Red Dwarf III is the third series of the British science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf. It consisted of six episodes and was broadcast on UK television channel BBC2 between 14 November and 19 December 1989.

The series follows the life of technician Dave Lister (Craig Charles), who is the only survivor of an accident on the spaceship Red Dwarf, and the last survivor of the human race, three million years in the future, and his shipmates, a holographic reproduction of his dead bunkmate and boss, Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie), a sapient Cat (Danny John-Jules) who is a result of three million years' evolution, and the ship's computer Holly (Hattie Hayridge, replacing Norman Lovett in the same role). They are joined by Robert Llewellyn, who plays the sanitation droid Kryten.

Production Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, the creators of the show, came on board as producers for the third series of Red Dwarf, which resulted in major changes to the show's look and feel, enabled by more careful use of money.

New sets were designed by incoming production designer Mel Bibby, replacing grey sets and introducing a new Officers' Quarters to serve as Lister and Rimmer's bunkroom. Starbug was introduced as the new secondary spaceship in place of Blue Midget.

The new costume designer, Howard Burden, created a new outfit for Lister including a customised jacket, a new uniform for Rimmer, and new outfits for the Cat vastly increasing his range and repertoire of clothing.

The opening credits sequence was changed and a new, guitar-based, upbeat arrangement of the theme tune played over clips from the series. A new official Red Dwarf logo also appeared at the end of the credit sequence.

The series was directed, as were the first two, by Ed Bye. This was the last series of Red Dwarf to be produced in Manchester, with rehearsals taking place in Acton. Most episodes were filmed before a live studio audience, but "Bodyswap" did not use one, because of the amount of dubbing that would be required.

Cast Craig Charles, Chris Barrie and Danny John-Jules returned as Lister, Rimmer and Cat, respectively.

Hattie Hayridge replaced Norman Lovett as Holly. Lovett had left the show after a dispute about commuting to the show's rehearsals. Hayridge previously played Holly's female counterpart in the series two episode "Parallel Universe" but still had to audition for the role.

The character of Kryten had originally been intended as a one-off appearance in the series two episode "Kryten", played by David Ross and was brought back at the insistence of Naylor to broaden the story potential. Ross was unable to return as a regular as he was committed to the stage play A Flea in Her Ear. Eventually, Robert Llewellyn, who had been spotted by producer Paul Jackson playing a robot in his Perrier-nominated Edinburgh show Mammon: Robot Born of Woman, was cast in the role. Llewellyn ultimately portrayed Kryten with an accident intended to be North American, but this was not decided until some way into rehearsals, and after pre-filming of a scene for "Bodyswap" that would not make the final cut.

Guest cast Regular warm-up man Tony Hawks would appear in "Backwards" as a compere, along with Arthur Smith as a pub manager.

Frances Barber briefly depicts a form taken by the eponymous monster in "Polymorph". Simon Gaffney plays a young Rimmer and Kalli Greenwood plays Rimmer's mother. Gaffney reprises his role in later episode "Timeslides", and they would both reappear in the following series episode "Dimension Jump".

Ruby Wax plays American television personality Blaize Falconburger in "Timeslides". Bye, Wax's husband, convinced Grant and Naylor to rework the part to suit Wax's comedic strengths. The role had been written for Graham Chapman, who died before filming for the episode could begin. A younger Lister is played by Emile Charles, in real life the younger brother to Craig; in an alternate timeline, Lister's wife, Lady Sabrina Mulholland-Jjones, is played by Koo Stark.

A late addition to the script of "The Last Day" was the character of Hudzen-10, played by Gordon Kennedy.

Plot The final episode of the second series left open a pregnancy plot for Lister. Grant and Naylor had originally planned to resolve this, and reintroduce Kryten, in an episode with the working title of "Dad"; but this script was abandoned. These details along with the recasting of Holly, were explained in a parody of the Star Wars opening crawl at the start of the episode, that scrolled too fast to read.

Reception Writing in 2015, Den of Geek ranked Red Dwarf III the second best series of the show, saying that "The spectacular one-two punch of '"Marooned' and 'Polymorph' is very nearly enough to push this series into the top spot, and praising the introduction of Kryten and the production design changes; although saying that the execution of "Backwards" and "Bodyswap" could have been better.

Sophie Davies, writing for CultBox in 2017, noted the design changes, saying "If the transition from Red Dwarf II to III happened today, it would probably get called a reboot", and highlighted "Polymorph" as one of the series "most memorable episodes".

Episodes

Home media release The series was released in October 1991 on VHS in two volumes, consisting of three episodes each. A remastered edition, with revised visual effects and other changes, was released in 1998. The non-remastered version of the series was released on DVD in 2003.

References