List of Red Dwarf Episodes

List Of Red Dwarf Episodes

This is a list of television episodes from the BBC's cult sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf. There are nine series plus specials, 61 episodes in total. The first six series were written by co-creators Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, while Series VII and VIII were written by Naylor with collaborations from other writers. Series I and II were produced by Paul Jackson Productions (Executive Producers were Paul Jackson and Doug Naylor for Series I, with Grant Naylor Productions taking over from Series III) for BBC North, and broadcast on BBC2. The series first aired on 15 February 1988 and ended on 5 April 1999 after eight series. The eight series and the three special episodes are available in the US via Netflix and DVD.

The main setting of the series is the eponymous mining spaceship Red Dwarf which is 6 miles (9.7 km) long, 5 miles (8.0 km) tall, and 4 miles (6.4 km) wide. In the first episode, an on-board radiation leak of cadmium II kills everyone except for low-ranking technician Dave Lister, who is in suspended animation at the time, and his pregnant cat, Frankenstein, who is safely sealed in the cargo hold. Following the accident, the ship's computer Holly has to keep Lister in stasis until the background radiation dies down – a process that takes three million years. Lister therefore emerges as the last human being in the universe – but not the only life form on board the ship. His former bunkmate and immediate superior Arnold Rimmer is resurrected by Holly as a hologram to keep Lister sane, while a creature known only as Cat is the last known surviving member of Felis sapiens, a race of humanoids that evolved in the ship's hold from Lister's cat, Frankenstein, and her kittens during the millions of years that Lister was in stasis.

The main plot of the series is Lister's desire to go back to Earth. As they journey through space, the crew encounters such phenomena as time distortions, faster than light travel, mutant diseases and strange life-forms that developed in the intervening millions of years. During the second series, the crew encounter a sanitation mechanoid called Kryten, who joins them. At the end of series five, the Red Dwarf ship is stolen from the crew, forcing them to travel in the smaller Starbug craft for the subsequent two series. Rimmer departs the crew to take up the role of his alter-ego from a parallel universe, Ace Rimmer. Shortly afterwards, the crew discover a parallel gateway to another universe with versions of themselves in which Kristine Kochanski, Lister's former love interest, was the person put into stasis becoming the last remaining human. Red Dwarf is found in Series VIII and the entire crew of the ship – including a pre-accident Rimmer – are resurrected, but the Starbug crew find themselves sentenced to two years in the ship's brig on a set of convoluted charges. The final episode of series eight ends with Red Dwarf being eaten away by a mystery virus. The crew have all abandoned ship, save for Rimmer who is left stranded alone to face Death (who he has just kneed in the groin). Nine years later Rimmer is resurrected as a hologram and between series Kochanski was supposedly sucked out of an airlock. The crew fight a squid in the ship's water tank and they end up on Earth in a parallel universe where they are fictional characters from a TV series called "Red Dwarf". They eventually find out they are not on Earth but are all hallucinating as a result of ink from the squid, and Kryten confesses to lying about Kochanski's death. Lister decides to try and find Kochanski and awakens back in the real world, leaving open the possibility of Lister's pursuit of Kochanski in future episodes.