White Hole

Holly's mental condition has degenerated to the point where she cannot count without banging her head on her screen. Kryten develops an intelligence-compression technique that could restore Holly's IQ of 6,000 at the expense of some run-time. The technique works too well, leaving her with an IQ of more than 12,000 but a lifespan of three minutes. She shuts herself down and leaves the ship on emergency backup systems. As if that is not bad enough, Red Dwarf is running into a white hole, which spews time and matter into the universe. The ship will be destroyed by the hole unless they can plug it. Holly is switched back on and quickly concocts an audacious plan that involves playing pool with planets. Lister rejects Holly's shot, replacing it with his own trick shot. The white hole is plugged, reversing all time ejected from it. This means that the timeline in which the episode took place is to become redundant, sending Holly and the Red Dwarf crew back to their previous state.


Cast notes

• David Ross returns to Red Dwarf after being the actor to originally play Kryten in the episode of the same name. His new part is decidedly more minor, as he provides the part for the Talkie Toaster, who is edited back out of continuity at the end of the episode.

Production

• Director Ed Bye was stricken with food poisoning prior to filming this episode, so producer Paul Jackson stepped in instead. Danny John-Jules, infamous for being late, thought it was a joke by crew members when he was told that Paul Jackson was directing, since Paul was known for his short temper and insistence on being punctual. He still turned up late, and as expected, enraged Jackson.
• According to Chris Barrie in the DVD commentaries, Paul Jackson's presence alone caused the crew to suddenly double in size. Robert Llewellyn even commented on a soundman walking precariously along the gantry above the set, "risking life and limb," and various other crew members removing nails with their teeth and hammering in other nails with their heads, a humourous reference to the fear that Paul Jackson struck into the hearts of the crew.

Continuity

• In the episode "Demons and Angels" Lister mentions that he played pool with planets but he shouldn't be able to remember it because the events in "White Hole" got wiped from history.