THE RED DWARF PLOT INCONSISTENCIES PROJECT v.8.0

2.6 SERIES SIX

Psirens (6-1)

Why was Rimmer's LB frozen? All they had to do was turn it off, and freezing it would just make his period of immobility seem longer.

Most electrical equipment works better when cooled. Perhaps it’s standard procedure (or perhaps Kryten thought it a good way to save time) for a Light Bee to be frozen during inactivity so that it will boot up faster.

If the SB survived a collision with a flaming asteroid, why was it wrecked in previous, lesser impacts?

It depends how solid the asteroid was. The one in "Marooned" (3-2) bounced off the ship, probably causing a lot of internal damage, whereas the one here envelops SB. It also depends on the driving skills of those involved, which must have increased greatly over time. And, of course, it depends on what they landed on - solid ice versus some dirt/gravel substance.

Lister is told he dated Kochanski for three weeks. Yet in Confidence And Paranoia (1-5) it is clear that they never even went out.

Refer to "DNA" (4-2).

How can Cat smell things outside of Starbug, a sealed spacecraft?

The Cat's 'sense of smell' here is not physically a true olfactory sense, but rather an intuition (as stated by Kryten) manifested and described in physical terms. The Cat psychically senses things (eg. danger, approaching craft) but recognises this sense in terms of 'smell.'

Lister had sex with himself in Parallel Universe (2-6) more recently than three million years ago.

Perhaps he meant only in this dimension.

Maybe he considered that liaison more masturbation than sex. Plus, he *was* really drunk.

Where was Kryten's self-repair unit when he needed it in Backwards (3-1)?

Perhaps this explains how Lister was able to repair him at all.

When the psiren pretended to be Kryten, and it read Lister's mind and was trying to fool him, why would it deliberately call Lister 'Dave,' a name that would tip Lister off to the fact that it wasn't the real Kryten?

The psiren's abilities are not perfect (as the guitar incident shows). Perhaps, Lister subconsciously wants Kryten to call him 'Dave' instead of 'Mr. Lister,' because it would make Kryten more of an equal. The psiren picked up on this, and thereby called him 'Dave' as part of a wish fulfilment or a misreading of their relationship.

When the two Listers play guitar, the psiren plays like Lister believes he can play. The psiren isn't trying to convince Lister, it's trying to convince the rest of the crew. Wouldn't it have read their minds instead?

The psirens aren't infallible, and this one probably thought that a scan of Lister's mind would be sufficient for the subterfuge.

It is obvious here that even before being put in deep sleep, Lister was under the illusion that he was a "diva" on the guitar, could play like the ghost of Hendrix, and make the guitar sing. Yet in Marooned (3-2), he says (while trying to convince Rimmer that he can't live without his guitar), "I know I'm not exactly a wizard on it"

In "Marooned" (3-2), Lister was at an emotional low point: stuck with Rimmer, eating pot noodles, etc. Now he is back to his normal (read: delusional) state.

If Holly can be on Starbug (eg. Backwards; 3-1), or appear on Kryten's chest monitor (eg. Marooned; 3-2), then why can't she appear from the Red Dwarf on Starbug now?

It seems that Holly was down - like in "Nanarchy" (7-8), or alternatively, she disabled all communications to and from Starbug. Alternatively, Holly may have to be "loaded" into Starbug or Kryten in order to appear on them.

The Starbug is shown to have two deep sleep chambers (for Lister and Cat), yet the entirety of the Red Dwarf, with a much larger crew, only had two stasis booths on the ship. Why would the shuttlecraft have as many suspended animation facilities as the whole of the mother ship?

It is unlikely that the Starbug came equipped with the deep sleep chambers and they were jury rigged by Kryten for the circumstances.

If they were standard equipment, it can be rationalized as emergency gear if the shuttle were separated from the ship for long periods of time before rescue.

Legion (6-2)

Legion removes Lister's appendix, which is about to burst from appendicitis. It was apparent in Thanks For The Memory (2-3) that Lister had already had his appendix out.

In DNA (4-2) when Lister's body was reconstituted, his appendix may have been restored.

In Backwards (3-1) Lister's appendix may have grown back in reverse-time.

In Timeslides (3-5) Lister's past was changed several times. It is conceivable that one of these changes resulted in his appendix not being taken out previous to this event.

The novels state that Lister was born with two of these organs.

It may be a genetic abnormality, possibly the result of the unusual method in which he was conceived in the first place (see 7-3: “Ouroboros”).

Rimmer says that in all his previous lives, he has been a soldier. That must be excepting the time he was Alexander the Great's Chief Eunuch (Marooned, 3-2).

He was still in an army ... sort of.

Rimmer says that they have met exactly 31 individuals (Legion being 32) in their travels. The number of 'individuals' is much higher.

