Series III, Episode 1 - Backwards
Rimmer and Kryten crash-land on a planet and are shocked to find it is Earth - but an Earth where time is running in reverse.
Further details
Red Dwarf. Image shows from L to R: Kryten (Robert Llewellyn), Rimmer (Chris Barrie). Copyright: Grant Naylor Productions / BBC
When Kryten gets sucked into a time hole and crashes Starbug 1 onto a planet during the space-ship equivalent of a driver's test, he and Rimmer are shocked to discover that they've landed on Earth.
It's not quite as normal though: time is running backwards. After the Big Bang the universe expanded, but they've gone so far into the future that the Big Crunch has now happened, the universe is contracting, and everything going in reverse accordingly.
When Lister and Cat finally find them, it's 1993 and Rimmer and Kryten are working as a novelty comic act. They're not keen to leave their popularity and success, but Lister's involvement in a brawl would seem to seal their fate in this backwards world.
Broadcast details
- Date
- Tuesday 14th November 1989
- Time
- 9pm
- Channel
- BBC Two
- Length
- 30 minutes
Repeats
Show past repeats
Date |
Time |
Channel |
Wednesday 18th May 2011 |
10:00pm |
Dave |
Sunday 14th August 2011 |
9:40pm |
Dave |
Sunday 2nd October 2011 |
11:00pm |
Dave |
Saturday 26th November 2011 |
8:20pm |
Dave |
Monday 7th May 2012 |
11:20am |
Dave |
Sunday 23rd September 2012 |
11:00am |
Dave |
Saturday 29th November 2014 |
3:00pm |
Dave |
Saturday 31st January 2015 |
3:00pm |
Dave |
Monday 1st June 2015 |
1:20am |
Dave |
Monday 1st June 2015 |
10:40pm |
Dave |
Monday 27th July 2015 |
10:20pm |
Gold |
Tuesday 28th July 2015 |
1:00pm |
Gold |
Monday 18th July 2016 |
11:20pm |
Gold |
Tuesday 19th July 2016 |
2:20am |
Gold |
Thursday 13th October 2016 |
10:20pm |
Dave |
Friday 14th October 2016 |
2:25am |
Dave |
Sunday 2nd April 2017 |
2:00pm |
Dave |
Tuesday 11th July 2017 |
8:20pm |
Gold |
Sunday 17th September 2017 |
4:00pm |
Dave |
Thursday 2nd November 2017 |
10:20pm |
Dave |
Thursday 22nd February 2018 |
9:00pm |
Dave |
Saturday 2nd February 2019 |
7:00pm |
Dave |
Friday 1st November 2019 |
1:55am |
Dave |
Friday 1st November 2019 |
10:00pm |
Dave |
Friday 28th February 2020 |
1:40am |
Dave |
Friday 28th February 2020 |
10:00pm |
Dave |
Saturday 4th April 2020 |
8:00pm |
Dave |
Tuesday 14th July 2020 |
1:40am |
Dave |
Tuesday 18th August 2020 |
3:20am |
Dave |
Sunday 9th October 2022 |
10:00pm |
Yesterday |
Sunday 30th October 2022 |
7:00pm |
Dave |
Monday 31st October 2022 |
2:45am |
Dave |
Monday 6th February 2023 |
12:00am |
Dave |
Saturday 1st April 2023 |
2:00pm |
Dave |
Monday 17th July 2023 |
12:00am |
Dave |
Monday 29th January 2024 |
1:00am |
Dave |
Cast & crew