Vaguely Halloween Related

[janamelie.livejournal.com]

Maybe this is one of those things which was obvious to everyone else, but it only clicked for me today when I saw a still of The Wicked Witch Of The West from "The Wizard Of Oz" in an article about Halloween.  It's quite a while since I've seen the film, but I just remembered that she uses the same name for Dorothy - "My pretty" - as Low Rimmer does for Lister in "Demons & Angels".

Admittedly Rob and Doug may have come up with that independently, but given how ingrained that film is in the collective (English-speaking, at least) consciousness, it seems more likely to me that they subconsciously remembered it as convenient shorthand for "This character is evil.  Just to emphasise that, have a broad hint that they have a homosexual interest in our protagonist and aren't particularly bothered whether or not it's returned.  You got that, right?  Evil?"

From what I remember of the film, the Wicked Witch is one of the characters who has a counterpart in Dorothy's regular life in Kansas - sinister spinster Miss Gulch, who can be read as a (stereotyped) lesbian.  I notice these things more than the average viewer, being gay myself, but the parallels with Low Rimmer and the idea of someone's repressed sexuality emerging when they undergo a magical transformation just seems too obvious to be entirely coincidental.  It may be, of course.

So that's my "Well, duh!" moment regarding pop culture references in RD.  Feel free to add your own.