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Red Dwarf episode
"Waiting for God"
Episode №	4
Airdate	March 7, 1988
Writer(s)	Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
Director	Ed Bye
Guest star(s)	Noel Coleman John Lenahan
Series I February 15 – March 21, 1988
The End Future Echoes Balance of Power Waiting for God Confidence and Paranoia Me²
List of all Red Dwarf episodes...

Waiting For God is the fourth episode of series one, from the science fiction comedy programme Red Dwarf, and premiered on 07 Mar 1988 in the 9:00pm BBC2 time slot.^[1]

The episode's theme is religion: atheist Rimmer succumbs to a passionate belief in a superrace of aliens with the technology to give him a new body, while Lister reflects on his role as god of the Cat people.

It is revealed during the opening monologue that Lister lied about passing the chef's exam. Red Dwarf stumbles upon a pod drifting in space, which Rimmer tells Holly to salvage, believing it to be a stasis capsule carrying a dormant member of an alien race. Rimmer even invents a name for this race – the Quagaar – and convinces himself that they can give him a new body. After a cursory inspection, Lister discovers that the capsule is actually nothing more than a jettisoned Red Dwarf garbage pod (with the writing partially obscured), but he decides not to tell Rimmer because, as Holly says, "It's a laugh, innit?"

Lister learns more about the Cat people's god, "Cloister the Stupid" who was "frozen in time" to save the Cat race, and informs the openly skeptical Cat "I am your God." Later, the Cat, who is known to go "investigating", goes off on one of his excursions, and Lister follows him, deep into the cargo hold. There Lister discovers an old blind cat priest — the only one of their race left other than Cat — who is dying and proclaims that he has lost his faith, feeling that he has wasted his life following Cloister. The priest takes his hat off, asking Cat to burn it (which Cat puts on his head and lies to him, telling him, "It's burnt"). In his final moments, Lister shows up and convinces the priest that he has led an admirable life and has served Cloister well, and as such will reach 'Fuchal', the Cat equivalent of Heaven. Lister takes the hat back from Cat and puts it back on the priest's head. Convinced by this "miracle", the cat priest joyously exclaims, "This is the happiest day of my—" and dies.

Back in the observation room, the quarantine period is over. Lister opens the pod and pulls out a discarded chicken carcass, which Rimmer proclaims to be the preserved remains of a Quagaar warrior who "must have looked something like a roast chicken..." He then begins to look doubtful; the credits roll; and suddenly the music stops and the picture freezes, as Rimmer yells, "It's a garbage pod! It's a smegging garbage pod!"

Waiting For God featured the first real appearance of the skutters. They were considered unreliable props because they would frequently go out of control and even attack the crew and cast. Chris Barrie had been attacked around the knee and groin area. It was thought that nearby taxi radio signals were interfering with the remote control signals.^[2]

Noel Coleman starred as the Cat Priest and John Lenahan returned to voice the Toaster.

Besides the overall religion theme of the Cat species, the episode also references the Aliens' films when Lister mentions "squiggly, slimy aliens sticking to the face".

Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers - The first Red Dwarf novel which expands on The Cat people's history and origins.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Waiting For God

• "Red Dwarf" Waiting for God (1988) on IMDb
• Red Dwarf: Waiting For God - TV.com
• Episode Guide - Series 1 at RedDwarf.co.uk