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Red Dwarf rewatch

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

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Billy

Bierko seems to have put some of the blame on himself for the US pilot not working, which seems a shame as he does do the best he can with the material. There's an interview with him on Youtube where he's clearly watched the DVD extra about it and agrees that he was unsuited to the role as a "Han Solo" type, echoing DJ-J's thoughts that someone like John Belushi would have been a much better American Lister - or at least someone similar given Belushi had been dead for about a decade by then.

Lemming

S01E03 Balance of Power

This is another all-time favourite and, as with Future Echoes, it stands up brilliantly. Rimmer in series one (and mostly two) is straight-up one of the best comedy characters of all time, at least in terms of sheer laughs per screentime. Early Lister is a great character too, far more good-natured, relaxed and genial than his season 4 - 6 counterpart. I also like how Lister comes across as actually stupid a lot of the time in the early episodes, like really dumb and incompetent, as opposed to the ace pilot/moral paragon/hidden genius they try make him later on.

Rimmer's treatment of the Kochanski hologram is properly sickening as much as it is funny (even the 80s sitcom live audience make a collective groan of unease at one part). Not a criticism of the episode since it's clearly written and played to be disturbing, and Claire Grogan gives a great performance as Rimmer-as-Kochanski, while Craig Charles conveys Lister's disgust very well.

I love how, in the early episodes, the dead crew still play a huge role. Lister thinks about Kochanski and lists other people he wishes had been revived as holograms instead of Rimmer, and there's the flashback to the mess hall where Lister's hanging out with his dickhead friends while Rimmer alienates everyone. I don't find the early series to be quite as bleak as some people say (mostly since there's a thread of optimism in the form of the journey back to Earth, and the possibility that they'll reach it one day) but there's the constant sense that they really are the only survivors of a horrible disaster that killed all their friends, and now they're alone in the decaying ruins of a ship that feels more like an intimidating prison than it does a home. There's a constant atmosphere of dread in the background, which is only warded off by Lister and Rimmer's bickering over comparatively minor shit... which was, of course, exactly the reason Holly chose to revive Rimmer.

Danny John-Jules is great in these early episodes too, Cat is a character that never quite works or has much to do at any point in the entire show's run IMO but I like how he's literally a humanised cat in the first series. Speaking of which, the early Rimmer-Cat interactions are pretty funny - it's like Rimmer knows that his usual appeal to Space Corps authority won't mean shit to Cat, so he just starts speaking to him like a child instead to try and manipulate him into things.

DrGreggles

Quote from: JamesTC on September 15, 2020, 07:20:35 PM
They wanted Chris Barrie for the second US pilot, but he refused.

He thought it looked shit, so made A Prince Among Men instead.

JamesTC

It is interesting to note that Future Echoes was recorded fourth and The End had the reshoots in the seventh slot so Balance of Power is the earliest recorded full episode. I think you can feel in Balance of Power and Waiting for God that they are still finding their feet and it is just that bit more raw. Future Echoes through Me2 are more assured.

The idea early on was that the crew would appear more often in flashbacks throughout the show but it never really developed past Balance of Power.


I'd also like to highlight this exchange from Balance of Power:

Rimmer: Learning drugs? They're illegal, matey! I'm afraid you're in very serious, grave, deep trouble, Lister. Where did you get them? I want names. I want places. I want dates.
Lister: Arnold Rimmer. His locker. This morning.

Utter Shit

Very niche question, but I watched White Hole earlier and was reminded about how baffled I've always been by a bit where Lister says "brutal!". It appears to be overdubbed with a completely different voice. Either Craig Charles (deliberately? inadvertently?) said the line in a London accent, or it was overdubbed by someone who didn't make any attempt at Lister's voice whatsoever. It's a really minor point, but it's always struck me as really weird.

