Recap / Red Dwarf Season VII "Tikka to Ride"

Last time on Red Dwarf: Everybody died and Starbug was completely destroyed.

Good news: They got better (eventually)! That tends to happen when the person killing you is your future self. Can't kill yourself in the past if you never existed.

Bad news: There are still casualties. Despite everything having been undone, the curry supplies are gone. Completely. Not a trace left. Not even a single poppadum floating in the void. Lister takes this a little hard. After all, without the one light of his life, what's he to do on Friday night? Or Saturday? Or Sunday, Monday, Tuesday... you get the idea. The point is, Lister kind of needs those curries. And no, pasta will not do.

Meanwhile, Starbug's in better condition than ever. Thanks to the temporal anomalies of being un-destroyed, it's much bigger. Almost like someone had more money to spend on it all of a sudden. Also, they know about the time-drive, which can now also move them through space all of a sudden. Lister suggests maybe using the time-drive to go back in time, to before mankind wiped out, and buy a few hundred curries. No-one else is taken with this, not least because of the perils of time-travel. Who knows what the wrong decision could do to the future?

Also, Kryten declares he's going to be offline for several hours, removing useless data from his head. Lister takes advantage of this to swap Kryten's head out, with Spare Head Two. Spare Head is actually okay with doing something so immoral and dishonest, but first he needs Lister to disable his behavioural protocols. The next morning, Spare Head Two, in the midst of doing everything Kryten never would, agrees with Lister's insane plan.

With the time-drive, they go back in time, but not to Liverpool, or even anywhere in Britain. Instead they land in a book depository. In Dallas. In 1963.

Hoo boy...

The boys' arrival knocks Lee Harvey Oswald out the window just before he shoots JFK. As a result, some angry policemen barge into the room prepared to arrest them for seemingly throwing Oswald (now street pizza) out of the window. With some quick thinking from Spare Head One, the four get away via the time-drive.

They reappear in Dallas a few years later. And it's completely deserted, except for one dead guy (who bears a suspicious resemblance to Jack Ruby). Spare Head Two does a quick check, and learns what happened: Since JFK wasn't assassinated, he remained President ... until he was caught cheating on his wife with a mafia boss's mistress. Impeached and arrested, Kennedy was replaced by J. Edgar Hoover who, as a result of being blackmailed by the mafia, has allowed the Soviet Union to install missile stations in Cuba. With that looming over their heads, millions of Americans fled the cities in range. Spare Head Two knew something like this would happen, but because he has no sense of guilt anymore he didn't care enough to stop it.

This has also buggered up the Space Race, and consequently Starbug doesn't exist. The Boys from the Dwarf are temporally adrift, and the Time Drive is broken (not, as Rimmer thinks, because of a tachyon surge, but just because Spare Head Two had been jabbing it too hard). They're going nowhere for the moment. And worst of all... Lister still hasn't gotten a smegging curry.

Later, the Boys discuss Kennedy over a slice of Roasted Dead Guy, Spare Head Two seeing no problem with cooking a human thanks to his disabled behaviour protocols. Once the Time Drive fixes itself, a despondent crew decide there's only one thing to do. To make things right, Kennedy has to die. Easier said than done, though. Their attempts to undo their first mistake mean that Lee Harvey Oswald's shots don't manage to kill Kennedy. Then they hit upon the idea of a second gunman, positioned on that nearby grassy knoll ... but who are they going to get to take the shot? Lister has an idea, and sets the Time Drive to Idlewild Airport, just as the disgraced JFK is led into custody.

Lister relays his story to a despondent Kennedy, who is hesitant to go along with the idea. He may have ruined his career, and marriage, but he still has a future. Lister tells him about Idlewild, about how in the future, it'll be renamed after him.

Lister: You're a liberal icon, and that's the person you should be, but in order to be that person, you're gonna have to sacrifice your life.

Kennedy thinks about it, and decides to help. Ask not what your country can do for you, after all.

