Stasis Leak
Encyclopedia
"Stasis Leak" is the fourth episode of the science fiction
sitcom Red Dwarf
series two and tenth in the series run. It premiered on the British
television channel BBC2
on 27 September 1988. Written by Rob Grant
and Doug Naylor
, and directed by Ed Bye
, the crew travelling back in time
, before the accident had wiped out the crew of Red Dwarf. The episode was re-mastered, along with the rest of the first three series, in 1998.
(Norman Lovett
) detects a stasis leak on Level 16. In fact it's a passageway three million years through time. Lister
(Craig Charles
) reads Rimmer
's (Chris Barrie
) diary, where it details that Rimmer had seen a hologram of himself emerge from a table and say that they had found a stasis leak. Stepping through the leak transports the gang back into the past — three weeks before the accident that wiped out the crew. They bring back a bar of soap through the stasis leak but it dissolves. Lister's sure that the stasis leak is the best way for him to be with Kristine Kochanski
, he's even got a wedding photo of the couple to prove it. However, Rimmer is determined to save his own past-self. If his past-self went into stasis he wouldn't die and wouldn't be a hologram. Lister has the same idea for Kochanski, but there is only room for one in the remaining stasis booth.
The three of them go through the stasis leak, Lister and the Cat
(Danny John-Jules
) searching for Kochanski, and Rimmer searching for his past-self. When Lister tracks down Kochanski at a hotel he finds that she is already married — to himself from five years into the future. Rimmer also succeeds in tracking down his past self. However, he finds it hard to convince the past Rimmer that he's not a hallucination but a dead hologram of himself. The Captain in a chicken suit certainly doesn't help matters, and when three Rimmers, three Listers and a Cat are all in the same room at once, things get a little bit complicated.
" had been one of the better liked episodes from series I. With this in mind writers, Grant and Naylor, showed their desire to return to this story element with another sci-fi heavy story.
The "Crowne Plaza Midland Holiday Inn", in Manchester
, was used as "The Ganymede Holiday Inn" where Lister and the Cat search for Kochanski. Grogan was released from the production without filming the final scene which involved her character Kochanksi. Assistant floor manager Dona DiStefano stepped in to double as Kochanski, wearing a large hat to disguise the fact.
Returning pre-accident crew members include Mac McDonald
as Captain Hollister, C. P. Grogan as Kochanski, Mark Williams
as Petersen, and Sophie Doherty as Kochanski's friend. Morwenna Banks
appears as the on-screen Lift Hostess, while Tony Hawks
makes his third Red Dwarf guest appearance as the talking suitcase.
is referenced, by Holly, as her bottom shared similarities to a moon the ship had circled a couple of times. Rimmer references Planet of the Apes
when he had mistakenly thought the captain's wife's photograph was a publicity shot from the film. He also states that he was sharing a bunk with a character out of a Barbara Cartland
novel and said that he would be the only person in the world to buy a Topic Bar without a single hazelnut in it.
A Marilyn Monroe
poster is seen in Lister's quarters to which the dressed up Cat then puts his hand over the eyes saying don't look as it would drive her crazy.
Holly references the Sinclair ZX81
, his first love, which people kept saying that she wasn't for him because she was cheap, stupid and wouldn't load. He went on to reference Olivia Newton-John
when advising Lister that it's better to have loved and to have lost than to listen to an album by her.
special effects of Red Dwarf and many more visual and audio enhancements.
Changes made specific to "Stasis Leak" include the caption "Three million years earlier" has been removed from the opening flashback scenes. The stasis leak sound effects have been added. The split-screen wipe — with the older Lister shutting the door on his younger self — has been re-done frame by frame to remove previous errors.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
sitcom Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
series two and tenth in the series run. It premiered on the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television channel BBC2
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
on 27 September 1988. Written by Rob Grant
Rob Grant
Robert 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 Naylor
Doug Naylor
Douglas R. Naylor is a British comedy writer, science fiction writer, director 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...
, and directed by Ed Bye
Ed Bye
Edward 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 crew travelling back in time
Time travel in fiction
Time travel is a common theme in science fiction and is depicted in a variety of media. It simply means either going forward in time or backward, to experience the future, or the past.-Literature:...
, before the accident had wiped out the crew of Red Dwarf. The episode was re-mastered, along with the rest of the first three series, in 1998.
Plot
HollyHolly (Red Dwarf)
Holly is the ship's computer on the science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf.The character is played by Norman Lovett in Series I and II and, following a "head sex change" to look like his parallel universe alter ego "Hilly", played by Hattie Hayridge in the series 3 episode Backwards, is female...
(Norman Lovett
Norman Lovett
Norman Lovett is an English stand-up comedian and actor, best known for the role of Holly in Red Dwarf during the first, second, seventh and eighth series. His comedy has a quiet, dead-pan surrealism, and in 2000 he made a successful stand up tour, co-headlining with Chris Barrie, who played...
) detects a stasis leak on Level 16. In fact it's a passageway three million years through time. Lister
Dave Lister
David "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...
(Craig Charles
Craig Charles
Craig Joseph Charles is an English actor, stand-up comedian, author, poet, radio and television presenter, best known for playing Dave Lister in the British cult-favourite science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf...
) reads Rimmer
Arnold Rimmer
Arnold Judas Rimmer 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...
's (Chris Barrie
Chris Barrie
Chris Barrie is a British actor. He first achieved success as a vocal impressionist, notably in the ITV sketch show Spitting Image...
