History Recap / RedDwarfSeasonIVJustice

* RetCanon: Lister states that Rimmer was in charge of "Z Shift", which first appeared in ''[[Literature/RedDwarf Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers]]'', where it was a team of twelve members. Presumably in the show it had just two, since it was established back in the pilot that Rimmer is in charge of only one man -- Lister (though a deleted scene establishes everyone else transferred out).

* ItsAllMyFault: In contrast to [[NeverMyFault his usual attitude,]] it's revealed that Rimmer blamed himself for the death of the entire ''Red Dwarf'' crew and gets charged for 1167 counts of manslaughter. He is acquitted as Kryten points out that Rimmer was clearly unqualified to repair the drive plate, being so incompetent he should have ''never'' been put in that position in the first place.

Once the simulant is dealt with, the Dwarfers fly away while Lister starts passionately ranting about the nature of justice and free will to his fellows. Who promptly watch in dispassion as he falls down an open hatch before sealing it up and leaving him.

* VaryingCompetencyAlibi: Rimmer is accused by a Justice Computer on a penal colony station of the murder of 1167 counts of second-degree murder thanks to his failure to fix the drive plate which led to a radiation leak on ''Red Dwarf''. Kryten eventually manages to get the Justice Computer to let Rimmer go by convincing it that he was such an incompetent worker that the real blame should lie on whoever got him to do the job in the first place. Rimmer even helped unwittingly back the argument of his own stupidity by repeatedly trying to object to his own defense for these "accusations".

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The Justice Computer. It judges the crew quite fairly since it doesn't find many crimes on them. For Kryten, a mechanoid who is incapable of committing a crime, he gets through. Cat, who doesn't seem to have committed any crimes despite his attitude, gets through. Lister, who actually had committed crimes, gets through because he was mainly a small-timer who didn't do anything completely outrageous. He also was routinely caught and thus already punished, and even if he did have any lingering crimes, he was a nonviolent offender save for the occasional pub brawl and would have run out any statute of limitations millions of years ago. Of course, when it comes to Rimmer, who believed that he was guilty of the deaths aboard the ''Red Dwarf'', he gets sentenced effective immediately. The computer does sanction a re-trial to properly examine if he was guilty or not of the crime he feels responsible for, and after carefully analyzing Rimmer's psych profile and the details of the situation, realizes the fault really lies with whoever gave someone so useless such an important job to do.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The Justice Computer. It judges the crew quite fairly since it doesn't find many crimes on them. For Kryten, a mechanoid who is incapable of committing a crime, he gets through. Cat, who doesn't seem to have committed any crimes despite his attitude, gets through. Lister, who actually had committed crimes, gets through because he was mainly a small-timer who didn't do anything completely outrageous. He also was routinely caught and thus already punished, and even if he did have any lingering crimes, he was a nonviolent offender and would have run out any statute of limitations as he is millions of years in the future. Of course, when it comes to Rimmer, who believed that he was guilty of the deaths aboard the ''Red Dwarf'', he gets sentenced effective immediately. The computer does sanction a re-trial to properly examine if he was guilty or not of the crime he feels responsible for, and after carefully analyzing Rimmer's psych profile and the details of the situation, realizes the fault really lies with whoever gave someone so useless such an important job to do.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The Justice Computer. It judges the crew quite fairly since it doesn't find many crimes on them. For Kryten, a mechanoid who is incapable of committing a crime, he gets through. Cat, who doesn't seem to have committed any crimes despite his attitude, gets through. Lister, who actually had committed crimes, gets through because he was mainly a small-timer who didn't do anything completely outrageous. He also was routinely caught and thus already punished, and even if he did have any lingering crimes, he was a nonviolent offender and would have run out any statute of limitations as he is millions of years in the future. Of course, when it comes to Rimmer, who believed that he was guilty of the deaths aboard the ''Red Dwarf'', he gets sentenced effective immediately. The computer does sanction a re-trial to properly examine if he was guilty or not of the crime he feels responsible for.

** Also Rimmer's culpability for wiping out the crew. His incompetence had been played for humor so many times eventually the writers realized someone like that would never have been put in charge of a job that could've endangered his crewmates' lives...unless whoever assigned him that task was ''even more'' incompetent.

* TheBore: Rimmer's slide-show about ship engines threatens to melt Kryton's intelligence circuits.
* BoringVacationSlideshow: Rimmer tries to show off the holiday slides of his trek through the Diesel Decks to Kryten. However, Kryten is in clear pain throughout the presentation and tries to get a break from it, only for Rimmer to note that they weren't going to get through the presentation if they had a second break.

* VaryingCompetenceAlibi: Rimmer is accused by a Justice Computer on a penal colony station of the murder of 1167 counts of second-degree murder thanks to his failure to fix the drive plate which led to a radiation leak on ''Red Dwarf''. Kryten eventually manages to get the Justice Computer to let Rimmer go by convincing it that he was such an incompetent worker that the real blame should lie on whoever got him to do the job in the first place. Rimmer even helped unwittingly back the argument of his own stupidity by repeatedly trying to object to his own defense for these "accusations".

