The actor who plays the original Kryten, in 'Kryten', also turns up later as the voice of Talkie Toaster.
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[Rimmer is drunk]
Lister: What time is it?
Rimmer: [Crawls over to the alarm clock] Saturday.
Lister: Is that the best you can do?
Rimmer: There are some numbers next to it but they could be anything.
Mistakes
When the Cat's future echo says, "I think I lost my tooth," he is at the end of the corridoor. When the present Cat say it, he is just leaving the sleeping quarters. See more...
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Red Dwarf (1988) - 29 trivia entries
starring Chloë Annett, Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, Hattie Hayridge, Norman Lovett, Robert Llewellyn (add more)
Across whole show
The actor who plays the original Kryten, in 'Kryten', also turns up later as the voice of Talkie Toaster.
It was rumored that Alfred Molina and Alan Rickman wanted the part of Rimmer. Lee Cornes also auditioned for this role (he later guest starred on the show), as did Hugh Laurie. Robert Bathurst, Norman Lovett and David Baddiel auditioned for the role of Lister.
Signs in the hallways of the Red Dwarf are in English and Esperanto.
In "Back to Earth part two" most of what Kryten reads off the DVD cover is all written on the actual "Back to Earth" DVD. But he also reads something about them visiting a sci-fi shop, which isn't written on the cover.
All of series 1 (series 1)
The part of Kochanski was originally to have been played by actress Alexandra Pigg (best known for the 1985 movie 'Letter to Bhreznev'). However, just two days into rehearsals, production of Series 1 of "Red Dwarf" was halted by a strike of technicians at the BBC. The production of "Red Dwarf" had to be rescheduled, and Pigg was not available for the new dates. So the part was re-cast to C.P.Grogan (former lead singer of the band 'Altered Images') who played Kochanski throughout series 1 & 2
Kryten (series 2)
In this episode only, the part of Kryten was played by David Ross. It was only later, during the writing of the scripts for Series III, that the decision was made to make Kryten a regular member of the cast. As David Ross wasn't available, the part went to Robert Llewelyn, who has played Kryten ever since.
Rimmer refers to people who speak Esperanto as "Esperantinos", but they are actually called "Esperantists". Not really a mistake because he's often shown to be an idiot, but worth knowing.
Timeslides (series 3)
In Timeslides (Series 3), after the crew finds out they have a limited time machine Kryten says "Just think, we could go to Dallas 1963, stand on the Grassy Knoll and shout duck," an unintentional reference to Tikka To Ride (Series 7) where we find out that they were the men on the Grassy Knoll in Dallas 1963.
Craig Charles actually wrote the 'Om' song.
Lister's younger self is played by Emile Charles, who is Craig Charles' brother.
Graham Chapman (of Monty Python fame) was offered, and accepted the role of the newsreader. However, he died shortly afterward. Director Ed Bye's wife Ruby Wax was subsequently cast in the 'Blaize Falconberger' role.
Backwards (series 3)
In the episode 'Backwards', Kryten and Rimmer are fired by the nightclub owner for the fight. However, the man is not really saying anything about a fight. The reversed translation is actually like this: "You are a stupid square headed bald git aren't you. I'm pointing at you, but I'm not actually addressing you. I'm addressing the one prat in the entire country who's bothered to get hold of this recording, turn it round and actually work out the rubbish that I'm saying. What a poor sad life he's got. Your act's crap, anyway I hate the lot of you."
Writer Rob Grant can be seen making a cameo appearance. When Rimmer and Kryten walk through London, you see him wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigarette.
On the DVD, you can watch this episode backwards. This way, not only can you find out roughly how they made this episode and find out what 'reversed' people are saying, you can hear someone shout 'ACTION' right before the brawl scene.
The Star Wars-style (if you can slow it down) scrolly mentions what happened in between series 2 and 3. In short, it mentions what happened to Kryten (he crashed Lister's space bike on a planet and the crew managed to rescue him again), and the twins (Jim and Bexley - they were sent to the parallel universe as they were growing far too quickly).
All of series 3 (series 3)
While the blowing snow in "Marooned" was made of soap flakes, the snowball thrown around by Lister and the Cat in "Timeslides" was made of sorbet.
Meltdown (series 4)
"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.
Dimension Jump (series 4)
Red Dwarf's producer/director Ed Bye was taken seriously ill on the day of the studio recording of the episode "Dimension Jump". Paul Jackson, who was in 1990-91 effectively Ed Bye's boss, stepped in to cover, although he hadn't directed a TV show for about 7 years. But look at the credits for this episode...no one bothered to update or change them, and Paul Jackson was never credited for his work. The credits still say "Produced and directed by Ed Bye" even though on this one occasion, they weren't.
Originally the Cat's alter ego from Ace's dimension was supposed to be a slobby janitor, but the cast felt having a black man as a janitor could be construed as a negative stereotype, so the character was changed to a priest.
D.N.A. (series 4)
During the famous 'double polaroid' scene, the look of shock and horror on Lister's face is real. The double polaroid apparently was a real picture of someone's genitals but nobody had told Craig Charles about it. Even Robert Llewelyn (Kryten) was in on the joke and the look on Lister's face is totally real.
Terrorform (series 5)
The Self-Loathing creature from "Terrorform" was based on an unused design from Doctor Who (1963).
The Inquisitor (series 5)
When Lister is trying to explain that he knows Rimmer, he mentions "Your middle name is Judas but you tell everybody it's Jonathan" This is a fun-fact because Chris Barrie's (who plays Rimmer) middle name is, in fact, Jonathan.
Psirens (series 6)
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).
Rob Grant and Doug Naylor originally tried to get Brian May to film the guitar solo scene, but he was unavailable. However, Anita Dobson (May's wife) asked if there was a part for her, and she was given the part of Captain Tau. The writers have since said if they'd known she was interested they would have written her something more substantial.
Ouroboros (series 7)
Baby Lister is played by Alexandra John-Jules. The niece of Danny 'the Cat' John-Jules.
Tikka To Ride (series 7)
The episode "Tikka To Ride" was released on video as an "X-tended" version with a different ending to the one broadcast on TV. In the revised ending, Lister gets his supplies of curry and lager, and they are loaded aboard Starburg. But Rimmer tricks Lister into operating a switch that splits off the rear section of Staburg - casting Lister and his curries into space
Only The Good... (series 8)
The scene where Rimmer comes face to face with the Grim Reaper was a last minute change/addition to the script. Because it was done at the last minute, there was no time to cast an actor for the part (nor any money to pay one). The part of Death was played in this episode by producer/director Ed Bye.
Cassandra (series 8)
In Greek mythology, the God Apollo fell in love with Cassandra and gave her the gift of telling the future. Despite this, she refused to return her love to him, so Apollo declared no-one would believe Cassandra's prophecies. In this episode, Cassandra is a computer who predicts the future and Rimmer does not believe her.
Back in the Red (1) (series 8)
There is a scene in this episode where Starbug flies up a rat's backside. In the original script it wasn't a rat at all, but Frankenstein, Lister's pet cat and mother to all of the Cat People. However, for technical and budgetary reasons, it proved quicker and cheaper to use GCI (Computer-Generated Imaging) to create a rat rather than a cat.
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