Plot hole: When Holly discusses what the crew can do as a result of activating the self-destruct, she comes up with three options which all end with "And get blown up." Since it turns out that Holly disconnected the bomb "ages ago," wouldn't she have known that they wouldn't be blown up?
Suggested correction: It's been a while since I've seen the show, but Holly is more than a little eccentric and silly, and if memory serves, it's implied he/she has gone a bit "senile"/glitchy due to sitting around mostly unused for three million years while Lister was in stasis. From the sound of it, it's likely just that Holly was being a bit thick and forgot in the moment about disarming the bomb.
Factual error: While it is true that lithium carbonate can be used to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders, it cannot be administered in gaseous form. It is a very stable salt and only starts to form vapour at 1,310 degress Celcius. Spraying it about as a 'mood stabliser' at that temperature, as Kryten does, is going to kill everyone on the spot.
Suggested correction: Apparently, 3 million years in the future, it can.
What cobblers. You cannot sublimate a stable salt into a gas at room temperature now; you never have been able to, and you will not be able to three million years in the future, either.
Timeslides - S3-E5
Factual error: The writer's understanding of the history of Nazism and its leaders is a bit shonky. Claus von Stauffenberg did not plant a bomb in Hitler's briefcase - he put it in his own briefcase which he planted in a meeting room next to Hitler (some berk moved it). This was in July 1944, while the last Nuremberg rally - which Lister visits, bringing back the briefcase - was in 1938. Stauffenberg didn't even join the anti-Hitler conspiracy until 1943. Red Dwarf is not an 'alternate history' - they correctly identify elements of the Stauffenberg plot and the Nazi regime, they just get them wrong.
Suggested correction: It's not a documentary. This is the history of the universe in which Red Dwarf is set. It's almost as if it's a Parallel Universe.
Read the posting again - Red Dwarf is not an "alternative universe."
Corrected entry: During Rimmer's appeal against his 9,000 year sentence for second degree murder, Kryten's entire defence strategy is proving that Rimmer is "a jumped-up grease monkey" who would never be trusted with critically important repairs on the Red Dwarf - that is, the drive plate. The court accepts this and Rimmer is released. The trouble is, Rimmer WAS trusted with the drive plate repairs and he WAS responsible for the crew's death. Kryten's defence is wrong, and on the court's terms the charge is correct and Rimmer is guilty. It's not as if Rimmer and Kryten believe Rimmer is too dumb to be guilty - they know the facts of the case and they are under 'polygraphic surveillance'. Their opinions don't count, the facts stand, and Rimmer is doomed.
Correction: Kryten's argument was that whoever gave Rimmer the orders to repair the drive plate was at fault, and not Rimmer, as he was not properly trained to repair something as critical as a drive plate. Rimmer, never one to doubt his superiors, decided that he was at fault, so was found guilty in the first place.
Wrong. Read the posting again. Kryten's entire defence strategy is proving that Rimmer is "a jumped-up grease monkey" who would never be trusted with critically important repairs on the Red Dwarf - that is, the drive plate. The court accepts this and Rimmer is released. The trouble is, Rimmer WAS trusted with the drive plate repairs and he WAS responsible for the crew's death. The fact that other people are equally responsible for the disaster is irrelevant. Rimmer was as guilty as anyone.
Confidence and Paranoia - S1-E5
Corrected entry: In the episode "Confidence and Paranoia", Lister tells us there were 169 crewmen on Red Dwarf before the accident. By the episode "Justice", Rimmer is accused of murdering 1167 people on the Red Dwarf crew.
Correction: There are 169 crew, and obviously 998 people on board who are not crew. Civilian miners? (It's a mining vessel.) Passengers? (Many commercial craft take passengers.) Crew members' families? (They're going to be in space for five years - they might allow families on board). There are many answers, and they all work.
Don't forget the 400 inmates in Floor 13...that's nearly half the unaccounted deaths.
Corrected entry: If the timeline has been restored at The End of the episode, Lister shouldn't be able to hold up the detached hand - it shouldn't EXIST anymore.
Correction: We've seen from previous episodes that when the timeline is altered, there's a brief "sorting out" period while causality adjusts. The other Lister's hand hadn't disappeared just yet, but would soon.
