"
Dimension Jump" is the fifth episode of
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
sit-com
Red DwarfRed Dwarf is a British television situation comedy franchise, primarily comprising eight series of a television sitcom that ran on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and gained a cult following. It was created by, and the first six series were written by, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor...
Series IV and the twenty third episode in the series run. It was first broadcast on the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
television channel BBC2 on 14 March 1991, written by
Rob GrantRobert Grant is a British comedy writer and television producer, who was born in Salford and studied Psychology at Liverpool University for two years....
and
Doug NaylorDoug Naylor is a British comedy writer, science fiction writer and television producer.Naylor was born in Manchester, England and studied at the University of Liverpool. In the mid-1980s, Naylor wrote two regular comedy sketch shows for BBC Radio 4 entitled Cliché and Son of Cliché. These sketch...
, and directed by
Ed ByeEdward Richard Morrison Bye is a British film and TV producer and director. He is best known for his work with Grant Naylor, Harry Enfield and Jasper Carrott, and has worked with many of British TV's best known comedians and comedy actors...
. The episode, featuring the first appearance of Ace Rimmer, was intended to open the series but was postponed due to the
Gulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , known also as the Gulf War, the First Gulf War,or often as the Second Gulf War and by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as The Mother of all Battles, or commonly as Desert Storm, for the military response...
conflict.
The episode begins with a young
Arnold RimmerArnold Judas Rimmer B.S.C., S.S.C. is a fictional character in the science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, played by Chris Barrie. He is unpopular with his crew mates, and is often the target of insults or pranks...
getting told by his mother that his headmaster at school was considering keeping him back a year.
"
Dimension Jump" is the fifth episode of
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
sit-com
Red DwarfRed Dwarf is a British television situation comedy franchise, primarily comprising eight series of a television sitcom that ran on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and gained a cult following. It was created by, and the first six series were written by, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor...
Series IV and the twenty third episode in the series run. It was first broadcast on the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
television channel BBC2 on 14 March 1991, written by
Rob GrantRobert Grant is a British comedy writer and television producer, who was born in Salford and studied Psychology at Liverpool University for two years....
and
Doug NaylorDoug Naylor is a British comedy writer, science fiction writer and television producer.Naylor was born in Manchester, England and studied at the University of Liverpool. In the mid-1980s, Naylor wrote two regular comedy sketch shows for BBC Radio 4 entitled Cliché and Son of Cliché. These sketch...
, and directed by
Ed ByeEdward Richard Morrison Bye is a British film and TV producer and director. He is best known for his work with Grant Naylor, Harry Enfield and Jasper Carrott, and has worked with many of British TV's best known comedians and comedy actors...
. The episode, featuring the first appearance of Ace Rimmer, was intended to open the series but was postponed due to the
Gulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , known also as the Gulf War, the First Gulf War,or often as the Second Gulf War and by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as The Mother of all Battles, or commonly as Desert Storm, for the military response...
conflict.
Plot
The episode begins with a young
Arnold RimmerArnold Judas Rimmer B.S.C., S.S.C. is a fictional character in the science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, played by Chris Barrie. He is unpopular with his crew mates, and is often the target of insults or pranks...
getting told by his mother that his headmaster at school was considering keeping him back a year. Having received the headmaster's decision in the post, she warns her son that this could affect the direction his life takes...
Years later, in a
parallel dimensionParallel universe or alternative reality is a self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a multiverse, although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute physical reality...
, another Arnold Rimmer exists. Commander 'Ace' Rimmer is a test pilot in the Space Corps: he is charming, intelligent, popular, brave and modest. Being the heroic type, he jumps at the chance to test-fly a dimension-jumping
prototypeA prototype is an original type, form, or instance of something serving as a typical example, basis, or standard for other things of the same category...
spacecraft and, after breaking the 'speed of reality', crosses into
Red Dwarfs dimension - crashing into Starbug
in the process.
