Complete Guide
Duct Soup
Series VII, Episode 4
Recorded: May-Aug 1996, Shepperton Studios
First Broadcast: 07.02.1997 (BBC 2)
VHS Release: 01.10.1999 (BBCV 6790)
DVD Release: 07.11.2005 (BBCDVD 1692)
Blu-ray Release: 14.01.2019 (BBCBD 0441)
Written by Doug Naylor
Directed by Ed Bye
Synopsis
When the generator and its back-up go down in the middle of the night, the crew have to crawl through the mile long labyrinth of service ducts to restart their engines. On their journey they discover a few surprising things about one another. Including what Lister once did on top of a crate of canned asparagus.
Cast
Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Chloe Annett (Kochanski)
Did You Know?
Having appeared in Ouroboros' opening flashback scene, this is the first episode of Red Dwarf not to feature Chris Barrie as Rimmer.
Duct Soup was a late script replacement for the abandoned Identity Within (recreated in animated form on the Series VII DVD). It was deliberately designed as a "bottle" episode, featuring only the main cast on the ship-bound sets, to keep the budget as low as possible.
Once again, the opening titles were cut for time - and once again, several scenes (including the "Squeaky Gibson" story that Craig Charles had declared one of his favourite moments) were instead repurposed for the Xtended video.
