While enjoying some peace and quiet on Red Dwarf without Arnold Rimmer, who is away moon-hopping with Kryten's assistance piloting Starbug, Dave Lister and Cat are alerted by Holly that a tarantula-like creature has boarded the ship. Initially panicking when they find it, they find that it is made from Kryten's left hand and right eye and had been sent to find help, alerting them that Kryten is in trouble. Taking Starbug 2, the pair track down Kryten near the wreckage of his ship upon a psi-moon – an artificial planetoid that can tune into an individual's psyche and adapt its terrain to mimic his mental state. After repairing his damaged body, the pair learn that something took Rimmer after their crash, and that the psi-moon is likely re-configuring itself to Rimmer's subconscious. The group confirm this when searching for him, discover the planetoid has reshaped towards his mostly dominant negative qualities, with his positive ones being weak and represented by a graveyard. When the group find Rimmer, they discover him imprisoned by hooded legions of his negative emotions and a creature made of his self-loathing, with the hologram having been given a physical presence as a side-effect of the moon's transformative abilities. Attempting to rescue him, they find themselves struggling against the creature, until it retreats when Kryten reassures Rimmer they won't leave him behind. When they find their Starbug 2 sinking into a swamp made of Rimmer's despair, Lister and Kryten realise they must boost Rimmer's self-confidence with Cat's help, and persuade Rimmer they like him greatly. In response, Rimmer's self-respect and confidence emerge from the graveyard as musketeers and slay Rimmer's personal demons, allowing the group to escape. After leaving the psi-moon, Rimmer starts suspecting the others only pretended to like him, to which the other three agree they were lying.
Production
Another episode that was cut in the edit room although this time it was felt that some of the dialogue didn't work. The final scenes with the crew gathering around Rimmer to make him feel wanted was trimmed down. Other small cuts included the Master, who was fully built, but cut down to show only a hand, foot or shadow. This was considered more effective than seeing the character full on. Some scenes from this episode were incorporated into the second pilot for the prospective American Red Dwarf series. Sara Stockbridge and Francine Walker-Lee both appeared as Handmaidens.
Cultural references
We see Rimmer's 'self respect' and 'self confidence' rise from the dead, looking like two members of The Three Musketeers.
At the start of the episode when Kryten is knocked offline, his CPU plays him a musak version of Copacabana. On the first transmission of this episode the recording used was that by James Last and his orchestra, but subsequent showings used that by Victor Silvester Junior.
The episode was originally broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 5 March 1992 in the 9:00pm evening time slot. One review said that the episode "provides an excellent example of how writers Grant and Naylor combine sci-fi premise with a closer look inside one their regular characters." However, among fans it was considered as one of the weakest episodes from the series.
