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"Parallel Universe" is the sixth episode of
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...
''
Red Dwarf ''Red Dwarf'' is a British science fiction comedy franchise created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, which primarily consists of a television sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999, and on Dave since 2009, gaining a cult following. T ...
'' series two, and the twelfth in the show's run. It premiered on the British television channel
BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
on 11 October 1988. Written by
Rob Grant Robert Grant is an English comedy writer, television producer and co-creator of ''Red Dwarf''. Since ''Red Dwarf'', Grant has written two television series, ''The Strangerers'' and '' Dark Ages'', and four solo novels, his most recent being '' F ...
and
Doug Naylor Douglas Rodger Naylor (born 31 December 1955) is an English comedy writer, science fiction writer, director and television producer. Life and career Naylor was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England, and studied at Chetham's School of Music ...
, and directed by
Ed Bye Edward Richard Morrison Bye (born 12 June 1955) is a British film and TV producer and director. He directed the episodes of the science-fiction sitcom '' Red Dwarf'' from Series I-IV and VII-VIII. Early life Ed Bye is the son of Royal Marine Co ...
, the plot involves the ''Red Dwarf'' crew travelling to a parallel universe where they meet alternative versions of themselves. This marked the final appearance of
Norman Lovett Norman Lovett (born 31 October 1946) is a British stand-up comedian and actor best known for his portrayal of Holly (Red Dwarf), Holly, the ship's computer in ''Red Dwarf''. Career Lovett became a stand-up comedian in his thirties, initially ...
as Holly, although he would return years later at the end of Series VII and then for the whole of Series VIII. The episode was
remaster Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used. Mastering A ...
ed, along with the rest of the first three series, in 1998.


Plot

Holly ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...
invents a new drive system called the "Holly Hop Drive", declaring that it can theoretically get ''Red Dwarf'' back to Earth in an instant. When
Arnold Rimmer Arnold Judas Rimmer is a fictional character in the science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf'', played by Chris Barrie. Rimmer is characterised as a second-class technician (and de facto leader) of the mining ship Red Dwarf. Portrayed as snobbish, peda ...
,
Dave Lister David "Dave" Lister, commonly referred to simply as Lister, is a fictional character from the British science fiction situation comedy ''Red Dwarf'', portrayed by Craig Charles. Lister is characterised as a third-class technician (the lowest r ...
and
Cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...
decide to use the new system, it transports the ship into a parallel universe, and in proximity of a parallel version of ''Red Dwarf''. Onboard, Rimmer, Lister and Holly encounter their female counterparts—Arlene Rimmer (
Suzanne Bertish Suzanne Bertish (born 7 August 1951, Hammersmith, London) is an English actress. Educated at Woldingham School, Bertish joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and appeared in many of its productions, including its marathon eight-and-a-half-ho ...
), Deb Lister (
Angela Bruce Angela Bruce (born 6 May 1951) is an English actress, noted for her television work. Bruce was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire to a West Indian father and white mother, but was put up for adoption aged three, and brought up in Craghead, ...
) and Hilly (
Hattie Hayridge Hattie Hayridge (born 17 December 1959) is a British comedian and actress, best known for the role of the female version of Holly in '' Red Dwarf'' during the third, fourth and fifth series. She was described as a "cult figure in a beloved sit- ...
)—discovering that in this universe, women are the masters and superior gender, while men fought for equal rights. Cat, expecting to encounter his female counterpart, is shocked to find it to be actually a male dog-like humanoid named Dog (Matthew Devitt).Howarth & Lyons (1993) p. 58. Holly and Hilly reveal that they need a day to repair the Hop Drive, leaving the two groups to decide to socialise in the disco for the night. Lister and Rimmer are soon put off by their counterparts—the former criticising Deb on her qualities despite sharing them himself, and the latter resisting Arlene's overbearing sexual advances—while Cat and Dog disagree on dance techniques. Despite this, Lister has sex with Deb, but is shocked in the morning when Arlene points out that men in their universe get pregnant, rather than women. After Holly and Hilly confirm this, Lister becomes horrified that this universe's rules will ensure this. After he, Rimmer, Cat and Holly return to their ''Red Dwarf'' and universe, Lister conducts a pregnancy test. As he waits for the results, Holly speculates that this might be the answer to how he saw a " future echo" of himself with twin boys, to which Rimmer delights in how he recalled Lister's response to finding it out and the results eventually coming back positive, much to Lister's dismay.Howarth & Lyons (1993) p. 59.


