After being helped by him to recover, and bringing both Arnold Rimmer and Cat out of hibernation, the mechanoid explains their situation – for the past 200 years, the crew have been chasing after Red Dwarf through its vapour trail, after an unknown party stole it from them following their adventure on the SSS Esperanto, with Holly having gone offline as a result.
Proceeding to continue the pursuit, the group attempt to catch up by taking a shortcut through an asteroid belt, only to discover it is a ship graveyard inhabited by Psirens – shape-changing GELFs who prey on unwary travellers by luring them with psychic visions.
Wounded, the Psiren disappears, and uses illusions to separate Kryten and put him in the waste compactor, whereupon it proceeds to attack Lister and Cat, after Rimmer's light bee runs out of energy.
Kryten, surviving the compactor, manages to kill the Psiren by crushing it with his now cubed-shaped body, allowing the crew to recover and continue pursuing Red Dwarf.
[6] Anita Dobson's guest role came about when Grant and Naylor approached her partner (later husband) Brian May about providing his hands for the sequence where the fake Lister plays guitar.
Among the derelicts in the asteroid field are models of the Narcissus escape shuttle from Alien (1979), the Eagle from Space: 1999 (1975) and a Klingon Vor'cha attack cruiser from Star Trek: The Next Generation.