
:''This article describes the British science fiction comedy television series. For the type of star, see red dwarf.'' {| style="float: right" |- | |- |Avatar_(virtual_reality).">Image:RedDwarfCast.jpg|thumb|300px|The cast of Red Dwarf as of Season 3. In the foreground from left to right: Cat, Lister, and Rimmer. In the background is Kryten, and on the monitor is Holly's Avatar (virtual reality). |} ''Red Dwarf'' is a United Kingdom science fiction British comedy, created and originally written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. It tells the story of Dave Lister, the last human being alive, and takes place on a space ship 3 million years in the future. A pastiche of science fiction in general, Red Dwarf is first and foremost an The Odd Couple type situation comedy. ==Scenario== In the show, the ''Red Dwarf (spaceship)'' is a gigantic spaceship belonging to Jupiter Mining Corporation. An on-board radiation disaster kills everyone except for ''Red Dwarf characters#David_Lister'', who was in suspended animation at the time. Three million years later, Lister emerges from stasis as the last human being alive. Lister is the slob anti-hero with a marked Scouse accent and a craving for Indian food, such as vindaloo curry and shami kebabs, all of which are in plentiful supply on board the ship. He also enjoys a type of music called "Rastabilly Skank," playing the guitar, and singing -- much to the detriment of those around him. His primary desire is to return to Earth. Lister endures a Holography simulation of a deceased crew member ''Red Dwarf characters#Arnold_Rimmer.'' Rimmer, Lister's room-mate before the disaster, is a smug, self-centered, status-obsessed, occasionally neurotic, guilt-ridden loser, loathed by everybody on board. Despite twelve years aboard the ship and an overriding ambition to become an officer, Rimmer remains a chickensoup-machine repairman, the lowest job aboard the ship. It was he who actually caused the radioactive disaster by poorly repairing a drive plate on the power core, though he claims he would have been able to do a better job if Lister hadn't been imprisoned in stasis. The facility for simulating dead crew members is so resource-intensive that only one such simulation can be maintained at a time. It is therefore reserved for high-ranking and/or essential personnel, but the ship's computer explains in an early episode that it believes Rimmer's company to be essential to Lister's mental health. Lister expresses incredulity, but later implicitly admits that the computer was right, telling another character, Kryten the mechanoid, that "driving Rimmer nuts is what keeps me going". As the series progresses, Rimmer acquires a tangible physical form for brief periods of time due to various astronomical phenomena, and eventually acquires a "hard-light drive", giving him an effectively real -- albeit indestructible -- physical presence. In later episodes, Rimmer is also manifested as the superheroic character, Red Dwarf characters#Ace Rimmer, who hails from an alternate Universe where a pivotal humiliation led Rimmer to develop into a James Bond-like persona. Also accompanying Lister on his voyage back to Earth is ''The Cat (Red Dwarf)''. ''The Cat'' is a member of the species ''Felis sapiens'', evolved from a domestic cat which Lister had smuggled aboard three million years prior, for which crime Lister was imprisoned in stasis. The Cat appears as a typical biped humanoid with slightly elongated canine teeth; he retains a cat-like interest in fish and females, a heightened sense of smell, unbridled vanity, and cat-like obsession towards grooming and appearance. He also has six nipples. The other principal character is ''Red Dwarf characters#Holly'', the ship's computer with a supposed IQ of 6000 (visible as a disembodied head on the screens dotted around the ship). Holly runs most of the ship's systems despite now suffering from computer senility. Among Holly's systems are the service droids known as ''Red Dwarf characters#The_Skutterss'' that clean, perform engineering tasks and function as Rimmer's hands since he initially cannot touch anything non-holographic. The crew are also joined by the service mechanoid ''Red Dwarf characters#Kryten'' whom Lister encourages to break his altruistic programming to lie, cheat, and steal in an effort to become more human. Kryten at one time did in fact break his programming, "borrowed" Lister's space-bike and left the ship. He was found smashed against an astroid some light-years away, and was rebuilt with a new personality. Lister's longlasting crush is ''Red Dwarf characters#Kristine Kochanski'', played by Clare Grogan (formerly of 80's 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 various TV series and book incarnations, Lister has either admired Kochanski from afar or dated her for over a month. The discontinuity is never touched upon. In the seventh season, an alternative Kochanski from a parallel universe (played by Chloë Annett) joined the series as a regular character. One interesting aspect of the ''Red Dwarf'' universe is that there are no sentient aliens, although there is a large and bizarre mix of intelligent life within the ''Red Dwarf'' universe. All of these organisms, however, are 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 currently in pre-production. 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 Paul Alexander. Series I and II were BBC productions, series III was made by Paul Jackson Productions, and all subsequent series were made by Grant Naylor Productions. In practice these changes were only cosmetic; all eight series were made for and by the BBC. At the beginning of series IV production moved from the BBC's Manchester studios to Shepperton Studios. The theme tune, incidental music and chart hit 'Tongue Tied' was written by Howard Goodall. A period of four years elapsed between Series VI and VII. The show was apparently not expected to last beyond five series, indicated by the closure of major plot elements and continuity during the first two series. However, Grant and Naylor were contractually obliged to make eight series for the BBC. When the series returned, it was filmizing and no longer in front of a live audience. Although critics praised the higher production values for Series VII, 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 VI and VIII), the first three series of Red Dwarf were remastered. The remastering included reformatting the series in widescreen, applying film grain techniques and more critically replaced model shots with computer graphics, cut small pieces of dialog and changed music and sound effects. Red Dwarf Remastered was met with a generally poor fan reaction, no further series were remastered and the later DVD release reverted to the original versions. ==Episode list== See List of Red Dwarf episodes. ==Characters and actors== :''Main article: Red Dwarf characters'' ===Regular cast=== *Red Dwarf characters#David_Lister (played by Craig Charles) also known for Robot Wars. *Red Dwarf characters#Arnold_Rimmer (played by Chris Barrie) also known for The Brittas Empire and numerous voices on Spitting Image. *Red Dwarf characters#The_Cat (played by Danny John-Jules) who has appeared in Lock, Stock and two smoking barrels and Blade 2. *Red Dwarf characters#Holly (played by Norman Lovett in series 1, 2, 7 and 8, and by Hattie Hayridge in series 3, 4 and 5) also known in "Lexx" playing "Sub-Warden Heidi" in episode: "P4X" (episode # 4.3) *Red Dwarf characters#Kryten (played by David Ross in his first appearance in series 2, and then by Robert Llewellyn in series 3 through 8) also known for Scrapheap Challenge (AKA Junkyard Wars in the USA) *Red Dwarf characters#Kristine_Kochanski (played by Clare Grogan in series 1, 2 and 6 then by Chloë Annett in series 7 and 8) Claire Grogan was the lead singer of Altered Images in the 1980's. Chloë Annett is also known for Crime Traveller. ===Semi-regular characters in series 8=== *Red Dwarf characters#Captain_Frank_Hollister (played by Mac McDonald) (also made guest appearance in two episodes in Series 1 and one episode of Series 2) *Red Dwarf characters#Warden_Ackerman (played by Graham McTavish) ===Recurring guest characters=== *Red Dwarf characters#Olaf_Petersen (played by Mark Williams (actor)) appeared in three episodes and is mentioned regularly when Lister talks about the days before the accident. *Red Dwarf characters#Selby_and_Chen (played by David Gillespie and Paul Bradley, respectively) appeared in three episodes altogether. *Frank Todhunter (played by Robert Bathurst) only appeared in the first episode but was regularly mentioned in following episodes. *George McIntyre, a Welsh officer, appeared once in the first episode as a hologram at his own "Welcome Back Reception". *Red Dwarf characters#Kill_Crazy (played by Jake Wood) appeared in four episodes. *Baxter (played by Ricky Grover) appeared in the last three episodes of the series. ===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== ===Red Dwarf=== The spaceship ''Red Dwarf'' is an enormous (five miles long, according to the novels) mining vessel owned by the Jupiter Mining Corporation and commanded by Captain Red Dwarf characters#Captain Frank Hollister. All of Red Dwarf's systems are controlled by the computer Red Dwarf characters#Holly. Red Dwarf has a large complement of shuttles, including #Starbugs, #Blue Midgets. Also mentioned but never seen is White Midget (See #Starbug). It is powered by a Bussard ramjet and can, theoretically, keep going forever. It has so far been travelling for roughly 3,000,000 years. The ship has enough food and