Line #5 Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIQueeg


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/red_dwarf_2x5.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Don't mess with Queeg 500, suckas!]]
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4	Rimmer, Lister, and the Cat are wasting time in their quarters as usual: Lister is taking a quiz in a woman's magazine that rates the reader's sexiness, Cat is rocking out to a corrupted tape of Creator/RobertHardy reading ''Literature/TessOfTheDUrbervilles'', and Rimmer is cheating at checkers with a skutter. Holly interrupts, but can't remember why until a meteorite hits the ship--he was going to tell them that a meteorite is about to hit the ship.
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6	When Rimmer starts to malfunction, Holly's directions for repair nearly blow Lister up, and a new face appears on the screen: Queeg 500, the backup computer. He boots Holly out, citing his senility and the fact that his IQ is really 6 rather than 6000. After a few days of tyranny, the crew decides to bring Holly back.
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8	Holly challenges Queeg to a chess game... and promptly loses, not surprising when he persistently calls pieces "horsey" and "prawn." Holly is deleted permanently. Queeg appears onscreen to cement his reign over the ship... and says "what's happening, dudes?"
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10	Holly reappears, crowing over his jape of the decade -- "we are talking April, May, June, July ''and'' August Fools" -- and remarking on how easily the crew believed 'Queeg's' claims of Holly's incompetence. He finishes out by delivering [[AnAesop the moral of the story]]: to appreciate what you've got... because basically, he's fantastic.
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12	----
13	!!Tropes
14	* AIIsACrapshoot: In this case, Holly isn't turning evil, he's going senile. (Or so he'd have you believe.)
15	* AllJustAPrank: The ship's AI computer, Holly, is usurped and eventually deleted by Queeg, the ship's backup computer. Then the final scene reveals that "Queeg" was a prank by Holly all along.
16	* AntagonistTitle: Queeg himself is Red Dwarf's backup AI that torments the crew during the episode.
17	* BigWhat: The crew's reaction when they find out that Holly was Queeg the whole time.
18	* BondingThroughSharedEarbuds: Played with. Cat is listening to a warped recording of Creator/RobertHardy reading ''Literature/TessOfTheDUrbervilles'' and turns one cup of his headphones out so Lister can listen in as well.
19	* CaptainObvious: The Cat's contribution to Holly's chessmatch with Queeg, telling Holly that every time he moves, Queeg does as well.
20	* CastingGag: The actor playing Queeg, Charles Augins, was originally brought in to do the choreography for the "Tongue Tied" video. WordOfGod is that Queeg's DrillSergeantNasty persona was an exaggeration of how the non-dancer cast-members saw him.
21	* DetachableLowerHalf: Rimmer starts suffering glitches after a meteor collision damages the hologram projection suite. The first symptom is when the top half of his body finds itself hovering in mid-air, while his legs have walked off on their own.
22	* DrillSergeantNasty: Although not a drill sergeant, Queeg is exactly this sort of character.
23	* DyingVocalChange: Holly's voice drops to a slow-motion drone as Queeg (supposedly) deletes him.
24	* EveryoneHasStandards: On losing his hard-earned pea, Lister declares no matter where it's gone in the room, or what's happened to it, he'll eat it, even if it's covered with fluff and dust. Then Rimmer tells him it's in his dirty socks. Lister gives up immediately.
25	* FloweryInsults:
26	** Rimmer calls Holly as useful as a condom machine in the Vatican.
27	** Subverted when Rimmer calls him a "total, total... a word has yet to be invented to describe what you are, but you are one! And a total, total one at that!"
28	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Queeg calls the crew "suckers", which is what he (Holly) is playing them for.
29	* GilliganCut: Used when Queeg forces everyone to work in order to get food.
30	-->'''Queeg:''' From now on, '''everybody''' works.\
31	'''Cat:''' Nuh-uh, not this pussy!\
32	''(Cut to Lister and The Cat scrubbing floors)''
33	* GoshDangItToHeck: Holly says that he's sharp and kicking bottom.
34	* GrandTheftMe: Queeg takes control of Rimmer's body to force him to exercise, forcing him to go on a three-mile run even after he faints.
35	* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: Rimmer's legs wander away from him.
36	* HeadDesk: Lister bangs his head on the table when he finds out that all he got for dinner is burnt toast and one pea. His head goes down when he loses his pea.
37	* HypocriticalHumor: Rimmer is delighted with Queeg, until Queeg starts putting him through his paces.
