39,327
edits
Red Dwarf: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
m (Remove useless categories) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 19:
Also with [[Red Dwarf (Literature)|four tie-in novels]].
{{tropelist}}
== Tropes A-D ==
Line 56 ⟶ 55:
** Notably, despite the fact that Captain Hollister went the most time between his last appearance as a guest and his debut as a regular (11 years), his is the only case in which the ''actor'' who played him ascended as well. David Ross declined the opportunity to join the main cast due to his distaste for the Kryten makeup and was replaced by Robert Llewellyn, and Clare Grogan was replaced by Chloe Annett as Kochanski due to the fact Grogan had retired from acting in favor of becoming a TV host.
** It's a well known in-joke amongst the cast, during the DVD commentaries for series 8, about one of the 'extras'. A hugely built intimidating man, referred to as Chopper. It's about him starting off as simply a background extra, and allegedly ''persuading'' the producers to get some lines. To the point where each episode following, he always received some lines, almost close enough to rival Holly.
* [[Armor
{{quote| '''The Inquisitor''': "In a human, this behaviour might be considered stubborn."<br />
'''Kryten''': "But I am not human. And neither are you. And it is not our place to judge them...I wonder why you do." }}
Line 91 ⟶ 90:
* [[Blue and Orange Morality]]: Primarily The Cat. Elaborated on in the novels, where they emphasise that being descended from cats, he can't be properly judged by human standards. By cat standards he's a perfectly regular cat - which makes him vain, self-centered, egotistical and sex-crazed, with a tendency to jump out at things, hiss, and make yowling cat noises and dance when he just walks down corridors.
* [[Bolivian Army Ending]]: {{spoiler|The end of 'Only The Good' where it is undetermined whether Rimmer or the rest of the crew survived for that matter}}.
* [[Bond One
* [[Bottle Episode]]: There have been several of these over the course of the series, such as Marooned, Out Of Time, and The Last Day. Many of the bottle episodes are considered to be some of the best - but then there are exceptions such as Duct Soup, which is rated as one of the worst.
* [[
** Lister implies that his uncle was also a brain in a jar in Balance of Power.
* [[Brain Uploading]]: All [[Hologram|holograms]], and also the episodes ''Thanks for the Memory'' and ''[[Freaky Friday|Bodyswap]]''.
Line 105 ⟶ 104:
* [[Britain Is Only London|Britain is Only Nodnol]]: Averted; London is never seen or even mentioned in a major way prior to ''Back to Earth''. The only time it really gets mentioned prior to that is on a roadsign in "Backwards," and even then it's flipped, rendering the city's name as "Nodnol" -- contrary to popular belief, the backwards universe stuff in that episode is actually set in the city of Retsehcnam (Manchester) rather that Nodnol, as indicated by a barely visible sign in one shot.
** Grimsby is also mentioned, as are several other places.
* [[Brother
** In ''Rimmerworld'', {{spoiler|Rimmer realises that the female clone he's trying to create would technically be his sister. He decides she doesn't need to know, and follows the original plan.}}
** Of course, in Series VII, we find out that Rimmer wasn't ''completely'' wrong. It's actually {{spoiler|mother-son incest.}}
Line 111 ⟶ 110:
* [[Building of Adventure]]: The ship is city-sized and the primary setting.
* [[But He Sounds Handsome]]: Holly appears on a recording Holly doesn't remember making (the crew's memories were erased). Initially, he comments, "Nice-looking bloke," and then when the recorded Holly tells them to pause the recording, he does so, because he "Knows what he's talking about, that dude."
* [[
** The first episode of Season 7, "Tikka to Ride", opens with Lister recording a captain's log (he even parodies the [[Star Trek]] format).
* [[The Cast Showoff]]: Rimmer's impressions and parroting while he malfunctions in "Queeg". Chris Barrie is a trained impersonator who had already starred in [[Spitting Image]].
Line 121 ⟶ 120:
'''Ace Rimmer:''' "Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast."<br />
Don't forget '''Cat:''' Aaaaaaoooooughhh! Eeeeeyaaayaaah! }}
** Note: That's not Cat screaming in fear or anything. That's just him... [[What Do You Mean
* [[Catfolk]]: The ship's cats evolved over the eons into a species of humanoids, one of whom is a main character.
* [[Cattle Punk]]: Second half of ''Gunmen of the Apocalypse''.
