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Edited by Damone ([email protected]).
Editor's editor and head writer-type person: El Skutto ([email protected]).
This version converted to hypertext format by Friday ([email protected])
It is available via the WWW at:
http://www.ftech.net/~cobweb/alt.tv.red-dwarf/ http://www.nucleus.com/~nagym/phpl.cgi?pages/Red_Dwarf/rdwarf.htmlIt is also available via FTP at:
ftp://cathouse.org/pub/cathouse/british.humorThere is also an e-mail distribution list for the PIP so that you can get new versions mailed to you as they come out. To sign up, mail [email protected] and request to be put on the list.
Version 0.5: Um, everything. It's the first version. Posted to group. (4/9/95 - 4/27/95)
Version 1.0: Quite a lot, really. Explanations for most of the inconsistencies from version 0.5, plus a couple of new additions. All new additions are marked with a: * (I may have missed a couple). Also, all book/series contradictions are gone. Not posted to group. (4/27/95 - 5/3/95)
Version 1.25: Everything got sloshed around again. This is more of a clean-up run than anything else. Grammatical errors and other nit-picky stuff were taken care of, as well as a couple of new additions. Posted to group. (5/3/95 - 5/5/95)
Version 1.5: More minor additions and corrections and the like. El Skutto yelled at me (I am a *beast* -- El Skutto). Things got fixed. Added a diagram. Posted to group. (5/5/95 - 5/12/95)
Version 2.0: More tidy-time. El Skutto fixed all the grammar stuff and small technical-type errors. A couple of new inconsistencies and explanations have also been added. Posted to group. (5/12/95 - 5/21/95)
Version 2.5: Whole lotta new inconsistencies and explanations have been added. The debut of the Universal Explanation. Posted to group. (5/21/95 - 5/31/95)
Version 3.0: Big format changes. More inconsistencies. People seem to have a lot more to say now that exams are over. New info on accessability through the World Wide Web and the e-mail distribution list. Posted to group. (5/31/95 - 6/14/95)
Version 3.5: Where oh where to begin. The Plot Inconsistencies have been separated from the Production Errors into two different sections. The later sections were all pushed back. Millions of new PIs and Production Errors (PEs) added. Some rather harsh content editing by yours truly. Posted to group. (6/14/95 - 7/7/95)
Version 3.7: This is a minor change at the moment. It is made to add a few new inconsistencies that have been submitted, but, more importantly, to update the availability of the PIP, listing the new places it can be found. (7/7/95 - 7/25/95)
The Plot Inconsistencies Project (PIP) is an attempt to compile, record, and resolve all of the various plot inconsistencies for the British television show, Red Dwarf. The writers, Grant Naylor, are famous for changing established facts when it suited their plots. Through fan efforts, we are attempting to go through all the available episodes and make this list of plot holes and problems, and then fix them ourselves. Any blatant contradiction, minor flub, disappearing plot lines, or any solutions to any of the above are welcomed. See section 4.0 on how to contribute.
Short Answer:
It was a post I made to the Red Dwarf Newsgroup about an idea I had, and it got out of hand. *Way* out of hand.
The main feature of PIs is that, with proper application of dubious logic, they can be explained away rather nicely within the confines of believability through suspension of disbelief. The inconsistency should actually require some sort of explanation, and events of obvious exaggeration and intended misdirection are not included.
Some Production Errors can also be PIs if there is an explanation for them that fits into the plot of the series. The door-opening panels that activate before they are touched are an example of this. They are listed in both sections. There is a full description of Production Errors (PEs) at the beginning of Section 3.0.
The PIs will be listed by series, by episode. Each inconsistency will be listed, and if a resolution exists for it, it will be included below it.
- It is said that there are 169 people on Red Dwarf, as opposed to the
at least 1,167 in Justice (4-3).
- These numbers might not take into account crew members who were
off-ship for whatever reasons.
- The 169 may only refer to the technicians.
- The larger number may include all personnel on the ship
(miners, etc), which would be counted when charging someone for their
deaths, but the smaller number may just refer to officers or enlisted
Space Corps personnel.
- Why can't Rimmer write Lister down in his report book? Surely Holly
can provide a hologrammatic one, as he provides many holo items for Rimmer
in later episodes.
- Rimmer, unaccustomed to being dead, may not have thought to
ask for one.
Future Echoes (1-2)
- Lister has a picture of his father, but he said he was abandoned in a
pub (The Last Day, 3-6) and never knew his biological parents.
- Lister's familial life is quite strange. This could either be a
picture of his step-father, or perhaps his real father left him a picture when
he abandoned him.
- When Cat is wheeling his suits in front of Lister by the stasis booth, it
says 'Level 159.' After witnessing Bexley's 'death' in the Drive Room,
the sign is 'Level 147.' It is also 'Level 147' in Me^2 (1-6).
- There is a continuity break between the Cat and Lister calling
to him from the Drive Room, so it is conceivable that the Cat wasn't at
the Drive Room yet, and the Drive Room and stasis booth are on different
levels.
- Holly tells Lister that his conversation total with Rimmer was over 14
million words. In Me^2 (1-6) Lister was on the ship for two years, which
would have averaged 13 Words Per Minute (WPM) between the two. According to
Waiting For God (1-4), Lister had only been on for eight months previous
to the accident, bumping this up to 40.5 WPM.
- Holly is going computer senile, so his numbers aren't what they
used to be.
- Lister goes from the sleeping quarters (Level 348) to the Drive Room (Level 147) via Level 132. Why?
- Why would Lister put his stuff into long-term storage now, seeing as
it had survived for three million years the way it was?
- There is no proof that his stuff *wasn't* in long term-storage
to begin with, and just removed by the skutters previous to his awakening.
- If the food dispenser's vocabulary unit isn't working, why can it hold a complex and intelligent conversation with Lister, actually above and beyond what its vocabulary unit should normally have to deal with?
- In the scene where Rimmer is talking to himself with Lister watching, Lister should be able to see himself as well in the future echo.
Balance Of Power (1-3)
- To get the results of his chef's exam, Lister says his ID number is
'16912146.' In Future Echoes (1-2) his number is 'RD52169.'
- The number may be his candidate number for the chef's exam.
- Rimmer says Kochanski is a 'Navigation Officer' and that is written on
her disk in Confidence And Paranoia (1-5). Yet her uniform reads 'Console
Officer.'
- Perhaps one is a subsidiary of the other.
- Why didn't Lister get Kochanski's holodisk from the skutters or Holly
when Rimmer was fooling with it? Why didn't Lister order it back from
Rimmer when he became his 'superior'?
- The whole decision to bring Rimmer back as opposed to Kochanski
or any of Lister's friends was made by Holly. Since it is unlikely
that he has changed his mind, Holly no doubt has taken precautions to
keep Lister from finding the disk. Since Holly runs the skutters, they
can't help, and he can probably countermand any order from Lister that he
believes is not in his best interests.
Waiting For God (1-4)
- In the illustration concerning the war between the Red Hats and the
Blue Hats, both sides are shown wearing Red Hats.
- This could have been in-fighting within the Red faction. The
vermilions versus the ambers. Kind of like Protestant groups.
- Maybe they were just bad illustrators, as the shades *are*
different, just not accurate.
- The illustrator may have been a Red Hat supporter and could not
bring himself to illustrate the other side.
- Why is the 'Cat Dictionary' labelled as such in English when the Cat
language is all smells?
- Lister labelled the book for his convenience.
- It has been shown that the Cat's ancestors could at least
translate English badly (the laundry list). They may have put writing on
their important works.
- The Cat and Lister had the 'Cloister-Lister' argument in The End
(1-1). How could Lister forget the fact that a race of people worshipped
him as a god?
