Psirens
Encyclopedia
"Psirens" is the first episode of science fiction
sit-com Red Dwarf
Series VI and the 31st in the series run. It was first broadcast on the British
television channel BBC2 on 7 October 1993. Written by Rob Grant
& Doug Naylor
and directed by Andy de Emmony. The episode - which involves Psirens who try and lure the crew to them to feast on their brains - had its script published before the episode was broadcast.
awakens with amnesia and Kryten
explains that he's been in Deep Sleep aboard Starbug for the past 200 years. When Rimmer
and Cat
both recover from their hibernation, Kryten updates them on the situation: Red Dwarf itself had been stolen by an unknown party
and the original crew had been chasing the ship's vapour trail ever since. (It is revealed in the episode Nanarchy
at the end of Series VII that, in fact, Kryten's nanobots took Red Dwarf and dumped whatever they didn't need, including Holly
, on a planetoid). Red Dwarf has currently been forced to circumnavigate an asteroid belt
, giving the Starbug the opportunity to reach the ship by shortcutting through the belt. However, the belt turns out to be a spaceship graveyard inhabited by Psirens, shape-changing GELF
s who lure unwary travellers to them and suck out their brains.
Cat is almost lured by two attractive women and Lister sees Kristine Kochanski, who tells him that she has two children, Jim and Bexley, that are his. A flaming meteor then appears hurling towards the ship, but Kryten deduces it to be an illusion as Starbug's sensors do not detect it. Unfortunately, Rimmer is left in charge and assumes another flaming meteor to be fake; this time, the illusion is the lack of response from the ship's sensors.
Starbug is struck and crashes onto an asteroid. Lister exits the ship to blast the front landing gear out. Outside he encounters a lustful figure from his adolescence (the sister of one Pete Tranter). Although he is fully aware that she is actually a Psiren, the illusion is too strong for Lister to overcome his desires, and he snogs with her. He is ironically saved by another Psiren disguised as Kryten, who murders the first one in order to steal its victim. The second Psiren gives itself away by calling Lister 'Dave' (something the real Kryten would never do) and is killed by a panicking Lister. Lister manages to get back on board Starbug safely, only for a second Lister to arrive claiming he is the real article. To determine which is the false Lister, the crew ask them to play guitar; the first 'Lister' plays so well that the rest of the crew blast it without waiting to hear how the other performs. The rationale for this test was that the real Lister is a terrible guitar player, but believed he was an excellent one (contrary to his admission that he's not a very good player in Marooned). Lister gets suitably upset by their accusations that he is a poor player, not helping his cause by providing a practical demonstration, which leads the Cat to give him 'a little survival tip': "Never play your guitar in front of a man with a loaded gun", cocking a Bazookoid, and while they argue the Psiren escapes to the decks below.
A trail of green Psiren blood leads to the engine room. Lister and Cat stay behind to deal with a meteor shower
, while Rimmer declines the offer to help, leaving Kryten to follow the Psiren blood trail alone. When Kryten finds the Psiren it changes into Professor Mamet, his creator. With no choice but to obey her commands, he climbs into the waste compactor and starts it up. Lister, Cat and Rimmer quickly appear to find Kryten's psi-scan and bazookoid abandoned on the floor. Rimmer suddenly fades out as his hologramatic light bee battery runs flat. Now just the two of them, Lister and Cat walk up to the Psiren, which is disguised as a vending machine and knocks them unconscious. As the Psiren decides which to eat first, Kryten, now cube shaped from his experience in the waste compactor, waddles over to the edge of the walkway from the deck above and crashes down on top of it. The threat ended, the crew continues onward, following Red Dwarf into a vast nebula.
since series 2's "Stasis Leak
", albeit as a Psiren illusion used to fool Lister. Clare Grogan
returned to play Kochanski. Samantha Robson
plays a Psiren that lures him with an illusion of one of his teenage fantasies - Pete Tranter's sister. Jenny Agutter
plays another Psiren, this time an illusion of Kryten's creator Professor Mamet. Anita Dobson
also appears as Captain Tau, part of the Psiren illusion to fool Lister. The hands of Phil Manzanera
appear in the scene in which the fake Lister plays the guitar brilliantly. Zoe Hilson and Elizabeth Anson both appear as Temptresses in a Psiren illusion to tempt the Cat.
"Red Dwarf - Primordial Soup: The Least Worst Scripts" contained, among others, the script for the "Psirens" episode. Edited by Grant Naylor and published by Penguin books, it was released just a few months before the episode was broadcast.
(1979), the Eagle
from Space: 1999
(1975) and a Klingon Vor'cha attack cruiser from Star Trek: The Next Generation
.
The concept of sirens creating illusions to lure unwary travellers to their deaths first appears in Homer's Odyssey, and this concept is much-repeated in Western film and literature.