38	* IAmTheTrope: "The company is paying for your hologrammatic survival, and out here, I am the company."
39	* InsultToRocks: Holly declares an IQ of six is bad for a glass of water.
40	* LateToThePunchline: Played with. Lister tells Rimmer a long and involved story about a rogue AI that's really just a set-up for a weak pun. Rimmer fails to recognise the joke, and spends a minute reflecting on the story before realisation dawns — about something unrelated to the punchline, which he still hasn't got.
41	* LazyBum: And it's not Lister, but Rimmer, who has an "arrangement" with Holly where being woken up at seven in the morning for exercise ''actually'' meant being woken up at ten with a full breakfast.
42	* LoopholeAbuse: Rimmer is left with exactly one checker, surrounded by the skutter's kinged pieces, with his only move being a losing one. So he's spinning out his turn until the skutter has to return to duty and forfeit.
43	* MeaningfulEcho: "Holly and I had an understanding." First used by Rimmer in a failed attempt to get out of stomach crunches, then by Lister when he gets the wrong end of the Queeg stick.
44	* MisplacedADecimalPoint: Queeg "insults" Holly's IQ in this manner.
45	-->'''Queeg''': It has a six in it, but it's not six thousand.
46	-->'''Lister''': Well what is it?
47	-->'''Queeg''': Six.
48	* OverlyPrePreparedGag: Lister tells Rimmer a long rambling story about why it's cruel to give machines personalities. He tells about how his friend Peterson had a pair of "Smart Shoes" that could always get you home no matter how drunk you were. But Peterson woke up hundreds of miles away because the shoes wanted to see the world. He tried to get rid of them but they'd show back up. In the end the shoes stole a car and wound up driving it into a canal because they couldn't steer properly. Peterson was upset, but a priest consoled him that the shoes were happy and in heaven now. You see, it turns out shoes have soles.
49	* PrankPunishment: After the crew insults him for his blunders, Holly generates a ruthless backup persona and torments them for a few days, to show them what they ''could'' be putting up with.
50	* ScaryBlackMan: Queeg 500, the back-up computer who seizes control of the ship. Just one look at him tells you that he's not going to put up with any of your crap.
51	* ScreenShake: Along with flashing lights when the meteorite hits.
52	* ShaggyDogStory:
53	** Lister tells Rimmer a story that at first seems to be a serious example of why it is cruel to give machines personalities. He discusses a pair of artificially intelligent shoes that are discontented with their existence and try to escape it by stealing a car. They then accidentally drive it into a canal and "die". A priest, however, comforted the shoes owner by telling him that the shoes had gone to heaven. Turns out the entire lecture was just an excuse for Lister to deliver the {{pun}} "Shoes have soles". Rimmer, however, doesn't get it.
54	** The main plot counts as well.
55	* ShapedLikeItself: The damage report monitor gets damaged.
56	* ShoutOut:
57	** Queeg is named after the captain in ''Literature/TheCaineMutiny''. Especially when Holly says "This is mutiny, Mr. Queeg."
58	** From the same line, "I'll see you hang from the highest yardarm in..." is from ''Film/MutinyOnTheBounty''.
59	** When they're scrubbing the floor, Lister and the Cat whistle the theme tune for ''Film/TheGreatEscape''.
60	** As Holly heads for his showdown with Queeg, the theme song from ''Film/HighNoon'' plays, covered by Music/HowardGoodall.
61	** Holly singing as he gets erased was inspired by HAL's death in ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''.
62	* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Holly challenges Queeg to a duel, winner takes all. Queeg chooses chess and sticks to his choice. Turns out Holly doesn't know much about playing it. Then it turns out Holly is playing everyone, so it's played straight in the long run.
63	* SpoofAesop: "Appreciate what you've got, because basically, I'm fantastic."
64	* TWordEuphemism: Cats do not do the W-Word. (Work.)
65	* TakeThat: Holly uses [[UsefulNotes/BritishFootyTeams Tottenham Hotspur]] as a euphemism for shit.
66	* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Queeg 500, the "backup computer", is a humorless, hard-driving taskmaster.
67	* VocalDissonance: Queeg saying "what's happenin' dudes?" in Holly's voice. Then when he changes back to Holly and explains what he'd done, the others exclaim "It was you all along?" and he says "That's right, suckas!" in Queeg's voice.

Context Recap / RedDwarfSeasonIIQueeg