History Recap / RedDwarfSeasonVIITikkaToRide

* BrokenPedestal: Lister is distraught at the idea that Kennedy's libido could cause such a disaster.
-->'''Lister:''' I thought you said he was a great man!

-->'''Rimmer:''' He was also an inveterate womanizer. His affairs were legendary. They never came out when he was alive.

* {{Mondegreen}}: In-universe, Lister mistakes Rimmer saying "JFK" for "Jeff Kay".

* BookDumb: Lister, again. He has no knowledge of 20th century events due to not finding it very interesting, and initially has no idea who John F. Kennedy is, to the point where he initially thinks JFK was named after the airport...

Last time on ''Red Dwarf'': Everybody died and Starbug was completely destroyed.

With the time-drive, they go back in time, but not to Liverpool, or even anywhere in Britain. Instead they land in a book depository. In Dallas. In 1963. Hoo-boy...
The boys' arrival knocks Lee Harvey Oswald out the window, and their looking about the area causes him to become street pizza. As a result, some angry policemen barge into the room prepared to arrest them for shooting at the still-alive JFK. With some quick thinking from Spare Head One, the four get away via the time-drive.

They reappear in Dallas a few years later. And it's completely deserted, except for one dead guy (who bears a suspicious resemblance to Jack Ruby). Spare Head Two does a quick check, and learns what happened: Since Kennedy didn't die, he remained president of the U.S., until he was caught cheating on his wife with a mafia boss's mistress. Impeached and arrested, Kennedy was replaced by J. Edgar Hoover, blackmailed into running by the mob. Hoover agreed to allow the Soviet Union to install missile stations in Cuba, in exchange for the mafia setting up cocaine trafficking. With that looming over their heads, millions of Americans fled the cities in range. Spare Head Two knew something like this would happen, but because he has no sense of guilt anymore he didn't care enough to stop it.

This has also buggered up the space race, and consequently Starbug doesn't exist. The Boys from The Dwarf are temporally adrift, and the time-drive's broken (not, as Rimmer thinks, because of a tachyon surge, but just because Spare Head Two had been jabbing it too hard). They're going nowhere for the moment. And worst of all... Lister [[SkewedPriorities still hasn't gotten a smegging curry]].

Later, the Boys discuss Kennedy over a slice of Roasted Dead Guy, Spare Head Two seeing no problem with cooking a human thanks to his disabled behaviour protocols. Once the time-drive fixes itself, a despondent crew decide there's only one thing to do. To make things right, they have to let Kennedy die. Easier said than done, though. Their attempts to undo their first mistake mean that Lee Harvey Oswald's shots don't manage to kill Kennedy. Then they hit upon the idea of a ''second'' gunman, positioned on that nearby hill... but who are they going to get to take the shot? Lister has an idea, and sets the time-drive to Idlewild Airport, as John F. Kennedy is led into custody.

-->'''Lister:''' You're a liberal icon, and that's the person you should be, but in order to be that person... you're gonna have to sacrifice your life.

The four return to Dallas, with Kennedy in tow disguised as a policeman. This time, the attempt is successful. JFK is killed by a sniper on November 22nd 1963. The future Kennedy thanks the Dwarfers for allowing him to be reborn, before fading away into nothingness.

Some time later, as Rimmer is using a restored Kryten as a volt-meter down in the supply bays, Lister comes in with a realization: The curry supplies, the ones that were entirely destroyed? They ''weren't''. He just used the time-drive to steal them from the past. One jaunt later, and Lister has all the curries he could ever need.

All's well that ends well, right? Well... no. Rimmer tricks Lister into separating Starbug's supply bay from the rear of the ship, and then has the ship speed off into the distance. Lister is momentarily distraught at having been left all on his own, with nothing for company but three and a half a tonnes of curry.

Fan''smegging''tastic.

* DelayedReaction: Spare Head Two notes, on seeing they've landed in Dallas, notes JFK's assassination was from the Texas Book Depository. While leaning on boxes labeled "Texas Book Depository". ''Then'' he notices what the sign says.
* EmergencyTemporalShift: Lister attempts to misuse the Time Drive in order to pick up some emergency curry supplies from Earth in the 23rd century, only for the crew to end up in Dallas, 1963. After accidentally killing Lee Harvey Oswald before he can take the shot - and making themselves look like assassins in the process - they find themselves cornered by secret service agents, forcing Kryten to hastily transport them at least a year into the future... only to find that a Bad Future has ensued as a result of Kennedy being saved.

** Lister seems to use it in ''Ouroboros'' to bring his baby self back to Earth though his method of time travel isn't named in episode.

* LackOfEmpathy: Spare Head Two, thanks to Lister's disabling his behavioural protocals. Lister eventually calls him on it, to no effect.
* LogicBomb: Lister is shown inadvertently destroying an artificially intelligent video camera (apparently the third one that week) by trying to explain the TemporalParadox that happened in the battle of the previous episode. Kryten, however, merely finds it garbled, confusing, and dull; he suffers no ill effects.
* MadeOfPlasticine: A five story fall wouldn't exactly turn you into a "giant pizza."

** The ''Red Dwarf'' wiki points out that the Future Lister in ''[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIStasisLeak Stasis Leak]]'' said they'll get another chance to go back in time in five years. This episode is set four years later from their perspective [[note]]Not counting 200 years spent in stasis between ''[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonVBackToReality Back To Reality]]'' and ''[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonVIPsirens Psirens]]'' [[/note]] so it's possible Lister was meant to use the Time Drive to go back in time and marry Kochanski.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Lister's maniacal, all-consuming desire for a curry every night nearly brings mankind to the brink of extinction, and forces a good if flawed man to kill himself to fix it.

* SeriesContinuityError: How the Time Drive works has completely changed since the previous episode. It was originally fixed to the ship and could only move it through time but [[TimeAndRelativeDimensionsInSpace not any closer to Earth.]], now it's a handheld device capable of teleporting the dwarfers to Earth. Doug Naylor handwaves this on the DVD release of the series by implying that the dimension paradoxes caused when the future crew destroyed their past selves changed the device, possibly melding it with the handheld transporter from "Rimmerworld".

* WhoShotJFK: Thanks to the time-drive, JFK shot himself.
-->'''JFK:''' You mean... assassinate myself?

* MisappliedPhlebotinum: The whole point of the show is for the gang to get back to Earth. The prospect of using the Time Drive to go to Earth and stay there rather than get more curry then go back to space is brought up, but after their encounter with their future-selves, no-one (save Lister) wants to risk it.