) diary, where it details that Rimmer had seen a hologram of himself emerge from a table and say that they had found a stasis leak. Stepping through the leak transports the gang back into the past — three weeks before the accident that wiped out the crew. They bring back a bar of soap through the stasis leak but it dissolves. Lister's sure that the stasis leak is the best way for him to be with Kristine Kochanski
Kristine Kochanski
Kristine Z. Kochanski is a fictional character from the British science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf. Kochanski was the first console officer in the navigation chamber on board the spaceship Red Dwarf...
, he's even got a wedding photo of the couple to prove it. However, Rimmer is determined to save his own past-self. If his past-self went into stasis he wouldn't die and wouldn't be a hologram. Lister has the same idea for Kochanski, but there is only room for one in the remaining stasis booth.
The three of them go through the stasis leak, Lister and the Cat
Cat (Red Dwarf)
The 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...
(Danny John-Jules
Danny John-Jules
Daniel "Danny" John-Jules is a British actor, singer and dancer. John-Jules attended Rutherford Comprehensive School, Penfold Street, Marylebone, from 1972 to 1977. He is best known for portraying Cat in the television programme Red Dwarf.-Dance and song:John-Jules is a baritone...
) searching for Kochanski, and Rimmer searching for his past-self. When Lister tracks down Kochanski at a hotel he finds that she is already married — to himself from five years into the future. Rimmer also succeeds in tracking down his past self. However, he finds it hard to convince the past Rimmer that he's not a hallucination but a dead hologram of himself. The Captain in a chicken suit certainly doesn't help matters, and when three Rimmers, three Listers and a Cat are all in the same room at once, things get a little bit complicated.
Production
With its multiple views of the future, "Future EchoesFuture Echoes
"Future Echoes" is the second episode of the science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf series one, and was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 22 February 1988...
" had been one of the better liked episodes from series I. With this in mind writers, Grant and Naylor, showed their desire to return to this story element with another sci-fi heavy story.
The "Crowne Plaza Midland Holiday Inn", in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, was used as "The Ganymede Holiday Inn" where Lister and the Cat search for Kochanski. Grogan was released from the production without filming the final scene which involved her character Kochanksi. Assistant floor manager Dona DiStefano stepped in to double as Kochanski, wearing a large hat to disguise the fact.
Returning pre-accident crew members include Mac McDonald
Mac McDonald
Mac McDonald is an American actor. He is best known for playing Captain Hollister on the BBC TV series Red Dwarf and frequently plays American characters in other British TV shows...
as Captain Hollister, C. P. Grogan as Kochanski, Mark Williams
Mark Williams (actor)
Mark Williams is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter and presenter. He is best known as one of the stars of the popular BBC sketch show The Fast Show, as well as for his role as Arthur Weasley in the Harry Potter films....
as Petersen, and Sophie Doherty as Kochanski's friend. Morwenna Banks
Morwenna Banks
Morwenna Banks is a British comedy actress, writer and producer.Banks is perhaps best known in the UK as a cast member of the British Channel 4 comedy series Absolutely, where her best-known character was a schoolgirl who sat on the edge of a desk.She appeared as the Keeper of the Rules in the...
appears as the on-screen Lift Hostess, while Tony Hawks
Tony Hawks
Antony Gordon Hawksworth, better known as Tony Hawks, is a British comedian and author.-Early life:Born in Brighton in 1960, Hawks was educated at Brighton Hove and Sussex Grammar School and Brighton College...
makes his third Red Dwarf guest appearance as the talking suitcase.
Cultural references
Felicity KendalFelicity Kendal
Felicity Ann Kendal, CBE is an English actor known for her television and stage work.Born in 1946, Kendal spent much of her childhood in India, where her father managed a touring repertory company. First appearing on stage at the age of nine months, Kendal appeared in her first film, Shakespeare...
is referenced, by Holly, as her bottom shared similarities to a moon the ship had circled a couple of times. Rimmer references Planet of the Apes
Planet of the Apes (1968 film)
Planet of the Apes is a 1968 American science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle. The film stars Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly and Linda Harrison...
when he had mistakenly thought the captain's wife's photograph was a publicity shot from the film. He also states that he was sharing a bunk with a character out of a Barbara Cartland
Barbara Cartland
Dame Barbara Hamilton Cartland, DBE, CStJ , was an English author, one of the most prolific authors of the 20th century...
novel and said that he would be the only person in the world to buy a Topic Bar without a single hazelnut in it.
A Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
poster is seen in Lister's quarters to which the dressed up Cat then puts his hand over the eyes saying don't look as it would drive her crazy.
Holly references the Sinclair ZX81
Sinclair ZX81
The ZX81 was a home computer produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Scotland by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and was designed to be a low-cost introduction to home computing for the general public...
, his first love, which people kept saying that she wasn't for him because she was cheap, stupid and wouldn't load. He went on to reference Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
when advising Lister that it's better to have loved and to have lost than to listen to an album by her.
Reception
The episode was originally broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on the 4 October 1988 in the 9:00 pm evening slot. It received average television ratings and an average reception by viewers. This was supported by Reviews by Gavrielle who stated that "there are logistical holes in the plot..." Fans considered the episode to be one of the better efforts from Series II, coming at 12th place overall in a Red Dwarf Smegazine readers' poll with 3.3% of the votes.Remastering
The remastering of Series I to III was carried out during the late 1990s. Changes throughout the series included replacement of the opening credits, giving the picture a colour grade and filmising, computer generatedComputer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
special effects of Red Dwarf and many more visual and audio enhancements.
Changes made specific to "Stasis Leak" include the caption "Three million years earlier" has been removed from the opening flashback scenes. The stasis leak sound effects have been added. The split-screen wipe — with the older Lister shutting the door on his younger self — has been re-done frame by frame to remove previous errors.