Red Dwarf/Emohawk - Polymorph II

Emohawk - Polymorph II
Season 6, Episode 4
Airdate	October 28, 1993
Written by	Rob Grant, Doug Naylor
Directed by	Andy DeEmmony
← 6x03 Gunmen of the Apocalypse	6x05 → Rimmerworld
Red Dwarf — Season Six

Emohawk - Polymorph II is the fourth episode of the sixth season of Red Dwarf, and the thirty-fourth episode overall.

Guest Stars: Ainsley Harriott (GELF Chief), Steven Wickham (GELF Bride), Martin Sims (GELF), Hugh Quarshie (Computer voice), Danny John-Jules (Dwayne Dibley), Chris Barrie ('Ace' Rimmer)

Plot Overview

A Space Corps external enforcement vehicle (a computer-controlled enforcement probe) scans them and charges them with looting. A charge which they cannot deny, and since the penalty is death, they make a run for the GELF Zone, only 7 clicks away.

The GELFs, untrustworthy scavengers with no respect for life, law, or property, are better than the alternative: death. There are stories of them skinning human beings alive.

The enforcement probe hits them with a missile. Another hit will finish them. They are fast approaching a skull-shaped asteroid that serves as a warning to outsiders. In a desperate bid to escape, they fly straight into the eye, directly at solid rock. The next missile barely misses Starbug, hitting the asteroid just in front of them instead, blasting it to pieces.

With 53 separate fires, Starbug is doomed unless they can find some way to put them out. So they crash Starbug on a nearby GELF, ocean planet where they let the water put out the fires. All the attack damage can be repaired, except for the oxy generation unit. For that they must trade with the GELF.

When they first encounter the GELFs, they are not killed or skinned alive. Kryten and the others take this as a good sign. Lister offers their Chief Swiss watches, cigars, and Levi's jeans.

Lister's offer is good enough to get them into the Chief's tent, where the actual negotiation will take place. There they see that the Chief has a pet emohawk, a polymorph that feeds on human emotions.

The Chief wants Lister to marry his daughter. But like her father, she is a hairy ape-like creature, not at all attractive. Lister absolutely refuses. But the Chief insists: no marriage, no oxy generation unit! Eventually the others talk Lister into just pretending to get married.

Immediately after the marriage, Lister is carried off by the bride directly to her bed. She has really been looking forward to this! Lister can't carry on with the ruse any longer. He bolts, passing Kryten and the others, who had just taken possession of the oxy generation unit.

Angered, the Chief releases his emohawk to hunt them down. Sealed aboard Starbug, everyone thinks they're safe, but the emohawk has sneaked aboard as Lister's hat. The Cat is the first victim. The emohawk drains his cool, his poise, his style, his grace. He becomes ... Dwayne Dibley.

In a moment of brilliant paranoia, Rimmer ejects their only working gun into space, because he thinks it's the emohawk. Later in the cockpit, Rimmer is attacked by the emohawk, and drained of his bitterness, negativity, and "snidieness". When he emerges from the cockpit, he has become Ace Rimmer, hero!

Ace has a plan to open the airlock and suck the creature into space. Unfortunately, that means that he and Dwayne will die, but he is willing to make that sacrifice to save Lister. Fortunately Kryten and Lister stop him, arriving just as he and Dwayne are in the airlock.

Together they hunt the emohawk using only a dilinnium cannister as a sort of freeze gun. Dwayne unwittingly picks up a second thermos; one of them is the emohawk. He holds onto it long enough for Lister to freeze it.

At the very end, Dwayne accidentally freezes everyone with the dillinium canister.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• The crew of Starbug are still pursuing Red Dwarf.

Characters

• In this episode we discover; when the Cat is drained of his cool, his poise, his style, and his grace; he becomes Dwayne Dibley.
• When Arnold Rimmer is drained of his bitterness, negativity, and "snidieness", he becomes Ace Rimmer. Something similar comes into play in the series seven episode Stoke Me a Clipper.

Trivia

The Show

• The GELF that Lister marries is one of the Chief's three daughters. She is apparently the "looker", according to Kryten.

Behind the Scenes

• The actor who played the GELF Chief, Ainsley Harriot, would eventually host a special, cooking show episode featuring the Dwarfers.

Allusions and References

• Kryten: "Let's face it, sir, we're as guilty as the man behind the grassy knoll."
• Rimmer compares the speed of Starbug to the Eastbourne zimmer-frame relay team. A zimmer-frame is a walking aid for the elderly.
• The GELF wedding contained several traditional/Christian wedding traditions, such as the kiss and the tossing of the boquet.

Memorable Moments

• Amidst the din of alert sirens, Rimmer runs into the sleeping quarters in a panic screaming, "Scramble! Scramble! All hands on deck! Emergency Drill! Scramble!" He then runs out of the room. No one wakes up or even moves. He comes back in and explains that they are supposed to pretend there is a really ship attacking them. Lister says he's pretending to scramble. Despite repeated attempts to motivate them, they continue sleeping. Later when they do actually enter the cockpit, Rimmer tells them they have set a new record time: 1:17:39.
• While fleeing the enforcement probe ...

Rimmer: We've lost it.

(there is a big explosion which rocks the ship, and fills the cockpit with smoke)

Rimmer: Sorry, I was looking at the wrong panel.

• Crashing on the GELF planet destroyed most of their possessions, but Kryten finds one thing that survived: Lister's guitar. He says to no one in particular, "At least Mr. Lister's guitar survived the crash." At that the Cat takes Lister's guitar from Kryten, breaks it in two, and hands it back. Kryten corrects himself, "Not even Mr. Lister's guitar survived the crash."

Quotes

• Rimmer urging everyone to get sensible haircuts:

Rimmer: Would it harm you to have hair like mine?

Cat: I have got hair like yours, just not on my head.

• Ace Rimmer describing the Cat:

Ace: He's looking so geeky, I don't think he could even get into a science fiction convention.

• After having been asked if he wants to remain as Dwayne Dibley:

Dwayne: Suck my thermos.

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