JamesTC

Quote from: Utter Shit on September 15, 2020, 09:22:56 PM
Very niche question, but I watched White Hole earlier and was reminded about how baffled I've always been by a bit where Lister says "brutal!". It appears to be overdubbed with a completely different voice. Either Craig Charles (deliberately? inadvertently?) said the line in a London accent, or it was overdubbed by someone who didn't make any attempt at Lister's voice whatsoever. It's a really minor point, but it's always struck me as really weird.

He says it differently to how he says it in Bodyswap but it doesn't look dubbed to me. If anything the way he says it in White Hole is the more scouse way and the way he says it in Bodyswap (while dubbing over Chris Barrie) is the more London accent.

If people want to compare the times are:
White Hole: 22:40
Bodyswap: 11:10

mippy

I found that flashback to the officers' mess made the setting even more bleak for me. The thought that that room that was full of great times for Lister is now empty and always will be.

Also, nice to see Mark Heap.

Quote from: JamesTC on September 15, 2020, 09:11:20 PM
I'd also like to highlight this exchange from Balance of Power:

Rimmer: Learning drugs? They're illegal, matey! I'm afraid you're in very serious, grave, deep trouble, Lister. Where did you get them? I want names. I want places. I want dates.
Lister: Arnold Rimmer. His locker. This morning.

These sort of lyrical lines pop up throughout the first six seasons and they're wonderful. "It thinks we're either a threat, food, or a mate; it's either going to kill us, eat us, or hump us" from Back To Reality is the only one I can remember off the top of my head.

They disappear completely from S7 onwards, which probably makes it clear who was writing them.

(also, just wanted to say I'm loving this thread, so much so that I've just de-lurked after reading the forum since the first episode of Nathan Barley aired!)

amateur

Highly tempted to dive back in.

This was the first bit of sci-fi I'd ever seen or read that posited that humans were entirely alone in the universe, other than things they'd made or bred (please don't tell me they've retconed this). I found that fascinating and the bleakness of the first series, the quietness of that ship, is something I've never seen bettered.

That bloke with the sparrow can get to fuck mind.

Rolf Lundgren

As good as Series 1 is, I don't find it particularly enjoyable to rewatch. Maybe it's just too grey and too much exposition. Series 2 on the other hand is much easier.

Lemming

S01E04 Waiting for God

This episode is one of Chris Barrie's best ever performances, because Rimmer really is as much of an absolute cunt as ever, and yet his excitement at the Quagaaaaaaar pod softens him a little, as well as his very real enthusiasm and wonder for the prospect of meeting alien life. The conversation he has with Lister about the potential existence of aliens is ace, and possibly the first time in the series where it's a lot easier to side with Rimmer than with Lister. I also like how the first thing Rimmer does after finding the pod is rush straight to Lister to share the news, shows that they're very slowly starting to become sort-of friends. Oh, also, the "QUAGAARS: INVESTIGATION IN PROGRESS" screen he puts up in the pod room is outstanding.

Also topical since we've potentially found life in Venus' atmosphere this week. I've been amusing myself by reciting Rimmer's over-excited delivery of "ALIENS!!!" whenever I check the news.

I remember a lot of these episodes pretty clearly, but Lister's "if only I'd had more than one pair of underpants" when lamenting the destruction of the Cat ark caught me off guard, major laugh.

The Cat Priest used to absolutely freak me out as a kid. I remember having a VHS of this and always feeling really uneasy at the idea of a blind dying person trapped alone in the desolate cargo bay of an abandoned ship. The scene's got plenty of laughs - I'VE BURRRNED MY SACRED HAAAT - but it's got some real atmosphere and mood to it, like so much of the early episodes.

Holly fucking with Rimmer on purpose with the whole garbage pod ruse is funny, but it's also a great representation of his character in the first two series. He really does have an IQ of 6000, he really is a genius, and he just feigns stupidity to annoy Rimmer and Lister, either to amuse himself or to help keep them both sane. Obviously Queeg is the prime example, but it comes up in most of his scenes - for example in the last episode where he kept botching Rimmer's graphics. From what I remember, when Hattie Hayridge takes over the role, the character gets written as being actually just a completely broken AI incapable of running the ship, and Queeg's comment about Holly having an IQ of 6 starts to look a lot more plausible.

