X

Great sites

Anything Hollywood

Atomic Popcorn

Banned in Hollywood

Bits & Pieces

Blockbuster Buzz

Book mistakes

CanMag

The Daily Column

Daily Stab

Defamer

Double Viking

EHOWA

The Evil Beet

Film Drunk

Filmofilia

Filmspotting

Foundry Music

Game mistakes

Geek Tyrant

Gone Hollywood

Hollyscoop

Hollywood Outbreak

I Am Bored

I Love Bacon

Joblo movie news

Movie Banter

Movie Buzz

Movie spoilers

Movie timeline

Other crap

Screenjunkies

Sky movie reviews

Something Really Funny

Tengossip

Trailer Addict

Unreality Magazine

Virtually Existing

Quotes

The Talking Toaster: Given that God is infinite, and given that the Universe is infinite... would you like a toasted tea cake?

See more...

Mistakes

When we first see Rimmer and Lister in the medi-bay, the camera crew can be seen in the reflection of the tv. A boom mic arm can also be seen moving. See more...

Trivia

When the crew of Starbug have to decide which of the two "Dave Listers" aboard is the real thing, they line both up for a test of their guitar playing ability. One "Dave Lister" plays a blistering, dazzling, guitar solo; the other plays dreadfully. The rest of the crew immediately know that the one that played the guitar brilliantly is the 'fake'. (Dave Lister only THINKS he can play guitar well - in fact he's hopeless at it.). The hands that we see playing the 'brilliant' guitar solo belong to "Roxy Music" guitarist Phil Manzanera. (Grant Naylor had originally wanted to get 'Queen' guitarist Brian May to play the solo, but he wasn't available). See more...

Picture

Movie Mistakes blog

Popular blog posts:

Top 15 biggest Harry Potter film mistakes

The biggest mistakes in the Harry Potter movies

15 biggest mistakes in Titanic

The 20 biggest Friends mistake pictures

10 Twilight mistakes in pictures

Red Dwarf (1988) - 138 corrections

starring Chloë Annett, Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, Hattie Hayridge, Norman Lovett, Robert Llewellyn (add more)

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

Mistakes
Trivia
Pictures
Quotes
Easter Eggs
Corrections
Questions
Submit

Season: Whole show  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  All

Across whole show

During the episode "Thanks For The Memory" in series two after Rimmer realizes that some of his memories where actually Lister's he says "no wonder I remember having my appendix out twice" (or something like that) meaning that Lister has had his appendix out. But during the episode "Legion" in series 6 Legion takes out Lister's appendix. [Grant Naylor have said that Lister grew another appendix when his genetic structure was transmogrified in the episode "DNA."]
Edit
In some episodes, we are told there were originally 169 crew members on board the ship. In others it was 1169. [We are told there were 169 crew members on board but 1169 PEOPLE. The others could be non-crew members such as miners (it was a mining vessel, after all), passengers (commercial ships often carry them) or even crew members families (not unreasonable on a five year trip). There are many possible explanations.]
Edit
Lister does not seem to know much about his childhood, as he tells several contradicting stories about it. In series 2 Lister talks about how upset he was when his father died in the episode "Better Than Life". It is possible that he was talking about a foster father when he said this, but we learn in the episode "Ouroboros" in series 7 that he was abandoned, and never knew his parents at all. He also said in series 7 that he lived with his granny too, which leaves the question that if he knew his own granny, then why didn't he know who his parents were? Three different stories of his childhood. [We established that Lister was abandoned in Series 3 in 'The Last Day'. Therefore we can assume that everyone in his family that he talks about being alive are his foster family and their relatives.]
Edit
Throughout the whole show, Kryten alternates between obeying Rimmer because he outranks Lister, and obeying Lister because he's a human whereas Rimmer is a hologram. [We don't know exactly what protocols he's forced to obey. It may just be in certain situations (Kryten seems to side with Lister a lot more when it's "Life or death", perhaps with a Hologram's decisions would be biased, since they're already dead) that he's programmed to do this. Also, considering that it was Lister who repaired him at the start of series three (and has repaired him again at least once since), there are likely to be one or two faults in him.]
Edit Corrected by Gary O'Reilly
If Rimmer is a hologram, why does his head make an impression on the pillow when he lies down? The pillow isn't a hologram. Rimmer doesn't ask for it to be turned on and its there when he's not in the room. [Rimmer's blankets and pillow are hologrammatic as well, since a hologram sleeps in them. They may just be left on full time for simplicity's sake.]
Edit Corrected by Captain Defenestrator
In the entire 8 series, the Cat says Lister's name only once. [Not true, he actually says Lister's name twice, in "Parrallell Universe" and "The Inquisitor".]
Edit
When Ace's spaceship crashes into Starbug in "Dimension Jump," the two craft are roughly the same size. But in "Stoke Me a Clipper," he is able to comfortably park inside Starbug. [The run-in with the future selves and being killed by them at the end of season 6 caused reality to destabilize and changes to the ship. (At one point, one of the cargo decks is said to have increased capacity 44%.) Making it big enough to land Ace's dimension ship inside could be one of those changes.]
Edit Corrected by Captain Defenestrator
Unfortunately the whole basis of the show is one big factual error. Throughout the series we see that Red Dwarf sustains damage from collisions, explosions, end so on. The rocket engine nozzle - surely made from the strongest materials available - has been punctured by some kind of impact. The systems require constant maintenance by humans (painting, repairs, etc), so skutters are not enough by themselves. So, we know that Red Dwarf is not made of some sort of fictional, indestructible materials. So, after three thousand - never mind three million! - years the whole ship would be a clump of useless, corroded junk. The rubber and plastics in seals, electronic components and furniture would have crumbled to powder. The electronics themselves would have failed after a few hundred years at most. Metals in contact with liquids in pipes or reservoirs would have oxidised, and even the oxygen in the air would have been corrosive after that amount of time. The resulting pile of scrap would also be fatal to anyone going near it; subject to slow, subtle but constant radioactivity in space, after three million years it would be hotter than the inside of a working reactor. [Apart from the fact you are missing the point that this is a sit-com not a science documentary, unless you can provide schematics of the Red Dwarf and a detailed list of the manufacturing process of all the things you describe, your complaint is invalid. You are basing your argument on 20th century technology, not future technology that can construct 5 mile long space ships, holographic simulations of dead people, and computers with IQs of 6000.]
Edit Corrected by SoylentPurple
From series 4 onwards, Rimmer is held in place by a "light bee" which is solid. But, at several points in series 1 and 2, he is able to walk through solid objects, which his light bee would be unable to do. [In "Thanks For The Memory", Rimmer uses a projection cage to visit the surface of a nearby world, showing that he didn't have a light bee at that point. The addition of the light bee is clearly an upgrade made at some point after that time, making it entirely reasonable that he could be seen to walk through solid objects in the early seasons.]
Edit Corrected by Captain Defenestrator
If Rimmer's bedsheets are holographic, Lister shouldn't be able to move them. [One of Holly's most important jobs is keeping Lister's fragile sanity intact. Having him see his hands go through objects when he touches them would tip him over the edge. She 'moves' the holographic items to fit Lister's movements.]
Edit