The four return to Dallas with Kennedy in tow disguised as a policeman. This time, the attempt is successful. JFK is killed by a sniper — his future self, of all people — on November 22nd 1963. Future Kennedy thanks the Dwarfers for allowing him to be reborn, before fading away into nothingness.

At which point Lister realizes he never asked whether there were any curry-houses in Dallas. Having reached the end of their rope, the others immediately set upon him.

(extended edition ending follows)Some time later, as Rimmer is using a restored Kryten as a volt-meter down in the supply bays, Lister comes in with a realization: The curry supplies, the ones that were entirely destroyed? They weren't. He had merely used the Time Drive to steal them from the past. One jaunt later, and Lister has all the curries he could ever need.

All's well that ends well, right? Well ... no. Rimmer tricks Lister into separating Starbug's supply bay from the rear of the ship, and then has the ship speed off into the distance. Lister is momentarily distraught at having been left all on his own, with nothing for company but three and a half a tons of curry.

Fan-smegging-tastic.

Tropes in this episode include:

• Accidental Murder: The boys end up killing Lee Harvey Oswald by accidentally knocking him out of one of the windows at the Book Depository.
• Actually Pretty Funny: The Cat is seen sniggering at Rimmer's quip about a minute's flatulence to mourn the loss of Starbug's curry supplies.
  • Meta example: Grant and Naylor were concerned about the episode being shown in the States, specifically in Dallas, where the assassination is still a touchy subject. Thankfully, the audience of KERA, Dallas’ PBS affiliate, didn’t seem to mind.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  Rimmer: You...have altered the entire course of civilisation from the 20th century onwards, you've brought the world to the brink of nuclear war, and worst of all-
  Lister: I know, I know. I still haven't had a curry.
• Artistic License – History: The episode implies that Kennedy would have survived with Only a Flesh Wound had Lee Harvey Oswald been stopped after getting just two shots off. While Oswald's third shot was the one that finished Kennedy off, the second shot also grievously wounded him, to the point where even had he survived, he would likely never have been able to resume his duties as President. The actual outcome of this scenario would likely therefore have been Lyndon Johnson becoming a de facto acting President for a year before running to succeed Kennedy in his own right.
• Book Dumb: Lister, again. He has no knowledge of 20th-century events due to not finding it very interesting, and initially has no idea who John F. Kennedy is, to the point where he initially thinks JFK was named after the airport...
• Broken Pedestal: In-universe, with Cat shocked at the idea that the american disgust at Kennedy's affair could create such a disastrous scenario
  Cat: But you guys said Kennedy was a great pres!
  Spare Head Two: He was.
  Rimmer: He was also an inveterate womaniser; his affairs were legendary. They never came out when he was alive.
  Spare Head Two: Every great man has his weakness, his Achilles' Heel.
  Rimmer: Kennedy's was just further up.
• Chekhov's Gun: A rare Red Dwarf example that goes across episodes, Kryten wiping his memories isn't important in this episode beyond Lister taking advantage of it, but it will have some consequences in a few episodes.
• Comically Missing the Point: On seeing a giant red splat on the ground, Lister assumes it's a giant pizza. Spare Head Two tells him it is not a giant pizza, but Lister just assumes he thinks it's not giant. It's the remains of Lee Harvey Oswald.
• Delayed Reaction: Spare Head Two notes, on seeing they've landed in Dallas, notes JFK's assassination was from the Texas Book Depository. While leaning on boxes labelled "Texas Book Depository". Then he notices what the sign says.
• Emergency Temporal Shift: Lister attempts to misuse the Time Drive in order to pick up some emergency curry supplies from Earth in the 23rd century, only for the crew to end up in Dallas, 1963. After accidentally killing Lee Harvey Oswald before he can take the shot - and making themselves look like criminals in the process - they find themselves cornered by secret service agents, forcing Kryten to hastily transport them at least a year into the future... only to find that a Bad Future has ensued as a result of Kennedy being saved.
• Everybody Has Standards: After Lister responds to Kennedy erasing himself from existence with annoyance that he never asked the man if he knew where the nearest Indian restaurant is, the other Dwarfers gang up on him and beat him senseless in disgust.