Logic holes: only one, and it's not too much of a logic hole, but... who wrote the Cat Bible? It depicts the destruction of the ark, so it must have been written after both arks had already left, but the only two remaining cats are Cat (who clearly didn't write it) and the Cat Priest (who presumably didn't write it since he's blind). Dialogue does indicate that there were more Cats on board for a while after the arks left, but they've since... died, I guess? Maybe one of them wrote it, after somehow figuring out what had happened to the arks.

Can't even start quoting favourite lines, because I'd be quoting half the fucking script.
QuoteRIMMER: YOU'RE IN THERE FOR A MONTH, YOU'RE IN QUARANTINE.
LISTER: (walking out the door) What did you say, Rimmer?

and, of course:
QuoteLISTER: Never mind this tot, where's the Cat?
RIMMER: Tot?
LISTER: Tot!
RIMMER: Tot?
LISTER: Tot!
RIMMER: Tot?!
LISTER: TOT!!
RIMMER: TOT?!!
LISTER: TOT!! (Leaves.)
RIMMER: (Shouting after him) We'll soon see how totty it is, laddie, the quarantine period's nearly up!  ... BASTARD!!!

markburgle

Not going to repeat all the positive sentiments about the early eps, most of which I share. But two things are bugging me, 1. they could not write endings at all, at this point. Most these series one episodes just seem to stop. And 2, I'm reliving my irritation at the redone intros that appeared when they decided to do a George Lucas up in this bitch, rejigging their widely-loved early creations according to their misguided, middle-aged notions of what was wrong with them.

The versions I'm seeing on dailymotion don't seem to have crappily superimposed scutters appearing for no reason, thankfully - but they do have the rewritten, overlong, overexplainy, badly-delivered Holly intros with new, rubbish jokes and less-creepy bed music. I can still recite the proper intro - which set the tone much better - from memory, and apparently that's the only place I can now get to hear it:

"3 million years from Earth, the mining ship Red Dwarf. It's crew - Dave Lister, the last human being alive; Arnold Rimmer, a hologram of his dead bunkmate; and a creature who evolved from the ship's cat. Message end". With a slowing-down glitchy effect on the last word.

SavageHedgehog

In the olden days of VHS releases of "half the series named after the first episode on the tape", they called the second half of series one Confidence & Paranoia rather than Waiting for God to avoid any customers being disappointed by the lack of Graham Crowden.

Phil_A

Quote from: markburgle on September 17, 2020, 04:32:43 PM
Not going to repeat all the positive sentiments about the early eps, most of which I share. But two things are bugging me, 1. they could not write endings at all, at this point. Most these series one episodes just seem to stop. And 2, I'm reliving my irritation at the redone intros that appeared when they decided to do a George Lucas up in this bitch, rejigging their widely-loved early creations according to their misguided, middle-aged notions of what was wrong with them.

The versions I'm seeing on dailymotion don't seem to have crappily superimposed scutters appearing for no reason, thankfully - but they do have the rewritten, overlong, overexplainy, badly-delivered Holly intros with new, rubbish jokes and less-creepy bed music. I can still recite the proper intro - which set the tone much better - from memory, and apparently that's the only place I can now get to hear it:

"3 million years from Earth, the mining ship Red Dwarf. It's crew - Dave Lister, the last human being alive; Arnold Rimmer, a hologram of his dead bunkmate; and a creature who evolved from the ship's cat. Message end". With a slowing-down glitchy effect on the last word.

Hang on, did they actually re-film the Holly intros for the first two series? The only versions I can find have the original intro and music, with an obviously recorded-years-later voiceover coming in after it fades out. Which version have you been watching?