In fact recent Quantum Theory suggests that time has a way of 're-adjusting' itself. Hence the 'Grandfather' paradox being impossible because time would have a way of preventing this from happening in the first place. Or if it does other things happen after to the timeline so that things sort themselves out.
Quantum Theory suggests no such thing. All evidence in science is that the arrow of time is always to the future.
Corrected entry: In 'White Hole', everything that happened, including the pool game, was erased from the crew's memories. So how does Lister remember "playing pool with planets" in 'Demons and Angels'?
Correction: Kryten only SAID that everything would be forgotten - obviously, the sanitation droid got it wrong.
I've often thought this is an error and your explanation is inadequate.
Other mistake: When Lister inadvertently sets off the Auto Destruct sequence, the computer voice says the ship will detonate in 15 minutes. The computer then says "the ship will detonate" every five seconds followed by how much time until detonation, but the time in which the computer says this is inconsistent. Two seconds after the computer says 15 minutes, the computer says the ship will detonate in 14 minutes 55 seconds. Ten seconds after saying that, the computer says the ship will detonate in 14 minutes 50 seconds. (00:01:50)
Corrected entry: Kryten shows Lister a picture of Kochanski and says that he dated her for three weeks, but in the first series it is established that Lister always wanted to ask Kochanski out but never worked up the courage.
Correction: Answered elsewhere - just because he didn't ask her out didn't mean they never dated. Maybe she asked him?
Plot hole: Cat wasn't manufactured by the Jupiter Mining Corporation and had no connection with them, being born three million years or so after they lost control of Red Dwarf. The takeover by M-Corp would mean nothing to him. Why, then, does he become invisible to Lister?
Suggested correction: Cat was a descendant of the cat Lister brought aboard Red Dwarf. Would it be possible that the new owners might have stricter security controls, and Lister was sent to Stasis for a different reason?
Inventing Deux ex machina explanations for a plot hole doesn't make it any less of a plot hole. M-Corp erases all of the Jupiter Mining Corporation's equipment, personnel and infrastructure from Lister's life. In no way is Cat a part of that. He has no connection at all to the Jupiter Mining Corporation, and until he meets him in Episode 1 no connection to Lister, either.
If M-Corp only erased JMC equipment from Lister's life, then Kryten, who belongs to DivaDroid and not the JMC, wouldn't have disappeared either. He disappears as he doesn't belong to M-Corp, not because he belongs to the JMC. Cat has no connection to M-Corp, as he wasn't a part of the JMC (as you pointed out), and is therefore erased for Lister.
Question: Was there a specific reason Holly chose to bring back Rimmer as a hologram, someone whom Lister didn't at all get on with? Why not one of his friends?
Chosen answer: He brought Rimmer back because he's the person that Lister had the most interaction with during his time on Red Dwarf and also because all Lister ever did with his friends was get very drunk. Lister may not like Rimmer, but bringing him back probably has the best chance of keeping him relatively sane.
Other mistake: Cassandra says that all the canaries will be dead in 1 hour, with the exception of Rimmer, Kryten, Lister, Cat and Kochanski. However, Kill Crazy was still knocked out in the transport vehicle and presumably would have survived too.
Suggested correction: But Cassandra was known to lie if it suited her purpose, she said that Lister would harpoon Arnold through the head and kill him but that's not what really happened either.
Yes, Cassandra lied about Lister shooting Arnold through the head with a harpoon, but that was an attempt to stop Lister from killing her. Mentioning which of the canaries will survive had no impact on any of her plans, so not mentioning Kill Crazy survived is still incorrect on her behalf.
Corrected entry: At the restaurant, the guide hands Lister his caviar vindaloo, which he states is "half rice, half chips and more bread and butter to follow", but there are visibly no chips on the plate. There are caviar, vindaloo, rice and potato wedges shown on the plate, but no chips. (00:19:25)
Correction: The potato wedges are the "chips." It's a British term for fried potatoes or what Americans may call "fries."
Potato wedges and chips are made from potato, but are still two different things. If the guide wanted to say it was half potato wedges, then he could have just said "half potato wedges."
