DNA (Red Dwarf) - Cultural References

Cultural References

The 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein is referenced by the Cat regarding the way he looks when he cannot use an electrical socket to blow-dry his hair.

Rimmer initially concludes that the spacecraft encountered is alien and that it is attempting to contact the Red Dwarf crew in order to return Glenn Miller. This references the alien abduction myth of Miller, whose plane went missing in 1944 and was never found.

Lister attributes Popeye the Sailor Man's saying "I am what I am" to Descartes (in reference to the latter's famous line, "I think, therefore I am"), but the attribution is corrected by Rimmer. (Kryten later makes the same mistake.)

Using the DNA modifier, Holly turns Lister into a super-human fighting machine "Man Plus". The result transforms Lister into a small replica hybrid of RoboCop from the 1987 film of the same name.

When Lister is being chased by the vindaloo mutation he parodies Bruce Willis' line from Die Hard 2 (1990); "How can the same smeg happen to the same guy twice?", referencing the previous series when he was attacked by what he thought to be a Shami Kebab in "Polymorph". Jaws is then parodied in the final scene when Lister disposes of the vindaloo mutation by throwing a lager can into its mouth and then shooting at the can, making it explode along with the mutation.