Better Than Life (Red Dwarf episode)

"Better Than Life"
Red Dwarf episode
The crew enter the "Better Than Life" total immersion video game
Episode no.	Series 2 Episode 2
Directed by	Ed Bye
Written by	Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
Original air date	13 September 1988
Guest appearance(s)
John Abineri as Rimmer's Dad Debbie Ash as Marilyn Monroe Jeremy Austin as Rathbone (autograph seeker) Nigel Carrivick as The Captain Tony Hawks as The Guide Judy Hawkins as McGruder Tina Jenkins as The Newsreader Ron Pember as The Taxman Gordon Salkilld as Gordon
Series 2 episodes
6 September – 11 October 1988 "Kryten" "Better Than Life" "Thanks for the Memory" "Stasis Leak" "Queeg" "Parallel Universe"
List of all Red Dwarf episodes

"Better Than Life" is the second episode from Red Dwarf series two, and the eighth in the series run. It was first broadcast on BBC2 on 13 September 1988. Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and directed by Ed Bye, this episode introduces the total immersion video game "Better Than Life", which features in both the first and second Red Dwarf novels.

The post pod arrives 3 million years late, which, as Holly observes, is about average for second class mail. Among the usual bills and junk mail is the "Better Than Life" total immersion video game. Rimmer receives a large tax bill from Outland Revenue, along with a letter from his mother informing him that his father is dead. Although he knew his father (and in fact, everyone he knew on Earth) is already long dead, seeing the news in writing upsets him, mentioning that he looked up to the man. However, he stated that he loathed him, due to his strict requirements for his kids to get into the space corps to make up for his failure to get on the corps. (Rimmer wound up emancipating himself at age 14.)

To cheer him up, Lister and the Cat invite Rimmer to play "Better Than Life", where everyone's deepest desires come true. Everything is going well; the Cat has got himself two girlfriends, Marilyn Monroe and a mermaid (top half fish, bottom half woman). Lister is rich enough to eat caviar-covered vindaloo and play golf. Rimmer, who has a physical form in the game, leads an admiral's life with drinks and parties while Lister enjoys golfing around the lavish golf courses. Rimmer meets his dad, whom says that he is a "total smeghead". Rimmer is very puzzled by this as he always wished for his father's respect, but the Cat chimes in and says that it is part of his imagination and steals Rimmer's cigar. In spite of this knowledge, the event brings out Rimmer's feelings of inadequacy, and his neurotic mind, subconsciously unable to accept nice things are happening to him, rebels against him, and he quickly becomes unable to control his negative imagination.