- The subject was touched upon in The End (1-1) but not discussed
to that kind of resolution. Lister hasn't forgotten, but is trying to
convince the Cat he is their God (he now has the evidence from the Holy Book).
- Why does Rimmer's bedding move when he lies on it? Since he has no
weight, the bedding should not bend as if under weight. It is not
hologrammatic because most holo items have an 'H' in them, and Lister
interacts with the bedding later, and it behaves normally.
- Perhaps when Rimmer is within the ship, Holly can project
hologrammatic illusions onto normal objects so it seems that they react
like they would if Rimmer were solid.
Confidence And Paranoia (1-5)
- Confidence's head explodes in the vacuum of outer space when he removes
his helmet. Is this physically likely?
- It depends on Confidence's physical make-up, which is unknown
(though implied human). Massive explosions result from great differences
in pressure, so as Confidence was pressurized, he probably should explode.
- Rimmer says he was part of the Love Celibacy Society because he believed
in its ideals, yet there is the obvious contradiction of his dalliance
with McGruder.
- Rimmer always tries to keep up proper appearances but he's really
a snivelly smeg underneath it all.
- Why would Rimmer want to drug Paranoia? Wouldn't he love to hear all
the embarrassing information about Lister to use against him at a later date?
- Perhaps Rimmer in his own paranoia thought Paranoia would go on
to talk about him as well.
- How could a hologram stored on a disk know what was said before it was
booted up?
- There may be a continuous feed going into the hologram simulation
equipment so that when holograms are booted up they are up to date with
relevant information.
Me^2 (1-6)
- The placement of the ashes in The End (1-1) conflicts with Rimmer's
recollections in this episode.
- The skutters moved everything around during the millenia.
- Rimmer says that Lister hummed for the two years that they bunked
together, yet in Waiting For God (1-4) Lister says he has only been with the
company for eight months.
- Maybe it only *seemed* like two years to Rimmer. Also, since he
knew that Lister would never see it, he may have been exaggerating to
increase his heroic suffering.
- The Rimmers have not moved their certificates into their new room, yet
these are probably what the egomaniacs *should* have moved, and the *last*
things that they would forget.
- Perhaps they left them to annoy Lister.
- The 'Welcome To The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Death' door opens
before Lister touches the panel.
- The panel might be light-sensitive so that holograms could use
it, so Lister would not have to touch the panel.
- Lister goes off about the clippings in the Rimmers' new quarters, but they were up in the old room anyway, so this is old news.
- The cinema seats were all of the fold-down variety. How did both
Rimmers (who are holograms with no weight) sit normally in these seats?
- Once again, while on the ship, Holly might create hologrammatic
illusions to produce a view of what it would be like if the holograms had
tangible bodies.
- The original Rimmer makes shadow puppets on the screen. How can a
projected light image make a shadow on another projected light image?
- In the case of a hologram the light projection is so sophisticated
that it gives the impression of a real figure. The hologram light appears
to have a 'solid' consistency that other, normal light cannot pass through
(otherwise we would see through Rimmer). This property of hologram light
apparently allows it the ability to cast shadows.
- Rimmer said he would have been an admiral if it wasn't for GSD, but
GSD was only six weeks before the disaster. How could Rimmer go from a
second technician to an admiral in six weeks?
- Rimmer is as Rimmer does. It was a deeply traumatic event in his
life, and, as Ace later relates (Dimension Jump, 4-5), Rimmer thinks that a
major setback is a complete setback, and that he could have done anything if
he had only gotten a 'break.'
- People who speak Esperanto are referred to as 'Esperantinos.' They are
really Esperantists.
- Rimmer is an idiot.
- It is said that this is the first contact with intelligent life in three
million and two years. What about the Cat race?
- Considering it is Rimmer saying it, it is not surprising given
his extremely low opinion of the Cat race.
- Lister says 'You're beginning to sound like my mum.' However, Lister claims
to have been abandoned at six weeks old and that he 'never had a mum' (The
Last Day, 3-6).
- Probably referring to his step-mother.
- How can Rimmer's eyes tear about Lister's boots if he is a hologram and
cannot smell?
- Rimmer's sensors can pick up smells and then translate them
into the appropriate responses.
- After three million years, the skeletons should be dust, not still
skeletons.
- Kryten may have put the corpses into stasis and taken them out
a while ago. Perhaps Kryten's meticulous care also preserved the skeletons.
- Kryten disobeys and insults Rimmer before his programming is broken by
Lister in Camille (4-1).
- This may have been a temporary lapse or partial break in his
programming, that, while he probably felt very, very guilty about it
afterwards, would soften up his defences for their formal breakdown in
Camille (4-1).
Better Than Life (2-2)
- How did the mail ship *ever* track and catch up to the Red Dwarf?
- It is possible that it tracked the postal-pod homing beacon all
the way, but it can't have expected so long a journey. The fuel
consumption must be really low and it could work on maneuvering
thrusters. It also had less distance to cover once the RD turned around.
- Lister says 'I remember when my dad died.' No he doesn't. He was
abandoned as an infant.
- He's probably referring to his step-father.
- Rimmer appears to be putting on a normal helmet like the others, yet he
shouldn't be able to touch it and if it was put on his head, it would
fall right through him.
- It is probably a hologram projected by Holly. Holly does such
things, for example, in Thanks For The Memory (2-3) and Parallel Universe
(2-6).
- Cat says that he always licks someone when they give him food, yet he
never did it before, and will never do it again.
- Let's look at the previous times the Cat has been fed. In The
End (1-1) Lister puts Crispies on the floor for Cat, and Cat is repulsed
by it, so it is not likely he would lick Lister over it. In Polymorph
(3-3) the Cat is again repulsed during the dissection dinner. Again, not
a likely lick situation. The only other time is in Legion (6-2) and by
this time Cat may have broken himself of the habit due to Lister's
chastisement now, or just the passage of time with people who do not do it.
- In this episode, Rimmer gets news that his father dies, but in Future
Echoes (1-2) there is 'that unfortunate suicide business.'
- It is never actually stated that Rimmer's father killed himself.
- It may have been an attempted suicide.
- Why did Rimmer have the 'H' on his forehead when he was grabbed and hit
by the hammer? If he was tangible, he would not have the 'H' on his
forehead. If he was intangible and justifiably had the 'H' on his
forehead, he should not have been able to have been grabbed and hit.
- Rimmer's 'H' reappeared before he 'left' the game, presumably to
signal a return to truth and bad times. The incident of the shipboard game
was one last stab at Rimmer by his own subconscious. In order to make the
incident most cruel, Rimmer's 'H' must be present to support the illusion
that it is reality, and something good is happening to him. The realisation
comes that he is still playing the game, where he *is* a tangible form (and
can thus be hit), and after this the presence or absence of the 'H' is
no longer relevant.
- By this episode, the ship has turned around. Yet, in Future Echoes
(1-2), it is said that it will take 4000 years for the RD to turn around.
- The ship had approximately two years to slow down, and then went
into orbit around a celestial body (Kryten, 2-1). Using this method apparently
allowed the ship to turn around faster than it would have in the other case.
Thanks For The Memory (2-3)
- The Projection Cage is used for Rimmer, even though it is established
in later episodes that he has the Light Bee, and therefore doesn't need
the cage.
- The LB might have arrived on the mail ship from Better Than Life
(2-2), and was not found until they sorted through all the extraneous mail.
- Perhaps this was before they had explored the entire ship and
found the science section with the LB.
- Maybe the Light Bee sometimes does not work properly in non-S3
planetary environments. However, this might be contradicted by the crew
deciding to send Kryten and Rimmer to see if the atmosphere is toxic in
Meltdown (4-6).