drink to last 30,000 years (although they've run out of cow's milk, Shake 'N' Vac and have just one After Eight mint left, which everyone is too polite to take). The crew size was repeatedly stated in the first series to be 169, but the number grew with time: in the Series 4 episode "Justice" it was said to have been 1,169, and in the books the figure is given as 11,169. In the programme, however, these continuity errors are more or less ignored and are usually regarded as unimportant by the majority of the show's fanbase. Red Dwarf itself was the main setting for the first five seasons of the programme, but was apparently lost for 200 years before the first episode of Season Six. It was later discovered that a collective of rogue nanobots which formed the mechanoid Red Dwarf characters#Kryten's auto-repair system dismantled Red Dwarf and created their own nano-version of the ship. The crew chased this nano-version of the ship in #Starbug 1 and eventually convinced the nanobots to rebuild the ship. As a joke, the nanobots revived the dead crew as well, causing some disorientation among the formerly dead denizens of the reconstructed Red Dwarf. The rebuilt ship was based on the original specifications, meaning it was even larger than the Red Dwarf of the first five seasons, with a quark-level matter/anti-matter generator and a karaoke bar (this was at least partly meant as justification for new sets and a new CGI model of the ship's exterior). The ship was again destroyed by a corrosive chemical but all of the crew (bar Red Dwarf characters#Arnold Rimmer) managed to escape in the Starbugs and Blue Midgets. Notable areas of the ship include: *Rimmer and Red Dwarf characters#David_Lister's original sleeping quarters - The main setting for the first two seasons. A grey room with bunk beds built into the wall, a table, two lockers, a sink with a mirror that also acts as a computer screen and a voice activated toilet. It made a reappearance in the first episode of Series Eight. *Rimmer and Lister's second sleeping quarters - In season three, they relocated to a room in the unused Officer's Block; substantially larger, with a cream colour scheme and en suite shower as well as classier versions of much of the apparatus from their original quarters. *The Drive Room - The control centre of the ship, where Red Dwarf characters#Kristine Kochanski used to work as well as the other top officers and ship's captain. Also contains the Navicomp, the ship's navigational computer, and several computer monitors which Holly used to project his image and communicate with the crew. *The Science Room - This became the crew's main area of conducting technical business such as mind swaps and consultations with Holly, the ship's computer, in Series 3 to 5. *The cargo bay - The area of the ship where the fleets of Starbugs and Blue Midgets were stored and from where these ships launched and landed. *White Corridor 159 - The initial site of the accident that wiped out the crew. *Parrot's Bar - A wine bar on G Deck, apparently named purely for a ''Casablanca (movie)'' gag. ("We'll always have Parrot's.") *The Tank - A two-hundred cell prison on the top-secret Floor Thirteen. Contained four hundred hardened criminals on their way to a penal colony on Adelphi 12. And, in season 8, the main cast. ===Blue Midget=== {| style="float: right" |- | |- | |- | |- | |} ''Blue Midget'' is a type of shuttle. The craft was used mainly in series 2 before being replaced by #Starbug. In series 8 Blue Midget was redesigned to resemble a bubble car, with retractable legs for take-off and landing (also enabling them to dance). ===Starbug=== The JMC transport vehicle ''Starbug'' is a small shuttle craft. It is green in colour and has three bulbous sections; the cockpit, mid-section and engine rooms. Starbug is featured from the third series of Red Dwarf, replacing #Blue Midget as the crew's primary choice of shuttle and became the show's primary craft in series 6 and 7. Series 6 began a full 200 years after the final episodes of season 5 during which time only Kryten was "conscious". During this period it is presumed that Kryten remodelled Starbug for the crews needs. Starbug became much larger and gained sleeping quarters, an engine deck, an artificial reality suite and a hangar bay in the process. Since series 6, Starbug has been armed with laser cannons. It originally seemed as though there were only 2 Starbugs on Red Dwarf, aptly titled Starbug 1 and Starbug 2. Starbug 1 was the one that featured the most, with Starbug 2 only appearing once in series 3 and once in series 5. Throughout seasons three to six, Starbug 1 has crashed many times and always seemed to be fully repaired by the next episode. In series 8 it was revealed that there was an entire fleet of Starbugs (and Blue Midgets) stored on Red Dwarf. According to the cast commentary on the Red Dwarf DVD's, Starbug was originally named White Midget. ===Wildfire=== Red Dwarf characters#Ace Rimmer ship, ''Wildfire'', appears in "Dimension Jump" and "Stoke Me A Clipper". Its purpose as part of Ace's mission is to explore alternative realities. Upon Ace Rimmer's return in "Stoke Me A Clipper", the ship is given to the next generation of Ace. ===Nova 5=== The wreck of the ''Nova 5'' was discovered in the second series episode "Kryten." The series 4000 mechanoid Red Dwarf characters#Kryten was still servicing his long-dead crew when encountered by the members of the ''Red Dwarf''. In the seventh series episode "Ouroboros," it was revealed that Kryten was responsible for the accident that killed the ship's crew. A reason has not been given in the series, but ''Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'' explains that the crash was caused by Kryten cleaning the computer with soapy water. ==US version== A television pilot for an United States version was produced for NBC in 1992, though never broadcast. The show followed essentially the same story as the original UK pilot, substituting American actors (including Craig Bierko as Lister, Chris Eigeman as Rimmer, Hinton Battle as the Cat and Jane Leeves as Holly) for the British; the one exception being Robert Llewellyn, who reprised his role as Kryten. The pilot was unsuccessful. A later pilot consisting of scenes from the first pilot edited in with new footage (and featuring Terry Farrell (actress) as a female Cat) was also unsuccessful. However, the comparison between the UK and US shows is interesting: the anti-hero, slobby pantheist 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!" It is also interesting to note that the multi-ethnic cast of the British original (John-Jules is black, Charles bi-racial, and Barrie and Llewelyn white) was replaced by an entirely Caucasian one for the second US pilot (the first pilot still had a black Cat), leading John-Jules and Charles to dub it 'White Dwarf'. ==Spin-offs== The franchise has expanded to include four novels, written by the show's creators, Doug Naylor and Rob Grant. * ''Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'' - Grant Naylor - ISBN 0-45-145201-1 * ''Better Than Life'' - Grant Naylor - ISBN 0-14-012438-1 * ''Last Human'' - Doug Naylor - ISBN 0-14-014388-2 * ''Backwards'' - Rob Grant - ISBN 0-14-017150-9 ''Last Human'' and ''Backwards'' are both (different) sequels to ''Better Than Life'', and are not consistent with each other. 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. 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, only a planned Top Of The Pops performance did not come to happen, 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. Unfortunately it has been over a year since any news has been heard regarding the movie. ==Invented words== Red Dwarf is famous for using the word "smeg" in order to remove Profanity from the show and to add to a futuristic terminology. Some examples of the word in context are "smegger", "smeghead", "smeg off", "smeg-for-brains", and "smegging hell". The character of Rimmer tells a vending machine in one episode to "''...smeg off, you smeggy smegging smegger!''" 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". The idea of an List of fictional curse words was borrowed from the BBC sitcom ''Porridge (TV)'', which brought the word "naff" into popular usage. There are other terminologies invented by Red Dwarf that are not as well-known as "smeg". Given the sarcastic and argumentative nature of the show's plotlines, many of these other new words are derogatory designations including "goit" (one who is annoying or awkward — perhaps adapted from the word "git" and "oik") and "gimboid" (one who is stupid or clumsy — similar in meaning to "moron", and possibly an adaptation of the word "gimp"). The currency in use at the time ''Red Dwarf'' left the Solar System was apparently the "dollarpound", divided into one hundred "pennycents". In one episode, Cat uses the word 'Jozxyqk' in a Scrabble game, claiming it to be a cat word meaning "the sound you get when you get your sexual organs trapped in something". A class of beings that makes recurring appearances in the programme are GELFs, an acronym for Genetically Engineered Life Forms. 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 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". 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' 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 Violoncello. ==See also== *British sitcom *Red Dwarf characters *Britain's Best Sitcom ==External links== *[http://www.faqs.org/faqs/tv/red-dwarf/faq/ ''Red Dwarf'' FAQ] *[http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/ ''Red Dwarf'' site] *[http://uk.imdb.com/Title?0276447 Entry for ''Red Dwarf: The Movie''] in the Internet Movie Database *[http://www.reddwarffanclub.com/ ''Red Dwarf'' Fan Club] *[http://www.sitcom.co.uk/red_dwarf/ British Sitcom Guide] * The [http://www.crazyabouttv.com/reddwarf.html ''Red Dwarf TV Show''] page at Crazy About TV features trivia, a plot summary, cast list, and episode titles for the series. Cast Links *[http://www.normanlovett.co.uk/norman.htm Norman Lovett's (Holly's) Website] *[http://www.llew.co.uk/ Robert Lewellyn's (Kryten's) Website] *[http://www.craigcharles.co.uk/ Craig Charles'(Lister's) Website] *[http://www.chrisbarrie.co.uk/splash.htm Chris Barries' (Rimmer's) Website] Science fiction television series British television sitcoms BBC television programmes Red Dwarf Fictional spacecraft British television programmes
