Timey-Wimey Stuff

[janamelie.livejournal.com]

A post on TOS by Red Lemon has me intrigued:

This has actually been at the back of my mind for quite some time now so I suppose this would be as good a chance as any to voice my opinion on the matter. I think it would be interesting if it turned out that when Rimmer accidently used the quantum rod to summon the Columbus III, the ship that was carrying Howard and Crawford, instead of pulling that ship from the past to them three million years later what had in fact happened was that the Trojan and Red Dwarf were pulled back to three million years earlier, the time when the Space Corp was still intact and the simulant uprising was yet to happen and of course the human race was still thriving.

Now trust me I know this theory is flawed, obviously it doesn't entirely sit right that Red Dwarf would be pulled along too when at that point Trojan hadn't yet been towed but undeniably it would be a great twist that would help to establish an ultimate goal for the crew outside of the arguably neglected search for Kochanski. Depending on how you look at it, it may or may not be reconcilable with series X continuity as it wouldn't make sense that there would already be a rogue simulant death ship freely drifting across space although Crawford's statement in Trojan implies that the situation leading to that possibility is imminent from their timeline's point of view.

If you ignore the obvious continuity issues (as Rob and Doug usually do, let's face it), this is actually a damn good idea, so good I can't help wondering whether Doug's thought of it himself.  It'd be a great ending for the whole series if Lister's search for humanity finally paid off by taking him back in time.

If they went back to, say, five or ten years after the accident, long enough for Howard to have died and been brought back as a hologram, there would be all kinds of consequences, good and bad.  Rimmer might be put on trial for the deaths of the RD crew and Kryten might defend him by pointing out Hollister's incompetence, for example.  And what would the presence of other humans do to the Lister / Rimmer relationship?  Would Cat be put in a laboratory?

This quote is from a thread about what other historical periods the crew should visit, so I'll reiterate my vote for the time of Alexander the Great and Rimmer realising just what type of relationship he had with Bagoas. ;)