#diversity win and b. what sort of commentary is it making on people who work in tech or are disabled or acknowledge american colonialism .

[veronica-rich]

RD Series XII

Here are things that landed on me in no particular order about Series XII, now that I’ve seen all six episodes. (I posted them on the LJ community too, but some people don’t play there.) Spoilers, of course:

A whole sheaf of nostalgia, probably more callbacks in one series than any other series of RD has contained. And to the FIRST series. Did Doug just sit down and mainline the whole thing after Series X? Whereas Series X had a reference to Kochanski in, I believe, every single episode (and not just a reference, but pointed longing behind almost each one), XI and XII had only one that I can recall, in "Skipper." I was also shocked that given Lister's captaincy and proclivity for her in the one dimension, that (a) they were not together or (b) that her name didn't seem to elicit more than an acknowledgment she did exist, but that was all as far as Captain Lister seemed concerned (for if she did not exist, I would imagine his immediate reaction would've been "Who?" rather than "No, THIS person I call Chrissy"). Lister has either found a way to cope with his depression after Series X or is FAR, far better at sublimating it. He doesn't seem to drink to excess as much, and while he still exhibits occasional gaps in what we might consider basic education (whereas Rimmer seems to know things sometimes that surprise me, at least), he seems better-read and more "up" on ship's systems, if that makes sense. CAT. Cat had so much more to do in Series XII. Really, I feel like this was Danny's series, and it was achieved so much better than giving him a "Cat episode" as in XI, just by giving him more lines and chances to shine. I don't want to be accused of comparing apples to grapes, but it's a sort-of lesson to writers of female characters, and POC, and other minorities, that you CAN be more inclusive through little things that leave a lasting impression on your viewing audience, without having to write The Diversity Episode or The Race Episode or The Girl Power Episode, or whatever the SJW-Appeasement-of-the-Season happens to occur to the show-runner, and then almost forgetting those characters exist the rest of the time. (I thought by and large that Doug did this pretty well with Kochanski in Series VII, too - just including her in storylines as a character, not a girl necessarily.) On the other hand ... writing about women. Doug. DOUG. Guy, you were doing so well in Series XI with women. What happened?? You fall back on the old saw about women talking that much more than men? Bitch, PLEASE. Young girls don't even talk that much more than young boys. Don't tell me you're backsliding. There was a LOT of politics in this series. Not direct references, but commentary on them, social issues, corporate takeover and responsibility, etc. Mostly it landed pretty well; there were a couple of flat thuds, perhaps. I liked it. I like the mixing up of pairs in XI and XII - more Lister paired with Cat, and Rimmer working with Kryten. A far rarer combo is Rimmer and Cat, which I wouldn't mind seeing more often - they're both style-conscious, both vain in different ways, but also good opposite dynamic of the deeply insecure dealing with the overly confident. (The only thing I might tell Doug is to find different ways to set up Rimmer-Kryten dialogue than having Rimmer always "You mean (state the problem)?" and Kryten shoot back the direct answer. I know it's fastest, but there have to be creative ways of achieving exposition.) SLASH WATCH: What can I say, I mean, water is wet, and the slash is there. It's not as blatant with Lister/Rimmer as in the past perhaps, but ... the dynamic has changed. I mean, aside from the not-Hitler/Lister thing that jumped out of the screen so even Stevie Wonder could see it. But with L/R there's not the tension that suffused so much of the first several series; they're more settled, more intuitive, more comfortable, less antagonistic. This was really brought home in "Cured" when Rimmer made his astoundingly ableist comment about it being a pain in the ass to improve access on the Dwarf for Telford's (name?) wheelchair, and Lister just gives him a look before continuing what he was saying before he was interrupted - it's an expression that says You know what I think of THAT and what I think of you for saying it, and you'd better not really be THIS kind of an asshole, so I'll just leave you and your conscience to wrestle this out and you'd BETTER let the conscience win, smeghead. Which is not what younger Lister would have done at all. I noticed bits of this unspoken-ness flowing in the other direction as well, from Rimmer to him, but can't think of one offhand.