Tikka To Ride

Series VII, Episode 1
Recorded: May-Aug 1996, Shepperton Studios
First Broadcast: 17.01.1997 (BBC 2)
VHS Release: 01.10.1999 (BBCV 6789)
DVD Release: 07.11.2005 (BBCDVD 1692)
Blu-ray Release: 14.01.2019 (BBCBD 0441)

Written by Doug Naylor
Directed by Ed Bye

Synopsis

The crew are dead, slain by their future selves in the cliff-hanger that ended series six. But coming back from the dead is a piece of cake compared to the real dilemma confronting Lister - the curry supplies have been destroyed and he's three million light years from the nearest poppadom. Unable to face cold turkey vindaloo style, he ignores causality and goes back in time intending to order "500 vindaloos to go" but winds up in Dallas, in November 1963, where he accidentally pushes a gunman out of a fifth floor window.

Cast

Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Michael J. Shannon (John F. Kennedy), Toby Aspin (Lee Harvey Oswald), Peter Gaitens (FBI Agent), Robert Ashe (Cop)

Did You Know?

For the first time - after an abandoned attempt in Series V's The Inquisitor - an episode of Red Dwarf begins with a "cold open" scene before the opening titles.

The footage from Out of Time, reprising and resolving the Series VI cliffhanger, is actually slightly altered from its original version - to more clearly show the "future" Starbug destroying the "present" one before Rimmer blows up the time drive.

The functionality of the time drive was changed between Series VI and VII - as it now featured the ability to move in space as well as time. Possible explanations include the notion that Series VII is in a slightly different reality due to the rewriting of timelines, as well as it possibly having merged with the teleporter device still onboard the ship from Rimmerworld.

This episode's first video release was on the Xtended tape, where it featured an additional ending sequence wherein Lister is cast adrift with his curry supplies in the detachable rear section of Starbug.

Although he hadn't played John F. Kennedy prior to Red Dwarf (though he did also appear alongside Danny John-Jules in Little Shop of Horrors), actor Michael J. Shannon would become further associated with the President in later years, writing and starring in a play called JFK on JFK.

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