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Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf logo
Red Dwarf logo
Created byGrant Naylor
(Rob Grant and Doug Naylor)
StarringChris Barrie
Craig Charles
Danny John-Jules
Norman Lovett
Hattie Hayridge
Robert Llewellyn
C. P. (Clare) Grogan
Chloë Annett
Mac McDonald
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of episodes52 (+2 bonus/lost)
Production
Running time30 mins
Original release
NetworkBBC
This article describes the British science fiction comedy television series. For the type of star, see Red dwarf.

Red Dwarf is a British science fiction sitcom (or Britcom for short) that ran in the late '80s and early '90s. It was created and originally written by Grant Naylor (a so-called "gestalt entity", in reality a collective pseudonym for the writing duo Rob Grant and Doug Naylor).

The show is set 3 million years in the future in deep space, and revolves around the adventures of the crew of the Jupiter Mining Corporation's deep space vessel Red Dwarf. Primary characters in the show include Dave Lister, Arnold Judas Rimmer (a hologram of Dave's dead crew mate), the Cat (a humanoid descended from cats), Holly (the ship's computer with an IQ of 6000, 'the same IQ as 6000 PE teachers'), from series 2 Kryten (a 4000 series mechanoid) and from series 7 onwards, Kristine Kochanski (a version of Dave's ex-girlfriend, from a parallel universe).

Despite the pastiche of science fiction used as a backdrop, Red Dwarf is primarily a character-driven comedy, with many off-the-wall science fiction elements used as complementary plot devices. For example, in the early series a recurring source of comedy was the 'odd couple' relationship between Lister and Rimmer.

Scenario

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File:RedDwarfCast.jpg
The cast of Red Dwarf as of Series IV. In the foreground from left to right: Cat, Lister, and Rimmer. In the background is Kryten, and on the monitors is Holly's avatar.

In the show, the Red Dwarf is a spaceship 5 miles long belonging to the Jupiter Mining Corporation. An on-board radiation leak kills everyone except for Dave Lister, who was in suspended animation at the time, and his pregnant cat, Frankenstein, who was safely sealed in the cargo hold. Lister had smuggled Frankenstein aboard the ship, but had been caught in possession of the illegal life form (by having his photo taken with the cat and sending the film to the ship's lab for processing). In the book at this time, Lister was trying to get caught so that he could be punished by being put in suspended animation until they got back home to the Earth. Given the choice of giving up the location of the cat, or going into Stasis for 18 months, he chose the latter.

Three million years later, Lister emerges from stasis as the last human being alive.

Being third technician, Lister is the lowest ranking employee on the ship. He is the slob anti-hero with a marked Scouse accent and an obsession with Indian food, such as vindaloo, curries, and shami kebabs, all of which are in plentiful supply on board the ship. At the end of the first episode, "The End", Lister tells Holly to navigate Red Dwarf home, back to Earth.

Lister endures a holographic simulation of a deceased crew member Arnold Rimmer, Lister's room-mate before the disaster. Rimmer is a smug, self-serving, mean-spirited, status-obsessed, neurotic, guilt-ridden smeghead with a love of Hammond organ music and telegraph poles, loathed by everybody on board. Despite fourteen years aboard Red Dwarf and an overriding ambition to become an officer, Rimmer has sat and failed his astro-navigation exam on at least 13 occasions. Rimmer actually caused the radiation leak unintentionally by poorly repairing a drive plate on the power core.

Rimmer, being a soft-light hologram, cannot touch non-holographic objects, so the semi-autonomous service droids known as the skutters function as Rimmer's hands (even though they don't like him). At various points in the show, Rimmer acquires a tangible physical form for brief periods, and acquires a "hard-light drive" in Series VI, giving him an effectively real -- albeit indestructible -- physical presence. In other episodes, Rimmer encounters or becomes Ace Rimmer, an incarnation from a parallel universe where a single childhood difference led Rimmer to develop into a James Bond-like persona.