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Quote from: Lemming on September 17, 2020, 12:33:10 AM
S01E04 Waiting for God

This episode is one of Chris Barrie's best ever performances, because Rimmer really is as much of an absolute cunt as ever, and yet his excitement at the Quagaaaaaaar pod softens him a little, as well as his very real enthusiasm and wonder for the prospect of meeting alien life. The conversation he has with Lister about the potential existence of aliens is ace, and possibly the first time in the series where it's a lot easier to side with Rimmer than with Lister. I also like how the first thing Rimmer does after finding the pod is rush straight to Lister to share the news, shows that they're very slowly starting to become sort-of friends. Oh, also, the "QUAGAARS: INVESTIGATION IN PROGRESS" screen he puts up in the pod room is outstanding.

Also topical since we've potentially found life in Venus' atmosphere this week. I've been amusing myself by reciting Rimmer's over-excited delivery of "ALIENS!!!" whenever I check the news.

I remember a lot of these episodes pretty clearly, but Lister's "if only I'd had more than one pair of underpants" when lamenting the destruction of the Cat ark caught me off guard, major laugh.

The Cat Priest used to absolutely freak me out as a kid. I remember having a VHS of this and always feeling really uneasy at the idea of a blind dying person trapped alone in the desolate cargo bay of an abandoned ship. The scene's got plenty of laughs - I'VE BURRRNED MY SACRED HAAAT - but it's got some real atmosphere and mood to it, like so much of the early episodes.

Holly fucking with Rimmer on purpose with the whole garbage pod ruse is funny, but it's also a great representation of his character in the first two series. He really does have an IQ of 6000, he really is a genius, and he just feigns stupidity to annoy Rimmer and Lister, either to amuse himself or to help keep them both sane. Obviously Queeg is the prime example, but it comes up in most of his scenes - for example in the last episode where he kept botching Rimmer's graphics. From what I remember, when Hattie Hayridge takes over the role, the character gets written as being actually just a completely broken AI incapable of running the ship, and Queeg's comment about Holly having an IQ of 6 starts to look a lot more plausible.

Logic holes: only one, and it's not too much of a logic hole, but... who wrote the Cat Bible? It depicts the destruction of the ark, so it must have been written after both arks had already left, but the only two remaining cats are Cat (who clearly didn't write it) and the Cat Priest (who presumably didn't write it since he's blind). Dialogue does indicate that there were more Cats on board for a while after the arks left, but they've since... died, I guess? Maybe one of them wrote it, after somehow figuring out what had happened to the arks.

Can't even start quoting favourite lines, because I'd be quoting half the fucking script.
and, of course:

You have a really flowing and well-pitched writing style, Lemming. This is as good to read as your FPS reviews.

I also watched Red Dwarf from a very young age - saw this on repeat aged 6 or 7 and thought it was really weird. Ended up having a bad dream a few years that was like a composite of the fake choking/alien takeover thing Lister does in the pod scene with Space Mumps. Pretty sure it took place on the set of Fun House too.

JamesTC

Quote from: markburgle on September 17, 2020, 04:32:43 PM
Not going to repeat all the positive sentiments about the early eps, most of which I share. But two things are bugging me, 1. they could not write endings at all, at this point. Most these series one episodes just seem to stop. And 2, I'm reliving my irritation at the redone intros that appeared when they decided to do a George Lucas up in this bitch, rejigging their widely-loved early creations according to their misguided, middle-aged notions of what was wrong with them.

The versions I'm seeing on dailymotion don't seem to have crappily superimposed scutters appearing for no reason, thankfully - but they do have the rewritten, overlong, overexplainy, badly-delivered Holly intros with new, rubbish jokes and less-creepy bed music. I can still recite the proper intro - which set the tone much better - from memory, and apparently that's the only place I can now get to hear it:

"3 million years from Earth, the mining ship Red Dwarf. It's crew - Dave Lister, the last human being alive; Arnold Rimmer, a hologram of his dead bunkmate; and a creature who evolved from the ship's cat. Message end". With a slowing-down glitchy effect on the last word.

