Dimension Jump (Red Dwarf episode)

"Dimension Jump"
Red Dwarf episode
Episode no.	Series 4 Episode 5
Directed by	Ed Bye
Written by	Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
Original air date	March 14, 1991
Guest stars
Kalli Greenwood Simon Gaffney Hetty Baynes
Series 4 episodes
14 February – 21 March 1991 "Camille" "DNA" "Justice" "White Hole" "Dimension Jump" "Meltdown"
List of all Red Dwarf episodes

"Dimension Jump" is the fifth episode of science fiction sit-com Red Dwarf Series IV^[1] and the twenty-third episode in the series run.^[2] It was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 14 March 1991, written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and directed by Ed Bye.^[3] The episode, featuring the first appearance of Ace Rimmer, was intended to open the series but was postponed due to the Gulf War conflict.

Plot

The episode begins with a young Arnold Rimmer being told by his mother that the headmaster at his school was considering keeping him back a year. Having received the headmaster's notice in the post, she warns her son that this could affect the direction his life takes...

Years later, in a parallel dimension, 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 prototype spacecraft and, after breaking the 'speed of reality', crosses into Red Dwarf's dimension - crashing into Starbug in the process.^[4]

Starbug crash-lands on a water planet, but Ace does not desert them and follows down to help. Aboard Starbug he comes face-to-face with his counterpart Rimmer and an instant mutual dislike develops. Despite Ace's broken arm, he and Lister brave the elements to fix the craft.^[5]

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 it turns out that 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.^[5]

Meanwhile, the Cat has a broken leg, sustained during Starbug's 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 tells Lister he can't stand his spineless counterpart any longer and that 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 in 1993, he didn't really appear again until Season VII's Stoke Me a Clipper 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. Eventually, 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 Dwarf TV logo.

Production

The idea behind this episode came as a result of Chris Barrie (who at the same time as filming this series was also playing Gordon Brittas, another character whose personality led to him being disliked by those around him, in The Brittas Empire) asking Rob Grant and Doug Naylor for the chance to play someone heroic, suffering from what he described as 'git overload'.

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.^[6]

Several models for the episode were produced, including Ace's ship, the Io 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.^[7]

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 Goodall performed an instrumental arrangement which played over the end credits.^[8]

The regular cast all get to play their alternative universe roles. Chris Barrie plays Ace Rimmer, Craig Charles is Spanners, Danny John-Jules is the Chaplain, Robert Llewellyn is Bongo and Hattie Hayridge got the chance to play more than just a computer head when she appeared as Mellie.^[9] Kalli Greenwood appeared as Mrs. Rimmer and Simon Gaffney appeared as Young Rimmer—reprising their roles from Polymorph (and Simon also appeared as young Rimmer in "Timeslides"), while Hetty Baynes voiced the Cockpit Computer.^[3]

Cultural references

The spaceship scene that introduces Ace Rimmer parodies the 1986 Tom Cruise movie Top Gun and even features similar heroic music.^[10] Jaws 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 Skippy, "'Ace and Skipper?' You sound like a kids' TV series about a boy and his bush kangaroo!"^[11]

Reception

The episode was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 14 March 1991 in the 9:00pm evening time slot,^[12] 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.^[13]

Considered to be one of the best episodes by many,^[9] it also topped the Series IV list in a Red Dwarf magazine poll—with 7.3% of the overall votes^[14]—one viewer stating that it "combines high comedy and high pathos into an experience that is at once terminally funny and emotionally wrenching."^[15]

The BBC decided to use the popularity of the episode to head the second part of the Series IV video tape release, despite "White Hole" being fourth in the running order.^[16]

In the Series IV DVD, Chris Barrie names this as his favourite episode.

See also

• Backwards - the fourth Red Dwarf novel which features the plot of "Dimension Jump" as well as other episodes.^[17]

Notes

1. ^ "British Sitcom Guide - Red Dwarf - Series 4". www.sitcom.co.uk. http://www.sitcom.co.uk/red_dwarf/series4.shtml. Retrieved 2008-01-28. 
2. ^ "TV.com - Dimension Jump summary". www.tv.com. http://www.tv.com/red-dwarf/white-hole/episode/10967/summary.html. Retrieved 2008-01-25. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Dimension Jump cast and crew". www.imdb.com. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0684153/fullcredits. Retrieved 2008-01-28. 
4. ^ Howarth & Lyons (1993) p. 72.
5. ^ ^{a b} Howarth & Lyons (1993) p. 73.
6. ^ "Red Dwarf Series IV Production". www.reddwarf.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2008-04-21. http://web.archive.org/web/20080421131757/http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/deck05/series_4/Production.html. Retrieved 2008-01-10. 
7. ^ "Red Dwarf Series IV Effects". www.reddwarf.co.uk. http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/deck05/series_4/effects.html. Retrieved 2008-01-10. ^{[dead link]}
8. ^ Interview: Howard Goodall, Red Dwarf Smegazine, issue 10, December 1992, Fleetway Editions Ltd, issn 0965-5603
9. ^ ^{a b} Series IV on Video, Red Dwarf Smegazine, issue 11, January 1993, Fleetway Editions Ltd, issn 0965-5603
10. ^ "Red Dwarf Series IV Music". www.reddwarf.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2008-04-21. http://web.archive.org/web/20080421131801/http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/deck05/series_4/music.html. Retrieved 2008-01-10. 
11. ^ "Red Dwarf movie connections". www.imdb.com. http://www.imdb.com/rg/title-tease/movieconnections/title/tt0684153/movieconnections. Retrieved 2008-01-08. 
12. ^ "BBC - BBC - Programme Catalogue - RED DWARF IV - DIMENSION JUMP". BBC. http://catalogue.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax/programme/NMRI075P. Retrieved 2007-12-12. 
13. ^ Howarth, Chris; Steve Lyons. Red Dwarf Programme Guide. Section 1: The History: Virgin Books. ISBN 0-86369-682-1. 
14. ^ Red Dwarf Smegazine, issue 10, December 1992, Fleetway Editions Ltd, ISSN 0965-5603
15. ^ "Dimension Jump review". www.reviewsbygavrielle.com. http://www.reviewsbygavrielle.com/dwarf4.shtml. Retrieved 2008-01-28. 
16. ^ "Series IV Aftermath Aftermath". www.reddwarf.co.uk. http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/deck05/series_4/aftermath.html. Retrieved 2008-01-07. ^{[dead link]}
17. ^ "Series VI Aftermath". www.reddwarf.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2008-01-04. http://web.archive.org/web/20080104013125/http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/deck05/series_6/aftermath.html. Retrieved 2008-01-28. 

References

• Howarth, Chris; Steve Lyons (1993). Red Dwarf Programme Guide. Virgin Books. ISBN 0-86369-682-1. 

External links

• "Dimesion Jump" at BBC Programmes
• "Dimension Jump" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Dimension Jump" at TV.com
• Episode Guide - Series 4 at RedDwarf.co.uk