Also accompanying Lister on his voyage back to Earth is The Cat. The Cat is of the species Felix sapiens, evolved from Frankenstein (Lister's pregnant pet cat, discussed above). The Cat appears as a typical biped humanoid with slightly elongated feline teeth; he retains cat-like features including a craving for fish and females, a heightened sense of smell, unbridled vanity, the requirement to nap multiple times a day, a knack for going to the toilet in secret places, an obsession towards grooming and appearance, and (bizarrely for a male cat) six nipples.

A large number of jokes in Red Dwarf involve the Cat's "cool" nature (it is revealed that his heartbeat is actually a catchy bassline), and the recurring anti-Cat role of Duane Dibley, a self-described "no-style gimbo with teeth the druids could use as a place of worship."

Another principal character is Holly, the ship's computer with a supposed IQ of 6000, which Holly claims is the same IQ as 6000 PE Teachers. Holly is visible as a disembodied head on the screens dotted around the ship and runs most of the ship's systems despite suffering from computer senility -- as a result of which his IQ is now in single figures. Holly was responsible for the decision to reincarnate Rimmer as a hologram, claiming that Rimmer was Lister's best chance of remaining sane.

The crew are also joined in Series 3 (although he is introduced in series 2) by the service mechanoid Kryten after rescuing him from a crashed vessel, the Nova 5. Kryten immediately takes over custodial duties on Red Dwarf. While Rimmer basks in subjugating Kryten, Lister befriends Kryten and encourages him to break his altruistic programming to lie, cheat, and steal in an effort to become more human. Kryten offers encyclopedic knowledge in all areas and is generally Red Dwarf's voice of reason. However, he can become hilariously unpredictable when Lister swaps Kryten's head for one of the eager, jealous "spare heads" or removes Kryten's morality chip.

Also in series 3 Holly has a head sex change and is replaced by his female opposite, Hilly, whom he has supposedly fallen in love with. This new Holly lasts until series 6 when they lose Red Dwarf. She is played by Hattie Hayridge

Lister's longlasting crush is Kristine Kochanski, originally played by C. P. (Clare) Grogan (formerly of 1980s band Altered Images). She was killed along with the rest of the crew in the first episode, and several subsequent episodes revolve around Lister attempting to bring her back, either through time travel or as a computer-generated simulation like Rimmer. In the seventh season, an alternative Kochanski from a parallel universe (played by Chloë Annett) joined the series as a regular character.

One aspect of the Red Dwarf universe that differentiates it from standard science fiction is that there are no sentient aliens, despite Rimmer's fervent desires to meet some; instead, every element of the large and bizarre mix of intelligent life within the Red Dwarf universe is in one way or another derived from Earth, a result of developments in robotics and/or genetic engineering during the millions of years the ship has been isolated.

Production history

The first series aired on BBC2 in 1988. Seven further series have so far been produced, and a film is supposed to be in pre-production, though little has been heard of it in recent years (see below under Spinoffs). The idea was originally developed from the Dave Hollins: Space Cadet sketches introduced on Grant and Naylor's 1984 BBC Radio 4 show Son of Cliché.

Rob Grant and Doug Naylor wrote the first six series together, before Grant left in 1996 leaving Naylor to write the next two with a series of new and less well-known writers, notably including Paul Alexander, as well as Robert Llewellyn, who plays Kryten in the series.

For the most part, Ed Bye produced and directed the series. He left before Series V, and Juliet May took over as director, but she was dismissed partway through the season and replaced by Grant and Naylor. Series VI was directed by Andy De Emmony, with Bye returning for the final two series.

Series I, II and III were made by Paul Jackson Productions, with subsequent series produced by the writers' own company Grant Naylor Productions, all for BBC North ; all eight series were broadcast by the BBC on BBC2. At the beginning of series IV production moved from the BBC's Manchester studios to Shepperton.

