Home - Reviews - Movie Tome

Red Dwarf - Episode Guide

Season: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 All

Red Dwarf

Pilot

Red Dwarf USA

gs: Chris Eigeman (Arnold Rimmer (1st Pilot Version)) Anthony Fuscle (Arnold Rimmer (2nd Pilot Version)) Craig Bierko (Dave Lister) Jane Leeves (Holly) Robert Llewellyn (Kryten) Hinton Battle (Cat (1st Pilot Version)) Terry Farrell (Cat (2nd Pilot Version)) Elizabeth Morehead (Christine Kochanski) Lorraine Toussaint (Captain Tau) Michael Heintzman (Munson)

This was a failed attempt in 1992 to make an Americanized version of the hit British sci-fi comedy. Two pilots were filmed after the producers replaced the actors playing Rimmer and Cat, but the series was never picked up, even with the involvement of the original creators, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. The story was an amalgm of several episodes but pretty much followed the original British pilot episode The End, except that Kryten is aboard the Red Dwarf from the start and the Cat is now a woman.
Head to the Official Red Dwarf Site (www.reddwarf.co.uk) to read a complete article about the fate of Red Dwarf USA.

b: UNAIRED w: Linwood Boomer with Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Jeffrey Melman

NOTE: Although the crew was recast with mostly American actors, the producers comissioned Robert Llewellyn to play the part of Kryten in the American version as well as in the British. Chris Barrie was approached to reprise his role of Rimmer, but turned down the offer due to TV committments in Britain.

The second pilot featured scenes from the first pilot mixed in with new footage.

Season 1

1. The End

gs: Robert Bathurst (Frank Todhunter) Mac McDonald (Captain Hollister) Mark Williams (Petersen) Paul Bradley (Chen) David Gillespie (Selby) Robert McCulley (George McIntyre) C.P. Grogan (Kristine Kochanski)

Aboard the Jupiter Mining Corporation vessel Red Dwarf, Dave Lister, a lowly 3rd Technician, smuggles aboard a cat and is consequently confined to suspended animation for the crime.
During his time in stasis his bunkmate Arnold Rimmer, an equally if not more lowly 2nd Technician, is forced to perform the maintenence duties alone and inefficiently repairs the drive plate, causing it to blow and subjecing the entire crew to deadly radiation.
3 million years pass until Holly (the ship's computer) releases Lister from stasis and tells him of the accident and also ressurrects Rimmer as a hologram to be a companion for Lister. After the initial shock, Lister realises that he has the run of the ship, allowing him to be, basically, himself: a no-good layabout slob. Rimmer and Lister discover that the cat had been sealed in the ships hold during the accident and has bred there for the last 3 million years and have evolved into man, one of whom is still on the ship.
When he discovers his new friend, Lister decides to complete his dream of owning a farm on Fiji and orders Holly to set a course for Earth.
THE BEGINNING!

b: 15-Feb-1988 pc: 1.1 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: The original script for the Red Dwarf pilot was actually written in the early 80's but kept getting passed over by BBC executives and never got on its feet until 1987.

In 1997 Grant Naylor Productions took the first three seasons and upgraded the episodes with new special effects and CGI, new sound effects and music, and a few new scenes with Holly. These updated episodes were screened as Red Dwarf Remastered.

Holly's character was originally intended to be just a voiceover, and the entire first series was filmed without any vision of his head. After some lengthy complaining by Norman Lovett, the crew reshot many scenes where Holly is present. However, some scenes included only inserts of Holly, like in 'Balance of Power' where Lister is addressing Holly by looking at the ceiling, even though he is on the screen.

In the opening titles, the man in the space suit painting the letters of Red Dwarf is Craig Charles.

2. Future Echoes

gs: John Lenahan (Talkie Toaster) Tony Hawks (Food Dispenser)

Lister and Cat prepare to go into stasis while Red Dwarf goes to light speed until they get back to Earth. Rimmer does not want to be turned off, so he demands to be left on for the journey, even though he will be by himself. Unfortunately they reach light speed 22 hours before they expected and don't get to go into stasis after all.

While shaving, Lister watches himself accidentally cutting himself in the mirror and Rimmer rushing up behind him, then a few seconds later he does cut himself and yells for Rimmer, but dismisses what he saw in the mirror. Lister goes to the drive room and talks to Rimmer, only Rimmer is enjoying a conversation with an invisible person. Rimmer leaves through one door and immediately returns through another where he has the same conversation with Lister that he had before.
Lister tries to tell him about what is happening and Rimmer is convinced when he sees Cat rush past them in the hall but then sees him in the sleeping quarters immediately after. Holly calls them Future Echoes, pieces of the future that they are catching up with as a result of light speed, backed up when Rimmer spots a picture showing Lister holding two babies in his arms.

Rimmer sees Lister getting killed by an exploding panel in the drive room and doesn't seem to be too concerned about it in front of Lister. Lister goes to face his death, but doesn't get killed.
They return to their quarters and see a very old Lister lying in the bunk. The Old Lister tells them that it was Lister's son that Rimmer saw in the drive room and tells Lister to grab his camera and run to the medical bay. Rimmer wonders how Lister fathers two children without a woman on board and Lister responds with "I dunno, but it'll be a lot of fun finding out!"

The two go to the medical bay and are greeted by Lister, the same age he is now, introducing them to his twin boys, Jim and Bexley......

b: 22-Feb-1988 pc: 1.2 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: Originally this episode was number four in the series but was switched to second because the producers felt that it was the best episode to really introduce the sci-fi aspects of the show.

To combat the problem of new viewers not understanding what was going on (a massive ship with only Lister, Rimmer and the Cat aboard), Holly's opening SOS message was introduced with him delivering a different witty remark at the end.

This is the first episode to deal with matters of time travel and changing future and past events, a theory which will be used again in several more episodes: Stasis Leak, Backwards, Timeslides, White Hole, The Inquisitor, Out of Time, Tikka to Ride, Ouroboros and Cassandra.

3. Balance of Power

gs: C.P. Grogan (Kochanski) Mark Williams (Petersen) Paul Bradley (Chen) David Gillespie (Selby) Rupert Bates (Food Dispenser/Video Chef)

Lister finally gets a reprieve from Rimmer's boring inventory checks and goes for a drink. Sitting in the empty bar, he flashes back to a disco that he attended with his mates, Petersen, Chen and Selby; and finally realises that he is alone.

After he wallows in self-pity for being alone in deep space, Lister pleads with Rimmer to allow him to create a hologram of Kristine Kochanski, an upper-class love interest. When Rimmer invokes his standing as a superior crew member (2nd Technician as opposed to 3rd Technician) and flatly refuses, Lister plans revenge and threatens to take the exams to become an officer and outrank him.
Rimmer scoffs at the idea but wakes up in the morning to discover that Lister is off studying for the chef's exam, a fairly basic one but an officer's position nonetheless.
Rimmer tries to discourage Lister from taking the exam and even orders him not to but Lister doesn't give in saying that the only way he wont take the exam is if Rimmer lets him see Kochanski.

On the day of the exam, Kochanski walks in and Lister is stunned beyond belief. However, Kochanski tells him that she isn't interested in him and wants a real man. Lister is hurt but is puzzled at the way she speaks. He tricks her by commenting on the night that they had sex, and she replies in disbelief, proving to him that it is actually Rimmer. Lister tells Rimmer to go away and he finishes the exam.

Lister comes from the exam room to receive his results and Rimmer asks how he did. Lister's face is expressionless until he leaps in the air and shouts "How'd I Do Mr Lister, Sir!"

b: 29-Feb-1988 pc: 1.3 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: In Lister's disco flashback he tells his mates that his uncle's brain is in a jar. It must run in the family since he discovers that is how he ends up in season 6's 'Out Of Time'.

The Rimmer-in-Kochanski's body scene was originally much longer, showing off Clare Grogan's acting ability, but the scene had to be cut due to running time.

The flashback scene was intended to be a recurring theme throughout the series, showing Listers secret feelings of intense lonliness and his contrasting past and present lives, but the idea was scrapped.

Just so you people who haven't seen Waiting For God, Lister pretended he passed the test to faze Rimmer (and to basically get him to shut up, which I think worked).

4. Waiting For God

gs: Noel Coleman (Cat Preist) John Lenahan (Talkie Toaster)

Holly notices a pod floating in space and Rimmer orders that it be salvaged, convinced that it contains alien life forms, even though Lister realises that it is a Red Dwarf Garbage Pod, jettisoned from the waste disposal unit.
Meanwhile Lister is researching the Cat's religion and discovers that their race which evolved from his pet, Frankenstein, now have his image as their God. He follows the Cat deep into the hold of the ship and finds a Cat Priest who is dying with the belief that he hasn't lived up to the expectations of the almighty Cloister (God).
Lister convinces him that he has lived admirably as a priest so that he can die in peace and Lister comes to the conclusion that having religion is not as good as people believe as the cat race all perished trying to honour theirs.

b: 07-Mar-1988 pc: 1.4 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

5. Confidence and Paranoia

gs: Lee Cornes (Paranoia) Craig Ferguson (Confidence) Risa Hall (Woman in movie (Uncredited)(Voice Only))

After visiting the officers living quarters aboard the ship before it has been decontaminated, Lister wakes up with a case of pneumonia and begins to hallucinate in his sleep. His dreams become real however, when it begins to rain fish in their room, and the Mayor of Warsaw appears and then spontaneously combusts in front of Rimmer.
Lister wakes feeling better but then finds that two men have appeared on the ship, one his inner confidence and the other his paranoia. While Lister's Confidence gives him the strength to face Rimmer to get Kochanski's hologram disk, he is unaware that Confidence would do anything to be with him, including destroying the Medicomp and killing Paranoia.
Lister discovers this but cannot stop Confidence from foolishly trying to convince him that he can breathe in space and ends up imploding into a billion pieces.
Lister retrieves the hologram disk and loads it, but what results is far worse than being alone in space.

b: 14-Mar-1988 pc: 1.5 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: According to the Series 1 DVD, this episode was intended to be the final episode of the series, with Kochanski's hologram appearing and thus becoming a regular character in Series 2. However, an earlier episode featuring Rimmer trying to build himself a new body was scrapped and the plot of Me2 was devised.

In Lister's soppy romance movie, the voice of the male character is Chris Barrie.

6. Me2

gs: Mac McDonald (Captain Hollister)

Lister gets more that he bargained for when the disk supposedly containing Kochanski's hologram is actually a copy of Rimmer. The two Rimmers decide to move in together leaving Lister who is all too happy to be rid of them.
However, the two Rimmers are so alike that they cannot get along and continually insult and berate each other. Lister discovers a tape of Rimmer's death on which he utters the words "Gazpatcho Soup" before his demise.
When the childish behaviour between the two Rimmers forces Lister to put his foot down and demand that one of them be erased, he tricks the original Rimmer into believing that he will be the one in order to make him explain what 'Gazpatcho Soup' meant. It was the day that Rimmer's aspirations to become an officer finally came true when he was invited to the captain's table for dinner but he unfortunately did not know that Gazpatcho Soup is meant to be served cold.

b: 21-Mar-1988 pc: 1.6 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: According to the Official Red Dwarf site, a piece was deleted from the scene of the Rimmers last argument in the cinema. Viewing the entire scene explains why, in the aired version, Lister appears to select the wrong Rimmer for deletion. The uncut version is included on the Series I DVD bonus disc.

