Red Dwarf/Beyond a Joke

Beyond a Joke
Season 7, Episode 6
Airdate	February 21, 1997
Written by	Doug Naylor, Robert Llewellyn
Directed by	Ed Bye
← 7x05 Blue	7x07 → Epideme
Red Dwarf — Season Seven

Beyond a Joke is the sixth episode of the seventh season of Red Dwarf, and the forty-second episode overall.

Guest Stars: Robert Llewellyn (Able), Don Henderson (Simulant), Vicky Ogden (Mrs Bennet), Alina Proctor (Jane Bennet), Catherine Harvey (Kitty Bennet), Sophia Thierens (Lydia Bennet), Rebecca Katz (Mary Bennet), Julia Lloyd (Elizabeth Bennet)

Plot Overview

Kryten prepares lobster for the anniversary of his rescue from the Nova 5. Unfortunately Kochanski and the Cat have loaded an AR game they found recently on a derelict ship (the S.S. Centauri). She insists that everyone drop what they're doing, and come to the AR Suite to try it out. She tells Kryten to put the lobster in the oven to keep it warm. They all go play the game, leaving Kryten alone.

In the game, Pride and Prejudice World, Kochanski, Lister, and the Cat walk along a wooded path, where Kochanski introduces them to Mrs. Bennet. She invites them to tea as her daughters giggle about this and that.

Meanwhile outside the game, Kryten is still grousing about how it took him two days to prepare this meal. Two days! He sits down in a chair in the AR Suite fuming, "I'm gonna make you eat this damned supper if it's the last thing I do!"

Back in the game, the group walks along a pastoral forest path with the visitors in the lead followed by Mrs. Bennet and her daughters. Then from out of nowhere, Kryten quietly picks off the straggler, Elizabeth, hitting her in the neck with a dart from his blowpipe. Kryten snares the next girl, Jane, by the ankle using a strategically placed, rope trap; hoisting her into the air and then silencing her with a dart from his blowpipe.

Kryten's swinging log trap barely misses the next girl. Reading a book as she walks, she is blissfully unaware of her brush with death. On the back swing Kryten is hit in the head and then in the side on a second back swing.

The others make it to the lakeside gazebo. Kochanski sits with her back to the lake, facing Mrs. Bennet, who notes how rude it is for Lizzy and Jane to have wandered off. Mrs. Bennet's look of wide-eyed horror prompts Kochanski to turn and look behind her. It is Kryten, and he's brought a tank from the WWII game.

"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. I said supper is ready!", and at that Kryten fires the main cannon. A massive explosion reduces the gazebo to splinters. Only Kochanski, Lister and the Cat remain.

They gather at the supper table, dutifully eating what Kryten has prepared and commenting on how good it is (even though it tastes terrible). All the while, Kryten complains that his work is never appreciated. Things really come to a head though, when Lister asks for ketchup. He tries to take it back by asking for brown ketchup, but it's too late. Kryten is beside himself, "I can't believe it. I simply cannot b..." BOOM! Kryten's head literally explodes.

The Cat gets a spare head and they attach it. When he comes back on-line, he picks up where he left off: "Ketchup! With Lobster!? You want k..." BOOM! Kryten's spare head blows up, and in their turn all of his heads blow up. Their only option now is to return to the S.S. Centauri and look for mechanoid parts there.

Unfortunately there is now a simulant aboard the S.S. Centauri. Simulants hate human beings, but they don't hate GELFs. So Kochanski's idea is that she and the Cat will disguise themselves as GELFs, and Lister will pose as their prisoner.

When they meet the simulant, he wants to trade three spare heads for Lister. But they won't hear of it. Eventually the old simulant agrees to gamble for the heads on a coin flip. He loses, and they get the heads for free. They return to Starbug only to find that the simulant's accomplices ransacked the ship while they were away, and Kryten's body is missing.

On the Centauri the simulant orders a mechanoid named Able to repair Kryten. When Kryten wakes up, he recognizes that Able is another series 4000 mechanoid. Their serial numbers are so close that they must have the same motherboard, making them "brothers." Able offers Kryten some Otrozone. For mechanoids Oltrozone is dangerous and highly addictive; it corrupts cicuit boards!

