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| Info & Synopsis | Detailed Notes & Observations | | Scene Summary | Reviews | Miscalleneous Notes | | Plot and Production Errors | Credits |
Recorded: 27/9/1987 and 8/11/1987,
Broadcast: 15/2/1988
Written by:
Rob Grant and Doug Naylor
Directed by: Ed Bye
What is it? A radiation leak wipes out the crew of the mining ship Red Dwarf, leaving only one survivor - chicken soup machine repairman, Dave Lister. After three million years in suspended animation, Lister emerges to find he is the last human being in the universe. But he is not alone. [ top ] Production Notes: The first episode of Red Dwarf has a long and colourful history. Originally recorded on 27th September 1987, the crew were unhappy with the poor reaction in recieved from the audience. Rob and Doug took the episode away and re-wrote many key scenes, including the opening scene of Lister and Rimmer working, the bunkroom scene prior to George McIntyre's party and The Cat's first entrance. These re-written scenes were filmed on 8th November 1987, in front of a new, much more appreciative audience. Nevertheless, Rob and Doug were reported to have been unhappy with the end product. Fools. The only scene to be pre-recorded for this episode was the aforementioned party scene, as it involved a lot of extras, and a fair amount of empty chairs covered with coats. The preffered take of the scene where Lister feeds Frankenstein had to be discarded, when it was discovered that Craig Charles' testicle made an unscheduled appearance. Unfortunately, this was not included on the Smeg Outs video. Book Version: Like The End, the first part of Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers deals with setting up the premise and situation of Red Dwarf. However, the book spends much more time on pre-accident Red Dwarf, even detailing Lister's life before he signed up for the Space Corps, as a driver of a stolen taxi on Mimas. Once we get on board, a lot of chapters are taken up by detailing the monotonous nature of life on board ship. We read about Arnie's Zed Shift, Lister's evenings spent in the Copacabana Cocktail Bar, and Rimmer's recreational use of the stasis booths. A cruel twist was added to Rimmer's death in the novel. Just before the accident, Rimmer stopped to comb his hair, on his way to the spare stasis booth. Had he not done this, he would have got to the stasis booth in time to survive the accident. In the novel, the Cat is introduced by Holly detecting a life form in the cargo decks, and Lister and Rimmer going to investigate. This is much more realistic than The Cat going to them in the series. Once the Cat has been discovered, we learn much more about the history of the Cat race than we do in the series. For example, their most important invention was not fire or the wheel, but the steam-operated trouser press. Changes from Pilot Script: Lister was originally 42, but due to a young
Craig Charles being hired, Lister was turned into a sprightly 25. The time Lister spent in stasis was originally to be seven billion
years, but was changed to a teensy little three million years. Holly was originally to be a woman, but
Norman Lovett was just too perfect, and Holly was made into a man. At least
until Series Three. Originally, Red Dwarf held 129 people, but this was changed to 169. At least until Series Four. In the Pilot Script, the song played at
McIntyre's funeral was Heaven is Ten Zillion Light Years Away by Stevie
Wonder. Due to copyright issues, this was changed to See Ya Later Alligator. Deleted Scenes: The recent DVD release featured: An alternate
version of part of the opening Rimmer-Lister scene. An alternate version of the very
first bunkroom exchange. An extended scene of Lister flirting
with Kochanski. The lost
'funeral' scene showing Lister bidding farewell to the crew's ashes, Rimmer
giving his own eulogy, and the original introduction of the Cat Re-Mastered: Two CGI skutters whizz past in the
opening scene. Holly moans about his talents being
wasted while Lister and Rimmer make their way to the Welcome Back George
McIntyre Reception. George McIntyre's speech reduced to a
couple of sentences. (Travesty!) Extra Holly line about random urine tests
(“Any urine found cheating will be automatically disqualified.”) [Thanks to
Karl Eisenhauer for pointing that one out.] Various swirley stasis effects. Plenty of shots of the ship in space. Cat evolution diagram. Extra Holly Line: "Yes, God?” when Lister tells him to plot a course to Fiji. 1.
Red Dwarf corridor. Lister and Rimmer on essential routine maintenance, i.e.
fixing chicken soup dispensers. They continue round the corridor until they
meet Toddhunter. LISTER: You see, I try, sir. I'm not an insubordinate man by nature. I try and respect Rimmer and everything,
but it's not easy, 'cause he's such a smeghead. RIMMER: (To TODHUNTER) Did you hear that, sir? (To LISTER) Lister, do you have any
conception of the penalty for describing a superior technician as a smeghead? TODHUNTER: (Chuckling) Oh, Rimmer. (Clapping him on the shoulder) You *are* a
smeghead. 2. Drive Room. Captain Hollister
officiates a funeral service for Flight Co-ordinator George McIntyre. 3. Sleeping Quarters. A key character
building scene, where Rimmer blames his parents for his shortcomings and
Lister discusses his plan to buy a farm on Fiji. RIMMER: On Fiji? LISTER: Yeah!
