History Recap / RedDwarfSeasonVTheInquisitor

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Analysing the Inquisitor's actions reveal this. He doesn't necessarily care whether you're a moral person, he only cares whether you have in anyway "seized the gift of life" and made the most of it. In order to make this a fair trial and avoid judging them by his own standards of what makes
a worthwhile life, he takes the form of others so they can be judged by their own standards. This logic is immediately shown to be flawed when it comes to the Red Dwarf crew, where he judges only Lister and Kryten as being unworthy of life. According to him, Rimmer's and the Cat's own low standards mean they have achieved much, while in contrast both Lister and Kryten are very much aware they could have been more, meaning that by their own standards they haven't met the Inquisitor's criteria.

* NeverMyFault: Rimmer uses this defence - and to be fair, his parents were quite horrible (as he points out) and his brothers had all the looks and talent ([[spoiler: at least one didn't, though - and Arnold Rimmer's father was actually Dungo the gardener, not Rimmer Sr., although he (and we) will not find this out fit several series]]). Rather surprisingly, this actually gets him off.

-->'''Arnold Judas Rimmer:''' My father was a half-crazed military failure; my mother, a bitch-queen from Hell. My brothers had all the looks and talent. What did I have? Unmanageable hair and ingrowing toenails. Yes, I admit I'm nothing. But from what I started with, nothing is up.

* TheReasonISuckSpeech: When it comes to judging Rimmer, the Inquisitor rejects every lame excuse that Rimmer comes up with to justify being such a failure and [[{{Jerkass}} a poor excuse of a human being in general]], especially since the Inquisitor takes on the identity of the person being judged and can therefore spot any lie. Eventually, Rimmer gives up and does some genuine self-reflection (albeit still [[NeverMyFault incredibly self-pitying]]), which the Inquisitor accepts as a valid defense.

* InsaneTrollLogic: The Inquisitor's brand. He has people judged by themselves, meaning Rimmer and the Cat get by on the flimsiest of reasons (Rimmer once again claims NeverMyFault and the Cat... just says he has a good ass), while Kryten, whom the Inquisitor notes is probably one of the most selfless beings there is, is sentenced for erasure.
** Then again it's by Kryten's own admission that his good deeds probably don't count because he's programmed to be selfless and subservient, not because he decided on his own that he should behave that way (as well as sorta mouthing off to the deranged droid by asking what right he had to appoint himself the final authority on who gets to live).
** This is arguably intentional, as the episode is essentially a riff on the philosophy of existentialism. To offer a simple summary, existentialism essentially argues that there's no fundamental meaning or purpose to the universe or existence, and no one who can act as the ultimate judge of the merit of any other person's actions or life other than that person themselves; a person is ultimately free to make their own choices and find meaning in their lives their own way, with the ultimate caveat being that in order to be truly meaningful their actions are subject to genuine introspection in order to determine whether or not they are "authentic" to themselves and their values. For all their faults, the Cat's vanity and Rimmer's blaming of others for his own life are true to who they are, whereas Kryten's good works are a result of his programming, not his true self, and Lister essentially refuses to play the game.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Lister unleashes a short-but-devastating one on Rimmer to prove he knows who he is, listing Rimmer's failings as a person. The Cat admits that Lister's got his number.

----

* InSpiteOfANail: Despite the fact that the Inquisitor is explicitly giving potential people the chance to make ''more meaningful'' lives than the ones who ended up being born, none of the replacements that we see end up anywhere different than the originals. Which could easily be a subtle jab at him being delusional about the importance of his self-appointed task.

Fast forward three million years. The simulant, in his time-space travels, finds Starbug and announces that he is going to try the crew on their worthiness to live. Kryten explains that this must be The Inquisitor, a rogue simulant who has made it his mission to travel throughout the universe and "delete" people, replacing them with individuals created from a different sperm or egg, if he deems them to have failed living up to their potential and thereby wasted the precious gift of life.

The episode opens on an house somewhere in space. An ordinary man wakes up to find himself confronted by a simulant in a skull mask, who announces that he has been deemed unworthy of having existed[[note]]"Is that you, mother?" the man asks, putting on his glasses[[/note]], and he will be replaced. The man is erased, and a new fellow appears--a man born to the same parents, who ''might'' have existed and is now being given the chance.