The vision of Rimmer's death video with Captain Hollister was filmed at the same time as 'The End' to save Mac McDonald the trouble of returning to the set.

Season 2

7. Kryten

gs: David Ross (Kryten) Tony Slattery (Android actor) Johanna Hargreaves (Esperanto Teacher)

The second season begins with the gang coming across a crashed space shuttle where the service mechanoid, Kryten, is still attending to the officers, even though they have long since passed away. The crew take Kryten back aboard Red Dwarf where Rimmer puts him to work cleaning, cooking, ironing etc.
Lister tries to convince him that he doesn't have to do any of his service duties anymore and can do his own thing. He fails until Kryten is painting a portrait of Rimmer and his rebellious side opens up, painting Rimmer sitting on the toilet, and then insulting him before jumping on a space bike wearing a leather jacket, a-la Marlon Brando.

b: 06-Sep-1988 pc: 2.1 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: At the beginning, Kryten is watching his favourite television show "Androids". The theme song for the program is a spoof of the long-running Australian soap opera "Neighbours", a big hit in Britain.

The producer and director of "Androids", Kylie Gwenlyn, is named after the former head of the BBC, Gareth Gwenlan.

Red Dwarf's second series introduces the small ship-to-surface vessel Blue Midget. The creation of the transport vehicle was to enable the Dwarfers to leave the ship and explore space, leading them to meet Kryten and party away Rimmer's death on a moon. The larger Starbug will be created for Series III and beyond, it becoming a major part of the 6th and 7th seasons.

8. Better Than Life

gs: John Abineri (Rimmer's Dad) Judy Hawkins (Yvonne McGruder) Ron Pember (The Tax Man) Tony Hawks (Game Guide) Nigel Carrivick (Captain) Jeremy Austin (Rathbone) Debbie Ash (Marilyn Monroe) Tina Jenkins (Newsreader) Gordon Salkilld (Gordon)

A mail pod arrives in space and Rimmer recieves the belated news that his father has passed away and is devastated, even though he hated him. To alleviate his sadness of the news (and the fact that he has a $8,500 tax bill), the crew try out a new Virtual Reality game where all your desires and fantasies can come true, but even Rimmer's mind has its own way of stabbing him in the back.

b: 13-Sep-1988 pc: 2.2 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: During filming, Craig Charles kept stalling the motorcycle he and Cat ride away from Rimmer on, so Craig is not the person riding the bike as it moves away from the camera.

Throughout the filming of this episode, the crew had a recurring problem, as Debbie Ash (who played Marilyn Monroe) proved utterly incapable of delivering her line, "Boop-oop-be-doop".

9. Thanks For The Memory

gs: Sabra Williams (Lisa Yates)

After partying away to the anniversary of Rimmer's death, Lister and Cat wake up with broken legs, Lister's jigsaw has been completed, four pages have been torn from his diary, the clock is four days ahead and the black box is missing.
The crew go after the black box and discover it in a shallow grave with a gravestone that reads 'To the memory, of the memory of Lisa Yates'. Lister comments that he once dated a girl named Lisa Yates.
They view the black box recording and watch as Lister, after hearing Rimmer cry and wail because he has never been loved, implants a memory of his into Rimmer's; the eight months that he dated Lisa Yates.
Rimmer wakes with this new memory and believes it to be his. He ponders why he and Lisa broke up and Lister realises that he was stupid to ever let her go.
Rimmer finds out that Lister also dated Lisa and Lister is forced to tell him what he did. Rimmer asks that the last four days be erased from everyones memory and that they bury the black box. Lister and Cat recieve the broken legs when they drop the headstone on themselves. When they get back to the ship, Lister tears the pages from his diary and puts the last piece of the jigsaw into place.

b: 20-Sep-1988 pc: 2.3 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: Fans have drawn parallels between this episode and an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called 'Clues'. Both involved crewmembers finding parts of their memories missing and set about trying to find out what happened, only to learn they were better off not knowing

During the filming of this episode, Craig Charles had to leave to attend the birth of his son, Jack. Production Manager Mike Agnew wears Lister's spacesuit in the black-box scene. You can see a continuity error in those scenes if you look closely: Lister is not wearing his cast, as the one made did not fit Agnew.

10. Stasis Leak

gs: C.P. Grogan (Kochanski) Mark Williams (Petersen) Morwenna Banks (Lift Hostess) Glynis Barber (Woman Returning from Leave) Mac McDonald (Captain Hollister) Sophie Doherty (Kochanski's Roommate) Richard Hainsworth (Medical Orderly) Tony Hawks (Suitcase)

While going through Kochanski's personal things, Lister finds a photograph of him and her getting married. Remembering something from the past, he reads Rimmer's diary and finds a piece where Rimmer thought he saw his own head pop up through the table and say that he came from the future to save his life which Rimmer believed to be an hallucination.
Following directions from the diary, the gang head down to floor 16 and find a stasis leak which transports them back to the past, a little while before the crew all died.
Because they can't bring anybody back to their time, Lister and Rimmer fight over who they should convince to go into the other stasis booth (Lister himself being sent into the other). Lister wants to save Kochanski and Rimmer obviously wants himself.
While Rimmer goes back to convince himself, Lister and Cat find Kochanski at a hotel, but she is already married. Kochanski invites them in and Lister discovers.....Himself from 5 years in the future who has found another way to go back in time.
After the meeting they all return to the past Rimmer and Lister's quarters where the past Rimmer promptly tells them all to go away.

b: 27-Sep-1988 pc: 2.4 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: In the original version of this episode, during Holly's opening spiel he says "we saw a moon shaped exactly like Felicity Kendall's bottom". In the Remastered version it is changed to "Marilyn Monroe's bottom".

Before the final scene was filmed, Clare Grogan was accidentally told she had finished her scenes and left the studio, so the Kochanski who walks in with the future Lister is actually Dona DiStephano, an Assistant Floor Manager and Clare's lines were excised from the final shooting.

The scenes in the Ganymede Holiday Inn were filmed at the real-life Midland Holiday Inn, with actual hotel guests shown in the foyer, and the confrontation scene being filmed in the real Room 008.

11. Queeg

gs: Charles Augins (Queeg)

Holly shows the first signs of his computer senility and endangers Lister's life which activates the back up computer. The team rally around the new computer Queeg, but soon realise that he is a maniacal beast who demands order and proper ship regulations. After forcing Lister and Cat to work for their food and taking control of Rimmer's body for exercises, the gang begin to appreciate Holly a little more and set about devising a way to rid the ship of Queeg.

b: 04-Oct-1988 pc: 2.5 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: An early draft of the script for 'Queeg' included the Wilma Flintstone exchange between Lister and Cat, which will be later seen in 'Backwards'.

Red Dwarf music composer Howard Goodall sings the theme from High Noon as Holly approaches his confrontation with Queeg.

Craig Charles performed his own stunts in this episode where Lister is thrown from his bunk and then when he flies over the console in the explosion.

12. Parallel Universe

gs: Suzanne Bertish (Arlene Rimmer) Angela Bruce (Deb Lister) Matthew Devitt (Dog) Hattie Hayridge (Hilly)

Holly claims to have invented a matter transport device called the "Holly Hop Drive" (A red box with a stop and start button on it) and the crew try and use it, but it doesn't bring them to earth, it brings them to a parallel universe where women are the dominant sex.
While Rimmer is trying to avoid his opposite's sexual demands, Lister seems to be getting on very well with his. The Cat's opposite (unfortunately for him) is a dog, and even Holly has an opposite, Hilly. After partying all night long while Holly and Hilly fix the Hop Drive they wake up to find Lister has accidentally slept with his opposite, who tells him that in their universe, the men give birth to the babies.
After returning to their own world, Lister uses a pregnancy test, and much to Rimmer's delight, they learn that Lister is pregnant!

b: 11-Oct-1988 pc: 2.6 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: The title of this episode "Parallel Universe" doesn't appear at the start as in others. Instead, we open with a musical number with Cat singing 'Tongue Tied'. The Remastered version has the title appear after the song finishes.

The opening number 'Tongue Tied' is choreographed by Charles Augins, who played Queeg in the previous episode.

The "Tongue Tied" musical number evolved from a brief gag, to a full-blown song and dance sequence, to Danny John-Jules releasing his own version of the song in 1995

Season 3

13. Backwards

gs: Maria Friedman (Waitress) Tony Hawks (Compere) Arthur Smith (Pub Manager) Anna Palmer (Customer in Cafe)

The episode opens with 'Star Wars' style text explaining that Lister gave birth to twin boys that were returned to the other dimension, Holly has changed his face to look like his counterpart from that universe, and that Kryten has returned and become part of the crew.

While Lister and Cat discuss the sexiness of Wilma Flintstone, Kryten and Rimmer take the Starbug for a piloting lesson in order for them to become more independent. They accidentally pass through a time hole and appear on Earth where everything runs in reverse order. While Lister and Cat attempt to find them, they get a job as a novelty act in a pub, showing off their 'forwards' actions.
Lister and Cat finally track them down but Rimmer and Kryten don't want to leave claiming that the world makes more sense this way. They are soon fired for causing a pub brawl and then proceed to start the fight in true bar-room brawl fashion (or rather a bar-room tidy).

b: 14-Nov-1989 pc: 3.1 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: Originally the season opener was going to pick up the story of Lister's pregnancy, however Rob Grant and Doug Naylor realised that their script was becoming sexist and homophobic. Therefore the idea was shelved and it was left to the very fast scrolling text at the beginning of the episode to explain things.

Holly's head-sex change operation between seasons 2 and 3 was due to Norman Lovett wanting to reduce the rehearsal hours due to health and travel reasons. The producers agreed to give him the time but for a lower pay than the rest of the cast, which Norman refused. Paul Jackson then suggested looking for a new Holly and Hattie Hayridge auditioned for the role.

In the backwards universe, the man shown smoking a cigarette backwards is series creator/writer Rob Grant.

Although never stated on the show, the change in the Dwarfers living quarters this season is explained by the producers as them moving up to the Officer's Quarters and making use of the better conditions.

14. Marooned

The crew evacuate the ship after Holly spots five black holes in the distance. Rimmer and Lister leave together in Starbug but hit a meteor and crash on a snow planet with no way to escape. With little food and heat, Lister begins to open up to Rimmer to try and take his mind off the situation, including talking about Rimmer's fascination with war and when they both lost their virginities.
Soon the fire dies down and the only thing left to burn is Lister's guitar and Rimmer's priceless camphorwood chest. Lister makes him think that he will burn the guitar but instead cuts a guitar-shaped hole in the back of the chest and burns that. However, his smugness turns to guilt when Rimmer says that the chest belonged to his father and is worth more to him than life. When Kryten and Cat finally find them, Lister grabs his guitar and hightails it before Rimmer can realise what he did.

b: 21-Nov-1989 pc: 3.2 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: The dog food Craig Charles eats during the episode was actually corned beef with dog food-like additives, which was as horrible as real dog food would be and Craig spat it out off-camera. The myth surrounding whether it was dog food or not was fostered by the cast for awhile.

