "set bazookoids to kill", which is either him referencing Star Trek (almost 100% the case), or the show confirming that bazookoids have a stun setting. This has no bearing on anything, but stood out to me for some reason.

Trivia fans: there's another instance of Cat calling someone by their name here. When Kryten suggests leaving Starbug and proceeding on foot, Cat exclaims "out into Rimmer's subconscious?!"

Imagine being one of the actors hired to circle Chris Barrie's nipples with your finger.

Lemming

S05E04 Quarantine

"Has anyone ever seen this legendary Space Corps Directive Manual? He's making it up, isn't he? The bloody book doesn't exist!"

Yet another S5 episode that leans firmly towards horror. The scene aboard the abandoned lab is very effective, and the deranged Langstrom hologram is unforgettable. I have no idea why some knobhead in the audience laughs at Langstrom waking up, it's FUCKING SCARY MATE, not funny.

EXPOSITION-BOT: "Clearly some kind of PSI-VIRUS, sir."

The scenes where Lister, Cat and Kryten are in the quarantine room are surprisingly great, constant stream of jokes combined with some real slowly-building tension. "TETCHY. TETCHY. TEETTCHHY." It's satisfying to see Kryten's Space Corps Directive shit thrown back in his face after Rimmer goes batshit mental. And Lister obsessively crocheting in the corner with a black eye.

"I'm putting it on." "He's putting it on." "Here I go." "Here he goes."

"What Carcass magazine" is a fucking terrible joke that nonetheless made me bark with laughter.

Then we get to the scenes where Rimmer's holovirus has progressed to full-blown crazy. I remember howling laughing at Mr Flibble and Rimmer's dress as a kid, but this time around I thought it was proper fucking creepy. "Two, maybe, three hours. A little test, just to see if you've gone crazy... HWOOOOOOGH". Proper menacing, holy shit. The special effect, janky though it is, where Rimmer burns the metal door down was unnerving as hell as well.

Decent episode overall.

Logic fuckups: Why does Rimmer have to take an escape pod back to Red Dwarf? The plan is to use his "remote projection unit" or whatever (which I can only assume is the light bee?). Surely Holly should just switch to projecting him from the ship, rather than from the bee? If he gets on the escape pod then he'll be physically taking the bee back with him, which means there's no way for Langstrom to transfer herself to the bee. This ultimately doesn't matter at all but I swear I spent the entire 28 minute episode thinking about the mechanics of this.

the ouch cube

"Is this the British Embassy? Does it look even the remotest bit like the British Embassy?" - we're always told Rimmer is a coward, but a good seven times out of ten he stands up for himself. Yes, he isn't at all keen on being tortured by a giant beast, but nobody would be.

The grotesque hazard warning sign in Quarantine really got to me as a kid, even though it is followed by possibly the funniest part of the episode, Kryten's calm anal-retention over the possibly malfunctioning safety device: "Well, if I could just beg your indulgences for a couple of minutes more, sirs, the old 345 does take a little time to warm up..."

petril

Quote from: Lemming on November 07, 2020, 11:12:36 PM
"What Carcass magazine" is a fucking terrible joke that nonetheless made me bark with laughter.

What Carcass is my headcanon shorthand for this episode. Just hidden in there, a terrible gem of a pun, but when I think of that phrase, the whole episode opens up. Especially the TETCHY whiteboard


Mobbd

Quote from: Replies From View on November 02, 2020, 05:48:13 PM
Fun Fact:  the 1994 repeats of series 1-6 actually missed out Psirens for reasons I forget.

That is to say, I recorded all of series 1-6 during the 1994 repeats, and series 6 lacks Psirens.  Like you, I assumed it would appear out of sequence but it never came.


So there!

Fantastic! Thanks for this, everyone. So I really didn't miss it through stupidity. I think I can actually die in a peace now.

Mobbd

#582
Quote from: Perplexicon on November 03, 2020, 02:23:46 PM
Aside from homemade tapes, did anyone else have the adventure of trying to get hold of the entire set of VHS tapes?

All this talk of Red Dwarf VHS episode acquisition is making me feel very warm and fuzzy. Great stuff.

I think I'm about three years older than you, Perplexicon, so I never had particular trouble finding the commercial tapes (but actually buying them with no source of income was another matter). One weird thing concerning the tapes, however, was a particular lust to watch The End, which wasn't repeated in the post-VI repeats and, as such, I'd never seen. It was only available to watch on the commercial tape. (I'd read the novel so I knew approximately what happened in the episode, but not seeing the important first episode created an extraordinary appetite in a young fan - and RD was the first thing I was ever a fan of).