When series VI was repeated in late 1994, this particular episode was omitted, owing to perceived parallels with the rape allegations faced by Craig Charles.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
sit-com Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
Series VI and the 31st in the series run. It was first broadcast on the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television channel BBC2 on 7 October 1993. Written by Rob Grant
Rob Grant
Robert Grant is a British comedy writer and television producer, who was born in Salford and studied Psychology at Liverpool University for two years....
& Doug Naylor
Doug Naylor
Douglas R. Naylor is a British comedy writer, science fiction writer, director and television producer.Naylor was born in Manchester, England and studied at the University of Liverpool. In the mid-1980s, Naylor wrote two regular comedy sketch shows for BBC Radio 4 entitled Cliché and Son of Cliché...
and directed by Andy de Emmony. The episode - which involves Psirens who try and lure the crew to them to feast on their brains - had its script published before the episode was broadcast.
Plot
ListerDave Lister
David "Dave" Lister, commonly referred to simply as Lister, is a fictional character from the British science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, portrayed by Craig Charles...
awakens with amnesia and Kryten
Kryten
Kryten is a fictional character in the British science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf. Kryten's registration code on Red Dwarf is "Kryten additional 001". The name Kryten is a reference to the head butler in the J.M...
explains that he's been in Deep Sleep aboard Starbug for the past 200 years. When Rimmer
Arnold Rimmer
Arnold Judas Rimmer is a fictional character in the science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, played by Chris Barrie. He is unpopular with his crew mates, and is often the target of insults or pranks...
and Cat
Cat (Red Dwarf)
The Cat is a character in the British science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf. He is played by Danny John-Jules.-Character development:According to Danny John-Jules, the character of Cat is based on a combination of Little Richard's look, James Brown's moves and Richard Pryor's facial...
both recover from their hibernation, Kryten updates them on the situation: Red Dwarf itself had been stolen by an unknown party
Prelude to Nanarchy
Prelude to Nanarchy is a webcomic produced in 2005 by Grant Naylor Productions and Across the Pond Comics, based on artwork and story concept created by Damion Waldbrunn and Adam Jewell of Studio Hubris....
and the original crew had been chasing the ship's vapour trail ever since. (It is revealed in the episode Nanarchy
Nanarchy
"Nanarchy" is the eighth, and final, episode of science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf Series VII and the 44th in the series run. It was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 7 March 1997. Written by Paul Alexander, James Hendrie & Doug Naylor and directed by Ed Bye...
at the end of Series VII that, in fact, Kryten's nanobots took Red Dwarf and dumped whatever they didn't need, including Holly
Holly (Red Dwarf)
Holly is the ship's computer on the science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf.The character is played by Norman Lovett in Series I and II and, following a "head sex change" to look like his parallel universe alter ego "Hilly", played by Hattie Hayridge in the series 3 episode Backwards, is female...
, on a planetoid). Red Dwarf has currently been forced to circumnavigate an asteroid belt
Asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets...
, giving the Starbug the opportunity to reach the ship by shortcutting through the belt. However, the belt turns out to be a spaceship graveyard inhabited by Psirens, shape-changing GELF
GELF
G.E.L.F. or simply GELF is an acronym for Genetically Engineered LifeForm. It was used in two science fiction television programs, originally appearing in the BBC's cult sitcom Red Dwarf, and later on in the U.S...
s who lure unwary travellers to them and suck out their brains.
Cat is almost lured by two attractive women and Lister sees Kristine Kochanski, who tells him that she has two children, Jim and Bexley, that are his. A flaming meteor then appears hurling towards the ship, but Kryten deduces it to be an illusion as Starbug's sensors do not detect it. Unfortunately, Rimmer is left in charge and assumes another flaming meteor to be fake; this time, the illusion is the lack of response from the ship's sensors.
Starbug is struck and crashes onto an asteroid. Lister exits the ship to blast the front landing gear out. Outside he encounters a lustful figure from his adolescence (the sister of one Pete Tranter). Although he is fully aware that she is actually a Psiren, the illusion is too strong for Lister to overcome his desires, and he snogs with her. He is ironically saved by another Psiren disguised as Kryten, who murders the first one in order to steal its victim. The second Psiren gives itself away by calling Lister 'Dave' (something the real Kryten would never do) and is killed by a panicking Lister. Lister manages to get back on board Starbug safely, only for a second Lister to arrive claiming he is the real article. To determine which is the false Lister, the crew ask them to play guitar; the first 'Lister' plays so well that the rest of the crew blast it without waiting to hear how the other performs. The rationale for this test was that the real Lister is a terrible guitar player, but believed he was an excellent one (contrary to his admission that he's not a very good player in Marooned). Lister gets suitably upset by their accusations that he is a poor player, not helping his cause by providing a practical demonstration, which leads the Cat to give him 'a little survival tip': "Never play your guitar in front of a man with a loaded gun", cocking a Bazookoid, and while they argue the Psiren escapes to the decks below.
A trail of green Psiren blood leads to the engine room. Lister and Cat stay behind to deal with a meteor shower
Meteor shower
A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories. Most meteors are smaller...
