The script was written minutes before it was filmed which led to the use of an autocue thanks to lack of rehearsal time. In addition to this, parts of it were being written during the filming so the actors kept seeing new lines appearing on the autocues whilst they were performing in front of the studio audience.
Craig Charles told the writers that he did not find the script to be funny. They threatened to kill his character off and title the episode "R.I.P. Lister".
This could have easily been the last episode ever. A new series was not aired until 1997, over three years later. This was despite the interest of the BBC in creating another series after the success of the previous few series. The hiatus was caused by the end of the Grant Naylor writing partnership and the Red Dwarf chaos that followed. New Red Dwarf was released during those years, however, in the form of Doug Naylor's and Rob Grant's conflicting sequels to the novel Better Than Life called Last Human and Backwards respectively.
Final episode written by Rob Grant. He parted ways with series co-creator Doug Naylor after series 6. The tone and flavour of Red Dwarf changes substantially after this, notably with the addition of a very different Kochanski character.
Future Lister had originally been envisioned as a 3 foot tall robot with Lister's brain in it.