Series 1 Byte 1 was what I needed, and I remember looking at the case for ages in video shops. I had no money to buy it because I was a kid! I'm not sure I even had a video player in my room to watch it on. Bloody Hell.

Anyway, when I eventually found enough dosh to buy it, the copy they gave me in Woolworths was in the dummy/display case. Remember when Woolies and Smiths kept the tapes behind the counter and put only the empty boxes on the shelf? Sometimes the case on display was a dummy and not meant to be sold and this was one of those. The cashier either fucked up or they'd lost the proper one. My dummy display case had a circular white badge printed artlessly on the sleeve, pointing out that The End had never been repeated on TV. I didn't like this intrusion upon the design but, looking back, it was actually pretty apt given how important The End's not being repeated was to me.

Mobbd

Quote from: Lemming on November 04, 2020, 01:03:02 AM
the self-loathing monster's cheap puppet shadow on the wall is somehow more disturbing than any amount of high quality CGI could ever be.

Yes, I always loved that spooky shadow. Brilliant, low-budget magic.

Anecdote time! And possibly another opportunity to solve a mystery here.

Around the age of 14 or 15, I went to London with my folks. We chanced upon what I thought of as a "museum," but now I wonder if it was a special event at Broadcasting House on Portland Place. Not sure. The museum/event was called "The BBC Experience" and it was an exhibition of various props and costumes etc from BBC History. You could see Pinky and Perky and a Clanger and stuff like that.

In the lobby of whatever this was, before you went through the ticket barrier, was a large puppet mounted on the wall. It was nothing less than the self-loathing monster/The Unspeakable One.

There was a sign on the wall forbidding photography and a uniformed security guard standing next to it, but I breathlessly convinced the security guard to take a walk. Insanity.

So I have a photograph of me, age 14/15 with '90s curtains hair, standing with The Unspeakable One.

Elsewhere in the BBC Experience, there was some SFX photography of Starbug taking off from the landing hangar, but I think that might have been the lot for Red Dwarf. Still. The Unspeakable One. It hadn't even been seen properly on screen. I was chuffed to fucking bits.

Does anyone have any idea what the fuck the BBC Experience was?

I'm a bit late to the rewatch party, but here are a couple of notes about series three.

1. Netflix lists Backwards as SDRAWKCAB, was that ever a proper title?

2. Robert Llewellyn appears on film for his appearance as Jim Reaper in The Last Day. Presumably it was easier to play directly into the set from film, but I'm surprised they didn't go for the cheaper option and record it on video.

BeardFaceMan

Red Dwarf introduced me to the clitoris. As you were.

Replies From View

Quote from: Mobbd on November 09, 2020, 02:10:35 PMOne weird thing concerning the tapes, however, was a particular lust to watch The End, which wasn't repeated in the post-VI repeats

If you mean the 1994 repeats then yes it was.  The only gap was Psirens.


The commercial VHS release of series 1 (with it's "never been repeated on the BBC" pronouncement) pre-dated the 1994 repeats by hardly any time at all; can't remember how long but I remember finding it quite funny how someone at school who'd bought the tape and couldn't stop gloating about it was converted into an obsolete human really fucking fast.

Billy

Quote from: Mobbd on November 09, 2020, 02:26:01 PM
Does anyone have any idea what the fuck the BBC Experience was?

It was around from 1997 to 2001, it was closed as it didn't make enough of a profit.

I remember one feature of it was being able to "direct" an episode of EastEnders by pressing buttons switching between different cameras, except the kid version of me had far more fun just mashing all the buttons at once making it seem like some mad yoof TV show instead.

Replies From View

Quote from: Registering to lurk on November 09, 2020, 03:42:26 PM
I'm a bit late to the rewatch party, but here are a couple of notes about series three.

1. Netflix lists Backwards as SDRAWKCAB, was that ever a proper title?

Nope.

JamesTC

Closest was the front cover of the VHS. The first VHS I ever owned.


Billy

Christ, that brings back memories - the 15 rating felt enormously exciting as an eight year old watching that tape, particularly as the Series 2 equivalent was a PG. I don't think the 12 rating existed at the time so everything had to be up-rated.

idunnosomename

Quote from: Billy on November 09, 2020, 06:36:24 PM
It was around from 1997 to 2001, it was closed as it didn't make enough of a profit.

I remember one feature of it was being able to "direct" an episode of EastEnders by pressing buttons switching between different cameras, except the kid version of me had far more fun just mashing all the buttons at once making it seem like some mad yoof TV show instead.
you could present the news and do a weather forecast and stuff if you waited in the queue. it was pretty good but it was all about conditioning children to the sensible cult of AUNTIE

burn it down etc

Mobbd

Quote from: Billy on November 09, 2020, 06:36:24 PM
It was around from 1997 to 2001, it was closed as it didn't make enough of a profit.