The prices there are unbelievable. RIMMER: Yes, because they had a volcanic eruption and now
most of Fiji's three feet below sea level! LISTER: It's only three feet. They can wade. That's
why the animals are gonna have to be quite tall. RIMMER: Nice plan, Lister. Excellent plan!
Brilliant plan, Lister! What about the sheep? What are you going to do, buy them water
wings? Fit them with stilts? Better
still, you could cross-breed them with dolphins and have leaping mutton. (Gesturing with his pen to represent a woolly
dolphin leaping out of the water) Baa, splash, baa, splash. LISTER: You can get a drainage grant these days. RIMMER: Why bother, Lister? You could be the first man to produce wet-look knitwear. 4. Brief model shot of Red Dwarf. 5. The Refectory. We see Lister drinking
heavily with Petersen, Chen and Selby, before George McIntyre’s speech. Also,
Hollister tells the crew that a non-human life form has been detected, and
it’s not Rimmer. McINTYRE: I want to thank everybody for giving me such a
marvellous funeral. I've just seen
the vid. And I want to thank the
Captain for his beautiful eulogy.
Beautiful. But I still don't
understand why he didn't use the one I wrote. 6. Sleeping Quarters. It is the next
morning. Rimmer is in the middle of a panic attack. When he leaves for his
exam, Lister releases his secret pet cat, Frankenstein. LISTER: Oh, but you're getting really big now, you
know? I hope it's not twins. You've already got all me milk
ration. Never mind, when the baby cat
comes, maybe we can give him water and pretend it's milk. It's only a baby
cat, it won't know, eh? 7. Examining Room. Rimmer’s cheating
plan backfires on him when his sweat smudges the writing on his arms. Rimmer
simply leaves his handprint on his answer paper and faints. 8. Drive Room/Captain’s Office. After a
brief flirt with Kochanski, Lister is summoned to see Hollister, who
administers a bollocking for Lister smuggling a cat on board. Lister is
forced to choose between handing over the cat and spending the rest of the
trip in suspended animation. LISTER: Sir, just suppose I did have a cat. Just suppose. What would you do with Frankenstein? HOLLISTER: I'd send it down to the medical centre, and
I'd have it cut up and tests run on it. LISTER: Would you put it back together when you'd
finished? HOLLISTER: Lister, the cat would be dead. LISTER: So, with respect, sir, what's in it for the cat? 9. Stasis Corridor. Toddhunter leads
Lister to the stasis booth. 10. Model shot of Red Dwarf. 11. Stasis Corridor/Crew Mess/Corridor.
Holly revives Lister from stasis to inform him that everybody’s dead, Dave. HOLLY: Everybody's dead. Everybody is dead, Dave! LISTER: Wait.
Are you trying to tell me everybody's dead? HOLLY: I wish I'd never let him out in the first place. 12. Drive Room. After the discovery that
he’d eaten half the crew, Lister is filled in with the details of the
accident and is told he’s not alone. Rimmer has been revived as a hologram. RIMMER: Being a hologram is fine, Lister. I still have the same drives, the same
feelings, the same emotions, but I can't touch anything. Never again will I be able to brush a rose
against my cheek, cradle a laughing child, or interfere with a woman
sexually. LISTER: Rimmer, you never used to do any of those things
anyway! 13. Another Corridor. A snazzy, handsome,
smart guy in a pink suit rolls out of an air duct. CAT: Hey, what's that?
Oh, it's my shadow. Hey, even
my shadow's looking nice! I'm looking
nice, my shadow's looking nice -- what a team! We are unbelievable!
OK, team, this way. No, this way.
Aaaooowww, yeah. 14. Yet another corridor. Lister
and Rimmer bump into the Cat for the first time. CAT: Uh oh.
Better make myself look big! 15. Crew mess. Holly tells Lister and
Rimmer that Lister’s cat and her kittens had evolved over three million years
into the creature they had just met. 16. Sleeping Quarters. Lister tries in
vain to get info out of The Cat. He then unveils his new plan – to return to
Earth, despite Rimmer’s protests. LISTER: Holly, plot a course for Fiji. Look out, Earth - the slime's coming home!
