Red Dwarf The Other Cast – Queeg

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Queeg - Played by Charles Augins
First aired as episode 5 of the second series of Red Dwarf on 4th of October 1988 Queeg is again written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and directed by Ed Bye.
This episode is a classic and involves the ships back up computer taking charge from Holly.

It all started when Holly (Norman Lovett) was addressing the crew but forgot what he was saying. After a horrendous impact to the Red Dwarf, Holly remembers he was supposed to be warning the crew they were on collision course with a meteor. Rimmers legs start to walk around on there own and Holly finally asks Lister to go and have him repaired. Whilst connecting him to the Hologram simulation suite, Holly’s instructions lead Lister to connect the wrong leads and causes an explosion, launching Lister over the consoles. Craig Charles who plays Lister did this stunt himself, quoted at the time as saying “I’m a scouser, I can be dropped on my head with no problems”

The constant mistakes by Holly, who is supposed to have an IQ of 6000, really annoys the crew, until a mysterious face appears on the console where Holly’s image should be. According to the face, he is Queeg 500 and is Holly’s replacement. Due to Gross negligence and crew endangerment he has taken control of Red Dwarf and demoted Holly to the position of Night watchman.
Whilst initially pleased with the efficiency of Queeg, he forces Rimmer out of bed really early to exercise and puts Cat and Lister on ship scrubbing duty, warning they wouldn’t be fed if they don’t comply.

An exasperated crew beg Holly to return and a game to the death is decided. After such games as Cluedo and Connect 4 are thrown out as ideas, Chess is picked with the winner Gaining complete control of Red Dwarf and the loser being wiped from the memory banks. Queeg wins fairly rapidly and has to say his goodbyes to Rimmer, Lister and Cat and slowly disappears from the screen. Moments later the crew are shocked when Holly returns and explains it was all an elaborate prank to make them realise how easy they actually had it.

Charles Augins voices Queeg 500 and is most famous for choreography. He won the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreography in 1991 for “Five guys named Moe”. he also choreographed the 1986 George Lucas produced Children’s fantasy “Labyrinth”. As well as the choreography, Charles also voiced the puppet Fiery in the film. He appeared in the 1981 episode of Blake’s 7 entitled Warlord as Lod. It was through his choreography that Charles had the Queeg opportunity. He was booked to arrange the choreography for the “Tongue Tied” section of the next episode “Parallel Universe” but the writers were so impressed with him they cast him as Queeg and the rest is history.

A classic episode of a classic series, full of cultural references and extreme humour with the exception of this line “A load of Tottenham that is. A steaming pile of Hotspur” NOT funny, not funny at all.

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