Title: Red Dwarf

Genre: British Sci-Fi Comedy Series

Series: 12

Episodes: 73

Runtime: 25 min

First Transmission: 1988-

Channel: BBC/DAVE

Lister, Rimmer, Kryten and cat, four space bums, roam the galaxy in search of nothing in particular.

Episode Rankings

Use your mouse to hover to see the corresponding episode title –

[Updated July 2020]

Best Episode #30 Back to Reality – The Red Dwarf investigates an ocean ship, The Esperanto, where they find the ship’s crew have all committed suicide. Later, they are attacked by a sea monster called The Despair Squid. Soon, they all wake up to find that they have been playing an artificial reality computer game for four years and that their time on the Red Dwarf has all been an illusion – or has it? (1992) Episode characteristics & General Consensus:

This episode is the finale of the fifth series. Why is this considered the best episode? Apart from all the funny lines and all the funny gags, could it be the shock value of believing all that went before was just an illusion? Worst Episode #53

Back to Earth: Part One – Lister’s busy day of annoying Rimmer is interrupted by the discovery of something in the ship’s mile-deep water tank. (2009) Episode characteristics & General Consensus:

All three episodes of Back to Earth are considered plainly unfunny by fans of the series. The ten-year hiatus was definitely not worth the wait. It seems that the Sci-Fi elements came first and the comedy second.

Full Episode Guide

Key:-

Blue episodes rated above par.

Brown episodes rated below par.

Series One

#1 The End (1988) –

After being sentenced to stasis for 18 months aboard the Red Dwarf, Dave Lister wakes up to find himself 3 million years in the future.

#2 Future Echoes (1988) –

After the Red Dwarf goes through light speed, the crew sees images of the future.

#3 Balance of Power (1988) –

Lister decides to do a cooking exam so he can outrank Rimmer.

#4 Waiting for God (1988) –

Lister learns he is the mythical god of Cat’s people known as “Cloister the stupid.”

#5 Confidence and Paranoia (1988) –

Red Dwarf has two unwelcome guests aboard, Lister’s confidence and paranoia.

#6 Me² (1988) –

Rimmer moves into his new sleeping quarters with his holographic double.

Series Two

#7 Kryten (1988) –

The Red Dwarf crew come across Kryten, an android, after they receive an SOS call.

#8 Better Than Life (1988) –

The crew play an immersion game that is reputed to be “better than life,” but Rimmer’s brain rebels.

#9 Thanks for the Memory (1988) –

Holly gives Rimmer the memory of a sexy girlfriend for his birthday present.

#10 Stasis Leak (1988) –

Rimmer, Lister and Cat find a time barrier called on one of the floors and it takes them back in time on Red Dwarf 3 million years earlier.

#11 Queeg (1988) –

Red Dwarf’s back-up computer Queeg 500 takes command of Red Dwarf when Holly proves incompetent.

#12 Parallel Universe (1988) –

The crew tests Holly’s new invention, the “Holly Hop Drive”, which transports them to an alternate reality with female versions of themselves.

Series Three

#13 Backwards (1989) –

Rimmer takes Kryten for a driving lesson in Starbug and they come across a time hole and end up on Earth, where time is running backwards.

#14 Marooned (1989) –

Rimmer and Lister find themselves marooned on an ice planet, where the only firewood is Rimmer’s possessions and the only food they have is dog food and a pot noodle.

#15 Polymorph (1989) –

The Red Dwarf crew encounters a genetically engineered space mutant that drains the emotions from humans.

#16 Bodyswap (1989) –

Kryten discovers a developing fluid that can bring old photographs to life and allow people to enter into the past.

#17 Timeslides (1989) –

Kryten invents a developing fluid which brings old photographs to life.

#18 The Last Day (1989) –

Kryten is pursued by a super-strong android intent on dismantling him.

Series Four

#19 Camille (1991) –

The crew encounters Camille, a shape-shifting alien.

#20 D.N.A. (1991) –

The crew discovers a derelict spacecraft with a DNA modifier onboard.

#21 Justice (1991) –

On Justice world, Rimmer is found guilty of 1,167 separate counts of second-degree murder, and he is promptly convicted and sentenced.

#22 White Hole (1991) –

Holly has to switch herself off, leaving the crew to its own resources.

#23 Dimension Jump (1991) –

The crew encounter Ace Rimmer, Rimmer as he is in a parallel universe.

#24 Meltdown (1991) –

The crew transports itself to a world populated by wax droids at war.

Series Five

#25 Holoship (1992) –

Rimmer is abducted by holograms of superior intelligence and taken to a space vessel.

#26 The Inquisitor (1992) –

The crew meets “The Inquisitor,” a time-travelling android who tries to erase the worthless from history.

#27 Terrorform (1992) –

The crew finds itself trapped in an environment shaped by Rimmer’s bizarre, self-loathing mind.

#28 Quarantine (1992) –

Rimmer orders the crew into quarantine for three months and himself contracts a holo-virus giving him telekinesis, hex vision, and many other powers, and turning him completely insane.

#29 Demons & Angels (1992) –

A Triplicator makes two versions of the Red Dwarf, one copy containing angelic versions of themselves, the other bad.

#30 Back to Reality (1992) –

The crew escape from a “Despair Squid,” only to find that Red Dwarf never existed and they have in fact been playing a virtual reality computer game for four years.

