Stoke Me A Clipper

Ace Rimmer arrives from another dimension badly injured and reveals to Arnold Rimmer his secret — the fact that alternate versions of Rimmer from countless dimensions have all taken the reins to be everybody's favourite hero. Now Ace must train Rimmer to succeed him and keep the legend going. The episode title comes from Rimmer's end-of-episode attempt to 'be' Ace Rimmer as he tries to copy the catchphrase "Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast." but does it all wrong and ends up with "Stoke me a clipper, I'll be back for Christmas." shortly before ejecting himself from the space craft instead of taking off.


Guest actors

This episode featured a large number of famous guest actors. Some of these included:

  • Scottish-born Hollywood movie veteran Brian Cox played the Medieval English King.
  • Prolific British comedy actress Sarah Alexander portrayed the French Queen.
  • Veteran English soap actor Ken Morley portrayed the German commander Captain Voorhese. Morley is best known for previously playing the character of Reg Holdsworth on the British soap opera Coronation Street. He had also previously played a Wehrmacht general in 'Allo 'Allo.
  • British television actress Alison Senior portratyed Princess Bonjella.
  • A German television comedy duo, Kai Maurer and Stephan Grothgar, portrayed the Wehrmacht soldiers who get hit on the head by the crocodile.


Quote(s)

These are two variations of the "Ace Rimmer saying"

Ace Rimmer: Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast

Rimmer: Stoke me a clipper, I'll be back for Christmas


Trivia
  • The working title for this episode was "Natural Born Rimmers" but it wasn't used, being deemed too risqué.
  • A special effects crewman/set maker recalls on the Series VII DVD special features that this episode was fun to make, but at the same time the most difficult episode of all to produce.
  • Ace Rimmer fights off Nazis and jumps out a World War II Heinkel on the back of a crocodile. The same crewman recalls that in the original script for this episode, Ace Rimmer was fighting off Rogue Simulants and jumped out out a flying saucer on the back of an alien.
  • Chris Barrie refers to the opening of the episode as a "007" moment
  • Even though he later says to Rimmer that he wasn't the original Ace, Ace greets the crew as if he were. It is believed by fans that Ace kept log's in which his other replacements could use to learn about the adventures he'd been through and the people hed met.
  • Even though Ace tells Rimmer that he too is a hard-light hologram, Ace does not have an "H" on his head. this is explained in the show as the Light-bee remote changes the outward appearance of holograms and removes the H.
  • The large collection of dead Rimmers means that Ace has not only travel between dimensions but also through time. There is also the plot hole as to the planet in their dimension being that which holds all of the 'Coffin-Pods'.