Demons and Angels is compelling, but executed in a strangely puritan way.
PLOT
An experiment gone awry causes Red Dwarf to explode and be replaced by two identical copies - one good, one evil. The crew have to acquire components from both to reconstitute the original before time runs out. Matters are made more difficult by each ship's clones of the crew.
ANALYSIS
I've always thought of Red Dwarf as being a very atheistic show, with no compulsion against criticising religion, making fun of Jesus or commenting on the seemingly meaningless nature of the human condition. So who could have guessed that these same writers would earnestly write about how sickening the horror movie genre is? How an interest in weapons is inherently base and "shriveling to the spirit"?
Now, obviously the whole episode is played for laughs and the angelic crew are not depicted as being perfect. They are just as silly and incomplete in their nature as their dark countetparts. But it's amusing to me that the show takes this broad, traditional approach to depicting absolute good and evil as opposed to really digging into what makes these characters tick. Surely each crewmember would have their own unique positive and negative traits? But the personalities of their alter egos are all the same, implying that good and evil are fixed concepts that can only be interpreted in a certain way. All of the good crew are intelligent yet childlike monks while all the bad crew are horny, stupid and maniacal. It doesn't leave a lot of room for nuance.
And I'm not even opposed to that in theory. I just find it odd in a show like Red Dwarf, which has previously mined tons of nuance out of the idea of forcing the crew to confront different versions of themselves (hi, Ace Rimmer), and finding subtle ways to express their humanity through that.
Much like the previous episodes of series 5, Demons and Angels is hazy on the internal logic and heavy on the horror atmosphere (ironic really, given how the genre is dismissed in dialogue). The sequence of Lister being made to pour hot tea on his crotch, eat a tarantula and murder others is downright sadistic. The demon ship is dirty and dank, almost a parody of the murky Alien-esque set design that the show has employed since series 3. There's a jumpscare, stabbings, tense creeping around the corridors, the team splitting in two, all the classics. And even if the evil crew are all a bit samey, they make for pretty decent villains (except for Lister - Craig Charles' giggling laugh is very annoying).
The apparent destruction of Red Dwarf is also extremely well done. Seeing the original prop blow up is a hell of a gut punch, and even on a rewatch, it feels like the crew have never been so threatened. This sense of danger and excitement carries the episode despite its lack of thematic weight. If one was being really pretentious, one could make the argument that the episode itself represents a 'demon' version of Red Dwarf, all cheap thrills and gruesome excitement over the substance provided by tamer but more emotionally rich episodes (like Thanks for the Memory, for example). Well, I always did like horror movies...
CHARACTERS
There are two stand-out performances I'd like to talk about.
One is Danny John-Jules as the angelic Cat. Purely because his exaggerated facial expressions make me laugh. He is so enthusiastically pious that it's almost creepy, and it works wonders.
The other is Chris Barrie as the demon Rimmer, whose BDSM-inspired gear and personality stand out as the show's nearest attempt at representing the crew's own mental state through these characters. It's hardly surprising to find the self-loathing, insecure, quick-to-throw-blame Rimmer being a sadomasochist in the darker corners of his mind. Barrie's commitment to the shtick is also very admirable. Even when the camera isn't focusing on him, you can see him langorously leaning in a very feminine style.
One missed oppurtunity was not focusing more on Lister's terror over the idea of killing people. They make a point of referencing his refusal to kill, the fact that his dark half is capable of murder and then we even see a remote-controlled Lister butchering two people... and it's just never brought up again. You'd think Lister would be a little haunted by that experience. Why even bring it up then?
Hattie Hayridge probably enjoyed being menacing for a few lines of dialogue. I wanted to see so much more of goth demon Holly. They could've even done a whole thing where they keep cutting back to her making much more vulgar jokes than the normal Holly would, or something like that. The lack of attention towards Holly is upsetting. Although we did at least get the iconic 'Abandon shop! This is not a daffodil!" sequence, which is undeniably one of Hattie's finest. And also most idiosyncratic to her. I can't imagine Norman delivering that at all.
NOTES
- I was surprised by how cheerful Rimmer was at the thought of Lister and the Cat suffocating to death. It seemed a bit cruel even for him. There is technically a precedent for it in Future Echoes, but that was so long ago. And would Rimmer really be happy spending eternity with only Kryten? I don't know, that joke just didn't click for me.
- The angel Red Dwarf is the first time this show has been lit properly since series 2. I'm so very tired of the murky dimness.
- How is the triplicator supposed to fix their food supplies if the food expires in an hour?
- If everything on the angel ship is supposed to be perfect, why does the crew need triplicator components from the demon ship?
- I loved seeing the return of Rimmer's karate skills.
- Why would Rimmer's holo-whip have any effect on a human being? Emphasis on the word 'holo'.
- The show openly displays its history for the first time when Lister makes a speech describing the wildest moments of his life, including the visit to a parallel universe and giving birth to twins (Parallel Universe), seeing time run backwards (Backwards), playing pool with planets (White Hole) and now finally finding an edible Pot Noodle (referencing Marooned).
- The triplicator is built from a reverse-engineered matter paddle, which was featured in Meltdown.
- Lister's fear of tarantulas is a callback to Terrorform.
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