Ouroboros (Red Dwarf episode)

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Red Dwarf episode
"Ouroboros"
Episode №	3
Airdate	January 31, 1997
Writer(s)	Doug Naylor
Director	Ed Bye
Guest star(s)	Gary Bleasdale Juliet Griffiths Adrienne Posta Alexander John-Jules
Series VII January 17 – March 7, 1997
Tikka to Ride Stoke Me a Clipper Ouroboros Duct Soup Blue Beyond a Joke Epideme Nanarchy
List of all Red Dwarf episodes...

"Ouroboros" is the third episode of science fiction sit-com Red Dwarf Series VII and the 39th in the series run. It was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 31 January 1997.^[1] Written by Doug Naylor and directed by Ed Bye. It was the first episode to feature Kochanski as a regular character, having only appeared previously as a minor character.

1 Plot
2 Production
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Plot

Three million years ago a box, with a baby inside, is placed under the pool table in the Aigbuth Arms pub, with just Ouroboros written on the side. Back to the present day and the Starbug crew come across a linkway between dimensions and meet their counterparts from another reality, one in which Kochanski (Chloë Annett) was in stasis when the Red Dwarf crew died, and Lister (Craig Charles) has since been brought back as a hologram. Kochanski requests that Lister fills a canister up with his sperm, so that she may have a child as her hologram Lister cannot bear children.

Lister fills the in vitro canister and hands it back to Kochanksi and the two groups head back to their own dimensions. However, Lister notices a label "Ouroboros" on a supply box with a symbol on it - a snake eating his own tail, completing a neverending circle. He recognises this as what was on his own box and realises that he is his own father and Kochanski is his mother. He rushes after Kochanski to tell her before she returns to her dimension, but the linkway is attacked by GELFs causing a break in the pathway and Kochanski is trapped with Lister, Kryten (Robert Llewellyn) and Cat (Danny John-Jules). When the baby is born, Lister puts him in a box and writes "Ouroboros" on it.

[edit] Production

The episode overran by several minutes, and had to be cut down. Rather than lose vital scenes it was decided that the opening title could be omitted to save precious time. The scenes would be reinstated for the X-tended edition. This is the second Red Dwarf episode to forfeit the opening titles for the purposes of time and episode pacing (the first being the Series II episode "Parallel Universe").^[2]

Chloë Annett arrived at the Red Dwarf set nervously showing off a recent bad hair dye result. The dye had thickened her hair and made it wirey and untamable.^[3]

Guest stars included Gary Bleasdale as Frank, Juliet Griffiths as Barmaid, Adrienne Posta as Flight Announcer and Alexander John-Jules as Baby Lister.