Ian Symes: Like most Red Dwarf fans, this wasn’t the first episode I watched. Although it is difficult to imagine seeing The End before I knew and loved the characters, I can see that it would be a good introduction to the traits and trends of the characters. Lister displays his love for Kochanski, his drunkenness, his work-shy attitude and general slobbiness; Rimmer’s weaselly tendencies are displayed, along with his career dreams and general ineptitude and The Cat is just plain cool. There are some good gags as well, ‘I am a fish’ becoming an instant classic. And anything with Mark Williams in has got to be worthwhile. [ top ] First Appearances:
References: The flag on McIntyre's funeral canister: The flag of Wales
- the Red Dragon of Cadwallader over a green and white background. The song played at McIntyre's funeral: "See You Later Alligator",
an early rock 'n' roll song (1956). Recorded
by Bill Haley And The Comets. Mary, Queen of Scots: (1542-1587) Queen of Scotland 1542-1567. Executed on the orders
of Elizabeth I of England. Her son
James VI of Scotland later became James I of England. Pythagoras Theorem: The square of the hypotenuse of a right-angle triangle is equal
to the sum of the squares of its other two sides. You will be tested. Frankenstein:
Novel by Mary Shelley, published 1818. A scientist (Frankenstein) creates a monster by reanimating
corpse tissue, and then suffers the consequences. Apparently, truly stupid people erroneously believe that it was
the monster, not its creator, who was called Frankenstein. Bennett, Gordon: (1841-1918) James Gordon Bennett, Jr., American newspaper
magnate (whose father, James Gordon Bennett, founded the New York Herald in
1835). Bennett was known for his
extravagant and capricious behaviour, and his name has become synonymous with
a feeling of exasperation such as he frequently caused in people. The song the Cat is singing: "Me And My Shadow"; has been performed by several artists over the years, including Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland. Can be heard in the 1981 British movie Time Bandits , starring John Cleese and Sean Connery.
Videos/DVDs:
The episode is (or at least was) availiable on the following releases:
Red Dwarf I Byte I: The End. Released in 1993 by BBC Enterprises. Catalogue No. : BBCV 4914
Red Dwarf Series One Re-Mastered: Episodes I - III. Released in 1998 by BBC Worldwide. Catalogue No. : BBCV 6436
Red Dwarf I - The Original Series. Released in 2002 by BBC Worldwide. Catalogue No. : BBCDVD 1117
[ top ] Plot Inconsistencies: ? It is said
that there are 169 people on Red Dwarf, as opposed to the at least 1,167 in
Justice (4-3). - These numbers might not take into account crewmembers who were
off-ship for whatever reasons. - The 169 may only refer to the technicians. - The larger number may include all personnel on the ship
(miners, etc), which would be counted when charging someone for their deaths,
but the smaller number may just refer to officers or enlisted Space Corps
personnel. - Because RD is such an enormous ship, individual sections of
the vessel may be called 'ships.' Thus, when Toddhunter said 'There are 169
people on board *this* ship,' he may have been referring only to the current
section he was in. ? Why can't Rimmer write Lister down in his report book?
Surely Holly can provide a hologrammatic one, as he provides many holo items
for Rimmer in later episodes. - Rimmer, unaccustomed to being dead, may not have thought to
ask for one. ? Rimmer mentions that there was a volcanic eruption and
most of Fiji is three feet underwater. However, everything else contradicts
this: Lister still has his Plan, and he also has a postcard and a picture of
Fiji on the wall, both showing Fiji intact. - Fiji apparently is now mostly underwater and Lister knows it,
in which case the Plan may be just a fantasy that Lister is keeping to
preserve his sanity. - Lister: 'You can get a drainage grant these days.' And why
should he keep a picture of Fiji in its 'current' submerged state when he can
have one showing its former pristine beauty? Maybe it could look like that
again after land reclamation work. ? Rimmer writes certain exam answers on his thighs. How
is he going to read these during the exam without taking his boiler suit off?
