"Waiting For God" is the fourth episode from

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 uni ...

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 ...

'' Red Dwarf'' series one. It was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 7 March 1988. The episode's theme is

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

: atheist Rimmer succumbs to a passionate belief in a superrace of aliens with the technology to give him a new body, while Lister reflects on his role as god of the Cat people. Written by Rob Grant 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 episode was considered to be one of the weakest from the first series.Episode Survey Results, Red Dwarf Smegazine, p. 27, issue 10, December 1992, Fleetway Editions Ltd, The episode was re-mastered, along with the rest of the first three series, in 1998, to bring the episodes up to a standard suitable for international broadcast.

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 ...

(

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 ...

) tracks an unidentified object near to ''Red Dwarf'' and brings it aboard. 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, pe ...

(

Chris Barrie Chris Barrie (born Christopher Jonathan Brown, 28 March 1960) is a British actor, comedian, and impressionist. He worked as a vocal impressionist on the ITV sketch show ''Spitting Image'' (1984–1996) and as Lara Croft's butler Hillary in th ...

) sees it, he quickly believes it to be a stasis capsule carrying a dormant member of an alien race that can give him a new body. However, when he leaves it in the observation room and awaits it being cleared of

quarantine A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been ...

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 ...

(

Craig Charles Craig Joseph Charles (born 11 July 1964) is an English actor, comedian, television and radio presenter. He is best known for his roles as Dave Lister in the science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf'' and Lloyd Mullaney in the soap opera ''Coronation ...

) makes a closer inspection and finds it to be one of the ships' jettisoned garbage pods. When Holly admits to him that he didn't say anything about this to Rimmer as a joke, Lister decides to keep quiet as well.Howarth & Lyons (1993) p. 48. While leaving Rimmer to carry out fruitless examinations of the pod, Lister becomes curious about

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 ...

(

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 ...

) and his sudden disappearances for "investigating", and decides to learn more about his people. Lister learns the Cat race lived their lives according to five sacred religious laws (four of which Lister himself would have broken because of his lifestyle), and that Cat's race destroyed itself in holy wars over minor details of their heaven "Fuchal" (based on a misunderstanding of Lister's future plans on Fiji). When Cat disappears again, Lister follows him to the ship's cargo hold, whereupon he discovers Cat has been attending to one other survivor – an elderly and blind cat priest. Learning that he is dying, Lister overhears him questioning his faith to his race's god "Cloister", and asks Cat to burn his priest's hat. Lister opts to prevent this and convinces the priest he lived an admirable life and will soon reach "Fuchal", causing the priest to be joyous on his final day before he dies.Howarth & Lyons (1993) p. 49. Returning to the upper decks, Lister joins Rimmer to examine the pod's contents after its quarantine period is over. When Rimmer begins to see garbage and doubts what he originally thought, he finally deduces angrily what he was investigating over the episode's closing credits.

Production

Written by co-creators, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and directed by series regular Ed Bye, the episode features the first real appearance of the skutters. They were considered unreliable props because they would frequently go out of control. It was thought that nearby taxi radio signals were interfering with the remote control signals.Red Dwarf series 1 guide: episode four: Waiting For God, Red Dwarf Smegazine, volume 2 issue 4, August 1993, Fleetway Editions Ltd,

Noel Coleman Noel Coleman (26 November 1919 – 12 October 2007) was a RADA-trained English actor who appeared in many television roles. He appeared in the 1969 '' Doctor Who'' serial ''The War Games'' as General Smythe and he appeared in '' Red Dwarf'' as ...

starred as the Cat Priest and

John Lenahan John Lenahan (born 1961 in Philadelphia, US) is an American illusionist and entertainer resident in the UK since 1984. A successful corporate entertainer, he came to greater fame as a result of a 1994 appearance on the BBC One show ''How Do The ...

returned to voice the Toaster.

Cultural references

*Besides the overall

theme of the Cat species, the episode also references the film '' Alien'' when Rimmer mentions "squiggly, slimy aliens sticking to the face". *The title of the episode is a reference to the Samuel Beckett play '' Waiting For Godot''.

Reception

The episode was originally broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 7 March 1988 in the 9:00pm evening time slot. Although the pilot episode "

The End The End may refer to: Films * ''The End'' (1953 film), a film by Christopher Maclaine * ''The End'' (1978 film), a comedy by Burt Reynolds * ''The End'' (1997 film), a Canadian film of 1997 * ''The End'' (1998 film), a skateboarding document ...

" drew in over five million viewers, viewing figures declined as the series progressed.Howarth & Lyons (1993) p. 8-9. The episode was considered to be one of the weakest from the first series by ''Red Dwarf Smegazine'' readers — it came in 27th place with 0.4% of the votes.

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 wo ...

of ''Red Dwarf'' and many more visual and audio enhancements. Changes specific to "Waiting For God" include new music to accompany the Cat's early scenes, echo added to the pod quarantine scenes, continuity error of Rimmer's folded arms corrected, Cat religion artwork added to Holly's explanation of the Cat race, some lines removed and certain scenes tightened up, shots of Lister with donut and golden sausage removed and new ashes canister leaving ''Red Dwarf'' inserted.

Notes

References

External links

* *
Episode Guide – Series 1 at RedDwarf.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waiting For God (Red Dwarf) Red Dwarf I episodes 1988 British television episodes