Gunmen of the Apocalypse
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| Red Dwarf episode | |
| "Gunmen of the Apocalypse" | |
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| Episode № | 3 |
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| Airdate | October 21, 1993 |
| Writer(s) | Rob Grant & Doug Naylor |
| Director | Andy de Emmony |
| Guest star(s) | Denis Lill as Simulant Captain/Death |
| Series VI October 7 – November 11, 1993 |
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| List of all Red Dwarf episodes... | |
Gunmen of the Apocalypse is an Emmy Award-winning episode of the science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf. It was the third episode to air in the sixth series.
[edit] Synopsis
Starbug has strayed into a Rogue Simulant hunting zone and is detected by a battle-cruiser whose xenophobic mechanoid occupants despise humanity. The Dwarfers are captured (after trying to convince the Simulants they are not humans but aliens in one scene by using a chinface), but instead of killing them the Simulants upgrade the engines and driver interface of Starbug, as well as fitting armour and laser cannons on the spaceship. They do this so that they can have a battle for the purposes of sport.
By a fluke the Red Dwarf crew cripples the Simulant ship, but before it is destroyed it transmits an "Armageddon Virus" into Starbug's navigation computer, leaving the ship locked on a suicide course straight towards a large volcanic moon. Kryten contracts the virus himself in order to try and formulate a software antidote.
Kryten's battle with the virus manifests itself as a Wild West-flavoured dream; he is the drunken and burnt-out Sheriff of Existence standing against the four Apocalypse Boys: Famine, Pestilence, War, and Death. To try and help Kryten to buy some time, the Dwarfers use an artificial reality machine to enter Kryten's Wild West hallucination. The Apocalypse boys render Lister, Cat, and Rimmer powerless, but it buys Kryten enough time to develop an anti-virus and release it against the Apocalypse Boys and the virus infecting the ship.
Starbug crashes into the surface of the moon, but the deletion of the virus allows the crew to take back control of Starbug and they blast out of the molten lava within seconds, before the ship melts. Starbug flies off into the setting sun and the Dwarfer's "yee-haw" like cowboys.
[edit] Trivia
- Along with the episode Back to Reality, Gunmen... is often voted "best Red Dwarf episode" in fan polls.
- This episode was Red Dwarf's highest accolade so far, winning an International Emmy Award for the 1994 Outstanding Popular Arts category.
- The International Emmy Award was presented to Robert Llewellyn (who played Kryten) in New York City by Hollywood veteran, Tony Curtis, who is reportedly a fan of the show.
- This episode was filmed in Laredo; a small, privately owned, Wild West-themed resort town in Kent, England.
- It was estimated in pre-production that the scenes in Laredo would take several days to film. However, the crew were informed by the BBC of impending time constraints and so squeezed seven days worth of filming into a mere twenty four hours.
- During filming of this episode, Janet Street Porter was Head of Art & Culture at the BBC (a post she didn't hold for very long due to public criticism) and she made no secret that she didn't like Red Dwarf. Street Porter received the ambitious script for Gunmen... late, and after reading it, sent out a memo that all production for this episode must be stopped immediately due to the fact she believed it too difficult to film, too costly and too time-consuming when the crew could be focusing on other shows. She clearly didn't know the Red Dwarf team. By the time the Red Dwarf crew received her memo, filming had already wrapped and even post-production already started.
- When the crew were horseriding, Craig Charles spurred on the horse on which Chris Barrie was riding with some force and enthusiasm. The horse resorted to running around fields in circles, and it reportedly took two hours to slow the horse down so that Barrie could get off. Ironically, before this incident Charles had never ridden a horse before and Barrie had claimed he was an accomplished horse rider. Needless to say, Barrie did not talk to Charles again for weeks, due to his anger at him over this incident.
- The working title of this episode was High Midnight.
- In the original script for this episode, all scenes in Laredo were to be filmed at night and the Apocalypse Boys were to come for Kryten at midnight instead of noon. This proved too time-costly and the idea was scrapped.
- The lava Starbug crashes into was actually slightly liquified jelly.
- In the original script, Starbug was going to crash into the ocean instead of lava. However this was changed as it proved even more of a difficult shot for the effects team if Starbug was to crash into water then lava. The reason being apparently that the after splashing into the water, the bubbles were nearly as big as the model of Starbug itself.
- The bar scenes appear to borrow heavily from the film The Three Amigos.
- It has been said that the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode A Fistful of Datas features a similar scenario to this episode