- 'Mr. Fat Bastard 2044': Is 2044 just a number, or a reference to a
year? The year would conflict with times established in Stasis Leak (3-4).
- Maybe it is the number of times Hollister scooped the title.
- He may also be the 2044th Mr. Fat Bastard.
- It could be a made-up year when Hollister supposedly first won the title.
- Lise Yates says 'I love you, Rimmer' when she should have called him
'Arnold.'
- Since it was Lister's script, it is what Lister would call him.
- When you get right down to it, Rimmer has mostly been called
Rimmer, even by family. The letter from his mother in Better Than Life
(2-2) begins 'Dear Rimmer.' Only on specific occasions has he been
referred to as Arnold.
- When Lister and Rimmer are discussing Lise Yates, Rimmer's attire goes
from scruffy (shirt and tie undone) to all correct (everything buttoned
and tied).
- Holly probably snapped up Rimmer's appearance, in keeping with
how fastidious Rimmer usually is.
- Lister protests at being told hold many times Rimmer has had sex, yet
the likely figure had been implied previously (Me^2, 1-6).
- Lister probably dreaded hearing the awful, detailed 'truth'
truth from Rimmer.
- Lister, while in the sleeping quarters (Level 348), says, 'I went down to
the Hologram Simulation Suite.' To be correct he should say 'went
up' as the Suite is on Level 592.
- Lister is Lister. Knowing which way is 'up' is not a requirement.
- *However*, Lister *should* be right, as every single ship in
history has been numbered top-down instead of bottom-up. This does not
seem to be the case, however, as the Xpress Lifts on the ship confirm a
bottom-up numbering (Stasis Leak, 2-4).
Stasis Leak (2-4)
- Wednesday, 2nd March, 2077: This date conflicts with later 23rd century references. It is also stated as three weeks before the crew dies, and thereby conflicts with Rimmer's diary entry from Me^2 (1-6).
- March 2, 2077 will be a Tuesday.
- The calendar as we know it today may be rearranged in order to
accommodate a space-faring society. This is supported by the use of the
new month 'Geldof' by the newscaster in Better Than Life (2-2).
- Rimmer and Lister are in the Captain's office three weeks before the events
of The End (1-1). Yet then Lister doesn't know where the office is.
- Perhaps he is pretending so he can flirt with Kochanski.
- Rimmer laments that 'Everyone always leaves me in the end: girls,
parents...' Rimmer divorced his parents, so he left them. What girls is he
talking about?
- Rimmer probably thought that his parents deserted him first.
- Well, he did have *some* women: McGruder (Confidence And Paranoia,
1-5) and Lorraine (Parallel Universe, 2-6) for example.
- The crew routinely wander between levels 100-something (The End, 1-1: Level 159) and 500-something (Queeg, 2-5: Level 592). Yet they have to travel down 2567 levels in the Xpress Lift to get to Level 16 in this episode. What in the hell were they doing on Level 2583?
- As a corollary to the above, if the RD was three miles in diameter, with
2583 levels at least, they would be 6.1 ft (1.87 m) each.
- If the floors are staggered in front and back (see below),
this would not be the case and also explain some short staircases seen in
certain episodes.
Diagram 1
------
-------
------
-------
------
- The photo at the end of the episode is different from the photo in the
beginning.
- The crew do not go to the parallel universe in three years' time, nor do
they go back in time so that Lister can marry Kochanski five years from then.
- The passage of 'real' time and 'awake' time is really
subjective here, so it still may be accurate.
- Rimmer hides in a table. How is that possible with the solid Light Bee
in conjunction with the fact that Holly couldn't be projecting him?
- This lends credence to the theory of sometime-use of the
really small LB.
- Present-Holly might have warned past-Holly that a hologram was
slipping through time. Past-Holly, not having a hologram to support yet
(McIntyre wasn't dead), took over projection of Rimmer.
- The soap ages three million years going forward in time, but the crew does
not age negative three million years going back, or three million years
when they come back. If it doesn't work on organics, what about their clothes?
- Nothing 'ages.' Apparently, something can enter a past environment
(eg. the crew back to 2077), but something cannot enter a future environment
that it did not originate in (eg. the soap). Trying to shift something
against this time-grain causes its disintegration. Thus the crew and their
accompanying inorganics are safe because they move to a past environment and
then *back to their own* future one.
- If Rimmer mentioned the head popping out of a table in his diary, why
did he not also mention the two other Listers or the other Rimmer?
- He may simply have stopped writing about his 'hallucinations,'
especially if he thought these details were just too crazy and he wanted
to forget them.
- Maybe he did write about the other Listers and Rimmer, but Lister
never read that far.
Queeg (2-5)
- Lister claims that the tape of 'Robert Hardy' that they are listening
to got twisted, but they are listening to a CD.
- Maybe it is some futuristic tape/CD combo.
- Rimmer is thrown back by the force of the explosion. Why would this
happen to an intangible hologram? Also, he falls onto, not through, the
table.
- The Light Bee might have gotten jolted by the explosion, though
the effect should have been different. The LB may be able to sense the
explosion and make an appropriate simulation. There *is* a pause before
Rimmer gets thrown. The LB might also try and project an image consistent
with physical reality, so Rimmer ends up slumped on top of the table instead
of falling through it.
- Rimmer's legs walk off without him. How?
- The LB could have malfunctioned. The positive Z coordinates
might be alright, but the Xs and Ys of the negative Zs got messed.
- If Holly was projecting Rimmer then he could go off in two
directions at once.
- Rimmer turned into Cat, but Cat was not in the original crew, so he
wouldn't be stored on disk.
- Rimmer might have been able to do it from his memories of the Cat.
- Queeg says that they've been going in circles for 14 months, when there
are other things outside of his word that indicate otherwise. How come
no-one picks up on this?
- Since Queeg is Holly's joke, he doesn't have to tell the truth.
Parallel Universe (2-6)
- Why didn't Hilly and company hop at the same time Holly and company did?
- Perhaps the universes are not mirror equivalents.
- How could Lister still be pregnant in his own universe when it is
physically impossible there?
- As the amazing pseudo-science of the movie 'Junior' showed, it
is technically possible for a man to be pregnant. With Holly's help, I
suppose it is feasible.
- Cat spells 'B-A-T-H' but never learned to spell.
- He might have learned some of his favorite words in English so
he knew where to find his grooming goods on the ship.
- The Cat's forefathers must have known how to spell because in
Waiting For God (1-4) it was said they had translated the laundry list.
Their comprehension, on the other hand...
- 'If we don't go now, we won't be able to get back at all.' How did
they get Lister's kids back then?
- Perhaps on the way back, Holly figured out the way back with
the Holly-Hop.
- The pregnancy-test packet shows that a dark pink color signifies a
negative result, while a positive result is indicated by either of two shades
of very pale pink. Yet just a minute later, the crew state that blue is for
not pregnant and red is for pregnant.
- This is our favorite crew we are talking about. Just screwing
up the colors only is a great achievement.
However, I find it to be a lame cop-out. It is presented here for completeness, and because some inconsistencies defy all explanations but this. Whenever there is a discrepancy between facts before and after Backwards (3-1), you can rest assured that there is at least one reason for it all.
- How could Lister completely rebuild Kryten when he can't even do some
basic tampering with him in The Last Day (3-6)?
- Kryten's auto-repair unit as shown in Psirens (6-1) may have helped,
but it does not explain the new appearance.
- When Kryten accidentally ejects Rimmer during his flight test, the
ejector seat should have just flown through Rimmer, leaving him sitting above
open space in SB.
- If Rimmer was under LB power, it would have been physically
thrown out with the ejector seat, and would have projected images to reflect
this. If Rimmer was under Holly's power, she probably simulated what would
have happened, just to annoy him.