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The Justice Computer. It judges the crew quite fairly since it doesn't find many crimes on them. For Kryten, a mechanoid who is incapable of committing a crime, he gets through. Cat, who doesn't seem to have committed any crimes despite his attitude, gets through. Lister, who actually had committed crimes, gets through because he was mainly a small-timer who didn't do anything completely outrageous. He also was routinely caught and thus already punished, and even if he did have any lingering crimes, he was a nonviolent offender and would have run out any statute of limitations as he is millions of years in the future. Of course, when it comes to Rimmer, who believed that he was guilty of the deaths aboard the ''Red Dwarf'', he gets sentenced effective immediately. The computer does sanction a re-trial to properly examine if it was a crime or not.

* RetCanon: Lister states that Rimmer was in charge of "Z Shift", which first appeared in ''[[Literature/RedDwarf Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers]]'', where it was a team of twelve members. Presumably in the show it had just two, since it was established back in the pilot that Rimmer is in charge of only one man -- Lister.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The Justice Computer. It judges the crew quite fairly since it doesn't find many crimes on them. For Kryten, a mechanoid who is incapable of committing a crime, he gets through. Cat, who doesn't seem to have committed any crimes despite his attitude, gets through. Lister, who actually had committed crimes, gets through because he was mainly a small-timer who didn't do anything completely. He also was routinely caught and thus already punished, and even if he did have any lingering crimes, he was a nonviolent offender and would have run out any statute of limitations as he is millions of years in the future. Of course, when it comes to Rimmer, who believed that he was guilty of the deaths aboard the ''Red Dwarf'', he gets sentenced effective immediately. The computer does sanction a re-trial to properly examine if it was a crime or not.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The Justice Computer. It judges the crew quite fairly since it doesn't find many crimes on them. For Kryten, a mechanoid who is incapable of committing a crime, he gets through. Cat, who doesn't seem to have committed any crimes despite his attitude, gets through. Lister, who actually had committed crimes, gets through because he was mainly a small-timer who didn't do anything completely. He also was routinely caught and thus already punished, and even if he did have any lingering crimes, he was a nonviolent offender and would have run out any statute of limitations as he is millions of year's in the future. Of course, when it comes to Rimmer, who believed that he was guilty of the deaths aboard the ''Red Dwarf'', he gets sentenced effective immediately. The computer does sanction a re-trial to properly examine if it was a crime or not.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The Justice Computer. It judges the crew quite fairly since it doesn't find many crimes on them. For Kryten, a mechanoid who is incapable of committing a crime, he gets through. Cat, who doesn't seem to have committed any crimes despite his attitude, gets through. Lister, who actually had committed crimes, gets through because he was mainly a small-timer who didn't do anything completely outrageous.(Plus he was routinely caught and thus already punished.) Of course, when it comes to Rimmer, who believed that he was guilty of the deaths aboard the ''Red Dwarf'', he gets sentenced effective immediately. The computer does sanction a re-trial to properly examine if it was a crime or not.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Weaponized (?) in the Justice Field, which basically instantly applies the effects of any wrongdoings you commit to you yourself (steal something, something of yours goes missing; attack someone, the blow lands on you). The intent is for this to hammer through to the inmates that they must obey the law (or else) until doing so becomes second nature for them.

* ImmortalityField: You can presumably still die from non-violent methods but the Justice Field means that if you attack someone, the attacker takes the damage instead of the victim.

** Rimmer is charged with 1,167 murders. Presuamably, his own death isn't included as that wouldn't count as murder and Lister obviously survived, meaning the full crew, according to this episode, was 1,169. The early episodes stated Red Dwarf's crew to be just 169 but the writers later realised this was far too small for such a huge ship.

-->'''Kryten:''' Sir, provided I could have full access to your personal files, I believe I could come with a winning case by lunchtime.

* CanonImmigrant: Not a person, but rather "Z Shift", which is named in this episode as the team Rimmer was in charge of. In ''[[Literature/RedDwarf Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers]]'', in which it first appeared, Z Shift had twelve members, but presumably in the show it had just two, since it was established back in the pilot that Rimmer is in charge of only one man -- Lister.

-->'''Kryten:''' Sir, provided I could have full access to your personal files, I believe I could come with a winning case by, lunchtime.

* BrassBalls: Lister is perfectly willing to go toe to toe with a Simulant, armed with nothing more than a [[PipePain lead pipe]], as opposed to shooting him in the back. Bear in mind that earlier in the episode, Kryten informs the crew that the Simulant is perfectly capable of surviving bazookoid fire for long enough to make balloon animals out of someone's lower intestines. [[spoiler: The Simulant is carrying both a knife and a gun, but fortunately, the Justice Field turns his own attacks against him.]]

* CoveredInGunge: One symptom for "Space Mumps" is a build up of pus underneath Lister's scalp. Lister's mumps pop like a zit covering Lister and the cat in slimy pus.

* HonorBeforeReason: Lister can't bring himself to shoot the simulant in the back, despite the threat he poses, instead agreeing to the simulant's request to "talk" (though he did bring along a [[PipePain lead pipe]], just in case). Although as soon as the attacks start flying, it turns out not taking the shot actually saved Lister's life.