RD Vlogs: Can of Worms

[@Cyborcat]

Here's the article I mentioned, if you want to read it for yourself (it's actually the Season 11 episodes ranked from worst to best, with "Can of Worms" at the beginning): www.anorakzone.com/reddwarf11rank.html Like I said in the video, I don't agree with all of it, but I thought it brought up an interesting point about how what happened to Cat could be compared to rape, and how that makes the whole thing kind of icky if you think about it that way. The main reason I'm on the fence about that is because there was no actual sex involved, so it's not *technically* rape, but it could still be seen as an allegory. Either way, just thought it was an interesting thing to mention. (also, damn that article is WAY harder on Season 11 overall than I am--I didn't like it as much as Season 10, but I thought it was pretty decent--Season 8 is still the worst, IMO).

[@Biotic_Warlock]

Red Dwarf seems to have recurring dependency on the humour based around the sexuality of all these guys. Such as use of sex appeal by Psirens to eat their brains. Though I think there could be a political point regarding sexual coersion or deception in media (another example of comedicly used sexual assault is Futurama with the planet of Amazons). I don't think either this or that Futurama episode is particularly awful or unforgivable for these tropes, but I can understand why people would be turned off by them - especially given male victims who exist and feel let down by a society that mocks them for being victims. Though I think technically in this case, it was more a case of a vicious monstrosity that requires hosts of other species for biological reasons (just like the xenomorph from Alien/Aliens (the aliens reference earlier in the episode could be linked to this, for consistency)), and combining that with a joke over Cat's sexuality, and the trope of male pregnancy (like Lister in season 1 + 2). I think what I found more annoying is the missed opportunity to actually involve other members of Cat's species. Though an extra insight to Polymorpth biology is always nice I suppose. Makes me wonder how Psirens do it.

[@Jayfive276]

It says a lot about Season 11 that in that article the best episode gets only a mildly positive review. Not sure Season 12 is much better, all I know is "Timewave" was the first and to date only RD episode I gave up on before the end. It wasn't even the ham-fisted attempt at social commentary, the writing in general was just *bad*.

[@Cyborcat]

@@Jayfive276 Eh, for what it's worth, they had about the same reaction to "Gunmen of the Apocalypse".

[@apex2000]

I agree Twentica felt more like a end of season episode than Can of Worms.

[@Jayfive276]

@@Cyborcat Blasphemy!

[@smelkus]

Why do they act surprised that Cat is a virgin considering that he is very likely the last of his species and he was probably a child the last time he ever saw another member of his species it's something they should know without anyone having to say anything

[@kugelweg]

So true.

[@smelkus]

@lifesbutastumble But he has had very few interactions with human females ans had the opportunity have sex with them

[@RadioactiveChannel06]

My biggest problems with this episode are that the personality tuck machine subplot barely went anywhere, not only did the polymorphs detect them immediately defeating the entire point of getting rid of Lister’s emotions, but the idea of Lister becoming a murderous psychopath was barely explored. And when cat showed up in the diesel decks to say hi he was all happy and chipper, but then moments later he suddenly acted all cold and stoic and killed his polymorph children without hesitation, why the sudden change of heart? And why didn’t he kill them earlier if he had the ability? Also how did he manage to get all the way up to the corridor before everyone else? This episode honestly feels like two or three ideas for episodes crammed into one, and as a result, none of them really get proper room to breath.

[@Cyborcat]

Yeah, I probably should have mentioned some of that stuff--I'll definitely go into it in the Cat video.

[@StarWarsMoments]

It is interesting. While there are no aliens in the universe, humans have populated empty pockets of the universe with his genetic creations. The strangest part is that they vary so much to the point that Kryten has information about their distinct tribes and types. It also asks the question; if mankind is dead, who the hell is logging all this information?????

[@Cyborcat]

Good question XD

[@bluebaron4298]

Delay Season 12? But... Talkie Toaster

[@Cyborcat]

Wow, I REALLY don't remember Season 12 very well!

[@bluebaron4298]

Yeah that's in episode 4 but the finale Skipper is just half full of callbacks and cameos

[@Special_Iron]

I remember 'personality surgery' was something that was explored in the second Red Dwarf novel. But since it was something that only existed as part of Rimmer's Better Than Life fantasy, it's canonicity is highly questionable.