I remember one feature of it was being able to "direct" an episode of EastEnders by pressing buttons switching between different cameras, except the kid version of me had far more fun just mashing all the buttons at once making it seem like some mad yoof TV show instead.

Yeah, the Eastenders thing rings a bell.

Do you know where it was? Was it an actual museum or was it, as I suspect, at Broadcasting House?

Mobbd

Quote from: Replies From View on November 09, 2020, 04:40:40 PM
If you mean the 1994 repeats then yes it was.  The only gap was Psirens.

The commercial VHS release of series 1 (with it's "never been repeated on the BBC" pronouncement) pre-dated the 1994 repeats by hardly any time at all; can't remember how long but I remember finding it quite funny how someone at school who'd bought the tape and couldn't stop gloating about it was converted into an obsolete human really fucking fast.

Well-well! So Psirens was genuinely not broadcast but I actually DID miss The End like a slow-witted twat. Easy come, easy go.

idunnosomename

Quote from: Mobbd on November 09, 2020, 08:34:09 PM
Yeah, the Eastenders thing rings a bell.

Do you know where it was? Was it an actual museum or was it, as I suspect, at Broadcasting House?
it was in the modern bit off Portland Place pretty sure

Chriddof

Quote from: Billy on November 09, 2020, 08:20:13 PM
Christ, that brings back memories - the 15 rating felt enormously exciting as an eight year old watching that tape, particularly as the Series 2 equivalent was a PG. I don't think the 12 rating existed at the time so everything had to be up-rated.

The 12 rating did exist by that time, but for some reason that only made sense to James Ferman, it only applied to theatrical showings of films and not home video releases. I have no idea why this was the case, but I recall the first Batman movie by Tim Burton being the first thing to get a 12 (this was in 1989), and when it was released on video roughly a year later it got bumped up to a 15. It seems the BBFC finally got off their arses and made it apply to home video in 1994.

Gulftastic

The ratings were stricter for VHS releases due to the idea that it is more difficult to police the age of those watching.

Replies From View

You can police my age all you like, but it is what it is.

Lemming

S05E05 Demons & Angels

"The chances of it blowing are about one in... one."

This is fun. Really standard plot that's been done about a hundred billion times before - Star Trek's "The Enemy Within", "Mirror Mirror", Star Trek Voyager's "Faces", endless others, probably even non-Star Trek examples. But it's enjoyable anyway, and the concept has the piss taken out of it pretty effectively, especially the "Good" crew. "BROTHER RIMMER IS PORTRAYING AGONY"

"He's accidentally shot me five times! How I love him!"

There's a great scene when Lister gets separated from the group and flees through the cargo deck. The introduction of "evil" Cat and "evil" Kryten are both legit unnerving. Not sure why "evil" Rimmer is, uh, like that. Nor why evil Holly is Siouxsie Sioux.

The episode does feel a little bit like a missed opportunity - none of the duplicates really reflect any recognisable elements of the crew. The good crew are interchangeable and the evil crew aren't recognisable as the original crew in any way. In the aforementioned Star Trek episodes, they try to use the concept to reveal something about the characters who get duplicated, but Demons & Angels is essentially just a vehicle for jokes.

Still, it's a good vehicle for jokes, the actors get to fuck about a bit, and Craig Charles acts the most convincing (and possibly only) boiling-water-poured-on-balls scene in TV history. Not much else to say about it, it's a really lightweight episode with not much depth to it but it's a solid entry in a strong series.

Made me laugh that Lister gets (understandably) indignant about Rimmer's slimy plan to ditch Lister and Cat's corpses into space... but Lister did the same thing in White Hole by asking Rimmer to effectively kill himself, and then chastised him for refusing. At least Rimmer was going to wait until Lister and Cat were already dead rather than demanding they kill themselves immediately.

JamesTC

As a child I misheard "I wonder what's in that supply cabinet" as "surprise cabinet" which I think is better.

I had a dream once that Red Dwarf came out on 4K and I watched the scene with Lister encountering evil Cat and Kryten in glorious 4K. My unconscious mind chose a great scene to replay in such high quality. The HD upscale just doesn't live up to it.

One moment that has been made a little better by the recent special is Rimmer being indignant at Lister suggesting they switch him down to minimum power. Now in The Promised Land we see what that actually looks like.

This is the only episode of Red Dwarf to feature an alien life-form...