? When Lister first comes out of stasis, the
crewmembers' dust remains are seen in the Teaching Room, Drive Room and
corridors. However the piles of dust have all mysteriously disappeared later
by the time Lister has met the Cat. Holly may have cleaned them up, but why
didn't he do this in the three million years that Lister was in stasis? - It is reasonable to assume that Holly could not dispose of the
remains until he was given a directive by a human crewmember. Also, Holly may
have left them as eventual proof of what happened, to show to Lister once it
was safe. The maintenance of the piles is apparent over the three million
years and Holly must have had a hand in it one way or the other. ? What happened to the hologram of McIntyre? The
accident did not appear to affect mechanical components of the ship, so
presumably this would include the current hologram. Also, why wouldn't
Captain Hollister be generated upon Lister's awakening, as the ranking dead
crewmember? - At the time of the accident, holograms were presumably only
generated to coexist with a living crew. As there would be no living crew for
three million years, until Holly could release Lister from stasis, there
would be no justification for keeping McIntyre generated (and there may even
be a rule which prevents hologram generation for its own sake, especially
given the enormous power this function requires). After Lister's release from
stasis, Holly generates Rimmer (as opposed to any other crewmember) as a
means of preserving the health (see Balance Of Power) of the sole living
crewmember, something which under the circumstances could be expected to take
priority over normal rules of hologram generation. ? Lister was smoking in his bunk (just before Rimmer's
exam) while there was a no-smoking sign not far from him. Why didn't Rimmer
crack up about Lister smoking seeing as how he did elsewhere in this same
episode? - The stress of failing another exam might have distracted
Rimmer from his normal appointed duty of being a nit-picky smeg head. ? Why did Rimmer leap at Cat? He is a hologram and
wouldn't be able to harm Cat in any way. Plus, he is a self-confessed coward,
so why be brave and 'defend' Lister like that? - This was relatively early in the post-accident relationship,
and perhaps Rimmer was still trying to put up a front of bravery as well as
testing his intangibility as a hologram. ? Why did Rimmer fade out as he passed through Cat? The
other two times that he passes through solid objects in this one episode only
the part of him within the solid object is visibly affected. - Perhaps Rimmer was low on power and this caused his whole
projection to flicker instead of just the area that was passing through the
solid object. ? Lister says that Rimmer is a lower rank than the
skutters, yet in every other episode Rimmer is in command of them. - Lister actually says that Rimmer ranks below the *service
robots*, so he may not be referring to the skutters, but to some other droid
type. As such then, Rimmer may outrank the *skutters* (and indications are
that he does). After Lister exits stasis, Rimmer would not want robots around
that would outrank him, and there may even be a regulation that states that
the highest-ranking 'personnel' on a vessel cannot be robots. Production Errors: ? Two posters on the wall between the
door and the window in Rimmer and Lister's quarters disappear and return. ? When Rimmer is taking the exam, the
arrangement of the pens on his desk suddenly changes. ? A wall appears where the main
entrance to the Captain's Office used to be. ? When Lister is about to wave his
hand through Rimmer, half of Lister's hand disappears into thin air while it
is still above Rimmer's shoulder. ? The incredible, inappropriate
Chicken Soup Dispenser: Noting the way the 'shelf' comes down, it seems to go
right through the nozzle Rimmer was unclogging, and the placement of the
nozzle would make it incredibly difficult to fill that cup with chicken soup
in the very short time that the shelf bearing it was at rest at the bottom of
its range of movement. As a further extension of this, if the cup is filled
with soup before the shelf is lowered, what was Rimmer playing with, because
that couldn't have been the dispensing nozzle? ? When Lister tells the door to lock, and it finally does, something can be seen moving briefly at the left edge of the window (as if a stagehand moved into its shot when pushing the door closed). [ top ] Rimmer Chris Barrie Lister Craig Charles Cat
Danny John-Jules Holly
Norman Lovett Todhunter Robert Bathurst Chen
Paul Bradley Selby
David Gillespie Captain Hollister Mac McDonald McIntyre Robert McCulley Petersen Mark Williams Kochanski C P Grogan Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor Music
Howard Goodall Developed for Television by Paul Jackson Productions Graphic Designer Mark Allen Visual Effects Designer Peter Wragg Properties Buyer Duncan Wheeler Assistant Floor Manager Dona Distefano Production Assistant Alison Thornber Unit Manager Mario Dubois Production Manager George R. Clarke Costume Designer Jacki Pinks Make-up Designer Suzanne Jansen Vision Mixer Jill Dornan Camera Supervisor Melvyn Cross Technical Co-ordinator Ron Clare Videotape Editor Ed Wooden Lighting Director John Pomphrey Sound Supervisor Tony Worthington Designer Paul Montague Executive Producer Paul Jackson Produced & Directed by Ed Bye Uncredited Extras: Ysanne Jeffers, Johnny Barrs, Tony Kennedy, Nigel Peevers, Diana Thurlow, Giselle McKenzie, Mitzi Mueller, Don Poole, Reid Jones, Peter Ingham, Trevor Nelson, Kev James, Les Allen, Anne Nurser, Tracy Carlotti, Al Brierley, Elaine Fox, Maxine Turner, Lorna McDonough, Sue Clawson, Corbert Walker, Ken Bullen, Jon Ellis-Fox, Stephen Harrison, Jon Slater, Lesley Alexander, Sue Clark-Williams, Henry Morgan, Suzanne Belfield, Linda Lee Lewis, John Mercury, Rod McKinnon. [ top ] This page last updated: 18th January 03Website: © Ian Symes 2002Red Dwarf: © Grant Naylor Productions This website is unofficial and non-profit making. All content may be freely distributed, but only with express permission from the author. |
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