From: pierrot@milton.u.washington.edu (The Pierrot)
Subject: Red Dwarf Frequently Asked Questions List (Updated version)
Summary: The answers to all your questions.  Version 2.0.
Organization: The People Who Brought You BEEEEEEER MILKSHAKES!
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 08:42:52 GMT
Expires: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 07:00:00 GMT

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            THE  "RED  DWARF"  FREQUENTLY - ASKED  QUESTIONS  LIST
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Prepared by:  Michael J                                     RD.faq Version 2.0 
Montoure and Renee Byrd					    Revised:  08/13/92
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WHAT IS "RED DWARF"?

	"Red Dwarf" is a British Science-fiction comedy series that has been
        on the air for five seasons, each season lasting for six episodes.
	It is the brainchild of "Grant Naylor", a creative team consisting
	of Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who write and produce the show.
        The fifth season recently finished on the BBC, and preparations are
        being made for a sixth season. 

	The premise of the series is best summed up by the opening 
	narration used in the first season:

	"This is an S.O.S. distress call from the mining ship Red Dwarf. The 
	crew are dead, killed by a radiation leak.   The only survivors are: 
	Dave Lister, who was in suspended animation during the disaster, and 
	his pregnant cat, who was safely sealed in the hold.   Revived three
        million years later, Lister's only companions are:   a life form who
	evolved from his cat, and Arnold Rimmer,a hologram simulation of one
	of the dead crew."    ---   Holly, the Ship's Computer

WHERE CAN I SEE "RED DWARF" IN THE UNITED STATES?

	"Red Dwarf" is seen on public television stations across
	the country.  If your local PBS station won't show it, 
	write to them, and convince your friends to write to them,
	until they will!  All five seasons are available for purchase
	by PBS stations.

	For those of you who have friends in England, the BBC has 
	started to release videotapes of the series.  Seasons 
	Two and Three have been released, and Season One should 
	be out by Christmas. 

HOW MANY EPISODES ARE THERE SO FAR?

	There are now five seasons of six episodes each, making a 
	total of thirty episodes.  The titles of these episodes are:

Series One:	Series Two:	Series Three:	Series Four:	Series Five:
-----------     -----------     -------------   ------------    ------------
"The End"       "Kryten"        "Backwards"      "Camille"      "Holoship"
"Future Echoes" "Better Than    "Marooned"       "D.N.A."       "The Inquisitor"
"Balance of        Life"        "Polymorph"      "Justice"      "Terrorform"
   Power"       "Thanks for     "Body Swap"      "White Hole"   "Quarantine"
"Waiting for       The Memory"  "Time Slides"    "Dimension     "Demons and 
   God"         "Stasis Leak"   "The Last Day"      Jump"          Angels"
"Confidence     "Queeg"                          "Melt Down"    "Back to 
   + Paranoia"  "Parallel Universe"                                Reality"  
"Me ^ 2"

WHAT ARE THE LYRICS TO THE THEME SONG FROM THE END CREDITS?

     	"It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere,
     	I'm all alone, more or less.
     	Let me fly far away from here,
     	Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun.

     	I want to lie shipwrecked and comatose,
     	drinking fresh mango juice.
     	Goldfish shoals nibbling at my toes,  *
	Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun,
     	Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun."

	(*:  There has been some debate over this line -- it is not sang very
	 clearly, and many fans think it is simply "Goldfish ARE nibbling..."
	 However, in the fourth season episode "Meltdown," the end theme is
	 performed by "Elvis" [Clayton Mark], and the word "shoals" is more
	 distinct.  A "shoal" is a school of fish.)  

WHERE WAS THE TITLE IN THE LAST EPISODE OF SEASON TWO?

	There was no title given in the original broadcast.  The 
	episode opened with a musical instead of the normal title sequence.
	Many fans called this episode "Parallel Universe", as a simple
	description of what the episode was about; others referred to it
	as "Tongue Tied", after the song in the opening musical
	performance.  "Parallel Universe" was the most common title
	used, and is now the official title as printed on the BBC 
	videotape releases.

WHAT DOES "SMEG" MEAN?

	The characters in the show use it as an all-purpose profanity.
	Apparently derived from "smegma," the name of a particularly 
	unpleasant bodily secretion, the slang term "smeg" was reportedly
	in use in England before the show premiered, although not commonly.
	Grant and Naylor presumably adopted this little-known bit of 
	profanity as a blanket replacement for all other swearing, to keep
	them out of trouble with the BBC and to poke fun at the long-standing
	convention in science-fiction of inventing "futuristic" slang. 

WHY IS HOLLY NOW A WOMAN?  HOW DID KRYTEN CHANGE?

	The original actor to play Holly, Norman Lovett, decided 
	to leave the series to further his career.  (There is no 
	truth to the rumor that he died.)   Also, Kryten's original
	actor, David Ross, wasn't available to commit to a series when
	they decided to make Kryten a continuing character, so he was 
	replaced by Robert Llewellyn.  (Ross later returns in "White
	Hole" as the new voice of Talkie Toaster.)

