A post pod that has been chasing Red Dwarf for three million years has finally caught up to deliver the letters, and Rimmer receives a large tax bill from Outland Revenue, along with a letter from his mother informing him that his father is dead. To cheer him up, Lister and Cat invite Rimmer to play the total-immersion computer game "Better Than Life", where everyone's deepest desires come true. Everything goes well until Rimmer's mind begins rejecting the good things that are happening to him, and starts producing progressively horrible fantasies – seven kids and a mortgage, a leg-breaking Outland Revenue agent, a tarantula crawling up his leg – until the whole crew find themselves buried up to their necks in sand with their faces smeared with jam, about to be eaten by ants. At this point, Holly, apparently, ends the game; however, when they get back to their quarters, the tax collector emerges from a locker and breaks Rimmer's thumbs.Triva
- This is the first time that Rimmer's middle name, Judas, is revealed. We also first learn Rimmer's true feelings for his father; he hates him, but still longs for his respect.
- In a bit of inconsistency, we see Rimmer touching an autograph book and different stuff and later see Lister mention, almost with surprise, that Rimmer can touch things, when he actually saw him touch things earlier, to which Rimmer replies, eyebrows raised, 'I know. Why do you think I was so late?' Suggesting that him and Yvonne McGruder had sex in the car 'Twice in one lifetime? I'm turning into Hugh Hefner.'
- We also hear Lister talk of his own father's death, although he later claims to have been abandoned as an infant. It is assumed he is talking about his adoptive father.
- This episode gave its name to the Red Dwarf Fan Club's quarterly magazine, Better Than Life.
- It also gave its name to the second Red Dwarf novel.
- The Game, a 1991 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation shares a similar plot to this episode.
- This episode makes reference to the mermaid problem, by putting the fish half on top. Right before this is revealed, Cat pulls out a photo and kisses the top half, and licks the bottom, presumably kissing the woman and licking the fish (like food), but when it's revealed, one realises that he was kissing the fish and licking (simulating cunnilingus) the woman.
- Marilyn Monroe makes her first of three appearances in Red Dwarf, in the Cat's CGI fantasy. She would return as a mechanoid in "The Last Day" and as a wax-droid in "Meltdown".
- This is the first time we see Yvonne McGruder, who is mentioned in the next episode.
- When Lister and The Cat ride away on the motorbike, someone says "Roll it fucker!", although it is hard to hear.