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" Timeslides" is the fifth episode of science fiction sit-com Red Dwarf Series III, and the seventeenth in the series run. It premiered on the British television channel BBC2 on 12 December 1989. Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and directed by Ed Bye, the plot deals with Lister's desire to change his life by going back in time and changing his past. The episode was re-mastered, along with the rest of the first three series, in 1998.
The group travel back to when Lister was 17 and fronting a band called "Smeg and the Heads". Lister convinces his teenaged self (Emile Charles) to take the tension sheet he brought with him down to the patent office and register it as his own invention. Upon returning to the present, Rimmer finds that history has been changed – while he and Holly (Hattie Hayridge) are the only occupants on Red Dwarf, Lister grew up to be a success story, while Cat and his race never came to exist, and Kryten was never rescued. Rimmer opts to learn how successful Lister became, and using his new background from Holly's database, travels into the past to discover that he became wealthy, living a luxurious life in a mansion with a supermodel.Howarth & Lyons (1993) p. 65. Annoyed by Lister's success, Rimmer decides to change the past by trying to convince his younger self to invent the tension sheet, but instead returns time to the way it was. However, Holly notes that his actions had the side effect of making him human again, which he enjoys for a brief moment before he accidentally blows himself up with explosive crates.
The episode featured music from Charles. Not only did he write "Bad News" and "Cash" but he penned the song "Om" which was sung by the young Lister, who was played by Emile Charles, Craig's brother. Young Lister was lead singer in the band 'Smeg and the Heads' alongside Gazza and Dobbin, portrayed by Jeffrey Walker and Bill Steer of real-life band Carcass respectively.
Simon Gaffney played the Young Rimmer. Robert Addie played Gilbert, Lister's servant. Rupert Bates and Richard Hainsworth each played as one of Lister's bodyguards. Stephen McKintosh played Thickie Holden, Rimmer's roommate and inventor of the Tension Sheet. Louisa Ruthven appeared as Ski Woman and Mark Steel appeared as Ski Man in one of the Timeslide photos, Koo Stark played Lady Sabrina Mulholland-Jjones, Lister's "most desirable woman in the Western Hemisphere" fiancée. Ruby Wax, director Ed Bye's wife, played Blaize Falconberger, the host of the fictional television series Lifestyles of the Disgustingly Rich and Famous. Wax was a late addition to the cast as the original actor chosen to play Blaize, Graham Chapman of Monty Python fame, died shortly before rehearsals began. Chris Barrie also appears in one slide as Rimmer's brother Frank, in a picture of Frank's wedding which Lister manages to accidentally gatecrash, leading an annoyed Frank to repeatedly punch Lister in the stomach. Barrie's portrayal of Frank is similar to Barrie's later portrayal of Ace Rimmer, the more successful, brave and popular version of Rimmer from a parallel dimension. This is most evident in Ace's accent as his voice is a more mid-atlantic version of the voice Barrie used to play Frank.
With the timelines changed, Lister is now famous and rich, as shown in a news reel. He bought Buckingham Palace and "...had it ground down just to line his drive". He called his home "Xanadu", not as a reference to the movie Citizen Kane, but rather as a tribute to the hit single by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. The wealthy Lister is profiled in a fictional television series, as a spoof of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.
Dave Lister teenage self continually accuses him of being a Crypto-fascism.
Dobbin and Gazza from Lister's band 'Smeg and the Heads' are actually played by Jeff Walker and Bill Steer from the death metal/grindcore band Carcass.
The alternate Lister's mansion and the courtyard with the non-urinating statue is a Grade 1 listed mansion house within Lyme Park. The building can also be seen in the background of the spoof series presented by Ruby Wax. The mansion dining room scene was filmed in the dining room of Tatton Hall.
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