Red Dwarf

Correction: Female domestic cats reach sexual maturity at five or six months old, but don't stop growing until they are twelve to sixteen months old. Frankenstein isn't fully grown, but that is no indication of her sexual maturity - or pregnancy.

Show generally

Corrected entry: 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.

Correction: 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.

Captain Defenestrator

The End - S1-E1

Corrected entry: 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. (00:04:20)

Dwarf

Correction: 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.

The End - S1-E1

Corrected entry: 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.

Life700

Correction: 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.

Dwarf

Holoship - S5-E1

Corrected entry: During Rimmer's initial conversation with Nirvannah, after he boards her ship, she tells him that it is considered "the height of bad manners" on the ship to refuse sex with someone. Later, after they have had sex, Rimmer suggests a "tie-breaker" (a euphemism for sex again). She unashamedly brushes him off by saying she has "things to do", thus contradicting her own moral standards.

Correction: Nirvanah hasn't refused to have sex with Rimmer - she's already done it, several times. She simply can't continue to do so, as she has duties to attend to. No rudeness there - everybody on the ship would understand that duty ultimately has to take precedence.

Tailkinker

Correction: As the snake is a polymorph there is no reason why it did not just change from a small snake to a large snake when it jumped at Lister.

Dwarf

Correction: True, however, if you knew when, where, how, and who was going to kill you, wouldn't you at least TRY to do something to stop it?

Captain Defenestrator

Correction: Not really a mistake, I used to work in a shop and the badges varied in size.

Ssiscool

Ouroboros - S7-E3

Corrected entry: Lister says that, as long as his "ouroboros" cycle continues, the human race can never become extinct. But this is not true: someday Lister will die. The baby he fathered will not replace him, because he sent it back in time, where it starts its lifespan at the same time as him (and thus dies at the same time as him). The cycle is self-reinforcing, but not self-perpetuating. Thus, when Lister dies, the human race will indeed be extinct. (00:28:15)

Moose

Correction: He doesn't say the human race can never become extinct, he says, "you and I goin' 'round and 'round in time"... "we're sort of a holdin' pattern on the human race." He only means they're helping it survive just that much longer.

Phixius

Correction: The head is already on Kryten's shoulders at the start of the scene. Lister would have already screwed it on to that point, we only see him turn the head on the rest of the way.

Dwarf

Correction: Cats have phenomenal senses of smell and hearing. The Cat would have known Rimmer was there long before he saw him.

Phixius

Correction: Holly is a computer with all kinds of fictional technology. There are any number of explanations for this. Even something as mundane as Lister's handprint simply being on file since he was a crewmember.

Phixius

Quarantine - S5-E4

Corrected entry: In Quarantine Lister has been given a big dose of the luck virus. A few moments later Lister, Cat and Kryten are walking backwards down a corridor. Luckily Lister picks up the right parts for what Kryten needs, as he picks up one of the items he trips and manages to keep on his feet. With the luck virus still going through him he should not have tripped. The actress who plays Holly mentioned this on the DVD commentary.

Correction: Why is tripping over something, when that trip doesn't lead to any injury or embarrassment, and in fact actually leads him to picking something useful up, bad luck? It's a luck virus, not a co-ordination virus.

Correction: The motorcycle is a hologram, which is why Holly's face appears in the headlight.

Captain Defenestrator

Dimension Jump - S4-E5

Corrected entry: Ace states that Kryten is not waterproof, yet he must have got wet in the episode Backwards in series 3, as the ship crashes underwater, and soon after Kryten and Rimmer are in a lifeboat sailing for shore. How did they get our of the sunken ship without getting wet? He also drinks water in the "Backwards" episode, and again in series 6, in the episode "Legion". (00:19:20)

Padzter

Correction: Kryten is likely at least "water-resistant," otherwise he could never get even slightly wet. We never actually saw them leave Starbug in "Backwards," he may have put on a scuba suit. As for drinking water, those systems may be waterproofed to allow for coolant intake without his entire body being waterproofed.

Captain Defenestrator

Marooned - S3-E2

Corrected entry: Rimmer says to keep page sixty one of "Lolita", but Lister pulls out the left-side page and pockets it. As odd-numbered pages in books are on the right side, meaning he must have kept page sixty. You can see the front cover quite is the right way up so the book would not have been upside down. (00:17:05)

Dwarf

Correction: It depends on how the book is numbered. Odd numbers are not *always* on the right. I own several books where page 1 and two face each other.

Phixius

Correction: It is not a boom mic. In the wide shot of the room you can see there is part of the damaged ceiling hanging down and swaying, causing the shadow.

Dwarf

Correction: Holly has always been rather sarcastic. More of a character trait than a mistake.

Phixius

Cassandra - S8-E4

Corrected entry: Cassandra is a computer that can predict the future with 100% accuracy, so why then does she try to change the future (by lying to Rimmer about him sleeping with Kochanski so Lister will kill him) when she knows that she won't be successful?

Correction: She was eager enough to make it happen that she figured it was worth a shot anyway.

Phixius

Correction: Kryten is referred to at various points as a "Series III," a "2000 Series," and a "2X4B Model." Likely these various references are to different parts of him, (Processor, Hard Drive, etc.) so it's possible for him to contain both a 2X4B and a 2X4C model part and simply refer to himself as that particular model in some situations.

Captain Defenestrator

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

Nanarchy - S7-E8

Lister: What, they fixed your core program and then decided they'd be better off without you?
Holly: Yeah, it was shortly after they met me.

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

Meltdown - S4-E6

Question: When Kryten and Rimmer were doing the roster of their ranks, Why did Kryten skip the old woman in the black dress with the white shoulder sash between Dali Lama and Mr. Noel Coward?

Answer: It's Queen Victoria, someone any Englishman would recognize, and needed no introduction.

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.