Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf Actors & Actresses
Chris Barrie
Craig Charles
Danny John-Jules
Norman Lovett
Red Dwarf Episode Guide
Season 1
1.1 The End
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. Original Airdate: 15-Feb-1988
1.2 Future Echoes
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...... Original Airdate: 22-Feb-1988
1.3 Balance of Power
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!" Original
Airdate: 29-Feb-1988
1.4 Waiting For God
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.
1.5 Confidence and Paranoia
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. Original
Airdate: 14-Mar-1988
1.6 Me²
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. Original Airdate:
21-Mar-1988
Season 2
2.1 Kryten
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. Original Airdate:
06-Sep-1988
2.2 Better Than Life
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. Original Airdate: 13-Sep-1988
2.3 Thanks For The Memory
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. Original Airdate: 20-Sep-1988
2.4 Stasis Leak
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.
Original Airdate: 27-Sep-1988
2.5 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. Original
Airdate: 04-Oct-1988
2.6 Parallel Universe
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!
Original Airdate: 11-Oct-1988
Season 3
3.1 Backwards
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). Original Airdate: 14-Nov-1989
3.2 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. Original
Airdate: 21-Nov-1989
3.3 Polymorph
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... Original
Airdate: 28-Nov-1989
3.4 Bodyswap
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. Original Airdate:
05-Dec-1989
3.5 Timeslides
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. Original
Airdate: 12-Dec-1989
3.6 The Last Day
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. Original
Airdate: 19-Dec-1989
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