- During Kryten's test in Starbug, it is said that when travelling
at half the speed of light it takes four years and three months to stop.
This seems excessive seeing as how Red Dwarf took under two years to
decelerate from light-speed (Future Echoes, 1-2) to slow enough to enter
orbit around a planet (Kryten, 2-1).
- Maybe the stopping times/distances are different for SB and RD.
The two ships are vastly different in everything -- size, sophistication,
purpose, etc. Seeing as how the test is being taken in SB it is reasonable
to assume that the capabilities being discussed are specific for SB, which
may operate under an inferior, slower acceleration/deceleration system than
RD. Even taking into account its greater speed, the RD may still be able to
accelerate/decelerate in less time than SB due to RD's much more efficient
and technologically-advanced machinery and capabilities.
- If Holly can be on all vehicles and machinery from RD any time she
wants to, as seen in other episodes, why can't she tell the others
where Kryten and Rimmer went?
- Over long distances and time dilations, Holly has to splinter
to do all her jobs, so one part is not necessarily up to date with the
other parts.
- Holly may have lost them after they went into the whirly thing
and then computer senility prevented her from finding them again.
- Holly's consciousness can only be in one place at one time due
to her senility and she thought it better to stay with the rescuers in case
Kryten and Rimmer got hopelessly lost and she couldn't find her way back.
- How does Rimmer change into the Reverse Brothers outfit?
- The LB can make changes in Rimmer's appearance without Holly's
assistance.
- Why would Rimmer, a hologram, be scared of a fist-fight?
- He could fear damage to his LB.
- This could just be Rimmer's natural cowardice taking effect.
- When Lister gets off SB and feels his physical injury before it
happens, he should also be wet and drying off, as he later goes into the
lake. He is dry when he comes out *after* the event, so, in keeping with the
timeframe, he should be wet *beforehand*.
- In keeping with backwards reality, Lister after stepping off SB
would actually be 'dry and wetting on,' as the water from the air condensed
onto his body. He would then progressively get wetter up to his entering of
the lake. There is no indication of the time taken from finding SB 1's
signal to Lister entering the lake, so this could be sufficient time for
his backwards wetting to occur.
- The backwards force may be *trying* to operate perfectly on the
crew, but does not always succeed due to them being alien to the reality.
- The words are backwards in this universe, but not all of the individual letters and numbers, as would be logical.
- Lister says he is 25, yet in Future Echoes (1-2), about two years earlier
than this, he also says he is 25.
- Lister's age is *extremely* subjective. He has physically
existed for over three million years. His 'actual' age has been affected by
such things as the stasis booth, reverse time, etc etc, so it is entirely
possible that he still *is* 25 two years after first stating this.
- When undertaking long trips unpreparedly, and with few frames
of reference, keeping and comprehending an accurate representation of
the passage of time is extremely difficult.
Marooned (3-2)
- Starbug 1 seems to have been recovered and repaired since Backwards (3-1).
- The 1 could have been added by the crew to another ship. Maybe
there is a Space Corps regulation that says there has to be a Starbug 1.
Then Rimmer would have insisted upon it.
- The 1 may be a model number, but it has been said before
(Backwards, 3-1) that the controls on both ships are exactly the same.
- Rimmer, a hologram, is pressing the com button while doing the 'Mayday'
message.
- It may be a light-sensitive panel to accommodate holograms.
- How can Rimmer smell when he's a hologram?
- The LB is able to analyse the air.
- Rimmer talks about his first sexual experience in a car, but in
Thanks For The Memory (2-3) he drunkenly admits he has only had sex once,
with the ship's female boxing champion, Yvonne McGruder.
- The book versions do deal with this, but we can deduce some
things without them. First, given Rimmer's character, he would never
admit to something that embarrassing unless he was drunk. Either he was
admitting the horrible truth under the effects of alcohol previously and
is lying here to cover it up (since obviously neither Rimmer nor Lister
seems to remember the incident), *or* he was lying while drunk to get
sympathy and he is telling the truth here. Either way fits in with his
character.
- When Lister puts the snapped 'guitar' into the barrel of burning books,
the split end of the guitar's neck is visible. Yet in the next shot it is
the other end of the guitar neck that is visible.
- There is a continuity break between the two shots and a small
passage of time is implied. Even though the guitar neck should be burning
and Lister *probably* would not be fiddling with the wood, it is not possible
to say for sure that he didn't in fact move it.
- Initially the shot of the fire in the barrel shows the 'guitar' neck
protruding above the barrel rim, yet in all following shots the neck is below
the rim.
- The wood shifts further down in the barrel as it burns.
- When Rimmer looks at the guitar-shaped hole in his camphorwood trunk, a
'free area' is clearly apparent around the trunk. Yet a split second
beforehand (when Kryten lifts the lid), the trunk is seen to be flush against
the wall, where Lister put it to hide the hole he had made.
- Kryten's action of lifting the lid does in fact create a small
gap (probably no more than an inch) between the trunk and the wall. As the
'free area' is indicated only by the fact that light is shown to be falling
on the hole-side of the trunk, a gap of this size could be enough to
let light through between the trunk and the wall.
Polymorph (3-3)
- The polymorph touches Rimmer even though he is a hologram.
- The polymorph can transform into anything, and could have
transformed into another hologram to touch him.
- The polymorph could have latched on to Rimmer's LB,
although if it did, and stopped it from moving, Rimmer wouldn't be
projected correctly.
Bodyswap (3-4)
- Lister mentions using the White Midget shuttle, but it is obviously the
Blue Midget that they use.
- Lister made the mistake in his eagerness to get going, or he may
have changed his mind.
Timeslides (3-5)
- Lister's locks, cut off by the swapping Rimmer in Bodyswap (3-4), have
grown back.
- Lister may have sewn his locks back on.
- The photos of Kryten's party are obviously aboard the Nova 5, *before* Lister completely rebuilt him, so it should be the OLD Kryten we see.
- In the picture of Frank's wedding, he is a lot less than the 6'5" that
Rimmer said he was in Better Than Life (2-2). From White Hole (4-4) we
know Kryten is about 6", which makes Lister about 5'6" - 5'9". Frank is
not taller than Lister by enough to sustain the 6'5" claim.
- Rimmer's envy and adulation of his brother caused him to
exaggerate his height.
- In entering the photo, Lister becomes reversed.
- Kryten put the slide in backwards.
- How could a young Lister not recognise Rimmer as a hologram, since the
technology *must* have existed when he was that age?
- Lister is Lister. The technology may have only existed for the
Space Corps, *but*, in Better Than Life (2-2) a hologram is shown doing a
news report.
- Lister, as Tension Sheet inventor/millionaire, does not remember
Rimmer even though he met him in the pub when he was 17.
- Given the state and attitude of the young Lister, this isn't
surprising, though Rimmer did like 'Om,' so you'd think even Lister would
remember him.
- How can hologram Rimmer, controlled by the ship's computer, travel back
in time with no connection to Holly?
- The LB is able to operate independently of Holly.
- When the crew enters a photograph and becomes part of its reality,
they should be able to see the photographer who took the picture. Yet,
except for the wedding, not only does the photographer not seem to be
around, but any photographer at all seems unlikely.
- Even though they become part of the photograph, the crew are still
operating under slightly different rules than are the original photograph
contents (eg. left/right movement outside of the photograph confines). Thus,
while the photograph originals *may* be able to see a photographer, it does
not necessarily follow that the crew can.
- The existence of the photographs at all shows that each had a
photographer. People just take photographs of strange things.
- After Lister goes back to become the Tension Sheet inventor, why do
Holly and Rimmer even remember Lister and the Cat? Since history was
changed, they should not remember either of them, as, in the changed
reality, they never met them. Also, the mutated developing fluid would
be gone as well, as the conditions that created it would never have happened.
