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Single Purpose Planet
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Also with [[Red Dwarf (novel)|four tie-in novels]].
{{tropenamer}}
* [[More Teeth Than the Osmond Family]]
{{tropelist}}
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* [[Archived Army]]: The waxdroids in ''Meltdown'' form less literal versions of this.
* [[Armchair Military]]: Rimmer.
* [[
** In ''Back to Reality'': "I'm on the run with a murderer and a mass-murderer and a guy in a bri-nylon shirt!"▼
* [[Ascended Extra]]: Kryten appears in the premiere of Series 2 and becomes a regular in Series 3. Kochanski appears twice in Series 1, once in Series 2 and once in Series 6 (actually a GELF in disguise) and becomes a regular in Series 7. Captain Hollister appears but twice in Series 1 and again in "Stasis Leak" before returning as a regular in Series 8.
** Notably, despite the fact that Captain Hollister went the most time between his last appearance as a guest and his debut as a regular (11 years), his is the only case in which the ''actor'' who played him ascended as well. David Ross declined the opportunity to join the main cast due to his distaste for the Kryten makeup and was replaced by Robert Llewellyn, and Clare Grogan was replaced by Chloe Annett as Kochanski due to the fact Grogan had retired from acting in favor of becoming a TV host.
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* [[Better Than Sex]]: When Rimmer {{spoiler|copies himself and moves in together,}} he describes his new life of discipline as "better than sex". Of course, he's soon proven wrong when it turns out {{spoiler|even he doesn't like himself.}}
* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: Ace Rimmer would have nothing to live for without this trope.
* [[
{{quote|'''Cat''': What the hell is all this down the back of my chair? ...Peanuts?▼
'''Lister''': No, I've been trimming my verrucas.▼
'''Cat''': ...You have personal habits that would make a monkey blush!▼
'''Lister''': You really think I'm psychotically disgusting, don'tcha? They're peanuts, alright?▼
'''Cat''': Real peanuts?▼
'''Lister''': Yeah.▼
'''Cat''': Where'd you get them?▼
'''Lister''': That derelict a couple of months back. Found them in the dead captain's old donkey jacket. Don't look at me like that! You enjoyed that Mint Imperial, didn't ya?▼
'''Cat''': And where didja get that?▼
'''Lister''': He was sucking that when he got shot! I had to prise his jaws open with a car jack. }}▼
* [[Black Comedy Rape]]:
** Rimmer reveals in the Series 2 episode ''Thanks For The Memory'' that he lost his virginity to (and whose only sexual liaison while alive the first time around was with) Yvonne McGruder, the ship's boxing champion. Who seemed to be suffering from a concussion because she kept calling him "Norman". This is given a ''slightly'' less [[squick]]y [[Retcon]] in the books.
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* [[Cluster F-Bomb|Cluster Smeg Bomb]]: Lister and Rimmer, one each.
{{quote|'''Lister''' (in ''Bodyswap'', while in Rimmer's body)''':''' Oh, smeg! What the smeggin' smeg's he smeggin' done?! He's smeggin' ''killed'' me!!}}
* [[Cold Opening]]: ''Stoke Me a Clipper'' had an opening scene four or five minutes long before finally kicking into the opening sequence.▼
** Due to the episodes running long, two back-to-back episodes from Series VII aired with no opening credits: "Ouroboros" and "Duct Soup" (extended versions released to DVD restored the openings for both).▼
* [[Contemplate Our Navels]]: Either played straight or as a parody of science fiction in general being wont to do this, much of the show was taken up by philosophical ideas via sci-fi trappings, i.e. the manifestation of Lister's ''Confidence and Paranoia'', or the ''Inquisitor''.
* [[Cool Cat]]: Cat obviously, although he's humanoid.
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* [[Deader Than Disco]]: Cat is fond in-universe of comparing themselves to extremely unfashionable things to get the point about how dead they are just about to become across.
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: All of the main characters to varying degrees.
▲* [[Dead Baby Comedy]]: Happens on a number of occasions, but in a relatively subtle way. Compared to typical expressions of this trope. Take, for example, this exchange from the opening of "Legion"...
▲{{quote|'''Cat''': What the hell is all this down the back of my chair? ...Peanuts?
▲'''Lister''': No, I've been trimming my verrucas.
▲'''Cat''': ...You have personal habits that would make a monkey blush!
