Dad (Red Dwarf)

Dad (Red Dwarf)

"Dad" is the title of a so-called "lost episode" of the British science fiction comedy television series, Red Dwarf. The planned first episode of the show's third series, Dad was never filmed or even fully scripted: writers Rob Grant and Doug Naylor abandoned it halfway through writing it. Instead, the basic events of the episode (which would have explained various changes to the show's setting, e.g. what happened with Lister's pregnancy, why former guest character Kryten had reappeared and become a regular member of the cast and what had happened to him, and why Holly's image had changed from a male to a female) were written into a pre-title Star Wars-eque scroll sequence of the episode Backwards, which became the new Series III premiere. Jokes from the script were also worked into other episodes: for example, Lister's revealing that he was abandoned at birth and Rimmer's subsequent speculation that Lister was the product of brother-sister incest was written into the episode The Last Day.

An extract of the unfinished script of Dad was included on the DVD release Red Dwarf: The Bodysnatcher Collection alongside several other such extracts. In the same style as the eponymous "lost episode" Bodysnatcher, the extract of Dad was animated in a storyboard style as the script itself was read by lead actor Chris Barrie (who, being a skilled impressionist, supplied the voices of all the characters).