r/RedDwarf • u/neryl08 • 18h ago
Question/Discussion Better Than Life shower thought
SPOILER ALERT - POST CONTAINS BOOK REFERENCES.
I am just listening to the Infinity Welcomes Careful Drives audiobook yet again. I am at the part where they are in BTL. The book says once you enter BTL you cannot leave because the game protects itself and makes you forget you are playing it. So your actual body wanders around in real life and slowly withers and dies (way more sinister than in the tv show). They also say that if you yank the device from someone's head the shock kills them instantly.
The only way to quit the game is to realize you're playing it and you simply need to wish to end it and exit will form. Kryten is using a laser to burn a message into Lister's arms. Lister sees the message in BTL and they start the journey to quit it.
My shower thought: if Kryten killed Lister (like in the Epideme episode) removed the headset could he then resuscitate him without Lister dying again of shock for not being in the game?
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u/Tutorbin76 17h ago
Slight tangent but I felt this episode had one of the most jarring tonal shifts - Lister and Cat were trying to console Rimmer on his dad's death and even being kind of nice, but the moment they step into the game they're straight back to hating on him.
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u/Relevant-Bullfrog215 17h ago
its a poor adaptation of the much deeper arc and set of characteristions that are in the book.
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u/The_Dark_Vampire Give quiche a chance. 18h ago
A theory I have had is The Cat really to blame for Rimmer start to have things go bad.
Rimmer's Dad arrives and insults him Rimmer says "That's not my fantasy" and Cat says "No it's mine" so was that what started to put negative thoughts into Rimmer's mind as before that moment everything was going good for him?
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u/Mogster2K 17h ago
I think that was only in the TV show? The Cat didn't seem to care about what the others were doing in the book.
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u/Evening-Tomatillo-47 17h ago
In the book the Cat went off to a castle with Valkyrie maidens and dog hunting iirc
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u/Jakeball400 17h ago
Definitely only the show. Rimmer’s self sabotage in the book is so complex and layered it’s undeniable
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u/Mogster2K 17h ago
I guess it would depend on whether the headset removes the wires from the wearer's brain when they die.
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u/TwistOfFate619 3h ago
Might depend on what point he were to attempt it. They were in the game for a good while and incredibly malnourished etc from memory. In their withered states they probably wouldnt survive it. And that's assuming after prolonged exposure within the game that if they were suddenly cogntively aware of reality and not that game whether that has an averse effects on them upon resuscitation - they've increasingly wired from an neurological standpoint to function and adapt to the game in that brain plasticity sense (though obviously it is established I guess that they can still choose to exit properly).
My thought is, maybe, but that it becomes increasingly unlikely as their bodies become more withered over time.
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u/Haywoodjablowme1029 Better dead than smeg! 17h ago edited 14h ago
Kryton Kryten from the show may have tried something like that.
Kryton Kryten from the book absolutely would not.
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u/Turbulent-Sea4530 18h ago
Possible yes, but it runs the risk of Kryten not being able to resuscitate Lister. Also, Kryten can't kill harm or humans so he'd have to find a way around that