Officer Rimmer is what you watch when you just want to enjoy Rimmer being an absolute smeghead of the purest kind.
PLOT
Rimmer is finally promoted to an officer, and assumes tyrannical control over Red Dwarf. Things come to a head when he produces a clone army to serve under him.
ANALYSIS
Doug Naylor writes another Rimmer episode. This time however, rather than aim for Rob Grant-style pathos and fail, he plays to his own strengths and dials all the comic devices surrounding Rimmer up to 11. And it's a thing of beauty.
Showing us how Rimmer would handle being given his officerhood seems like an obvious idea that it's surprising it took them this long to do it. It works out pretty much exactly like you'd expect, but as I said, it's not really an episode striving to be some kind of deep dive. More of an indulgence, really. It's exactly the kind of episode that I would rewatch over and over whenever I want an unfiltered Rimmer fix. Pure fun.
That being said, a recurring theme I am starting to notice in this series is a lack of pathos. I know the show is all about hijinks, but usually there's some kind of nugget of real humanity in there. Even with series 8, you had some small moments like Lister dealing with a different Rimmer, Kochanski putting up with being objectified, Holly reminding everyone that his duty is to keep Lister sane. In series 11, pretty much everything is a joke and the characterisation is more archetypical. Lister is lazy/slovenly, the Cat hates Rimmer, is selfish and shouts "yeaaaaaaah" a lot. Kryten is a sarcastic mother hen. Rimmer is a pompous coward. The show seems more aimed towards a younger audience, with telegraphed humour and formulaic interactions.
It's not a terrible shift. The stories are still inventive, the jokes are still funny. If it's become a kid's show, it's still a really great kid's show. And hey, maybe some of those kids will latch on and watch the older stuff. But there is a pleasing rough-around-the-edges feeling to the original run that I miss.
CHARACTERS
I felt it was unusually cold of Rimmer to quite literally jump the gun and try to destroy the Nautilus before even discussing alternatives. Although his refusal to tell Herring shortly before he dies because "he won't like me" is gold, along with pretty much everything else he says and does in this episode. There are so many great moments, like "I did it so weee-eell!", the macho posturing when he decides upon the Officer's Club, the barbershop quartet, all the gleeful smugness as he installs a class system on the ship. It's a wonderful outing. There is an argument to be made that Chris Barrie has become a little too hammy and over the top in the role, but this is an episode that absolutely warrants it and makes the best use of the kind of performance he brings to the table nowadays.
For the most part, the rest of the actors are just there to play straight man to Chris Barrie's endless mugging, but I did love one moment of Lister's, which is when he forces his way into the officer's club by waving his cravat in Rimmer's face. That's classic Lister.
NOTES
- Love the Elephant Man reference.
- Someone needs to remind Doug that 'officer' is not a rank. It's not until Rimmer is made flight lieutenant that we get some clearance. But that's another promotion.
- At the end of the episode, Lister calls Rimmer "Technician two point zero" in reference to a conversation that was cut from the episode, in which Rimmer temporarily promotes Lister to "technician two point five". This scene was later reused in Mechocracy.
- I'm not sure what the point of that extended skit with Lister flogging his genome was. It doesn't have any payoff other than "all those bored scousers in call centers were me??"
- As others have pointed out, the episode suffers from some editing issues. There's the infamous abrupt ending, but also the sequence introducing the Rimmer clones is pretty poor and a lot of Chris Barrie's voiceovers (especially for the Rimmer monster) sound awkward.
- For some reason, series 11 utilises the same two musical cues for every Red Dwarf flyby, which gets repetitive real fast.
- The lighting of the corridors during the Rimmer monster scenes are a welcome nod to series 5's horror vibe.
- How did the Rimmer monster expect to absorb a hard light hologram?
- I adore the Pacman reference on Kryten's monitor.
- Kryten mentions how "history has shown that you and you is a very bad mix", presumably referring to Rimmerworld (and also Me2, but he wasn't there to see that).
- The Rimmer song from Blue plays during the Officer's Club scene.
FUNNIEST MOMENT
Rimmer sacrificing his clone to the monster by grabbing his champagne, splashing it in the clone's face and then drinking it as the doors close. Brilliant.
SMEG OFF!
The ending could really do with a proper punchline.
CONCLUSION
Rimmer is ever the 'Old Reliable' of this show. You can't go wrong with him.
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