Nanarchy

"Nanarchy"
Red Dwarf episode
Episode no.	Series 7 Episode 8
Directed by	Ed Bye
Written by	Paul Alexander, Jamies Hendrie and Doug Naylor
Original air date	March 7, 1997
Guest stars
Norman Lovett
Series 7 episodes
17 January – 7 March 1997 "Tikka to Ride" "Stoke Me a Clipper" "Ouroboros" "Duct Soup" "Blue" "Beyond a Joke" "Epideme" "Nanarchy"
List of all Red Dwarf episodes

"Nanarchy" is the eighth, and final, episode of science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf Series VII and the 44th in the series run. It was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 7 March 1997.^[1] Written by Paul Alexander, James Hendrie & Doug Naylor and directed by Ed Bye. The episode deals with the discovery of their missing mining ship Red Dwarf and its computer Holly.

Plot

Lister (Craig Charles) is finding it very difficult to get used to life with only one arm, but seems to enjoy Kryten (Robert Llewellyn) nursing him, and Kryten is absolutely loving it. Kochanski (Chloë Annett) is fed up seeing Kryten doing things for him that he could easily do with one arm, so with Kryten's help they come up with a solution - nanobots from Kryten's self-repair system could rebuild an arm for Lister. However, Kryten hasn't seen the nanobots since their attack by the Despair Squid two years ago - before they lost Red Dwarf. They decide to go into deep sleep and have Starbug retrace their steps back to that ocean planet.

They emerge from deep sleep and discover a planet which the Navicomp identifies as Red Dwarf. They find the original Holly who explains that the nanobots had deconstructed Red Dwarf, created their own miniature version of the ship and turned the rest into a planet for safekeeping. The crew now realise that it was the nano version of Red Dwarf that they were chasing and the nanobots evaded them by coming aboard Starbug and travelling around their own galaxy inside Lister's clothes hamper.

After much persuasion, Kryten convinces the nanobots to recreate Lister's arm and Red Dwarf. The nanobots follow Kryten's orders but reconstruct Lister's body into a muscle bound hero figure. As Starbug flies into the reconstructed Red Dwarf landing bay, something feels odd. It seems awfully big and Starbug flies in like a buzzing fly against the massive ship.

Production

The series finale proved to be one of the most problematic scripts. James Hendrie was not available to do any rewrites to the script, so Alexander was asked to do one of his own, before Naylor did a final polish. It was the only episode to date with three credited writers.^[2]

This is the first time since "Parallel Universe" that Norman Lovett has appeared as Holly, the ship's computer. In between, his character - played by Hattie Hayridge - was last seen in Series V's finale "Back to Reality".

Viewing figures had reached over 8 million viewers, and the series also gained a Sunday night repeat. These were the highest ratings garnered so far.^[3]

References

1. ^ "BBC - Programme Catalogue - RED DWARF VI - NANARCHY". BBC. http://catalogue.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax/programme/NMYJ418F. Retrieved 2007-12-12. 
2. ^ "Red Dwarf Series VII Writing". Red Dwarf.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2007-10-22. http://web.archive.org/web/20071022124350/http://reddwarf.co.uk/deck05/series_7/writing.html. Retrieved 2007-12-17. 
3. ^ "Red Dwarf Series VII Aftermath". Red Dwarf.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2007-10-22. http://web.archive.org/web/20071022123639/http://reddwarf.co.uk/deck05/series_7/aftermath.html. Retrieved 2007-12-17. 

External links

• "Nanarchy" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Nanarchy" at TV.com
• Episode Guide - Series 7 at RedDwarf.co.uk