Line 130 ⟶ 129:
** Series VI ended with the entire crew aboard Starbug as it was destroyed by their future selves. A quick gag at the beginning of Series VII reveals that this caused a paradox that hit the [[Reset Button]].
** Finally, the Series VIII finale "Only the Good..." ends with the ship doomed. "Back to Earth" starts with an intact ship and the words "Nine Years Later", and otherwise does not reference "Only the Good..." in any way (though Rimmer is dead and a hologram again).
* [[Cluster F
{{quote| '''Lister''' (in ''Bodyswap'', while in Rimmer's body)''':''' Oh, smeg! What the smeggin' smeg's he smeggin' done?! He's smeggin' ''killed'' me!!}}
* [[Cold Opening]]: ''Stoke Me a Clipper'' had an opening scene four or five minutes long before finally kicking into the opening sequence.
Line 178 ⟶ 177:
'''Cat''': And where didja get that?<br />
'''Lister''': He was sucking that when he got shot! I had to prise his jaws open with a car jack. }}
* [[Deep
** The titular video game in episode "Better Than Life".
** The premise of "Back to Reality".
Line 219 ⟶ 218:
* [[Enemy Without]]: The crew (and ship) are split into "High" and "Low" copies in ''Demons and Angels''; the Highs don't survive very long when they encounter the Lows. In ''Terrorform'', the entire planet is literally Rimmer's self-hatred attacking him.
* [[Enthralling Siren]]: Psirens are sirens {{smallcaps|[[Recycled in Space|In Space!]]}}
* [[Esperanto, the Universal Language]]: Most of the ship's labels are in both English and Esperanto. Rimmer spends much of the first two seasons failing to learn the language.
** And Lister actually seems to have a grasp of it, most likely due to Rimmer's constant use of language tapes.
* [[Even the Guys Want Him]]: Cat ''thinks'' he's this - "Face it, buddy, I have a body that makes ''men'' wet!" - but no-one that isn't illusory ever shows any interest in him. Space Corps Special Service Test Pilot Arnold "Ace" Rimmer, on the other hand...
Line 225 ⟶ 224:
'''Ace:''' I didn't know your bread was buttered that side, Bongo.<br />
'''Bongo:''' It isn't. I've been happily married for 35 years. It's just, a chap like you can turn a guy's head. }}
* [[
* [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]]: The Cat does not have a name, and is simply called The Cat or Cat throughout the show.
** The reason for this, according to the books, is that all cats think that they're the center of the universe and the idea that someone might not know who they are is beyond their comprehension.
* [[
* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]: In the book version of ''Better Than Life,'' when Lister crashes on a planet {{spoiler|which turns out to be Earth}}, the planet itself seems to be out to get him.
* [[Evil Twin]]: The Low counterparts in ''Demons and Angels''. An evil imitation of Lister shows up in ''Psirens''.
Line 236 ⟶ 235:
* [[Explosive Instrumentation]]: A couple times early on, more frequent in the later series. {{spoiler|Lister, the Cat and Kryten all die to exploding instrument panels in ''Out of Time''.}}
* [[Explosive Overclocking]]: In ''White Hole'', the crew overclocks Holly, who's been descending deeper and deeper into computer senility, hoping to bring her intelligence back. They get her to an IQ of 12,000, but it drops her lifespan down to less than four minutes.
* [[Exposition of Immortality]]: Given that the titular space vessel has been travelling away from inhabited human space for three million years, many of the remnants they encounter are at least that old or older; The Inquisitor is a [[Healing Factor|self-repairing]] simulant who Kryten tells of as ''"living until the end of time.''" Hudzen 10 was the replacement model for Kryten. And his delivery pod followed the Series 4000 mechanoid through deep space until it found him on the ''Dwarf;'' and [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|all that time alone did nothing for his sanity chip.]] Many of the simulants encountered have been around since they originally rebelled against humanity, too.
** Legion formed as a ''gestalt'' during a series of experiments in shared consciousness by a group of human scientists; he tells us when they died he had to hang around as a ''"mindless essence''" for several million years until the ''Red Dwarf'' crew showed up.
* [[Failure Is the Only Option]]: Getting back to Earth.
Line 247 ⟶ 246:
* [[Fictional Document]]: The Space Corps Directives.
* [[Finger Licking Poison]]: In ''Back in the Red'', {{spoiler|with a (non-lethal) drug in the seal of an envelope}}.
