Red Dwarf

Original title : The End
First Aired : 15.02.1988 (UK)
Director : Ed Bye
Writing credits : Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
Cast : Robert Bathurst (Frank Todhunter), Mac McDonald (Captain Hollister), Mark Williams (Petersen), Paul Bradley (Chen), David Gillespie (Selby), Robert McCulley (George McIntyre), C.P. Grogan (Kristine Kochanski)

The Story : Aboard the Jupiter Mining Corporation vessel Red Dwarf, Dave Lister, a lowly 3rd Technician, smuggles aboard a cat and is consequently confined to suspended animation for the crime. During his time in stasis his bunkmate Arnold Rimmer, an equally if not more lowly 2nd Technician, is forced to perform the maintenence duties alone and inefficiently repairs the drive plate, causing it to blow and subjecing the entire crew to deadly radiation. 3 million years pass until Holly (the ship's computer), releases Lister from stasis and tells him of the accident and also ressurrects Rimmer as a hologram to be a companion for Lister. After the initial shock, Lister realises that he has the run of the ship, allowing him to be, basically, himself: a no-good layabout slob. Rimmer and Lister discover that the cat had been sealed in the ships hold during the accident and has bred there for the last 3 million years and have evolved into man, one of whom is still on the ship. When he discovers his new friend, Lister decides to complete his dream of owning a farm on Fiji and orders Holly to set a course for Earth. THE BEGINNING!

Original title : Future Echoes
First Aired : 22.02.1988 (UK)
Director : Ed Bye
Writing credits : Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
Cast : John Lenahan (Talkie Toaster), Tony Hawks (Food Dispenser)

The Story : Lister and Cat prepare to go into stasis while Red Dwarf goes to light speed until they get back to Earth. Rimmer does not want to be turned off, so he demands to be left on for the journey, even though he will be by himself. Unfortunately they reach light speed 22 hours before they expected and don't get to go into stasis after all. While shaving, Lister watches himself accidentally cutting himself in the mirror and Rimmer rushing up behind him, then a few seconds later he does cut himself and yells for Rimmer, but dismisses what he saw in the mirror. Lister goes to the drive room and talks to Rimmer, only Rimmer is enjoying a conversation with an invisible person. Rimmer leaves through one door and immediately returns through another where he has the same conversation with Lister that he had before. Lister tries to tell him about what is happening and Rimmer is convinced when he sees Cat rush past them in the hall but then sees him in the sleeping quarters immediately after. Holly calls them Future Echoes, pieces of the future that they are catching up with as a result of light speed, backed up when Rimmer spots a picture showing Lister holding two babies in his arms. Rimmer sees Lister getting killed by an exploding panel in the drive room and doesn't seem to be too concerned about it in front of Lister. Lister goes to face his death, but doesn't get killed. They return to their quarters and see a very old Lister lying in the bunk. The Old Lister tells them that it was Lister's son that Rimmer saw in the drive room and tells Lister to grab his camera and run to the medical bay. Rimmer wonders how Lister fathers two children without a woman on board and Lister responds with "I dunno, but it'll be a lot of fun finding out!". The two go to the medical bay and are greeted by Lister, the same age he is now, introducing them to his twin boys, Jim and Bexley......

Original title : Balance of Power
First Aired : 29.02.1988 (UK)
Director : Ed Bye
Writing credits : Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
Cast : C.P. Grogan (Kochanski), Mark Williams (Petersen), Paul Bradley (Chen), David Gillespie (Selby), Rupert Bates (Food Dispenser)

