Red Dwarf: Ranking The Time Travel Episodes From Worst To Best

4. Ouroboros

Despite being a comedy, Red Dwarf still proved it took itself as seriously as other science-fiction shows by adhering to its own sense of continuity, something best seen in Ouroboros. Not only does it feature the revenge of Lister's Gelf bride from Emohawk (itself a semi-sequel to Polymorph), but it also establishes the origins of Lister's unique history. It had been a long running fact throughout the show that he was an orphan who had been abandoned under a pool table, and here we see that baby Lister was left by none other than adult Lister himself. He is in fact his own father, his ex-girlfriend is his mum, and as the last human being alive it created a paradox in which the human race could never become extinct. It also lead to the hilarious Fathers and Suns, a series 10 episode which capitalised on the idea so magnificently. This was just one way in which the reintroduction of Kochanski injected the show, which was now up to its seventh series, with a new lease of life. Whilst still filling the same role as recently departed Rimmer (pretentious boarding school graduate who goes by the book), the inclusion of a female presence in an all male environment opened the door to a whole new level of humour.