For an August 2004 discussion on what this page should be named see: Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Red Dwarf ---- Anyone able to import the illustration from the Swedish version? http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Red_Dwarf.jpg :Able, yes. Willing, no - I'd want to know more about the source of the image first. —User:Paul A 00:56, 16 Sep 2003 (UTC) ---- :''It is also interesting to note that the multi-ethnic cast of the British original (John-Jules is black, Charles mixed-race, and Barrie and Llewelyn white) was replaced by an entirely caucasian one for the American pilot'' It might be interesting if it were true. Hinton Battle (the Cat) wasn't caucasian last time I checked, though. —User:Paul A 00:56, 16 Sep 2003 (UTC) ::In the second version of the pilot, the Cat (this time a female one) was played by Caucasian Terry Farrell. User:Ausir 18:28, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC) ::In addition ISTR reading somewhere that Chris Barrie was invited to reprise his role, but refused, which was part of what prompted John-Jules' comment. I can't find the reference, though. ::BTW, ''The show followed essentially the same story as the original UK pilot, substituting American actors for the British; the one exception being Robert Llewellyn, who reprised his role as Kryten'' isn't entirely accurate either: the US Holly was the decidedly British (despite her accent in ''Fraiser'') Jane Leeves. User:Daibhid C 18:38, 11 Sept 2004 (UTC) ------ Why the hell isn't this at just Red Dwarf? The star type would ''never'' be capitalized. --User:Maveric149 :I agree - it should be moved back. --User:Mrwojo ::Well, there ''is'' ''Red Dwarf (movie)'', due out next year. User:RickK 02:22, 23 Sep 2003 (UTC) :::There's also Wikipedia:Disambiguation#Types of disambiguation. Even if Red Dwarf: The Movie proves to be worthy of a whole article to itself, which I doubt. —User:Paul A :Back to the original question: User:Cgs's explanation of his reasons for the current Red Dwarf disambiguation situation can be seen at User talk:Cgs. —User:Paul A ---- Weren't the books first, and the TV series based on the books? User:Dysprosia 16:14, 25 Oct 2003 (UTC) : No. The books were spin-offs. But we should make this clear in the article. -- User:Tarquin 22:55, 25 Oct 2003 (UTC) ---- ''Lister almost from the start planned to find the computer disk containing the holographic backup of his ex-girlfriend Kristine Kochanski'' when lister asks Holly why he didn't bring back Kochanski, he's told that his total conversation with her was 173 words, which makes the claim of her being the ex-girlfriend pretty unlikely. : This is one of Red Dwarf's frequent and rather blatant retcons. Originally, Lister was supposed to have lusted after Kochanski without ever having acted on it (see also the comment in Balance of Power when Lister's chef's exam is interrupted by Rimmer-in-Kochanski's-body: she looks down the front of her top and comments "I've seen something you haven't, squire"), but then Rob and Doug decided that Lister's attitude was slightly immature and amended the story to suggest they had a brief affair. See also how Red Dwarf's crew increases from 169 (The End) to 1,169 (Justice) and then to ten or eleven thousand-odd (Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers). User:Hig Hertenfleurst 11:31, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC) == Independant production == I could be wrong but wasn't Red Dwarf always an independant production from the very beggining?User:Saulisagenius :No, it definitely started life as an internal Beeb effort (BBC NorthWest, I ''think''). As the article notes, it doesn't make much practical difference, it just means that various bits of money get transferred back and forth between different branches of the Beeb and the independent company to not much effect (except that the BBC has some sort of requirement these days to source a certain fraction of its material from independent producers, so it helps in that regard). User:Bth 18:46, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC) :I've just watched the end credits for the first episode, and it doesn't have a PJP logo but the credits do say "developed for television by Paul Jackson Productions." User:Saulisagenius 00:23, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC) ::I ''think'' the important thing in this regard is the copyright notice; if I'm right, in series 1/2 it would be (c) BBC, series 3 (c) PJP and series 4 onwards (c) Grant Naylor productions. But my tapes are 200 miles away so I can't check immediately. The "developed for TV" credit is about who was responsible for getting it into the state that the Beeb could start making, and thus slightly different. --User:Bth 11:44, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC) :::I think the BBC would own the copyright to a any television programme that the commision whether it was an independant production or not, although i've just watched the end of a series 3 episode and its a bit ambigious. It has a PJP logo and says "A PAUL JACKSON PRODUCTION FOR BBC NORTH WEST" and says "(c)MCMLXXXIX" underneath. I'm not copyright is the main factor anyway, I would've thought the important difference is that an independant production is where the BBC paid an outside company to make a programme for them.User:Saulisagenius 15:06, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC) ==Parody Sources== I'd hoped to see some cross-references to the sci-fi film genres that were being parodied. Eg there is a very clear debt to 2001: A Space Odyssey, which apparently gets no mention. User:80.177.213.144 18:46, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC) == Page size and merges == Right now, this page is 37KB- soon to need some splitting. The most obvious split to me would be to move the episode guide to a separate page, say Red Dwarf episodes, but I'm not sure of the proper style/convention in this case. Furthermore, per VfD, Blue Midget (a substub) is to merge into the main Red Dwarf- There's also a Starbug and a Red Dwarf (spaceship) and even a :Category:Red Dwarf ships. Seems to me like a case of several small articles that should go into a single Red Dwarf vehicles or Red Dwarf craft article to keep everything tidy. Thoughts, opinions on these two points? --User:Rossumcapek 18:09, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC) I'd suggest a maiximum of 3 pages, one for the main article, one for the episedes and maybe a third with characters, ships etc.? The category seems redundant for such a small number of ships. User:Damieng 18:51, Sep 18, 2004 (UTC) : Seems like a good idea to me. User:Hig Hertenfleurst 19:05, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC) ::Good to know it's more than just me- I agree that the :Category:Red Dwarf ships is overkill. Unless there's any objections, in the next few days I'll move the (wonderfully complete) episodes to Red Dwarf episode guide. I'm also wondering the best way to collect the rest of the information. Should all of the universe details be on a single page? Perhaps three separate People, Places, and Things articles? I'm not exactly thrilled with that suggestion, though. Should check to see how Star Wars and Star Trek handle their fictions universes... --User:Rossumcapek 16:40, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC) Star Wars has a List_of_vehicles_in_Star_Wars and List_of_Star_Wars_places. Star Trek has a List_of_Star_Trek_characters. --User:Rossumcapek 15:52, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC) == Esperanto in Red Dwarf? == I just read a claim on the Esperanto article that ''Red Dwarf'' portrays a future in which Esperanto is widely used, and signs can be seen in both English and Esperanto. I don't recall ever seeing any such signs. Is this true, and my memory is failing, or have the Esperantist been getting a bit overexcited here? User:PaulHammond 06:24, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC) : It's true. The signs in the lifts are in English and Esperanto, and there is an episode (series 2 I think) where Rimmer is desperately trying to learn Esperanto and failing dismally. -- User:Tarquin 10:29, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC) :: The episode in question is "Kryten". ("Please could you direct me to a four-star hotel?") The ship's original interior design was far more obviously bilingual in series 1 and series 2: all the corridor signs read "LEVEL/NIVELO" in big letters. The idea rather got lost when Mel Bibby came in for series 3. User:Hig Hertenfleurst 17:34, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC) == Nova 5 == Wasn't the "Coke is Life" a gag from one of the novels? I don't recall this ever being shown. --User:Sdfisher 19:04, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC) :Yeah, I don't either. It should probably be removed. --brian0918">User:Brian0918™">User talk:Brian0918 19:17, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC) ::"Coke adds life" was the advertising message the crew of the Nova 5 were attempting to write in supernovas in the first book.