[@phoenixsharingan]

Cat's clearly not a Hentai fan, otherwise he would have seen the plot (and the tentacles) coming

[@FarelForever]

Male pregnancy doesn't seem to always land in comedy, probably because the joke is just that "Oh this doesn't normally happen to guys, LOL". Sure, Red Dwarf and certain other shows try to add a bit to do, by having it go further, but that doesn't increase the odds of it working that much. NOW, Male pregnancy as a fetish on the other hand.... that's a whole different story!

[@FarelForever]

@lifesbutastumble "A fetish is sexual excitement in response to an object or body part that’s not typically sexual, such as shoes or feet. " While pregnancy is the result of a sexual activity, it is not "the fun part of sex" for many people . Certain individuals finding it exciting and stimulating (whenever the individuals depicted are male of female) is their fetish. Your comment implies a logic where the foot fetish is not a thing, because basically all humans possess feet.....

[@StarWarsMoments]

I love how the later seasons have reused necromonger costumes. I wonder if they're from the original Chronicles of Riddick or the Riddick sequel from 2013?

[@lazy1119]

this episode is terrible, its one of few episodes that lets the Dave era of Dwarf down, theres too many ideas in it that could have worked on their own but what we get is an incoheisive mess. also the robot from 3:38 was also used in the Doctor Who episode "Rings of Akhaten" from 2013 when Red Dwarfs costume designer Howard Burden worked on the show breifly

[@RadioactiveChannel06]

Tom is Lazy You described exactly how I feel about this episode.

[@stayforthepeelpronpls4774]

Omg I thought I was the only one who noticed that.

[@ChrisDouglass2141]

the mercinoid is wearing necromonger armor from The chronicles of riddick movie plus a few accessories like a new helmet and tubes

[@uDaftBugger]

The Cat was always my favorite character as a kid, but Series 11 made him so dumb and whiny. i think the writer forgot The Cat isn't meant to be Duane Dibbley.

[@TheKaiTetley]

Always a pleasure to watch one of your videos.

[@LizardClone2]

12:40 I wonder if that's why this episode was written. The writers thought he was overdue for some bad karma.

[@stayforthepeelpronpls4774]

Fun fact the mercenoid costume was in the background of a doctor who episode. Same gun and all. I just find that amusing.

[@stayforthepeelpronpls4774]

Wow you liked my comment even though the video is a year old. Props.

[@Cyborcat]

I always try to keep an eye out for new comments ^.^

[@bradwolf07]

If the mercanoid HAD JUST TOLD THEM what his prisoners was...but NO. Poor Cat

[@amelialouiseJ]

at 7:47, is that still Cat's head in the background?

[@HersheyHemi1]

10:14My two theories on why Kryten is wearing a parka is. 1: Rule of Funny 2: if Kryten has the ability to feel pain. The he can mostly likely feel cold.

[@morphman86]

If anyone wonders why the series feels so disconnected from 10, it may have something to do with them expecting 10 to end the show. 11 was brought back after almost 5 years, due to the increased popularity after the majority of the cast had spent their "retirement" going to conventions. So when 11 was rumored by Llewellyn and Barrie in 2015 in ComiCon Telford, it almost brought the entire convention hall down. Three months later, it was confirmed for 2016... but with major changes to the crew, budget and filming location.

[@uDaftBugger]

Well apparently budget wise they had less money to work with for 11 and 12 then they did Series 10. but careful spending and better planning allowed them to do more with what they had.

[@M-E_123]

For 10 they had to build set's after Back To Earth was mainly CG backgrounds and camera tricks - 11 & 12 already had the main sets built and in storage (bunk room, corridors) - so the budget could go on new set's (medibay / science room / drive room, Starbug, the different ships like Samsara, base in Cured, Twentica). Series 10 had more location shooting eating into the budget too (arriving in the forest in Lemon's compared to say Twentica's desert being crash effects & a Starbug scene) - and filming two series back to back saved money too with crew hire / studio rental / commissioning CG.

[@meowsily]

This is amazing

[@Blurns]

The thing that really gets me is that no matter how many times the crew has encountered women from traveling to different planets, times, etc. you'd think they'd be more interested in getting laid. Oddly enough I think Rimmer has easily had more sex than the others. Although I can also see Cat being a virgin simply because he thinks they should be the ones pursuing him & that he only became self-conscious about it when the others started looking down on him for it.

