Trivia / Red Dwarf Season VI "Rimmerworld"

• Deleted Scene:
  • During Rimmer's medical examination he discusses with Kryten what became of his apparently successful brothers, John, Frank, and Howard Rimmer. Rimmer tells Kryten that, in his family, "they were taught to be winners. Four boys. Every morning, three breakfasts. You learn pretty darn quickly that losers don't eat. I've still got the fork marks to prove it". Kryten says that it sounds more like Charles Manson: The Early Years. Rimmer says that "three out of those four Rimmer boys became the cream of the Space Corps. 75% hit rate, you can't knock it". Kryten then reminds Rimmer that all his brothers went insane and that they destroyed the craft that they were commanding and killed the entire crew (ironically something Rimmer himself did, albeit accidentally, aboard Red Dwarf. Kryten also did this aboard the Nova 5.) Rimmer says, "That's a bit personal, isn't it?".
  • A second and shorter extension of Rimmer's medical examination, with Rimmer talking more about the poor health in his family history, due to anxiety, stress, and heart and blood pressure problems.
  • An extension of the scene where Lister tries to talk down the female Simulant Lieutenant at gunpoint aboard the wreck of the simulant ship, giving veiled requests to Rimmer for help as Rimmer is silently sneaking to the escape pod behind her. As Rimmer struggles to open the escape pod door, the Simulant Lieutenant makes it clear to Lister that isn't going to let them live, before Rimmer gets out and starts a shipquake and some girders fall on her. Before she dies the Simulant Lieutenant says that her shipmates "burned alive in hideous agony", after Lister says that "all we've been through, doesn't that mean anything to you?".
  • An extension of the scene where Lister, Kryten, and Cat accidentally warp a week into the past with the Teleporter. Perhaps as a reference to the fact that Cat's wardrobe budget had been cut for Series VI, meaning a lesser number of costumes for Cat to wear, the Cat is embarrassed to be in a room with another version of himself as they are both wearing the same outfit.
  • Rimmer begins a personal journal or log when he first arrives on what will become Rimmerworld. The first entry was shown but trimmed down substantially for the aired episode. Among other things cut is Rimmer deciding to ape his hero Alexander the Great, and have a massive crying jag on seeing his new home, figuring, "If it's good enough for him, it's okay for me".
  • A more dramatic introduction for Lister, Kryten, and Cat into the ruler's throne room. They are led in by the Rimmer-Centurions, and a crier demands silence for His Most Excellent Majesty's entry. Lister sniggers, to which one of the Rimmer-Centurions demands at spear-point that Lister "stand to attention, mutant scum, while they play the anthem!" The "anthem" is a cheesy Hammond Organ fanfare as The Great One enters with his Rimmer-Concubines. The Rimmer-Centurion behind Lister does the Rimmer Salute as his king takes his seat on the throne.
  • The aired ending has the Dwarfers accidentally teleporting into the future, where Lister is apparently missing, and future-Rimmer says that something terrible has happened to him. Present-Kryten then beams the others out to not know any more of their future. It was kept like this as the writers believed that it would work as a clever teaser for Lister's apparent Brain in a Jar fate in the next episode. The original ending to "Rimmerworld" had Lister emerging from the toilet just after their past selves beam back out, and Kryten calling Rimmer slime for the prank.
• Edited for Syndication: Cut from a 2012 repeat:
  • Rimmer and Kryten discussing Space Corps Directive 196156, ("Any Officer caught sniffing the saddle of the exercise bicycle in the women's gym will be discharged without trial").
  • Most of the shot of the first Rimmer clone emerging from the pod (presumably to better hide the shot of Chris Barrie's bare ass).
• Fake Shemp: Sorry folks, that is not Chris Barrie's ass. Barrie was able to get a "stunt butt" for the scene in question, after telling the producers he was not looking forward to being nude on camera.
• Distanced from Current Events: The episode was due to be broadcast as part of a repeat season on 13 March 1996. It was suspended due to the Dunblane massacre, when it was feared that the gun-toting simulant at the start of the episode, and other references to a "psychotic deranged ruthless killer", could be thought to parallel the real-life tragedy, and thus be considered offensive, as was Cat's line, "Form an orderly queue behind the gun cannon".
• Recycled Set: The episode was filmed back to back with "Gunmen of the Apocalypse" to avoid having to rebuild the sets and models for the Simulant ship, and having to hire actress Elizabeth Hickling twice. It was planned as a sequel to "Gunmen" but was effectively cut down from its original idea.
• What Could Have Been: Originally it was planned for much more of the episode to take place on the titular planet. When it became clear how short Series VI's shooting schedule was going to be and Grant Naylor also remembering the nightmarish time they had with all the split-screen effects required for the previous year's "Demons & Angels", the episode was rewritten to mostly take place on Starbug and the wrecked simulant ship, with just a few scenes on Rimmerworld itself. Ironically, after the script was completed Grant and Naylor discovered that the BBC had just obtained some new effects equipment that made complicated split-screen shots much easier to pull off but decided to instead use it to make the already-scripted scenes more elaborate, also using them as a practice run for the scenes with the future Dwarfers in the following episode.

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