Does it strike anyone as odd that even Rimmer would use his b**** of a mom as a model for a wife? Not even Rimmer can be that screwed up!
Remember, Better Than Life delves into the subconscious and the deep, dark recesses of the mind - it doesn't surprise me in the slightest that Rimmer has a hidden Oedipal desire.
Don't go there, PLEASE!!!
There's that, and the fact that Rimmer's subconscious wants to make life Hell for him. It probably figured making him marry hhis mum would do that.
Presumably Rimmer retrieved his brother Frank with the time machine, given his appearance 3 million laters. As he probably did for his father who was his chauffeur in the previous book.
If you think about, if Rimmer's psyche wasn't so screwed up he could survive indefinitely in BTL, as long as Red Dwarf maintained his power.
At the end of BTL, when Lister finds the notice from the Red Dwarf crew in the obituaries column, they say they can't live on the backwards world with him, as they will age backwards as well.
But if they have to wait for Lister to go back to age 25, surely they will age 36 years in that time?
Not a major problem for Kryten and Rimmer but it is for the Cat? Do they avoid this problem by putting the Cat into stasis and shutting down Rimmer and Kryten?
Mind you, Holly has no runtime left at this stage, so maybe Rimmer can come online in emergencies?
Part of Holly's major plan is to resurrect Kochanski from her canister of ashes, so she can grow young with Lister.
How come Rimmer doesn't think of resurrecting himself in the same manner, so he doesn't have to be a hologram any more?
Because then Rimmer wouldn't have a 'gimmick' anymore, he'd just be a boring ol' smeghead.
Rimmer seems rather keen on being alive again at the end of Timeslides.
The last book ended in a cliff hanger in which Lister, Rimmer, and the Cat were trapped in a called Better Than Life. This books picks up on that.
Better Than Life is a lethally addictive game. Basically, once you start playing it, you do not remember doing so. So the life you're living in the game you think is real. While, outside, unless you have someone to look after you, your body slowly wastes away .
In their game lives, Lister is living the life of George Bailey in his favourite movie, It's A Wonderful Life, Rimmer is a billionaire, and the Cat lives on an island where his ego runs unchecked.
Meanwhile, outside, a rogue planet is on collision course with Red Dwarf. Unless the boys get out of that game soon, it's all over. And that rogue planet is more than it seems.
This is another excellent adaptation by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor and combines episodes from Seasons Two and Three (the actual episode of Better Than Life, the game was not so dangerous to play and the characters were aware that they were in the game). The characters are spot on (of course, they would be, the same chaps that created the show wrote this book). I could hear the actors saying the lines.
So, if you're a Red Dwarf fan, here is another book for you.