Dimension Jump

In a parallel universe, Lister is a gifted engineer nicknamed "Spanners" and Rimmer is dashing, heroic, universally beloved test pilot Arnold J. "Ace" Rimmer. Ace pilots a ship equipped with the new Wildfire drive, which can exceed the speed of reality and propel him into a different dimension. He arrives in the Red Dwarf universe, where the rest of the crew soon take a liking to him; Rimmer, however, becomes bitterly jealous of this "better" version of himself. Ace, disgusted with his alternate self, soon decides to leave, but not before revealing to Lister the 'break' that he got in his life that Rimmer was denied. The break, in fact, was that Ace was held back a year in school, while Rimmer progressed a year like everyone else. Ace Rimmer, humiliated, forced himself to buckle down and work harder to improve himself, while Arnold Rimmer continued to make excuses throughout his life.


Episode notes

• This episode contained the first alternative version of the end credits theme with the skutters' rendition on the Hammond organ.
• This is the first appearance of "Ace" Rimmer. Chris Barrie had lobbied for a cooler character because he was suffering "git overload" due to the type of characters he was playing.
• Although the character "Ace" returns in other episodes ("Emohawk: Polymorph II" and "Stoke Me a Clipper") it is revealed they are in fact "alternate" Ace Rimmers — in fact, in "Emohawk" Ace is merely the character of Rimmer with his bitterness removed. The new Ace in "Stoke Me a Clipper" was the latest in a long line of Aces, the original Ace having "caught the business end of a neutron tank in Dimension 165".
• When Ace Rimmer came into the "Red Dwarf" universe, he's also somehow been sent three million years into the future. Technically, he should have appeared in the time period he left and encountered rimmer when he was still alive. The explanation could be that he had a tracker to find Rimmer.