From: neilp@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Postlethwaite)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.red-dwarf
Subject: Re: Questions (No Vindaloo, please; I'm driving)
Date: 30 Jul 92 10:17:49 GMT
Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland

In article <1992Jul28.141441.13285@ctr.columbia.edu> daniel@csunb0.dcs.leeds.ac.uk (D N Crow) writes:
>> 1)	In "Thanks for the Memory", Rimmer mentions that he was an
>> 	orphan, even though his parents were alive. One might infer
>> 	that Rimmer's parents lived long enough to see him "ship out"
>> 	on the Red Dwarf. In "Better than life" Rimmer's mother writes
>> 	to him to say that Rimmer's father died peacefully in his
>> 	Jeep.
>> 
>> 	However, in season 1 (balance of power?) where Holly gives
>> 	Rimmer the "really short haircut" (not!) Rimmer says something
>> 	to the effect of "My father always used to say, 'with shiny
>> 	boots and a spankin' short haircut, you can cope with
>> 	anything'... until that suicide business"
>> 
>> 	I had interpreted this as Rimmer's father committed suicide,
>> 	and I don't think that the joke is as funny if it's
>> 	interpreted differently. 
>> 
>> 	Is this just one of the continuity errors that I have just
>> 	begun to see, and everyone else knows all about this, and is
>> 	bored with it? Or am I misinterpreting it?

Well Grant/Naylor are more script writers than good storyline stringers.

It was actually Lister who was the orphan though he also has parents which
are only explained later as being his foster patents (When his (foster) dad
died and was flushed down the toilet 'where the goldfish went')

Lister's father committed suicide (RD I/3: 'Balance of Power') and also died
peacefully in his 'Jeep' (RD II/2: 'Better than Life') when the post pod
arrived and Rimmer got a letter from his mother.

>> 2)	What is a "bog roll"?
>
>Now here *is* a question I can answer. A "bog roll" is an Indian
>speciality often served with a Vindaloo. It is a sort of spicey
>meat filled pastry roll, rather similar to a Samosa. Next time you
>are in the UK, drop into your local curry house and ask for a
>Vindaloo and Bog Roll.

They are a little too timid for me, and the pastry I find has a soft papery
texture that is a little difficult to swallow.

>> 3)	Oh, another continuity question, I guess: Rimmer exits the Red
>> 	Dwarf in Season 3. In "Thanks for the Memory" he was able to
>> 	do this by means of a hologram projection cage. Is there any
>> 	explanation to how he manages it in, oh, say "Backwards"?
>>
>
>Holograms (a la RD, at least) are projected from a little projector
>which hovers in the centre of the image. The projector is about the
>size of a golf ball. It is used to rather humourous effect by Lister
>on more than one occasion in series 4 & 5 (won't go in to details,
>it would spoil the ahem, effect).

This has never really been explained. It is just one of those series II to
III changes. Like Holly never uses the telly when they are outside RD.

One massive gaffe is in RD IV/6: 'Meltdown' where Rimmer, the hologram, is
seen physically riding a motorbike on the battlefield.

Neil


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