Stoke Me a Clipper is what sold me on the character of Ace Rimmer.
PLOT
A wounded Ace returns to the crew, determined to train his weaselly counterpart to take on the mantle of saving the universe. It's up to Lister to persuade his frenemy to take Ace up on his offer.
ANALYSIS
As a character, Ace Rimmer has always been 100% a total caricature, and I found it difficult to really believe he was anything other than an excuse for Chris Barrie to ponce around. A shtick that's entertaining, but not particularly deep or well-thought out. This all changed here. Stoke Me a Clipper posits that Ace is less of a person and more of an ideal, an inspiration for all Rimmers (and people in general) everywhere to try and improve themselves. It's such a massive improvement on the original concept and I can't imagine a more apposite way to write Rimmer out of the show.
Holoship was arguably the best, most empathetic portrayal of Rimmer in all of Red Dwarf. And Clipper goes right back to that idea of "underneath all that neurotic mess is someone nice trying to get out. Someone who deserves a chance to grow". Well, now he's got it. Even though it happened because Barrie forced the writers' hands by leaving, I'm still glad I got to see it. Not only does it recontextualise Rimmer's life in the show as a consistent arc of maturation, but the fact that he leaves means that Lister has also grown beyond his need to rely on Rimmer to stay sane.
On the entertainment side of things, the Nazi Germany sequence has to be one of the funniest skits in all of Red Dwarf. The comedy surrounding Ace is dialed up to eleven and works a lot better than in his original appearance. They just totally embrace how ridiculous he is and go for this outlandish James Bond parody that's just exquisitely silly. The bad bluescreen and wire work only makes it better. I'd happily watch a whole film made in that style.
The jarring American vibes I got from Tikka to Ride are not entirely gone. In particular, the virtual reality sequence set in Camelot stood out. It's not a bad scene - Brian Cox is hilarious, and the queen is remarkably beautiful - but its only plot relevance is giving Rimmer someone to fight against later (it's never explained how Lister brought the costume from his virtual game onto Starbug!) and the way it's presented... I don't know, something was off. It's very similar to a scene from Gunmen of the Apocalypse, where Lister is seducing a lady in a noir game. But that moment was shorter, and Lister himself commented sheepishly on his inability to resist her.
Here, it's drawn out, it's got lavish production values for a throwaway bit and Lister is being extremely sleazy and smug about the whole thing (also roping Kryten into it for whatever reason?). Again, not a bad comedy scene, but doesn't feel quite right for Red Dwarf. More like something from Robin Hood: Men in Tights, maybe.
CHARACTERS
I've got to give credit to Chris Barrie for not just his ability to play two very different versions of what's supposed to be the same man deep down, but also for his performance as "Arnold trying to be Ace". The way he keeps flickering between deep and high-pitched voices, trying to be macho while his eyes dart around uncertainly... it's really well done. I loved that it took Lister's mockery for Rimmer to push himself out of his comfort zone. And the efforts Lister went to for Rimmer were extremely heartwarming, especially that final promotion to First Officer and the salute and everything. It was a great reward for long-time viewers.
I'm a little vague on what version of Ace this is supposed to be. At first I thought he was a hologram of the old Ace, but there's a deleted scene that claims he's from a reality where he stole the Time Drive (see: Out of Time) from his version of the crew. And he claims to be several 'generations' removed from old Ace. So okay, he's got nothing to do with the character we saw in Series 4. However, when he first appears, he explicitly references the events of Dimension Jump. How would he know about that? Did the original Ace keep a log?
And even if he did, why would this Ace pretend to be him instead of just explaining immediately? Why would he even seek out a version of Rimmer that is the least likely to become the next Ace? How does Ace's computer track our Starbug down given that it's presumably nowhere near where it was in Dimension Jump? AND if it can do all that, why doesn't he just give them a ride and take them back to Earth? Or heck, now that I'm thinking about it, if the Time Drive can jump through time and space willy-nilly, why don't the crew just travel back to Earth? It's not like they have to go back in time. The sooner they write all this dimension jumping out of the show, the better... anyway, get hyped for next week when Lister becomes his own dad. Jfc.
NOTES
- This episode was co-written by Paul Alexander (any relation to the actress playing the Queen, Sarah Alexander?), one of the few times a Red Dwarf episode was written by someone other than Rob or Doug.
- Sarah Alexander is very very beautiful. I just wanted to reiterate that. She's married to Peter Serafinowicz, he of Darth Maul fame. Lucky man.
- Some great dialogue in this. "Either we're under attack or we're having a disco" is fantastic. I loved Rimmer's cheerful "morning!" as Lister and Kryten enter the burning cockpit too. Oh, and "your brain moves quicker than a nun's first curry!" is a very underrated Ace line.
- Ace's holographic system seems to be more vulnerable than our Rimmer's, given that in series 6, they said the hard light hologram is supposed to be indestructible. So a bullet shouldn't be able to harm the light bee.
- The distinctive Ace Rimmer theme played in this episode was actually composed for Series 6.
- The fact that nobody could guess Arnold was Ace (other than Lister) is pretty poor writing. Come on now.
- I love Lister's little tie made of black duct tape.
- This is a sequel to Dimension Jump.
- Kryten mentions Spare Head 3, who had a memorable appearance in DNA.
- Lister refers to Rimmer as "Alexander the Great's chief eunuch", harkening back to a conversation they had in Marooned.
- Lister mentions that Holly brought Rimmer back as a hologram to keep him sane, which Holly explained to him in Balance of Power.
SMEG OFF!
I hate the lack of attention to logic in regards to Lister bringing armour plates and swords from the virtual reality to the real world.
CONCLUSION
It's very satisfying on a character/longterm viewership level. There are some issues, but I can forgive that because I really appreciate what it does for Rimmer. And it's got that opening James Bond skit. Yeah, it's pretty good. Or iconic at least.
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