- People outside of the photographs may be in a 'neutral' reality
where events can change around them, yet they remember what the previous,
unaltered reality was like.
- The newsclip that Holly uses to send Rimmer back to Tension Sheet
Lister's mansion only shows the front of the mansion, yet Rimmer shows up
in the dining room, which is outside of the photograph.
- The dining room is contained within the house, which *is* within
the photograph. The photographs have been made three-dimensional (else the
crew would not be able to enter them); presumably this effect allows entry
to any house within a photograph. Also, the point at which a crew member
appears in the photograph reality may not be strictly precise.
- Why don't the crew use the technology to get back to Earth? They could
presumably get an orbital photograph of the planet, and thereby have free
reign of the planet.
- They probably ran out of the mutated developing fluid before
they thought up this plan.
- Once inside a photograph, the crew proportionally alter to match
the environment. However, the photograph must be initially made big enough
(eg. as a slide projection) for them to enter in the first place. Perhaps
they could not find a way to *clearly* enlarge an orbital photograph of
Earth such that SB could enter (once proportional adjustment was made, SB
would be needed to travel from the entry point into the photograph, ie.
somewhere in space, down to the Earth's surface). However, if they got
the idea, and clarity was retained, they could go into a shuttle bay and
project the image from the far wall, thus making it large enough for the
SB to enter.
The Last Day (3-6)
- How did Kryten's company find him when they could not have known he was
on the Red Dwarf as opposed to the Nova 5?
- The replacement ship tracked him down from the wreck (Kryten may
have a built-in homing beacon for his replacement to follow).
- How could Kryten put 'all his original parts' back into the packaging
when the introduction to Series 3 says that Lister completely rebuilt him?
- The statement made by Jim Reaper is actually 'Your droid should
use this period to tie up his affairs, dismantle his body and pack himself
neatly away in his original supply case.' Thus it is the *case* which is
the original, not the parts. Also, there would be no sense in returning
'original parts,' as these may have been replaced during routine maintenance
anyway.
- Kryten is not *grossly* different from Series 2 (Kryten, 2-1), so
it is a fair assumption that even his rebuilt parts would fit in his original
case.
- If Lister completely rebuilt Kryten at the beginning of the series, he
at least should be able to do something simple like disable the shutdown
switch.
- The shutdown switch might have defence-mechanisms to prevent
this from happening.
- Lister probably rebuilt Kryten with help from the Owner's Manual
and the self-repair unit (Psirens, 6-1). It is unlikely that either of
these sources would supply information about how to disable a feature
designed to allow the company to charge the owner for an upgrade at
a later date.
- Kryten lies to Hudzen 10 *before* his truth routine is broken in Camille
(4-1).
- Mechanoids may be able to lie to other mechanoids.
- Lister said he'd been sick off the Eiffel Tower and the result landed
in Montmartre, five miles away. The distance is no more than three miles.
- Considering he had been drinking previous to this incident
(thus precipitating it), it is no wonder he got the exact distance wrong,
and should be applauded for his close approximation, given his state
of mind.
- How can Kryten have his replacement heads since he was completely
rebuilt at the beginning of Series 3?
- Lister, not 'a qualified service agent' screwed it up and had
parts left over. It could explain the accent of head 3.
- Lister says he is 'an enlightened 23rd century guy' yet going by the 2077 of Stasis Leak (2-4) he'd be 'an enlightened 21st century guy.'
- Kryten says all human cells have DNA. Not true. Mature red blood cells in
adult humans are hemoglobin-filled disk-shaped bags lacking their DNA
organelles.
- This may have changed. Since Lister is the only one left, one of the
adventures might have caused a mutation to make this true, so when Kryten
says that *all* humans have it, he is technically right.
- Kryten is a service mechanoid. He makes mistakes.
- How does the DNA machine cope with all the inorganics it manages to
transform (Kryten's body, clothes, etc)?
- Perhaps the transmogrifier has an auxiliary reserve component to
deal with the companion inorganic parts of the organic substances it
transforms.
- Kryten says this is his first meal, yet he has eaten in The Last Day
(3-6) and Backwards (3-1).
- Well, his first meal as a human, maybe.
- Lister talks about after his break-up with Kochanski. In Confidence And Paranoia (1-5) it is shown that they never went out.
- Kryten says his right nipple-nut regulates temperature. In Polymorph
(3-3) it is shown that mechanoids don't give off any heat.
- It may be a cooling system, and that is why they do not give
off any heat.
- Spare head 3 says that he is 30,000 years old. That would place his
creation in about the year 2,972,000, long after the extinction of the
human race. Kryten has also implied that he himself is only thousands (as
opposed to millions) of years old, when in The Last Day (3-6) he commented
on how long Hudzen 10 had been tracking him.
- Head 3 has droid rot.
- He may not be counting the time he was turned off.
- The human race may still have been extant 30,000 years ago (although
further evolution should probably have taken place). It is only assumed
that the human race is extinct, even though the evidence for this is
only indirect (three million years is long enough for several species
to rise and fall, using the Earth's history for examples).
- Kryten may be only about 30,000 years old (to match the age of
spare head 3); however, it *is* possible that he is indeed about three
million years old, and that the Nova 5 had a transport system to
allow it to get three million years into deep space in a much shorter time.
- The spare heads should look like the old Kryten.
- Lister may have fiddled with them, or the self-repair unit may
have had a hand in this.
Justice (4-3)
- Lister says the Cat has never met a real woman. Yet in Stasis Leak
(2-4) Cat meets Kochanski and her roommate.
- Maybe he means a real *Cat* woman.
- Depending on your definition of 'meet,' Cat never did meet
them. He certainly never talked to them, and the Lord only knows what the
promiscuous buggers consider 'meeting' to entail.
- Rimmer is charged with 1,167 counts of murder. This contradicts the
figure of 169 crewmembers in The End (1-1). Also, why is he only sentenced
for 1,166 counts?
- Rimmer's mind could have inflated the figures, along with his
culpability.
- Perhaps the law at this time counts killing oneself through
negligence as murder. However, Rimmer being dead may constitute punishment
for his own death, therefore he only needs to be sentenced for the remaining
1,166 deaths he caused.
- When the Justice Computer says that Rimmer caused the deaths of the
entire crew of Red Dwarf it is incorrect, as Lister wasn't killed, he was
in stasis (and the Justice Computer should have picked this up from probing
Rimmer's mind).
- The Justice Computer may have been making a general speech, based
on possibly picking up from Rimmer's guilt-feelings something like: 'I
killed them all.'
- Kryten says that Rimmer failed his astronavigation exam 13 times. This
contradicts *everything* ever said on the subject before this. In The End
(1-1) Rimmer is taking an engineering exam. In Waiting For God
(1-4) it is said he failed his engineering exam 11 times. In Future
Echoes (1-2) it is said he took his astronavigation exam nine (ten) times.
- Given Rimmer's bizarre test record (as well as activity during
tests), it is not surprising that these numbers are messed up. There are
probably contradictions in what actually counted as Rimmer attempting a
test, or showing up, and all that.
- What is the purpose of sentencing a hologram to a prison term? He's dead already and would surely 'live' forever anyway, so why not just turn him off? Also, why not just alter the programming of his personality disk to prevent the crime from happening again?
- When talking about Rimmer's 'friends,' Lister said Rimmer had 'Only
one, but she's got a puncture.' However, in Timeslides (3-5), we hear
about Rachel and the puncture repair kit, and in Queeg (2-5), we hear about
Inflatable Ingrid.
- Perhaps Ingrid or Rachel got too badly 'damaged' to be
repaired, leaving Rimmer with just one friend.
