Ep 5. Timeslides

The episode "Timeslides" from season 3 of Red Dwarf begins with the crew discovering an old photo-developing machine on the ship. When Lister develops some old photos, he finds that he can enter into the pictures and travel back in time to the moment the photo was taken.

Lister decides to use this newfound ability to make some changes to history. He goes back in time to prevent himself from chicken-soup-and-laundrying, a situation where he risked being court-martialled and sent to the brig for 700 years. This sets off a chain reaction of events that completely alters the history of the ship and causes a power outage.

As they try to figure out what happened, Rimmer comes up with an idea to use the timeslide machine to go back in time and prevent Lister from changing history. However, the plan goes awry when Rimmer accidentally bumps into his younger self, causing him to become trapped in the past.

Meanwhile, Lister and Cat travel back to the original time period where Lister first changed history. They try to set things right, but end up accidentally causing some other alterations to the timeline. They soon realize that they need to get Rimmer back in order to fix everything.

The trio comes up with a plan to lure Rimmer's past self to the present using his favorite book, The Time-Traveller's Handbook. They successfully bring him back, but their plan is foiled again when they accidentally bring back a woman from the prehistoric past.

As they try to figure out how to send her back, they discover that the power outage was caused by a parasite that had infiltrated the ship. They manage to destroy the parasite and restore power to the ship.

In the end, they use the timeslide machine to go back and fix all of the alterations they caused, restoring the timeline to how it was originally. However, they are left with a newfound appreciation for how their actions can impact the past and the importance of being careful when meddling with history.

"Timeslides" is a fun and clever episode that explores the consequences of time travel in a humorous and lighthearted way. It features some entertaining performances from the cast and some clever writing that keeps the audience engaged throughout. Overall, it is a strong episode from a beloved sci-fi comedy series.