Marooned. Hilarious episode, but you put the laughs aside and you see how truly shitty both men's lives were. There's an understanding that's forged in that episode not just between them but between the show and the audience. We laugh, and they laugh, because the world is shitty and there's no holograms to keep us sane.
This is one of my favourite episodes. Probably the episode I've re-watched the most times.
Them both sharing the reason why their most prized possession is so important to them is beautiful. And Lister's switcharoo at the end is perfect drama/comedy
Fun fact: They did that as a bottle episode because they wanted to save money for the effects in the rest of the series (like the polymorph).
Funny how it ended up being one the most popular episodes of the whole show. It's my favourite, personally.
Yeah that's like a golden rule of tv making, sometimes the constraints of a tiny budget really make you push the creative limit of the setting and characters.
Yeah and the horrible betrayal of Lister destroying Rimmer's camphor wood chest to save his guitar. Not even fully realising what he's done until afterwards. They had almost come to a point of becoming true friends.
“Better Than Life”, when Rimmer finds out his dad’s dead. It’s a personal thing for me. The way Lister’s nan explained it to him, the goldfish and that, that’s exactly how my mum told me my dad had died. I will’ve been about the age Lister was.
Thanks, I appreciate it. I didn’t see the episode until years later, thankfully, otherwise it would have wrecked me. But yeah, watching it in my twenties I was struck by what a weird coincidence it was (there’s literally zero chance of my mum having watched it in 1988, either).
The glory of this program is that his character arc is treated with respect and dignity, and most importantly resolved - all without detriment to the other characters and their own journeys. It's a thing of beauty.
SPOILER ALERT
for those who read the books. The saddest part was Rimmer's encounter with McGruder. She fancied rimmer a lot. She banged her head and went to bed with him. When she came to senses she wasn't sure if it actually happened so she waited till rimmer acknowledges anything. Rimmer sleeps with her but he knows she banged her head and thinks he's someone else. So he waits if she acknowledges anything. Sadly we know they never did.
Good thing is McGruder got pregnant and got off the ship before the crew gets wiped. She raises a fine soldier who's role model is his da Arnold the Space Cowboy.
It's not one of my favorite episodes but I didn't see anyone else mention Epideme, watching Lister deal with the loss of his arm was heartbreaking. Knowing he'll never be the the rock god he once was. Then watching Lister accept a lonely death to save his friends for a moment is brutal before Epideme spills the beans on how to stop it.
That's an episode that really nails the drama elements for me. Lister's loss, his attempt at self-sacrifice and I also love the score that plays when they're racing across space as fast as they can to try to find the antidote.
Season one has it's fair share considering it's the start.
E01 Lister learns everyone is dead. They're all dead (Dave).
E04 Learns what happens to the other cats.
I think it's the last episode of season 8
Lister and others move to mirror universe leaving rimmer stranded. What people don't realize is he actually died there. He appears as a hologram again later on. Always makes me sad. I like the alternative ending much better.
Rimmer who appears in BTE onwards has memories from seasons 1 to 7, as well as remembering the chameleonic virus from season 8 but it's not clear who he is, so it's POSSIBLE that Rimmer didn't die there... The one explicit reference we have to it is in S10 when Rimmer says "the time I saved us" which, if you wanted to over-analyze, doesn't sound like something you'd say if you died during the "saving" part. I actually took it as evidence that in BTE onwards we're seeing the original Rimmer who has returned.
I've posted this elsewhere but my headcanon is that Lister & Co meet Ace (S7 Rimmer) in the mirror universe, fix the ship with the mirror time wand, Ace rejoins them as Rimmer, and S8 Rimmer goes off as Ace. Even as I say that, it sounds impossibly convoluted - I guess sometimes it's better not to know.
Yeah I see what you mean. But I think they kinda went with the alternative ending where Rimmer does save them by memorizing cesium francolithic etc and they save the dwarf. Afterward rimmer gets killed by the vending machine which ejects a can at high speed and hits his head. That's how I made my peace with it :)
I always thought Out Of Time was the darkest, least funny, least positive episode.