This episode was originally titled 'Men of Honour' but was changed to 'Marooned' when the writers went for single-word titles that clearly defined the premise of the episode (Polymorph, Bodyswap etc).

15. Polymorph

gs: Kalli Greenwood (Rimmer's Mom) Simon Gaffney (young Rimmer) Frances Barber (Genny)

A pod arrives aboard Red Dwarf containing a genetic mutant which can change itself into any shape whatsoever. It appears to Lister in it's true form, bringing him to the height of his terror, and then sucking his fear right out of him.
While they are searching for it, Cat is chased by his own heat-seeking bazookoid balls, and eventually manages evade them and lock them in a room. The Polymorph gets the Cat and takes away his vanity by appearing as a beautiful woman and flattering him. It then appears as Rimmer and blames Kryten for the Cat beng attacked, thereby taking away Kryten's guilt.
Later, when the three get back it appears as Rimmer's mother, pretending to have slept with Lister, angering Rimmer so much that it feeds off him also.. .

The gang now have very different personalities: we have Rimmer, a "wannabe" hippy, (T-shirt saying "Give quiche a chance"), Lister with nerves of steel and willing to sacrifice his life to kill it, Kryten with no sense of loyalty or guilt, and the Cat, a bum. They continue their search for the Polymorph and suddenly it comes up and attacks from behind.
Luckily, an automatic door opens, releasing the bazookoid balls that were chasing the cat. The crew duck and the polymorph is destroyed. All the crew get their emotions back and they are free from the polymorph. Or so it may seem...

b: 28-Nov-1989 pc: 3.3 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: The Remastered version of this episode contained a new ending. Originally we saw the crew walking single file past the camera with two Listers bringing up the rear, the second one snarling at the camera and then changing into another Polymorph. The new ending simply had scrolling text giving a brief (and silly) story of what happened to the second Polymorph. Personally I think they should have left it as it was.

The reason the ending was changed in The Remastered version was because Doug Naylor was getting tired of fans asking what happened to the second Polymorph. Really, it's pretty obvious what happened - just use your imagination.

16. Bodyswap

gs: Lia Williams (Voice of Carol Brown)

A scutter has gone mad and rerouted the entire ships circuitry and Rimmer and Kryten can't find the self-destruct mechanism but Lister accidentally activates it when he orders a milkshake and chocolate bar from a vending machine. Needing one of the senior officers to deactivate it, Kryten introduces them to a mind-swap, which involves implanting another crew-members brain (via a disc on which all of their brain patterns were kept) into Lister's body. Even though the technique works it does not fool the computer into deactivating the auto-destruct. The count-down finishes, and Lister recieves his milkshake and choc bar from the vending machine as there is no bomb on board the ship.
Rimmer decides that the brain-switching idea is a good one and he persuades Lister to loan him his body, promising to get it fit for Lister. Lister finally agrees, but takes it back when he finds out how badly Rimmer has been treating his body. Rimmer, with the help of Kryten (who is programmed to obey) steals Lister's body during the night, and does a runner with Starbug. Lister, Cat and Kryten give chase in Blue Midget, but as they catch up, Rimmer crashes.
Back in his own body Lister gives Kryten the third degree, whose guilt chip is in overload. Rimmer walks in with a stunned look and speaks in the Cat's voice. Cat walks in and in Rimmer's voice, promises to give his body back in a few days and starts to gorge himself on a pile of food.

b: 05-Dec-1989 pc: 3.4 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: Lister tells Cat they are going to chase after Rimmer in White Midget, but we then see them flying in Blue Midget. In the Remastered version, Lister's voice is dubbed over so he says "The Midget" instead of "White Midget".
The actual mistake came from the writing and preparation of the series. Originally the new smaller ship that would be used was a White Midget, a similar version of the Blue Midget, but the producers then invented the Starbug which would be bigger and allow for more room to film inside. Unfortunately the line wasn't changed in this episode.

Due to the heavy amount of redubbing involved, this episode was the first not filmed before a studio audience

A scene deleted from this episode involved Kryten lighting Rimmer-as-Lister's cigar with his finger while they are in a sauna. During filming, Robert Llewellyn became so hot and sweaty in the Kryten costume that his sweat short-circuited the wires used for the lighter and was electrocuted. Sadly, this scene seems to have been lost for good and doesn't appear on the Series III DVD.

17. Timeslides

gs: Robert Addie (Gilbert) Emile Charles (young Lister) Simon Gaffney (young Rimmer) Stephen McKintosh ('Thicky' Holden) Koo Stark (Sabrina Mulholland-Jjones) Ruby Wax (Blaize Falconberger) Rupert Bates (Bodyguard) Richard Hainsworth (Bodyguard) Louisa Ruthven (Ski Woman) Mark Steel (Ski Man)

Lister declares he is sick of life on Red Dwarf and wishes that he never joined the JMC in the first place. Kryten is developing photos in the photo lab when he discovers that they can move, to which Holly suggests that the developing fluid must have mutated.
Kryten shows some moving slides to the crew and Lister finds that he can walk into the projection and really be there, only he cannot move outside the frame of the picture. Lister uses this as his ticket off Red Dwarf by making himself unbelievably rich. He takes a tension sheet (just bubble-wrap packing paper painted red) and goes into a photo of himself at 17 and tells himself to patent the invention.
When they return, Lister, Cat and Kryten disappear. (Kryten wasn't rescued and the Cat race never existed) Rimmer cannot bear being on his own and goes to convince Lister to come back. Upon failing that, he goes further back in time to give the invention to himself at boarding school.
Lister, Cat and Kryten are returned, although he only succeeded in putting things back the way they were. As a consequence of his actions, Rimmer discovers that he is not a hologram anymore, but is alive. This doesn't last long though, as in his excitement he hits two crates of dynamite and blows himself up.

b: 12-Dec-1989 pc: 3.5 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: Craig Charles and his band, The Sons of Gordon Gekko wrote three songs for this episode: 'Cash', played as Lister drives up to his mansion; 'Bad News', the song Kryten listens to while developing photos; and the 'Om' song.

The young Lister is played by Emile Charles, Craig's younger brother.

Well known British comedienne and TV presenter Ruby Wax is the wife of director Ed Bye.

The skiing couple in Lister's slide originally had lines telling us of how they ended up with Lister's party photos (as Lister got the pictures of the skiiers by accident). Their dialogue was cut from the final episode when Craig Charles pointed out they wouldn't have seen Lister's photos at that point.

18. The Last Day

gs: Gordon Kennedy (Hudzen 10) Julie Higginson (Marilyn Monroe android) Robert Llewellyn (Jim Reaper)

A mail pod arrives containing a message indicating that the "out-dated" Kryten must be dismantled and his replacement will arrive within 24 hours; a new, and improved "Hudzen 10". Kryten is not upset though, because now he goes to Silicon Heaven. Lister is shocked at this idea, and explains that there's no such thing as silicon heaven, but Kryten isn't convinced. The crew throw a "going away" party for Kryten, in which we find out that Lister was an orphan and Rimmer got his first french kiss from his uncle Frank, who thought he was his mother.
The next morning, the crew wake up with hangovers and Kryten decides that he wants to stay. A ship requests docking, and the crew meet the replacement in the docking bay. They try and fight off the Hudzen 10 so Kryten will not have to leave, but he is too strong. Eventually Kryten informs him of the absence of silicon heaven, which causes Hudzen 10's circuits to overload.

b: 19-Dec-1989 pc: 3.6 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: We learn of the morning that Rimmer spent on the Samaritans switchboard - when he drove all five callers to suicide, despite one being a wrong number! A similar experience was suffered by Gordon Brittas in The Brittas Empire (also played by Chris Barrie), right down to the wrong number.

This episode was written to replace the pregnancy-resolving storyline that was shelved at the beginning of the series.

This episode contains Robert Llewelyn's first appearance outside of the Kryten costume.

Season 4

19. Camille

gs: Judy Pascoe (Mechanoid Camille) Francesca Folan (Hologram Camille) Suzanne Rhatigan (Human Camille) Rupert Bates (Hector)

Lister tries in vain to teach Kryten how to lie, insult, cheat and disobey orders. Lister gives up when Rimmer calls Kryten on a trip "moon-hopping". On the trip, Kryten discovers a distress call and goes to inspect it against Rimmer's orders (The planet could blow up soon).
Kryten rescues a "female" droid called Camille who he falls in love with, even though droids aren't supposed to have feelings like that. Kryten takes Camille back to Starbug, but when Rimmer sees her, she's a hologram who is interested in him. They bring her back to Red Dwarf and then Lister sees a human female with tastes similar to him.
Lister notices how everyone reacts to Camille and she confesses to Lister that she is a Pleasure GELF (Genetically Engineered Life Form) programmed to be everyone's perfect companion. The Cat goes to see, and it is not surprising that he sees himself! The GELF turns into her true form at Kryten's request which is a huge green blob.
Despite her apalling appearance, Kryten still decides to ask her to dinner, then the movies (Casablanca). A pod arrives containing Hector (Camille's "Husband") who wants to find a cure for their condition.
Kryten (at his own disappointment) convinces her to go.

b: 14-Feb-1991 pc: 4.1 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: The first episode of the season was originally going to be 'Meltdown', but it was decided to postpone it due to the fact the Gulf War was in progress and the 'anti-war message' wouldn't be welcome. Luckily the conflict ended and 'Meltdown' was shown last. It was felt that this episode should show first, as the date was Valentine's Day and it seemed more appropriate.

The break between series 3 and 4 saw the release of the first issue of "Better Than Life", the fan magazine by The Official Red Dwarf Fan Club. Edited by Nic Farey, the founder of the Fan Club, it contained a series 1 episode guide with reviews of the episodes, news of the coming 4th series and interviews with the creators; along with the usual magazine fare: competitions, RD merchandise, trivia and funny articles.

Judy Pascoe and Suzanne Rhatigan (Kryten and Lister's Camilles) are actually the real-life partners of Robert Llewellyn and Craig Charles.

With the fourth season, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor took the liberty of altering the show's history. After writing the Red Dwarf novels Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers and Better Than Life, they decided to correct some of their early 'mistakes'. Things that are changed are: The crew was expanded from 169 to 1,169 (sensible given the size of the ship); the time period changed from the 21st century to the 23rd; and the big one that Lister actually did date Kochanski (which will be important for the set up of series 7)

20. D.N.A.

gs: Richard Ridings (DNA Computer voice)

The crew stumble upon a deserted space ship of non-human origin and Rimmer believes it is an alien ship. They go inside to search the ship and Kryten and Rimmer discover the remains of a three-headed creature. They find a wallet on him with human artifacts such as credit cards, license etc. and Kryten suggests that something has changed his physical form.
Meanwhile, Cat and Lister find a machine with a Star Trek style computer panel. Cat begins playing with it and accidentally traps Lister in a pink beam. A deep voice announces that a transmogrification is about to take place. When Cat tries to get him free, Lister turns into a chicken. Rimmer and Kryten come along and while Cat is showing what he did to Lister, he traps Kryten in the beam. He manages to change Lister back to a human, but when he does the same for Kryten, it actually transforms him into a human, rather than just setting him free.
Back on Red Dwarf, Kryten is delighted with his new-found humanity. However he soon starts to tire of it after talking to his spare heads and realising that he has betrayed his kind, and wants to be changed back. They go back aboard the ship and Holly says she thinks she has the computer all figured out. Rimmer decides it best if she tries it on something else first.
She tries Lister's curry and turns it into a monster by mistake. After being chased all over the ship, Lister decides the only way to defeat it is to turn him into a superhuman. Holly turns him into something like Robocop, but tiny. (about 1 1/2' tall) Lister eventually defeats the Curry Monster with a can of lager (the only thing that can kill a vindaloo).

b: 21-Feb-1991 pc: 4.2 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: According to the original script for this episode, D.N.A. stood for 'Do Not Alter' however this wasn't said in the finished episode.