The Remastered version is pretty much gone now and you'd find it hard to see anywhere. That is aside from Marooned as for some reason Dave always show the Remastered version.

The intros you talk about have always been there on both the original and remastered. It would be the "3 million years from earth" speech and then an "additional" message with a joke. They did re-record them for Remastered and changed a few of them.

They dropped the comedy Holly messages for Series III but they did record some for III.

markburgle

Quote from: Phil_A on September 17, 2020, 05:45:46 PM
Hang on, did they actually re-film the Holly intros for the first two series? The only versions I can find have the original intro and music, with an obviously recorded-years-later voiceover coming in after it fades out. Which version have you been watching?

OK I've just jumped ahead to a series two ep on dailymotion, this has the old intro voiceover/music that I remember:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6hneyq?start=0057

This from a series one ep has the new crappy intro I was bemoaning:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6hjsam?start=0057

Or have I just misremembered? Was S1 always different? Wikipedia does confirm that most of the Holly stuff was redone for the remaster.

Was that retcon joke always there at the start of Waiting For God that confirms Lister actually failed the Chef's exam?

JamesTC

Quote from: markburgle on September 17, 2020, 06:48:18 PM
OK I've just jumped ahead to a series two ep on dailymotion, this has the old intro voiceover/music that I remember (from 0:58):

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6hneyq

This from a series one ep has the new crappy intro I was bemoaning (also from 0:58):

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6hjsam

Or have I just misremembered? Was S1 always different? Wikipedia does confirm that most of the Holly stuff was redone for the remaster.

Was that retcon joke always there at the start of Waiting For God that confirms Lister actually failed the Chef's exam?

There are only two versions of each I/II/III episode. The original and the Remastered. You can tell the Remastered from a mile off by the rubbish CGI and also opening with the rock intro rather than the I/II intro. The version you have linked is the original which is as broadcast in 1988.

All commercial releases and streaming contain the original versions.

The only episode that isn't as broadcast in commercial releases is Terrorform due to the Copacabana music only being cleared for the initial broadcast. That one has always bugged me as I watched the episode from an off-air tape as a kid.

Lemming

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on September 17, 2020, 05:49:33 PM
You have a really flowing and well-pitched writing style, Lemming. This is as good to read as your FPS reviews.

I also watched Red Dwarf from a very young age - saw this on repeat aged 6 or 7 and thought it was really weird. Ended up having a bad dream a few years that was like a composite of the fake choking/alien takeover thing Lister does in the pod scene with Space Mumps. Pretty sure it took place on the set of Fun House too.

Thanks!

My own Red Dwarf-inspired childhood nightmare revolved around the multi-headed corpse in DNA, I think. Terrifying, with such an absurdly detailed prop.

S01E05 Confidence and Paranoia

This episode has one of my favourite short exchanges in the entire show. The second scene, which begins with Rimmer bellowing "OFF!" to ruin Lister's movie as he strides into the room, is funny on just about every level. From Rimmer's completely unprovoked verbal assault on Lister (during which Lister just lies there in silence), to the introduction and immediate deconstruction of the "daily goal list":

QuoteLISTER: Oh yeah?  And what've you done that's so great?
RIMMER: I've achieved seventeen things today off my daily goal list, whereas you've never achieved anything ever in your entire life.
LISTER: Don't know, you know.  I went to the Officer's Block.
RIMMER: When?!
LISTER: This morning.
RIMMER: But it hasn't been decontaminated!
LISTER: You said it had last week!
RIMMER: No, I said it was on last Thursday's daily goal list!

Rimmer's "daily goal list" exists for one and only reason - bragging to Lister, and convincing himself that he's being useful (when he's actually just finding ways to avoid doing the already-pointless tasks he's set for himself), and yet he treats it with the utmost sincerity. I seriously find this small, 30-second-long scene funnier than all three Dave series combined, and I'm saying that as someone who liked parts of XI and XII. I just imagine him walking around the ship, doing all sorts of mental gymnastics and rationalisations to persuade himself that he's met his goals without actually doing anything, and then heading straight back to the bunkroom to lecture Lister.

