Having a Christian background, it's difficult for me to be objective about Lemons. But I'll do my best...
PLOT
The crew travel back in time to Earth, 23 AD and travel to India in search of a way home. There, they encounter Jesus and accidentally reveal his future to him...
ANALYSIS
Red Dwarf has been an explicitly atheist show in spirit since the beginning, with its nihilistic tone, aimless characters and episodes like Waiting for God and The Last Day offering up cutting criticism of religious attitudes. I cannot say whether that would bother Christians or not, because I only have one foot in that world (I grew up in a Christian household and am personally agnostic, but with a great respect and fondness for Christianity). For me, it doesn't.
Hence, you know, the blog.
I take the good humour for what it is, and the atheist characters for who they are. Not to mention that obviously, there's a lot of legitimate criticisms to be made of Christianity and indeed religious fanaticism as a whole. So that's all well and good.
For me, Lemons drops the ball. It's an episode that doesn't mock the effects of religion or particularly zany forms of religion, but the very concept of having faith. The dialogue in this episode boils religion down to just something people make up to feel good about themselves.
And if you feel that's true and think it's totally silly to believe otherwise, that's fine. But there are millions of people who don't feel that way. Making fun of part of your audience simply for having faith at all seems mean-spirited to me. I'm glad they didn't go all the way and have it be the real Jesus, but the script still jeers at the Ten Commandments and God's actions without an ounce of reflection on why those things happened the way they did.
Not that I expect Red Dwarf to start analysing the Bible properly, but they could at least acknowledge the good things produced by Christianity. The development of science, artistry, education, basic morality, even mental health. It should go without saying, but the teachings of Jesus were kinda-sorta massively positive and have stood the test of time for a reason. Even if you don't believe in God.
Aside from my conflicted feelings about the premise, the setup is pretty weak. Why would a genome sequencer act as a time/space machine, and why is there a remote that can easily take the crew back? I don't think they explain why Jesus is being hunted by the Romans either. I did enjoy seeing the crew actually out on location (only for one scene, but still). Having them travel across the world to India was really cool, and gave Lemons a sense of scope. I would much rather have spent the whole episode on that. It's also neat to see real science applied for once. I'm sure there's more than one audience member who learned how to make lemon batteries from Red Dwarf.
I'm also necessarily not against having the crew meet Jesus, even having a few jokes at his expense. But not to the extent of mocking his teachings or taking the piss out of God, real or otherwise. I just have too much respect/bias towards religion to really be able to enjoy that. And I don't think much of people who blindly dismiss the positive aspects of religion and just mock it all as a cult rather than the learned institution it mostly is.
CHARACTERS
I'm guessing that casting a reedy, weaselly-looking man to play Jesus is part of the joke? I don't want to diss James Baxter, I'm sure he's a nice guy, but he didn't exactly strike me as Jesus. I'm surprised nobody pointed that out. If they were going for jokes at his expense, why not start with that?
Rimmer's parents were apparently not just Seventh-Day Hoppists, but also members of the Church of Judas. Honestly, I can't imagine Rimmer's dad being part of any religion, but that's just me...
Acting-wise, what mainly stood out to me was how much of a grumpy contrarian Rimmer has become. The man that used to defend William Shakespeare to Lister has now become the man who dismisses him. And almost anything else. I think Rimmer just likes taking the piss out of the whole world now. Chris Barrie commented that Rimmer has always been a middle-aged man at heart, and is now growing into his skin. That's certainly true. He's become gone from a cynical up-and-comer trying to carve out a life for himself to a cynical boomer rejecting the very institutions he once bootlicked.
NOTES
- I love how excited the Cat gets about his makeshift golf course. He's fixated on golf in quite a few episodes, hasn't he? Maybe it's all the bouncing balls - it makes his cat senses tingle.
- I'm dying to know why Rimmer is afraid of Lister reading. What crazy things will happen?? I want examples.
- Kryten's mask really is quite poor this year. You can see Robert's real skin colour around his eyes.
- How did humanity even die out with all these insane inventions they kept lying around?
- I adore the self-assembly montage. I can relate. Me and my dad once took half a year to put together a desk. We never did manage to put the final drawer together properly, because he glued it shut.
- How does Kryten instantly know the date and location on Earth? He doesn't even have the psi-scan with him!
- Can't they use Kryten or Rimmer to produce the necessary eight volts?
- Why does everyone talk English in 23 AD?
- Rimmer hopes to sell Jesus' autograph on eBay? Lolwut? How is eBay still around three million years in the future, and who is on it?
- Not having Rimmer revealed as the historical Judas was such a missed oppurtunity.
- Bags were invented long before 23 AD.
- Kryten having to operate on Jesus in the main control room is probably the most notable example of budget issues in series 10. A dark room with no visible walls would have been an improvement.
- Lister is still on the robotics course that he started in Fathers and Suns. Rimmer also mentions the anaesthetic running out in that episode.
- Lister insists that the crew return to Red Dwarf in the future so they can find Kochanski.
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