When Did Red Dwarf Introduce The Space Corps Directives?

As it gets cold outside, with no kind of atmosphere, and you are all alone (more or less) to look for festive gifts for the sci-fi fan in your life, a Red Dwarf-themed t-shirt could be the ideal present for the season.

Interestingly, three of our shirts are all connected to a single running gag in the series involving the mysterious and nonsensical Space Corps Directives, first introduced in the Series III episode Polymorph.

The episode in general is one of the most memorable of the series, with all four members of the Red Dwarf crew facing a shapeshifting monster that steals their emotions.

Alongside the infamous scene where Lister’s underpants shrink, it is also the introduction to the first, unnumbered Space Corps Directive, which states that it is their primary duty to engage with other forms of life, swap information and bring them home where possible.

Not only did it lead to the first Rimmer Directive, it also ultimately caused the entire crew to lose an emotion, which led to Rimmer losing his anger but gaining a rather fetching “Give Quiche A Chance” t-shirt as a tradeoff.

The Space Corps Directives took on a life of their own after this, with particularly notable ones such as Directive 34124 (which states that officers with dentures should not try oral sex in zero gravity) becoming pop culture icons in and of themselves.

However, the episode which explores the Space Corps Directives the most is Series V’s Quarantine, the episode that introduced the world to Mr Flibble.

Kryten quotes the Directives at the start of the episode and gives Arnold Rimmer a copy to read that would not only guide the rest of the episode and the particularly harsh quarantine conditions placed on the crew, but he would also try and fail to quote them for the remainder of the time Red Dwarf is on the air.