* NeverMyFault: Rimmer uses this defence - and to be fair, his parents were quite horrible (as he points out) and his brothers had all the looks and talent ([[spoiler: at least one didn't, though - and Arnold Rimmer's father was actually Dungo the gardener, not Rimmer Sr.]]). This actually gets him off

Which is bad news for everyone.

Before the Inqusitor can finish erasing Lister and Kryten, they're saved by... Kryten? A future version of Kryten jumps in and slices off the Inquisitor's hand, giving them his gauntlet. But while they're talking, the Inquisitor recovers. Future Kryten's final words before his head is crushed are "enig". Lister and Kryten scarper back to Starbug, where they try to get the Inquisitor's bindings off. Lister blames himself for getting Kryten into the whole mess, but Kryten insists he believes in Silicon Heaven, but he doesn't anymore, thanks to Lister teaching him to lie. They do eventually manage to crack the chains, and head back into Red Dwarf. Only there's a problem: The ship and Holly don't recognise them. Because they don't exist there anymore. [[note]]Technically, they never have will existed there anymore, but this is no time to be conjugating temporal verbs in the past-impossible never tense[[/note]]

The episode opens on an house somewhere in space. An ordinary man wakes up to find himself confronted by a simulant in a skull mask, who announces that he has been deemed unworthy of having existed, and he will be replaced. The man is erased, and a new fellow appears--a man born to the same parents, who ''might'' have existed and is now being given the chance.

-->'''Cat:''' ''{staggered with horror}'' Okay! We don't know who we are, but we've seen enough of the ''other'' dude to know we wanna be on your side!

* {{Understatement}}: Prior to his travelling back in time to perform his HeroicSacrifice, Kryten sums up the disastrous events which have led to himself and Lister being rendered non-persons who never existed, the entire Red Dwarf crew subsequently being horribly killed and Lister himself being left alone potentially to be killed by the Inquisitor with this:

* OhCrap: When Kryten explains that the Inquisitor only deletes people who have lived worthless lives, pathetic losers, and those who have failed to make anything of themselves, Rimmer's immediate response is "we're in trouble." Not to mention as Kryten describes the qualifications for not getting erased, each sentence gains a "oh, God" from Rimmer. And when he realizes his worthiness will be judged by himself, he can only say "oh, smeg."

* InSpiteOfANail: Despite the fact that the Inquisitor is explicitly giving potential people the chance to make ''more meaningful'' lives than the ones who ended up being born, none of the replacements that we see end up anywhere different than the originals.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Lister unleashes a devastating one on Rimmer to prove he knows who he is, listing Rimmer's failings as a person. The Cat admits that Lister's got his number.
-->"''You're really mean with money. You're a tremendous physical coward. [[CallBack You once spent an afternoon]] [[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIITheLastDay on the Samaritans switchboard and]] [[NoodleIncident four people committed suicide!]] Your middle name is [[MeaningfulName Judas]], but you tell everyone that it's Jonathan. You sign all your official letters "Arnold Rimmer [=BSc=]", and the [=BSc=] stands for ''Bronze Swimming Certificate!'' You're a cheating, weasley, low-life ''scumbucket'', with all the charm and social grace of a pubic louse.''"

* ChainsawGood: A future version of Kryten manages to save Past!Lister and his former self by pulling out a ''lazer chainsaw'' and hacking off the inquisitor's arm

* ThrowbackThreads: Rimmer spends the first part of "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonVTheInquisitor The Inquisitor]]" in his "Captain Emerald" suit from Series 3 and 4, only changing into his uniform for that Series (a red quilted uniform) once Lister and The Cat are removed from the timeline and replaced.

* FlashbackThreads: Rimmer spends the first part of "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonVTheInquisitor The Inquisitor]]" in his "Captain Emerald" suit from Series 3 and 4, only changing into his uniform for that Series (a red quilted uniform) once Lister and The Cat are removed from the timeline and replaced.

* NeverMyFault: Rimmer uses this defence - and to be fair, his parents were quite horrible (as he points out) and his brothers had all the looks and talent ([[spoiler: at least one didn't, though - and Arnold Rimmer's father was actually Dungo the gardener, nor Rimmer Sr.]]). This actually gets him off