--User:128.243.220.21 15:54, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC) :::Okay, so what about the soapy water thing? Wasn't that from the novel too? --User:Sdfisher 18:42, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC) ::::As far as I remember, the only thing that was mentioned on TV was that the ship crashed. User:Hig Hertenfleurst 21:18, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC) :::::It was mentioned that Kryten killed the crew, though I'm not sure if they ever mentioned how. --brian0918">User:Brian0918™">User talk:Brian0918 21:37, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC) ::::::Bah. Time to do some "original research." /me grabs DVD :) --User:Sdfisher 05:07, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC) ::::::Actually, the script can be found here: http://www.reddwarf.nildram.co.uk/txt/kryten.txt There's no mention of soapy water or Kryten killing the crew. So can we please pull that section? --User:Sdfisher 05:10, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC) :::::::It's discussed in Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, the first book; Kryten shorted out all the computer systems with his obsessive cleaning. User:Kinitawowi 09:58, Mar 4, 2005 (UTC) ::::::::Yes, but it's not from the TV series, which is clearly the main focus of the article. If anything, the "Kryten cleaned the computer" angle should only be mentioned as an element of continuity the books chose to expand on or change outright. If the books ever get their own article(s), that would be the place for it (or it could even be mentioned in the spin-offs section as an example of one of the continuity elements that were revised or expanded on). User:Hig Hertenfleurst 15:38, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC) :::::::::In the TV series, either 7th or 8th series, Lister says that Kryten killed his whole crew. -- 15:41, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC) KRYTEN Yes you are! I'm gong to end up on my own again, just like I did on the Nova 5! LISTER You killed the crew, Kryten! No wonder you ended up on your own! All right, it was an accident, but nevertheless... ::::::::::(from 7.3: Ouroboros) - User:Kinitawowi 14:49, Mar 5, 2005 (UTC) ::::::::::: Okay, so we mention that Kryten caused the accident. It's still never been stated on TV that Kryten cleaned the computer, and therefore the reference to cleaning the computer has no place in the article. User:Hig Hertenfleurst 18:24, 5 Mar 2005 (UTC) :::::::::::: I prefer your previous suggestion (mentioning it as something expanded on in the books); like it or not, Red Dwarf is a series of books as well as a TV show, and while there are whole websites dedicated to the inconsistencies between them, I'd suggest that it's negligent to disregard the books in this article. User:Kinitawowi 15:00, Mar 6, 2005 (UTC) ::::::::::::: Well, usually I'd say stick with the series. But since part of the info is in the series and part in the books, I'm making this change as you suggest. --User:Sdfisher 18:40, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC) == Picture of Red Dwarf == I notice that the picture used for the Red Dwarf is of the Mark 2 (or nanobot built if you prefer) version. Is it possible to post a picture of the original version of the ship or should it be noted that this is version 2? I thought that I would let more veteran wikipedia-Red Dwarf fans decide about this because I know that this is a nitpicker kind of thing and, being new to wikipedia, I didn't want to mess with an otherwise very well done article about this fun show.User:MarnetteD | User_talk:MarnetteD 20:21, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC) : It's a very good point. I've added a note to the image to clarify that it's the CGI ship rather than the physical model. User:Hig Hertenfleurst 22:04, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC) == Series 7 criticism == I removed the following from the Scenario section: : It is to note also, that series 7, was very poor, especially after the loss of Rimmer, the charcter who induced the single most amount of humour, due to his inability to get on with the rest of the crew, and another reason for the downturn could be the fact that one of the co-creators, Rob Grant, left, leaving only Doug Naylor behind, and as a mix of these 2 things, series 7 was, appauling, and series 8 was okay, but certainly not as good as the frist 6 Aside from being a single run-on sentence (which is fixable), it's clearly not NPOV. It seems like there are some useful ideas about why series 7 was allegedly worse than the others (personally, I recall liking series 7), but they could be presented more objectively. Is it a generally-held sentiment among Red Dwarf fans that series 7 was a disappointment? I'm not really in a position to judge the accuracy or popularity of the underlying criticism, so I don't know how to go about correcting this. --User:Damien Prystay 22:37, May 22, 2005 (UTC) :I liked series 7 a lot (and even series 8, how can you not like the specially-long salute for extra-special occasions?), but I do get the impression that the various points at which people started to dislike the show are end of 1, end of 2, end of 4, and mainly end of 6, and the general perception I've got from other Red Dwarf fans is that the show instantly turned to shit when Rimmer went off to be Ace. As far as I'm concerned, it wasn't as good, but there was still some really good stuff in there. :The reasons that should be mentioned if this goes back into the article: departure of Chris Barrie, but more important (because Barrie soon came back) would be Rob Grant leaving, never to return: 7 and 8 were written by Doug Naylor with Paul Alexander and a few other writers, including Robert Llewellyn on one occasion. == the first book == If i recall correctly, it was not meant to be called "Infinity Welcome Careful Drivers" - for example, it is not written on the spine or title page. The book is just titled "Red Dwarf" there. However, it is on the cover, and the book is popularly known by this name. User:Morwen - User_talk:Morwen 19:56, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Science fiction television series Fictional universes
:''This article is about red dwarfs, the type of star. Red Dwarf is also the name of a British television series.'' According to the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, a red dwarf star is a small and relatively temperature star, of the main sequence, either late K or M spectral type. They comprise the vast majority of stars and have a diameter and mass of less than one-third that of the Sun (down to 0.08 solar masses, which are brown dwarfs) and a surface temperature of less than 3,500 kelvin. They emit little light, sometimes as little as 1/10,000th that of the sun. Due to the slow rate at which they burn hydrogen, red dwarfs have an enormous estimated lifespan; estimates range from tens of billions up to trillions of years. Red dwarfs never initiate helium nuclear fusion and so cannot become red giants; the stars slowly contract and heat up until all the hydrogen is consumed. In any event, there has not been sufficient time since the Big Bang for red dwarfs to evolve off the main sequence. The fact that red dwarfs remain on the main sequence while older stars have moved off the main sequence allows one to date star clusters by finding the mass at which the stars turn off the main sequence. In addition, the fact that no red dwarfs have evolved off the main sequence have been observed is evidence that the universe has a finite age. One mystery which has not been solved as of 2004 is the lack of red dwarf stars with no metals (in astronomy a metal is any element other than hydrogen and helium). The Big Bang model predicts the first generation of stars should have only hydrogen, helium, and lithium. If such stars included red dwarfs, they should still be observable today, but are not. The conventional explanation is that without heavy elements, low mass stars cannot form and the first stars were extremely high mass population III stars which died quickly and produced the metals necessary for low mass stars to form later. Red dwarf stars are believed to be the most common star type in the universe. Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun is a red dwarf, (Type M5, magnitude 11.0) as are twenty of the next thirty nearest. However, due to their low luminosity, few are known. ==See also== * Cataclysmic variable star * Hertzsprung-Russell diagram * Red giant * Yerkes luminosity classification * Stellar evolution * White dwarf * Brown dwarf * Nemesis (star) Red dwarfs Stellar phenomena Stars
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Red_dwarf:
Red_Dwarf
Red_Dwarf
Red_Dwarf
Red_dwarf
Red_dwarf
Red_dwarfs
Red_dwarfs
Red_Dwarf_(spaceship)
Red_Dwarf_(spaceship)
Red_Dwarf_(television)
Red_Dwarf_(television)
Red_Dwarf_(television_show)
Red_Dwarf_(television_show)
Red_Dwarf_(TV_series)
Red_Dwarf_(TV_series)
Red_Dwarf_characters
Red_Dwarf_characters
Red_Dwarf_characters
Red_Dwarf_episode_guide
Red_Dwarf_episode_guide
Red_Dwarf_Remastered
Red_Dwarf_Remastered
Red_dwarf_star
Red Dwarf