On to the main plot of the episode, there's a decent, run-of-the-mill sci-fi story. "Aspects of our imaginations/personalities have come to life!!!" has been done a million times, but it more or less works here. Like most of the sci-fi in the first series, it's geared towards revealing something about the characters, and generating laughs, both of which it succeeds at. The technobabble (medicalbabble?) explanation is clearly just a convenient way to get Confidence and Paranoia neatly killed by the end of the episode, but there's something kind of compelling about it. Ultra-mutated, radioactive pneumonia can make your dreams real? Fine, yeah, makes sense. But I especially like the idea that Rimmer raises: that Confidence and Paranoia themselves are symptoms of the ultra-pneumonia, and Lister will die if they're not destroyed. Obviously there's a lot to look into there - are they sentient and alive, and if so, can we really kill them to save Lister? The episode sidesteps it nicely by having them both die for reasons completely outside Lister and Rimmer's control, but hey, it's still a cool idea.

Otherwise, uhh... there's the Yvonne McGruder rape joke, which really doesn't work at all. The explosion effect that kills Confidence scared the shit out of me as a kid but got a proper laugh out of me now. Also, I like the way Cat is written in the first series, where he just walks around doing his own thing and largely ignores the main plot, or is even just outright oblivious to it. I also like that we get a rare moment of Rimmer being genuinely upset and concerned when Lister collapses. Overall, pretty good episode, but there's one major problem I have with it:

The ending. The Kochanski hologram plot introduced in Balance of Power was fantastic for a number of reasons - it gives the dead crew a continuing presence, it gives a bit of continuity to things, and it puts Rimmer in an interesting position. As a hologram, he has to rely entirely on Lister to do things for him, and when Lister refuses to follow "orders" (ie with the quarantine in the previous episode), Rimmer can't actually do anything about it. But here is where he actually does have power, since it's entirely up to him whether or not to deactivate himself and allow the Kochanski hologram to go online.

And you can see Rimmer's perspective. He's not just refusing out of pointless cruelty. As we see in Future Echoes, he genuinely believes that, if he's ever deactivated, Lister won't turn him back on. He's almost definitely wrong, of course, but he has a sincere belief that his life will end if he allows himself to be deactivated, and so as long as he doesn't trust Lister, the Kochanski hologram can never be activated. There's a lot they could have gotten out of that. It's already been mentioned that the relationship between Rimmer and Lister softens a little during the second series and they become significantly more friendly (or at least, less hostile) than they initially are. Since Lister's hopes of meeting Kochanski's hologram hinge entirely upon getting Rimmer to trust him enough to believe that he'll revive Rimmer when he's finished speaking with Kochanski, this could have been a significant driving force in their relationship.

But then we get to the end of this episode. Turns out it's actually pretty trivial to generate two holograms, and it could have been done at any time. That's a shame, because it guts the plot of Balance of Power. Even worse though, is that Rimmer replaced the Kochanski disk with a copy of his own disk for... what reason? The only suggested reason we get is that Kochanski outranks him, and would therefore become acting Captain of the ship upon revival, which would end Rimmer's power trip. That's potentially an interesting angle to look at, but it isn't explored at all, here or in subsequent episodes. So we get a stupid ending where previous important facts (Holly can only support one hologram) get tossed aside and Rimmer, who previously had an understandable if mistaken motivation, now just looks like a complete bastard. Luckily, Me2 is a good episode, so at least we get that out of it. I feel like I'm criticising them for not telling a story that they weren't trying to tell in the first place, which is obviously kind of silly, but they set up the pieces so well in Balance of Power and the first half of this episode, and then just swept them all aside instead of making use of them.

Quote from: Lemming on September 18, 2020, 02:45:46 AM
Also, I like the way Cat is written in the first series, where he just walks around doing his own thing and largely ignores the main plot, or is even just outright oblivious to it.