The theme tune and incidental music were written by Howard Goodall and performed by Jenna Russell. Goodall also wrote music for the show's various songs, including 'Tongue Tied', with lyrics written by Grant and Naylor, which Danny John-Jules reochestrated and released as a top-20 single (see end of this chapter for lyrics). Craig Charles wrote, performed and sang 'Cash' from the episode 'Timeslides' with his band.

A period of four years elapsed between Series VI and VII, partly due to the imprisonment and subsequent exoneration of Craig Charles, but also due to cast and crew working on other projects (notably The Brittas Empire) and disputes over pay. When the series returned, it was filmized and no longer in front of a live audience. Although critics praised the higher production values for Series VII, many fans hated it, and when the show returned two years later for Series VIII, it had dropped use of the filmizing process.

In 1998, on the tenth anniversary of the show's first airing (between the releases of Series VII and VIII), the first three series of Red Dwarf were remastered. The remastering included reformatting the series in 14:9 widescreen, applying the same 'field-removal' film effect as series VII, replaced model shots with computer graphics, cut small pieces of dialog and updated music and ambient sound effects. Red Dwarf Remastered was met with a generally poor fan reaction in the UK, but massive international broadcast success. No further series were remastered and the later DVD release reverted to the original versions in order to preserve historical context.

Sinc series 8, Doug has been trying to get funding to make a feature length film, but each time circumstances prevent this (One studio wanted to use a big name american actors, as opposed to the regular cast. Doug objected, and the studio came up with a compromise - Big name british actors, such as Hugh Grant playing Lister), and trying to get funding for the film takes precedence of the production of a ninth series. On the Series 8 DVD documenatary "The Tank" he states that he's going to have to make a decision soon, whether it be continue to pursue the film, make series 9, some special episodes (Like as Only Fools & Horses did previously) or end the series as is.

Episodes

See List of Red Dwarf episodes.

Characters and actors

Main article: Red Dwarf characters

Regular cast

Charles also worked on Robot Wars, Coronation Street and voices-over Challenge TV's Takeshi's Castle.
Barrie starred in the The Brittas Empire, provided voice work for Spitting Image, and also presents Massive Machines on UK terrestrial channel five; he was also a team captain on UK terrestrial channel BBC 2's quiz show Petrolheads.
John-Jules has also appeared in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Gulliver's Travels and Blade II as well as children's comedy Maid Marian and Her Merry Men and is credited with a voice part in the cult fantasy film Labyrinth.
Lovett and Hayridge are well-known stand up comedians on the British comedy circuit.
Llewellyn also presents Scrapheap Challenge and its US counterpart Junkyard Wars.
Annett is also known for her work on Crime Traveller.

Recurring guest characters

Recurring guest actors

  • Tony Hawks was the warm-up man for the first few series of Red Dwarf and has often been called 'The Fifth Dwarfer'. He also appeared on screen as the host in Better Than Life, the voice of various food dispensers (and a talking suitcase in Stasis Leak), the compere in Backwards, and Caligula in Meltdown.

Ships

Main article: Red Dwarf ships

Red Dwarf

File:RedDwarfShipOriginal.jpg
The first Red Dwarf
The second, CGI Red Dwarf

The main ship after which the show is named. Red Dwarf is five miles long, not including the scoop at the front, and can hold over a thousand crew members. It also holds a complement of Starbug and Blue Midget shuttlecrafts. The scoop (known as a Bussard Ramscoop or Ramjet in the scientific community) at the front of the ship uses electromagnetic fields to collect trace hydrogen gas from space and convert it into fuel: the ship, therefore, could theoretically keep on travelling forever.

In the book Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers the ship was hit by an asteroid on its starboard side when it was still under construction. The Jupiter Mining Corporation decided to incorporate the asteroid into the ship rather than further weaken the superstructure. Red Dwarf was redesigned for the remastered series, making it even longer and more streamlined, with multiple smaller engines at the rear, as opposed to the singular massive engine used on previous models. This design did not stick but was re-used in Series 8, after Red Dwarf's reconstruction by the nanobots, complete with a Karaoke bar on C Deck.

