The End story
Aboard the Jupiter Mining Corporation (JMC) vessel Red Dwarf, the lowest- ranking crew member, slobbish technician Dave Lister (Craig Charles) is sentenced to be frozen for 18-months in suspended animation as punishment for breaking quarantine regulations by smuggling his pregnant cat Frankenstein on board, a pet he had obtained while on leave on Titan. When given the option of either having the cat dissected or be frozen in stasis, he chooses to save his cat. However, Lister awakes from stasis only to find the rest of the crew have since been wiped out in a radiation disaster, and he has actually been frozen for three million years. However, to both his relief and horror, he is not alone. The ship's computer Holly (Norman Lovett) has revived Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie), his austere and petty bunkmate, in the form of a hologram, who was responsible for the accident that wiped out the crew. Also Lister's pregnant cat, Frankenstein, was sealed in the hull during the radiation leak, and her kittens bred there for 3-million years and evolved into a race of humanoid life-forms, Felis sapiens, bred from the domestic housecat and about half as smart. They meet one of these life forms on the ship, and Lister decides to call it Cat (Danny John-Jules). Directed by: Ed Bye. Story by: Rob Grant & Doug Naylor.
18 total · 3 major · 15 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| roommate and roommate | major | Rimmer resented having to share a cramped quarters with the slobbish Lister. |
| virtual person | major | George McIntire was brought back from the dead in the form of a hologram; likewise with Rimmer. |
| what if I found myself in the future | major | Lister awoke from stasis to find that he was three million years in the future, rather then 18 months as he'd expected. |
| coping with a massive loss of comrades | minor | The story ended with Lister waking up form stasis to find that all his former colleagues were dead. |
| coping with having a lousy dead-end job | minor | The slobbish technician Lister had the lowliest job on the ship. |
| felinoid being | minor | The cat-man Cat. |
| funeral rite | minor | George McIntire's ashes were commended to the stars. |
| hologram | minor | The deceased George McIntire was replaced by a sentient hologram of himself. A holographic Rimmer lamented that he'd never be able to touch anything again. |
| labor strikes in society | minor | Lister quipped that the service robots had a better union than did the human maintenance workers. |
| master and pet | minor | Lister was secret keeping his cat, Frankenstein, in his quarters. |