▲'''Lister''': You really think I'm psychotically disgusting, don'tcha? They're peanuts, alright?
▲'''Cat''': Real peanuts?
▲'''Lister''': Yeah.
▲'''Cat''': Where'd you get them?
▲'''Lister''': That derelict a couple of months back. Found them in the dead captain's old donkey jacket. Don't look at me like that! You enjoyed that Mint Imperial, didn't ya?
▲'''Cat''': And where didja get that?
▲'''Lister''': He was sucking that when he got shot! I had to prise his jaws open with a car jack. }}
* [[Deep-Immersion Gaming]]:
** The titular video game in episode "Better Than Life".
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** The backwards running time period in 'Backwards'
** The living photographs in 'Timeslides'
** Red Dwarf itself becomes a bit of an [[Eldritch Location]] in '
** Though "scientifically" explained, the justice zone in 'Justice'
** The psi moon in 'Terrorform'
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* [[Embarrassing Middle Name]]: Kryten-2X4B-523P—apparently mechanoids consider "2X4B" to be an embarrassing middle name. But at least it's not "2'''Q'''4B"...
** Arnold Judas Rimmer
* [[Empathic Environment]]: The psi-moon in
* [[Enhance Button]]: Parodied mercilessly in ''Back To Earth''. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aINa6tg3fo Uncrop!]
** For the record, it serves as a [[Shout-Out]] / [[Take That]] at the [[Enhance Button]] scene from [[Blade Runner]].
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** While Lister's song writing skills prior to Series VI were less than ideal, he was still capable of playing guitar without causing pain and suffering to those around him.
** Lister also suffers despite having [[Character Development|grown a fair bit]] during the first six series. Season VII sees him acting like a complete idiot, it's hard to believe this was the same guy who was 'faulted' by the clones in Rimmerworld for being brave, selfless and charismatic.
* [[Freaky Friday Flip]]:
* [[Fun with Acronyms]]: "The Committee for the Liberation and Integration of Terrifying Organisms and their Rehabilitation Into Society."
* [[Furry Confusion]]: Even though The Cat is on the 'almost human' of the [[Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism]], his mannerisms and habits are still very much cat like, more so than most actual cat furries with fur and a tail.
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{{quote|'''Kill Crazy''': LET'S GO KILL SOMETHING! YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAH!}}
* [[The Last Man Heard a Knock]]: Lister's the last human being alive for most of the show, but he's never alone.
* [[Last of His Kind]]: The Cat and Lister {{spoiler|at least until the arrival of first Kochanski and later the whole crew of ''Red Dwarf''}}). Of course, the cat race still exists somewhere Out There, and one of the "lost episodes" that exists only as storyboard (see the DVD extras) would have featured a visit to a planet of Cat's people, as a spoof of the ''[[Star Trek:
* [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall]]: The pub owner's reverse rant in ''Backwards'', ostensibly informing Kryten and Rimmer they're fired, {{spoiler|actually criticises "the one prat in the country who's bothered to get hold of this recording, turn it round and actually work out the rubbish that [the pub owner's] saying." Of course, [[Technology Marches On|when the episode was filmed, reversing the recording was a complicated process]]}}.
* [[Leeroy Jenkins]]: Kill Crazy, who is so trigger happy, he doesn't even make it out of the submarine because he charges into battle so eagerly, he knocks himself out. At one point, it does prove to be an advantage as a mutated creature takes one look at him and runs away.
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* [[Merlin Sickness]]: ''Backwards''.
* [[Mind Screw]]: Quite a few examples, but "Back to Earth" took it [[Up to Eleven]].
* [[Misery Builds Character]]: Ace Rimmer is this all over. He is different
* [[Mistaken for Exhibit]]: Rimmer mistakes a light switch for an art installation in "Legion".
* [[Mix and Match]]: [[Sitcom]] combined with sci-fi spaceship adventure.
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* [[Mr. Exposition]]: Holly, and later Kryten.
* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: Kochanski in Series VII. This was largely abandoned in Series VIII, which she spent the vast majority of dressed up in the bulky prison jumpsuit and Canaries uniforms, though ''Cassandra'' was a notable exception.
▲* [[Murder Arson and Jaywalking]]: The Cat, [[Running Gag|at any point where Starbug gets damaged]].