Originally mining was something done outside the ship on a planet or asteroid, however after the redesign large bays were added in the keel so the ship could capture asteroids and mine them on the fly. It was explained in series 8 that the Nanobots rebuilt the ship according to the original blueprints and thus didn't suffer from JMC's budget cuts; the ship was longer and didn't have an asteroid lodged in it.

Blue Midget

File:RedDwarfBlueMidget.jpg
Blue Midget, original version

Blue Midget is a type of shuttle that Red Dwarf carries, and was the primary craft in series 2 before being replaced by Starbug, whose larger interior space afforded room for more complex scenes. It is built to resemble a truck or tank, with caterpillar tracks and a bumper sticker that reads "My Other Space Ship is a Red Dwarf".

Blue Midget was redesigned in CGI for the remastered series to resemble a bubble car with retractable legs for "walking", and this design was also used for Series 8 (for the original episodes continuity, it is feasible that when Red Dwarf was reconstructed slightly differently the same thing happened to the Blue Midgets aboard the ship). Every appearance of the redesigned Blue Midget has demonstrated the comedic rather than practical value of these legs: for the remastered version of "Thanks for the Memory" Blue Midget was able to stumble drunkenly in an effective embodiment of the crew's inebriated state, while its appearance in series 8 comprised a tap-dance and humourous "fleeing" sequence. In a recent poll across three Red Dwarf yahoo groups, Starbug was voted favourite of the original models, while Blue Midget took the crown for the CGI ships.

In the paperback novel series, there is brief reference to a second mining transport ship, White Midget, presumably of the same design as Blue Midget.

The ship's crew has also been reported in two different populations. On the original pilot episode and in subsequent seasons, Red Dwarf was claimed to be given a crew of 169 (with Dave Lister and Rimmer being the two lowest-ranked amongst these). In the novels and in the last few seasons of the show, particularly after the nanobot resurrection of the entire crew, the crew was supposed to number 1,169. In the "Smeg-Ups" tape, Kryten answers this fan-question of discrepancy by totally ignoring the question (owing that these mistakes are just mistakes, it's only a television series, so "lighten up").

Starbug

File:RedDwarfStarbug.jpg
Starbug

The JMC transport vehicle Starbug is the model of a small shuttle craft, green in colour. It has three bulbous sections; the cockpit, mid-section and engine rooms, somewhat resembling a bug from the exterior. Starbug replaced Blue Midget as the crew's primary choice of shuttle in series 3 and became the show's primary vehicle throughout series 6 and 7.

Series 6 takes place a full 200 years after the final episodes of series 5. During this time it is presumed that Kryten, being the only one not in deep-sleep, remodelled Starbug to better suit the crew's needs. Starbug's remodelling expanded the ship's interior dimensions and produced an additional sleeping quarters, engine deck and hangar bay. In episode 6.3 "Gunmen of the Apocalypse" Starbug was finally armed with laser cannons by rogue simulants.

For series 7 Starbug was redesigned again (made substantially larger, on this occasion the result of a time paradox) and rendered in CGI. The new model had a smaller cockpit window (as a result of the rest of the craft being larger) and newly backward-angled legs.

US version

A pilot episode for an American version was produced for NBC in 1992, though never broadcast. The show followed essentially the same story as the first episode of the original series, substituting American actors (including Craig Bierko as Lister, Chris Eigeman as Rimmer, and Hinton Battle as the Cat) for the British; exceptions being Robert Llewellyn, who reprised his role as Kryten, and the British actress Jane Leeves as Holly.

A later pilot consisting of scenes from the first pilot edited in with new footage (and featuring Terry Farrell as a female Cat) was also unsuccessful.

However, the comparison between the UK and US shows is interesting: the anti-hero, slobby atheist Lister was replaced with a muscular hunk when he is translated for American TV. When Lister learns that three million years have passed in the UK show, he says "I've still got that library book..."; in the American version he says "My baseball cards must be worth a fortune!"