White Hole (4-4)
- The Talkie Toaster is completely different from its previous
appearances in Future Echoes (1-2) and Waiting For God (1-4).
- The Toaster has been completely rebuilt, which could alter its
appearance and voice.
- The figure '345' is displayed on Holly's monitor when she is calculating
her remaining run-time, yet when Talkie Toaster quotes this later he
says '3.41 years.' Holly then reiterates this number as minutes.
- Talkie Toaster first says the figure of 345 years ('...better than
a kick in the bread tray'). Holly then says, 'Where's the decimal point?'
Presumably Talkie Toaster then looks back at the monitor to see where the
decimal point is, before quoting 3.41 years. Then, before he can query why
the '5' has now become a '1,' Holly replies that it is not years but minutes.
- Two minutes of Holly's run-time is stated to have been used up, in less
than one and a half minutes of real time.
- Holly is very angry and being very sarcastic here, and is possibly
exaggerating her crisis (she contradicts herself twice) to make her point to
Rimmer (who is being incredibly stupid).
Dimension Jump (4-5)
- Why is the Cat wearing the fish-shaped earring that he gave to Kryten as
a present (The Last Day, 3-6) when he supposedly hates / can't stand it?
- It is *not* the same earring. The earring here is much shorter and
more planar than the one from The Last Day (3-6), and presumably does not
offend the Cat's aesthetic sensibilities the way the one he gave to Kryten
obviously did.
- How can Ace expect Rimmer to fix the engine when Rimmer can't touch
anything? Ditto re-routing Kryten.
- Perhaps hard-light bodies (seen in Legion, 6-2) are common
in Ace's dimension, and so he assumed Rimmer would be able to perform the
tasks. If hard-light bodies have long superseded soft-light, then Lister's
comment of 'He can't touch anything' may have initially gone unnoticed by
Ace as it wouldn't have meant anything to him.
- Kryten is identified as a Series 4000 mechanoid, when in The Last Day
(3-6) he is called a Series III.
- Perhaps his reconstruction by Lister caused him to make this
mistake. It is possible as well that Kryten's self-repair unit which
may have helped Lister was directed to upgrade the unit in case of
massive damage.
- The 'Series III' and 'Series 4000' could be referring to two
different aspects of the same model, like body type or memory capacity,
for example.
- Kryten is not supposed to be waterproof, but he has gotten wet in Meltdown
(4-6) and Backwards (3-1).
- This may be a result of his rebuilding by Lister.
- The Cat can read English in this episode, yet the Cat language was all in
smells with no words.
- It is conceivable that somewhere down the line the Cat learned
to read English, if only to search the fashion magazines to find a way to
do the impossible and make himself more attractive.
- We can once again point to the fact that the Cat's ancestors
at one time did know how to read English (Waiting For God, 1-4), so he
may have learned it previously.
Meltdown (4-6)
- In some of the outdoor scenes, you can see Rimmer's breath. Holograms
don't breathe.
- If the program is sophisticated enough to reproduce a human
being, it is sophisticated enough to simulate breath condensation in the
air.
- Where does the teleportation paddle go to after the episode and why don't
they use it to get back to Earth?
- There are several reasons: the RD can't be teleported,
the paddle can't be used more than 500,000 lys from the RD, and they
are more than 500,000 lys from Earth.
- The teleportation paddle became the triplicator in Demons And
Angels (5-5).
- How can Rimmer ride the motorbike around, when as a hologram he can't
touch anything?
- The motorbike is also a hologram, projected by Holly (see Better
Than Life, 2-2).
- The motorbike is real, but controlled by Holly (her consciousness
is projected on the bike's headlight), not by Rimmer. Rimmer is projected as
if he were riding the motorbike. When Rimmer wants the motorbike to
actually move, he tells Holly: 'Let's go Holly,' and Holly replies: 'Okay
Matey.' *Then* the motorbike moves off.
- Commander Binks from the holoship says Lister's chronological age is
mid-20s. In Future Echoes (1-2) he is said to be 25. Given at least four or
five years have passed since then, he would not be in his mid-20s.
- Time passage and actual versus apparent age is mighty screwed
up where Lister is concerned.
- When interviewing new crew members after Rimmer is thought to be gone,
why didn't they bring back Kochanski?
- Rimmer might still have Kochanski's disk hidden.
- Commander Binks refers to Cat as Felis sapiens, yet in The Last Day
(3-6) Hudzen refers to Cat as Felix sapiens.
- Hudzen was insane.
- Rimmer operated on the holoship freely without one of the other crew
members needing to be deleted. Why couldn't he just join their crew with
no ill effects?
- The holoship might have had the temporary ability to hold
more than its requisite holograms (as the RD does), or Rimmer may have
been operating under the power of his LB.
The Inquisitor (5-2)
- Thomas Allman has no idea about his demise and its justification. Therefore, the Inquisitor apparently did not give him trial-by-himself, which is supposedly standard practice.
- When Kryten went back in time to save himself and Lister, he should have
known to say 'Enigma' and not 'Enig' since he was just talking to Lister
about it.
- If Kryten said 'Enigma' Lister and Kryten would never have
figured it out for themselves at the start of the time loop.
- Lister collects the hand of the alternate timeline Lister, for
the purpose of getting through security locks. Later the Inquisitor is
erased from history and all his bloodshed is undone. Ignore the fact
that they wouldn't remember the event as it wouldn't have happened and
that they would still be heading out on Starbug, how could Lister give
Kryten '15' as they would never have met the other Lister and he
wouldn't have been blown up anyway?
- Sometimes timeline readjustments take a little time to sort
themselves out (eg. White Hole, 4-4). Give this episode another 30 seconds
and the original opening scenario would probably be restored.
- Lister shouldn't be able to collect his alternative's hand, as the
Inquisitor habitually vaporizes his humanoid targets, leaving no bits behind.
- It was actually the alternative Kryten who was blown up by the
Inquisitor (perhaps 'vaporize' doesn't work on mechanoids). The alternative
Lister was apparently killed by the force of the alternative Kryten
exploding, in the process having his left hand severed from the arm.
- Kryten's number on the RD is 'Additional 001.' Why isn't Cat 'Add. 001'
and Kryten 'Add. 002'?
- As a computer, Holly might have started the count at 'Additional
000.'
- How does Holly scan Lister's palm-print when he's wearing gloves?
- Holly is able to scan through clothing. This would make sense
(especially on a mining ship) so that crew-members would not have to
keep removing their gloves to open doors all the time. Also, the scanner
would have the ability to permeate mechanoid 'skin' in order to read the CPUs.
- Kryten uses the Inquisitor's gauntlet to age his and Lister's manacles by
half a million years, causing the metal to 'decay' away to nothing. Red
Dwarf is over three million years old, so why has it not 'decayed' in the
same fashion?
- Red Dwarf may be made of a special metal, or could have undergone
a special treatment to prevent its metal 'decaying.'
- Red Dwarf may have specific self-maintenance capabilities for
counteracting such ageing.
- When trying to convince Rimmer he knew him, Lister said that four people
had died while Rimmer was on the Samaritans Line in the afternoon. In The
Last Day (3-6) it is said he killed off five people in the morning.
- Lister is close enough in his facts for this to be simply an
inaccurate memory on his part.
- Rimmer has said he got off with Fiona Barrington in his dad's greenhouse
at 15, but in Better Than Life (2-2) he said he divorced his parents at 14.
- Rimmer could have been lying about the whole incident, or this might
have occurred during one of his visits to the dog.
Terrorform (5-3)
- Kryten's readout says he is a Series 4000 mechanoid. In Dimension Jump
(4-5) he is also identified as a Series 4000, but in The Last Day (3-6)
he is called a Series III.
- The new readout may be indicative of Kryten's 'upgrading' by Lister
and/or the self-repair unit (see Dimension Jump, 4-5).
