The End (Red Dwarf)

"The End"
Red Dwarf episode
Lister is frozen in stasis, shielded from a radiation leak which kills the crew of the Red Dwarf ship.
Episode no.	Series 1 Episode 1
Directed by	Ed Bye
Written by	Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
Original air date	15 February 1988 (1988-02-15)
Guest appearances
Mac McDonald as Captain Hollister C P Grogan as Kristine Kochanski Robert Bathurst as Todhunter Mark Williams as Petersen Paul Bradley as Chen David Gillespie as Selby Robert McCulley as George McIntyre
Episode chronology
← Previous — Next → "Future Echoes"
List of episodes

"The End" is the first episode of science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf, which was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 15 February 1988. The episode introduces the main characters and sets up the story backbone of the series. On the mining ship Red Dwarf, Dave Lister is placed in stasis for refusing to give up the whereabouts of his forbidden pet cat. When he emerges from stasis, three million years later, he discovers that everybody has died from a radiation leak.

The episode was written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, directed by Ed Bye and starred Craig Charles, Chris Barrie, Danny John-Jules and Norman Lovett. The script was rejected by the BBC three times before it was given the go ahead three years later. An electricians' strike at the BBC prevented filming and production on the series halted, only going ahead after the dispute was resolved.

The broadcast episode differs greatly from the originally filmed version. Grant and Naylor felt that scenes from the episode did not work, so with a spare filming slot additional scenes were added and previous scenes filmed again. Gaining more than five million viewers on its first showing, the episode is considered one of the best from the first series by fans. It was later re-mastered, along with the rest of the first three series, in 1998.