21. Justice

gs: Nicholas Ball (Simulant) James Smillie (Justice Computer voice)

Lister is in bed with the space mumps when he hears the news that the gang has brought aboard a cryo-pod from a prison ship which possibly contains a guard named Barbara Bellini.
Lister inspects the pod and begins the thawing process which Rimmer objects to saying that there were two survivors aboard the ship: Ms Bellini and a Simulant prisoner (droids who are noted to be murderous and insane). Since they cannot stop the thaw process they decide to travel to the prison colony that the ship was heading for.
They arrive on the space station and walk through a white light which Kryten says is a mind probe to seek out any unpunished criminal activity. Lister gets very edgy and confesses that he had committed some minor crimes as a teenager.
The justice computer passes his verdict on them: Kryten and Cat get off, Lister does barely and Rimmer is sentenced to 9000 years in prison for the second degree murder of the Red Dwarf's complement of 1167 personnel (not counting himself or Lister).
Kryten believes that he can defend Rimmer on the verdict and he fronts up to the justice computer telling it about Rimmer's inadequacy and hopelessness. The computer eventually concedes that Rimmer could not have been held accountable for the deaths and releases him.
Meanwhile the pod has thawed and the occupant has escaped. Naturally it is the simulant who was inside and he chases them through the colony. Lister finally beats him by using the justice field's power (whatever crime you commit against someone else, the consequences happen to you). When the simulant fires at Lister, the bullets hit him instead of Lister, when he throws a knife, it comes back and hits him and so forth.
The gang head back to Red Dwarf with Lister droning on about justice and freedom until he falls down a manhole. "Thank God for that" remarks Cat.

b: 28-Feb-1991 pc: 4.3 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

22. White Hole

gs: David Ross (Talkie Toaster)

Kryten attempts to use a technique called 'Intelligence Compression' on Holly by reducing her life span to restore her I.Q. of 6000.
Unfortunately he botches it and Holly gets an I.Q. of 12000 but she only has 3 minutes of life remaining. She powers down the ship to preserve her lifespan and the crew have to fend for themselves without heat or power. On their way back from collecting supplies, Kryten and Rimmer experience a strange time phenomena in the hallway where time slows down in one part and quickens up in another. Kryten believes that there is a White Hole out in space which has the opposite affect of a Black Hole by throwing time back into the universe. During their conversation they switch places and repeat things they have already said.
Rimmer consults Holly about the white hole and she suggests firing a rocket into a nearby sun a causing a solar flare to knock a planet into the hole, rather like playing pool with the planets. Lister scoffs at her coordinates saying that he can play better pool than Holly. Rimmer argues with Lister and suggests a vote which Lister wins 3 to 1. Lister prepares for his pool shot by getting drunk but concentrates hard enough to play a trick shot, bouncing 3 planets off each other to throw the last one into the hole.
As the effects of the white hole wears off and gang begin to vanish from that part of space, Kryten takes the opportunity to deliver an extremely good insult to Rimmer.

b: 07-Mar-1991 pc: 4.4 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: Director Ed Bye was unavailable during the filming of this episode when he was attending the birth of his second baby, so producer Paul Jackson directed the studio session. He remained uncredited for this.

23. Dimension Jump

gs: Chris Barrie (Commander Arnold 'Ace' Rimmer) Craig Charles (Spanners) Danny John-Jules (Padre) Robert Llewellyn (Bongo) Hattie Hayridge (Mellie) Kalli Greenwood (Rimmer's Mum) Simon Gaffney (young Rimmer) Hetty Baynes (Cockpit Computer Voice)

A young Rimmer is told by his mother that he is in danger of being held back a year in school and it could change his life forever.
30 years later, Arnold 'Ace' Rimmer, Test Pilot for the Space Corps Special Service, lands his jet safely and greets his friends; Spanners, an engineer resembling Lister; Padre, a priest who looks like Cat; Bongo, Kryten without his mechanoid suit; and Mellie, bearing a striking likeness to a full-bodied Holly.
Bongo informs Ace of a special space craft that can cross dimensions which Ace immediately volunteers to test fly, even though he cannot come back to his reality.
Aboard Red Dwarf Lister, Kryten and Cat try to sneak off to go fishing but accidentally wake up Rimmer and are forced to bring him. They head off in Starbug where they crash into Ace's spaceship and crash land on the ocean planet. Ace heads down to Starbug and offers his assistance to repair the engine and Rimmer takes an instant dislike to him. Ace and Lister repair the engine and they return to Red Dwarf where Ace again shows off his superiority by operating on Cat's broken leg and then fixing his own broken arm. Rimmer continues to wail on about how much he hates Ace until Ace decides to leave saying that he too cannot stand this other side of himself. He tells Lister of the decision that was made in their childhood and reveals which one of them was left behind in school (can you guess? 'cos i'm not telling!)
Ace leaves aboard his ship while Rimmer plays his Hammond Organ Owners Society CD's to the skutters.

b: 14-Mar-1991 pc: 4.5 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: The credits for this episode are a music-only version of the Red Dwarf theme on a simulation of a Hammond Organ, performed by Howard Goodall.

If you noticed that Mellie is the only one not to say "What a guy!" about Ace Rimmer, it was because a bit more of the maple syrup gag was cut from the final episode. The entire scene is included on the Series IV DVD.

The story of one Rimmer taking charge of his life and becoming a hero while the other one grows into the sad prat we know inspired a student to write into the offices of Grant Naylor. He had done badly in his mock exams, however watching this episode inspired him to try harder and ended up securing a University place as a result. The letter was framed and hung in Rob Grant and Doug Naylor's office as a reminder of just how rewarding their job can be sometimes.

A different ending to this episode exists where Rimmer, after his net full of kippers fails to fall on Ace, stands underneath the net and it all falls on top of him. The full scene is included on the Series IV DVD.

24. Meltdown

gs: Clayton Mark (Elvis) Roger Blake (Noel Coward) Kenneth Hadley (Hitler) Pauline Baily (Marilyn Monroe) Martin Friend (Einstein) Stephen Tiller (Pythagoras) Jack Klaff (Abraham Lincoln) Tony Hawks (Caligula) Michael Burrell (Pope Gregory) Forbes Masson (Stan Laurel)

Kryten discovers a matter transporter in the research labs and the crew decide to teleport somewhere. It takes Rimmer and Kryten to a planet with a breathable atmosphere, but several (unrealistic) monsters chase them and eventually they get captured by Elvis and Pope Gregory.
Cat and Lister, on the other hand are brought to the Third Reich HQ where Hitler, Goering and Goebbels are preparing a battle. Because they don't know how to use the matter paddle properly and cannot leave, Lister and Cat are captured and thrown in prison.
Rimmer and Kryten are taken to a barracks where Einstein, Pythagoras, Stan Laurel and Marilyn Monroe are arguing. They are told about the planet being a giant wax theme park where the wax droids have been left for millions of years and have broken their programming. Kryten and Rimmer are informed about a war between the good characters and the evil ones which will soon be over as the goodies are hopelessly outnumbered.
Rimmer declares that it is his destiny to lead them in the war and inspects his 'troops'; forcing Ghandi to do pushups and insulting St Francis of Asisi.
The Cat and Lister manage to escape prison with the help of Abraham Lincoln and head back. Lister objects to Rimmer's battle plans so Rimmer orders Elvis to arrest him and Cat.
Rimmer eventually 'wins' the war by sending all his troops across a minefield except Queen Victoria and Kryten, who shoot Hitler and then turn up the heaters so everyone melts. Lister is disgusted at Rimmer's attitude toward killing the entire population of the planet and swallows Rimmer's light-bee, which projects his image.

b: 21-Mar-1991 pc: 4.6 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: The credits of this episode feature Clayton Mark singing the theme song in his Elvis voice.

Tony Hawks' appearence as Caligula in this episode marks the fifth and final time he has appeared on Red Dwarf.

The prehistoric monsters that were less convincing than those you would find in a packet of Wheatie Flakes, were actually footage from the 1967 monster movie Daikyoju Gappa.

Clayton Mark proved such a hit as Elvis that a storyline was considered where the Dwarfers find out that Elvis Presley is indeed alive and living in outer space.

Season 5

25. Holoship

gs: Jane Horrocks (Commander Nirvanah Crane) Simon Day (II) (Commander Randy Navaro) Matthew Marsh (Captain Hercule Platini) Don Warrington (Commander Binks) Jane Montgomery (Commander Natalina Pushkin) Lucy Briers (Harrison)

The gang watch a sappy love story aboard Starbug and Rimmer is disgusted at how the hero sacrificed his own happiness for his lover. They come across a computer-generated ship, and Rimmer is captured and taken aboard. The Holoship (named 'The Enlightenment') will not answer Starbug's communication attempts on account of them being notoriously arrogant and self-centered. Meanwhile Rimmer is having quite a good time aboard the Holoship: he can touch, feel and taste. Not only that, but it's a ship regulation to have sexual relations at least twice a day with any other crew member.
He meets a crew member, Commander Nirvanah Crane who gives him a tour of the ship. Upon having sex with her, He falls in love with her and she, even though they have disposed of the concept of 'love' aboard the ship, feels something for him also.
Rimmer decides he wants to stay aboard the ship, and challenges a randomly-selected crew-member. The crew member turns out to be Nirvanah Crane who lets him win on purpose when he tells her of how he always fails at everything and has never really achieved anything in his life.
Rimmer leaves Red Dwarf to join the Enlightenment's crew but when he finds out that Nirvanah gave up her place for him, he decides to give it back to her and return to Red Dwarf, similarly to the hero in the movie (much to his own disgust).

b: 20-Feb-1992 pc: 5.1 w: Rob Grant & Doug Naylor d: Juliet May

NOTE: It's funny how Rimmer would attempt a (supposed) quote from St Francis of Assisi when he insulted and belittled him in last season's finale 'Meltdown'.

This episode overran by nearly twelve minutes, so a great deal of dialogue, including a funny scene with Holly, and some effects footage was cut.