- Once again, the 'Series III' and 'Series 4000' might be
referring to different characteristics of the same model.
- While the Psy-Moon may be based on Rimmer's mind, it does not change
the fact that he should not physically be able to touch anything and
should not be in any real danger.
- The inhabitants may be mentally-controlled GELFs, which would
explain how they could mutate into forms that could touch him. Or it
could quite literally all be in his mind and he could do mental damage to
himself, which is the most serious thing that Rimmer has to worry about.
- Why can Holly track Rimmer now, but not in other episodes?
- Perhaps the fact that the Psy-moon becomes the personification
of its visitor's mind amplified Rimmer's presence, and thereby made it
easier for Holly to track Rimmer.
- Kryten is firing the bazookoid at Rimmer's Self-Loathing, presumably
trying to kill it, yet in The Inquisitor (5-2) Kryten cannot tackle the
Inquisitor himself because he is programmed not to kill.
- Maybe Kryten's 'anti-kill' programming only applies to equal
(eg. the Inquisitor, another droid) or 'superior' beings (eg. humans).
Self-Loathing, as only a personified psyche component, may be fair game.
- Maybe Lister's latest repair job on Kryten in this episode
has caused a malfunction in Kryten's 'anti-kill' programming.
Quarantine (5-4)
- Rimmer says the RD can only sustain one hologram, yet on several occasions (eg. Holoship, 5-1 and Me^2, 1-6) it has had two while supposedly cutting off unnecessary power.
- While Rimmer was affected by the Holovirus, where was Holly? Couldn't
she have turned him off or otherwise prevented him from taking over?
- Holly: 'Well, it's a laugh, innit?' The crew were in no actual
danger until Rimmer turned off the oxygen, so no need for action. Rimmer
*was* following the rules, after all.
- Rimmer was operating on his LB, independent of Holly, so
she might not have been able to do much even if she wanted to.
- Holly might not be able to disable a hologram without an order
from a superior officer. Rimmer was ranking 'officer' on RD.
- Why did they need to send Rimmer back to RD? If Dr. Lanstrom had her own LB, it was unnecessary. Even if she didn't, we saw in Me^2 (1-6) that the RD can support two holograms if necessary.
- How can the hex vision of a hologram hurt anyone? If it is a mental
power, how can a hologram use it if he/she has no physical brain? How can the
hex vision shorten the lifespan of a hologram?
- The 'brain' of the person still exists on his/her holodisk. The
hex vision caused by the holovirus is a feature of the virus's adaptation
to this particular type of 'brain'-state. In a hologram, the hex vision could
draw on the power source of the hologram and manifest as energy bursts,
shortening the life span of the hologram by overloading or draining its power
generator.
Demons And Angels (5-5)
- If Low RD fades away, the Low Lister should fade away as well,
instead of staying on Starbug.
- Hang on for this one. The crew were scanned before leaving the RD. It
explodes soon after, destroying everything including Holly. The Highs and Lows
are born from the scan. All Highs except Holly are killed. As only things with
both High and Low parts can re-merge, the High and Low RDs and Hollys merge
back when Kryten reverses the process. Low Cat, Kryten, and Rimmer
remain, but are left in the vacuum of space and die after their RD
re-merges. Low Lister is on the SB so he survives.
- Kryten says he threw the triplicator in reverse, yet it is Lister who
actually did this.
- Kryten told Lister to do it. Maybe, now that his lying protocol
is broken, Kryten is looking for some glory.
- Kryten says that the triplicator could produce four or even five strawberries a week. With one original strawberry, after two runs, the tally could only be *either* four triplicator-produced strawberries *or* five total, counting the original strawberry; not both numbers sequentially.
- While tasting the pot noodle, Lister talks about playing pool with planets. The only time he's done that is in White Hole (4-4) and he shouldn't remember it.
- Why is only half the triplicator on each ship? Each ship is a
fully-functioning entity and should have a full version of the
triplicator on it.
- Perhaps, because the triplicator was the source of the abnormal,
outgoing beam, it was unable to copy itself, but instead had its parts divided
between its two creations so that there was still 'triplicator representation'
on both ships.
- How can a holowhip harm a human?
- Simple. While the holowhip has to be some form of projected
light, there are many types of light that can cause physical damage.
Lasers are just condensed beams of light. Modified light pulses can cause
neurological seizures. It could also work along the lines of a controlled
version of the hex vision from Quarantine (5-4): it just sends stored-up
energy through the victim.
Back To Reality (5-6)
- As a hologram, Rimmer should *not* be affected by the squid's ink (or the
lithium carbonate), and so would not have hallucinated.
- If he can pick up smells, he might also be able to pick up and
be affected by the hallucinogens.
- Kryten says 'The venom secreted from a piscine source, not unlike Earth
octopus or giant squid.' 'Piscine' means pertaining to fish, and squid
and octopi are molluscs.
- Kryten is, ultimately, just a service mechanoid.
- The technician talks about the irony of Lister becoming God when he was an atheist, but in The Last Day (3-6) Lister is said to be a pantheist. Why can't Lister even get his own religion right?
- When the crew are delusionally pretending to jump speed bumps in their
'car-chase,' Rimmer's seat is moving under him, which it should not do
because Rimmer, as a hologram, has no weight.
- This may be another case of a hologrammatic projection of what
would be happening if Rimmer were real.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- If the SB survived a collision with a flaming asteroid, why was it wrecked in previous, lesser impacts?
Legion (6-2)
- Legion removes Lister's appendix, which is about to burst from
appendicitis. It was stated 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.
- 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).
- Well, 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.
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?
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.
- 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.
- 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.'
- When the Emohawk turned Cat into Duane, how did Cat's physical
features alter if the Emohawk can only change emotions?
- 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 Cat's physical appearance
to alter to reflect his 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).
- Rimmer talks about letting Lister play the guitar, but the guitar was destroyed in Emohawk: Polymorph II (6-4).
- Rimmer is hyperventilating and breathing. He's a hologram. - It may be a manifestation of the hologrammatic illness.
- Since the crew obviously had some of Rimmer's DNA, why didn't they
try cloning him back in DNA (4-2)?
- They might have been unaware of the DNA's existence.
- They probably did not trust the DNA machine given all they saw.
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?
- 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.
- The Top Ten List has more than ten items.
- In the Top Ten List, one of the questions that Kryten asks is why Lister's hair and nails grew in Psirens (6-1) when he was in stasis. He wasn't in stasis, he was in deep sleep.
- Kryten says that the radiation leak was six weeks *before* Gazpacho Soup Day, yet in Me^2 (1-6) it is six weeks *after* GSD, which makes a hell of a lot more sense.
- The alternative ending to Out Of Time (6-6) could not have happened because no-one would have remembered that Rimmer had been brave or that the SB had been attacked at all.
If there are obvious PEs that can be explained away in the context of the show, they are listed in both sections, but their explanations are not included here. PEs have no explanation except the universally accepted, 'Someone goofed up, and the editors didn't earn their pay that day.' Also, if the PI that was made was so basic and stupid that any explanation wouldn't be any fun even as an exercise in semantics, it ends up here.
The PEs are listed by series, by episode, as in the previous section.
- Two posters on the wall between the door and the window in Rimmer and Lister's quarters disappear and return.
- When Rimmer is taking the exam, the arrangement of the pens on his desk suddenly changes.
- A wall appears where the main entrance to the Captain's office used to be.
Future Echoes (1-2)
- The sign above the stasis booth seems to have changed color as opposed to The End (1-1).
- For the future echo in the Drive Room, Rimmer first says 'You're space crazy,' then the second time clearly says '*You* are space-crazy.'
- Lister and Rimmer both use a door in the Captain's office that wasn't there before this episode.