* [[Five
** Configuration One:
*** [[The Hero]]: Lister. Probably one of the least straightforward examples of this trope in history, but he fills the role far more effectively than Rimmer does.
Line 296 ⟶ 295:
'''Cat''': "So am I!" }}
* [[Gone Horribly Right]]: The Despair Squid was the result of compressing 5 billion years of evolution into 3 years. It killed just about everything in the ocean.
* [[Good Angel, Bad Angel]]: Confidence and Paranoia in, unsurprisingly, ''Confidence and Paranoia''.
** Also the episode "Demons and Angels".
** Arguably, in "Terrorform," Rimmer's resurrected self-confidence versus, well, everything else in his mind.
Line 316 ⟶ 315:
** Kryten in ''The Inquisitor'':
{{quote| '''Kryten''': "Well I've got to go back in time now and sacrifice myself so that we can get into this mess we're in now in the first place."}}
* [[Hey
** Also, the guy who revives the crew in ''Back to Reality'' was [[Harry Potter|Wormtail]].
** Speaking of ''[[Harry Potter]]'', Arthur Weasley was Lister's best mate before the accident.
Line 324 ⟶ 323:
{{quote| '''Kryten''': Sir, you think Jesus was a hippy.<br />
'''Rimmer''': He had long hair and didn't have a job! What more do you want? }}
* [[Historical
{{quote| '''Lister''': (talking to a crowd listening to Hitler) "Don't listen to him, he's a complete nutter! And he's only got one testicle!"}}
** And the [[Who Shot JFK]] spoof (''Tikka to Ride''), in which {{spoiler|Kennedy ended up shooting his own past self because it turned out the timeline in which he survived became a [[Crapsack World]].}}
Line 349 ⟶ 348:
* [[I Banged Your Mom]]: In ''Polymorph'', {{spoiler|the shapeshifter took on the likeness of Rimmer's mother and tells Rimmer than Lister has had her "five times, he was like a wild stallion" to make Rimmer angry.}}
** With [[Memetic Mutation|ALPHABETTI SPAGGETI!]]
* [[I Call Him "Mister Happy"]]: Archie.
* [[I Cannot Self
* [[I Choose to Stay]]: {{spoiler|Lister, briefly}} in ''Back to Earth''.
* [[I Hate Past Me]]: The Dwarfers go back in time to meet 17 year old Lister back when he was the lead singer for ''Smeg and the Heads.'' Even the Cat thinks that Past-Lister is an idiot.
Line 375 ⟶ 374:
** Sort of. More 'Journey to a Planet that Has Shaped itself to Represent Someone's Mind.'
* [[Jumping On a Grenade]]: Ace does this in ''Emohawk: Polymorph II''. Since he's [[Hard Light]] and virtually indestructible, he's none the worse for wear.
* [[Killed Mid
** And {{spoiler|Ace Rimmer}}.
* [[Kissing Warm Up]]: Referenced in "Confidence and Paranoia", when Paranoia starts dredging up Lister's embarrassing adolescent memories.
Line 431 ⟶ 430:
* [[Nested Mouths]]: The Polymorph.
* [[Never Say That Again]]: Kryten can't handle being called "tetchy" in ''Quarantine''.
* [[Never Smile At a Crocodile]]: Ace Rimmer's Nazi enemy has a crocodile for a pet, keeping it on his lap and stroking it affectionately, parodying [[James Bond|Blofeld]]'s [[Right
* [[Never Trust a Trailer]]: The intro that made it look like an action-heavy adventure show, rather than an irreverent comedy with a sci-fi backdrop.
* [[Nietzsche Wannabe]]: The Inquisitor; subverted by his attempts to populate the universe with meaningful humans.
Line 439 ⟶ 438:
* [[Not Quite Saved Enough]]: Rimmer in Timeslides.
* [[No Periods Period]]: Lampshaded and averted. It's briefly mentioned in ''Balance of Power'' when Kochanski ({{spoiler|really (and clearly) Rimmer}}) claims to be "having a woman's period." In ''Only the Good...'', Lister explains to Kryten why {{spoiler|the second}} Kochanski has said it's the wrong time of the month. Kryten is shocked that television and film have so successfully avoided this. Kryten, armed with this new knowledge of the female body, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEj31njaeX0 hilariously averts the trope].
* [[Not
* [[No Waterproofing in The Future]]: Kryten, and all the other Series 4000 mechanoids of his type.