I think I much preferred him as this sort of occasional character who was really like a cat in his disdain for the rest of them and disinterest in what they were doing. I love his bit in this episode where he repeatedly pretends to get up from his meal to help Rimmer. And "S-E-X I think I found it!" is a great line.


Lisa Jesusandmarychain


Jake Thingray

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on September 18, 2020, 11:09:54 PM
Claire Grogan can't act.

The girl to whom I lost my virginity, and foolishly thought I loved, was a bit similar to Clare Grogan, in being elfin and from Glasgow, though I'm sure Ms Grogan's personal hygiene standards were higher. While you're here, luv, I've messed up this linking before, but this local radio person claims to bear a resemblance to a certain Ms Comer, what do you think?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08ny6sg

paruses

Quote from: Jake Thingray on September 19, 2020, 09:49:17 AM
The girl to whom I lost my virginity, and foolishly thought I loved, was a bit similar to Clare Grogan, in being elfin and from Glasgow, though I'm sure Ms Grogan's personal hygiene standards were higher. While you're here, luv, I've messed up this linking before, but this local radio person claims to bear a resemblance to a certain Ms Comer, what do you think?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08ny6sg

I would say more Victoria Coren but we all pick out different features (that's my theory).

Am going to watch these as I've not really watched any RD for 20 years and it was huge on a Thursday night / Friday morning in 1988 so tha ks for the impetus and the commentary.


rue the polywhirl

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on September 18, 2020, 11:09:54 PM
Claire Grogan can't act.

I thought she was terrific. Perfect for the role. Best iteration of Koschanski.

Hey Kidz

I don't think she has enough screen time to really say. I agree with whoever it was above that said she's good in the scene where she's playing Rimmer pretending to be Kochanski. I think that's the only bit where she's given anything funny to do. She must only be in about five scenes over the whole original six series?

The Mollusk

Quote from: mippy on September 16, 2020, 03:45:38 PM
I found that flashback to the officers' mess made the setting even more bleak for me. The thought that that room that was full of great times for Lister is now empty and always will be.

Is that the "Leave me ... alone" flashback? One of my favourite scenes in the whole show. Perfect encapsulation of "party's over" emptiness and the futile despair that so often accompanies nostalgia.

JamesTC

Quote from: Hey Kidz on September 19, 2020, 08:12:21 PMShe must only be in about five scenes over the whole original six series?

I've never actually thought about that but it can't be many. I can think of the following scenes:
The End: George McIntyre Funeral
The End: George McIntyre Return Party
The End: Flirting with Lister in the Drive Room
Balance of Power: Dancing in the Mess Hall
Balance of Power: Rimmer in her body
Stasis Leak: In her hotel room.
Stasis Leak: With Future Lister in the bunkroom. Face covered by a big hat and had no lines as she was played by the floor manager as she was the same height as Grogan who was unavailable.
Psirens: "Get out the belt while you can"

I guess you could throw in alternative Kochanski from Back to Reality.


Also while looking up The End to make sure Kochanski was in one scene I saw that YouTube has the version with See You Later Alligator changed to Here We Go, Here We Go, Here We Go. FUCKING AWFUL.

SavageHedgehog

Aren't they really quite mean about Grogan's acting ability on one of the commentaries? Or am I getting that mixed up with Iannucci and\or Coogan having a pop at Barbara Durkin in I'm Alan Partridge?

BeardFaceMan

Quote from: SavageHedgehog on September 20, 2020, 02:24:44 PM
Aren't they really quite mean about Grogan's acting ability on one of the commentaries? Or am I getting that mixed up with Iannucci and\or Coogan having a pop at Barbara Durkin in I'm Alan Partridge?

"Having a pop" is a bit harsh, as far as I remember the only negative comment was in the final episode when she was screaming at Partridge at his party and they said she started too loud so it gave her nowhere to go.