Balance of Power (1-3)
- A food dispenser appears in front of a wall where the main entrance to the Captain's office used to be.
- The butts that Lister tips out of his beer can have obviously come from his palm.
Confidence and Paranoia (1-5)
- An unpainted medical unit (with the letters 'EDICAL' clearly visible) appears in the Captain's office. In the scenes before and after this one, the correctly-attired unit appears in the room with 'MEDICAL UNIT' written on it.
Me^2 (1-6)
- The 'Welcome To The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Death' door opens before Lister touches the panel.
- When Lister is looking through Rimmer's diary, he keeps flipping to the front of the book while reading entries from July and November.
- In the RD cinema, the two Rimmers keep changing seats so they can be in front. The Original Rimmer goes to the back to make rude shadows on the screen. Then Lister calls both of them to the middle so he can choose which one to turn off. It is then obvious that it is the New Rimmer who comes from the back and the Original Rimmer who comes from the front.
- The spray can that Lister was using to repair his attire disappears when he throws up his hands after he is done.
- The heights of the crew of the Nova 5 are listed as: Anne (164 cm), Jane (161 cm), and Tracey (158 cm). Yet when they are in shot together, Tracey is noticeably taller than the others.
Thanks For The Memory (2-3)
- Lister and the Cat both injure their left feet when they drop the gravestone, but the Cat has a cast on his right foot.
- The pom-pom and the top of Holly's cap are both in *front* of the edge of his monitor.
Stasis Leak (2-4)
- Lister, Rimmer, and the Cat are in a shower cubicle when they are discovered by one of the men in the bathroom. In the mirror, we see the man's back and the cubicle, but we do not see Lister or the Cat's head, as we should from that angle.
- When Rimmer is talking to 'Captain Paxo,' the blue bucket noticeably moves.
- The scene where Lister and Rimmer are at the dispensing machine after Rimmer's PD incident in the Captain's office is seen from two perspectives: the present day, and three million years ago. It is the same scene from two different perspectives, and while the main components are the same, the background is horribly out of synch.
Parallel Universe (2-6)
- All of Arlene's newsclippings are about 'Arnold,' and she also has all his certificates.
- When Rimmer is accidentally ejected from the SB during Kryten's driver's test, the wire that lifts Rimmer is clearly visible.
- The crew's attire is in mirror-image at several stages during the episode (eg. Rimmer's hat, Cat's 'brooch,' Lister's bandannas).
Marooned (3-2)
- When looking at 'Lolita,' Rimmer says to keep page 61. Lister then tears out the *left* page, which would be page 60.
- When Lister cuts the guitar-shaped piece of wood from Rimmer's camphorwood trunk, the edges of the 'guitar' and the cut section of the trunk are the same uniform black color as that of the trunk. However, when Lister snaps the guitar over his knee, we see that the wood inside is a much lighter color. The edges of the guitar and the cut-out section of the trunk should be the same color as the snapped section, so it is obvious that the guitar wasn't cut out just then, and may even be from a different type of wood.
Polymorph (3-3)
- This is in the scene where Lister gets attacked by his shorts. There is a shot of Kryten throwing the offending red undergarment onto his bunk. It cuts back to Lister who asks where they went. Kryten says on the bunk, and there is a cut to the bunk, with no red shorts. It cuts back to Lister who asks if he's sure. It cuts back to Kryten at the bunk who looks under the blanket and says 'No,' but you can see the red shorts (or another red object not present in the previous shot of the bunk) on top of the blanket.
- The capsule shown at the end of the episode before the second 'Lister' polymorph sneaks up on the group has the 'Contents: 2' sign on it. This is, presumably, the same and only container that they encountered at the beginning of the episode. A complete shot is made of the capsule at the beginning of the episode, and no sign is apparent.
- ASCII to hex for 'love' would be 4C, 4F, 56, 45. The code Kryten says translates as 'theta, graphics-character, backspace, graphics-character.'
- In all practical sense, Lister and Cat's typing is too perfect and does not match what is being typed. Not even close.
- Rimmer and Kryten crash SB 1 badly on the moon. Lister and Cat then leave RD in SB 2, yet it is SB 1 again which is later struggling in the swamp.
Quarantine (5-4)
- When proving the potency of the luck virus with the deck of cards, Lister shuffles the top few cards, then draws four cards from the bottom.
Demons And Angels (5-5)
- The Low Cat's teeth tilt and then straighten again in the scene where he is first seen by Lister.
- When the remote-controlled Lister swings the axe at Cat, he hits the doorway when he misses, clearly bending the axe-head. He struggles to remove the axe from the wall, and when he does so, the axe is repaired.
- Lister mouths the Cat's line as he says it. ('The whole panel's deader than A-line flares with pockets in the knees.')
Gunmen of the Apocolypse (6-3)
- The bullets that hit the ground are perfectly formed and not violently mutilated as they should have been by the impact with the other bullets.
- The other two bullets (four were fired) are not heard to fall or are heard of ever again.
- Lister again mouths the Cat's lines as he says them. ('...lying cartoons.' 'Why not?')
Rimmerworld (6-5)
- When 'Rimmer' kisses his concubine, the shot shows that the concubine is kissing a woman.
- Lister again mouths the Cat's lines as he says them. ('All in all a hundred per cent successful trip.' 'Form an orderly queue behind the gunsight.')
When you write your e-mail, please contain 'PIP' as the subject line, or reply to this if this is the USENET posting. E-mail is preferred. Please limit your contributions to one message a day. Include as much information as possible about the episode in which the inconsistency occurs, as well as other episodes you may refer to in your post (i.e. use episode numbers PLEASE). You may include as much information as you want in that one message, however.
Do not be offended if I do not write back to you, as my mail volume is pretty high. If I use anything, you will be included in the Acknowledgements section. I have gotten better at getting back to everyone, though, and most likely will reply to all e-mails now. If you are going to be derogatory and hostile, do not expect a reply, but be assured you will make my mail filter in record time.
All book/series references are gone. They are too much completely different entities to be included together. While Grant Naylor may have forgotten which plot they were working with at the time, this project will not, and will stay only with series/series contradictions. If any foolish person wishes to do book/series, I've got some stuff you could probably use.
*** El Skutto ***
...who pretty much did all of the research and writing for the first version and got this thing off the ground and hopelessly lost in space. (Thanks Damone for putting up with my nagging so well -- El Skutto.)
Honorable mention as 'Annoying Aussie Of The Year' goes to:
*** Matt Dawson ***
...who pretty much sent me volumes and volumes of plot errors from all of the episodes whether I wanted them or not, in a coordinated attempt with another Aussie (who shall remain nameless) to drive me completely insane.
BUT... Without the help of these wonderful people, this never would have been:
(Those bound in stars were dedicated workers for this project, viewing entire series to find inconsistencies, and helping with the beta-ing of the PIP.)
Andrew Blume
*CMA*
Charles Daniels
Brenda Daverin
John Doyle
Friday
Richard Greene
Eric Haas
*Nick Honeywell*
Coran Jones (Got it right this time.)
JJ Flash
Jonathan Kallay
Martin King
Christopher M. Kribs
Chris Kuan
Legion
*Lizbeth*
Bette Llewellyn
Tom Marwede
Yossef Mendelssohn
Sami Mikhail
Mark Moir
Glen Montgomery
*Craig O'Neil*
Boris Pelakh
James Peterson
Will A. Phillips
Raz
Jill Rhodes
Alan Salt
Barny Shergold
Daniel Snyder
Eddie Talbut
*Maggie Thomas*
... and to all I may have missed. Please e-mail me so I may rectify the error.
... and of course, to Grant Naylor, who really made it all possible (and who now have a copy of this thing apparently).