Polymorph (Red Dwarf)
A shapeshifting creature drains the crew's negative emotions.
The fifteenth episode of Red Dwarf overall, "Polymorph" is the third of Series III. Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, directed by Ed Bye, it aired on BBC2 on 28 November 1989. Some consider it the show's best. It features a shapeshifting, emotion-stealing creature and is the only episode with a pre-credits content warning. It was remastered with the first three series in 1998.
Quick Facts
- Series
- Red Dwarf
- Director
- Ed Bye
- Writer
- Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
- Air date
- 28 November 1989
- Guests
- Frances Barber as Genny
- Simon Gaffney as Young Rimmer
- Kalli Greenwood as Mrs Rimmer
Facts from the source article.
Plot
A shape-changing life-form escapes from a waste pod and boards Red Dwarf. Holly detects it, but Arnold Rimmer is sceptical. The creature attacks Dave Lister while he eats, and as Lister recovers in the Medical Unit, Kryten and Holly explain the creature is a man-made genetic mutant called a Polymorph, designed to feed on negative emotions. Lister's fear was drained, leaving him fearless. The others seal Lister away and plan to escape via Starbug, but the Polymorph captures each crew member individually after an accident with heat-seeking bazookoids. It tricks them into exposing emotions: Cat loses his vanity, Kryten loses his guilt, and Rimmer loses his anger. All four confront the creature in the cargo decks and defeat it by luck, recovering their emotions. As they leave, a second Polymorph from the same waste pod boards the ship, mimicking Lister's appearance. In the remastered version, the second Polymorph appears as a bouncing ball, with a caption explaining it hid in Lister's clean underpants drawer and died of old age.
Production
Director Ed Bye drew inspiration from the 1979 film Alien for the episode's look and design. The cargo bay scenes were shot in a Manchester warehouse, where empty cardboard boxes were stacked to suggest a stocked bay. The pre-credits warning was a plot device, as the episode aired past the 9:00 pm watershed. During filming of the Polymorph morphing into Lister's boxer shorts, the audience laughed so long that Chris Barrie had to wait several minutes; the scene is considered one of the series' funniest and required extra editing. Animatronic versions of the small and large Polymorph were created; the small one was voiced by production manager Mike Agnew. The larger model collapsed before the final shot. Blue screen was used to composite the creature with existing footage. The morphing effects used a locked-off camera and jump-cut technique. The heat-seeking bazookoid laser bolts were given sound effects borrowed from Star Wars lightsabers. Guest appearances included Frances Barber as 'Genny Mutant', Kalli Greenwood as Rimmer's mother, and Simon Gaffney as young Rimmer. The script was collected in the 1993 book Primordial Soup.
Reception
The episode originally aired on BBC2 on 21 November 1989 and was well received by fans, many considering it the series' best. It placed second in a Red Dwarf Smegazine readers poll with 9.3% of the vote. On the Series III DVD, the producers cited it as a favorite. A 2004 DVD Talk review described it as a great episode because the actors enjoy their transformed attitudes. A 2017 CultBox review called it one of the most memorable episodes of Red Dwarf III and highlighted the changed personas as a standout.
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