janamelie

[janamelie]

Day 22: Favourite Kryten Episode

Krysis (Series XI, Episode V)

~ "What do you think? It's the new DX-87 shell; Carbon fiber, Rosso Corsa red, Alcantara trim, with twin exhausts! It has a top walking speed of, get this, twelve miles an hour! And you should see how this hoochie takes corners, it is pip-tacular! Plus, with the new push-rod suspension system, allowing my nose to be lower to the ground, I can take corners at 38 degrees."

[janamelie]

Another great example of homoerotic 4:3 framing from Red Dwarf. These two men are not supposed to be about to kiss, but they appear to be mere inches from each other's face.

[janamelie]

Yes, I should have mentioned Robert getting a break from the mask. Thank you. :)

New Red Dwarf Challenge

Day 22: Favourite Kryten Episode

DNA.

After “The Last Day” and “Camille”, Kryten gets a third consecutive episode focussed on him.  All these eps are great but I’m choosing the third one as it tackles his inferiority complex about being a mechanoid.

He’s accidentally made human, thinks all his dreams have come true and soon realises they haven’t.  We get the iconic “Double Polaroid” scene as a hilarious illustration of the fact that he still thinks like a mechanoid.

More seriously, he insults his spare heads in a “I’m better than you now” way.  Spare Head 3 is having none of it and turns out to be right - Kryten is indeed a mechanoid at heart.

I also enjoy Lister in this episode.  He doesn’t lecture Kryten about his behaviour, just patiently waits for him to come to his senses.  It’s a logical continuation of his plan to help Kryten break his programming.  And the way Lister and Kryten have such a sweet friendship in this era of the show is heartwarming.

(All gifs made by myself using this site. https://smegadrive.ganymede.tv/)

[janamelie]

New Red Dwarf Challenge

Day 22: Favourite Kryten Episode

DNA.

After “The Last Day” and “Camille”, Kryten gets a third consecutive episode focussed on him.  All these eps are great but I’m choosing the third one as it tackles his inferiority complex about being a mechanoid.

He’s accidentally made human, thinks all his dreams have come true and soon realises they haven’t.  We get the iconic “Double Polaroid” scene as a hilarious illustration of the fact that he still thinks like a mechanoid.

More seriously, he insults his spare heads in a “I’m better than you now” way.  Spare Head 3 is having none of it and turns out to be right - Kryten is indeed a mechanoid at heart.

I also enjoy Lister in this episode.  He doesn’t lecture Kryten about his behaviour, just patiently waits for him to come to his senses.  It’s a logical continuation of his plan to help Kryten break his programming.  And the way Lister and Kryten have such a sweet friendship in this era of the show is heartwarming.

(All gifs made by myself using this site. https://smegadrive.ganymede.tv/)

[janamelie]

For a cult 80's/90's sci fi show RD sure knew how to pander to the female gaze.

You've got Craig Charles in leather, Chris Barrie in every conceivable outfit they could think of, Danny John-Jules repeatedly drawing attention to his own arse, and Robert Llewellyn basically being the most domesticated man who ever existed.

They wrote for the dads, they cast for the mums.

[janamelie]

#As you should!! This is also like 95% of my thoughts about the show#I feel like I may be slightly misrepresenting it when I talk about it to friends due to this lol#And also my thesis director (because of course I'm writing a thesis on it. Of course). Nothing struck such fear in me when I realized#after spending an hour discussing the theoretical lenses I wanted to use while analyzing it#that they will very likely watch some of the show for context and be met with Silly Space Show

You're writing a thesis on it? Interesting. :)

My advice would be not to try to hide or downplay the fact that it can be very silly but to contrast that with the darker themes beneath the surface. But obviously I'm not your thesis director. ;)

every day of my life i think about red dwarf in the most miserable terms imaginable im putting the yuks aside this is about a hypercapitalist society cutting corners to a point that results in a catastrophic... extinction event, essentially, and millions of years later the last man alive struggling to find meaning in a universe where he will one day inevitably die alone, ending the human race for good

[janamelie]

As a fellow short person, I'm grinning in solidarity with her. :D

Doing more textposts and just noticed again the diagonal stagey corners of the I/II bunks, and Charles and Barrie trying to pretend they have even an inch of space in there just all scrunched and folded oml

[janamelie]

It's a good thing we never saw Todhunter's quarters as the thought of Robert Bathurst trying to cram his (approximately) 6 ft 4 frame into even an officer's bunk makes me cringe. Ouch.

Doing more textposts and just noticed again the diagonal stagey corners of the I/II bunks, and Charles and Barrie trying to pretend they have even an inch of space in there just all scrunched and folded oml

[janamelie]

Day 21: Favourite Lister Episode

Fathers & Suns (Series X, Episode II)

~ "'I'm doing OK,' you're probably saying. 'I'm doing OK.' But you're not. I mean, you could have been so much more, and you know it. You've gotta get yourself an education. At least get good at SOMETHING, and then build a home, a proper home, and then go and find Krissy. Errr, Step One: Enrol in the Jupiter Mining Corporation engineering programme. Uhhh, Step Two: Get that filling fixed. And then play the next message."

