Production
This episode had a notorious production, having gone through numerous re-writes and re-shoots. The original climax, titled "Earth", was to have the Red Dwarf crew arrive back at Earth only for the ship to accidentally crash through the world's major landmarks. This was deemed too expensive to film, so an altogether different finale was written. Naylor would blame the expensive CGI Dinosaur from "Pete" as the cause of the lack-of-budget for "Earth". One proposed ending was to feature Arnold Rimmer's dashing and heroic alter-ego Ace Rimmer returning to save the day (in reality, the "original" Arnold Rimmer). However this ending was not filmed. This, too, was changed at the last moment and the character of Death itself was introduced.
The conclusion of this episode was a cliffhanger although the ending of this last episode is open to interpretation. In 2009. ten years after Only the Good's original broadcast, a new Red Dwarf special was produced by channel Dave. This special takes place nine years after the events of Only the Good, the events of which are never referred to throughout the episode. It has never been revealed what happened to Lister, Kat, Kryten and Kochanski once they crossed over into the mirror universe, or how or indeed if Rimmer escaped the decaying Red Dwarf, however Rimmer is once again a hologram so it is possible he died on-board ship once again. The events are finally referred to in the last episode of Series X, however, just as Rimmer is about to elaborate as to how the situation was overcome they are distracted by an enemy probe, to humorous effect. In a segment after the credits, the crew finally continue the conversation only to be distracted once again.
Tony Slattery – who had played an android in the soap "Androids" featured ten years previously in Kryten – took on Rimmer as the voice of the vending machine, sitting behind the unit and speaking his lines live on set. Other guest stars included Mac McDonald as Captain Hollister, Graham McTavish as Governor Ackerman, Heidi Monsen as Talia, Ricky Grover as Baxter and David Verrey as Big Meat.
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