Alternate versions

A video, "Red Dwarf VII: X-tended" (3 November 1997) was released containing extended editions of three episodes from the seventh series - "Tikka to Ride", "Ouroboros" and "Duct Soup", including fifty new bloopers and the full-length version of the Rimmer Munchkin Song from the end of "Blue".

UK channel Dave edited the episodes to remove the very few swear-words (or other "offensive" jokes) that were used throughout the series. The edited versions are still run even at late night hours.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the show, the first 3 series have been remastered in widescreen with new sequences, new digital special effects and new wooshy noises! All 18 episodes are on VHS in the UK, and the first 6 have been shown on the BBC.

The second season episode "Parallel Universe" did not have opening credits on its original broadcast, but some were added for later video release.

On the extended version of Series 7, in episode 1, instead of the last scene being Lister getting beaten up by the rest of the crew, he finds out what really happened to the curry. Instead of it being destroyed in the flood, Lister uses the time machine to go back and save it before the flood occurs. The episode then ends with Rimmer tricking Lister into flipping the switch which detaches the back end of Starbug, leaving Lister alone in deep space with the curry.

The performance of the song "Tongue Tied," featured in the episode "Parallel Universe" was expanded into a full music video when the song became a hit in the UK. The video is featured on Red Dwarf Smeg Outs (1995) (V).

In the original broadcast of the season 2 episode "Kryten", Rimmer, when confronted with the dead crew of the Nova 5 says "They've got less meat on them than a Chicken McNugget". MacDonalds took exception to this and threatened legal action. All subsequent broadcasts and releases had the "Mc" of "McNugget" silenced, though Rimmer's mouth still forms the full word.

A Japanese version of the series exists, featuring (beyond Japanese dubbing), a re-edited version of the opening credits (a different shot of Lister painting the logo, a montage of clips from the episodes, some featuring Kryten, a different edit of the theme song, some CGI shots, and the 'zoom out' shot of the ship that Grant-Naylor couldn't properly pull off originally), along with a completely different model of the Red Dwarf itself. There are no episode title cards; the title is instead seen during the opening of the episode. The original audience laughter appears to be intact.

"Red Dwarf" made its Canadian TV debut on the youth-oriented network YTV. Extensive cuts were made to most episodes shown to remove offensive language or innuendo, and one episode, "Polymorph," was banned outright. In one episode, a joke in which Lister burps the melody of a song was cut out, rendering the joke meaningless.

There is an alternate ending for episode 6.6: "Out Of Time". The original version shows the crew sitting around the main table celebrating their victory over destroying their future selves. They toast to it with celebratory margaritas. They instantly spit it all out and Lister says, with disgust "These aren't margaritas, that's Urine Recycle!" This ending was later changed to the present one as the writers felt they couldn't go anywhere without a cliffhanger.

When Series Three was first released on BBC Video, the episode 'Marooned' earned the first half of the series a BBFC 15 rating, due to a conversation about Lister losing his virginity on a golf course aged 12. Upon its DVD release over a decade later, the BBC wanted all the DVDs to have the same BBFC 12 rating, but BBFC regulations meant the episode couldn't be resubmitted and reissued in its present form. As a result, the DVD producers tacked a ten second Starbug model shot onto the end of the credits, and submitted this as a "new" version, which received a 12 rating, and released this version on DVD.