Production


''Tongue Tied''

For time reasons, "Parallel Universe" was shown without its opening credit sequence, and was originally shown with no episode titles at all, although the introduction sequence would later be added in the remastered version. Instead the viewer was led straight into the Cat's song dream scene, where the Cat performs the " Tongue Tied" song, with Rimmer and Lister on backing vocals. The "Tongue Tied" lyrics were written by Grant and Naylor and the music was produced by
Howard Goodall Howard Lindsay Goodall (; born 26 May 1958) is an English composer of musicals, choral music and music for television. He also presents music-based programmes for television and radio, for which he has won many awards. In May 2008, he was na ...
.Interview: Howard Goodall, Red Dwarf Smegazine, issue 10, December 1992, Fleetway Editions Ltd, ISSN 0965-5603 The dance sequence, which was choreographed by
Charles Augins Charles Augins is an American actor, dancer and choreographer for stage and screen. A native of Virginia, in 1981 Augins choreographed Ray Davies' first musical '' Chorus Girls'', at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London, as well as appear ...
(who appeared in the previous episode, "Queeg"), also had to be trimmed down. It proved very popular and later spawned a single release credited to the Cat, reaching No. 17 in the
UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
in October 1993.


Other

To keep costs down existing shots of the Red Dwarf ship were matted together to give the appearance of two of them. This enabled the crew to use the finances on other model shots. The scenes would later be recreated for the remastered version using CGI. This was to be Norman Lovett's last appearance as HollyInterview: Norman Lovett, Red Dwarf Smegazine, issue 9, November 1992, Fleetway Editions Ltd, ISSN 0965-5603 until his brief return as the character in Series VII and full return in Series VIII some ten years later. After the end of Series 2, Lovett decided to leave the show. Having recently married and settled in
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
he felt the travelling from Edinburgh to production locations in London and Manchester would prove problematic, so Lovett decided not to come to rehearsals any more—there was a conflict with the producers, and Lovett was let go. Plus there was the promise of Lovett's own TV show, '' I, Lovett'', taking off at the time.
Hattie Hayridge Hattie Hayridge (born 17 December 1959) is a British comedian and actress, best known for the role of the female version of Holly in '' Red Dwarf'' during the third, fourth and fifth series. She was described as a "cult figure in a beloved sit- ...
had appeared as Hilly, Holly's female counterpart, in this episode. Producer Paul Jackson had seen her on '' Saturday Live'' and suggested her as a replacement for Lovett. This is also the only Red Dwarf episode that doesn't have its title come up at the beginning.
Angela Bruce Angela Bruce (born 6 May 1951) is an English actress, noted for her television work. Bruce was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire to a West Indian father and white mother, but was put up for adoption aged three, and brought up in Craghead, ...
played Deb Lister,
Suzanne Bertish Suzanne Bertish (born 7 August 1951, Hammersmith, London) is an English actress. Educated at Woldingham School, Bertish joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and appeared in many of its productions, including its marathon eight-and-a-half-ho ...
played Arlene Rimmer and Matthew Devitt played the Dog.


Reception

The episode was originally broadcast on the British television channel
BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
on 11 October 1988 in the 9:00 pm evening slot. The episode was considered the best from Series II according to a readers' poll in ''Red Dwarf'' magazine, with 5.6% rating.Red Dwarf Smegazine Survey Results, Red Dwarf Smegazine, issue 10, December 1992, Fleetway Editions Ltd, ISSN 0965-5603 Series II was met with great critical success, even with average viewing figures of around 3 million, so a third series was very likely. The song "Tongue Tied", which features in the Cat's opening dream sequence, was received so well that it was later released as a single. It was re-arranged and re-recorded by
Danny John-Jules Daniel John-Jules (born 16 September 1960) is a British actor, singer and dancer. He is best known for playing Milton Wordsworth in The Story Makers and ''Red Dwarf'', Barrington which are both children's series. Also he played in ''Maid Maria ...
(under the name 'The Cat') and released in October 1993. It reached number 17 in the UK charts. A video to accompany the release which starred Danny John-Jules as some of his ''Red Dwarf'' alter-egos, including Duane Dibbley, was also produced. It was based around a storyline written by Danny John-Jules and featured music videos for some of the remixes, with guest appearances from the rest of the ''Red Dwarf'' cast, along with Clayton Mark ("Elvis" in "
Meltdown Meltdown may refer to: Science and technology * Nuclear meltdown, a severe nuclear reactor accident * Meltdown (security vulnerability), affecting computer processors * Mutational meltdown, in population genetics Arts and entertainment Music * Me ...
") and Charles Augins (Queeg 500 in " Queeg").


Remastering

The remastering of Series I to III was carried out during the late 1990s. Changes throughout the series included replacement of the opening credits, giving the picture a colour grade and
filmising Film look (also known as filmizing or film-look) is a process in which video is altered in overall appearance to appear to have been shot on film stock. The process is usually electronic, although filmizing can sometimes occur as an unintentional ...
, computer-generated
special effects Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...
of ''Red Dwarf'' and many more visual and audio enhancements. Changes made specific to "Parallel Universe" include the addition of video and sound effects of ''Red Dwarf'' jumping into the parallel universe. The shots of the twin ''Red Dwarf'' ships side by side have been replaced with the new CGI versions. Video and sound effects of ''Red Dwarf'' jumping back into its own universe were added.


Notes


References

*


External links

* *
Episode Guide – Series II at RedDwarf.co.uk
{{Red Dwarf episodes Red Dwarf II episodes 1988 British television episodes Television episodes about parallel universes