[janamelie]

#the subtle dehumanisation in the set design of s1/2 has me chewing on the WALLS#i know its a throwaway gag but THE TOILET IS BUILT INTO THE WALL NEXT TO RIMMERS BED#like. they dont even have a bathroom.#i know i KNOW IM BEING MR. EXTRAPOLATES RED DWARF OUT TO ITS SADDEST EDGES AGAIN BUT LIKE#technicians were seen as so subhuman that they didn't deserve square beds or a private place to shit#in s3 when the bunk set is upgraded there's a new sign over lister's bed saying officer's quarters#so the set change WAS digetic... they MOVED....#(and the officers quarters S T I L L has shitty bunks theyre just bigger)#a ship the size of a city and the technicians don't even get full sized bunk beds or a walled in toilet

I'm going to add here that original set designer Paul Montague actually based the sets on World War 2 submarines.

Doing more textposts and just noticed again the diagonal stagey corners of the I/II bunks, and Charles and Barrie trying to pretend they have even an inch of space in there just all scrunched and folded oml

[janamelie]

New Red Dwarf Challenge

Day 21: Favourite Lister Episode

The Inquisitor.

This is of course a pretty popular episode with wider fandom or at least it certainly was when it originally came out, spawning Smegazine strips. It's one of those I strongly associate with being a fan in the 90s and which helped to shape my image of Lister.

This is undeniably one of Lister's "coolest" episodes and yet he's still the comic-reading slob we know and love. We get to see so many facets of him in this episode.

The naughty schoolboy, for a start.

He's so stubbornly committed to his anti-authority stance that he refuses to even attempt to put a case for his existence.

Whilst he and Kryten are on the run, Lister points out to him that by encouraging Kryten to break his programming he "gave you a life to lose". If he'd just said that to the Inquisitor he wouldn't be in this mess but he refuses to play that game and self-defeating though that is, I admire it.

Since the situation is so desperate, Lister "uses his brains for once in his life" and comes up with a plan to trick the Inquisitor into destroying himself. I take a slashy pleasure in noting that he does so whilst smoking one of the cheroots Ace left behind in "Dimension Jump", having clearly kept them for cool moments such as this.

Don't underestimate Dave Lister.

(All gifs by myself using this site. https://smegadrive.ganymede.tv/)

[janamelie]

I understand why series VII retconned Lister and Kochanski's relationship (especially considering that it isn't too massive of a retcon when they did date in the book canon already, even if they hadn't at the beginning of the show's canon), but I think if it hadn't been retconned, it would have been as- if not more- interesting

Like picture having a crush on someone who, along with everyone else you knew, died, and your fantasy of them was one of the few things that provided you a link to the past. Then picture coming across another version of this person who not only dated their universe's version of you but also relied on you as a lifeline when everyone that they knew had died. You barely meant anything to the person who existed in your universe, but this other you meant everything to this other them. You will never have a chance to establish that kind of bond with your universe's version of this person, and you don't have a chance with this other version either, since they care too much about that other you

[janamelie]

New Red Dwarf Challenge

Day 21: Favourite Lister Episode

The Inquisitor.

This is of course a pretty popular episode with wider fandom or at least it certainly was when it originally came out, spawning Smegazine strips. It's one of those I strongly associate with being a fan in the 90s and which helped to shape my image of Lister.

This is undeniably one of Lister's "coolest" episodes and yet he's still the comic-reading slob we know and love. We get to see so many facets of him in this episode.

The naughty schoolboy, for a start.

He's so stubbornly committed to his anti-authority stance that he refuses to even attempt to put a case for his existence.

Whilst he and Kryten are on the run, Lister points out to him that by encouraging Kryten to break his programming he "gave you a life to lose". If he'd just said that to the Inquisitor he wouldn't be in this mess but he refuses to play that game and self-defeating though that is, I admire it.

Since the situation is so desperate, Lister "uses his brains for once in his life" and comes up with a plan to trick the Inquisitor into destroying himself. I take a slashy pleasure in noting that he does so whilst smoking one of the cheroots Ace left behind in "Dimension Jump", having clearly kept them for cool moments such as this.

Don't underestimate Dave Lister.

(All gifs by myself using this site. https://smegadrive.ganymede.tv/)

[janamelie]

[janamelie]

#stop this outfit is so iconic#so camp#plus the hilarious implication that in better than life - a video game where you can have anything you want -#- he chose to wear an outfit he already owns#no one's doing it like him

>prev tags Hey, good point. :)

RED DWARF CHALLENGE

DAY 16

Favourite Cat outfit

Such an impossible choice... this could be different if you ask me tomorrow, but today it's his golfing outfit.

[janamelie]

Day 20: Favourite Holly Quote/Moment

Tactfully Breaking the Bad News

~ "We've got a visitor. A pod arrived about twenty minutes ago. Something was in it, but it's broken free". Terrorform (Series V, Episode III).

[janamelie]

Awww, thank you. <3

New Red Dwarf Challenge

Day 20: Favourite Holly Quote/Moment

Her saving of the crew’s lives in “Back To Reality”.

I could have chosen so many amusing moments but I’m going for this because it has such dramatic weight.  Hattie’s Holly is so genuinely concerned for the crew and the way she manages to get through to her fellow machine Kryten by “broadcasting on a higher frequency” is a nice touch.

I guess the fact that it’s also her final scene in canon lends it extra importance to me. She went out on a high.

(All gifs made by myself using this site. https://smegadrive.ganymede.tv/)