It's a tricky definition, and depending on the way you swing it, it can be a true statement.

Legion's total appearance changed to match that of Kryten when Kryten was the only one left conscious, yet previously only Legion's face had changed to reflect his diminishing status when all the others were being knocked out in turn.

Perhaps when left with only one 'creator,' Legion has no gestalt conflict and so can more truly and easily depict his single-being status.

When Kryten is knocking everybody out, Legion, who has proven himself capable of violence to stop the crew from leaving, just stands there and watches. Even if he didn't want to harm them, he could have at least restrained Kryten from performing his actions.

The crew's collective desire to leave had reached the point where they were all willing to be knocked unconscious. The aggregate sum of this desire would affect Legion and make him less determined to act to stop them.

Lister says that the missile chasing them is some sort of heat-seeker, and then Kryten offers to act as a decoy. This wouldn't work, as it's already been established in Polymorph (3-3) that Kryten does not give off any heat.

Perhaps Kryten intended to hold onto a fire-driven rocket in order to become a better decoy.

Kryten also stated, in 4-2 “DNA”, that his right nipple-nut regulates body temperature. It may also allow Kryten to increase his body temperature for whatever reason.

When talking about the people they've met in their journeys, they talk about the person who tried to wipe them out from history altogether (the Inquisitor). Since the Inquisitor himself got wiped out from history, they should not remember that encounter at all.

Given the friendly sort that the crew usually runs into, it is possible they are referring to someone other than the Inquisitor.

The length of Lister and Kryten’s conversation at the end of “Inquisitor”, and the fact that neither of them stated that the events would be erased from history or forgotten, as has been the case with “White Hole”, suggests that at the very least Lister and Kryten remember the events, and may have told Rimmer about them at some point.

Gunmen Of The Apocalypse (6-3)

The escape pod escaped last Thursday. Does that take into account the three weeks that the crew spent knocked out courtesy of the simulants?

Lister hasn't adapted to being knocked out for three weeks by the simulants. It was last Thursday for him, because he was unconscious for the rest of the time.

Why is Kryten displaying "life signs" if he's an android, and it's been established in "Polymorph" (3-3) that he emits no heat like a regular life-form?

There are other signs, accepted as "life signs", that Kryten displays - perhaps such as voltage!

Cat says that there is no place for the bullets to go (in Kryten's gun), but the muzzle doesn't seem to be blocked, the 'revolver cartridge' seems clear, and the separation between the 'revolver cartridge' and the butt of the pistol is noticeable. Kryten also spins the cartridge at one time, so the revolver looks to be in working order. Yet the Cat expects Lister to be able to notice the gun's supposed inadequacies just by glancing at it. What is wrong with the gun?

Perhaps the holes in the cartridge are blocked up. And you can't just drop a bullet down the muzzle because it wouldn't come in contact with the gunpowder or firing pin.

Emohawk: Polymorph II (6-4)

Lister should say 'Butts bony our move let's' not 'Bony butts our move let's' to mimic the Space Corps External Enforcement Vehicle correctly.

Considering he was making a decision to flee from a craft which had a high probability of destroying SB, he was under a lot of pressure at the time. And he is a scouse slob. Let's cut him a small break this time.

Where did Kryten learn to speak GELF?

Perhaps he downloaded this information from a database on one of the derelict spaceships the crew have visited.

Another door opens before 'Ace' touches it.

Rack it up to those light-sensitive, hologram-friendly doors.

Duane said that the gun Rimmer ejected was the last one on the ship, but Kryten has one later.

Duane actually says: '*We* just flushed away our only gun,' so probably in this case the 'our' he is talking about comprises of only himself and Rimmer.

The crew still moves after getting hit by the gas.

When Lister freezes the Emohawk while 'Ace' is holding it, he squeezes the trigger a lot longer than Duane does at the end - they're already unfreezing.

Why were Kryten and 'Ace' worried about the effect of the grenade on 'Ace,' since the hard-light body was pronounced practically indestructible?

Kryten and 'Ace' were probably worried due to the element of doubt (about the hard-light body's strength) introduced by Legion's qualifying word 'practically.' As we discover with Ace in "Stoke Me A Clipper" (7-2), the hard-light body is damageable.

When the Emohawk turned Cat into Duane, how did Cat's physical features alter if the Emohawk can only change emotions - and how did 'Ace' Rimmer's hair grow so quickly?

Perhaps this type of emotion-stealing GELF is a species which needs to extract the genetic complement of an emotion in order to obtain that emotion. In this way it may be possible for physical appearance to alter to reflect changed DNA status, especially if the Emohawk has to facilitate this process quickly in order for the relevant DNA to be free for it to take. The DNA apparently must be taken from the Emohawk and injected back into its rightful owner in order for the original character to be restored - a process which was not necessary with the other GELF in Polymorph (3-3) - so indicating that the two emotion-stealers are of different types.