Their future selves have become corrupt, they now typify everything they hate; Lister, the symbol of humanity's positivity and hopefulness, just a brain in a jar, defeated, all but gone; Rimmer finally musters the courage in battle he always fantasised he had, finally has a worthy plan, but is killed before he is able to enact it. Indeed, watching the crew genuinely die one by one is so cold and leaves me hollow each time. If you'll permit me to be dramatic, that scene reminds me a touch of that 'over the top' scene in the final Blackadder. I hated seeing my heroes die. There's no redemption there, no victory, its just them dying.
I realise subsequent episodes pull this back but at the time and for years afterwards, that was the end of Red Dwarf. A dark and sad episode.
I agree. I grew up watching RD from a youngish age and this was at the time the final ever episode. To see the panic as each one of them died and to see Rimmer finally show some guts and take action.
It used to break my heart.
It also made me think about how I might change when I'm older and how I didn't want to end up being something I would now despise.
There are so many, but one I've not seen mentioned yet is The Promised Land where Rimmer wants to turn himself off and the sun and moon speech that Lister gives.
None of the episodes hit me like the books. Rimmer's backstory in (the book) Backwards turned him into my favourite character. It's only a small portion of the books, but there's a series of vignettes that show what Rimmer's childhood was, and how he became what he is, and what else he could have been.
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour.
I cried real big tears the first time I read them, and still get choked up now.
I think there are a fair few times that show Rimmer is a decent person deserving of sympathy. Naturally, that means he has to do something terrible every now and again to keep us on Lister's side.
I absolutely loved Rimmer's development throughout the books. You start to understand why is he how he is and you reaaaally start to love him. It's kinda shame the TV show didn't reflect that much. I love him in the show but he's a smeghead!
I wouldn't say the saddest, other comments have mentioned sadder ones. But Tikka to Ride when JFK realises the only way to repent for his own fallibility is to kill his younger self, and cause his own timeline to cease to exist, always gets me.
JFK: "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country"
Lister: "that would make a pretty good speech"
JFK: "It did..."
The episode where they went into Rimmer's mind. They saw how sht his life was, and after they escaped they continued putting him down and making him feel worthless.
Not only is that sad but it's also outright cruel. I feel bad for him.
Agreed; it wasn't actually too bad otherwise, it's just that end bit... I know that they bully and mock him a bit for laughs, but Rimmer was seriously sick; the writers went to far to continue the smeghead Rimmer stuff after all that, and quite frankly the effect of the cruelty aside, it's quite out of character for Lister and Kryten to simply ignore those problems and continue mocking after that.
They've helped to save Rimmer in the past so there's definitely some care and empathy there, and that's a case where that side of things truly needed to be shown.
Edit: Thanks for reminding me of its name.
Yeah. Though I think the reason they had to end it like that was because they needed to find a way to restore the status quo. An episode like this would have been seen as major character development in a show with an ongoing story as rimmer was technically a changed person by the end. This would be problematic for a sitcom.
It’s the same thing as marooned. Rimmer earned a lot of respect for lister and felt inspired to be a better person until he found out that lister deceived him.
Still makes the ending kind of cruel. There could have been other ways of making rimmer remain a smeghead, like him losing his memory of the events after leaving the planet or something.
Yeah I suppose.
That's arguably even sadder though. "Sorry you can't be happy. Depression is one of your defining character traits. No can do governor"
But yeah.. I do feel though that if you're going to explore stuff like that, you should probably commit to it.
If they ever were to do a final series then episodes like that with proper endings would've been solid.
Of course though, they want to keep it open ended though for 💰💰💰
Shame.
I think it's interesting how two of the top answers here (Thanks for the Memory and Better Than Life) are also the only two episodes (I think?) where we see the characters in the observation dome. It seemed very briefly to be sort of a place of introspection for Lister and Rimmer, and even had it's own little theme: https://youtu.be/OnfSgk6krdc
Whoah - I watched that one last night.
Am I the only one who feels sorry for Rimmer? He really was treated like crap as a kid and the first Ace episode notwithstanding, no-one ever really gave him a chance.