:''This article describes the British science fiction comedy television series. For the type of star, see red dwarf.'' {| style="float: right" |- | |- |Avatar_(virtual_reality).">Image:RedDwarfCast.jpg|thumb|300px|The cast of Red Dwarf as of Season 3. In the foreground from left to right: Cat, Lister, and Rimmer. In the background is Kryten, and on the monitor is Holly's Avatar (virtual reality). |} ''Red Dwarf'' is a United Kingdom science fiction British comedy, created and originally written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. It tells the story of Dave Lister, the last human being alive, and takes place on a space ship 3 million years in the future. A pastiche of science fiction in general, Red Dwarf is first and foremost an The Odd Couple type situation comedy. ==Scenario== In the show, the ''Red Dwarf (spaceship)'' is a gigantic spaceship belonging to Jupiter Mining Corporation. An on-board radiation disaster kills everyone except for ''Red Dwarf characters#David_Lister'', who was in suspended animation at the time. Three million years later, Lister emerges from stasis as the last human being alive. Lister is the slob anti-hero with a marked Scouse accent and a craving for Indian food, such as vindaloo curry and shami kebabs, all of which are in plentiful supply on board the ship. He also enjoys a type of music called "Rastabilly Skank," playing the guitar, and singing -- much to the detriment of those around him. His primary desire is to return to Earth. Lister endures a Holography simulation of a deceased crew member ''Red Dwarf characters#Arnold_Rimmer.'' Rimmer, Lister's room-mate before the disaster, is a smug, self-centered, status-obsessed, occasionally neurotic, guilt-ridden loser, loathed by everybody on board. Despite twelve years aboard the ship and an overriding ambition to become an officer, Rimmer remains a chickensoup-machine repairman, the lowest job aboard the ship. It was he who actually caused the radioactive disaster by poorly repairing a drive plate on the power core, though he claims he would have been able to do a better job if Lister hadn't been imprisoned in stasis. The facility for simulating dead crew members is so resource-intensive that only one such simulation can be maintained at a time. It is therefore reserved for high-ranking and/or essential personnel, but the ship's computer explains in an early episode that it believes Rimmer's company to be essential to Lister's mental health. Lister expresses incredulity, but later implicitly admits that the computer was right, telling another character, Kryten the mechanoid, that "driving Rimmer nuts is what keeps me going". As the series progresses, Rimmer acquires a tangible physical form for brief periods of time due to various astronomical phenomena, and eventually acquires a "hard-light drive", giving him an effectively real -- albeit indestructible -- physical presence. In later episodes, Rimmer is also manifested as the superheroic character, Red Dwarf characters#Ace Rimmer, who hails from an alternate Universe where a pivotal humiliation led Rimmer to develop into a James Bond-like persona. Also accompanying Lister on his voyage back to Earth is ''The Cat (Red Dwarf)''. ''The Cat'' is a member of the species ''Felis sapiens'', evolved from a domestic cat which Lister had smuggled aboard three million years prior, for which crime Lister was imprisoned in stasis. The Cat appears as a typical biped humanoid with slightly elongated canine teeth; he retains a cat-like interest in fish and females, a heightened sense of smell, unbridled vanity, and cat-like obsession towards grooming and appearance. He also has six nipples. The other principal character is ''Red Dwarf characters#Holly'', the ship's computer with a supposed IQ of 6000 (visible as a disembodied head on the screens dotted around the ship). Holly runs most of the ship's systems despite now suffering from computer senility. Among Holly's systems are the service droids known as ''Red Dwarf characters#The_Skutterss'' that clean, perform engineering tasks and function as Rimmer's hands since he initially cannot touch anything non-holographic. The crew are also joined by the service mechanoid ''Red Dwarf characters#Kryten'' whom Lister encourages to break his altruistic programming to lie, cheat, and steal in an effort to become more human. Kryten at one time did in fact break his programming, "borrowed" Lister's space-bike and left the ship. He was found smashed against an astroid some light-years away, and was rebuilt with a new personality. Lister's longlasting crush is ''Red Dwarf characters#Kristine Kochanski'', played by Clare Grogan (formerly of 80's 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 various TV series and book incarnations, Lister has either admired Kochanski from afar or dated her for over a month. The discontinuity is never touched upon. In the seventh season, an alternative Kochanski from a parallel universe (played by Chloë Annett) joined the series as a regular character. One interesting aspect of the ''Red Dwarf'' universe is that there are no sentient aliens, although there is a large and bizarre mix of intelligent life within the ''Red Dwarf'' universe. All of these organisms, however, are 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 currently in pre-production. 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 Paul Alexander. Series I and II were BBC productions, series III was made by Paul Jackson Productions, and all subsequent series were made by Grant Naylor Productions. In practice these changes were only cosmetic; all eight series were made for and by the BBC. At the beginning of series IV production moved from the BBC's Manchester studios to Shepperton Studios. The theme tune, incidental music and chart hit 'Tongue Tied' was written by Howard Goodall. A period of four years elapsed between Series VI and VII. The show was apparently not expected to last beyond five series, indicated by the closure of major plot elements and continuity during the first two series. However, Grant and Naylor were contractually obliged to make eight series for the BBC. When the series returned, it was filmizing and no longer in front of a live audience. Although critics praised the higher production values for Series VII, 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 VI and VIII), the first three series of Red Dwarf were remastered. The remastering included reformatting the series in widescreen, applying film grain techniques and more critically replaced model shots with computer graphics, cut small pieces of dialog and changed music and sound effects. Red Dwarf Remastered was met with a generally poor fan reaction, no further series were remastered and the later DVD release reverted to the original versions. ==Episode list== See List of Red Dwarf episodes. ==Characters and actors== :''Main article: Red Dwarf characters'' ===Regular cast=== *Red Dwarf characters#David_Lister (played by Craig Charles) also known for Robot Wars. *Red Dwarf characters#Arnold_Rimmer (played by Chris Barrie) also known for The Brittas Empire and numerous voices on Spitting Image. *Red Dwarf characters#The_Cat (played by Danny John-Jules) who has appeared in Lock, Stock and two smoking barrels and Blade 2. *Red Dwarf characters#Holly (played by Norman Lovett in series 1, 2, 7 and 8, and by Hattie Hayridge in series 3, 4 and 5) also known in "Lexx" playing "Sub-Warden Heidi" in episode: "P4X" (episode # 4.3) *Red Dwarf characters#Kryten (played by David Ross in his first appearance in series 2, and then by Robert Llewellyn in series 3 through 8) also known for Scrapheap Challenge (AKA Junkyard Wars in the USA) *Red Dwarf characters#Kristine_Kochanski (played by Clare Grogan in series 1, 2 and 6 then by Chloë Annett in series 7 and 8) Claire Grogan was the lead singer of Altered Images in the 1980's. Chloë Annett is also known for Crime Traveller. ===Semi-regular characters in series 8=== *Red Dwarf characters#Captain_Frank_Hollister (played by Mac McDonald) (also made guest appearance in two episodes in Series 1 and one episode of Series 2) *Red Dwarf characters#Warden_Ackerman (played by Graham McTavish) ===Recurring guest characters=== *Red Dwarf characters#Olaf_Petersen (played by Mark Williams (actor)) appeared in three episodes and is mentioned regularly when Lister talks about the days before the accident. *Red Dwarf characters#Selby_and_Chen (played by David Gillespie and Paul Bradley, respectively) appeared in three episodes altogether. *Frank Todhunter (played by Robert Bathurst) only appeared in the first episode but was regularly mentioned in following episodes. *George McIntyre, a Welsh officer, appeared once in the first episode as a hologram at his own "Welcome Back Reception". *Red Dwarf characters#Kill_Crazy (played by Jake Wood) appeared in four episodes. *Baxter (played by Ricky Grover) appeared in the last three episodes of the series. ===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== ===Red Dwarf=== The spaceship ''Red Dwarf'' is an enormous (five miles long, according to the novels) mining vessel owned by the Jupiter Mining Corporation and commanded by Captain Red Dwarf characters#Captain Frank Hollister. All of Red Dwarf's systems are controlled by the computer Red Dwarf characters#Holly. Red Dwarf has a large complement of shuttles, including #Starbugs, #Blue Midgets. Also mentioned but never seen is White Midget (See #Starbug). It is powered by a Bussard ramjet and can, theoretically, keep going forever. It has so far been travelling for roughly 3,000,000 years. The ship has enough food and drink to last 30,000 years (although they've run out of cow's milk, Shake 'N' Vac and have just one After Eight mint left, which everyone is too