Clips from the first pilot can be found on the DVD of Series 5 in the featurette Dwarfing USA, along with interviews with the British cast and Doug Naylor. Bootlegs of the pilots are widely circulated among Red Dwarf fans, and sold at conventions.

Spin-offs

The franchise has expanded to include four novels, written by the show's creators, Doug Naylor and Rob Grant (under the combined name of Grant Naylor).

These novels contain deeper insights and more thorough backstories for the main characters, as well as more information on humanity's future state of affairs. Rather than adapting the show outright, the books provide yet another, possibly idealized version of the series' backstory. They reinterpret and reposition elements from past episodes, and even introduce ideas that would later be used in the show.

The first book, Red Dwarf, had cover art including a highway sign saying Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers; this sign being often mistaken for the title, the book is often called this to distinguish it from other incarnations. Interestingly, the original hardback of Better Than Life listed the title as Red Dwarf : Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers on its "By the same author" page. This is, apparently, the only time the title has been "officially" used.

For various reasons, Grant and Naylor decided to both work alone when writing the sequel to Better Than Life, and so two completely different, contradicting sequels were made. Last Human (by Doug Naylor, who would go on to make two further television series) introduced Kochanski to unsuspecting fans and felt very much like series seven of the TV programme, while Backwards (by Rob Grant) was more in keeping with the previous two books, feeling much like series three to six. The styles of these sequels vary wildly from the two predecessors and each other. While opinion differs strongly on which solo effort is superior, neither matched the widespread fan acclaim of the original co-written novels.

All four books contain well-loved elements from certain episodes of the television series. Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers contains lines and story elements from The End, Future Echoes, Kryten, Me² and Better Than Life. Better Than Life contains elements from Better Than Life, Marooned, Polymorph and Backwards (the "playing pool with planets" sub-plot was written before the White Hole TV episode).

Last Human contains elements from Backwards, Polymorph II: Emohawk and DNA. The novel Backwards contains elements from Backwards, Dimension Jump and Gunmen of the Apocalypse. While these elements are taken from the original source material, they were cleverly enhanced (and often improved) to fit in with the overall plots of every book. This was made possible by the fact that the writers were not inhibited by budgetry constraints, as with the TV episodes.

All four books were published in audiobook format, the first two read by Chris Barrie with Last Human read by Craig Charles and Backwards read by its author Rob Grant.

The BBC World Service re-recorded the first two books as The Red Dwarf Radio Show with Chris Barrie narrating and included additional sound effects. The first series was broadcast on 3 December 1995 to 17 February 1996 and the second March 13 1997 to March 28 1997.

Other books include:

  • The Official Red Dwarf Companion - 1992 - Bruce Dessau - ISBN 1852864567
  • Red Dwarf VIII: the official guide - 1999 - Doug Naylor & Rob Grant - ISBN 1852278722
  • Red Dwarf Programme Guide - 1997 - Chris Howarth & Steve Lyons - ISBN 0753501031
  • Red Dwarf Programme Guide - 2000 - Chris Howarth & Steve Lyons - ISBN 0753504022
  • Red Dwarf Survival Guide - 1996 - Doug Naylor & Paul Alexander - ISBN 0749323744
  • Red Dwarf Quiz Book - 1994 - Nicky Hooks & Sharon Burnett - ISBN 0140236627
  • A Question of Smeg: 2nd Red Dwarf quiz book - 1997 - Nicky Hooks & Sharon Burnett - ISBN 0140270701
  • Red Dwarf Log No. 1996: official log for the year Smeg Knows - 1995 - ISBN 0434003700 (Diary)

The song "Tongue Tied", originally featured in a dream sequence in the episode Parallel Universe, was released as a single in 1993. It reached number 17 in the UK charts. It was expected to get higher, but a planned Top of the Pops performance never eventuated, thus halting momentum for the single.

