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Dec. 8 meme answer
Dec. 8th, 2013 04:19 pmFor pir8fancier, who asked, "What is it that you like about Red Dwarf so much? As a fan, what pushes your buttons (in a good way)?"
I'm pretty sure P isn't that familiar with Red Dwarf, so I think a summary is in order: On the Red Dwarf mining ship, about 200 years in the future, Dave Lister is the lowest-ranking crewman; he fixes vending machines all day under the supervision of his roommate and supervisor, Arnold Rimmer. Lister is likable but unbelievably slobby and unambitious, whereas Rimmer is excessively ambitious at trying to get ahead in a career he is laughably unsuited for - and kind of an asshole about trying to do it. In fact, a repair with which Rimmer is entrusted (arguably, the captain's fault for putting him to such a critical task above his pay grade) goes bad and leads to a nuclear explosion in the ship, killing everybody, including Rimmer - everybody, that is, except for Lister, who had been put in a protected stasis booth for bringing an unquarantined cat on board during shore leave.
Three million years later when the radiation is back to normal levels, the ship's computer, Holly, wakes Lister out of stasis and proceeds to inform him of the changes. First, of the explosion; second, of being three million years into deep space, since Holly drove the ship out of the solar system to get it away from any attending other mining vessels; third, of the fact Holly had also sealed the radiation out of storage areas like food and water stores - and in those areas is where Lister's pregnant cat had scampered off to before the blast. For three million years generations of cats had evolved and grown into a humanoid cat-people, then escaped in smaller transport vessels, leaving only one of their species, known simply as The Cat - a James Brown-esque freewheeling embodiment of what you'd imagine a human with cat traits and ego to act like. To cap it all off is Rimmer - each mining ship can support one hologram as projected by a little light bee, which is supposed to be employed to resurrect the data disc of the most senior, necessary crew member who's died in the line of duty. But, since Lister is the last human alive, Holly chooses Rimmer's data disc to keep him engaged and sane, because as we all know, arguing takes up a lot more attention and time than someone with whom you agree on most everything. :-D
This incidentally explains much of what I like about Red Dwarf. That it's about the underdogs, the rank-and-file, and it's about the darkest situation in which a sociable human like Lister could find himself ... and the writers choose to handle it with comedy rather than I R Serious Drama. I like that it's multicultural - it started with four guys as the cast and two of them, including the main character, were black or mixed-race. I like that the characters still find ways to annoy the fuck out of each other after 25 years, but will help each other when there's an outside threat, and that they can grow and develop and still be so, so screwed up. The heart of the show is Lister's largely-sustained optimism that he might still find Earth and/or some version of the woman he once loved, juxtaposed with the eventual realization he's already managed to create an interstellar "home" with a longtime family in the form of Rimmer, Cat, Holly (when he or she is around - that's a story you'd have to watch the show to find out), and Kryten, a service droid who is only a little like Data.
The show is perfectly cast - not with highly-known actors, but they're all respectably known, particularly famous in the UK, where the show is produced. (There are stories, all true, about actors who almost had these parts - including Alan Rickman as Lister and Alfred Molina as Rimmer.) They've managed to maintain a great chemistry for 25 years and through 60-plus episodes (a BBC season is much smaller than an American one, remember). The show does not rely on posh special effects and sets, but instead, on the writing and acting, and the people who work behind the scenes on the sets and models and costuming are capable of great things with little money.
Finally, as one fan's LJ icon points out, there aren't too many other shows that date back that far where you can say you've got canon mpreg, m/m kissing (as well as a healthy argument for one main character being gay or bisexual and another being at least bicurious), men in dresses, dimensional doubles (and triples), and fourth wall-breaking meta. :-)
I'm pretty sure P isn't that familiar with Red Dwarf, so I think a summary is in order: On the Red Dwarf mining ship, about 200 years in the future, Dave Lister is the lowest-ranking crewman; he fixes vending machines all day under the supervision of his roommate and supervisor, Arnold Rimmer. Lister is likable but unbelievably slobby and unambitious, whereas Rimmer is excessively ambitious at trying to get ahead in a career he is laughably unsuited for - and kind of an asshole about trying to do it. In fact, a repair with which Rimmer is entrusted (arguably, the captain's fault for putting him to such a critical task above his pay grade) goes bad and leads to a nuclear explosion in the ship, killing everybody, including Rimmer - everybody, that is, except for Lister, who had been put in a protected stasis booth for bringing an unquarantined cat on board during shore leave.
Three million years later when the radiation is back to normal levels, the ship's computer, Holly, wakes Lister out of stasis and proceeds to inform him of the changes. First, of the explosion; second, of being three million years into deep space, since Holly drove the ship out of the solar system to get it away from any attending other mining vessels; third, of the fact Holly had also sealed the radiation out of storage areas like food and water stores - and in those areas is where Lister's pregnant cat had scampered off to before the blast. For three million years generations of cats had evolved and grown into a humanoid cat-people, then escaped in smaller transport vessels, leaving only one of their species, known simply as The Cat - a James Brown-esque freewheeling embodiment of what you'd imagine a human with cat traits and ego to act like. To cap it all off is Rimmer - each mining ship can support one hologram as projected by a little light bee, which is supposed to be employed to resurrect the data disc of the most senior, necessary crew member who's died in the line of duty. But, since Lister is the last human alive, Holly chooses Rimmer's data disc to keep him engaged and sane, because as we all know, arguing takes up a lot more attention and time than someone with whom you agree on most everything. :-D
This incidentally explains much of what I like about Red Dwarf. That it's about the underdogs, the rank-and-file, and it's about the darkest situation in which a sociable human like Lister could find himself ... and the writers choose to handle it with comedy rather than I R Serious Drama. I like that it's multicultural - it started with four guys as the cast and two of them, including the main character, were black or mixed-race. I like that the characters still find ways to annoy the fuck out of each other after 25 years, but will help each other when there's an outside threat, and that they can grow and develop and still be so, so screwed up. The heart of the show is Lister's largely-sustained optimism that he might still find Earth and/or some version of the woman he once loved, juxtaposed with the eventual realization he's already managed to create an interstellar "home" with a longtime family in the form of Rimmer, Cat, Holly (when he or she is around - that's a story you'd have to watch the show to find out), and Kryten, a service droid who is only a little like Data.
The show is perfectly cast - not with highly-known actors, but they're all respectably known, particularly famous in the UK, where the show is produced. (There are stories, all true, about actors who almost had these parts - including Alan Rickman as Lister and Alfred Molina as Rimmer.) They've managed to maintain a great chemistry for 25 years and through 60-plus episodes (a BBC season is much smaller than an American one, remember). The show does not rely on posh special effects and sets, but instead, on the writing and acting, and the people who work behind the scenes on the sets and models and costuming are capable of great things with little money.
Finally, as one fan's LJ icon points out, there aren't too many other shows that date back that far where you can say you've got canon mpreg, m/m kissing (as well as a healthy argument for one main character being gay or bisexual and another being at least bicurious), men in dresses, dimensional doubles (and triples), and fourth wall-breaking meta. :-)
