Continuity mistake: When Lister is revising for the exam, he opens a can of beer which sprays foam onto the table, and onto his cigarettes, when he opens it. A few seconds later, the sprayed foam disappears from the table. (00:19:30)
Continuity mistake: When Rimmer is talking to Lister before the exam and says they are friends, Lister replies "When?" Lister has a can of beer on the bunk, with the label facing the camera. Two shots after, the label is suddenly facing away from the camera. A couple of shots after that, the label is suddenly facing the camera again. (00:23:15)
Confidence and Paranoia - S1-E5
Continuity mistake: When Confidence is telling Lister that his song was the greatest love song ever, Lister has his right hand on his lap, but in the next shot, his right hand is suddenly on the guitar strings. (00:19:35)
Continuity mistake: When the Cat leaves Lister's quarters after showing him the cat book, one of Lister's locks is hanging over his right shoulder. In the next shot it is gone. (00:11:40)
Confidence and Paranoia - S1-E5
Continuity mistake: When the Cat visits Lister, Lister puts his arm down on the bed, but in the next shot he is leaning on his hand. (00:14:45)
Confidence and Paranoia - S1-E5
Continuity mistake: When Lister and Confidence go outside the ship, they do a little dance and both put their right feet forwards. In the next shot, their left feet are forward as they continue the dance. (00:25:30)
Continuity mistake: When Lister goes into stasis, Todd Hunter turns the wheel on the door to lock Lister in. In the next scene when Lister awakes from stasis, he just pushes the door open without turning the wheel to unlock it. Even if we are to assume that Holly would automatically open the door, the wheel should still turn to unlock the mechanism.
Continuity mistake: When Rimmer stresses out while preparing for his exam, he puts his hands on his face, and screams whilst starting to bend over. In the next shot, Lister wakes up, and Rimmer is suddenly standing upright. (00:13:20)
Continuity mistake: When Rimmer first realises that his files are unflattering, the screen first from the right on the computer bank shows writing. But a change of view later, Holly is on the same screen. He does not have time to move.
Chosen answer: In-universe, after leaving Red Dwarf after his first appearance, Kryten managed to crash Lister's space-bike into an asteroid. Lister found his remains and decided to rebuild him, however, due to the high level of damage and Lister's questionable repair skills, he was unable to recreate Kryten exactly, leading to changes in appearance, personality and accent. In reality, the original actor wasn't available, coupled with presumably practical concerns about one-off makeup as opposed to makeup for a regular cast member, so some visual changes were made.
Tailkinker ★