A Red Dwarf Blog

Doug Naylor and Robert during their lockdown commentary for Quarantine

“Rimmer looking young and dashing”

“He was a handsome devil”

It’s like Lister was subconsciously thinking that if only Rimmer could be more confident, relaxed and a nicer person to be around, then maybe their relationship could be deeper, even romantic.

AU Lister goes through all manner of emotions whilst he toys with the idea of telling them the truth about the situation with HIS Rimmer. At the same time, our Rimmer is spooked by the presence of AU Lister, not least because this Lister seems to be more patient and affectionate with him - even when Rimmer is being a smeg head about having TWO Listers to contend with

I imagine the story ending with AU Lister giving Rimmer a gentle kiss in front of everyone before departing back to his own universe, a kiss that surprises our Lister - not least because Rimmer seems to enjoy the kiss rather than pull away.

The Rimmer who we see from Back to Earth onwards has to be OG Rimmer as Doug Naylor says - the original one from series 1-7 - otherwise the moonlight scene in 'The Promised Land' isn't quite as effective or makes as much sense. Lister has to be talking to the Rimmer who's been with him all these years, otherwise these two people don't have the same experiences together and Lister would effectively be talking to a Rimmer who's not grown alongside him.

Also, the show shouldn't be treating Rimmer as a disposable character, otherwise it could mean he's less sentient than certainly Kryten and maybe Holly too - two other forms of AI. Lister has put his life on the line for 'his' Rimmer a couple of times - most notably Terrorform - and if Rimmer was just a non-sentient computer program, well what's the point of risking himself and Kryten and the Cat in the process of rescuing him?

And I don't like the idea that OG Rimmer may have died not long after becoming Ace - an idea I never really liked in the first place - because the original Ace (the one we first met in Dimension Jump) should have remained a character in his own right, created because his childhood had a 'sliding doors' moment which our Rimmer didn't..

I like to believe that nano-Rimmer somehow survived, however you want to head-canon it. The ending did seem a bit cruel, not least because it's makes it seem like Lister and the others just abandoned him and when you consider that Lister and nano-Rimmer seemed to get along quite well (mostly) it makes that abandonment even worse. And points off the series as a whole for Doug not really exploring how Lister felt about Nano-Rimmer vs OG Rimmer - or indeed how Lister felt about being around a ship full of people full stop - as well as for a few of the more inappropriate sex jokes