Query

[felineranger.livejournal.com]

Hi everyone

I have an idea for a fic but before I run with it I just wanted to double check something with the hive mind!  As far as I can remember, there is no canon explanation for what happened to Listers adoptive mother - we know his dad died at 6 and between 11-13 he was living with his gran and after that ended up in an orphanage school but  I don't think we're ever told exactly why?  Have I missed something or is there a generally accepted fanon explanation?  Answers on a postcard please...

Comments

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

His father could have been a single man who adopted - single women do it all the time, and some men, too, now. If you extrapolate 150 years into the future, well, things might be more liberal then. The thing I keep in mind, at least, is if he DID have just a single adoptive dad, there's a good chance the man might have had a modest fortune or was well-known for something or other. It's not cheap to adopt, for one, and I gather it's especially difficult for a single person to do so unless they're doing really well in life. (Plus, I always remember about his school trip to Paris in high school - that would be like an American kid being able to go on a school trip to NYC or something if they lived in the Midwest, and that takes some dough.)

But yeah, even a couple adopting would have had to have some money to do it. But to get back to the OP's question, the Kryten line below is the only reference I can remember. And even that's goofy, because remember how Lister made such a big deal about never having had a mum in "The Last Day?" You would think if there'd been an adoptive mother, he would have referred to her, at the very least (even to say that she died when he was very young or some such - hell, he could've gotten double the sympathy for having lost TWO mothers!).

This just reinforces my feeling that each successive episode of Red Dwarf is taking place in a different dimension where canon deviated just slightly from the previous episode/dimension.

[janamelie.livejournal.com]

Good point about the inconsistency with "The Last Day". Another of Rob and Doug's plot holes. ;) And yes, in the future attitudes to adoption may well be more relaxed.

It doesn't necessarily cost that much money for a British schoolkid to visit Paris though - I went with my A-Level college when I was 17 and there are deals available for students. I also visited Cologne when I was about 14 or 15 with my school and again, deals were made. It may have been an exchange thing; I can't remember. But my school wasn't a fee-paying one.