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Science Fiction

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Lemmy World Rules

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Red Dwarf: 10 ways the Brit sci-fi sitcom proved it was as smart as Star Trek (www.space.com)
submitted 1 year ago by DannyMac@lemmy.world to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.world
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[–] dumpsterlid@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I mean, I love Star Trek, but I love it because it has heart unlike most other scifi, not because it is "smarter" than other scifi. 99% of other scifi shows/movies spend all their time trying to be "smart" about how war will mechanically work in space or the far future... and completely bungle representing the human condition with any degree of heart or depth.

Star trek can be as dumb as it wants, it will always be better than 99% of other scifi just for the reason that it has heart and isn't obsessed with technology for technologies sake.

I mean.. look at the current crop of techbros who watch dystopian scifi's and think "this looks COOOOL, lets make that!", it really speaks to how flawed most scifi is at actually engaging with humanity beyond a superficial, aesthetic or "big picture ideas" level.

Red Dwarf from this article does look like it has heart too though, I will definitely have to give it a try.

[–] Zorque@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Red Dwarf is an awesome show with lots of heart. And don't be fooled, its also got tons of dumb (and hilarious) humor in it as well.

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You have to be smart to use dumb humour correctly.

[–] DannyMac@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Well said!

[–] HipPriest@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

Red Dwarf is great - series 2-6 were its peak for me. It played with sci-fi concepts in an intelligent way and the humour came from the people.

It was originally pitched as 'The Odd Couple in Space' I believe if that gives you a feeling for the dynamics between the main 2 characters, a stuck up deadpan snarker and a slobbish loveable rogue

[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

look at the current crop of techbros

I can't see your strawmen unless you give me more to work with. Go ahead and define your terms....bro.

Red Dwarf from this article does look like it has heart too though, I will definitely have to give it a try.

It is a cute show. A comedy. It ended and they brought it back again and I haven't seen the new episodes.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 2 points 11 months ago

The 'new' ones (Trojan onwards) are well good. Vast improvement.

[–] dumpsterlid@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can’t see your strawmen unless you give me more to work with. Go ahead and define your terms…bro.

Ok, Elon Musk or virtually any tech company ceo from sillicon valley. Happy?

[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Gotcha. So you have documentation that random reddit comments were written by CEOs of SV. May I see it?

Hey you know what a fun game to play is? Building bigoted strawman to rip into.

[–] DannyMac@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I kept hearing about Red Dwarf and gave it a try. It's quirky and goofy at times, but endearing. The special effects suck and they know it. The nice thing since it's a British show, there's not a ton of them in relation to its age. Only 74 since it began in 1988!

[–] bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think that one is the most significant differences between the shows is illustrated by how they handle escalating a yellow alert to a red alert. Star Trek does so almost unthinkingly, but in Red Dwarf Kryten first questions whether it is the right choice with "Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb."

[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

And then looking at the bulb mystified why that matters.

[–] draxil@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

If only the red dwarf writers hadn't split up. It's been a shadow of itself since then :(

[–] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A white hole?

[–] HipPriest@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So what is it?

[–] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Only joking.

[–] Its_Always_420@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Smeg off Rimmer!

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Chicken vindaloo for breakfast. The cat. Rimmer. This show is hilarious, I like it so much.

[–] dudinax@programming.dev 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Star Trek is smart now?

[–] LordOfTheChia@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

On the one hand you have TNGepisodes like Damok, Inner Light, DS9: Duet, etc.

Then there's episodes which defy any attempts to categorize them, like Threshold.

[–] dudinax@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago

You're right, there are several smart episodes, but on average Red Dwarf is way smarter.

[–] julianh@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Always has been.

[–] Zorque@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Ehhhh... the Abrams movies were decidedly un-smart.

Before that, though, I'd agree.

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

The TNG movies were starting to suffer from Action Movie Syndrome before then, alas. The curse of having a big budget these days is that you get lots of focus groups meddling to try and give the movie "broader appeal." Plus, IIRC Patrick Stewart was also starting to gain a lot of influence at that point and made a bunch of demands to have Picard be more action-oriented.

Anyway. Basic point is that Star Trek has had an un-smart period, but once upon a time it was smart. And perhaps it's starting to get smart again, Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks have been quite promising in that regard IMO.

[–] DannyMac@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I was having a great time with Abrams' Star Trek up until Spok's mom dies and Vulcan was destroyed. :(

[–] aram@aoir.social 2 points 1 year ago

@dudinax @DannyMac done been since the day

[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

They had their moments. One thing I never liked about the show was how afraid the writers would get. They would stumble upon a horrible problem and just magic a solution sitcom style in under an hour. To be fair they did do it a few times. Borg and Picard. Nog and PTSD.

[–] atoll@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I've rewatched Red Dwarf so many times, very fun show. I've watched all of TNG but I've never been all that interested in star trek though.

[–] ClaretNBlue@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Loved this show when I was a kid

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