A planned Red Dwarf: The Movie has been delayed from its original schedule. According to the official website, it will enter pre-production 'shortly', with details of a release date to follow. However, as of 2005, it has been over a year since any news has been heard regarding the movie, and the Internet Movie Database has since removed the entry for it.

Invented words

Esperanto

Several sets, seen often in the earlier episodes, have the phrase "Level/Nivelo" prominently displayed on one wall. Nivelo is not an invented word within the series, but rather the Esperanto word for level. In the Red Dwarf universe, the constructed language Esperanto is in much wider use than it is today, and Red Dwarf is officially a bilingual vessel. See the first episode in season two, "Kryten", in which Rimmer attempts to learn Esperanto. In fact, all the Esperanto used in Red Dwarf is correct[citation needed], if sometimes poorly pronounced - and in the books, incorrectly spelt or mis-printed.

Expletives

Red Dwarf famously employed a vocabulary of fictional expletives in order to avoid using potentially-offensive expletives in the show, and to give nuance to futuristic colloquial language. By far, the most famous example is smeg. Variations of the word include: smegger, smeghead, smeg off, smeg-for-brains, and smegging hell. In one episode, Rimmer tells a vending machine to "smeg off, you smeggy smegging smegger!"; "Bodyswap" features the phrase "Oh smeg, what the smegging smeg's he smegging done? He's smegging killed me!". The writers of Red Dwarf have stated that they invented the word and that it has no connection with any similar real words, such as smegma; however, lexicographer Tony Thorne, in his 1990 Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (ISBN 074752856X), reports instances of smeg (and derivatives) being used as a term of "mild contempt and even affection" among "schoolboys, students and punks" as early as the mid-1970s—a decade or so prior to the inception of the Red Dwarf phenomenon—and unequivocally traces the etymology of the term back to smegma.

Other invented expletives and euphemisms include goit (one who is annoying or awkward; perhaps adapted from the words git and oik) and gimboid (one who is stupid or clumsy; possibly an adaptation of the word gimp). Another term of abuse used in the show was the word gwenlan, the last name of Gareth Gwenlan who was the head of comedy for the BBC and passed on the show in London.

Other

  • Bazookoid: The Red Dwarf crew's weapon of choice is the bazookoid. This is in actual fact a piece of mining equipment, and not officially a weapon. Obviously derived from the word bazooka.
  • Currency in use at the time Red Dwarf left the Solar System was apparently the "dollarpound", divided into one hundred "pennycents". It is also sometimes referred to as the "buckquid".
  • GELF: A class of beings that makes recurring appearances in the programme is the GELF, an acronym for Genetically Engineered Life Forms. This term was also used in the unrelated American series seaQuest DSV, which aired for three seasons in the early 1990s. As Grant and Naylor were keen never to include aliens in their series, GELFs are man-made beings, as are all the life-forms the Red Dwarf crew encounter - see also references to simulants and the polymorph.
  • Holly Hop Drive: At one stage Holly invented a device called the The Holly Hop Drive which transported them to a parallel universe.
  • Hol Rock: Whilst on his own for three million years, Red Dwarf's computer, Holly, decided to entertain himself by inventing Hol Rock, a fictional decimalised version of music. The notes he invented were 'H' and 'J' (or woh and boh in solfege) and he was convinced it would be a whole new sound. Unfortunately triangles would need an extra side, pianos would be the length of zebra crossings and women would be banned from playing the cello.
  • Hotspur: This word however seems not to make any other appearances. Holly also uses the word Hotspur to mean nonsense ("Queeg") - a reference to the London football team Tottenham Hotspur, as evidenced by the line "That's a load of Tottenham that is, that's a steaming pile of Hotspur".
  • Jozxyqk: In the episode "Bodyswap", Cat plays the word jozxyqk in a game of Scrabble, claiming it to be a cat word meaning "the sound you get when you get your sexual organs trapped in something." However, this is most likely an attempt by Cat to use otherwise useless letters in a game he may well have been losing. Red Dwarf establishes that, in its fictional universe, the evolved Cat species does not have a written language, and instead records information as a scent. However it could be phonetically spelt.
  • Negadrive: A drive that is used in mechanoids to store negative emotions. Eventually, this drive blows when its negativity reaches its maximum. Its destruction won't stop said mechanoid from jealously whining for another 10 episodes, however.
  • Otrazone: A dangerous and highly addictive drug in a liquid form that corrupts circuit boards in mechanoids. Able tried to convince Kryten in trying some Otrazone in "Beyond A Joke", but he refused.
  • Quagaar: The name of the species in which Rimmer believes will make him a real body, in the episode "Waiting for God". It turns out that the Quagaars never existed, the pod that he believed they resided in was actually a Red Dwarf garbage pod.
  • Shash: In the Series 5 episode "The Inquisitor", Kryten refers to a statement made by Lister as "complete and utter shash", leaving the viewer to assume that shash is synonymous with nonsense.
  • Simulant: A mechanoid that despises humans. They were created for war that never happened, and still are floating around the unknown parts of space. The Red Dwarf crew occasionally run into simulants.
  • Twonk: In the episode "Back To Reality", Timothy Spall's character Andy refers to the regular cast as "a bunch of twonks". Twonk is also used by Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses. He often calls Rodney a "dozy little twonk". "Twonk" has been around for a while and is used by Frederick R. Ewing in the 1956 novel I, Libertine. The character Lance Courtney refers comedically to another character's acne as being "Twonk's disease".