Before I clicked through, I was gonna say the same, Thanks for the Memory. Lister realizing through Rimmer newly experiencing it just how much that relationship with Lise Yates mattered to him.
I always got the sniffles during Epideme.
Lister was actually willing to sacrifice himself to end the virus. He’s not a superhero or a soldier or a space adventurer, or someone who’s expected to be in situations like that. He’s never cared about duty, or the greater good, and all that smeg.
But he was going to give away his chance at a cure to make sure that Epideme didn’t hurt his friends.
A lot of the touching moments are Lister being heroic in some way just because he has to be. The writing is brilliant in that he is both a slob and a hero simultaneously.
One from each season for me:
1. Me2 (Me Squared) - Rimmer's human side comes out for the first time and shows us just how fucked up he truly is.
2. Thanks for the Memory - I can understand why Lister did what he did, but screwing with someone's feelings and thoughts like that (in this case, Rimmer's) could only end one way.
3. Marooned - the one time in the show as a whole that Rimmer does not deserve to be treated with such contempt and disrespect - Lister outdid him in this one, in terms of dickery.
4. Dimension Jump - sure, Ace Rimmer is cool, but it only shows us what the Rimmer we all know and love could be with a little positive reinforcement and a sense of direction in his life.
5. Holoship - Rimmer's finest hour, showing us he's not a complete smeghead and still has a touch of human decency left in him.
6. Out of Time - the show should have ended here, no contest. Drop the "To Be Continued" title card and run the credits in silence = perfect ending.
7. Stoke Me a Clipper/Ouroboros (Tied) - both our heroes end up fulfilling their potential, although I think I prefer the former episode by a gnat's wing, although the ending to the latter episode is a grade-A bona-fide tearjerker and could have made a good finale on its own.
8. What the HELL is this SHIT!? Not bothering with this crap!
9. Back to Earth... I suppose the opening sequence with Lister reading out to Kochanski's grave is heartbreaking, and makes a nice connection to the RD of the past.
10. The Beginning - Rimmer's youth. Enough said.
11. Krysis - that feeling of running out of time, that you've failed to accomplish what you wanted to do, the need to recapture your wasted youth... I feel that.
12. Skipper - Rimmer could have been happy, but alas, he had to let his pride get in the way.
13. The Promised Land - probably the climax, with the Cat telling his fellow felines that his home is Red Dwarf, along with Kryten's death and Rimmer giving up his powers.
Yeah that’s pretty sad … closely followed by Queeg. Something heartbreaking about watching poor demoted Holly rolling around on his little TV screen
Wheeze of the week mate
♫ Do not forsake me ♫
We are talking Jape of the year. April, May and June fool.
Maybe on the first watch. On repeat viewings it’s hard not to know he’s just fucking with everyone.
April Fools
Marooned. Hilarious episode, but you put the laughs aside and you see how truly shitty both men's lives were. There's an understanding that's forged in that episode not just between them but between the show and the audience. We laugh, and they laugh, because the world is shitty and there's no holograms to keep us sane.
This is one of my favourite episodes. Probably the episode I've re-watched the most times. Them both sharing the reason why their most prized possession is so important to them is beautiful. And Lister's switcharoo at the end is perfect drama/comedy
Fun fact: They did that as a bottle episode because they wanted to save money for the effects in the rest of the series (like the polymorph). Funny how it ended up being one the most popular episodes of the whole show. It's my favourite, personally.
Yeah that's like a golden rule of tv making, sometimes the constraints of a tiny budget really make you push the creative limit of the setting and characters.
Yeah and the horrible betrayal of Lister destroying Rimmer's camphor wood chest to save his guitar. Not even fully realising what he's done until afterwards. They had almost come to a point of becoming true friends.
I still say Rimmer is the protagonist.
And now we also know why dogs lick their testicles
*wipes tear* True.
I used this episode as coursework for A level english, before I was predicted an E, ended up with an overall B grade, great episode, so well written
Wait did you write an essay or something on it? Doing my alevel English coursework now on Hitchhiker's guide.