polite to take). The crew size was repeatedly stated in the first series to be 169, but the number grew with time: in the Series 4 episode "Justice" it was said to have been 1,169, and in the books the figure is given as 11,169. In the programme, however, these continuity errors are more or less ignored and are usually regarded as unimportant by the majority of the show's fanbase. Red Dwarf itself was the main setting for the first five seasons of the programme, but was apparently lost for 200 years before the first episode of Season Six. It was later discovered that a collective of rogue nanobots which formed the mechanoid Red Dwarf characters#Kryten's auto-repair system dismantled Red Dwarf and created their own nano-version of the ship. The crew chased this nano-version of the ship in #Starbug 1 and eventually convinced the nanobots to rebuild the ship. As a joke, the nanobots revived the dead crew as well, causing some disorientation among the formerly dead denizens of the reconstructed Red Dwarf. The rebuilt ship was based on the original specifications, meaning it was even larger than the Red Dwarf of the first five seasons, with a quark-level matter/anti-matter generator and a karaoke bar (this was at least partly meant as justification for new sets and a new CGI model of the ship's exterior). The ship was again destroyed by a corrosive chemical but all of the crew (bar Red Dwarf characters#Arnold Rimmer) managed to escape in the Starbugs and Blue Midgets. Notable areas of the ship include: *Rimmer and Red Dwarf characters#David_Lister's original sleeping quarters - The main setting for the first two seasons. A grey room with bunk beds built into the wall, a table, two lockers, a sink with a mirror that also acts as a computer screen and a voice activated toilet. It made a reappearance in the first episode of Series Eight. *Rimmer and Lister's second sleeping quarters - In season three, they relocated to a room in the unused Officer's Block; substantially larger, with a cream colour scheme and en suite shower as well as classier versions of much of the apparatus from their original quarters. *The Drive Room - The control centre of the ship, where Red Dwarf characters#Kristine Kochanski used to work as well as the other top officers and ship's captain. Also contains the Navicomp, the ship's navigational computer, and several computer monitors which Holly used to project his image and communicate with the crew. *The Science Room - This became the crew's main area of conducting technical business such as mind swaps and consultations with Holly, the ship's computer, in Series 3 to 5. *The cargo bay - The area of the ship where the fleets of Starbugs and Blue Midgets were stored and from where these ships launched and landed. *White Corridor 159 - The initial site of the accident that wiped out the crew. *Parrot's Bar - A wine bar on G Deck, apparently named purely for a ''Casablanca (movie)'' gag. ("We'll always have Parrot's.") *The Tank - A two-hundred cell prison on the top-secret Floor Thirteen. Contained four hundred hardened criminals on their way to a penal colony on Adelphi 12. And, in season 8, the main cast. ===Blue Midget=== {| style="float: right" |- | |- | |- | |- | |} ''Blue Midget'' is a type of shuttle. The craft was used mainly in series 2 before being replaced by #Starbug. In series 8 Blue Midget was redesigned to resemble a bubble car, with retractable legs for take-off and landing (also enabling them to dance). ===Starbug=== The JMC transport vehicle ''Starbug'' is a small shuttle craft. It is green in colour and has three bulbous sections; the cockpit, mid-section and engine rooms. Starbug is featured from the third series of Red Dwarf, replacing #Blue Midget as the crew's primary choice of shuttle and became the show's primary craft in series 6 and 7. Series 6 began a full 200 years after the final episodes of season 5 during which time only Kryten was "conscious". During this period it is presumed that Kryten remodelled Starbug for the crews needs. Starbug became much larger and gained sleeping quarters, an engine deck, an artificial reality suite and a hangar bay in the process. Since series 6, Starbug has been armed with laser cannons. It originally seemed as though there were only 2 Starbugs on Red Dwarf, aptly titled Starbug 1 and Starbug 2. Starbug 1 was the one that featured the most, with Starbug 2 only appearing once in series 3 and once in series 5. Throughout seasons three to six, Starbug 1 has crashed many times and always seemed to be fully repaired by the next episode. In series 8 it was revealed that there was an entire fleet of Starbugs (and Blue Midgets) stored on Red Dwarf. According to the cast commentary on the Red Dwarf DVD's, Starbug was originally named White Midget. ===Wildfire=== Red Dwarf characters#Ace Rimmer ship, ''Wildfire'', appears in "Dimension Jump" and "Stoke Me A Clipper". Its purpose as part of Ace's mission is to explore alternative realities. Upon Ace Rimmer's return in "Stoke Me A Clipper", the ship is given to the next generation of Ace. ===Nova 5=== The wreck of the ''Nova 5'' was discovered in the second series episode "Kryten." The series 4000 mechanoid Red Dwarf characters#Kryten was still servicing his long-dead crew when encountered by the members of the ''Red Dwarf''. In the seventh series episode "Ouroboros," it was revealed that Kryten was responsible for the accident that killed the ship's crew. A reason has not been given in the series, but ''Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'' explains that the crash was caused by Kryten cleaning the computer with soapy water. ==US version== A television pilot for an United States version was produced for NBC in 1992, though never broadcast. The show followed essentially the same story as the original UK pilot, substituting American actors (including Craig Bierko as Lister, Chris Eigeman as Rimmer, Hinton Battle as the Cat and Jane Leeves as Holly) for the British; the one exception being Robert Llewellyn, who reprised his role as Kryten. The pilot was unsuccessful. A later pilot consisting of scenes from the first pilot edited in with new footage (and featuring Terry Farrell (actress) as a female Cat) was also unsuccessful. However, the comparison between the UK and US shows is interesting: the anti-hero, slobby pantheist 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!" It is also interesting to note that the multi-ethnic cast of the British original (John-Jules is black, Charles bi-racial, and Barrie and Llewelyn white) was replaced by an entirely Caucasian one for the second US pilot (the first pilot still had a black Cat), leading John-Jules and Charles to dub it 'White Dwarf'. ==Spin-offs== The franchise has expanded to include four novels, written by the show's creators, Doug Naylor and Rob Grant. * ''Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'' - Grant Naylor - ISBN 0-45-145201-1 * ''Better Than Life'' - Grant Naylor - ISBN 0-14-012438-1 * ''Last Human'' - Doug Naylor - ISBN 0-14-014388-2 * ''Backwards'' - Rob Grant - ISBN 0-14-017150-9 ''Last Human'' and ''Backwards'' are both (different) sequels to ''Better Than Life'', and are not consistent with each other. 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. 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, only a planned Top Of The Pops performance did not come to happen, 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. Unfortunately it has been over a year since any news has been heard regarding the movie. ==Invented words== Red Dwarf is famous for using the word "smeg" in order to remove Profanity from the show and to add to a futuristic terminology. Some examples of the word in context are "smegger", "smeghead", "smeg off", "smeg-for-brains", and "smegging hell". The character of Rimmer tells a vending machine in one episode to "''...smeg off, you smeggy smegging smegger!''" 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". The idea of an List of fictional curse words was borrowed from the BBC sitcom ''Porridge (TV)'', which brought the word "naff" into popular usage. There are other terminologies invented by Red Dwarf that are not as well-known as "smeg". Given the sarcastic and argumentative nature of the show's plotlines, many of these other new words are derogatory designations including "goit" (one who is annoying or awkward — perhaps adapted from the word "git" and "oik") and "gimboid" (one who is stupid or clumsy — similar in meaning to "moron", and possibly an adaptation of the word "gimp"). The currency in use at the time ''Red Dwarf'' left the Solar System was apparently the "dollarpound", divided into one hundred "pennycents". In one episode, Cat uses the word 'Jozxyqk' in a Scrabble game, claiming it to be a cat word meaning "the sound you get when you get your sexual organs trapped in something". A class of beings that makes recurring appearances in the programme are GELFs, an acronym for Genetically Engineered Life Forms. 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 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". 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' 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 Violoncello. ==See also== *British sitcom *Red Dwarf characters *Britain's Best Sitcom ==External links== *[http://www.faqs.org/faqs/tv/red-dwarf/faq/ ''Red Dwarf'' FAQ] *[http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/ ''Red Dwarf'' site] *[http://uk.imdb.com/Title?0276447 Entry for ''Red Dwarf: The Movie''] in the Internet Movie Database *[http://www.reddwarffanclub.com/ ''Red Dwarf'' Fan Club] *[http://www.sitcom.co.uk/red_dwarf/ British Sitcom Guide] * The [http://www.crazyabouttv.com/reddwarf.html ''Red Dwarf TV Show''] page at Crazy About TV features trivia, a plot summary, cast list, and episode titles for the series. Cast Links *[http://www.normanlovett.co.uk/norman.htm Norman Lovett's (Holly's) Website] *[http://www.llew.co.uk/ Robert Lewellyn's (Kryten's) Website] *[http://www.craigcharles.co.uk/ Craig Charles'(Lister's) Website] *[http://www.chrisbarrie.co.uk/splash.htm Chris Barries' (Rimmer's) Website] Science fiction television series British television sitcoms BBC television programmes Red Dwarf Fictional spacecraft British television programmes