The S.S. Centrauri is faster than Starbug. They can't hope to catch it. So on a hunch, Kochanski takes a course away from it at top speed, reasoning that the only reason they would do that is if they had planted a bomb aboard. The ploy works.

The Centauri overtakes Starbug and the simulant beams into the cargo bay demanding that they tell him where the bomb is. To demonstrate his resolve, he reveals to Kryten how to access a secret file in his memory that contains details of his construction: details that will drive him to become an Oltorzone addict like Able.

Feeling a kinship with Kryten and possibly resenting his treatment at the hands of the simulant, Able removes his head and uses it to knock the simulant unconscious. Lister then shoots the simulant's GELF cohort with a bazookoid and activates their transporter mechanism, sending them back to their own ship.

Kryten tells Lister what was revealed to him: Mamet's Revenge, the huge practical joke that caused his head to explode. He was only repaired by draining his negative emotions onto an external "negadrive".

The simulant ship returns and chases them into an asteroid field, where they hide out for hours in slient running mode. But when Able secretly takes a dose of Oltrozone in the cockpit, his convultions throw him onto the console, activating Starbug's engines and giving away their position.

The chase resumes, but this time no matter what they try, they can't lose him. Realizing this, Able ejects, heading for the simulant ship. He is not deserting; instead he releases Kryten's negadrive toward the Centauri. Inside, the simulant becomes despondant, reciting a litany depressing aspects of his life, including "I never get invited to parties!" He fires shot after shot at the controls, destroying his own ship in short order.

Able's pod crashed nearby, killing him. Kryten's newfound respect for Able helps him bear the weight gladly, saying to Lister, "He's not heavy sir. He's my brother".

Back in Pride and Prejudice World, everyone (including Kryten) is having supper with the Bennet's at an Indian restaurant. Against the advice of Miss Kochanski, Mrs. Bennet tries the vindaloo and absolutely loves it! Kitty and Jane praise it as well. So Lister, Kochanski, and the Cat each take a bite. Their vindaloos are much more spicy than the others. They frantically call for help and ask for water. Their mouths are on fire (literally in Lister's case). Kryten knowingly says, "Curious, there must be some sort of bug in the program."

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Kryten discovers that the entire 4000 series were built as a joke by his creator Professor Mamet.

Referbacks

• Kryten prepared a feast to celebrate the anniversary of his rescue from the Nova 5.
• The likeness of Kryten's creator, Professor Mamet, appeared in the episode Psirens as a psiren-generated illusion.

Trivia

The Show

• Kryten found four lobsters in the hold of the SS Centauri.
• In Pride and Prejudice World:
  • Lister is dressed as a clergyman (probably William Collins from the book).
  • The Cat is dressed as a soldier (probably George Wickham also from the book).
• Premenstrual Tension (PMT) goes by the more ominous sounding name Premenstrual Syndrome in the United States.
• According to the simulant, the coin flip came up tails, meaning that they could have the spare heads without trading Lister.
• Able is a 4000 series mechanoid just like Kryten. His middle name/serial number, 2X4C, similar enough to Kryten's 2X4B that they must have the same motherboard, making them "brothers".
• The tank used to destroy the gazebo was number 343.
• The simulant on the SS Centauri has at least two GELF crewmembers.

Allusions and References

• The AR game Pride and Prejudice World is based on the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
• Kryten blows up Mr. Bingley's (Mrs. Bennet's neighbor's) gazebo with a tank from the WWII simulation.
• The tank, a Russian T-72, did not enter production until 1971 well after the close of WWII. Its presence in the WWII simulation would likely be as part of a "dream arsenal" or "special power".
• Cat doesn't want his hair shaken up in the asteroid belt. Kochanski asks, do we stay here and get splattered? "Better that than me looking like Tina Turner," he replies.
• Kryten likens the hostility in his negadrive to the hostility at a BAFTA Awards Ceremony.
• Lister asks Kryten if he needs help carrying Able's body. Kryten replies, "He ain't heavy sir. He's my brother." -- paraphrasing a verse from the song He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother, written by Bobby Scott and Bob Russell and sung by performers such as The Hollies, Neil Diamond, and Cher.

Quotes

• When the Cat sees the Bennet sisters he howls, "They're so hot, they're steamin'!"
• After Kryten destroys the gazebo with the tank, Lister remarks, "I didn't know robots got PMT."

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