The actor who plays the original Kryten, in 'Kryten', also turns up later as the voice of Talkie Toaster.
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Red Dwarf (1988) - 28 trivia entries
starring Chloë Annett, Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, Hattie Hayridge, Norman Lovett, Robert Llewellyn (add more)
Across whole show
The actor who plays the original Kryten, in 'Kryten', also turns up later as the voice of Talkie Toaster.
It was rumored that Alfred Molina and Alan Rickman wanted the part of Rimmer. Lee Cornes also auditioned for this role (he later guest starred on the show), as did Hugh Laurie. Robert Bathurst, Norman Lovett and David Baddiel auditioned for the role of Lister.
Signs in the hallways of the Red Dwarf are in English and Esperanto.
All of series 1 (series 1)
The part of Kochanski was originally to have been played by actress Alexandra Pigg (best known for the 1985 movie 'Letter to Bhreznev'). However, just two days into rehearsals, production of Series 1 of "Red Dwarf" was halted by a strike of technicians at the BBC. The production of "Red Dwarf" had to be rescheduled, and Pigg was not available for the new dates. So the part was re-cast to C.P.Grogan (former lead singer of the band 'Altered Images') who played Kochanski throughout series 1 & 2
Kryten (series 2)
In this episode only, the part of Kryten was played by David Ross. It was only later, during the writing of the scripts for Series III, that the decision was made to make Kryten a regular member of the cast. As David Ross wasn't available, the part went to Robert Llewelyn, who has played Kryten ever since.
Rimmer refers to people who speak Esperanto as "Esperantinos", but they are actually called "Esperantists". Not really a mistake because he's often shown to be an idiot, but worth knowing.
Timeslides (series 3)
In Timeslides (Series 3), after the crew finds out they have a limited time machine Kryten says "Just think, we could go to Dallas 1963, stand on the Grassy Knoll and shout duck," an unintentional reference to Tikka To Ride (Series 7) where we find out that they were the men on the Grassy Knoll in Dallas 1963.
Craig Charles actually wrote the 'Om' song.
Lister's younger self is played by Emile Charles, who is Craig Charles' brother.
Graham Chapman (of Monty Python fame) was offered, and accepted the role of the newsreader. However, he died shortly afterward. Director Ed Bye's wife Ruby Wax was subsequently cast in the 'Blaize Falconberger' role.
Backwards (series 3)
In the episode 'Backwards', Kryten and Rimmer are fired by the nightclub owner for the fight. However, the man is not really saying anything about a fight. The reversed translation is actually like this: "You are a stupid square headed bald git aren't you. I'm pointing at you, but I'm not actually addressing you. I'm addressing the one prat in the entire country who's bothered to get hold of this recording, turn it round and actually work out the rubbish that I'm saying. What a poor sad life he's got. Your act's crap, anyway I hate the lot of you."
Writer Rob Grant can be seen making a cameo appearance. When Rimmer and Kryten walk through London, you see him wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigarette.
On the DVD, you can watch this episode backwards. This way, not only can you find out roughly how they made this episode and find out what 'reversed' people are saying, you can hear someone shout 'ACTION' right before the brawl scene.
The Star Wars-style (if you can slow it down) scrolly mentions what happened in between series 2 and 3. In short, it mentions what happened to Kryten (he crashed Lister's space bike on a planet and the crew managed to rescue him again), and the twins (Jim and Bexley - they were sent to the parallel universe as they were growing far too quickly).
All of series 3 (series 3)
While the blowing snow in "Marooned" was made of soap flakes, the snowball thrown around by Lister and the Cat in "Timeslides" was made of sorbet.
Meltdown (series 4)
"Meltdown" was originally planned to be the first episode of Series IV of Red Dwarf. However, the militaristic tone of this episode - and in particular Dave Lister's strident anti-war speech near the end of the episode - meant it fell foul of the BBC censors. The original planned transmission date (Feb 14 1991) coincided with the outbreak of "Operation Desert Storm" - the Gulf War...and the BBC felt that an "anti-war" episode of Red Dwarf would be inappropriate for a country at war with Iraq.
Dimension Jump (series 4)
Red Dwarf's producer/director Ed Bye was taken seriously ill on the day of the studio recording of the episode "Dimension Jump". Paul Jackson, who was in 1990-91 effectively Ed Bye's boss, stepped in to cover, although he hadn't directed a TV show for about 7 years. But look at the credits for this episode...no one bothered to update or change them, and Paul Jackson was never credited for his work. The credits still say "Produced and directed by Ed Bye" even though on this one occasion, they weren't.
Originally the Cat's alter ego from Ace's dimension was supposed to be a slobby janitor, but the cast felt having a black man as a janitor could be construed as a negative stereotype, so the character was changed to a priest.
D.N.A. (series 4)
During the famous 'double polaroid' scene, the look of shock and horror on Lister's face is real. The double polaroid apparently was a real picture of someone's genitals but nobody had told Craig Charles about it. Even Robert Llewelyn (Kryten) was in on the joke and the look on Lister's face is totally real.
Terrorform (series 5)
The Self-Loathing creature from "Terrorform" was based on an unused design from Doctor Who (1963).
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