Red Dwarf gets a distress call from an ancient Earth scientific outpost on an icy planet, sent by holographic scientist Dr. Hildegard Landstrom. The boys from the Dwarf set out to investigate. By this point, tensions between the boys are already high. What starts as a routine checkup mission unravels into the boys clashing with each other for dominance, in a power struggle that brings them on the verge of eating each other alive.
“Quarantine” maintains an overall sinister tone, with the humor being consistent with it rather than distracting from it. The rising action of the episode, the investigation of the facility concerning the distress call, is a genuinely exciting and tense part. The episode humanizes its first antagonist, Dr. Landstrom, quite well. Her berserk personality is framed as symptomatic of the disease in a way that lets Rimmer’s descent into insanity, after she infects him, to feel more natural. On a side note, the set design of a darkly lit, ice-cold, broken-down research facility showcases how it has decayed into a hostile environment. It’s the exact kind of environment that would result from an experiment gone wrong.
The episode is truly made by its namesake in the climax and falling action, in which the boys from the Dwarf are stuck in quarantine and try to escape. This scenario pushes them to their limits, putting them in a situation of powerlessness, and they must rely on the few tools they have to gain the upper hand. Stripping them down to their most vulnerable states allows for a bare-bones look into their psychology.
For instance, Rimmer’s viral infection allows for his personality to get stripped down to his most basic instincts and then exaggerated to the most dangerous levels. Chris Barrie’s monotone voice while his character is infected gives off a dissonant vibe that is as chilling as it is funny due to the lines he delivers—especially when pertaining to his new “friend,” Mr. Flibble. In all honestly, “Infected” Rimmer is one of the scariest antagonists on Red Dwarf to date—the image of the whole crew being seriously threatened by one of their own just…for lack of a better word, powerful.
“Quarantine” tells a story of power, as its conflict explores the power dynamics between the characters. Throughout this episode, Rimmer is intent on exerting his dominance over the other boys, and will do anything to put them down and keep himself on top. While trapped in quarantine, Lister, Cat, and Kryten compete for any semblance of dominance over each other. The end of the episode, in which Lister, Cat, and Kryten hold Rimmer in quarantine to torment for their enjoyment, reinforces their desperation for power.
There is also a sense of insecurity that runs through the entire crew, which drives their desperations for power. Rimmer’s desperation for power is triggered by his fears of exclusion from the rest of the crew by their plans to recruit Dr. Landstrom. His fears are understandable when considering that Red Dwarf can only support one hologram at a time. It also taps into Rimmer’s fragility as the second lowest-ranking crewmember and his sense of superiority as (technically) the highest-ranking “survivor” of Red Dwarf. In quarantine, Lister, Cat, and Kryten grow terrified of each other, as if one could strike the other at any moment. For each of them, lashing out becomes their only way of compensation. And one more thing about the ending: it also reaffirms the insecurities of Lister, Cat, and Kryten—right down to them donning the same crossdressing costume as Rimmer.
“Quarantine” is a compelling psychological thriller. It provides a very strong character study that deconstructs the relationship between the boys from the Dwarf by testing their limits and pushing them over the edge. All of this, buried under a thin layer of well-written sci-fi comedy.
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