This is the only time that I have a problem with the new digital remastering that someone is doing to the first three series. In the original version, at the very end of the show, Lister puts the last piece of the puzzle in and the camera zooms up to it, revealing that it is the back of Red Dwarf, and it cuts to the very same picture at the start of the credits. It is a very nice effect. However, it the new version, they changed the credits but not the puzzle, so the end looks choppy and the shot is ruined.

BTW, the best part is Rimmer trying to decipher the "alien" message.

I HATE the remastering. It wasn't necessary, and I cannot stand the way they changed the great title sequence of seasons 1+2 to one more like 3-7.

It was so they could have a unified look to sell seasons 1-3 to various European countries.
But goodness knows what they thought - Kryten is in the new opening credits and he doesn't appear for a long time, so that must have confused them.

I remember when Children's BBC showed The Mysterious Cities of Gold in 1986-7,with only 1 episode was shown a week, so one charactor Taw (Spelling unkown) was in the titles for weeks before we encountered him.

One slight slang problem with the summary. I believe in England and Canada pissed means drunk, but in America pissed means angry. So some American readers might be a little confused.

When Blue Midget is walking on the planet, I was reminded of the robot (ED?) in RoboCop.

Was new dialogue added to the remastered scenes and did the actors get extra money for the voice work?

Earlier, and in a previous episode, when Rimmer is having a drink, we see Rimmer react to an invisible drink, but when he has a fried egg sandwich, we actually see the sandwich. Why the change?

Rimmer refers to Captain Hollister as "Fat bastard, 2044." indicating that the ship is from the 21st century.

Dialogue indicates that Lister is an orphan, contradicting the previous episode's references to Lister's dad and mom.

When Rimmer says that's why he had his appendix out twice I laughed because one of the most common nits for the series is that Lister had his appendix out twice.

Lister is probably referring to his adoptive parents in the previous episode. Ouroborous makes it clear he was abandoned.
Pissed also means drunk in Australia.

It's interesting that when Lister makes the alterations to his recorded memory so Rimmer will believe they are his, he gets Lisa Yates to say "I love you Rimmer" not "I love you Arnie".

True but I always got the impression that Rimmer's mother didn't like him very much but the memories implanted by Lister were of a woman that loved him dearly, so it would seem she more readily call him "Arnie".

I'm just curious... does anybody know if there's any truth to the rumor that this episode inspired Star Trek: TNG's "Clues"?

Perhaps he did the mourning in private - and then he followed the male solution of getting drunk to forget about it perhaps?

Rimmer refers to Captain Hollister as "Fat bastard, 2044." indicating that the ship is from the 21st century.

And yet later episodes moved the original time of RD to the 23rd Century.

Oh Christ yeah, we see Rimmer outside of the ship without the projection cage BEFORE it’s introduced. What the heck? It’s rectonned in and retconned out, very quickly.

Perhaps they were tinkering with ways to get him off the ship.

They finally settled on the light bee thing.

Rimmer himself says *exactly* why Thanks for the Memory is cruel to people in the audience who have suffered in life and been offered false hope: “You’ve destroyed me, Lister”.

Lister had good intentions, but, as they say, the road to Hell is paved with them.