Red Dwarf IV Episode 5: "Dimension Jump"

Ace Rimmer arrives and Chris Barrie and Craig Charles get gobfuls of water. Another episode developing Rimmer, this classic Red Dwarf instalment is another one hurrying to make its point in half an hour. I would argue that it's fundamentally about how we're shaped by our experiences, and leans on the "nurture" side of the argument, as opposed to the "nature" one which seems to arise at other times due to the show's portrayal of the British class system and the idea of "breeding". Here we discover that Rimmer's situation wasn't inevitable. It's something we always knew, but this makes it very clear. Yet it also raises the idea of free will, essential in Red Dwarf's often-deterministic universe; to what extent was Ace Rimmer born of his own choice to fight back, and how much was this an inevitable consequence of the headmaster's choice to have him repeat a year?

I understand that some commentators argue that Ace is meant to be smug and annoying, not pleasant and likeable, but I think this is somewhat missing the point; the point is that he's different, radically different – so different that he's practically the opposite of our Rimmer, and all as a result of one decision. This is something expressed by Lister, our resident amateur philosopher, when discussing his opposite number, Spanners: "Whatever he did that I didn't, he deserves the lot." It could be argued that the episode is saying that our lives are the product of how we navigate these forces beyond our control, the way our choices interact with the "choices" made for us. This is expressed by the question of who got the "break".

Any such vaguely philosophical elements aside, there's plenty of humour to enjoy in the episode, starting with Ace's reality and the alternate versions of the characters. I think my favourite might be the Padre, Danny John-Jules portraying a very different character to the Cat in such a short space. Points have to be given to Robert Llewellyn's ridiculous turn as Bongo as well, however, the best part being the hasty way he looks down and starts writing after propositioning Ace. The scene of the Dwarfers sneaking off to go fishing is perfectly enhanced by the actors' facial performances as they cringe at their own weak excuses to Rimmer. The best part of Rimmer's speech, which attributes to him even more unbelievable "lame" hobbies, is his description of Morris Dancing as "the clonk of wood on wood."

The episode also includes some terrific model work. The establishing shot of Rimmer's home in the dome on Io is very effective, as are the shots of Ace landing on Mimas and the Dimension Ship taking off. The highlight, however, must be the shot of Starbug crashing on the ocean planet, which looks entirely convincing and shows just how good the special effects team were and what they could achieve. The Mimas test base sets are good too, and the use of the greenhouse location shooting as the interior of the Rimmers' gardens is very well used and convincingly chosen as somewhere that might be found in an enclosed lunar colony on one of the moons of Jupiter. The shot of Starbug's exterior, last seen in "Marooned" I believe, gets another outing in the storm scene, which apparently pissed Chris Barrie off due to constant inundations, but looks entirely believable and gave rise to Craig Charles's classic offscreen line: "We're supposed to be space heroes!"

We get a couple of notable instances of Rimmer calling people "gits" in this episode; he says to Kryten "You're a git" and he says to Lister "How'd you feel if some git arrived from another dimension, another Lister, with wall-to-wall charisma and a PhD in being handsome and wonderful?" This seems like a bit of a movement towards conventional insults, away from "goit" and "gimboid" and the like, perhaps with the aim of getting bigger laughs. I like Lister's complaint about Cat "blundering in with your size 12s" and the jokes about the in-flight magazines, although Rimmer's panic about the card is probably the best: "Haven't we got to sit behind a woman clutching a baby?" Weirdly, Lister tosses the closed magazine in front of hologram Rimmer, who appears by the next shot to have somehow opened it to an article. Perhaps his light bee floated into his hand.

The highlight of the whole thing, of course, is Chris Barrie's performance as Ace; he's practically unrecognisable as the same person as our regular Rimmer, with the obvious effect of emphasising how different the two of them are. The choice of costuming obviously suits this too. As an episode which added something major to the show's fabric, Ace himself and "Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast", it's worth it on its own, but its ability to provoke ideas in a humorous way is what makes it stand out as another one of those classic examples of just how complex and effective Red Dwarf could be in the ideal circumstances, when performances, effects, humour, plot, characterisation, ideas and action all coalesced in a delicate balance.