26. The Inquisitor

gs: Jack Docherty (The Inquisitor) Jake Abraham (new Lister) James Cormack (Thomas Allman)

Thomas Allman is in his room when a man dressed in black with a white skull-like mask comes along, charges him of being a waste of skin and erases him, replacing him with a more well-built version of himself...
The crew are flying along in Starbug when they lose control of the ship. Using Lister's body, something announces itself as The Inquisitor and that they will return to Red Dwarf to face judgement. Kryten later describes the Inquisitor as a self-repairing simulant who survived to the end of time to find no heaven or afterlife. So he built a time machine and went back and forth through time, judging everyone on whether they have lead a worthwhile life, deleting the ones who didn't and replacing them with "the sperms that never got a chance".
Back aboard Red Dwarf, the inquisition begins. Rimmer and Cat survive the trial because of their shallowness and low standards, but Lister and Kryten could have made more of their lives and are removed from history.
Just as their physical forms are about to be erased, another Kryten appears behind The Inquisitor with one of his own time gauntlets and takes him by surprise. Kryten throws them the gauntlet before getting killed by The Inquisitor.
They escape, but when they meet Rimmer and Cat, they don't recognise them. A different Lister and Kryten arrive and convince Rimmer and Cat not to harm them. Suddenly the Inquisitor attacks, killing the new Lister and Kryten. The rest escape, but split up, Kryten and Lister together, Rimmer and Cat together.
Kryten finally decodes the gauntlet and frees them from their chains. Rimmer and Cat come in for help against The Inquisitor. They go to face him and Lister finally destroys him with the old "backfiring time-gauntlet trick" which erases The Inqisitor from history. Everything soon returns to normal.

b: 27-Feb-1992 pc: 5.2 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Juliet May

27. Terrorform

gs: Sara Stockenbridge (Handmaiden) Francine Walker-Lee (Handmaiden)

Kryten wakes up on a moon surrounded by the remains of a crashed Starbug. He detaches his hand and tells it to return to Red Dwarf and bring back Lister and Cat. Lister comes, collects and "fixes" Kryten. Kryten tells them that Rimmer was captured while on a psy-moon (a terrorforming moon that reshapes itself to someone's psyche).
The crew reluctantly go out on the surface to search for him. Rimmer is hung up in a dungeon and prepared to be tortured (by the unspeakable one).
The crew make their way across the Swamp of Despair with frogs that say 'Useless' and through a graveyard with headstones that desribe a positive part of Rimmer's personality that has died: self-confidence, honour, generosity, charm etc. Kryten notices a freshly-dug grave with the headstone 'Hope'. Kryten tells the others to hurry, realising that they could be in serious danger if Rimmer loses all hope for himself.
They arrive at the cave which leads to the dungeon. Eventually they find Rimmer and rescue him, at the same time, driving back the unspeakable one. They try to escape in Starbug, but the ship gets caught in a swamp.
Kryten realises that the unspeakable one only fled when he told Rimmer that they wouldn't desert him and are forced to make Rimmer feel good about himself to escape.
They try it and eventually Rimmer's positive emotions come back to life and fight off the hoards of negative emotions (self-doubt, mis-trust, lonliness etc., allowing the gang to escape unharmed; except for Rimmer when they tell him that they only pretended to like him to escape!

b: 05-Mar-1992 pc: 5.3 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Juliet May

28. Quarantine

gs: Maggie Steed (Dr Hildegarde Lanstrom)

The crew are on a snowy planet, when they come across an abandoned research centre. Rimmer objects to Kryten being in charge but is ignored by the others and goes to sulk.
They send a scouter which reports that there is a scientist named Dr. Lanstrom inside the facility. Unfortunately she is a hologram and Kryten asks Rimmer to go back to Red Dwarf so they can rescue her, using another Space Corp Directive against him. Rimmer questions the validity of the Directives that Kryten uses so Holly gives Rimmer a hologrammatical copy of the directives manual, whereupon Rimmer again goes off to sulk.
Going into the research center, they find the Doctor in stasis only to discover that she has contracted a holovirus that has made her insane but has given her extraordinary powers like hex vision and telekinesis at the price of her sanity. They escape when her life force is drained and she disappears, but the disease is transferred to Rimmer.
When the rest of the crew get back on Red Dwarf, Rimmer forces them to stay in quarantine (to avoid catching the disease off them) and unbeknownst to him, he goes insane, locking them in without oxygen. The crew escape thanks to a luck virus which Kryten got from the facility.
Rimmer chases them down the corridor with his hex vision and thanks to the luck virus injected into Lister, Kryten manages to turn him off and restore him to his previous self.....

Rimmer wakes up in quarantine only to discover that the other three have now contracted the virus and gone insane!

b: 12-Mar-1992 pc: 5.4 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor

29. Demons & Angels

Lister and Kryten have invented a triplicator: a device which can make triples of objects. They demonstrate it on the last strawberry in the universe and recieve two exact copies. Lister samples one and reels from the taste, saying that it is brilliant, so succulent and divine. He tries the other and scrunches his face in disgust as we see that there are maggots crawling around in it.
Kryten notes that the triplicator has put all the best qualities in one copy and the worst in the other. Lister attempts to reverse the process but causes an overload and Red Dwarf blows up. After the blast, they realise that they accidentally triplicated Red Dwarf and there are two copies left behind.
The crew board the "High" ship to find their counterparts are monks and are all into the better side of things: spiritual happiness etc. Kryten finds half of the triplicator he needs to merge the ships to get the original back.
They board the "Low" ship and it is horrible, the crew are monsters and have let the ship go into decay. The "High" crew are killed by various things (mostly by their own stupidity when they walk toward someone firing at them) and eventually they find the other half of the triplicator.
The "Lows" capture Lister and implant him with a controlling device and program him to kill the others. Lister tries to kill the rest of the gang but Kryten sucessfully removes the implant, only to stick it into Cat who gets revenge on Lister for trying to kill him.
Kryten throws the implant away and they leave the "Low" ship and regenerate the original Red Dwarf. Before they return, Lister accidentally sits on the implant but the crew cannot figure out who is controlling him until Cat shoots at a cupboard which emits a faint giggle and Lister's "Low" counterpart tumbles out.
The Cat then decides to have a little fun with Lister and the implant...

b: 19-Mar-1992 pc: 5.5 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Juliet May , Rob Grant and Doug Naylor

NOTE: BBC Visual Effects destroyed their last model of Red Dwarf (the first having been wrecked after falling off a shelf at the BBC) for the sequence where Kryten's triplicator destroys the ship. The production made sure that all model sequences involving Red Dwarf had been completed. Another model was never built, as the ship is never seen in Season 6 (the running plot has it having been stolen), the shots of Red Dwarf from the end of Season 7 were archive footage, and a computer generated Red Dwarf was used from Season 8.

This was the first episode, in production sequence, directed by newcomer Juliet May. After directing the first four recorded episodes and the Esperanto scenes in 'Back to Reality', May decided that Red Dwarf was not for her and promptly quit. Rob Grant and Doug Naylor stepped in to direct the bulk of the remaining two episodes of the season.

30. Back To Reality

gs: Timothy Spall (Andy) Lenny Von Dohlen (Cop) Marie McCarthy (Nurse) John Sharian (new Lister) Anastasia Hille (new Kochanski) Chris Barrie (Billy Doyle) Craig Charles (Sebastian Doyle) Danny John-Jules (Dwayne Dibley) Robert Llewellyn (Jake Bullet)

The crew are investigating an oceanic seeding vessel called the SS Esperanto which was on the ocean planet studying the life forms which had been introduced by humans. They find 3 people aboard who committed suicide, and a haddock who did the same. Lister notices an oil covering everything and Kryten suggests that it is a hallucinogenic venom much like the oil from an octopus or squid.
He does a chemical analysis and rushes the others back to Starbug saying that the oil contains a hallucinogen which induces despair, enough to drive the crew of the Esperanto to kill themselves. They try to escape in Starbug to avoid it happening to them, but the despair squid chases them and they crash into a rock. Starbug is destroyed.

The gang wake up to find they were playing a computer game called Red Dwarf for the last four years (and they only scored 4%). Lister is the rich and successful Sebastian Doyle, Rimmer (his brother, Billy) is a bum, the Cat is the saddest geek you will ever see named Dwayne Dibley (Teeth stick out a mile, terrible taste in clothes, etc.) and Kryten is a cop named Jake Bullet.
While leaving the video game building and adjusting to all that has happened, Sebastian finds out that he is the chief of an organisation called the Ministry of Alteration which organises mass murders to purify democracy.
Bullet kills a cop while defending a young girl and they make a run for it and are chased by the fascist police. We then hear Holly trying to tell them that they're hallucinating, but they can't hear her.
In their heads they manage to escape the police and run down an alleyway. Bullet, so appalled by his actions decides to kill himself. So do Billy and Dwayne. Sebastian, despising his mass murdering lifestyle, decides the same. Holly communicates to Kryten on a higher frequency and gets him to open a canister of Lithium Carbonate (a mood stabliser), which he thinks is a fire extinguisher.
The gas saves them just in time and they reflect on why they decided to kill themselves, before leaving behind the Esperanto to head back to Red Dwarf.

b: 26-Mar-1992 pc: 5.6 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor

NOTE: At the conclusion to this episode and the season, we say farewell to Hattie Hayridge whose character of Holly is written out of the show for the next two seasons. Holly is revived in the season 7 finale, but played by the original actor, Norman Lovett.

Season 6

31. Psirens

gs: C.P. Grogan (Kochanski) Jenny Agutter (Professor Mamet) Samantha Robson (Pete Tranter's Sister) Anita Dobson (Captain Tau) Richard Ridings (Crazed Astro) Zoe Hilson (Temptress) Liz Anson (Temptress)

Red Dwarf is stolen from the crew and they are forced to survive on Starbug. They go into deep sleep and are revived 200 years later when there is a chance to recapture the ship.
In order to gain more ground on Red Dwarf they try to go through an asteroid belt but find that it is inhabited by alien beings called Psirens who use mind control to lure their victims and then suck out their brains.

b: 07-Oct-1993 pc: 6.1 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Andy DeEmmony

NOTE: One of the people in the Psirens' hallucinations is called Captain Tau, which is also the name of the Captain of Red Dwarf in the American Pilot episode.

Season 5 saw an increase in viewers, so the BBC asked Rob Grant and Doug Naylor to write a sequence which would introduce new viewers to the show. The amnesia sequence at the beginning was written due to the request

The loss of Red Dwarf and subsequently the loss of Holly were written as a way to reduce the cast members on the show. The producers argued the idea down to two expendable characters, Cat and Holly. It was eventually decided that Holly would get the axe as most of her lines could be given to Kryten.

This episode was omitted from the first run of repeats due to the fact that Craig Charles was in jail on rape charges (later proved to be totally unfounded) and it was felt that some of his raunchier scenes with Pete Tranter's sister weren't appropriate

Anita Dobson was offered the part of Captain Tau when Rob Grant and Doug Naylor approached her partner Brian May to play Lister's guitar-playing hands double. Although May couldn't make it, Grant and Naylor were astounded when Dobson agreed to appear. They regretted that if they had known, they would have wrote something more substantial for her.

32. Legion

gs: Nigel Williams (Legion)

The crew stumble on an abandoned space station and board it hoping to get some supplies. A man named Legion appears and offers each of them everything they ever wanted in the world but only if they remain on the space station forever, making the Dwarfers suspect that Legion is not at all what he seems.

b: 14-Oct-1993 pc: 6.2 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Andy DeEmmony

NOTE: Rimmer's hardlight hologram body was originally going to be used only for this episode where the dwarfers dine with Legion, but it was decided to keep the concept in place for the rest of the series as the writers were sick of having to write scenes for Rimmer where he is unable to touch or feel anything. The hardlight body provided a long term solution which enabled Rimmer to be more useful to the crew.