* [[Now Do It Again Backwards]]: It's how Red Dwarf is reconstituted from its High and Low counterparts in ''Demons and Angels''.
Line 453 ⟶ 452:
* [[Older Than They Look]]: Kryten. In ''Back in the Red: Part 1'' he tells Dr McLaren that he was created in 2340. Since the events of ''The End'' take place in around 2190, and Lister is in stasis for around three million years, that means that when the crew first meet him in ''Kryten'', the eponymous character is roughly ''two million, nine-hundred and ninty-nine thousand, eight-hundred and fifty years old''. Even in a show that hardly prides itself on its consistency and continuity, that's a staggering figure.
* [[Once a Season]]: A Time episode.
* [[One
* [[One
** The Talkie Toaster. "Would you like some toast?"
* [[Opposite Sex Clone]]: Well, opposite sex dimension in ''Parallel Universe''.
Line 464 ⟶ 463:
** Kristine Kochanski was a guest character in Series I, II and VI, and played by Clare Grogan. When the character became a main character in Series VII, Grogan was unavailable and Chloë Annett replaced her.
* [[Other Me Annoys Me]]
* [[Overly Long Gag]]: The aforementioned [[
** And:
{{quote| [[Big Eater|Cat]]: Fish!<br />
Line 481 ⟶ 480:
* [[Pinball Projectile]]: In the famous "Gunmen of the Apocalypse" episode.
** The ultimate example of this is ''White Hole'' where multiple planets are crashed into one another in order to plug up the [[Negative Space Wedgie]].
* [[Pointy
* [[Plot Hole]]: Lister's attempt to make a "gift" of the memories of one his love affairs to Rimmer introduces several of these into Rimmer's life.
{{quote| '''Rimmer''': That's why I was an orphan when both my parents were still alive. That's why I had my appendix out twice. }}
Line 493 ⟶ 492:
* [[Pound of Flesh Twist]]: Used against the heroes in the final season. Having been imprisoned for stealing and destroying a Starbug, their attempt to escape and prove their innocence demonstrates to the captain that their story is true, exonerating them regarding the theft. But it also demonstrates that they had improperly accessed classified personnel files, a crime carrying exactly the same penalty. (The files would have revealed the Captain bribed his way up the career ladder, which explains why he was looking for the loophole.)
* [[Power of Friendship]]: Inverted. The rest of the crew use this with Rimmer to escape the Psi-Moon in ''Terrorform''. Rimmer is suspicious right from the start, and even when it does work long enough to get them off the moon, Rimmer immediately realizes that it was all tot, and that they meant not a word of it. Much to his displeasure, by that point they're only too happy to confirm his suspicions.
* [[Pre
* [[Precision F
** The show also has precisely one instance of an actual swear word (Cat says "shit" in ''Emohawk: Polymorph II'').
* [[Precursors]]: Subverted: all life in the universe originated on Earth, which makes ''us'' the Precursors.
Line 515 ⟶ 514:
* [[Rash Equilibrium]]: The climax of "Justice".
* [[Reality Warping Is Not a Toy]]
* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]:
** In "Time Slides," a distraught and disillusioned Lister blasts through a list of reasons he's sick of his fellow crew members -- the vast majority aimed at and said to Rimmer, including, "... the fact that you always smile when you're being insulted."
** In "Terrorform", Kryten gives a long, in-depth list on why Rimmer would have such a strong sense of self-loathing. Kryten goes on for over a minute, and when interrupted by Rimmer, Kryten points out that he is only halfway through. Ironically, Kryten was being polite and informative, rather than condescending.
Line 537 ⟶ 536:
*** Then they used [[Rule of Funny]] and rewrote the [[Rewrite]], implying that the job was so easy that anyone that ''could'' mess it up must have the brains the size of a newt's testicle.
* [[Ridiculous Future Sequelisation]]: There is a passing mention of ''Friday the 13th: Part 3,721''.
* [[Right
* [[Right Behind Me]]: Rimmer realizes, too late, that's where Captain Hollister is standing.
* [[Robo Cam]]: Hudzen in ''The Last Day'', Kryten in ''Terrorform''.