The Story : Lister finally gets a reprieve from Rimmer's boring inventory checks and goes for a drink. Sitting in the empty bar, he flashes back to a disco that he attended with his mates, Petersen, Chen and Selby; and finally realises that he is alone. After he wallows in self-pity for being alone in deep space, Lister pleads with Rimmer to allow him to create a hologram of Kristine Kochanski, an upper-class love interest. When Rimmer invokes his standing as a superior crew member (2nd Technician as opposed to 3rd Technician), and flatly refuses, Lister plans revenge and threatens to take the exams to become an officer and outrank him. Rimmer scoffs at the idea but wakes up in the morning to discover that Lister is off studying for the chef's exam, a fairly basic one but an officer's position nonetheless. Rimmer tries to discourage Lister from taking the exam and even orders him not to but Lister doesn't give in saying that the only way he wont take the exam is if Rimmer lets him see Kochanski. On the day of the exam, Kochanski walks in and Lister is stunned beyond belief. However, Kochanski tells him that she isn't interested in him and wants a real man. Lister is hurt but is puzzled at the way she speaks. He tricks her by commenting on the night that they had sex, and she replies in disbelief, proving to him that it is actually Rimmer. Lister tells Rimmer to go away and he finishes the exam. Lister comes from the exam room to receive his results and Rimmer asks how he did. Lister's face is expressionless until he leaps in the air and shouts "How'd I Do Mr Lister, Sir!".

Original title : Waiting For God
First Aired : 07.03.1988 (UK)
Director : Ed Bye
Writing credits : Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
Cast : Noel Coleman (Cat Preist), John Lenahan (Talkie Toaster)

The Story : Holly notices a pod floating in space and Rimmer orders that it be salvaged, convinced that it contains alien life forms, even though Lister realises that it is a Red Dwarf Garbage Pod, jettisoned from the waste disposal unit. Meanwhile Lister is researching the Cat's religion and discovers that their race which evolved from his pet, Frankenstein, now have his image as their God. He follows the Cat deep into the hold of the ship and finds a Cat Priest who is dying with the belief that he hasn't lived up to the expectations of the almighty Cloister (God). Lister convinces him that he has lived admirably as a priest so that he can die in peace and Lister comes to the conclusion that having religion is not as good as people believe as the cat race all perished trying to honour theirs.

Original title : Confidence and Paranoia
First Aired : 14.03.1988 (UK)
Director : Ed Bye
Writing credits : Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
Cast : Lee Cornes (Paranoia), Craig Ferguson (Confidence)

The Story : After visiting the officers living quarters aboard the ship before it has been decontaminated, Lister wakes up with a case of pneumonia and begins to hallucinate in his sleep. His dreams become real however, when it begins to rain fish in their room, and the Mayor of Warsaw appears and then spontaneously combusts in front of Rimmer. Lister wakes feeling better but then finds that two men have appeared on the ship, one his inner confidence and the other his paranoia. While Lister's Confidence gives him the strength to face Rimmer to get Kochanski's hologram disk, he is unaware that Confidence would do anything to be with him, including destroying the Medicomp and killing Paranoia. Lister discovers this but cannot stop Confidence from foolishly trying to convince him that he can breathe in space and ends up imploding into a billion pieces. Lister retrieves the hologram disk and loads it, but what results is far worse than being alone in space.

Original title : Me2
First Aired : 21.03.1988 (UK)
Director : Ed Bye
Writing credits : Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
Cast : Mac McDonald (Captain Hollister)

The Story : Lister gets more that he bargained for when the disk supposedly containing Kochanski's hologram is actually a copy of Rimmer. The two Rimmers decide to move in together leaving Lister who is all too happy to be rid of them. However, the two Rimmers are so alike that they cannot get along and continually insult and berate each other. Lister discovers a tape of Rimmer's death on which he utters the words "Gazpatcho Soup" before his demise. When the childish behaviour between the two Rimmers forces Lister to put his foot down and demand that one of them be erased, he tricks the original Rimmer into believing that he will be the one in order to make him explain what 'Gazpatcho Soup' meant. It was the day that Rimmer's aspirations to become an officer finally came true when he was invited to the captain's table for dinner but he unfortunately did not know that Gazpatcho Soup is meant to be served cold.