Entangled is unfortunately a complete mess, with poor internal logic and lots of handwaving. Ironically, the cobbled-together climax is the best part of the episode.
PLOT
A drunken Lister loses Rimmer to a faction of GELFs in a game of poker, and is hooked up with a "groinal exploder" to ensure that he brings Rimmer to them. Meanwhile, Kryten and the Cat become quantum entangled, allowing them to weaponise coincidences all around them.
ANALYSIS
For a start, there's just way too much going on. Four entire storylines in one 25-minute episode! Let's count them.
1. The crew has to deal with the BEGGs to free Lister and protect Rimmer.
2. Kryten and the Cat's quantum entanglement.
3. Rimmer develops a new health & safety obsession, and tries to get Lister to sign the forms.
4. The discovery of the ERRA space station and professor Edgington.
None of them have time to develop, and at one point or another, they all feel like filler. The only thing that actually seems to matter in the episode is defusing Lister's bomb.
Instead of getting to it right away, Lister inexplicably hides what's happened and celebrates Rimmer's inevitable departure as if he genuinely intends to get rid of him. All so we can fill up time with a sketch where Rimmer thinks Lister will finally start filling up safety forms. Then when they learn the truth, they somehow ignore the obvious solution - handing Rimmer over to the BEGGs and then legging it. Hey, it worked in Emohawk!
(The BEGGs, incidentally, are just redressed Kinitawowi. It's pretty much the exact same setup, except they want Rimmer instead of Lister)
It's not clear how long any of this takes, because it was night when Lister went to visit the BEGGs, and it's still night when he admits what's happened. A whole day could have passed in-between, but there's no way to tell. It's so awkwardly written.
The quantum entanglement seems like it's going to be really interesting (they hint that Kryten and the Cat's minds are joined in some way), but in practice, it ends up being a variation of the luck virus, with various convenient 'coincidences' being used so the crew can find Edgington's space station. Possibly the least satisfying way to move the plot ahead that I've ever seen. At that point, everything that's already happened gets forgotten so we can have some jokes about the science of wrongness.
Admittedly, an institute filled with scientists handpicked for their ability to make mistakes is a very amusing and clever concept - very Douglas Adams style - and could make for a good episode. But it's just crammed in here.
It's public knowledge that the ending had to be rewritten because they were unable to keep the monkey on set for too long, so they had to replace its scenes with professor Edgington's character. But not only does that not excuse the rest of the episode, Edgington ends up being the highlight of the whole thing! You'd think her scenes would be the weakest, since they were written in a hurry. But she's a genuinely delightful presence, and her cruel death scene is a classic bit of dark humor. Honestly, I think we're better off losing the monkey.
CHARACTERS
In my Trojan review, I criticised Doug for not 'getting' Rimmer on an emotional level and I still stand by it. But when it comes to the comedic side of the character, I genuinely think the Dave era is a vast improvement over series 3-6.
What made Rimmer so funny was his obsession with bureaucratic busywork, his inability to let go of rules and regulations, his attempts to keep the system going through pure force of will. All that died out after series 2 (aside from the lazy Space Corps directives jokes). Now it's back in full force, and it's beautiful to watch. You can make the argument that Rimmer is developing backwards, but I don't care. He should be a petty-minded jobsworth.
The Cat is also being rebooted to his series 2 self, with dancing, stealing and lurking about the ship becoming common threads again. As with Rimmer, I applaud the return of his more interesting quirks and personality traits. It makes him more fully rounded and interesting.
NOTES
- Lister spilling sauce all over the keyboards and screens might be his worst moment of slobbiness ever. Even I couldn't stand that. I suppose Kryten was delighted, though. He had so much to clean.
- Apparently Kryten was lying in Justice, and Rimmer genuinely was tasked with fixing the drive plate. But was it the fault of the man, or the system? (It was 1000% Hollister's fault)
- Danny John-Jules is still in fantastic shape. He moves so fluidly for his age.
- The effect of seeing Lister in space is ruined by the fact that his oxygen tube is blatantly flopping around, unattached. Is it supposed to be a joke or something? How is he not dead?
- Rimmer thinking that Lister's finally going along with him was really cute. He was so happy there for a second.
- If Lister had to introduce the BEGGs to Kryten, how come the Cat and Rimmer know about them? Also, later on Kryten seems to know specific details about their race, so why didn't he simply tell Lister "yes sir, I know who they are" when Lister was giving his long-winded introduction?
- The incidental music used for the journey to the BEGG planet was Holly's theme from series 1, for some reason.
- I must say, it's been a long time since I've seen paintings used for backgrounds. It's very classic BBC sci-fi.
- The Cat's "CV" was a great laugh. I love the Cat this season.
- Doug apparently forgot that Rimmer's light bee is a physical object and cannot go through the wall when he enters soft light mode.
- According to the dialogue, Rimmer re-assumes hard light mode behind the closed door, but Chris Barrie still does the 'switch-up shake' when he reappears. It's accompanied by the appropriate sound effect, but not the visual effect. Very weird.
- Lister claims that Kochanski is 31, which might have been her age when he last saw her but not her age now. Many fans have pointed out this inconsistency, but I would argue that since Lister thinks he himself is in his 30s (during his birthday in a later episode), it's more likely that he's simply lost all sense of time progressing.
- Unless I'm mistaken, they never explain why Edgington (in her monkey form, no less) is the only person in stasis.
- Isn't Edgington's evolution machine just the same basic idea as the rejuvenation shower from Lemons?
- Why does the control room in Red Dwarf have a Greek keyboard?
- Lister and Rimmer talk about the crew's death in The End.
- Kryten has been experimenting with crystals from the quantum rod the crew recovered in Trojan.
- Lister is still looking for Kochanski, since he found out she was alive in Back to Earth.
- Kryten claims that the ship is programmed to shut Rimmer down when Lister dies, presumably since Holly only brought him back to support Lister.
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