Lister has his appendix removed by Legion in this episode, even though in Series II's 'Thanks For The Memory', we learn he already had it removed when he was younger. Doug Naylor explains this in his novel 'Last Human' where it is said that, due to a freak of nature, Lister was born with two appendixes.

33. Gunmen of the Apocalypse

gs: Jennifer Calvert (Loretta) Denis Lill (Simulant Captain/Death) Imogen Bain (Lola) Steve Devereaux (Jimmy) Robert Inch (War) Jeremy Peters (Pestilence) Dinny Powell (Famine) Stephen Marcus (Bear Strangler McGee) Liz Hickling (Simulant lieutenant)

The gang is attacked by a simulant ship who upgrade Starbug with laser cannons and defensive shields and then force them to play a game of 'cat and mouse'. The crew decide not to flee but to stay and fight which stuns the simulants. Before their ship is crippled by Starbugs new offensive weapons, the simulants upload a killer virus into the navicomp. Kryten then transfers the virus to his CPU in an attempt to eradicate it. The gang watch on a virtual reality screen as Kryten's search for an antidote is manifested as a western setting where Kryten is a sheriff who has to fight the four horsemen of the Apocalypse - Death, War, Pestilence and Famine.

b: 21-Oct-1993 pc: 6.3 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Andy DeEmmony

NOTE: The credits for this episode feature a music-only "wild west" version of the "Red Dwarf" theme.

Gunmen of the Apocalypse is the only individual Red Dwarf episode to have won an award. It won an International Emmy award for Popular Arts in 1994 which it shared with an episode of Absolutely Fabulous.

34. Emohawk - Polymorph II

gs: Ainsley Harriott (GELF Chief) Steven Wickham (GELF Bride) Martin Sims (GELF) Hugh Quarshie (Computer voice) Danny John-Jules (Dwayne Dibley) Chris Barrie ('Ace' Rimmer)

A Space Corps Law Enforcement Vessel chases Starbug and the crew make a crash landing on a GELF planet. They go in search of a vital ship part and come across a village who have the part but the price is for Lister to marry the chief's daughter. Lister reluctantly does so but on his wedding night, does a runner back to Starbug. The chief takes this as an insult and releases his pet Emohawk, a smaller polymorph (see Polymorph) on them. The Emohawk hides on Starbug and attacks Rimmer and Cat, taking Rimmer's bitterness and the Cat's cool; turning them into Ace Rimmer (see Dimension Jump) and Dwayne Dibbley (see Back to Reality).
Ace, with his new personality, decides to save the day and locks Kryten and Lister in the hold so they will be safe while he and Dwayne go after the Emohawk. They eventually track it down and freeze it, forcing it to release their emotions and turning them back to normal.

b: 28-Oct-1993 pc: 6.4 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Andy DeEmmony

NOTE: Danny John Jules had such a problem remembering his list of things to bring, they had to write them down and stick the list to the lunchbox he carries as Dwayne.

After being inundated with requests from fans to bring back the three most popular characters, The Polymorph, Ace Rimmer and Dwayne Dibley; Rob Grant and Doug Naylor decided to merge them into one story, making this the ultimate sequel episode.

35. Rimmerworld

gs: Liz Hickling (Rogue Simulant)

The gang come across the simulant ship they nearly destroyed in Gunmen of the Apocalypse and decide to board the ship and loot it for supplies despite the fact that a loud noise would cause it to disintegrate. They find a time and matter transporter on board and take it with them. One of the simulants is still alive and attacks them. Rimmer, always the brave, jumps in an escape pod but when it releases the ship begins to fall apart. The rest of the crew use the transporter to get back to Starbug and track the pod which is heading down to a planet. Unfortunately, the pod goes through a worm hole on its way causing Rimmer to be on a completely different time stream than Starbug. When he reaches the planet, Rimmer uses technology from the pod to create a woman in his image, but no matter how many times he tries all he can do is clone himself. When Starbug reaches the planet on the normal time stream, 600 years have passed on the planet and the Rimmer clones have taken over, banishing the original Rimmer to a dungeon. The others are captured and also thrown in the dungeon because they are 'different'. They find their Rimmer and use the teleporter to escape but end up on Starbug 2 weeks in the future where they learn that something terrible has happened to Lister.....

b: 04-Nov-1993 pc: 6.5 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Andy DeEmmony

36. Out Of Time

After Rimmer conducts a "morale-meeting", the crew find a cloud of fog from an imploded supernova and have no choice but to go through it. They get some bad turbulence, and Lister is injured revealing that he is an android! Kryten is angry that Lister is a lesser model then he and orders him to do all the work and even gives it to him for not having used a setsquare to cut the sandwiches.
They find out they were in an unreality pocket, and Lister is indeed human. More of these unreality pockets pass until they decide to go into stasis until they get through the fog. In the centre of the fog they find a Space Corps derelict which is capable of time travel.
They take the time drive and hook it up to Starbug's engines. After testing the time drive they are disappointed to find that although they can travel to any time in history, they are still in deep space, no closer to Earth than they were before.
They return to their own time to find a future version of themselves. They invite them on board, but everyone except Kryten is sealed in the hold. Lister rigs a camera to see what's going on and he sees that Kryten is wearing a toupee, Rimmer is getting fat and the Cat is bald; but worst of all, Lister himself is just a brain in a jar!
He continues to watch the meeting and finds out that their future selves are not only fat, bald and bodiless, but are souped up snobs, who can never compliment anything, who've socialised all the most evil figures of history (Hitler, Louis XIV, Goering, the Hapsburgs, etc.), and lived in the height of luxury. Now they need help recalibrating the time drive so they can continue with their lifestyles.
Lister is horribly dismayed to find out this, so the three blast open the hold, and head down to kick them out of the ship, refusing to fix the time drive. The future crew, deciding they are better off dead than to live without the time drive, stranded in space, attack the present crew.
Lister, Cat and Kryten are killed, so Rimmer decides to save the ship by destroying the time drive. However at the same time, One of the Starbugs shoot at the other and it is destroyed....

b: 11-Nov-1993 pc: 6.6 w: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor d: Andy DeEmmony

NOTE: The original ending for this episode had the crew celebrating Rimmer deleting the future crew by destroying the time drive, but Rob Grant and Doug Naylor preferred a cliffhanger. The ending can still be seen on the Smeg-Ups video

Season 7

37. Tikka To Ride

gs: Michael J. Shannon (John F. Kennedy) Toby Aspin (Lee Harvey Oswald) Peter Gaitens (FBI Agent) Peter Ashe (Cop)

After Starbug was destroyed, the future crew no longer existed - therefore were unable to go back in time and kill the present crew, hence they survived.
But unfortunately disaster has struck. Starbug is completely devoid of curries. Lister proposes that they go back in time to order a couple of hundred curries from an Indian Restaurant. The rest of the crew will not go back in time because they are afraid of becoming the future selves they saw. However, Lister removes a guilt chip from one of Kryten's spare heads and swaps them over, telling the new guilt-less Kryten to reassure them it will be OK.
They go back and appear in the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas on November 22nd 1963 just as Lee Harvey Oswald is taking his shot at President Kennedy. They knock him out the window where he dies hitting the ground, preventing Kennedy's assassination.
To avoid being captured they go ahead a couple of years, however Kennedy's survival causes an alternate reality where he has been impeached out of office and the new president is controlled by the Mafia, allowing the Soviet Union to build several Nuclear Silos in Cuba. Fearing the Soviets will start a nuclear war, all the major US cities are deserted.
Lister goes to the airport which would have been renamed JFK Airport where Kennedy is being transported to prison. He persuades Kennedy to go back in time with them, and be the gunman on the grassy knoll, and shoot himself for the ultimate conspiracy theory. After restoring Earth's normal timeline, The gang return to Starbug. Of course they still haven't got any curries...

b: 17-Jan-1997 pc: 7.1 w: Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: After four long years the seventh season of Red Dwarf finally appears, but without co-creator Rob Grant. Grant had decided he wanted to do other projects and didn't want to be remembered only for one show.

This is the only series of Red Dwarf not to be filmed before a studio audience, allowing greater freedom of camera positions and set design. Due to this, the Starbug sets were modified so we could see more areas of the ship.

An alternate ending to this episode, where Lister does in fact find curry, was filmed especially for release on the Red Dwarf Extended video.

The name of the time-travelling ship encountered in "Out of Time" is stated for the first time here by Cat as the Gemini 12.

For this series only a filmic picture effect had been added to the show.

38. Stoke Me A Clipper

gs: Chris Barrie ('Ace' Rimmer) Brian Cox (King of Camelot) Ken Morley (Captain Voorhese) Sarah Alexander (Queen of Camelot) John Thompson (Good Knight) Alison Senior (Princess Bonjella) Mark Lingwood (Gestapo Officer) Mark Calisle (Lieutenant)

After travelling through countless realities, Commander 'Ace' Rimmer returns to the Red Dwarf crew to ask a favor of his alternate self. It seems that the real Ace Rimmer died years ago and has been replaced many times over by his counterpart from each reality. This Ace Rimmer will soon die and asks our Rimmer to be his sucessor as an inter-galactic hero.
After a little push from Lister, which seems to bring the two closer together, Rimmer decides to accept the offer and begins his training. When Ace dies, Rimmer dons his outfit and says his goodbye to the crew before leaving Starbug.

b: 24-Jan-1997 pc: 7.2 w: Doug Naylor and Paul Alexander d: Ed Bye

NOTE: Chris Barrie leaves the series at this point. He returns as a regular cast member for Season 8.

Due to the chaotic schedule of Series VI, Chris Barrie had asked only to appear in two episodes this season, but was persuaded to film four. However, Rimmer was written out in the second episode to allow development of the new Kochanski and appeared in flashbacks or dream sequences for the other two episodes. With production of Series VII being more relaxed and not filmed before a studio audience, Chris decided to return to the show for Series VIII.

This is the first episode not to have the "It's cold outside..." Red Dwarf theme song over the end credits. Instead we have the "Ace Rimmer" theme playing.

39. Ouroboros

gs: Chris Barrie (Arnold J. Rimmer) Gary Beasdale (Frank) Juliet Griffiths (Barmaid) Adrienne Posta (Flight Announcer) Alexander John-Jules (Baby Lister)

Over 3,000,000 years ago in the Aigbuth Arms pub, a box with a baby inside was placed under a pool table with just the word Ouroboros written on the side....
Returning to the present day, the crew come across a wormhole between dimensions. They go through the wormhole, and meet an alternate version of themselves. Rimmer isn't there, Lister is a Hologram, Kochanski is alive, and Kryten is wearing a gold suit. They decide to exchange information and Kochanski requests that Lister fills a canister up with his sperm, so that she may have a child as her Lister cannot bear children. Unfortunately, Lister's in-law's - the GELFs attack (see Emohawk), and cause a break in the wormhole and Kochanski becomes caught on this side.
They eventually manage to escape the GELFs, thanks to Kochanski's navigation. Kryten is jealous because Lister likes Kochanski more then him and is glad when they return to the wormhole to get her back to her own dimension. On a box they found some supplies in, Lister notices has a label "Ouroboros", with a symbol on it: a snake biting his own tail, meaning infinity - a neverending circle. Lister recognises this as what was on his own box and realises that he is his own father and Kochanski is his mother. He rushes after Kochanski to get the in-vetro tube back before she returns to her reality.
Disaster strikes, as the GELFs return and make the break in the wormhole even bigger. Kochanski tries to jump across and misses the other side, falling into a deep black void. While she's falling, Lister rushes back and gets a crossbow and a rope which Kryten happened to have handy, and harpoons Kochanski and pulls her back to his side. 18 months later, Lister takes he and Kochanski's child, and puts him in a box, writing "Ouroboros" on it, so it would remind himself of the sign when the child got to be him, and he would bring back his child, etc...

b: 31-Jan-1997 pc: 7.3 w: Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: Due to a slightly longer running time, this episode does not contain opening titles, the first since 'Parallel Universe'

Lister's son/baby self is played by Danny John-Jules' nephew, Alexander.

