Trivia / Red Dwarf Season III "Polymorph"

• Banned Episode:
  • YTV, a family-oriented channel in Canada, often aired edited episodes of Red Dwarf. With this episode, they ultimately decided that editing the episode was not worth the effort and decided not to air it.
  • Contrary to what one might think, however, this episode has nothing to do with why its original VHS release (together with "Backwards" and "Marooned") received a 15 certificate instead of the usual PG. That was actually because of the scene in "Marooned" where Lister claims to have lost his virginity when he was 12.
• Blooper: When Kryten searches for the shrunken underpants form of the Polymorph after throwing them on Lister's bunk, they're visible in the upper left corner as he says that there's nothing there in the broadcast version. The Remastered version tries to cover this by digitally recolouring them to match the sheets.
• Creator Backlash: Doug Naylor initially didn't like the episode's ending, feeling it was too ambiguous, and added an ending caption to the Remastered version stating that the second Polymorph hid in Lister's clean underwear drawer and ended up starving to death. When revisiting the Remastered episodes for their DVD release and the commentaries, however, Naylor admitted that the altered ending wasn't an improvement and that the original one still worked better:
  My memory was that the altered ending was funnier... but that clearly wasn't.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: On the Series III DVD the producers mention this as one of their favorite episodes from the series. It's a fan favourite too; when the fandom is polled on their favourite Episode, it usually places in the Top 5.
• Deleted Scene:
  • Extended dialogue in the "lunchtime with medical equipment" scene, and also a story about Lister's friend Olaf Petersen who spent a week in sickbay after trying Lister's Shami Kebab Diablo.
  • The full, uncut growth of the Polymorph to its real size. The initial transition was much slower, and more "toothy" and slimy, in the original edit.
  • A lost Holly moment is followed by a fuller version of the Cat's conversation with Genny the mutant.
  • A lost bit of dialogue expanding on Kryten's new guilt-free nature and Cat with no vanity, as Kryten insults him, and Cat agrees.
• Edited for Syndication:
  • When this episode was first released on VHS, the warning at the beginning had the word "week's" removed from the opening announcement ("This week's Red Dwarf...") under the dubious logic that it made no sense when released on home video. It was reinstated for the DVD release.
  • In a 2012 repeat, the zoom out from the shot of Lister lying on the bed in the medical unit was cut to make the ad break smoother.
• Inspiration for the Work: Director Ed Bye drew inspiration for the look and design of the episode from watching Alien just before shooting began.

---