Talking Backwards

In the Series 3 episode "Backwards", there are several segments of reversed dialogue. Some of these are simply reversed recordings of the subtitled dialogue (a few with rather more "robust" language than the subtitled version), others are actors attempting (quite successfully) to speak backwards. An example of this is seen at the bar in the pub, where Lister discovers he has to order "Erskib" - played backwards, this really does sound like "Bitter".

The longest backwards dialogue, however, is rather different. When the nightclub owner bursts in to sack Rimmer and Kryten, because of a fight (which hasn't happened yet, of course), Arthur Smith isn't actually saying what Kryten is translating. What he is really saying is: "You are a stupid, square-headed, bald git, aren't you? Eh? Now, I'm pointing at you, I'm pointing at you. But I'm not actually addressing you. I'm addressing the one prat in the country who's bothered to get hold of this recording, turn it round, and actually work out the rubbish that I'm saying. What a poor sad life he's got.", then "Frankly your act's crap, anyone could have done that- I hate the lot of you, bollocks to you!"

The entire episode is available in its reversed form "Backwards Forwards" on the DVD release of series 3, where the limitations of its logic can be witnessed in full!

Continuity

The number of continuity errors contained in the series as a whole is huge. Grant and Naylor approached many of the timeline errors by simply ignoring them, but highlights include:

  • In series 1 Lister has shared a total of 171 words with Kochanski(he had a better verbal relationship with his potted plant) and had never asked her out. By series 4 they had dated for 3 months before she dumped him for a catering officer named Tim. Or Tom. Or possibly Terry.
  • The number of people aboard the ship is 169 in Series 1, but rose to 1,169 in Series 4. It has also been put up to 111,169.
  • References to Lister being from the 23rd Century, even though he was abandoned in the 22nd Century, and the radiation leak happened in the 21st Century.
  • Lister has his appendix out twice (although Rob Grant covers this in an interview by stating that Lister regrew his appendix during the episode DNA). Another explanation is found in Doug Naylor's novel Last Human, in which it is revealed that Lister was born with a double appendix.
  • Lister drops a tombstone on one foot in the episode Thanks for the Memory, and the plastercast eventually appears on the other.
  • Kochanski's appearance and behaviour is almost completely opposite in series 7-8 to the woman we've grown to call by that name since series 1, yet Lister still recognises and adores her as the same person.
  • At the end of series 7 the original Red Dwarf ship (circa series 1-5) is viewed through the cockpit window of Starbug. For the "recap" at the beginning of series 8, however, the new, enlarged CGI ship takes its place. While the discontinuity of ships between the remastered series 1-3 and the original series 4 can be discounted by ignoring the remastereds, and the design of the CGI ship for series 8 can be accepted with the "nanobots working to pre-cutback plans" explanation provided in its first episode, little explains what happens to Red Dwarf between the end of series 7 and the same scene at the beginning of series 8.
  • In much the same way, Starbug seems to change enormously between Series 5 and 6. It now has an expanded cockpit with 4 console stations instead of two, the previously empty midsection has been converted into a galley and dining area, crew quarters have been added, a network of corridors seem to run through the (not very large) ship and a cavernous engine room appears.