• Evil Laugh: Well, more like evil chuckle, but Rimmer lets out a good one when the Cat and Lister discover what they've been eating.
  Rimmer: One minute, you're down; the next, you're right back up again...
• Failed a Spot Check: Lee Harvey Oswald's attempts to get away from his assassination attempt are not helped by The Boyz making his day so much worse, without ever noticing him at all.
• Forgotten Phlebotinum: The time-drive just vanishes after this episode, with nary a comment. There is at least a contextual reason for it this time, though, with making sure they aren't tempted to abuse it and end up as the degenerate versions of themselves seen in the previous episode.
  • Lister seems to use it in "Ouroboros" to bring his baby self back to Earth though his method of time travel isn't named in episode.
• I Ate WHAT?!: Lister and the Cat are horrified to find out they eat poor Eric White, thanks to Spare Head Two.
• Jerkass Has a Point: The Cat and Kryten think so little of Lister's curry obsession that they actually side with Rimmer the majority of the episode (despite Cat lampshading how much he loathes agreeing with Rimmer).
• Lack of Empathy: Spare Head Two, thanks to Lister's disabling his behavioural protocols. Lister eventually calls him on it, to no effect.
• Law of Time Travel Coincidences: When Lister insists on using a time machine to go back to 21st century Earth and order a few thousand curries, the time machine misses and winds up depositing them in Dallas, on the day of JFK's assassination... right in the book depository as Lee Harvey Oswald's lining up his shot.
• Logic Bomb: Lister is shown inadvertently destroying an artificially intelligent video camera (apparently the third one that week) by trying to explain the Temporal Paradox that happened as a result of the battle of the previous episode. Kryten, however, merely finds it garbled, confusing, and dull; he suffers no ill effects.
• Made of Plasticine: A five story fall wouldn't exactly turn you into a "giant pizza".
• Misapplied Phlebotinum;
  • The whole point of the show is for the gang to get back to Earth. The prospect of using the Time Drive to go to Earth and stay there rather than get more curry then go back to space is brought up, but after their encounter with their future-selves, no-one (save Lister) wants to risk it.
  • The Red Dwarf wiki points out that the Future Lister in "Stasis Leak" said they'll get another chance to go back in time in five years. This episode is set four years later from their perspective ^note Not counting 200 years spent in stasis between "Back To Reality" and "Psirens" so it's possible Lister was meant to use the Time Drive to go back in time and marry Kochanski.
• Mondegreen Gag: Lister mistakes Rimmer saying "JFK" for "Jeff Kay".
• Mood Whiplash:
  • The extended version has an almost Voyager-esque opening sequence of a restored Starbug soaring majestically among the stars... and then dumping crap (literally) into an asteroid ring.
  • The astoundingly touching treatment of JFK's heroic sacrifice is followed by Lister being beaten up by the others.
• Necessary Fail: W hat would have happened had Oswald's attempt to assassinate John F. Kennedy been unsuccessful? The answer is not pretty.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Lister's maniacal, all-consuming desire for a curry every night nearly brings mankind to the brink of extinction, and forces a good (albeit flawed) man to kill himself to fix it.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Lister is subject to one in the end. Kryten's nightstick comes in especially handy.
• No Sympathy: Neither the Cat or Rimmer are at all sympathetic to Lister having to go without curry.
• Only Sane Man: Inverted: Lister's the only one who thinks time-travelling to find more curry is in any way a good idea, in sharp contrast to the rest of the Dwarfers.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: You know Lister's curry hunt is a bad idea when even The Cat agrees with Rimmer about how stupid it is.
  The Cat: You know I'd rather wear sideways-pressed flares and a clip-on polyester tie than agree with Goalpost-Head, but this time he's right.
• Plot-Driven Breakdown: The Time Drive freezes for no reason other than to trap the Dwarfers in 1960s America for one more scene.
• Police Are Useless: The two law enforcement officers who show up to arrest the Crew. One of them is FBI. And when Kryten uses the Time Drive to get them out of there, the police merely decide to shoot blindly into the air.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The episode name is a reference to The Beatles song "Ticket to Ride".