Due to Chris Barrie's departure from the show, this episode re-introduces the Red Dwarf crew member Kristine Kochanski. Due to the role being fuller than previously, the producers decided to recast the part rather than bring back C.P. Grogan who played the character in seasons 1-2. Actress Chloe Annett was eventually cast as the new Kochanski.

40. Duct Soup

Kochanski is not adjusting very well to being on Starbug and Lister tries to make her feel better by building her a makeshift bathtub and finding some extra clothing for her. Kryten thinks that this means they are growing closer and soon will not need him so he 'accidentally' causes an engine failure, forcing the crew to crawl around in the air ducts to get to the engine room.

b: 07-Feb-1997 pc: 7.4 w: Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: The opening titles were omitted from this episode as they were considered to be expendable when the episode overran.

This is the first episode not to feature Chris Barrie as Rimmer at any point.

41. Blue

gs: Chris Barrie (Arnold J. Rimmer)

While Kochanski is still trying to get back to her dimension and Kryten is still jealous of the relationship that she could have with Lister; Lister begins to miss Rimmer and reflects on some of the fun times that he and Rimmer spent together in the early days after the accident. When he has a dream that Rimmer returns and he and Rimmer kiss, Kryten tries some psychology to get to the bottom of Lister's problem. However Kochanski has a little talk with Lister and makes him realise why he misses Rimmer, much to Kryten's disgust. Kryten, having to be one step better than Kochanski, creates "The Rimmer Experience" a virtual reality rollercoaster created from Rimmer's memories, depicting him thinking of himself as a 'Hero' and a 'Remarkable Person', giving Cat fashion tips and believing that Lister has called for Rimmer to save him before he wets himself. As the ride finishes Lister is so angry at Rimmer that Kryten sticks it to Kochanski because his method worked better than hers.

b: 14-Feb-1997 pc: 7.5 w: Doug Naylor and Kim Fuller d: Ed Bye

NOTE: This is the last episode of the season to feature Chris Barrie

The voice we hear when Rimmer is singing is not Chris Barrie's

42. Beyond a Joke

gs: Robert Llewellyn (Able) Don Henderson (Simulant) Vicky Ogden (Mrs Bennet) Alina Proctor (Jane Bennet) Catherine Harvey (Kitty Bennet) Sophia Thierens (Lydia Bennet) Rebecca Katz (Mary Bennet) Julia Lloyd (Elizabeth Bennet)

Kryten finds a lobster scuttling around the cargo hold and cooks an elaborate feast for the crew as it is the anniversary of when he was rescued from the Nova 5. The rest of the crew however have prepared to enter a virtual reality world of Jane Austen, where Kochanski hopes to teach them a little culture. Kryten is extremely upset that they left without touching his feast and enters the VR world, blowing up the characters of the game with a tank and ordering the crew to supper. Kryten seems to calm down as they tuck into the lobster but Lister asks for a little ketchup to 'pep it up' and Kryten blows his top. Literally.
They replace his head but the rage still flows through him and they eventually run out of spare heads. They go aboard a derelict ship and find some heads but they dont have their primers installed. The crew realise that it is a simulant ship and hightail it, but they cannot leave without the heads so they dress up as GELFs and make a deal with the simulant captain. They get the heads but when they return to Starbug it has been looted and Kryten is gone.
The simulant brings Kryten's body aboard his ship and tells another series 4000 mechanoid, Able to repair him. Kochanski devises a plan to make the simulants think that they planted a bomb on the ship and it works. The simulant, along with his GELF partner, Able and Kryten, beams aboard Starbug and demands to know where the bomb is. They refuse and the simulant tells Kryten the code to a sealed file in his memory about his creator. Able helps the crew escape and they enter an asteroid belt for cover. Kryten tells Lister that his creator was supposed to be married to another scientist but he left her at the alter. She then created a mechanoid in his image, an ugly, annoying, pompous android: the 4000 series. Lister consoles him by saying that he is different now than when he was first created. The simulant ship finds them because of Able's stupidity and Kryten scolds him. Able heads out in a pod and destroys the simulant ship, sacrificing himself in the process.

b: 21-Feb-1997 pc: 7.6 w: Doug Naylor and Robert Llewellyn d: Ed Bye

NOTE: The tank Kryten uses in the VR Simulation is the same one driven through the streets of St Petersburg by Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye.

43. Epideme

gs: Nicky Leatherbarrow (Caroline Carmen) Gary Martin (Epideme)

The crew come across another Jupiter Mining Corporation vessel. Everyone on it is dead except for one person who is preserved in a block of ice. They take her aboard Starbug but the ice doesn't melt, even in very warm temperatures. They decide to leave it till morning to decide what to do. During the night, the woman inside breaks out, covered in rotting skin and dead flesh and climbs into bed with Lister, who believes it's Kochanski. One thing leads to another, but when she kisses Lister, she falls dead, and Lister realises he's just taken about half her face with that kiss.
It turns out it was a virus inside the woman, known as Epideme, who infects it's victims, takes their knowledge, kills them and then preserves the body and waits for another victim. Epideme has now entered Lister. After hours of trying to reason with it, they try to get rid of it by forcing it into Lister's arm and then cutting the arm off. Unfortunately, it doesn't work and Epideme begins to regenerate himself. Lister gets up and decides to sacrifice his life, because otherwise when it finishes with him, it'll move on to Kochanski and the Cat. Seconds before detonation, Epideme reveals a clue to a possible cure and they head to a planet. Unfortunately the planet was destoyed, and the cure did not lie there. Kochanski gets an idea from Epideme and temporarily kills Lister, allowing the virus to enter her, but she uses a fake arm, thus killing the epideme. They revive Lister and all is well; except Lister only has one arm......

b: 28-Feb-1997 pc: 7.7 w: Doug Naylor and Paul Alexander d: Ed Bye

44. Nanarchy

Lister is quite annoyed that his right arm has been cut off, but seems to enjoy Kryten nursing him 24 hours a day; and Kryten is absolutely loving it. Kochanski becomes fed up with seeing Kryten doing things for him that he could easily do with one arm and comes up with a solution - use nanobots from Kryten's self-repair system to rebuild Lister's arm. Unfortunately, Kryten hasn't last seen the nanobots since they had met the Despair Squid (see Back To Reality) They all go into the deep sleep booths and make their way back to the ocean planet.
The computer brings them out of deep sleep and they discover a planet which the Navicomp says is Red Dwarf. They are able to retrieve the original Holly and he explains that the nanobots had deconstructed Red Dwarf, created their own miniscule version of the ship and turned the rest into a planet for safekeeping. They realise that it was the nano version of RD that they were chasing and the nanobots evaded them by coming aboard Starbug and travelling around their own galaxy inside Lister clothes hamper.
After much persuasion, Kryten convinces the nanobots to fix Lister and Red Dwarf. The nanobots follow Kryten's orders and reconstruct Lister's body, going one step further and turning him into Mr Universe! Cat takes control and guides Starbug into Red Dwarf's landing bay. It seems awfully big and Starbug's engines make the sound of a buzzing fly as it passes under another, massive Starbug!
"Uh, Guys; I think we've got a problem here!"

b: 07-Mar-1997 pc: 7.8 w: Doug Naylor , Paul Alexander and James Hendrie d: Ed Bye

NOTE: From this episode the original Holly (Norman Lovett) returns to the show.

This was the first Red Dwarf episode to open with a flashback on the previous epsiode.

Special

Red Dwarf Night

gs: Ainsley Harriott (Himself) Patrick Stewart (Host)

To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Red Dwarf, the BBC held a special 2 hour Red Dwarf Night filled with fun and excitement for all Dwarfers.

The Friday night saw the airing of 'The End: ReMastered', the digitally enhanced version of the series pilot episode.
The real entertainment began on the Saturday with host Patrick Stewart, a self confessed Dwarfer, kicking off the festivities with ...

Can't Smeg, Won't Smeg: An outrageous spoof of the BBC's Can't Cook, Won't Cook with host Ainsley Harriot trying to supervise the gang cooking up a storm.

Smeg Ups: A compilation of the goofs from the Smeg Ups and Smeg Outs videos.

Red Dwarf Universe Challenge: Presented by Bamber Gascoigne, the cast took on the fans in a question-and-answer session about the show.

Red Dwarf A to Z: The complete alphabetical list of everything Dwarfy. Guests including Patrick Stewart and Stephen Hawking share what they love best about the show.

Finally, the night ended with a showing of 'Gunmen of the Apocalypse', what better way to end the night than by watching the Emmy Award winning episode.

b: 15-Feb-1998

Children In Need

The crew of Blue Midget pick up a transmission from 1998's Children in Need, with Terry Wogan encouraging people to make donations. After some talk over what to do, Rimmer decides he will help humanity by breaking Lister's guitar!

b: 13-Nov-1998 w: Paul Alexander

NOTE: This was a short filmed for BBC's Children In Need (an annual charity telethon in the UK). Aired between Seasons 7 and 8. It introduced the new Blue Midget set. Anxious not to give anything away (most importantly, Rimmer's resurrection), Rimmer was wearing his old costume, including his 'H'. This means the short cannot be fit into continuity but, hey, it's just for charity

Season 8

47. Back in the Red, part 1

gs: Paul Bradley (Chen) David Gillespie (Selby) Mac McDonald (Captain Hollister) Karl Glenn Stimpson (MP Thornton) Kika Mirylees (Dr. Karen Newton) Andy Taylor (Counsellor McClaren)

Season 8 begins with Lister and Rimmer (who is now alive) in their new sleeping quarters on Red Dwarf. Lister tries in vain to get Rimmer to talk to him and we then flash back to three days earlier:

From where we finished the previous season, Cat pilots Starbug into the Dwarf's landing bay which is now huge. As they fly through an air vent the ship begins to shrink back to it's proper size. When they finally land (or crash) Starbug we learn that the nanobots have ressurrected the crew along with the ship. Lister thinks this is a godsend but Captain Hollister promptly arrests him and the others for stealing and then destroying a Starbug.
While confined to his old quarters Lister is met by Rimmer and, after being disgusted that Rimmer has returned to his original smeghead self, pleads with him to help him and the others escape before they are sentenced. The Captain and the other officers are trying to figure out why they are now in deep space and how the ship has changed shape to its original design.
Lister offers to help Rimmer get promoted by giving him the crews confidential files which are aboard Starbug. Rimmer gets the files and also finds the Luck Virus and Sexual Magnetism Virus (from Quarantine s5/ep3). Rimmer tries the sexual magnetism and women sudenly begin noticing him.
As he saunters down the corridors amidst several women giving him the eye, he declares: "The World Loves a Bastard!"

