Season Two of the Beloved British Cult Science Fiction Sitcom Ends on an Audacious Note with "Queeg" and "Parralel Universe"
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Throughout our journey through the beloved British science-fiction cult classic Red Dwarf, we’ve seen plenty of episodes primarily devoted to lovable slacker Dave Lister (Craig Charles) or tragicomic hologram Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie).
“Queeg,” however, marks the first episode to focus on Holly, the droll ship computer played by Norman Lovett. Holly is a deadpan delight, but, like Cat, the flamboyant Female-Human hybrid mutation Cat (Danny John-Jules), he is also a consummate supporting player.
Holly is, after all, a hyper-intelligent disembodied head on a screen delivering exposition and erudite one-liners to the cursed souls aboard the ship, not a protagonist.
Lovett is wonderfully dry, dispensing dialogue, such as, “Our biggest enemy is going space-crazy through loneliness. The only thing that helps me maintain my slender grip on reality is the friendship I share with my collection of singing potatoes.”
That’s a wonderful joke in part because it’s very easy to envision “Weird Al” Yankovic singing it in one of his songs or saying it on a vintage episode of AL-TV.
In “Queeg,” things begin to get a little screwy. Arnold Rimmer begins glitching.
The sad hologram of a long-dead man inexplicably begins taking on the voices and personalities of others, including the ship psychiatrist and Cat. Then, his legs mysteriously start galivanting about independently of his torso, upper body, head, and whatnot.
Rimmer is understandably perturbed. “Has anybody seen my legs? They don’t appear to be below my waist, which is where I normally keep them?” he inquires urgently.
When Holly tells him, “Don’t panic” (an homage to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, where it is a catchphrase. It’s also the title of a book about Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by disgraced cult writer Neil Gaiman), Rimmer asks, “If it’s not serious when your genitals go walking around on their own, what is?”
It sucks having to add “disgraced” to the default description of so many previously revered artists, but it’s also horrifying that so many men and, to a lesser extent, women abuse their power to hurt people.
Holly is the cause of the ship’s problems. He’s so incompetent in his gross negligence that, as a safety measure, a backup computer named Queeg, represented by the scowling face of a black man, takes over.
The computer’s name is a nod to Lieutenant Commander Philip Francis Queeg, the similarly stern and demanding antagonist Humphrey Bogart played in the 1954 feature film adaptation of Herman Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny.
Like the other Queeg, the computer proves a tyrant. It forces the crew to work. That does not sit well with Cat, who complains, “If I don’t nap 9 or 10 times a day, I don’t have enough energy for my main snooze!”
“Queeg” is chockablock with quotable dialogue and clever zingers. I found myself constantly pausing so that I could jot down one funny line after another.
Queeg informs the shipmates that Holly is a liar and a fraud. He tells them that there is a 6 in his IQ alright, but he has an IQ of 6 rather than 6,000, as he has led the crew to believe.
Incidentally, “IQ” is another thing ruined by Donald Trump. As a racist with an oft-stated enthusiasm for eugenics, as well as a bully prone to witless insults and idiotic jibes, Trump loves to talk about IQs and insist that his enemies are all low IQ half-wits in a way that underlines and highlights what a pathetic, insecure, immature, juvenile joke of a man he really is.
When the surprised and disillusioned crew asks how Holly can know so much, Queeg replies coldly, dispassionately, and hilariously that despite presenting himself as a cyber-genius, he actually “gets all of his information from the Junior Encyclopedia or space. It’s the only one he could find that had pictures.”
It’s a funny line that pays off beautifully when we see Holly, who has been reduced to night watchman, reading the aforementioned children’s book.
The ship is bummed to see their pal demoted, but not that bummed. Rimmer compares him to “a blind old incontinent sheepdog who’s had his day. Take him out to the barn with a double-barrelled shotgun and blow the mother away.” before explaining, “I’m only saying that because I’m so fond of him.”
It all turns out to be an elaborate prank perpetrated by Holly to make the crew appreciate him and his relative competence. It turns out that his IQ is not 6, and he did not get all of his information from a children’s book.
Prank endings are often unsatisfying and crazy-making. It often feels like movies or books or TV shows with prank endings aren’t playing fair or by the rules but it works here.
I don’t know that we need many more Holly-heavy episodes, but the consummate supporting player proves an inspired catalyst here.
Holly is the catalyst for the next episode as well, but he is back to playing a small but invaluable role. In “Parallel Universe,” Holly excitedly announces that he’s invented the Holly Hop Drive, a miraculous device that will allow them to travel anywhere in the universe.
He sets a course for Earth and is discouraged to discover that it no longer exists. So, everyone ends up in a parallel universe in the fifth dimension.
Here, we meet some new characters who feel unmistakably like the ones we’ve come to know and love. That’s because in this parallel universe everyone has a counterpart that’s both them and their opposite.
For Rimmer and Dave Lister, that means encountering women who look, talk, and act exactly like them. This is initially a source of jubilation, as the gentlemen have been very lonely out in space and don’t just have a lot in common with the women; they have everything in common.
Dave Lister’s counterpart is Deb (a crude slacker who loves binge drinking and engaging in gross-out antics. Arnold Rimmer’s other, meanwhile, is Arleen, a woman with his haughty bearing and air of unearned superiority who wants to take her parallel universe male version to pound town and isn’t about to take “no” for an answer.
That is not an exaggeration. Arleen Rimmer (Suzanne Bertish), the distaff Arnold Rimmer, perfectly mimics the voice, facial gestures, body language, and overall essence of her male version, frequently crossing the line separating “aggressive” from “predatorial.”
Though initially unimpressed with conversation starters like, “So. You’re a girl, then?” Arleen is relentless in her feverish attempts to get into his pants. Arnold is horrified and repulsed at being treated like a sex object.
“You’re only after one thing!” Arnold complains of Arleen’s prurient interest in him. “Why? How many have you got?” is her leering reply.
Arnold Rimmer’s self-loathing is one of the saddest and perversely funny aspects of the show. He cannot stand himself, so he is understandably repulsed by someone who looks and acts just like him, if he were a horndog with a one-track mind.
Arleen’s sexual harassment of the mortified Arnold serves a larger metaphorical theme. In “Parallel Universe”, gender roles are reversed. Women have power, while men are objectified, harassed, and treated like silly children.
In this world, Will Shakespeare is the greatest writer of all time, but it’s Wilma Shakespeare, not William. Arnold and Dave learn what it’s like to be women, which is a huge turnoff.
Cat is excited about meeting and hopefully making sweet love to his female version. He is shocked and disgusted to learn that his parallel universe version isn’t a woman or half-cat but rather a humanoid dog man with a hillbilly hound dog quality Cat couldn’t find less appealing.
Danny John-Jules takes center stage in the elaborate production number that opens the episode. It’s a dream sequence in which Cat croons a retro novelty love song called “Tongue Tied" with Rimmer and Dave as his backup dancers.
It’s a natural, organic development, considering how much James Brown there is in the character.
It’s a damn catchy song that more than justifies being something of a musical non sequitur.
“Parallel Universe” ends on a cliffhanger, with Dave learning that he is pregnant after his one-night stand with Deb.
The third season of Red Dwarf will travel lightspeed in the direction of the classic Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle, Junior.
That can only be a good thing!
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