• Puppet King: In the alternate reality, J. Edgar Hoover became President of the United States. He was forced to run by the mob, who had photos of him at a transvestite orgy.
• Rage Breaking Point: After restoring the time stream by getting the alternate JFK to assassinate his past self, Lister curses about not having asked JFK if there were curry houses in Dallas. A moment's discussion later, the other Dwarfers have knocked him down and are pummeling him mercilessly.
• Re-Cut: The Xtended episode's ending, where Lister figures out he was the one responsible for the curry supplies disappearing before he is tricked into jettisoning part of Starbug with him in it, was specially filmed for the Xtended VHS, the scene having been written but deleted before production began on grounds of cost.
• Real Footage Re-creation: The footage of JFK's assassination was recreated, with Farnborough standing in for Dallas. It was nearly discarded in post-production as Doug Naylor thought they looked a little too real.
• Restraining Bolt: Kryten's behavioural protocols. Without them, Spare Head Two repeatedly does stupid, irrational or thoughtless things because they're not there to tell him he shouldn't use his groinal attachment to stir breakfast, or smoke, or cook a dead man as dinner.
• Series Continuity Error: How the Time Drive works has completely changed since the previous episode. It was originally fixed to the ship and could only move it through time but not any closer to Earth., now it's a handheld device capable of teleporting the Dwarfers to Earth. Doug Naylor handwaves this on the DVD release of the series by implying that the dimension paradoxes caused when the future crew destroyed their past selves changed the device, possibly melding it with the handheld transporter from "Rimmerworld".
• Skewed Priorities: When held at gunpoint by the FBI agent, the Cat's first response is to cover his crotch.
• Take That!:
  • Kryten's irritated response to Lister's garbled attempt to explain the temporal paradoxes.
  Kryten: Garbled, confusing and quite frankly, duller than an in-flight magazine produced by Air Belgium.
  • This line, which can't be anything but a shot at Star Trek's tendency to produce endless technobabble.
  Rimmer: Do you think its because the sub-space conduits have locked with the transponder calibrations and caused a major tachyon surge that has overloaded the time matrix?
  Kryten: Ah, no, sir. I've just been jabbing it too hard.
• Time and Relative Dimensions in Space: The fact that the time drive can move them through time but no closer to Earth is brought up in the previous episode. Here they can just teleport there with no explanation.
• Time-Travel Tense Trouble: Lister's attempts to explain what happened to the evil future Dwarfers causes cameras to explode.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: Lister establishes at the start of the episode that if a person kills their past self, the future version will disappear and the past version will come back to life. At the end, John F. Kennedy kills his past self and they both stay dead.
  • Could be justified if assuming that the paradox of the future Dwarfers was caused by them destroying the very time machine they would use to go back and kill their past selves at the same time; future-Kennedy assassinating himself was carried out using a time machine provided by the Dwarfers.
• Took a Shortcut: One line handwaves navigating around the unreality bubbles from the previous episode.
• Tragic Time Traveler: Lister's attempts to use the Time Drive to stock up on curry lead to them preventing the JFK assassination, which results in a Bad Future where J. Edgar Hoover allowed the Soviets to install missiles, many Americans have fled the cities, and the Space Race never came to fruition. This future is only resolved when JFK offers to shoot his past self, and Lister ultimately never gets his curry (in the original ending at least).
• Who Shot JFK?: Thanks to the Time Drive, John F. Kennedy was shot by his future self.
  JFK: You mean ... assassinate myself?
  Lister: Yeah. It'll drive the conspiracy theorists nuts but they'll never figure it out.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The plot is very similar to Star Trek: The Original Series' "The City on the Edge of Forever". The crew find themselves stuck in an alternate history due to mucking about with time and are forced to let someone die so that history will run its course and they can leave.

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