Red Dwarf/Ouroboros

Ouroboros
Season 7, Episode 3
Airdate	January 31, 1997
Written by	Doug Naylor
Directed by	Ed Bye
← 7x02 Stoke Me a Clipper	7x04 → Duct Soup
Red Dwarf — Season Seven

Ouroboros is the third episode of the seventh season of Red Dwarf, and the thirty-ninth episode overall.

Guest Stars: Chris Barrie (Arnold J. Rimmer), Gary Beasdale (Frank), Juliet Griffiths (Barmaid), Adrienne Posta (Flight Announcer), Alexander John-Jules (Baby Lister)

Plot Overview

November 26, 2155: As a baby, Lister was found abandonded under a pool table in a Liverpool pub. A barmaid compassionately wonders what will become of him ...

...Three million years later, Dave Lister stands before a mirror performing numerous personal hygene tasks ... simultaneously. Then he removes a nostril hair with a pair of stainless-steel serving tongs, causing him to involuntarily sneeze so hard that he blows the cap off his tooth.

Kryten brings him some clothes he found in the storage lockers -- women's clothes: a pink dressing gown with furry trim and a pair of fuzzy bunny slippers. Lister puts them on; he needs a dressing gown. Of course Kryten will remove the frill and dye the gown later.

Rather than waiting for Kryten to re-attach his cap properly, Lister uses wood glue. A moment later as he is flossing his teeth, the floss gets stuck between his teeth.

They encounter a temporal rip that joins two parallel universes. They follow a linkway that traverses the non-space between the two universes. There they meet a parallel Kryten, Cat, and a Lister with an H on his head. The other Lister is a hard-light hologram. And much to Lister's chagrin, they also meet Kristine Kochanski, alive and well.

Lister suddenly realizes what he must look like and quickly tries to make himself presentable. But he's wearing fuzzy bunny slippers, a woman's dressing gown, and has a box of floss hanging from his mouth. It's a lost cause.

The reason she is alive and the other Lister is not is because in their universe Kochanski took the blame for having Lister's cat, Frankenstein, aboard ship. It was she who went into stasis instead of Lister.

Kochanski has a close, romantic relatinship with her hologramatic Lister. She wants our Lister to donate sperm so they can have children. Lister's hopes of sex are dashed in short order when she hands him a small "self-mixing" cylinder, and asks him to fill it up.

A GELF ship has somehow penetrated non-space and begins firing on the linkway, tearing a hole in the floor of the passage. The explosion knocks Kochanski off her feet and through the hole, leaving her hanging by a carrying strap. Both Listers try to rescue her, but our Lister saves her. Ironically it is the floss attached to his teeth that saves her.

Back on Starbug, the family of Lister's GELF's bride has come looking for him. They transmit a picture of his wife; an ugly furry picture. Kochanski is apalled, and asks why he doesn't just visit the orangutan house at the London Zoo. Then she skillfully helps them evade the GELF ship.

Kryten is very jealous of Kochanski. He feels that she will take Lister away with her, leaving him alone. The two of them do not get along. When the linkway is re-established and Kochanski is finally able to leave Kryten, celebrates in not-so-subtle fashion with champagne.

Later as Lister is loading supplies traded from their parallel universe counterparts, he notices the word "Ouroborous" on a box of batteries; the same word that was on the box in which he was found abandonded as a baby. He finally works out who he is and who is in the sperm sample vial. That baby is Dave Lister. He has to be left under a pool table in a Liverpool pub, three million years in the past, so that he can become Dave Lister, the last human being alive (or nearly so).

He runs into the linkway to tell Kristine. At that moment, the GELFs return, severing the linkway with Kochanksi on the wrong side. She tries to jump, but doesn't quite make it, and begins to drift off into non-space.

Lister gets a call on the inter-dimensional mobile communicator that she gave him earlier. She says she's reconsidered and she'll stay with him if he rescues her.

Lister gets some mountaineering equipment and rope. He fires a line to her ... and accidentally harpoons her leg. The Cat helps him pull her back to their side of the linkway. Then they take her back to Starbug.

18 months later, Lister materializes in an empty pub (in the middle of the night presumably). He says a heartfelt goodbye to the baby in the box (himself) and places him under the pool table, where he will begin his life as the young Dave Lister. The box has the word "OUROBOROS" on it.

Arc Advancement

Characters

• We learn that not only was Lister an orphan, abandoned under a pool table; he is the son of Kristine Kochanski and the adult Dave Lister. To complete the circle so to speak, he travels back in time three million years to leave the baby that will grow to become him under a pool table. Some of the more bizarre consequences of this are that he is his own biological father and his ex-girlfriend, Kristine Kochanski, is his biological mother.
• Despite the fact that Kristine is his biological mother, it doesn't seem to affect their relationship (or lack thereof).

Referbacks

• The family of the GELF Lister married in the series 6 episode Emohawk - Polymorph II come looking for him, demanding that he return to his wife.

Trivia

The Show

• When the Cat comes to warn them that they are approaching something, he has a baseball and is wearing a baseball glove.

Behind the Scenes

• Baby Lister is played by Alexander John-Jules, nephew of Danny John-Jules (The Cat).

Allusions and References

• The episode contains very similar events to a story by Robert A. Heinlein, All You Zombies—, describing a complicated series of events wherein one man is both his own father and mother. The narrator of the story wears a ring of the Ouroboros, described as "the World Snake that eats its own tail... A symbol of the Great Paradox," and the title of this episode.
• The Aigburth Arms Pub (where baby Lister is found) is a real restaurant/pub in Liverpool
• Kryten makes a remark about women who work in Oxfam shops.
• In Lister's flashback, he is returning from shore leave on Mimas.

Memorable Moments

• After Kochanski calls Lister on the inter-dimensional mobile phone she gave him, asking to be saved, he gets some mountaineering equipment and harpoons her leg. A moment later he receives a second call. Kryten answers ... It is an obscene phone call ... and it's for Lister!

Reviews

• Overall Grade: no reviews yet
• Review Breakdown: A+: 0 A: 0 A-: 0 B+: 0 B: 0 B-: 0 C+: 0 C: 0 C-: 0 D: 0 F: 0