* [[Robo
* [[Robot Religion]]: The Electronic Bible (with version numbers) and Silicon Heaven, concepts created by humanity and installed in every artificially intelligent device that could possibly pose a threat if it [[Turned Against Their Masters|Turned Against Its Masters]] in order to keep them under control with a belief that if they accept a lifetime of slavery they will get their eternal reward in the next life. Very cheap and simple machines that couldn't possible pose any threat such as talking toasters don't get installed with belief chips so most kitchen appliances are atheists.
* [[Rule of Funny]]: The writers have no problem tossing the show's conventions aside if they can get a better laugh without them. Notable examples include Kryten's lies; they normally had to be preceded by Kryten declaring himself to be in "Lie Mode" (obviously undermining the believability of his lie), except when they didn't.
Line 567 ⟶ 566:
* [[Second Face Smoke]]: Lister and Rimmer are in the movie theater, all alone, and Rimmer insists that Lister, who is smoking, move three seats over to be in the smoking section. Lister blows smoke right ''through'' Rimmer's face.
* [[Second Law My Ass]]: Abel. Even though he comes from the same model as Kryten, who is logical, intelligent and usually doing the cleaning, Abel's addicted to Otrazone, lives in squalor, and doesn't appear to have enough brain left to tell right from wrong.
* [[Self
** In "Future Echoes", Rimmer sees an echo of Dave dying at a computer console. To prove the future isn't set in stone, he tries to prevent another echo, Cat breaking a tooth. Bet you can't guess what happens next.
{{quote| '''Lister:''' ''Hey, it hasn't happened, has it? It has 'will have going to have happened' happened, but it hasn't actually 'happened' happened yet, actually.''<br />
Line 619 ⟶ 618:
* [[Swirly Energy Thingy]]: The source of many entertaining quotes on the matter.
* [[Take a Moment To Catch Your Death]]: Rimmer manages to somehow return to life in Timeslides. In celebration, he goes around feeling objects, something he was unable to do for three million years. Unfortunately, he accidentally strikes some volatile explosives.
* [[Take That, Audience!]]: "The Cat's looking so geeky he couldn't get into a science fiction convention!"
** Done in a much more direct manner in the ''Smeg Ups'' and ''Smeg Outs'' videos, where Kryten reads out fan mail criticising the continuity and logic errors in the show, and then berates the people who wrote the letters, accusing them of having no life.
* [[Tanks for The Memories]]: Fittingly, in "Thanks for the Memory."
Line 640 ⟶ 639:
** Particularly hilarious towards the middle of "Out of Time", where they come into possession of a "time drive" and play with it a bit before realizing it's completely, utterly useless while they're still physically located 3 million years away from Earth. It doesn't do space, just time. But they did get to experience the heady medieval atmosphere of pre-Renaissance deep-space.
*** The Fridge Brilliance never hit the characters: if they have a Time Drive, they can go back in time to 3 million years before they departed Earth (give a few for margin of error,) set course for home, head back into stasis, and arrive home around the time Red Dwarf was departing.
* [[Timey
** In fact, due to the Boys from the dwarfs [[Once a Season]] romp through history, this can be said for the timeline ''In-Universe''
* [[Title Drop]]: "Stoke me a clipper, I'll be back for Christmas!".
Line 676 ⟶ 675:
* [[We Need a Distraction]]: Played embarrassingly straight by Kryten in ''The Inquisitor''.
{{quote| '''Kryten:''' "Excuse me, could I just distract you for just a brief second?"}}
* [[What's a Henway?]]: Rimmer practicing his "wormdo" pickup line in "Parallel Universe".
{{quote| '''Rimmer''': Look, you're not giving me the right reply!<br />
'''Lister''': What is the right reply?<br />
Line 682 ⟶ 681:
'''Lister''': Oh, it wriggles along the ground like that?<br />
'''Rimmer''': You ''know'' it? }}
* [[Whole
* [[Who Shot JFK]]: {{spoiler|He shot himself.}}
* [[Wig, Dress, Accent]]: Rimmer disguises himself as Ace in ''Stoke Me a Clipper'' using this technique. Only Lister is in on the act; it works on the others. {{spoiler|In fact, this is essentially how Aces are ''made''.}}
* [[Wine Is Classy]]: Discussed when Lister complains about "total smegheads" who always drink wine. "It's never beer, is it? It's always wine. 'What do you want on your cornflakes, darling?' Oh, I'll have some WINE, please!"
* [[A Wizard Did It]]: In one of the ''Smeg Ups'' specials, Kryten used this as an explanation.
| |||