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Gunmen of the Apocalypse
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Gunmen of the Apocalypse is the International Emmy Award-winning third episode of science fiction sit-com Red Dwarf Series VI. The 33rd episode in the series run and was first broadcast on the British television channel on 21 October 1993. Written by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor and directed by Andy de Emmony, the Red Dwarf crew find themselves in a wild west town, facing a gunfight against the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
a class="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m94422",this)' onMouseout='hide("m94422")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Red_Dwarf_ships">Starbug has strayed into a Rogue simulant hunting zone and is detected by a battle-cruiser whose xenophobic mechanoid occupants despise humanity.
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Gunmen of the Apocalypse is the International Emmy Award-winning third episode of science fiction sit-com Red Dwarf Series VI. The 33rd episode in the series run and was first broadcast on the British television channel on 21 October 1993. Written by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor and directed by Andy de Emmony, the Red Dwarf crew find themselves in a wild west town, facing a gunfight against the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Plot
Starbug has strayed into a Rogue simulant hunting zone and is detected by a battle-cruiser whose xenophobic mechanoid occupants despise humanity. The Starbug crew are captured, but instead of killing them the Simulants upgrade the engines and driver interface of Starbug, as well as fitting armour and laser cannons on the spaceship. They do this so that they can have a battle for the purposes of sport.
By a fluke, the Starbug crew cripple the Simulant ship, but before their destruction the Simulants transmit an "Armageddon Virus" into Starbug's navigation computer, leaving it locked on a suicide course straight toward a large volcanic moon. Kryten deliberately infects himself with the virus in order to try and formulate a software antidote.
Kryten's battle with the virus manifests itself as a Wild West–flavoured dream; he is the cowardly, drunken and burnt-out Sheriff of a town called Existence, standing against four outlaws known as the Apocalypse Boys: Famine, Pestilence, War, and Death. The crew use an artificial reality machine to enter Kryten's Wild West hallucination and bring him aid. They take up the roles of characters from an old video game- giving Lister incredible knife throwing abilities, Cat, amazing marksmanship with dual-wielded six shooters, and turning Rimmer into a prodigious unarmed brawler.
The trio confront the Apocalypse Boys while the still-confused and unsteady Kryten struggles for a solution. Unfortunately, Lister, Cat, and Rimmer are rendered powerless by the virus before the final showdown. They escape the artificial reality, but have managed to delay the Apocalypse Boys long enough for Kryten to finish his antidote, which is symbolized in the dream by a pair of doves whose touch destroys the Boys. Kryten leaves the dream and hastily loads his antidote into the navigation computer, seemingly too late as Starbug crashes into the molten surface of the moon. Several seconds later, it rises again (Starbug being a particularly hardy ship) under control and with the crew giving an apropos "Yee haw!" before flying off into the sunset.
Production
Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, the script was originally titled "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse", and then had the working title of "High Midnight", it was later changed to "Gunmen of the Apocalypse".
During filming of the episode Janet Street Porter was Head of Art & Culture and when she received the ambitious script for "Gunmen..." she sent out a memo that all production for this episode must be stopped immediately due to the fact she believed it too difficult to film, too costly and too time-consuming. By the time the Red Dwarf crew received her memo, filming had already wrapped and even post-production already started.
Denis Lill appears as the Simulant Captain and Death. The other 'Apocalypse Boys' were played by Dinny Powell, Robert Inch and Jeremy Peters playing Famine, War and Pestilence respectively. Jennfier Calvert plays the 'Artificial Reality' character in Lister's detective scenario. Steve Devereaux plays Jimmy. Liz Hickling appears as Simulant Lieutenant, Imogen Bain plays Lola and Stephen Marcus plays Bear Strangler McGee.
Cultural references
The plot of a drunken sheriff defending his town against an incoming gang of cowboys parodies Rio Bravo. The artificial reality plot also shows similarities to Star Trek: The Next Generations episode "A Fistful of Datas". In fact, as mentioned in the A to Z of Red Dwarf, Patrick Stewart, saw this episode before he had ever heard of Red Dwarf. Viewing it as a serious Sci-Fi, he considered the plot so similar he was going to call his lawyers until he watched it further and started laughing.
The episode also has references to the 1971 film Gumshoe which the AR game is based on and "Butch Accountant and the Yuppie Kid" references the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Reception
The episode was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 21 October 1993 in the 9:00pm time slot. With over 6 million viewers and an International Emmy award in 1994, the episode is considered to be one of the better efforts from the sixth series.
See also
Backwards the fourth Red Dwarf novel by Rob Grant, which features plot from the episode.
External links
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