One way in which many of the series-to-series continuity errors can be explained away is by exploring the possibilities of different series taking place in alternate dimensions. Indeed, this is often used as a general explanation for the many changes in style (and characters' histories) between series II and III - with many fans taking the words "THE SAME GENERATION... NEARLY" in the opening episode's scrolling text as indicative of this. A similar cutoff point between realities is often drawn between series VI and VII, as it is explicitly stated in the show that a number of realities have merged after the paradox of the Starbug crew being "killed" by their future selves.

DVD and Video

The Red Dwarf series are all available in the UK on DVD, accompanied by interviews with all the cast and many of the crew, along with bonus material and deleted scenes.

Pastiche and Parody

Many episodes of Red Dwarf (particularly Series 4) contain references to other films and television shows. These include:

  • The End - the first 2 series opening theme is based on the soundtrack for 2001: A Space Odyssey.
  • Kryten - Kryten's favourite soap Androids is a parody of the real-life television show Neighbours. Kryten imitates Marlon Brando in The Wild One.
  • Queeg - Queeg's name comes from The Caine Mutiny, whilst Holly's line "This is mutiny Mr. Queeg." is based on Mutiny on the Bounty. "The Ballad of High Noon" plays as Holly goes to confront Queeg, and Holly's death is a parody of HAL's death in 2001: a Space Odyssey.
  • Backwards - The episode opens with high-speed text in the style of the introduction from the Star Wars films. Lister and the Cat talk about The Flintstones in the opening scene.
  • Marooned - The TARDIS from Doctor Who can be seen, hidden in the hangar for the very observant.
  • Polymorph - The episode was based on the Alien Quadrilogy. The cargo bay scene is supposed to resemble a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Heat-seekers produce a sound similar to that of the Star Wars lightsabres.
  • The Last Day - When Kryten asks "Is this the human value you call "friendship"?", Lister gives the grumpy response "Don't give me this Star Trek crap, it's too early in the morning!"
  • Camille - A parody of the popular film Casablanca. Also featured a scene where the Cat and Lister discuss Hammy Hamster from Tales of the Riverbank.
  • D.N.A. - Features the line "How can the same smeg happen to the same guy twice?", a reference to the Die Hard films. The Curry Monster's demise is in the manner of the death of the shark in Jaws.
  • Dimension Jump - The character of Ace Rimmer owes something to 007 star James Bond. The sound track was inspired by Top Gun's Take My Breath Away.
  • Meltdown - The scene where Rimmer inspects the Waxdroid troops resembles a scene in Full Metal Jacket.
  • The Inquisitor - This episode was heavily inspired by the Terminator films.
  • Terrorform - When Kryten offlines he listens to a remix of Copacabana.
  • Gunmen of the Apocalypse - The showdown scene pays tribute to High Noon.
  • Stoke Me A Clipper - Opens with another 007-esque sequence.
  • Beyond a Joke - The crew visit Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice World on the A.R. Machine.
  • Epideme - The Epideme virus (whose speech is a parody of the stereotypical game show host) says the line "And tonight, Dave Lister, assistant vending machine sub-operative and spice food connoiseur, THIS IS YOUR DEATH!", a reference to the show This Is Your Life

See also

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