Rimmerworld (6-5)

When Kryten says to Rimmer 'Your activities over the past couple of years,' presumably he means years broken up by the 200-year deep sleep hiatus of Psirens (6-1).

Yes, the past two years when Rimmer was interacting with Kryten.

Rimmer talks about letting Lister play the guitar, but the guitar was destroyed in Emohawk: Polymorph II (6-4).

While one guitar might have been destroyed, Lister was given another guitar in his room during Legion (6-2), so one may be in a box of Lister's 'valuables,' unbeknownst at this time to the rest of the crew.

Lister has been seen with at least three guitars, not including the one in Legion (6-2). The first is the Les Paul copy that was destroyed in Emohawk: Polymorph II (6-4). The second is the acoustic guitar seen throughout the first series. The third is an electric model seen at the beginning of Thanks For The Memory (2-3).

Rimmer is hyperventilating and 'breathing.' He's a hologram.

It may be a manifestation of the hologrammatic illness. His breath was seen in the cold air in Meltdown (4-6), so it's obvious his program is adapting to his surroundings, why not adapting to an internal illness?

Why does Rimmer suddenly now need a "hard light remote belt" to lift things on the simulant ship?

Perhaps Rimmer's light bee needs a significant power boost in order to lift objects over certain weights.

The remote belt is likely used to alternate between Hard and Soft Light, so of course he’d need his remote belt to switch from one to the other (in order to regulate power usage?).

Since the crew obviously had some of Rimmer's DNA, why didn't they try cloning him back in DNA (4-2)?

They probably did not trust the DNA machine given all they saw.

They don’t like him that much.

Kryten asks Rimmer if he has any next of kin. Considering Kryten knows very well that Rimmer's family (and perhaps the whole human race) is dead, this is an incredibly stupid question.

This is probably just a result of his being programmed to ask this question, and also his desire to beat around the bush and avoid telling Rimmer the bad news.

Out Of Time (6-6)

If by destroying the time drive, Rimmer saves the crew, they would have been saved anyway when the ship was destroyed, thus blowing up the time drive.

Getting killed by themselves may have produced some huge paradoxes though.

They had no assurances that the future crew was actually going to go through with it and finish them off.

Why did Future Rimmer gain weight when it could be expected that he wouldn't have wanted to?

Unlike on Rimmerworld (6-5), where Rimmer's appearance did not (and had no need to) change, Future Rimmer may be changing himself in order to match better with his 'friends' who are growing old and/or altering their appearances to be inconspicuous with their historical acquaintances; the others may even have insisted upon such a change (though the design may be a bit overdone!).

What may have been a voluntary on and off process for a hologram could have been damaged by the holovirus (Quarantine, 5-4). The virus could have destroyed Rimmer's capability to control his aging, causing the aging function to kick in at a random time. Thus he could have gone 557 years without aging, as happened, or just as likely he might have added holo-years at any time. And sometime during the fifteen years after Rimmerworld, the aging function has kicked in.

Rimmer has quite clearly shown signs of aging during the run of the show, and Rimmerworld shows that he has to keep himself just as healthy as a living person (one might recall the Necrobics from “Confidence and Paranoia”). If, during his new life of luxury, he wasn’t keeping himself in tip-top shape then it’s possible he’d pack on a few pounds.

Kryten asked Lister if he remembered his parents, and Lister said no.

Given the context and wording of the actual conversation, Lister would probably initially think that Kryten meant his biological parents, and so his answer is the truth.

Rimmer offers to write Kryten/Cat into his will, but since Rimmer is already dead, the point seems quite moot.

Rimmer as a human is dead, but holograms can also 'die' as shown in Rimmerworld (6-5). Thus Rimmer may have a 'will' for the case of his hologrammatic death.

Rimmer may be just making a point of showing the lengths he would go to (especially given his known stinginess) to be allowed the pleasure of telling Lister the bad news.

Considering the number of times Lister has been in the medical bay, it is highly unlikely that they wouldn't have noticed he was a mechanoid before this.

This illusion seems to be affecting Kryten more than Rimmer or the Cat, who never actually truly believe that Lister is an android. And Kryten is more concerned with outranking Lister than any other consequences (possibly due to the unreality bubble).

According to this episode, Lister becomes reduced to a brain in a jar by the time he's aged in his forties. This contradicts the 171 year old Echo Lister seen in Future Echoes (1-2).

This whole episode may have occurred in an unreality pocket that makes the whole future null and void.

Lister may have somehow been able to get his body back in some way after the events in this episode (like Nanarchy, 7-6).