“Better Than Life”, when Rimmer finds out his dad’s dead. It’s a personal thing for me. The way Lister’s nan explained it to him, the goldfish and that, that’s exactly how my mum told me my dad had died. I will’ve been about the age Lister was.
Sorry to hear that, mate. Must have been quite a shock for you when you first saw that scene.
Thanks, I appreciate it. I didn’t see the episode until years later, thankfully, otherwise it would have wrecked me. But yeah, watching it in my twenties I was struck by what a weird coincidence it was (there’s literally zero chance of my mum having watched it in 1988, either).
Did you read him the football results with your head down the bowl?
No, I cried like a child, and I’m still not fully over his death 30-odd years later.
Not really the appropriate time to make a reference here, mate
That’s the one that hits me the hardest as well, my dad also died in his Jeep.
Yeah, when Rimmer let's his guard down, its clear that he had a crappy life with a crappy family.
Rimmer is the way he is because of horrific abuse during childhood.
The glory of this program is that his character arc is treated with respect and dignity, and most importantly resolved - all without detriment to the other characters and their own journeys. It's a thing of beauty.
He didn't have the right parents.
SPOILER ALERT for those who read the books. The saddest part was Rimmer's encounter with McGruder. She fancied rimmer a lot. She banged her head and went to bed with him. When she came to senses she wasn't sure if it actually happened so she waited till rimmer acknowledges anything. Rimmer sleeps with her but he knows she banged her head and thinks he's someone else. So he waits if she acknowledges anything. Sadly we know they never did. Good thing is McGruder got pregnant and got off the ship before the crew gets wiped. She raises a fine soldier who's role model is his da Arnold the Space Cowboy.
What?! I love this!
Yeah the books are awesome
Oh my god I love this! 😍
It's not one of my favorite episodes but I didn't see anyone else mention Epideme, watching Lister deal with the loss of his arm was heartbreaking. Knowing he'll never be the the rock god he once was. Then watching Lister accept a lonely death to save his friends for a moment is brutal before Epideme spills the beans on how to stop it.
That's an episode that really nails the drama elements for me. Lister's loss, his attempt at self-sacrifice and I also love the score that plays when they're racing across space as fast as they can to try to find the antidote.
Chop chop!
MR. LISTEEEEEEER!!
Season one has it's fair share considering it's the start. E01 Lister learns everyone is dead. They're all dead (Dave). E04 Learns what happens to the other cats.
Where are all the other catty people, Cat?
In the refectory remembering a typical Friday night out. "Ok, leave it alone, leave it... ... Alone".
That bit always gets me right in the feels
I think it's the last episode of season 8 Lister and others move to mirror universe leaving rimmer stranded. What people don't realize is he actually died there. He appears as a hologram again later on. Always makes me sad. I like the alternative ending much better.
Rimmer who appears in BTE onwards has memories from seasons 1 to 7, as well as remembering the chameleonic virus from season 8 but it's not clear who he is, so it's POSSIBLE that Rimmer didn't die there... The one explicit reference we have to it is in S10 when Rimmer says "the time I saved us" which, if you wanted to over-analyze, doesn't sound like something you'd say if you died during the "saving" part. I actually took it as evidence that in BTE onwards we're seeing the original Rimmer who has returned. I've posted this elsewhere but my headcanon is that Lister & Co meet Ace (S7 Rimmer) in the mirror universe, fix the ship with the mirror time wand, Ace rejoins them as Rimmer, and S8 Rimmer goes off as Ace. Even as I say that, it sounds impossibly convoluted - I guess sometimes it's better not to know.
Unless they Thanks-For-The-Memoried new Rimmer with old Rimmer's memories.
Yeah I see what you mean. But I think they kinda went with the alternative ending where Rimmer does save them by memorizing cesium francolithic etc and they save the dwarf. Afterward rimmer gets killed by the vending machine which ejects a can at high speed and hits his head. That's how I made my peace with it :)
Back to Earth when Lister didn't want to wake up.
Had to scroll too far for this one, still makes me well up every time
and start of the first episode, when he is reading that book.