, while Rimmer declines the offer to help, leaving Kryten to follow the Psiren blood trail alone. When Kryten finds the Psiren it changes into Professor Mamet, his creator. With no choice but to obey her commands, he climbs into the waste compactor and starts it up. Lister, Cat and Rimmer quickly appear to find Kryten's psi-scan and bazookoid abandoned on the floor. Rimmer suddenly fades out as his hologramatic light bee battery runs flat. Now just the two of them, Lister and Cat walk up to the Psiren, which is disguised as a vending machine and knocks them unconscious. As the Psiren decides which to eat first, Kryten, now cube shaped from his experience in the waste compactor, waddles over to the edge of the walkway from the deck above and crashes down on top of it. The threat ended, the crew continues onward, following Red Dwarf into a vast nebula.
Production
This episode features the first appearance of KochanskiKristine Kochanski
Kristine Z. Kochanski is a fictional character from the British science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf. Kochanski was the first console officer in the navigation chamber on board the spaceship Red Dwarf...
since series 2's "Stasis Leak
Stasis Leak
"Stasis Leak" is the fourth episode of the science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf series two and tenth in the series run. It premiered on the British television channel BBC2 on 27 September 1988. Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and directed by Ed Bye, the crew travelling back in time, before the...
", albeit as a Psiren illusion used to fool Lister. Clare Grogan
Clare Grogan
Clare Grogan is a Scottish actress and singer. She is sometimes credited as C. P. Grogan.-Early life:...
returned to play Kochanski. Samantha Robson
Samantha Robson
Samantha Jane Robson is a British actress who played PC Vicky Hagen in The Bill from 1998 to 2001. She has also appeared in Red Dwarf as Pete Tranter's sister and Murder in Mind. Before working in television, she worked for eighteen months as a table dancer under the name Shelley at For Your Eyes...
plays a Psiren that lures him with an illusion of one of his teenage fantasies - Pete Tranter's sister. Jenny Agutter
Jenny Agutter
Jennifer Ann "Jenny" Agutter is an English film and television actress. She began her career as a child actress in the mid 1960s, starring in the BBC television series The Railway Children and the film adaptation of the same book, before moving on to adult roles and relocating to Hollywood.She...
plays another Psiren, this time an illusion of Kryten's creator Professor Mamet. Anita Dobson
Anita Dobson
Anita Dobson is an English television actress and singer. She gained her highest profile while playing Angie Watts in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders...
also appears as Captain Tau, part of the Psiren illusion to fool Lister. The hands of Phil Manzanera
Phil Manzanera
Phil Manzanera is a musician and record producer. He is the lead guitarist with Roxy Music. In 2006 Manzanera co-produced David Gilmour's album On An Island and played in Gilmour's band for tours in Europe and North America...
appear in the scene in which the fake Lister plays the guitar brilliantly. Zoe Hilson and Elizabeth Anson both appear as Temptresses in a Psiren illusion to tempt the Cat.
"Red Dwarf - Primordial Soup: The Least Worst Scripts" contained, among others, the script for the "Psirens" episode. Edited by Grant Naylor and published by Penguin books, it was released just a few months before the episode was broadcast.
Cultural references
Among the derelicts in the asteroid field are models of the Narcissus escape shuttle from AlienAlien (film)
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature which...
(1979), the Eagle
Eagle (Space: 1999)
The Eagle Transporter is a fictional spacecraft and the iconic image of the 1970s television series Space: 1999. The Eagles serve as the primary spacecraft of Moonbase Alpha, which has a fleet of them. The Eagles are primarily used to explore alien planets, defend Moonbase Alpha from attack, and to...
from Space: 1999
Space: 1999
Space: 1999 is a British science-fiction television series that ran for two seasons and originally aired from 1975 to 1977. In the opening episode, nuclear waste from Earth stored on the Moon's far side explodes in a catastrophic accident on 13 September 1999, knocking the Moon out of orbit and...
(1975) and a Klingon Vor'cha attack cruiser from Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
.
Reception
The episode was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 7 October 1993 in the 9:00pm time slot. The ratings had yet again increased on the previous series, although the series' new direction received a mixed response from critics, Sci-Fi.com stating that it was "no less funny", while others felt that the character-driven comedy replaced by exploration of SF concepts and situation-based humour did not work as well. Internet critic Gavrielle Perry blasted the episode stating that "This is truly awful. The humour takes a dive straight back into the sixth form commonroom, with a string of totally unfunny and repulsive gross-out gags about detached intestines, Lister’s personal habits and his kissing a psiren". Perry went on to state that the model work in the episode was "brilliant, with special mention for the flaming Starbug and asteroid and the exploding asteroid".The concept of sirens creating illusions to lure unwary travellers to their deaths first appears in Homer's Odyssey, and this concept is much-repeated in Western film and literature.
When series VI was repeated in late 1994, this particular episode was omitted, owing to perceived parallels with the rape allegations faced by Craig Charles.