'Twentica' by Doug Naylor

While flying Starbug through an uncharted region of deep space, Lister, Rimmer, Cat and Kryten encounter a squad of combat droid simulants whose leader, 4 of 27, demands the return an important artefact, the ‘Casket of Kronos’, that the lads stole from one of their damaged ships. Rimmer refuses to negotiate – until he sees that he is the simulants’ hostage! With the life of a future Rimmer at stake, the gang recall that the item in question is propping up their pool table; the artefact is teleported across to the droids, who then abduct Rimmer and return him seconds later, although several hours for him. Rimmer explains that the casket was in fact an amplifier for the droids’ temporal transporter; Rimmer’s kidnappers are ‘Expanoids’, warriors capable of increasing their technology at an incredible rate, who once waged a terrible war with humanity, and were only defeated by the use of an EMP weapon. Realising that these stragglers want to travel back into the past and change the present, the Dwarfers time-surf on the Expanoids’ slipstream; but when Starbug emerges from the time-tunnel it is immediately hit by an EMP and crashes on the planet below. Exploring a nearby town, the boys from the Dwarf find themselves on Earth in 1952, in an alternate timeline when humanity is enslaved by the Expanoids and technology, not alcohol, is strictly prohibited – making Rimmer and Kryten illegal! Having grabbed some local disguises, the gang comes to the aid of a man shot by Expanoids; with his dying breath he asks them to deliver a small device to the ‘Lady Be Good Club’, the site of an illegal science speakeasy. After making contact with the club’s owner, Harmony de Boutier, Lister hands over the device, which turns out to be a capacitor for an EMP that can destroy humanity’s oppressors; Harmony then sends the boys to find the only person who can fix the capacitor, Albert Einstein, now hanging out on the street with a bunch of tramps. Unfortunately, the Dwarfers get the wrong guy, and return with ‘Bob the Bum’ just as the club gets raided by the police and the Expanoids. Confronted by 4 of 27, the Dwarfers are about to face death when Bob manages to activate the EMP, which deactivates the Expanoids in the club. Linking the EMP to the scientists’ transmitter, Harmony triggers a world-wide EMP that will wipe out all the Expanoids. With only 15 minutes before he and Rimmer are deactivated too, Kryten grabs 4 of 27’s time machine and then races back to Starbug with his mates. Safely back on Red Dwarf, Lister ruminates on the perils of relying on machines – while Kryten dresses him and cleans his teeth…


Chris Barrie (Arnold J. Rimmer), Craig Charles (Dave Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), David Eldon (4 of 27), Lucie Pohl (Harmony de Boutier), David Sterne (Einstein [Bob the Bum]), Sam Douglas (Bouncer), Rebecca Blackstone (Big Bang Beryl), Kyle James (Nearly Dead Guy), Suanne Braun (Captain Dorothy McCutcheon), Davin Menkin (Lieutenant Clarence O’Neal), Alexis Dubus (3 of 63)

Directed by Doug Naylor

Produced by Richard Naylor and Kerry Waddell
Executive producers Simon Lupton, Henry Normal and Doug Naylor
Co-produced by Baby Cow Productions and Grant Naylon Productions for Dave / UKTV

TX: (Dave)
22nd September 2016 @ 9:00 pm

Notes:
*Featuring Dave Lister, Arnold Rimmer, Cat and Kryten

*Although this epsiode was scheduled for a television premiere on the 22nd September 2016, it was released a week earlier for 'on demand' audiences on 15th September via the UKTV Play platform