Red Dwarf
For an August 2004 discussion on what this page should be named see: Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Red Dwarf ---- Anyone able to import the illustration from the Swedish version? http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Red_Dwarf.jpg :Able, yes. Willing, no - I'd want to know more about the source of the image first. —User:Paul A 00:56, 16 Sep 2003 (UTC) ---- :''It is also interesting to note that the multi-ethnic cast of the British original (John-Jules is black, Charles mixed-race, and Barrie and Llewelyn white) was replaced by an entirely caucasian one for the American pilot'' It might be interesting if it were true. Hinton Battle (the Cat) wasn't caucasian last time I checked, though. —User:Paul A 00:56, 16 Sep 2003 (UTC) ::In the second version of the pilot, the Cat (this time a female one) was played by Caucasian Terry Farrell. User:Ausir 18:28, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC) ::In addition ISTR reading somewhere that Chris Barrie was invited to reprise his role, but refused, which was part of what prompted John-Jules' comment. I can't find the reference, though. ::BTW, ''The show followed essentially the same story as the original UK pilot, substituting American actors for the British; the one exception being Robert Llewellyn, who reprised his role as Kryten'' isn't entirely accurate either: the US Holly was the decidedly British (despite her accent in ''Fraiser'') Jane Leeves. User:Daibhid C 18:38, 11 Sept 2004 (UTC) ------ Why the hell isn't this at just Red Dwarf? The star type would ''never'' be capitalized. --User:Maveric149 :I agree - it should be moved back. --User:Mrwojo ::Well, there ''is'' ''Red Dwarf (movie)'', due out next year. User:RickK 02:22, 23 Sep 2003 (UTC) :::There's also Wikipedia:Disambiguation#Types of disambiguation. Even if Red Dwarf: The Movie proves to be worthy of a whole article to itself, which I doubt. —User:Paul A :Back to the original question: User:Cgs's explanation of his reasons for the current Red Dwarf disambiguation situation can be seen at User talk:Cgs. —User:Paul A ---- Weren't the books first, and the TV series based on the books? User:Dysprosia 16:14, 25 Oct 2003 (UTC) : No. The books were spin-offs. But we should make this clear in the article. -- User:Tarquin 22:55, 25 Oct 2003 (UTC) ---- ''Lister almost from the start planned to find the computer disk containing the holographic backup of his ex-girlfriend Kristine Kochanski'' when lister asks Holly why he didn't bring back Kochanski, he's told that his total conversation with her was 173 words, which makes the claim of her being the ex-girlfriend pretty unlikely. : This is one of Red Dwarf's frequent and rather blatant retcons. Originally, Lister was supposed to have lusted after Kochanski without ever having acted on it (see also the comment in Balance of Power when Lister's chef's exam is interrupted by Rimmer-in-Kochanski's-body: she looks down the front of her top and comments "I've seen something you haven't, squire"), but then Rob and Doug decided that Lister's attitude was slightly immature and amended the story to suggest they had a brief affair. See also how Red Dwarf's crew increases from 169 (The End) to 1,169 (Justice) and then to ten or eleven thousand-odd (Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers). User:Hig Hertenfleurst 11:31, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC) == Independant production == I could be wrong but wasn't Red Dwarf always an independant production from the very beggining?User:Saulisagenius :No, it definitely started life as an internal Beeb effort (BBC NorthWest, I ''think''). As the article notes, it doesn't make much practical difference, it just means that various bits of money get transferred back and forth between different branches of the Beeb and the independent company to not much effect (except that the BBC has some sort of requirement these days to source a certain fraction of its material from independent producers, so it helps in that regard). User:Bth 18:46, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC) :I've just watched the end credits for the first episode, and it doesn't have a PJP logo but the credits do say "developed for television by Paul Jackson Productions." User:Saulisagenius 00:23, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC) ::I ''think'' the important thing in this regard is the copyright notice; if I'm right, in series 1/2 it would be (c) BBC, series 3 (c) PJP and series 4 onwards (c) Grant Naylor productions. But my tapes are 200 miles away so I can't check immediately. The "developed for TV" credit is about who was responsible for getting it into the state that the Beeb could start making, and thus slightly different. --User:Bth 11:44, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC) :::I think the BBC would own the copyright to a any television programme that the commision whether it was an independant production or not, although i've just watched the end of a series 3 episode and its a bit ambigious. It has a PJP logo and says "A PAUL JACKSON PRODUCTION FOR BBC NORTH WEST" and says "(c)MCMLXXXIX" underneath. I'm not copyright is the main factor anyway, I would've thought the important difference is that an independant production is where the BBC paid an outside company to make a programme for them.User:Saulisagenius 15:06, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC) ==Parody Sources== I'd hoped to see some cross-references to the sci-fi film genres that were being parodied. Eg there is a very clear debt to 2001: A Space Odyssey, which apparently gets no mention. User:80.177.213.144 18:46, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC) == Page size and merges == Right now, this page is 37KB- soon to need some splitting. The most obvious split to me would be to move the episode guide to a separate page, say Red Dwarf episodes, but I'm not sure of the proper style/convention in this case. Furthermore, per VfD, Blue Midget (a substub) is to merge into the main Red Dwarf- There's also a Starbug and a Red Dwarf (spaceship) and even a :Category:Red Dwarf ships. Seems to me like a case of several small articles that should go into a single Red Dwarf vehicles or Red Dwarf craft article to keep everything tidy. Thoughts, opinions on these two points? --User:Rossumcapek 18:09, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC) I'd suggest a maiximum of 3 pages, one for the main article, one for the episedes and maybe a third with characters, ships etc.? The category seems redundant for such a small number of ships. User:Damieng 18:51, Sep 18, 2004 (UTC) : Seems like a good idea to me. User:Hig Hertenfleurst 19:05, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC) ::Good to know it's more than just me- I agree that the :Category:Red Dwarf ships is overkill. Unless there's any objections, in the next few days I'll move the (wonderfully complete) episodes to Red Dwarf episode guide. I'm also wondering the best way to collect the rest of the information. Should all of the universe details be on a single page? Perhaps three separate People, Places, and Things articles? I'm not exactly thrilled with that suggestion, though. Should check to see how Star Wars and Star Trek handle their fictions universes... --User:Rossumcapek 16:40, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC) Star Wars has a List_of_vehicles_in_Star_Wars and List_of_Star_Wars_places. Star Trek has a List_of_Star_Trek_characters. --User:Rossumcapek 15:52, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC) == Esperanto in Red Dwarf? == I just read a claim on the Esperanto article that ''Red Dwarf'' portrays a future in which Esperanto is widely used, and signs can be seen in both English and Esperanto. I don't recall ever seeing any such signs. Is this true, and my memory is failing, or have the Esperantist been getting a bit overexcited here? User:PaulHammond 06:24, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC) : It's true. The signs in the lifts are in English and Esperanto, and there is an episode (series 2 I think) where Rimmer is desperately trying to learn Esperanto and failing dismally. -- User:Tarquin 10:29, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC) :: The episode in question is "Kryten". ("Please could you direct me to a four-star hotel?") The ship's original interior design was far more obviously bilingual in series 1 and series 2: all the corridor signs read "LEVEL/NIVELO" in big letters. The idea rather got lost when Mel Bibby came in for series 3. User:Hig Hertenfleurst 17:34, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC) == Nova 5 == Wasn't the "Coke is Life" a gag from one of the novels? I don't recall this ever being shown. --User:Sdfisher 19:04, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC) :Yeah, I don't either. It should probably be removed. --brian0918">User:Brian0918™">User talk:Brian0918 19:17, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC) ::"Coke adds life" was the advertising message the crew of the Nova 5 were attempting to write in supernovas in the first book.