▲** In ''Back to Reality'': "I'm on the run with a murderer and a mass-murderer and a guy in a bri-nylon shirt!"
* [[My Future Self and Me]] / [[Time Travel Tense Trouble]]: The ludicrous temporal shenanigans of Stasis Leak in Season 2. Lister attempts to re-kindle a relationship with his former girlfriend and in doing so encounters a future version of himself who has already married her.
** And Rimmer runs into the original him, who he went into the past to try and save, and thus runs into a future version of himself who has an unconvincing moustache.
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'''Holly''': [[Take That|Anything's better than listening to an album by Olivia Newton-John.]] }}
* [[Pound of Flesh Twist]]: Used against the heroes in the final season. Having been imprisoned for stealing and destroying a Starbug, their attempt to escape and prove their innocence demonstrates to the captain that their story is true, exonerating them regarding the theft. But it also demonstrates that they had improperly accessed classified personnel files, a crime carrying exactly the same penalty. (The files would have revealed the Captain bribed his way up the career ladder, which explains why he was looking for the loophole.)
* [[The Power of Friendship]]: Inverted. The rest of the crew use this with Rimmer to escape the Psi-Moon in ''Terrorform''. Rimmer is suspicious right from the start, and even when it does work long enough to get them off the moon, Rimmer immediately realizes that it was all tot, and that they meant not a word of it. Much to his displeasure, by that point they're only too happy to confirm his suspicions.
* [[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner]]: "Go for yer guns, ye scum-sucking molluscs!"
* [[Precision F-Strike]]: Rimmer gets to say 'bastard' on four occasions and "bitch" once, all of which count.
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* [[Psychic Radar]]: During the episode "Quarantine," both Lanstrom and Rimmer, under the effects of the Holovirus, are able to home in on the location of the rest of the crew by sensing their thoughts.
{{quote|''"Unfortunately she has already found you! [[Eye Beams|Twinkle, twinkle, little eye]], now it's time for you to die!"''|'''Dr. Hildegard Lanstrom''', ''Red Dwarf'' "Qurantine."}}
* [[
* [[Put on a Bus]]: Holly, once in Series VI and VII, and again in the Dave specials ''Back to Earth'' (he's fine, just temporarily out of commission for the duration of the episodes).
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** On one occasion the laugh was so long it had to be edited down.
** Inverted for Series VII, which was not shot in front of a live audience, but the episodes were later played for an audience and their recorded responses dubbed over the episodes for broadcast. This resulted in some jokes and lines of dialogue being submerged under the laughter, since the cast would not know to pause for laughter. Some DVD and VHS releases of the series have the laugh track removed.
* [[Shrine to the Fallen]]: '''Back To Earth''' implies that an extra bit of the ship has been built (or at least cleaned up specially, which is a pretty big deal for Lister) just to house a commemorative gravestone to Kochanski.▼
* [[Shown Their Work]]: In the [[DVD Commentary]] for the pilot episode, Danny John-Jules mentions researching cats and their behavior for his role.
▲* [[Shrine to the Fallen]]: '''Back To Earth''' implies that an extra bit of the ship has been built (or at least cleaned up specially, which is a pretty big deal for Lister) just to house a commemorative gravestone to Kochanski.
* [[Silly Reason for War]]: The conflict which almost wiped out the Cat race was fought over their different interpretations of Lister's favourite colour for the hats at the hot dog and donut stand in Fiji. {{spoiler|They were both wrong.}}
* [[Single-Purpose Planet]]: Upon the death of {{spoiler|Ace Rimmer}}, the crew follow the small vessel carrying their remains, and finds what amounts to a cemetery planet for their millions of incarnations.
* [[Smart People Play Chess]]: Used by Queeg after being challenged to a duel by Holly.
** An earlier Season II episode had Holly engaged in a game of postal chess with Gordon, the A.I on another JMC vessel. They only managed one move, though.
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*** It's not at all hard to understand; when Holly appeared female, the man she was attracted to was [[The Ace|Ace]] "[[Even the Guys Want Him]]" [[The Ace|Rimmer]].
* [[Spiritual Successor]]: To ''Dave Hollins: Space Cadet'', a radio series written as a parody of ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]''. HAB was renamed Holly in order to change the character from a HAL expy and Dave Hollins became Dave Lister, as there was a footballer by the name of Dave Hollins at the time. Rimmer and the Cat were added and the rest is history.
