Thanks for the Memory (Red Dwarf)

Sabra Williams as Lise Yates

"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.

It is Saturday night and Rimmer's death-day, and a party is arranged for him on a planetoid they encountered with a breathable atmosphere. Back on Red Dwarf, Rimmer drunkenly confides to Lister about his one single solitary sexual encounter with Yvonne McGruder, the ship's female boxing champion, and tells Lister that, although it is entirely his own fault for deciding to put his career over his personal life: "I would trade it all in. All of it — my pips, my long-service medals, my swimming certificates, my telescope, my shoe-trees. I would trade everything in to be loved, and to have been in love."

The following morning, Lister and Cat both wake up with a broken leg each. Lister's jigsaw puzzle has been magically solved, the star charts Holly has been mapping have been messed with, the clocks all show the day as Thursday rather than Sunday, four pages have been torn out of Lister's diary, and the ship's black box is missing. Rimmer suspects aliens, which is regarded with skepticism by Lister and Cat. They trace the black box's signal to a barren airless moon, where they first find what appears to be a giant footprint and then come across a gravestone reading "To the memory of the memory of Lise Yates" - Lister reveals that Lise Yates was one of his ex-girlfriends back on Earth. The black box is buried in the shallow grave marked by the headstone — the rest of the episode consists of them watching the videos of what happened over the missing days.