Trivia: 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.
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.
Timeslides - S3-E5
Trivia: Lister's younger self is played by Emile Charles, who is Craig Charles' brother.
Trivia: 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.
Timeslides - S3-E5
Trivia: 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." This ends up somewhat coming to pass in Tikka To Ride (Series 7) where we find out that they were the men on the Grassy Knoll in Dallas in 1963.
Timeslides - S3-E5
Trivia: 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.
Timeslides - S3-E5
Trivia: Craig Charles actually wrote the 'Om' song.
Trivia: 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."
Trivia: 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.
Trivia: 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.
Trivia: 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.
Trivia: 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).
Terrorform - S5-E3
Trivia: The Self-Loathing creature from "Terrorform" was based on an unused design from Doctor Who (1963).
Trivia: 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.
Trivia: 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.
Suggested correction: Lister can only see M-Corp products and M-Corp employees. Cat is not an employee of JMC or M-Corp, so he disappears. Lister is the only member of the crew who is employed by M-Corp at this point.
Suggested correction: Cat was a descendant of the cat Lister brought aboard Red Dwarf. Would it be possible that the new owners might have stricter security controls, and Lister was sent to Stasis for a different reason?
Andy Benham ★
Inventing Deux ex machina explanations for a plot hole doesn't make it any less of a plot hole. M-Corp erases all of the Jupiter Mining Corporation's equipment, personnel and infrastructure from Lister's life. In no way is Cat a part of that. He has no connection at all to the Jupiter Mining Corporation, and until he meets him in Episode 1 no connection to Lister, either.
If M-Corp only erased JMC equipment from Lister's life, then Kryten, who belongs to DivaDroid and not the JMC, wouldn't have disappeared either. He disappears as he doesn't belong to M-Corp, not because he belongs to the JMC. Cat has no connection to M-Corp, as he wasn't a part of the JMC (as you pointed out), and is therefore erased for Lister.