* [[Spot the
** The 'imposter' Lister's hands are played by [[wikipedia:Phil Manzanera|Phil Manzanera]]. Apparently the writers wanted [[wikipedia:Brian May|Brian May]] of [[Queen]] for that part, but he wasn't available - but his wife, actress [[wikipedia:Anita Dobson|Anita Dobson]], got the part of Captain Tau.
* [[Sorry I Fell on Your Fist]]: The "Good" or "High" version of the crew members from ''Demons and Angels''. With knives and bullets from the "Low" Dwarfers.
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* [[Take That, Audience!]]: "The Cat's looking so geeky he couldn't get into a science fiction convention!"
** Done in a much more direct manner in the ''Smeg Ups'' and ''Smeg Outs'' videos, where Kryten reads out fan mail criticising the continuity and logic errors in the show, and then berates the people who wrote the letters, accusing them of having no life.
▲* [[
* [[Tanks for The Memories]]: Fittingly, in "Thanks for the Memory."▼
▲** Due to the episodes running long, two back-to-back episodes from Series VII aired with no opening credits: "Ouroboros" and "Duct Soup" (extended versions released to DVD restored the openings for both).
* [[Temporal Paradox]]: {{spoiler|Lister is the son of his future self and the alternate Kochanski.}} The whole thing is neatly sewn up by the word "Ouroboros", implying it's a cycle, a temporal loop.
** Also, the battle between ''Starbug'' and {{spoiler|future ''Starbug''}} in ''Out of Time''. {{spoiler|The evil crew win with their advanced weapons systems, but because they destroyed their previous selves, they didn't exist to fight ''Starbug''.}} Lister, in the next episode, tried to explain why they weren't dead, but the camera he was talking to ''exploded''.
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** And in a later episode when Holly's grammar chip is damaged... "Abandon shop! This is not a daffodil. Repeat, ''this is not a daffodil!''"
* [["Three Laws"-Compliant]]: Most androids are programmed with something pretty close. Mechanoid characters can take "Asimov's Law" as a flaw in the RPG.
▲* [[This Is Sparta]]: In "DNA", Cat is fiddling with the DNA machine trying to get Lister out, but with little success. Lister responds with, "Do. Nothing! Press. Nothing! GET! KRYTEN!"
* [[Time Travel]]: "Stasis Leak", "Backwards", "Timeslides", "Out of Time", "Tikka to Ride" and probably more.
** Particularly hilarious towards the middle of "Out of Time", where they come into possession of a "time drive" and play with it a bit before realizing it's completely, utterly useless while they're still physically located 3 million years away from Earth. It doesn't do space, just time. But they did get to experience the heady medieval atmosphere of pre-Renaissance deep-space.
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** {{spoiler|Rimmer, Captain Hollister and the rest of the Red Dwarf crew who died in the first episode get resurrected as clones in Season VIII unaware they are all clones.}}
* [[Too Soon]]: The running order of Series IV was changed because of the Gulf War.
* [[Transformation Ray]]: The DNA machine in "DNA".
* [[Trash of the Titans]]
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* [[True Companions]]: The crew aren't the closest-knit bunch, but this gets them out of the trap of Rimmer's mind in "Terrorform". Once they're safe, they immediately and unanimously confirm to Rimmer that they didn't mean any of it.
* [[Tyrant Takes the Helm]]: Queeg taking over from Holly. {{spoiler|Holly plays out the trope, pretending to be Queeg to make the crew appreciate him.}}
== Tropes U-Z ==
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* [[Villain Song]]: ''Blue'''s Rimmer could perhaps be a subversion. It's not actually Rimmer (it's a simulation created from Rimmer's logbook). Although he's not technically a villain, it proves to Lister that Rimmer was an antagonist.
* [[Virtual Ghost]]: Rimmer.
* [[Voluntary
* [[Waif Prophet]]: Subverted.
* [[Weapon for Intimidation]]: In ''Rimmerworld'', the characters have a bazookoid they can't actually fire, because it'd damage the ship and cause it to fall apart. It's for psychological purposes only.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:TV Series]]▼
[[Category:British Series]]
[[Category:Science Fiction Series]]
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[[Category:Dramedy]]
[[Category:Trope Overdosed]]
▲[[Category:Red Dwarf]]
▲[[Category:TV Series]]
[[Category:Britain's Best Sitcom]]
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