Red Dwarf

Backwards - S3-E1

Plot hole: In the episode 'Backwards' most of the things that happen on 'Backwards Earth' are correct, except, of course, in reverse. But there is an exception: in the scene in the Cafe, when the waitress comes to 'dirty' the table, she tips a box of trash on the table. If you play this scene backwards, the trash leaps from the table into the box. Even on a 'backwards earth' I can't believe that trash spontaneously leaps about... (00:09:30)

Backwards - S3-E1

Plot hole: The barroom tidy scene in the pub makes absolutely no sense. It is established that this fight started because Lister and the Cat uneat a man's pie, which causes the man to punch Lister, and then the barroom brawl happens, but the events are reversed due to this version of Earth being set in a backwards reality. However, if the events of this fight are put into chronological order, this would mean that Lister uneating the man's pie and being punched by him would have been the last thing to happen during this fight, as it was the first thing to happen in reverse order, and therefore, would also means that there would have been no real reason for the pub patrons would get into a brawl in the first place, as nothing had occurred at that time. (00:23:15)

Casual Person

Backwards - S3-E1

Plot hole: If everything goes backwards, shouldn't Kryten and Rimmer have got fired, done their job and then got hired? Rimmer & Kryten discovered that everything was backwards in the cafe earlier in the episode. At the club they did their act and then got fired. Put this 'forwards' and it becomes wrong.

pinkwafer

Timeslides - S3-E5

Factual error: The writer's understanding of the history of Nazism and its leaders is a bit shonky. Claus von Stauffenberg did not plant a bomb in Hitler's briefcase - he put it in his own briefcase which he planted in a meeting room next to Hitler (some berk moved it). This was in July 1944, while the last Nuremberg rally - which Lister visits, bringing back the briefcase - was in 1938. Stauffenberg didn't even join the anti-Hitler conspiracy until 1943. Red Dwarf is not an 'alternate history' - they correctly identify elements of the Stauffenberg plot and the Nazi regime, they just get them wrong.

More mistakes in Red Dwarf

White Hole - S4-E4

Rimmer: The thing about Captain Oates... The thing you have to remember about Captain Oates... Captain Oates... Captain Oates was a prat.

More quotes from Red Dwarf

Meltdown - S4-E6

Trivia: "Meltdown" was originally planned to be the first episode of Series IV of Red Dwarf. However, the militaristic tone of this episode - and in particular Dave Lister's strident anti-war speech near The End of the episode - meant it fell foul of the BBC censors. The original planned transmission date (Feb 14 1991) coincided with the outbreak of "Operation Desert Storm" - the Gulf War...and the BBC felt that an "anti-war" episode of Red Dwarf would be inappropriate for a country at war with Iraq.

More trivia for Red Dwarf

Answer: Presumably he does, but it's never been used in any material related to the show. He is the only Cat left (as shown in Series 1), so even if he had once had a name, nobody would know it.

Moose

Answer: In the book, the Cat finds the concept of a name confusing, as he's convinced he's the center of the universe and the idea that someone wouldn't know who he was is baffling.

Brian Katcher

More questions & answers from Red Dwarf

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.