[@callinater6133]

Rimmer has only had sex once while he was alive with yvonne mcgruder, and once as a hologram with that woman on the holoship. If we only consider the events post stasis then yes, rimmer’s had more sex than the others. That is to say, one more time than the others. However, lister is shown to have had a lot of sexual relationships before getting put into stasis so he’s had the most sex overall. I don’t think his lays due to the sexual magnetism virus should count, since he was arguably in an AR machine when that happened.

[@Blurns]

@@callinater6133 Eh, I guess. I forgot the Sexual Magnetism Virus bit was because he was in VR.

[@kickingroses8925]

Yeah, my issues are pretty much the same. Mpreg and any sort of sexual violation being played for laughs always feels wrong. I remember it happening in the Mighty Boosh a few times that put me off. Even though Cat is an idiot here, I do kinda like his badass (if really disturbing) hero moment at the end - he actually gets a similar one in the next episode too. A joke I also love is when Lister is in the personality chair, his face totally blank, and Rimmer thinks it's worked, but it's just Lister being Lister. ^_^

[@Biotic_Warlock]

Season 12 is fun. I really can't tell if some of the episodes are big references to real life politics or tropes.

[@RadioactiveChannel06]

Biotic_Warlock The debate about when a document becomes a document (is it when the first word is typed or when the finished document is printed?) was a blatant reference to the pro-choice/pro-life debate.

[@senorstyx3011]

What about yellow alert, orange alert, and not to be forgotten brown alert?

[@womba68]

to be fair they haven't made the cat any dumber in this episode with regards to how the prospect of sex affects his judgement. remember how easily seduced he was in psirens.

[@CyclopsWasRight616]

I mean, it's possible Cat's not someone's favorite character out of the group, but I can't imagine someone hating him. Personally, I adore him.

[@callinater6133]

A lot of people don’t have cat as a favourite. Every member of the cast would probably be a fan favourite if they were in another show, so there’s obviously some steep competition. Still, I don’t think many people actively hate him.

[@fromthecheapseats7126]

Rimmer is a lot of people’s favorite, and he usually gets put through the wringer pretty bad (good?) so the same could apply to Cat.

[@TheVargr]

I was disapointed that the two female cats were only in his dream in the end. It would have been funnier if they had always been around and we only hadn't seen them as they disliked humans like feral cats would do. Also would mean Cat was just worried that people would consider him a virgin even if he wasn't.

[@Cyborcat]

Yeah, in Season 1, he was insisting that there must be lady cats on the ship--would have been hilarious if it turned out he was right all along.

[@fromthecheapseats7126]

It would also have been plausible that the two female cats had died at some point before Lister came out of stasis and were resurrected by the nanites, which would explain why the others didn’t know about them. Although that would make Cat even more inexcusably stupid regarding the polymorph.

[@odindasko]

I get the objections, but honestly I laughed my ass off at DJJ's delivery when retelling the details of his encounter. Can't imagine what it was like the first time he read the script!

[@Cyborcat]

Yeah, his performance is always on-point ^.^

[@fromthecheapseats7126]

I suspected right away that the “female cat” was a polymorph or psiren, since there’s no reason to take such extreme measures to destroy a felis sapien. I’d question why that didn’t occur to any of the crew, but it’s the Dwarferz.

[@Redrally]

I'm with you all the way: MPREG is icky and brings joy to no one :/

[@kentonjen8475]

Honestly, seeing the variety of GELFs in the eRed Dwarf universe does make a lot of sense. With humanity supposedly either extinct or evolved, the GELFs are practically left to their own devices, forming techno-barbaric communities and tribes out of survivalism. However, the one thing that irks me is why haven't we seen one that has developed a civilization past tribalism and bronze age thinking? Youn know, like one that's centralized, has their own economy and stocks, and possibly creating an interstellar empire just like their human creators.

[@RBEmpathy]

I dunno, I assumed they were having sex when the deposit happened.. and that was the finishing move. Jesus what a sentence.

[@Cyborcat]

Nah, he said it happened while they were making out.

[@RBEmpathy]

@@Cyborcat haha I guess I missed that. I was reeling from the thought of the tubular impregnation.

[@Cyborcat]

Understandable XD

[@duncmcrae]

The thing I remember about this episode was the lead up to when it came out, the anticipation of knowing (1) it's the finale and they're usually good and (2) it's a Cat episode finally. Maybe I shouldn't have had high expectations and it would have been better... but I really thought we were in for some sort of cut-down version of Identity Within. And we weren't. By the time it got to the second half of season 12 my expectations were very low, and, well, send me to Alaska if it didn't all turn around! But this episode is so rubbish, at least partly because it COULD have been so much better.