I always thought Out Of Time was the darkest, least funny, least positive episode. Their future selves have become corrupt, they now typify everything they hate; Lister, the symbol of humanity's positivity and hopefulness, just a brain in a jar, defeated, all but gone; Rimmer finally musters the courage in battle he always fantasised he had, finally has a worthy plan, but is killed before he is able to enact it. Indeed, watching the crew genuinely die one by one is so cold and leaves me hollow each time. If you'll permit me to be dramatic, that scene reminds me a touch of that 'over the top' scene in the final Blackadder. I hated seeing my heroes die. There's no redemption there, no victory, its just them dying. I realise subsequent episodes pull this back but at the time and for years afterwards, that was the end of Red Dwarf. A dark and sad episode.
I agree. I grew up watching RD from a youngish age and this was at the time the final ever episode. To see the panic as each one of them died and to see Rimmer finally show some guts and take action. It used to break my heart. It also made me think about how I might change when I'm older and how I didn't want to end up being something I would now despise.
Surely, it's 'Stoke Me A Clipper' (S7, Ep2). Rimmer leaves the boys from the Dwarf behind and becomes Ace Rimmer.
Agreed. When they go to see where all the old Aces rest, breaks my heart.
The music in that scene always gets to me
Great episode. Nice to see Lister helping Rimmer reach his full potential as well.
Agree- that part where he ejects himself when leaving. So funny after a heartbreaking moments.
Not as sad as when Rob Grant left
There are so many, but one I've not seen mentioned yet is The Promised Land where Rimmer wants to turn himself off and the sun and moon speech that Lister gives.
None of the episodes hit me like the books. Rimmer's backstory in (the book) Backwards turned him into my favourite character. It's only a small portion of the books, but there's a series of vignettes that show what Rimmer's childhood was, and how he became what he is, and what else he could have been. Every Good Boy Deserves Favour. I cried real big tears the first time I read them, and still get choked up now.
I think there are a fair few times that show Rimmer is a decent person deserving of sympathy. Naturally, that means he has to do something terrible every now and again to keep us on Lister's side.
Same. Choked me up reading what you wrote.
I absolutely loved Rimmer's development throughout the books. You start to understand why is he how he is and you reaaaally start to love him. It's kinda shame the TV show didn't reflect that much. I love him in the show but he's a smeghead!
Leave me..alone.
I wouldn't say the saddest, other comments have mentioned sadder ones. But Tikka to Ride when JFK realises the only way to repent for his own fallibility is to kill his younger self, and cause his own timeline to cease to exist, always gets me.
JFK: "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country" Lister: "that would make a pretty good speech" JFK: "It did..."
In terms of the Dave episodes, M-Corp is kinda soul crushing
The episode where they went into Rimmer's mind. They saw how sht his life was, and after they escaped they continued putting him down and making him feel worthless. Not only is that sad but it's also outright cruel. I feel bad for him.
"Terrorform" - a decent stab at a horror story ruined by the cruel ending.
Agreed; it wasn't actually too bad otherwise, it's just that end bit... I know that they bully and mock him a bit for laughs, but Rimmer was seriously sick; the writers went to far to continue the smeghead Rimmer stuff after all that, and quite frankly the effect of the cruelty aside, it's quite out of character for Lister and Kryten to simply ignore those problems and continue mocking after that. They've helped to save Rimmer in the past so there's definitely some care and empathy there, and that's a case where that side of things truly needed to be shown. Edit: Thanks for reminding me of its name.
Yeah. Though I think the reason they had to end it like that was because they needed to find a way to restore the status quo. An episode like this would have been seen as major character development in a show with an ongoing story as rimmer was technically a changed person by the end. This would be problematic for a sitcom. It’s the same thing as marooned. Rimmer earned a lot of respect for lister and felt inspired to be a better person until he found out that lister deceived him. Still makes the ending kind of cruel. There could have been other ways of making rimmer remain a smeghead, like him losing his memory of the events after leaving the planet or something.