Me2 (series 1)

In the episode 'Me2', when Lister is taking the painting to the room belonging to the two Rimmers, he stops outside the door, and says 'Second Technician Arnold J Rimmer and Second Technician Arnold J Rimmer'. He then presses the pad to open the door. Watch carefully, as the door opens before he touches the pad. [Neither Rimmer would be able to touch the pad, so it could be light-sensitive so the Rimmers don't have to walk through the door.]
Edit
There is a contradiction of when the radiation leak that wiped out the crew took place. In the episode "Stasis Leak" Lister says it was three weeks after 2nd March. However in the episode "Me Squared", Lister says it was six months after Gazpacho Soup Day, which was the 25th November. [The calendar has been shifted around a bit since the present day to accomidate the month of Geldof and a space-faring society.]
Edit Corrected by Captain Defenestrator
In the cinema scene, one Rimmer makes hand shadows to annoy the other. This is impossible, as Rimmer is made of light and, therefore, wouldn't cast a shadow. [Rimmer isn't transparent, ergo, light does not pass through him. If light doesn't pass through him, he'll cast a shadow.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker

Confidence and Paranoia (series 1)

In the episode "Confidence and Paranoia", Lister tells us there were 169 crewmen on Red Dwarf before the accident. By the episode "Justice", Rimmer is accused of murdering 1167 people on the Red Dwarf crew. [There are 169 crew, and obviously 998 people on board who are not crew. Civilian miners? (It's a mining vessel.) Passengers? (Many commercial craft take passengers.) Crew members' families? (They're going to be in space for five years - they might allow families on board). There are many answers, and they all work.]
Edit

Future Echoes (series 1)

Both Rimmer and Lister go through a door on the left hand side of the drive room which wasn't there in the previous episode, "The End". [I believe there was a door - it was the entrance to the Captain's office.]
Edit Corrected by Andy Benham

The End (series 1)

The whole business about putting people into stasus as a punishment makes no sense at all. What is punishing about being put in a status cubicle and then (in your perception) immediately stepping out when time is several months/years further on (but yourself no older)? Even if you weren't earning your salary during the statis period, you had no expenses either. [It's a no-fuss way of keeping troublemakers out of the way. You don't have to feed them, you don't have to guard them, they can't injure themselves, they can't shout and make noise. It may be less of a punishment, but it's a lot less hassle for the crew.]
Edit Corrected by J I Cohen
It's established that Rimmer's shift of technicians get useless, irrelevant jobs (such as repairing chicken soup machines) - so why would Rimmer have been trusted to repair a drive plate that, if not repaired properly, could (and in fact did) lead to the deaths of the whole crew? [Perhaps it was too urgent to leave for another shift. If the ship was in danger, wouldn't you get the shift on duty to repair it pronto?]
Edit Corrected by Andy Benham
When Rimmer and Lister walk back into the teaching room after seeing the Cat for the first time, Lister bumps into the table that he was eating the piles of human ash from, but all the ash has disappeared. [There may be more than one teaching room on the ship. This may be a similar room but not the one that Lister entered earlier in the episode.]
Edit
At the start of the episode when Toddhunter appears, Lister is holding his cigarette in his hand. When the camera cuts it has jumped to his ear. [At the point in time where the cigarette apparently leaps to Listers ear he actually places it there. When Toddhunter arives on the scene, Lister screams "Yo Toddhunter" and thumps his foot. While this is going on you can see Lister place the cigarette in his ear.]
Edit Time
In the exam scene we see Rimmer slap his hand on the paper leaving a massive hand-print from the ink, yet when he stands up and salutes there isn't a sign of ink on his hand. [Rimmer places his left hand on the paper. When he stands up and salutes he is using his clean right hand. We do not see his left hand again as he keeps it by his side.]
Edit Corrected by Dwarf

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 • Next page • Show all