Trojan is further proof of my theory that Doug Naylor doesn't entirely grasp Rimmer's character
PLOT
The Red Dwarf crew receive a distress signal from Rimmer's brother Howard. Overcome with envy over Howard's success in life, Rimmer insists upon an elaborate farce wherein they pretend to be successful members of the Space Corps. Meanwhile, Lister tries to breach complex bureaucracy to purchase an electronic coffee stirrer.
ANALYSIS
I'd like to take a moment to compare this episode to an earlier one in the series - Holoship. Both tell a story about Rimmer's insecurities and his attempts to live up to an ideal that can only exist in his mind. In Holoship, he's trying to join a group that have everything he respects - a sex life, position of power, military might. In Trojan, he's trying to convince his brother that he has achieved these things.
Both are perfectly decent ideas for a good Rimmer yarn, but there is a big Rob Grant-sized hole in Trojan. I try to avoid going on about Rob Grant in these reviews, because I love the show in its totality, so to show an automatic disregard for anything after series 6 like some do is anathema to me. It's much more interesting to discuss the whole thing than just cheer on some arbitrary "bubble era" and ignore everything else. It's also disrespectful to some genuinely fantastic work that the cast and crew have put into Red Dwarf since then 1993, and Doug Naylor's development as a writer over the years.
The latter specifically is important. Red Dwarf was born from the combined interests and styles of Rob and Doug. With Rob gone, Doug has had to learn how to fill in the gaps that Rob left. And that's certainly been a bumpy ride, but the more time passes, the closer he gets. The Dave era is light years from the boredom of series 7 and Back to Earth, or the pantomime of series 8. It's a respectable, successful revival.
But.
The one thing that I don't think Doug can recapture is Rimmer. Doug (in my eyes) is fundamentally a light-hearted sitcom writer who boils the characters down to the attributes that make them funny. When he tries to go for something genuinely dramatic, it's focused around Lister, a similarly light-hearted and well-meaning man that I think Doug can easily sympathise with and perceive as a realistic person.
Everything to do with Rimmer, his insane neuroses, his lusts and self-deprecation, his depression and spite... is pure Rob Grant. Grant, from everything I've seen, is a cynic with a deep insight into human nature with all its foibles, self-delusions, desperate needs. An overthinker, to put it in simple terms. He's the one who cared about continuity in Red Dwarf, who crafted the melancholy tone that the show is known for.
As an intelligent man, Doug can replicate that quality to a certain extent, but to him, Rimmer is an amusing foil, a prat who is always just one step away from learning how to do better and doesn't only because it's funny. I'm not sure he's able to believe that a man like Rimmer could actually exist. And that's what we see in Trojan. Rimmer is a silly emotionally stunted fool in this. And so is his brother, because of course that family could never produce anything but, and Rimmer was so daft for believing he was the only idiot in the family. Tee hee, ha ha.
In Holoship (and for Rob Grant), Rimmer is a person. Despite growing up in the same household as his successful brothers, he couldn't manage. Because that's reality. He aspires for greatness but doesn't have the guts, because that's reality. He obsesses endlessly over his failures, because that's reality. Despite his selfishness and greed and pomposity, deep down he just wants to be liked. Again, reality. The writing is sympathetic towards him whilst also penetrating deeply into his warped psyche and showing the ugliness that you don't typically see on TV. He's real, and his faults are self-inflicted wounds, not some mechanical fault.
The decision to have Howard also be revealed as a prat is something I'm mixed on. Because on the one hand, it does sell the idea that Rimmer suffers from impostor syndrome. But on the other, there's a delightful realism in the original backstory as I explained above. It's just not a decision I can imagine Rob Grant agreeing with.
Putting my conflicted feeling aside, this is a very comfortably familiar opener for the fans. The bright lighting setup, the low-key plot, Rimmer's astro-navs and the Cat's "yeaaaaaah" harken heavily back to series 1-2, while the dynamics and the Simulant are pleasing nods to the show's middle years. Just forget about all the nonsense in-between and settle back in, is what it's telling me. The comedy was strong, with the Stirmaster and moose routines standing out as being particularly memorable.
The lack of budget did slightly show, with literally all of the action taking place on the Trojan bridge, even Howard's medical recovery. I also think there were some scenes missing that would have helped to establish what Howard's ship was up to. The fact that his crew died only two days ago and that Crawford wanted to start a Simulant uprising to overthrow humanity seemed to imply that the ship had travelled forward to the future. But unless I missed it, they never really explained this, or why Howard was a hologram in the first place.
CHARACTERS
I'm uncertain how I feel about Chris Barrie and Craig Charles' performances. When they were younger, there was a clearer distinction between their characters and their real-life selves. Now that they're older, and I've listened to their audio commentaries and interviews, seeing them perform feels less like I'm watching Rimmer and Lister, and more like I'm watching Chris Barrie and Craig Charles do routines.
And I can't tell if they've changed the way they act to suit themselves, if they've changed the way they act to age up the characters or if they've changed the way they act because they themselves have changed.
It's different with Kryten and the Cat, because those personas are very distinctive and also more heavily costumed. But there is a definite change with Rimmer and Lister. Rimmer's more quietly sardonic and Lister's more... I dunno, elaborate and slightly more posh than he used to be? Maybe they're rubbing off on each other.
Mark Dexter and Susan Earl are both fun guest stars. Dexter more or less goes for a Rimmer impersonation, which suits the purpose of the script well enough. And Earl is there to be sexy. Which is hey-ho, pip and dandy.
NOTES
- This episode has my favourite Cat outfit.
- It's nice to see that Rimmer hasn't lost his love of special captain-y buttons (see: Back in the Red).
- What does a question about 1970s Swedish car drivers have to do with astro-navigation??
- The spinning beach ball of death is worthy of at least one snort, but it does date the episode a little. Also, the frozen ferrety facial feature is the real laugh.
- Why can't we see the moustaches that they draw on Rimmer's face?? Cocktease.
- I love the fake Star Trek outfits.
- The attempt to age Kryten up with fake eyebags didn't work very well.
- How is Lister not dead from the handful of sugarcubes he takes in his coffee??? I got heart palpitations just from watching that.
- The JMC onboard computer can grant medals to officers? That doesn't seem right. Also, what was all that fuss in White Hole about if they could have just gotten the onboard computer to replace Holly?
- Kochanski and Petersen are mentioned.
- Rimmer claims to have failed the astro-nav exam nine times, whereas in Balance of Power, it was eleven. I'd call it a continuity error, but the books did specifically state that on two occasions, his exam results were unclassified because of his mental breakdowns.
- Howard previously appeared in Polymorph.
- The Simulants previously appeared in Justice, Gunmen of the Apocalypse, Rimmerworld and Beyond a Joke.
- Howard's death is accompanied by a variation of the Rimmer song from Blue.
- Lister mentions getting his brush to repaint the ship's name, referencing the series 1-2 credits where he's shown painting Red Dwarf.
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