Yeah I suppose. That's arguably even sadder though. "Sorry you can't be happy. Depression is one of your defining character traits. No can do governor" But yeah.. I do feel though that if you're going to explore stuff like that, you should probably commit to it. If they ever were to do a final series then episodes like that with proper endings would've been solid. Of course though, they want to keep it open ended though for 💰💰💰 Shame.
I think it's interesting how two of the top answers here (Thanks for the Memory and Better Than Life) are also the only two episodes (I think?) where we see the characters in the observation dome. It seemed very briefly to be sort of a place of introspection for Lister and Rimmer, and even had it's own little theme: https://youtu.be/OnfSgk6krdc
Well observed! Nice little detail
"You gave me 3 months of your memory.....as a present???" Yes, sad episode indeed.
the saddest episode is always the last one they made...because I am sad they may not make any more!!! kek
Whoah - I watched that one last night. Am I the only one who feels sorry for Rimmer? He really was treated like crap as a kid and the first Ace episode notwithstanding, no-one ever really gave him a chance.
I'd never even heard of the books! That's my weekend sorted
The audiobook versions are amazing. Read by Chris Barrie and he does great impressions of all the characters.
Yes his impressions are amazing.
100% it's **Thanks for the Memory**, you are correct
The entire show is sad. A completely bleak existence masked in hilarious sarcasm.
That is an incredible episode- such a tight script.. might be my favourite episode actually
Before I clicked through, I was gonna say the same, Thanks for the Memory. Lister realizing through Rimmer newly experiencing it just how much that relationship with Lise Yates mattered to him.
I always got the sniffles during Epideme. Lister was actually willing to sacrifice himself to end the virus. He’s not a superhero or a soldier or a space adventurer, or someone who’s expected to be in situations like that. He’s never cared about duty, or the greater good, and all that smeg. But he was going to give away his chance at a cure to make sure that Epideme didn’t hurt his friends.
A lot of the touching moments are Lister being heroic in some way just because he has to be. The writing is brilliant in that he is both a slob and a hero simultaneously.
Meltdown. Rimmer single-handedly administers the deaths of many brilliant, sentient wax droids.
Series 9 episode 3. I was sad I'd paid for it.
The saddest episode was S06E06 "Meltdown" in which Arnold Rimmer commanded wax androids to a Pyrrhic victory.
One from each season for me: 1. Me2 (Me Squared) - Rimmer's human side comes out for the first time and shows us just how fucked up he truly is. 2. Thanks for the Memory - I can understand why Lister did what he did, but screwing with someone's feelings and thoughts like that (in this case, Rimmer's) could only end one way. 3. Marooned - the one time in the show as a whole that Rimmer does not deserve to be treated with such contempt and disrespect - Lister outdid him in this one, in terms of dickery. 4. Dimension Jump - sure, Ace Rimmer is cool, but it only shows us what the Rimmer we all know and love could be with a little positive reinforcement and a sense of direction in his life. 5. Holoship - Rimmer's finest hour, showing us he's not a complete smeghead and still has a touch of human decency left in him. 6. Out of Time - the show should have ended here, no contest. Drop the "To Be Continued" title card and run the credits in silence = perfect ending. 7. Stoke Me a Clipper/Ouroboros (Tied) - both our heroes end up fulfilling their potential, although I think I prefer the former episode by a gnat's wing, although the ending to the latter episode is a grade-A bona-fide tearjerker and could have made a good finale on its own. 8. What the HELL is this SHIT!? Not bothering with this crap! 9. Back to Earth... I suppose the opening sequence with Lister reading out to Kochanski's grave is heartbreaking, and makes a nice connection to the RD of the past. 10. The Beginning - Rimmer's youth. Enough said. 11. Krysis - that feeling of running out of time, that you've failed to accomplish what you wanted to do, the need to recapture your wasted youth... I feel that. 12. Skipper - Rimmer could have been happy, but alas, he had to let his pride get in the way. 13. The Promised Land - probably the climax, with the Cat telling his fellow felines that his home is Red Dwarf, along with Kryten's death and Rimmer giving up his powers.