Thanks for the Memory

"Thanks for the Memory" is the third episode of science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf series two and the ninth in the series run. It premiered on BBC2 on 20 September 1988. Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and directed by Ed Bye, the episode has the Red Dwarf crew investigating how, and why, they lost four days from their memory. The episode was re-mastered, along with the rest of the first three series, in 1998. Plot On a Saturday night, while the Red Dwarf group hold a party for him on the anniversary of his death, Arnold Rimmer drunkenly confides in Dave Lister about his time with the ship's female boxing champion, Yvonne McGruder, and how it was the only sexual encounter he ever had. Rimmer admits that, while he opted to put his career over his personal life, he would trade it all in just "to be loved, and to have been in love." When he, Lister and Cat wake up after the party, they find it to be Thursday rather than Sunday. The group quickly find several odd things – Lister's jigsaw puzzle he had been working on is solved; several pages from Lister's diary are missing; both Lister and Cat have broken a leg each; Holly's star charts he was mapping have been messed with, and the ship's black box is missing. To solve the mystery, the group trace the black box by its signal on a barren moon, buried in a shallow grave next to a giant footprint and marked by a headstone that reads "To the memory of the memory of Lise Yates". Returning to the ship with the black box, the group review its footage and discover what happened over the past few days. After feeling sorry for Rimmer, Lister visited the Hologram Suite intending to give him a present, uploading a memory of his own recounting his eight months with Lise Yates (Sabra Williams), an old girlfriend, and making it one of Rimmer's. The following morning, Rimmer woke in a jubilant mood but questioned elements of his new memories he now had. His happiness was soon broken when he found Lise's letters to Lister and assumed she was dating them both, forcing Lister to reveal what he did. Seeing him distraught and hurt from the truth, despite his best efforts to comfort him, Lister decided the group should erase all traces of the past few days from their memories.