Starbug crash-lands on a water-planet, but Ace does not desert them and follows down to help. Aboard the Starbug he comes face-to-face with his counterpart Rimmer and an instant mutual dislike develops. Despite Ace's broken arm, he and
ListerDavid "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...
brave the elements to fix the craft.
After this spectacular display of courage, the rest of the crew think he's quite a guy - except the original Rimmer, who is bitter and positive that in the other reality, Ace got all the breaks in life that he'd been denied. But in truth, Ace Rimmer had been the one kept down a year at school; while Rimmer was allowed to progress and spent the rest of his life making excuses, the humiliation of being kept down forced Ace to knuckle down and fight back.
Meanwhile, the
CatThe Cat is a character in the British science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf. He is played by Danny John-Jules.-Character development:According to Danny John-Jules, the character of Cat is based on a combination of Little Richard's look, James Brown's moves and Richard Pryor's facial...
has a broken leg, sustained during Starbugs crash, and is becoming delirious. Once aboard
Red Dwarf, Ace says he can patch-up the Cat with a bit of micro-surgery, but that afterwards he must move on. He can't stand his spineless counterpart any longer and there are a billion other realities to explore and maybe he'll meet a Rimmer even worse than the one he met aboard Red Dwarf... but he doubts it.
Aftermath
Although Rimmer became Ace Rimmer temporarily in Season VI's
Emohawk: Polymorph II"Emohawk: Polymorph II" is the fourth episode of the British science fiction sitcom TV show Red Dwarf VI and the 34th in the series run. It was first broadcast on BBC2 on 28 October 1993. Written by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor and directed by Andy de Emmony, the episode features the crew again being...
in 1993, he didn't really appear again until Season VII's
Stoke Me a Clipper"Stoke Me a Clipper" is the second episode of science fiction sit-com Red Dwarf Series VII and the 38th in the series run. It was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 24 January 1997. Written by Paul Alexander & Doug Naylor and directed by Ed Bye...
in 1997 as another Rimmer, a hard-light hologram.
As revealed, the Ace Rimmer seen in
Dimension Jump, was killed in Dimension 165 when he crashed into a neutron tank. The result was that another Rimmer became Ace. Finally, millions were Ace Rimmer. The Ace Rimmer in this episode dies after his light bee is damaged by gunfire.
At the end of this episode,
Starbug chases the failed lightbee through a wormhole and the camera zooms out to reveal a gas giant, whose Saturn-esque rings are all failed lightbees of Ace Rimmer. The rings of the planet is similar to the rings on the
Red DwarfRed Dwarf is a British television situation comedy franchise, primarily comprising eight series of a television sitcom that ran on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and gained a cult following. It was created by, and the first six series were written by, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor...
TV logo.
Production
The ending scene went through numerous changes. The initial plan was to have Rimmer drop a load of kippers on Ace, but it didn't work on comic or practical levels as, due to Rimmer's hologrammatic status, the fish should then have fallen
through Rimmer rather than
on him. It was decided that this didn't work well and the text scroll was added in the post production.
Several models for the episode were produced, including Ace's ship, the
IoIo or io or i.o. may refer to:*"illi ordo"*85 Io, an asteroid*Io, an unfinished actes de ballet of Jean-Philippe Rameau*IO , a German band*Io , an English band...
city dome and the Space Corps test space station. Filming of Ace's ship crashing into Starbug involved flying it through space on wires. The Starbug crash site was achieved using an ocean moon miniature construction.
For the first time in the series run, the end theme tune was changed. The director, Ed Bye, had requested a "naff organ sound" to end the episode with. In keeping with the Rimmer theme
Howard Goodall210px|thumb|Howard Goodall at St. John the Baptist Church in Devon, United Kingdom, May 2009Howard Goodall is a British composer of musicals, choral music and music for television...
performed an instrumental arrangement which played over the end credits.
The regular cast all get to play their alternative universe roles.