Red Dwarf VII Episode 2: "Stoke Me a Clipper"

Ace Rimmer returns and Rimmer Rimmer leaves. I honestly don't like this episode that much, although I know it's fondly regarded by some. It's not a terrible way of writing Rimmer out of the show; I just don't find it that funny. The opening sequence with Ace fighting the Nazis is obviously entertaining in how cheesy and exaggerated it is, but it almost feels more like a parody of the original Ace character. Again, there's obviously the excuse that it's not the same Ace, but it's possibly just a bit too ropey to look deliberately naff (something I think Doug Naylor points out in the Series VII documentary). Upon rewatching, the bit that made me laugh the most in this sequence was the bit where one German soldier says to another "That was Ace Rimmer! We're lucky to be alive!" and then a big rubber crocodile falls on top of them.

The sequence of Lister going into the virtual reality game to get his jollies feels very much like a repetition of the opening of "Gunmen of the Apocalypse", even if the "cheat code" element provides a slight spin on it. I also don't get why Kryten needs to be with him in the game; essentially it means Lister is fine with having Kryten in the room with him while he pleasures himself, which is pretty weird when you think about it. It also sets up the bizarre moment later in the episode in which Lister tells Cat and Kryten that "one of them knights has escaped from the AR Unit". What the hell does he mean? The AR characters only exist in the heads of people plugged into the game; it's not like the Holodeck in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Maybe Cat wouldn't notice this (or care) but wouldn't Kryten question it? Again, I know I'm overthinking it, but that's what happens with these episodes.

Overall, though, the way of writing out Rimmer doesn't really make sense if I think about it. As I stated in the Overview, the whole point of "Dimension Jump" was to show how small decisions could produce radically different people. "Stoke me a Clipper" basically says "no, that doesn't matter"; Ace even says that it's Rimmer's "destiny" to become the new Ace. Apparently he's competent enough after shooting a fake knight and sitting in the AR machine for a few minutes. This might be fine if any of it was funny, but it's not. It's just daft. It would have made more sense if Rimmer had to sacrifice himself in some way, but obviously they didn't want to close all doors on the character. To be honest, perhaps they were between a rock and a hard place here. This is why I think they should have done something that meant, like, Rimmer's light bee was disabled and they couldn't repair it until they got back to Red Dwarf or something. Doug Naylor even says in the documentary for Series VII that he didn't want to recast Rimmer (I find it highly unlikely that this option was ever seriously considered) because he wanted room to bring Chris Barrie back into the role for the film he wanted to make if nothing else. If he was trying to keep the character's options open, a sacrifice which incapacitated the character would surely have been enough.

I'm not entirely sure how many more funny things happen in this episode; it's possibly a bit funnier with cast commentary on the DVD than it is on its own. The bit where all the Ace coffins form the ring around the planet is kind of nice I suppose, although graphically it looks weak, and the episode has some nice music; I also kind of like how Rimmer and Lister hug before he leaves, but it's all a bit implausible given Rimmer's characterisation. I suppose the fact was they didn't know if Chris Barrie was leaving permanently or not (thank God he wasn't) and so didn't want to write him out in some offhand way. Possibly the best other funny bit in the episode is when Lister and Kryten burst into the cockpit when Ace's ship appears and Rimmer casually says "'Morning," as he and Cat put out the fires around them. This episode also features the series' first of two jokes about nuns: "Your brain moves faster than a nun's first curry." The funeral scene just involves rehashing a bunch of jokes from old episodes; probably the only bit that's funny is when Rimmer (as Ace) refers to himself as "Iron balls". You know what, bugger it. At one point I would have been inclined to say that "Stoke me a Clipper" is an okay episode, but it's not. It's bollocks. There is too much revisiting of stuff from old episodes, the way it writes out Rimmer is complete nonsense, and it isn't funny.