Series Six

#31 Psirens (1993) –

The crew stumbles upon an asteroid field inhabited by genetically engineered aliens that want to suck out their brains.

#32 Legion (1993) –

The crew is dragged by a tractor beam and held captive by the lifeform, Legion.

#33 Gunmen of the Apocalypse (1993) –

The crew has to battle a computer virus by entering Kryten’s wild west dream.

#34 Emohawk – Polymorph II (1993) –

Lister must marry a genetically engineered life form in exchange for an oxygen breathing unit.

#35 Rimmerworld (1993) –

Rimmer lands on a planet inhabited by clones of his own self.

#36 Out of Time (1993) –

The crew members meet themselves fifteen years in the future and do not like what they see.

Series Seven

#37 Tikka to Ride (1997) –

After being resurrected the gets itself mixed up with the assassination of President Kennedy.

#38 Stoke Me a Clipper (1997) –

Ace Rimmer returns and wants the cowardly Rimmer to carry on his legacy.

#39 Ouroboros (1997) –

The crew meets a parallel version of Lister’s old girlfriend, Kristine Kochanski.

#40 Duct Soup (1997) –

When the power goes off, the crew gets stuck inside the ducts.

#41 Blue (1997) –

Lister misses Rimmer and fantasises about his return.

#42 Beyond a Joke (1997) –

Kryten’s head explodes and the crew must find him a new one.

#43 Epideme (1997) –

Lister is infected with the dreaded Epideme virus, which threatens to kill him unless something is done.

#44 Nanarchy (1997) –

Kryten searches for his nanobots so that he can rebuild Lister’s arm.

Series Eight

#45 Back in the Red, Part 1 (1999) –

The Nano Bots have rebuilt Red Dwarf and Lister, Kochanski, Kryten, the Cat and also the entire crew.

#46 Back in the Red, Part 2 (1999) –

Rimmer uses the confidential files and the luck and sexual magnetism viruses found in the wreckage of the Starbug to get himself promoted.

#47 Back in the Red, Part 3 (1999) –

Lister, Kochanski, Cat and Kryten flee The Red Dwarf in a Blue Midget in search of the nanobots.

#48 Cassandra (1999) –

Cassandra, a computer that predicts the future, tells Rimmer that he is going to die.

#49 Krytie TV (1999) –

Kryten creates Krytie TV, a pirate tv station for the prisoners.

#50 Pete, Part 1 (1999) –

Rimmer and Lister end up in the hole.

#51 Pete, Part 2 (1999) –

Rimmer freezes the crew with a “Time Wand.”

#52 Only the Good… (1999) –

An escape pod containing a genetically engineered virus that eats metal arrives on Red Dwarf and begins to destroy the ship an antidote needs to be found.

Series Nine

#53 Back to Earth, Part 1 (2009) –

Lister’s busy day of annoying Rimmer is interrupted by the discovery of something in the ship’s mile-deep water tank.

#54 Back to Earth, Part 2 (2009) –

Lister is guided back to his home planet, but Earth is not all he expected it to be.

#55 Back to Earth, Part 3 (2009) –

All of Lister’s dreams appear to be coming true.

Series Ten

#56 Trojan (2012) –

The crew discovers a pristine spaceship called Trojan and use it to help Rimmer’s brother.

#57 Fathers and Suns (2012) –

Lister is at odds with his father.

#58 Lemons (2012) –

The crew is stranded in Britain A.D. 23 and it needs lemons for a battery.

#59 Entangled (2012) –

Lister loses Rimmer in a game of poker and will be detonated if he cannot pay his debt.

#60 Dear Dave (2012) –

Lister becomes involved in a bizarre love triangle with two vending machines.

#61 The Beginning (2012) –

The crew hides in an asteroid from Simulants and Annihilators.

Series Eleven

#62 Twentica (2016) –

The Red Dwarf crew find themselves in an alternative version of America where modern technology is prohibited,

#63 Samsara (2016) –

The Red Dwarf team finds an ocean moon and begins to discover all is not as it seems on the ocean floor.

#64 Give & Take (2016) –

A derelict-looking ship is boarded with an insane medical droid onboard.

#65 Officer Rimmer (2016) –

Rimmer inadvertently saves a reprinted Captain from certain doom, earning him the promotion he has always dreamed of.

#66 Krysis (2016) –

Kryten has a mid-life robotic crisis.

#67 Can of Worms (2016) –

Cat falls head over heels in love with a lady Cat with a big secret.

Series Twelve

#68 Cured (2017) –

The crew discover a ship that has a cure for evil.

#69 Siliconia (2017) –

Red Dwarf is captured by the Mechanoid Intergalactic Liberation Front (M.I.L.F), a group of automata out to free androids being used as slaves.

#70 Timewave (2017) –

The crew find themselves onboard the ‘Enconium’, a place where all criticism is illegal.

#71 Mechocracy (2017) –

The machines on Red Dwarf go on strike, so the boys compete in an election against each other to gain control of them.

#72 M-Corp (2017) –

The crew discovers that the Jupiter Mining Corporation has been bought out by a corporate giant with unusual views on product usage.

#73 Skipper (2017) –

Rimmer comes in possession of a Quantum skipper and scours the multiverse looking for a dimension where he is not such a giant loser.