11.6 Can Of Worms Die-hard Dwarfers will know that the issue of Cat’s virginity has been on the table ever since Red Dwarf VII, when the episode Identity Within was commissioned and then shelved for budgetary reasons. Doug Naylor has been talking about revisiting the idea of Cat’s proverbial cherry for some time, and now, nearly twenty years after the first ditched attempt, the moment has arrived. Is it time for everyone’s favourite felix sapien to finally get his end away? Well, yes and no. Not for the first time this series, Can Of Worms takes a concept familiar to fans of the show – in this case the shapeshifting, emotion-sucking Polymorph – and uses it to try and tell a different story, as Cat manages to fall pregnant to a Polymorph posing as a female from his own species. It’s a shame we don’t get more of a look at how Cat would interact with another member of his race; in their two scenes together, Cat and his love match regress to the character as seen in the very first episode (and hardly ever since), screaming ‘Owww!’ at each other and claiming things are theirs, and then the next time we see the lady Cat she’s a dead Polymorph. It’s surprising and disappointing, then, that Cat all but sits the final third of the episode out. The idea of such a selfish character being compelled to care for his offspring is a compelling one, as are the mechanics of Polymorph infancy – the intentional cuteness overload the newborns use as a form of defence is yet another wonderful, imaginative idea introduced by Naylor this year. But instead, the action focuses on another all-too familiar lower decks runaround which can’t help but feel like the less interesting path to follow. And the lack of Cat makes his sudden reappearance to first abandon and then save the crew feel like it comes from nowhere in order to wrap up the story in time for the credits. Fortunately, the story does wrap up, and there’s time for a final scene involving Lister and Cat which ends the series on a decent note – though I can’t be the only one who would’ve preferred for it to not be revealed as a dream, both ending on a strong joke and prompting enough fan discussion and argument to take us through to Red Dwarf XII next year. Can Of Worms isn’t the best episode of this series – it’d be interesting to view reactions in the parallel universe where the episodes followed the filming order and the ambitious Twentica was shown last – but it’s a solid episode with some good gags and a strong central performance. Read Pete’s review of the previous episode, Kysis, here.