To Be Continued.....

b: 18-Feb-1999 pc: 8.1 w: Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: Chris Barrie returns to the series in this episode as the Arnold J. Rimmer we remember from the first few seasons.

Back in the Red was originally planned as an hour-long special premiere episode to introduce the new set-up and the return of crew members. When the episode overran it was decided to add more scenes and make it into a three-parter.

This episode was tentatively titled 'Resurrection' before becoming 'Back in the Red'.

Some expunged ideas for the new series premiere were that the nanobotic rebuild was imperfect, with Rimmer believing he had three sisters, not brothers; and after the crash of Starbug, Lister is forced to give Kochanski the kiss of life.

The filmic picture look which had been introduced for series 7 was gone- it wasn't popular with the fans.

48. Back in the Red, part 2

gs: Mac McDonald (Captain Hollister) Kika Mirylees (Dr. Karen Newton) Jemma Churchill (Chief Engineer) Andy Taylor (Counsellor McClaren) Karl Glenn Stimpson (MP Thornton)

Part 2 begins with Rimmer putting his plan into action. Get Rimmer Officerhood, Power and Eminence (GROPE for short) is in full swing as he sucks up to Captain Hollister using the confidential files Lister gave him. However Rimmer will not help Lister and the others escape until he is promoted. Lister secretly takes some of the Luck Virus and escapes from the holding cell and heads to find his compadres.
Kryten is classified as a woman as he has no apparent genetalia and is put in with Kochanski. This won't last long as the engineers are planning to restore him to his factory settings. One thing he cannot do is say no to a superior officer and this event ultimately happens.
Lister finds Kochanski and the Cat (who is being held in the medical bay while they try to figure out exactly what he is) and the three find the no-personality Kryten. To avoid detection they dress up as the Dibbley family using mop heads as wigs and big, ugly false teeth. Upon seeing the three in their ridiculous get-up, Kryten's files are corrupted almost instantly and he reverts to his usual self.
While all this is going on, Rimmer is invited to dinner with the captain and some of the officers. He makes the mistake of taking some of the Sexual Magnetism virus beforehand and is led off with the female officers to have wild animal sex. Obviously Rimmer is worn out from all this and takes some anasthetic to cool down his nether regions. During dinner Hollister mentions that the Dwarfers' Trial is already happening as they are in a VR suite and their escape is part of the trial.
While Lister, Kochanski, Cat and Kryten begin their escape (in their heads of course), Rimmer runs to the VR suite to stop them mentioning anything about him.

To Be Continued......

b: 25-Feb-1999 pc: 8.2 w: Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: David Ross, who played the original Kryten in his first episode, was originally thought of to do a voiceover for Robert Llewellyn after Kryten is restored to factory settings and regains the posh British accent used by Ross. Eventually Robert simply put on a fake posh accent.

49. Back in the Red, part 3

gs: Mac McDonald (Captain Hollister) Graham McTavish (Governor Ackerman) Karl Glenn Stimpson (MP Thornton) Yasmin Bannerman (1st Ground Controller) Jeillo Edwards (2nd Ground Controller)

Rimmer and Lister are trying to adjust to life in prison given that they are in the worst area you could possibly get. They go on about trying to survive the next two years there as we fade into....

Two Days Earlier:
From where we left off, Lister, Kochanski, Cat and Kryten are dressed up as the Dibbley family and making their escape. What they don't know is that they are hooked up to a VR suite and all of this is a simulation.
They climb aboard a Blue Midget, which is very different to what we have seen before. It is now a large vehicle which stands upright on two massive legs. After a fabulous display from the Cat where he tap dances with the Midget, they make their escape.
Rimmer gets to the VR suite and types a command to erase any references to the deal he and Lister made. Suddenly the scene aboard the Blue Midget cuts to erase several words and it looks like a bad editing job.
After several moments of jumping around they realise they are in VR and Rimmer is the one responsible for what is happening (although they can't say it because it just gets erased). Amazingly, Cat locates the kill switch for the VR program and they disappear but are then entered into the screensaver and appear as clay animations. Kryten tells them to look around for a power source to shut off the VR and again, Cat amazingly finds it on a bottle of Ketchup that he claims is a 'Power Sauce'.
They escape the VR and confront Rimmer. After much arguing they decide to take Rimmer with them and they all go down (again) to the landing bay and ecsape. Holly realises that they are all still in VR because his alter-ego on the Dwarf has been rebooted. Cut to Hollister and the other Holly who are talking about what they have just witnessed.
Despite being innocent of the charges, Hollister still finds them guilty of stealing confidential files and they all get their two years in jail.
At their orientation in prison, Lister creeps up behind Rimmer and pours the rest of the Sexual Magnetism virus on his shoulders. Unaware, Rimmer slowly begins to notice the inmates around him casting glances in his direction, then moving closer with disturbing smiles on their faces. As pairs of grimy hands begin to fasten around his body parts, Rimmer succumbs to panic and the scene mercifully disappears from sight......

b: 04-Mar-1999 pc: 8.3 w: Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

50. Cassandra

gs: Geraldine McEwan (Cassandra) Mac McDonald (Captain Hollister) Graham McTavish (Ackerman) Jake Wood (Kill Crazy)

Lister mistakenly signs the gang up for the 'Canaries', prisoners that go into dangerous situations first to ensure it is safe for the important people. Their first mission is to investigate a derilect spaceship, and our crew come across a computer called 'Cassandra' who can accurately predict the future. When she predicts that Rimmer will die when the ship disintegrates, he goes to great lengths to prevent it from happening.

b: 11-Mar-1999 pc: 8.4 w: Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

51. Krytie TV

gs: Jake Wood (Kill Crazy) Graham McTavish (Ackerman)

Kryten complains to Lister about being placed in the women's wing of the prison and makes the fatal mistake of revealing he showers with them too. The male inmates want him to sneak in a camera and film them but he refuses.
Kill Crazy and some other inmates reprogram him, turning him into a ruthless entrepreneur and he creates "Krytie TV", a pay-per-view service offering "Women's Shower Night" and other events.
Lister tries to get Kryten to stop, as he and Rimmer are in the middle of an appeal against their sentances, but Kryten plays a trick on them, getting them to mistakenly trash Ackerman's quarters live on Krytie TV.

b: 18-Mar-1999 pc: 8.5 w: Doug Naylor and Paul Alexander d: Ed Bye

NOTE: Before the prank Kryten plays on Rimmer and Lister in Ackermans quarters came along, the story was originally going to have Rimmer and Lister's appeal being televised (and rigged to fail) on Krytie TV.

52. Pete

gs: Mac McDonald (Captain Hollister) Graham McTavish (Ackerman) Andrew Olston (Mex) Ricky Glover (Baxter) Ian Masters (Birdman)

Lister and Rimmer are contstantly getting into trouble. After playing a practical joke on Ackerman they are forced to play in an inmates vs guards basketball game and win by putting erectile solution in the guards drinks. Punishment for that is to peel potatoes for the next three weeks and to make that go faster they steal a programmable virus to peel them but it ends up eating their clothes and hair. Punishment for that is to spend three weeks in the Hole where they meet Birdman, who has been in there for nine years and has only one friend, a sparrow named Pete.
Meanwhile Kryten, Cat and Kochanski are sent aboard a derelict ship where they find a device which can change the time stream surrounding an object or person to make it move extremely slow or fast and decide to use it to make their prison sentences go by in a flash.
On Red Dwarf they freeze the crew and break Lister, Rimmer and Birdman out of the hold. Unfortunately Pete dies and Kryten tries to use the device to bring him back but accidentally reverses his evolution by several million years, turning Pete into a T-Rex.....

b: 25-Mar-1999 pc: 8.6 w: Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: Holly is only briefly seen in this episode.

53. Pete II

gs: Mac McDonald (Captain Hollister) Jake Wood (Kill Crazy) Ricky Glover (Baxter) Ian Masters (Birdman)

Our crew desperately try to turn Pete back into a sparrow before the time freeze wears off but Pete eats a scutter who was holding the time wand. The crew put out a heap of food for Pete and he eats it but then runs amok on the ship. Meanwhile the freeze wears off and Rimmer and Lister are hauled in front of Hollister who gives them a long and detailed account of how Pete ate almost all of the ship's supplies and then was sick. The time wand is retrieved and Hollister demands that they turn Pete back to normal. Lister and Rimmer complete the task and destroy the time wand, but they notice all too late that Pete had laid an egg that begins to hatch...

b: 01-Apr-1999 pc: 8.6 w: Doug Naylor and Paul Alexander d: Ed Bye

NOTE: Holly is again only briefly seen in this episode.

54. Only The Good...

gs: Mac McDonald (Captain Hollister) Graham McTavish (Ackerman) Heidi Monsen (Talia) Ricky Glover (Baxter) David Verrey (Big Meat) Tony Slattery (Candy Dispenser)

An escape pod docks with the Dwarf and is carrying the only survivor of a ship which was attcked by a genetically-engineered corrosive lifeform. Unfortunately, the corrosive material is also on board and begins to eat away at Red Dwarf.
Meanwhile Lister tricks Kryten into believeing that Kochanski's 'time-of-the-month' is an event to be celebrated and he embarrasses himself in front of her. Plotting revenge, Kryten steals four flagons of illegal alcohol from an inmate and leaves it in Lister and Rimmer's cell just before an inspection.
Lister discovers the alcohol and he and Rimmer are forced to drink it before their inspection. They only take one mouthful out of the bottle and are immediately drunk.
Meanwhile, the crew learn of the lifeform destroying Red Dwarf and plan to abandon ship, leaving the prisoners aboard to die.
The gang figure out a way to combat the lifeform by creating a doorway into an opposite universe and finding the opposite to the corrosive material. Rimmer goes through the doorway first but the machine malfunctions and he is stuck there until the others can fix it.
Rimmer finds the formula for the opposite substance and goes back to his reality, but he learns that the ship is rapidly breaking apart and the others are nowhere to be found. He goes to make the formula but realises that it has reverted to the corrosive substance and is useless. He is knocked out and lies on the floor awaiting the inevitable when the Grim Reaper appears and tells him that his time has come.
Rimmer gets up and unceremoniously knees Death in the groin, and quips: "Remember, Only The Good Die Young!"

THE END......

THE SMEG IT IS!!!

b: 05-Apr-1999 pc: 8.8 w: Doug Naylor d: Ed Bye

NOTE: Director Ed Bye played the Grim Reaper.

Originally 'Only the Good...' was going to be a two-part story called 'Earth' where Red Dwarf crashes into Earth and destroys the world with a massive tidal wave. This idea was scrapped due to budget limitations.
There were also difficulties choosing the ending of this episode; First Rimmer would have brought the antidote back and saved the ship, which was deserted except for our Dwarfers, taking them back to where it all started; then it was just going to be Rimmer falling unconscious amidst the flames. When this proved unpopular, 'Ace' was going to appear and save Rimmer. Finally they settled on the cliffhanger we see in the aired episode.

Feature Movie

Red Dwarf: The Movie

gs: Mac McDonald (Captain Hollister) Carole Nimmons () Richard O'Callaghan () Andy Taylor (Dr. Lucas McClaren)

pc: RD-M1 w: Doug Naylor d: Doug Naylor

Season: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 All