Waiting for God (1988) Review

Waiting for God is endearing, but not really all that remarkable unless you're a big fan of Cat lore. 

PLOT

Lister, Rimmer and the Toaster suffer from an existential crisis. Lister tries to find something good in having accidentally caused a Catpocalypse, Rimmer hopes to find alien life in a garbage pod and the Toaster considers a new career. 

THOUGHTS

Doing a story that's explicitly a parody of religion and faith gives Waiting for God a bit more narrative cohesion than previous episodes. Even the title is a pun on Sam Beckett's famous play 'Waiting for Godot', in which the title character never appears. God can never turn up, so our heroes (and us in real life) are trying to find some reason to live. It's not particularly subtle or incisive or in-depth, but you can say the script is at least a little more refined than what we've had so far. 

I've never found the idea of the Cat as clever or interesting as many other people do, so learning more about their culture isn't necessarily my idea of a good time, but I'm sure this is a favourite for others. The Cats' absurd misinterpretations of Lister's wishes were my favourite thing about all that. Maybe because Holly was the one expositing, and the chances of me finding anything funny increase by about 25% whenever Norman Lovett deadpans it.  

CHARACTERS

I never get tired of Holly's quietly paternal reactions to the crew's antics. "This is your report, Arnold" isn't a funny line on paper, but Norman makes it sound like he's a slightly disappointed dad patting his toddler on the head. His whole 'I'm the cool dad' approach to managing the crew is incredibly endearing. There's a scene where Lister pretends he's choking just to annoy Rimmer, and Holly is faintly smirking in the background. Priceless. 

Learning that he accidentally caused the deaths of thousands of Cats gives Lister his first real moral dilemma to process, and I like that he's able to find some solace in aiding the dying priest. I still think Craig overdoes the background acting though (with the moment where Lister sucks his thumb while sleeping being a particular low). 

Rimmer's obsession with aliens is a charming quirk, and gives him something a bit more interesting to do. 

I love how the Cat isn't at all bothered that his mentor died. The Cat being a bit of a sociopath makes him a lot funnier, as well as closer to the real life cats. The performance still isn't quite there, and there's a few scenes where he felt more like 'Danny John-Jules being a cool bro' than Cat (especially the scene where he talks to Lister about the Holy Book). 

Let's say a farewell to the Toaster, who shan't reappear until Series IV. I always thought that was a bit strange, given what a major presence he is in the books. They mined so much comedy from him in that, but couldn't in the show? 

NOTES

• The speech where Lister insists there's nothing interesting out there in space aged like fine milk. 
• I'm surprised Cat even bothered to find the Holy Book for Lister. 
• The running gag of Lister leaving Krispies (or whatever they're called, I'm no cereal expert) for the Cat is cute. 
• I love how excited Rimmer is to show off the pod to Lister. 
• "Who's Columbo?" "The man with the dirty mac who discovered America." Genius.
• How did the Cats know about Lister's plan to travel to Fiji, and in such detail? Did Holly tell them?
• Points to Chris Barrie for salvaging the scene at the pod when the skutters were clearly completely malfunctioning. 
• The priest saying he denounced coolness and chose the path of the slobbery is a nice hint at the Cat's apparent atheism. 
• I'm shocked that 'vomitisation!' did not catch on as Dwarf swearword.
• "They're just using religion as an excuse to be extremely crappy to one another!" sums the message up rather well. I'm glad the writers didn't go for the low-hanging fruit by making the script atheistic. Rimmer is, of course, but the episode doesn't aim to dismiss religion in general, simply its more extremist side.
• Is there a reason why Holly cannot reach the cargo bays? 

THANKS FOR THE MEMORY

• Lister discovered he was the God of the Cats in The End. 
• In his opening monologue, Holly references Lister's failure to become a chef in Balance of Power.
• Rimmer reviews Captain Hollister's remarks on the crew, which mention that Lister used to be a supermarket trolley attendant for ten years prior to his employment on Red Dwarf, as well as Rimmer's failure to pass the engineering exam (as seen in The End).
• According to Rimmer, it's been 18 weeks since Lister woke up from stasis. 

FUNNIEST MOMENT

"Constantly fails the exam? I'd hardly call 11 times constantly! I mean, if you eat roast beef 11 times in your life, one would hardly say that person constantly eats roast beef. No. It would be a rare, nay, freak occurrence!"

SMEG OFF!

The punchline of Rimmer discovering the 'alien pod' is just Red Dwarf's garbage doesn't hit nearly as well as it should. Maybe because it's during the closing credits, or because the lines just aren't funny.  

CONCLUSION

It's another solid early episode. The formula is slowly coming together, but it needs more time to cook.