Doug talks about Rimmer aging as a hologram

[nice-girls-play.livejournal.com]

I don't think this counts as spoilery? Putting it behind a cut just in case.

It's Doug being interviewed by Ben Shires for the Dave weekly podcast and there's a quote that instantly confirmed an idea I think a few of us have had (and raised a few more questions for me):


Ben Shires: With Chris Barrie, I hate to even bring this up—but the fact is he’s obviously older than he was when he was playing the character 13 year ago. But he plays a character that in the space-world you might not expect to age. For me that’s not a problem at all—

Doug Naylor: I would say the reason for that is that Rimmer is a hologram and he’s only there to keep Lister sane. And therefore his holo-computer would age him at the same rate Lister ages, because if he didn’t age, Lister would look at himself in the mirror and that would be incredibly depressing. And so it’s perfect in keeping in the initial idea of why Rimmer is there; that his holo-unit would age.


Which is fantastic. At the same time, my brain goes to "what holo-computer?" Are we talking about the tech inside the light bee? If we are, isn't that something he could tweak with himself, ala Ace's ability to remove the "H" from his forehead? And what about 600 years on Rimmerworld...?

My logical answer is that it could be connected to Rimmer's own psyche in some way and that the aging process is something he's doing himself, whether consciously or unconsciously.

Discuss?

Comments

[janamelie.livejournal.com]

You make a good point. We know that Rimmer can change his appearance clothes-wise. If we take the evil Rimmer from "Out Of Time" at face value, he can also age himself.

I can imagine corrupted OOT Rimmer thinking a moustache and white hair made him look distinguished, but why he'd make himself heavier physically... hmmm. *Ponders*

[hazeltea.livejournal.com]

I think there are limitations to how varied his appearance can be. Maybe this has to do with his concept of himself, or maybe there are limited options... but if Rimmer could control it himself, he'd make himself look like a ridiculously unrealistic male model. Maybe the creators of the software knew that people would be that way and set limits to keep them somewhat in line LOL

[janamelie.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's obvious now you point it out. Who amongst us would be able to resist the temptation to make ourselves better looking if we could? ;)

"Ridiculously unrealistic male model" reminds me a bit of how he looked in the "Rimmer Experience". *Lol*

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I'd like to think Rimmer's choosing to let himself age to keep apace with Lister. I think this is something that works as an explanation with either romance or close friendship, really.