GELFs (Better Than Life)

Numerous unidentified GELFs were seen when the boys from the Dwarf entered the TIV Better Than Life. ("Better Than Life", Series II)

The GELFs filled the restaurant where Cat ate fish directly from a fish tank and Dave Lister ate caviar vindaloo with a banana bomb, and they were waited on by the BTL Guide.

Although the scene transpired in virtual reality, the restaurant and GELFs were presumably re-created from Lister's memory of his favorite (or most desired) restaurant in Liverpool on Earth. Otherwise, it is likely to be programmed based on a pre-existing location from three million years earlier. It is therefore likely the GELFs were, or at least had been, real.

Description

Obviously these creatures were neither human or mechanoid, and since the writers have a solid "no aliens" rule, it stands to reason that they must have been GELFs.

Most of the GELFs present in the restaurant appeared to be bald, with blue-purple coloured skin and wearing some form of white veil. The most prominent of this type is sat right behind Lister in clear view, but others of the same blue-skinned race are scattered throughout the restaurant.

Others types of GELF were present but less visible, such as:

• "Al Capone"-looking ones with metal trilbys. These may have been intended to be the Ganymedian mafia mentioned in the novel Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers. (Some are sat on the lower level in front of Lister, and also some across the restaurant on the higher level)
• A woman with an unnatural, doll-like face. This one may have intended to be a Pleasure GELF. (Seen sat on the right as Arnold Rimmer enters the restaurant after his tryst with Yvonne McGruder)
• A giant, furry, purple-pink one with a body resembling a Sasquatch. This one had no face, merely a proboscis, or possibly a snout like an anteater. (Sat to the far side of the restaurant)
• A giant, furry, black one, with matching black furry - what are seemingly - tentacles coming out of the head and back. It's face was indeterminable, but it had glowing, or reflective, eyes. (Walking through the restaurant and stood by the pink one).

None of these types of GELFs have been seen again in the television series, although the Kinitawowi, Brefewino and BEGGs are all large and furry Yeti-lookalikes, like some of the Better Than Life GELFs.

Behind the Scenes

• The GELF restaurant seen in "Better Than Life" was filmed at Sacha's Hotel, Manchester.

Trivia

• The GELF restaurant scene in "Better Than Life" is possibly Red Dwarf's answer the famous Cantina in Star Wars: A New Hope. The "lost episode" of Series VII, "Identity Within", would also have attempted to recreate the scene in a Brefewino marketplace and gambling den.