S3.E4

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Bodyswap

Episode aired Dec 5, 1989
TV-14
27m

IMDb RATING

7.9/10

983

YOUR RATING

Chris Barrie and Craig Charles in Red Dwarf (1988)

Comedy Sci-Fi

Red Dwarf becomes a booby-trap when Lister activates the self-destruct, which turns out to be the vending machine and Lister is implanted with the mind of one of the dead crew members and Ri... Read allRed Dwarf becomes a booby-trap when Lister activates the self-destruct, which turns out to be the vending machine and Lister is implanted with the mind of one of the dead crew members and Rimmer believes it's the perfect way to help Lister get fit.Red Dwarf becomes a booby-trap when Lister activates the self-destruct, which turns out to be the vending machine and Lister is implanted with the mind of one of the dead crew members and Rimmer believes it's the perfect way to help Lister get fit.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.9/10

983

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos5

Top cast7

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Chris Barrie

Rimmer…

Craig Charles

Lister…

Danny John-Jules

Hattie Hayridge

Holly

Robert Llewellyn

Kryten

Mike Agnew

Dispensing Machine
(voice)
(uncredited)

Lia Williams

Carol Brown
(voice)
(uncredited)

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Due to the complexities of filming this episode, this was the first (studio-based) episode not to be shot with a live audience. Instead, the episode was shown to an audience and their reactions recorded (according to the DVD booklet, the audience included the cast members, as well). This would become standard practice for Series VII.

Goofs
When the Cat drops the tape into the mug, Craig Charles can be seen trying not to laugh.

Quotes
Arnold Rimmer: When you're younger you can eat what you like, drink what you like, and still climb into your 26" waist trousers and zip them closed. Then you reach that age, 24-25, your muscles give up, they wave a little white flag, and without any warning at all you're suddenly a fat bastard

Alternate versions
In the Remastered version, Lister's mention of "the White Midget" is dubbed over so he says "The Midget" instead. Originally, the White Midget was to replace the Blue Midget from the second series, but then Starbug was created. But the writers forgot to remove the mention of the White Midget from the script.

Connections
Featured in Red Dwarf A-Z (1998)

Soundtracks
Red Dwarf Theme
Written by Howard Goodall
Performed by Jenna Russell

User reviews2

Review

Featured review

7/10

Solid episode

Lister and Rimmer swap bodies so that Rimmer can get Lister's into shape.

This is an enjoyable episode with a relatively silly sci-fi concept and some good banter.

I enjoyed the first part of it (prior to the swap) better than the latter. The system malfunctions and the process of the body swap are all very funny scenes.

After the swap, the episode for me becomes a bit of a one-joke gimmick. The new dynamic of Rimmer becoming the slob and Lister being outraged is a good bit of irony, but the banter between the two doesn't really work as well for me as it usually does. Also, the sound issues with lip-sync are little bit distracting.

In spite of the above, Rimmer losing control in a crazy way is pretty fun to watch, so overall it is quite entertaining.

I thought it was noticeable that Grant and Naylor seemed to have added a bit more composure to Rimmer's character. In this scenes near the beginning when he and Kryten are at a computer terminal assessing the situation with the scutters, he feels slightly different to the Rimmer in the previous series. It's quite subtle but I thought the character from the first few seasons would have been a panicky idiot in a situation like that.