THE RED DWARF PLOT INCONSISTENCIES PROJECT v.8.0
2.69 The Universal Explanation, Take 2
As with the original case, a lot of changes happened between Series 6 and Series 7 of the show. The show was out of production for a long time while other projects, production changes and timing problems were dealt with. This is also the first series where the writing team of Grant Naylor did not script all the episodes. In fact, the Grant half did not work on the show at all.
In the opening segment to Series 7 in Tikka To Ride (7-1), Lister explains their escape from the predicament at the end of Out Of Time (6-6). To avoid destroying any more electrical devices, the summation of that explanation is that by the Future Crew killing the Current Crew, they created a temporal paradox that left the Current Crew alive and in space/time just before their encounter with their future selves, who were wiped out by the paradox. However, they were in a very unstable region of space/time due to the paradox. This instability can explain away nearly all the inconsistencies between anything that came before Series 7 and that which came after it. Once again, a convenient crutch, but we'll give it a go without it anyway.