another dynamic duo

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Long, long ago in a state far away, I graduated college, moved to a small town, and started working at a newspaper. Thankfully, I had free cable with my rent, and quite by chance, found "Red Dwarf" while surfing TV late at night, trying to unwind from work. (Back in the days when you had to wait for BBC shows to swim across the ocean and it took a few years, you couldn't just download them the night something aired. The Internet is largely a wonderful invention. But I digress.) I kept up for a few years, enjoyed the humor and comraderie of the guys, and eventually moved on to other humor and sci-fi interests.

Years later, my younger sister dahlianna took up watching RD in earnest (outside of earnest, of course, she didn't need a flashlight, to borrow from Groucho). I have no idea if this is because she watched it with me when she was a kid, but either way, RD entered my life briefly again, then disappeared. Recently, she gave me her Netflix password and I found RD again on the play-instantly feature. SCORE! Episodes I hadn't seen in 15 years; new ones I'd never seen or merely glimpsed! I had been searching for a new fandom and didn't realize I had an old one I'd never done anything WITH.

So, metalkatt and I have been watching episodes in order, as she's much more familiar with the series than I am. I've realized two things from this:

1. The Lister/Rimmer is far FAR more obvious than I remember back in the 90s. I know it's the same show, but I just didn't pay attention before. (We finally got to "Blue" tonight - you can imagine how this helped.) After years of cobbling together stories out of only hints and crumbs in my primary fandom and pairing - *points to icon* - I must admit it's a bit like getting drunk on the good stuff to have it more or less laid out for you in canon.

2. Nostrils and neuroses and all, Rimmer is an attractive bastard. I'm not sure I'd want to do him, but that's what Lister is for, IMHO. And the outfits - I do love a good male clotheshorse.

So, I've been going through this comm and reading old stories and generally gorging myself this past week or so, and the dusty wheels of my brain have begun sort of turning again with regards to stories. I don't know if I feel up to writing yet, matching a lot of the quality I've seen so far around here, but maybe it'll be fun to try at some point ...

Comments

[laurenthemself]

I'm sitting here snorfling at the line about BBC shows swimming across the ocean, so you have to write fic because you are funny.

1. Isn't it just? I think it helps to watch it all in a row and watch everything develop. I secretly hope that it's like X-Files and Naylor's just holding out on us and in the very last episode the two of them will finally, finally hook up.

2. Hello, and welcome to the fandom where we all think this, except most of us WOULD do him and have the Mary Sues to prove it.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the welcome! It's been a very long time since I was in a new fandom and didn't know anybody (or very very few people), so it's kind of an adventure to be here.

1. Metalkatt and I (or possibly just me, but I know she agrees in parts) have this theory that Rimmer's had a thing for Lister for a long time, maybe even going back to when they were both alive, but that Lister's slowly reciprocating shortly before Ace-Arnie jets off by himself. (I know, it's probably been posted here 50 times already and everybody else has had the same thought well before me. I don't mind, LOL.)

2. OK, I might *do* him. But I'm not sure I could live with him without resorting to Cat's level of snarking insult on a daily basis. ;-)

[felineranger.livejournal.com]

Hello and welcome to the fandom! Love your icon BTW. Wouldn't they just have the most bea-yoo-tiful babies ?(if they could...) :-)

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I think any child of Jack's and Will's would be like a movie star and a supermodel having a kid - either it'll be the most beautiful creature ever, or kind of an ugly git. LOL! (But really, I'm not sure which of its fathers it would look like, seeing how much Orlando resembles Johnny at the outset.)

[dauphkantus.livejournal.com]

Not just the canon! You should watch some of the (10 years later) commentaries on the DVD remastered set.

Then you'd notice those little things, like in Future Echoes when Lister asks where they're going to get the babies, they BOTH look at Rimmer. (Danny comments "Oh ho ho! That's risky stuff there! Risk-ay!")

In any case, I had the same sort of situation with this fandom: watched it as a young teen on vhs, rewatched it again in my later teens and thwapped myself on the head for not seeing the OBVIOUSness. (and for not fangirling about it sooner)

I too would write, but I'm much better at coming up with plot (and smut ;D) and hashing all that important stuff out, but then can't WRITE it.
I can judge well, and edit well, and feel I know them well enough to rationalize probable reactions, but can't recreate the characters in my head, then throw plot at them and write down the minutiae of it all.

That's why I beta. (...Though I haven't done that in ages- ANYONE WANT A BETA READER?)

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I like to think Craig and Chris had a very good time playing with their roles and messing with people's heads (and luckily, felt secure enough in their respective masculinity to do so). I find it interesting that the "bromance" vibe is ALL OVER THE PLACE in movies and shows now (not to mention canon gay such as in "Torchwood") and while I don't know how much of an influence RD was in that respect, being a fairly small show, I'd like to think it had some impact. *G*

I've written a lot of fanfic. I won't tell you if it's particularly good or not, that's something each reader has to decide - but I like reading most of it and I write it for my own enjoyment. The best ones are where I can hear the characters "dictating" in my head. I haven't had that for a while, I must say - and it's starting to sort of flicker again with this fandom ...

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

Me and my little sister have been rewatching RD recently, funnily enough.
And yeah, you're right, so much of it goes over your head as a kid (the 'Terrorform' line when they're talking about how the Master will want Rimmer oiled and pliant, to which the ladies explain it's for him to be electrocuted and he replies something along the lines of 'Could have been worse', for example! ROFL, and I think the extras were elaborating on how they wanted a huge phallus for the girls to hold, but couldn't get it past the BBC. The subtext rapidly becoming text here...)
My sister's pretty much slash-blind, but even she sees Rimmer/Lister as obvious.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

LOL - when I watched for the first time I was in my 20s. It wasn't so much that things went over me as I didn't care; I was a Kryten fangirl the first time around. (I had a thing for androids - Data too, hee!) But Listy and Rimsey are my third slash OTP; what all 3 have in common is I think of them or at least the UST as more or less canon, you know? Sure is with L/R ...