Chris BarrieChris Barrie is a British actor. He first achieved success as a vocal impressionist, notably in the ITV sketch show Spitting Image...
plays Ace Rimmer,
Craig CharlesCraig Charles is an English actor, stand-up comedian, author, poet, radio and television presenter and former professional footballer, best-known for playing Dave Lister in the British cult-favourite sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf...
is Spanners,
Danny John-JulesDaniel "Danny" John-Jules is a British actor, singer and dancer.-Early life:He was born in London and attended Rutherford comprehensive school, Penfold Street, Marylebone, from 1972 to 1977.-Dance and song:...
is the Chaplain,
Robert LlewellynRobert Llewellyn is an English actor, presenter, and writer. He is best known for his roles as presenter of Scrapheap Challenge, and as the android Kryten in the hit sitcom Red Dwarf.-Career:...
is Bongo and
Hattie Hayridge Hattie Hayridge is a British stand-up comedienne and actor, best known for the role of the female version of Holly in Red Dwarf during the third, fourth and fifth series, along with the role of Hilly in Parallel Universe, the final episode of the second series.After graduating from the University...
got the chance to play more than just a computer head when she appeared as Mellie. Kalli Greenwood appeared as Mrs. Rimmer and Simon Gaffney appeared as Young Rimmer- reprising their roles from Polymorph, while
Hetty BaynesHetty Baynes is an English actress. She began her career as a ballet dancer at the Royal Ballet School and made her professional debut at 12 in Rudolf Nureyev’s The Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. She began her acting career at just 17 as an acting ASM in repertory theatre...
voiced the Cockpit Computer.
Cultural references
The spaceship scene that introduces Ace Rimmer parodies the 1986
Tom CruiseThomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known by his screen name of Tom Cruise, is an American actor and film producer. Forbes magazine ranked him as the world's most powerful celebrity in 2006. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and won three Golden Globe Awards...
movie
Top GunTop Gun is a 1986 movie that was directed by Tony Scott, and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, in association with the Paramount Pictures company...
and even features similar heroic music.
JawsJaws is a 1975 American horror/thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel Jaws. The police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant great white shark by closing the beach, only to be overruled by the town...
is mentioned by Lister as to where they're going in the middle of the night with fishing rods. After hearing Lister's nickname given by Ace, Rimmer references
SkippySkippy the Bush Kangaroo was a popular Australian television series for children produced from 1966 to 1968, telling the adventures of a young boy and his intelligent pet kangaroo, in the Waratah National Park, near Sydney, New South Wales....
, "'Ace and Skipper?' You sound like a kids' TV series about a boy and his bush kangaroo!"
Reception
The episode was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 14 March 1991 in the 9:00pm evening time slot, although it was initially intended to be shown first as the series opener, but the Gulf War hostilities at the time meant that the BBC held back the episode along with "Meltdown". When the hostilities ceased the show was able to be broadcast later in the run.
Considered to be one of the best episodes by many, it also topped the Series IV list in a Red Dwarf magazine poll - with 7.3% of the overall votes - one viewer stating that it "combines high comedy and high pathos into an experience that is at once terminally funny and emotionally wrenching."
The BBC decided to use the popularity of the episode to head the second part of the Series IV video tape release, despite "
White HoleIn astrophysics, a white hole is the hypothetical time reversal of a black hole. Whilea black hole acts as an attractor, drawing in any matter that crosses the event horizon, a white hole acts as a source that ejects matter from its event horizon. The sign of the acceleration is invariant under...
" being fourth in the running order.
In the Series IV DVD, Chris Barrie names this as his favourite episode.
See also
- Backwards
Backwards is the fourth Red Dwarf novel. It is set on the fictional backwards universe version of Earth.The novel was written by Rob Grant on his own. It follows on directly from the second Grant Naylor novel, Better Than Life, ignoring Last Human which was by Doug Naylor...
- the fourth Red Dwarf novel which features the plot of "Dimension Jump" as well as other episodes.
External links