--User:128.243.220.21 15:54, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC) :::Okay, so what about the soapy water thing? Wasn't that from the novel too? --User:Sdfisher 18:42, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC) ::::As far as I remember, the only thing that was mentioned on TV was that the ship crashed. User:Hig Hertenfleurst 21:18, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC) :::::It was mentioned that Kryten killed the crew, though I'm not sure if they ever mentioned how. --brian0918">User:Brian0918™">User talk:Brian0918 21:37, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC) ::::::Bah. Time to do some "original research." /me grabs DVD :) --User:Sdfisher 05:07, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC) ::::::Actually, the script can be found here: http://www.reddwarf.nildram.co.uk/txt/kryten.txt There's no mention of soapy water or Kryten killing the crew. So can we please pull that section? --User:Sdfisher 05:10, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC) :::::::It's discussed in Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, the first book; Kryten shorted out all the computer systems with his obsessive cleaning. User:Kinitawowi 09:58, Mar 4, 2005 (UTC) ::::::::Yes, but it's not from the TV series, which is clearly the main focus of the article. If anything, the "Kryten cleaned the computer" angle should only be mentioned as an element of continuity the books chose to expand on or change outright. If the books ever get their own article(s), that would be the place for it (or it could even be mentioned in the spin-offs section as an example of one of the continuity elements that were revised or expanded on). User:Hig Hertenfleurst 15:38, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC) :::::::::In the TV series, either 7th or 8th series, Lister says that Kryten killed his whole crew. -- 15:41, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC) KRYTEN Yes you are! I'm gong to end up on my own again, just like I did on the Nova 5! LISTER You killed the crew, Kryten! No wonder you ended up on your own! All right, it was an accident, but nevertheless... ::::::::::(from 7.3: Ouroboros) - User:Kinitawowi 14:49, Mar 5, 2005 (UTC) ::::::::::: Okay, so we mention that Kryten caused the accident. It's still never been stated on TV that Kryten cleaned the computer, and therefore the reference to cleaning the computer has no place in the article. User:Hig Hertenfleurst 18:24, 5 Mar 2005 (UTC) :::::::::::: I prefer your previous suggestion (mentioning it as something expanded on in the books); like it or not, Red Dwarf is a series of books as well as a TV show, and while there are whole websites dedicated to the inconsistencies between them, I'd suggest that it's negligent to disregard the books in this article. User:Kinitawowi 15:00, Mar 6, 2005 (UTC) ::::::::::::: Well, usually I'd say stick with the series. But since part of the info is in the series and part in the books, I'm making this change as you suggest. --User:Sdfisher 18:40, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC) == Picture of Red Dwarf == I notice that the picture used for the Red Dwarf is of the Mark 2 (or nanobot built if you prefer) version. Is it possible to post a picture of the original version of the ship or should it be noted that this is version 2? I thought that I would let more veteran wikipedia-Red Dwarf fans decide about this because I know that this is a nitpicker kind of thing and, being new to wikipedia, I didn't want to mess with an otherwise very well done article about this fun show.User:MarnetteD | User_talk:MarnetteD 20:21, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC) : It's a very good point. I've added a note to the image to clarify that it's the CGI ship rather than the physical model. User:Hig Hertenfleurst 22:04, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC) == Series 7 criticism == I removed the following from the Scenario section: : It is to note also, that series 7, was very poor, especially after the loss of Rimmer, the charcter who induced the single most amount of humour, due to his inability to get on with the rest of the crew, and another reason for the downturn could be the fact that one of the co-creators, Rob Grant, left, leaving only Doug Naylor behind, and as a mix of these 2 things, series 7 was, appauling, and series 8 was okay, but certainly not as good as the frist 6 Aside from being a single run-on sentence (which is fixable), it's clearly not NPOV. It seems like there are some useful ideas about why series 7 was allegedly worse than the others (personally, I recall liking series 7), but they could be presented more objectively. Is it a generally-held sentiment among Red Dwarf fans that series 7 was a disappointment? I'm not really in a position to judge the accuracy or popularity of the underlying criticism, so I don't know how to go about correcting this. --User:Damien Prystay 22:37, May 22, 2005 (UTC) :I liked series 7 a lot (and even series 8, how can you not like the specially-long salute for extra-special occasions?), but I do get the impression that the various points at which people started to dislike the show are end of 1, end of 2, end of 4, and mainly end of 6, and the general perception I've got from other Red Dwarf fans is that the show instantly turned to shit when Rimmer went off to be Ace. As far as I'm concerned, it wasn't as good, but there was still some really good stuff in there. :The reasons that should be mentioned if this goes back into the article: departure of Chris Barrie, but more important (because Barrie soon came back) would be Rob Grant leaving, never to return: 7 and 8 were written by Doug Naylor with Paul Alexander and a few other writers, including Robert Llewellyn on one occasion. == the first book == If i recall correctly, it was not meant to be called "Infinity Welcome Careful Drivers" - for example, it is not written on the spine or title page. The book is just titled "Red Dwarf" there. However, it is on the cover, and the book is popularly known by this name. User:Morwen - User_talk:Morwen 19:56, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Red Dwarf
Science fiction television series Fictional universes
Red dwarf
:''This article is about red dwarfs, the type of star. Red Dwarf is also the name of a British television series.'' According to the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, a red dwarf star is a small and relatively temperature star, of the main sequence, either late K or M spectral type. They comprise the vast majority of stars and have a diameter and mass of less than one-third that of the Sun (down to 0.08 solar masses, which are brown dwarfs) and a surface temperature of less than 3,500 kelvin. They emit little light, sometimes as little as 1/10,000th that of the sun. Due to the slow rate at which they burn hydrogen, red dwarfs have an enormous estimated lifespan; estimates range from tens of billions up to trillions of years. Red dwarfs never initiate helium nuclear fusion and so cannot become red giants; the stars slowly contract and heat up until all the hydrogen is consumed. In any event, there has not been sufficient time since the Big Bang for red dwarfs to evolve off the main sequence. The fact that red dwarfs remain on the main sequence while older stars have moved off the main sequence allows one to date star clusters by finding the mass at which the stars turn off the main sequence. In addition, the fact that no red dwarfs have evolved off the main sequence have been observed is evidence that the universe has a finite age. One mystery which has not been solved as of 2004 is the lack of red dwarf stars with no metals (in astronomy a metal is any element other than hydrogen and helium). The Big Bang model predicts the first generation of stars should have only hydrogen, helium, and lithium. If such stars included red dwarfs, they should still be observable today, but are not. The conventional explanation is that without heavy elements, low mass stars cannot form and the first stars were extremely high mass population III stars which died quickly and produced the metals necessary for low mass stars to form later. Red dwarf stars are believed to be the most common star type in the universe. Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun is a red dwarf, (Type M5, magnitude 11.0) as are twenty of the next thirty nearest. However, due to their low luminosity, few are known. ==See also== * Cataclysmic variable star * Hertzsprung-Russell diagram * Red giant * Yerkes luminosity classification * Stellar evolution * White dwarf * Brown dwarf * Nemesis (star) Red dwarfs Stellar phenomena Stars
Red dwarf
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
R
RA | RB | RC | RD | RE | RF | RG | RH | RI | RJ | RK | RL | RM | RN | RO | RP | RS | RT | RU | RW | RX | RY | RZ |Words begining with Red_dwarf:
Red_Dwarf
Red_Dwarf
Red_Dwarf
Red_dwarf
Red_dwarf
Red_dwarfs
Red_dwarfs
Red_Dwarf_(spaceship)
Red_Dwarf_(spaceship)
Red_Dwarf_(television)
Red_Dwarf_(television)
Red_Dwarf_(television_show)
Red_Dwarf_(television_show)
Red_Dwarf_(TV_series)
Red_Dwarf_(TV_series)
Red_Dwarf_characters
Red_Dwarf_characters
Red_Dwarf_characters
Red_Dwarf_episode_guide
Red_Dwarf_episode_guide
Red_Dwarf_Remastered
Red_Dwarf_Remastered
Red_dwarf_star
These materials are based on Wikipedia and licensed under the GNU FDL
YouTube.com videos better site than Turbo Tax 2007
