Red Dwarf Balance of Power (1988– ) Online

Red Dwarf Balance of Power (1988– ) Online

Lister wants to go on a date with the hologram of navigation officer Kristine Kochanski, much to Rimmer's disapproval. Lister decides to do a cooking exam so he can outrank Rimmer. But Rimmer has a cunning plan.

When the Cat is ordering fish from the machine he orders six of them. Several other food containers are visible on the console, so apparently he did eat a whole lotta fish.

The story was written as pure sitcom at the request from the BBC who didn't want the show to be too heavy on science fiction elements.

Rimmer catches The Skutters at the cinema watching a western. In Red Dwarf: Thanks for the Memory (1988) it is revealed that the Skutters are fans of John Wayne and are members of The John Wayne Fanclub.

The flashback scene was intended to be a recurring theme throughout the series, showing Lister's secret feelings of intense loneliness and his contrasting past and present lives, but the idea was scrapped.

This episode contains the first and only appearance of Lister's talking toilet.

The Rimmer-in-Kochanski's body scene was originally much longer, showing off Clare Grogan's acting ability as she impersonated Chris Barrie, but the scene had to be cut due to running time (the full-length version is included on DVD releases).

This is the first episode when we see a skutter give Rimmer a "two-fingered salute" by twisting their heads at certain angle. (This gesture, the UK equivalent of the middle-finger/flipping the bird gesture, originating around the hundred years war, is largely lost on North American viewers.)

Apparently Petersen's consciousness still lives in his arm, as it's the arm that attacks Rimmer. However, it's only in a deleted scene - a longer version of the disco sequence - that it's explicitly indicated that it is Petersen's arm, as the deleted scene shows the character discussing the tattoos later shown in close-up when Rimmer gets the arm.

The subject of rank and status on-board ship is later revisited in the Series X episode Red Dwarf: Dear Dave (2012) with the risk presented of Rimmer being demoted down to Third Technician and thus becoming Lister's equal; as is Lister's depression and misery about being the last human being alive.

Scenes cut from the episode:

• Additional dialogue in Lister's flashback of a Saturday night party with his boozing mates was cut for time. This includes Olaf Petersen telling the others that they aren't doing so well, since it is 11pm, and they can all still see. Olaf also tells the others about some strange new tattoos which have appeared on his arms that he doesn't remember getting whilst drunk.
• Additional dialogue before Lister's chef exam was cut for time reasons also. Rimmer is very worried and tries to dissuade Lister, who is reading a Zero Gravity Football magazine and "revising buns", eating them. Rimmer claims that Lister is being "confident on purpose to torture him".
• Lister's exam scene was originally longer, and featured a larger role for Clare Grogan playing as Rimmer inside Kochanski's body.

In Lister's disco flashback he tells his mates that his uncle's brain is in a jar. It must run in the family since he discovers that is how he ends up in season 6's Red Dwarf: Out of Time (1993).