You know what annoys me about S8?

[kronette.livejournal.com]

Well, aside from "Krytie TV". It's the fact that Hollister had Rimmer enter the psychotropic testing without his knowledge. The other four had to sign consent forms, acknowledge that they understood what was going to happen to them and agreed to be placed in the AR environment. Rimmer was just told to lick an envelope that was posted to himself.

I know Rimmer represented himself at his trial, but it never should have come to that, or his entire case thrown out on the basis of entrapment. Nothing he said or did in the AR environment should have been allowed as evidence, which means that Hollister would have had to prove another way that Rimmer was using confidential files for his personal gain. And if Rimmer had a shred of self-preservation (and we know he has it in spades), he might have been able to keep it to himself or at least slide by without being overt. I don't know; that one part has always bugged me.

Comments

[janamelie.livejournal.com]

There are many things which annoy me about Series 8 - the fact that almost every ep has dodgy jokes involving some kind of sexual assault for one. :(

But also the fluctuating IQ of our fave characters according to the demands of the plot, which ties into your point. WHY do the crew elect to represent themselves? And if they must, why doesn't Kochanski, who let's face it would have more credibility in the eyes of the court thanks to being an officer, take a more active role instead of leaving the talking to Cat of all people?

I think this is why Doug changed Hollister's character to an unscrupulous charlatan - to make it more believable that he would set Rimmer up like that. No explanation is given as to why he's so determined to imprison them. Unless he sees their superior knowledge of what happened regarding the nanobots as a threat to his own position as Captain?

[nice-girls-play.livejournal.com]

I thought the narrative turn Series 8 took was interesting and somewhat inevitable -- maybe it's just me but I never thought having the entire crew of the Dwarf restored was going to end well. I always thought that it was going to turn into a creepy, zombie bureaucratic shit show with people ill-equipped for mobility in a universe full of rogue simulants, GELFs and random viruses steering the small rouge one off a cliff while Lister and the Dwarf crew watched helplessly.

For this reason, I could accept the seemingly radical change in Hollister's character. Finding themselves three million years outside of the boundaries of civilization seems to give him and people like Ackerman more reason to act in ways they deem fit as opposed to what would have been appropriate or acceptable before the accident -- hence the entrapment, hence the pitiful kangaroo court, hence hanging charges that essentially only apply to Lister and Rimmer to the rest of the 'bug crew.

Regarding consent and lack of same in series 8... the 23rd century doesn't seem like much of an enlightened place if the threat of rape is still a joke or where having your ability to consent tampered with due to exposure to the effects of a "sexual magnetism virus" *isn't* the equivalent of being roofied. And I don't know whether to say that it's a recurring problem in Doug's writing or a more widespread problem in media narratives (as you said, the writers of "Buffy" didn't think too hard about it either).

[saylee.livejournal.com]

Ugh, yes. Yet another thing that bugs me about S8. If they had at least acknowledged that it was completely bogus, via Rimmer complaining about it, it would be better. And of course, why would Cat, Kochanski and Kryten go to jail for a crime only Rimmer and Lister committed, and for that matter, why would Kochanski be put on trial at all? IIRC, Hollister says at first that they kidnapped her, doesn't he?

[luxblue.livejournal.com]

I always thought the split of Grant Naylor really caused some problems with creative control - s8 had a distinct feel of overindulgence with the episodes not being trimmed down enough. I remember reading that the two of them sat down for days on end pruning the scripts together in previous seasons and it is obvious that wasn't happening here!