[@Cyborcat]

Yeah, one of the issues I have with it (that I'm gonna get to later in the Cat video) is that it was advertised as "You're finally gonna get that Cat episode you always wanted!" and ... really, they could have replaced Cat with Lister without having to change much.

[@fromthecheapseats7126]

I’m not sure even Season 1 Lister would be this dumb.

[@charlesjunior5087]

When I saw this uploaded on a Tuesday I thought it might have been a re upload of a previous video

[@Cyborcat]

Yeah, I went off-schedule this week. Revenue is way down lately, so I decided to slip this in just before the end of the month in the hopes that I'll reach the minimum to get paid.

[@smelkus]

How old is the David Attenborough in the documentary if he is still alive to do a documentary about genetically engineered lifeforms created by humans

[@georgeowain]

08:16 speaking of Hedgehogs, have you seen the new Sonic the Hedgehog trailer?

[@Cyborcat]

Unfortunately XD I'm not entirely convinced that the whole thing isn't just a big joke. Not that I think the movie isn't real, just that it was made by trolls that are perfectly aware of what they're doing. Or at least the marketing department is like that.

[@jaredohlstein7355]

I feel sorry that The Cat had to go through this ordeal

[@PhialSubstance]

This episode was weird and annoying. First it's a Cat episode, then it's a polymorph episode, then it wants to be a straight up rip-off of polymorph but they couldn't use a polymorph to erase Lister's emotions because they were newborns and Cat had run off with them so they went back and added that personality machine as an afterthought. I would have preferred a Cat-race episode and don't like the way they treated his character. It makes it come across like the writers don't like him very much. Dunno why they thought it would be a good idea to make this one the finale either.

[@andreagaul4960]

Cat also didn't understand the meaning of the skeleton orgy in Samsara so maybe he really is naïve about sex, though other episodes contradict this.

[@Cyborcat]

It could be that he just didn't make the connection, since they were skeletons.

[@MooffinMan]

3:14 um Ackshually...that's AlienS, not Alien 🤓

[@davidvasey5065]

Bruv that's exactly what I said

[@damimates]

10:10 i think you mean that Among Us game

[@shmee123ful]

Ha the red dawth crew being actually intelligent when facing the mercanoid ...I'm not sure how I feel about that

[@jfsredhead]

is this episodes fans are split i asked since got mixed reviews u and lewis dont like it but dimanda hagan did in her review

[@Cyborcat]

I don't know how the fandom in general feels about it, but I did see Diamanda's video on it and was surprised she seemed to like it a lot, but to each their own (maybe she's not as big a fan of Cat as I am =P).

[@theloneman3006]

I always found this ep to be the kind that was bad. like season 8 levels of bad. however to me this ep had good idea for a lot of other polys to be in it just the way was yeah too much out there. I think it would of been cool if the robot got to maybe be the one kind of blows up and the parts might of been the polys coming to get them maybe. like they could of had it where it was a repair job but it turned into a much worse state. But again this is my out look on it.

[@shmee123ful]

Are kinda surprise coc. Eggs banded in America? The hell? Is this because of the "choking hazard "

[@Cyborcat]

Yes, Kinder Eggs are banned in America. Something to do with a law against non-edible items inside an edible shell--choking hazard, basically, like you said. That said, I was able to get them once when I was in New York.

[@monkfan72]

They're sold in World Market. So not technically banned, I guess.

[@petefortune7018]

Cool and untouchable is for rubbish films and terrible tv shows, where the hero never loses a fight, cant be shot dead, and it doesn't matter how many different type of woman he meets they all fall in love with him. Thankfully all the characters on Red Dwarf have major flaws and are NOT the crew of the Enterprise who are all so bloody perfect!

[@Cyborcat]

I never said he shouldn't have ANY flaws. You built a strawman based on a single term I used. I just want Cat to be a cat, and giving him too many human insecurities, making him "un-cool", hurts this whole image of him the show has built. He can have certain flaws and still be a "cool cat". PS: If you think Star Trek characters are "all so bloody perfect", see Reginald Barclay.

[@Muetichu]

Amongus

[@alex-xz2dm]

oh no the pm d the os

[@Cyborcat]

No idea what you're talking about.

[@quazz79]

...but cat is stupid though

[@Cyborcat]

I addressed that.

[@quazz79]

@@Cyborcat must have been delivered to the wrong house