	Hattie Hayridge, the actress called in to play Holly, had
	previously appeared in "Parallel Universe" as Hilly, Holly's female
        counterpart.  "There were no plans to call me back," Hayridge explains.
	". . . when Norman said he wasn't doing another series, I auditioned." 
	The character of Holly kept the same name and personality despite the
	recasting.

	Along with the recasting, the reclassification of Red Dwarf from 
	a Paul Jackson Production to a Grant Naylor Production (making it 
	now officially a production outside the BBC, although it is still 
	filmed at Noel Gay Television) brought with it several changes in 
	the show's "look" between Seasons Two and Three, including changes
	in costumes, sets, and miniatures, including the addition of the 
	StarBug and its hangar bay.   

	The majority of these changes were more or less briefly explained 
	by the following explanation that scrolled up the screen at high-speed
	at the beginning of "Backwards": 

	"Three million years in the future, Dave Lister, the last human being 
	alive, discovers he is pregnant after a liaison with his female self 
	in a parallel universe. His pregnancy concludes with the successful 
	delivery of twin boys, Jim and Bexley. However, because the boys were
	conceived in another universe, with different physical laws, they
	suffer from highly accelerated growth rates and are both eighteen
	years old within three days of being born. In order to save their 
	lives, Lister returns them to the universe of their origin, where
	they are reunited with their father (a woman), and are able to lead
	comparatively normal lives. Well, as normal as you can be if you've 
	been born in a parallel universe and your father's a woman and your 
	mother's a man and you're eighteen years old three days after your 
	birth.  Shortly afterward, Kryten, the service mechanoid, who had
	left the ship after being rescued from his own crashed vessel, the
	Nova 5, is found in pieces after his space bike crashed into an
	asteroid. Lister rebuilds the 'noid, but is unable to recapture
	his former personality. Meanwhile, Holly, the increasingly erratic 
	computer, performs a head sex change operation on himself. He bases 
	his new face on Hilly, a female computer with whom he'd once fallen
	madly in love."
	
	It IS possible to read all this, using a VCR with good slow-motion
	capabilities.  Try it.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE FOODS MENTIONED ON THE SHOW?

	"Vindaloo," the most commonly referred to food item on the program,
	is a very, very hot Indian curry dish.  Most Indian restaurants will
	have them on the menu.  They can contain almost any variety of meat,
	thus Lister's references to "mutton vindaloo," "chicken vindaloo", etc.

	"Poppadoms", another Indian food item, are thin lentil-flour wafers
	resembling tortillas, deep-fried until crisp.

	"Gazpacho soup" really does exist and really is meant to be served
	cold.  Several different recipes exist. 

	A "pot noodle" is, judging by its appearance, similar to the 
	American Cup O' Noodles.  Its quality is apparently very questionable. 

IS THERE GOING TO BE AN AMERICAN "RED DWARF"?

	Maybe.  A pilot was produced for NBC, involving Grant Naylor
	as technical consultants, Craig Bierko as Lister, Chris Eigelman
	as Rimmer, Jane Leeves as Holly, Tony award winner Hinton Battle 
	as Cat, and Robert Llewellyn reprising his role as Kryten from
	the British cast.

	Historically, many English shows have been redone for an American 
	audience ("Max Headroom" being an example), but many fans
	are still apprehensive about the uniquely British humor
	not translating too well.  

	The pilot reportedly was a retelling of "The End", with some
	elements of "Future Echoes" thrown in for good measure.

	Despite early reports that NBC had rejected the pilot,
	it is rumored that they are reconsidering it.  It has also
	been reported that NBC has commissioned a *second* pilot. In 
	any event, the original pilot IS finished, and we may still at
	least see that appear on our screens here in the States. 

IS THERE A "RED DWARF" FTP SITE?

	Yes.  Dave Gagne (daveg@ee.ubc.ca) has been kind enough to
	put an anonymous ftp site on toaster.ee.ubc.ca (137.82.56.10).
	There's a lot of good stuff there in the /pub/red-dwarf directory.    
	Here's a list of the files currently on it:

FAQ                 - A current version of this Frequently Asked Questions list
episode-list        - Short list of all Red Dwarf episodes
episode-guide       - (Barry Williams) Guide to all Red Dwarf episodes
red-dwarf-guide     - (Otto E. Heuer) Guide to Red Dwarf
reddwarf-logo.gif   - GIF file of the Red Dwarf logo
favorite-quotes     - Best lines in Red Dwarf
review-V.1          - Review of RD Season V, episode 1: Holoship
review-V.2          - Review of RD Season V, episode 2: The Inquisitor
review-V.3          - Review of RD Season V, episode 3: Terrorform
review-V.4          - Review of RD Season V, episode 4: Quarantine
review-V.5          - Review of RD Season V, episode 5: Demons and Angels
review-V.6          - Review of RD Season V, episode 6: Back to Reality
		     (Reviews by Neil Postlethwaite)

ARE THERE "RED DWARF" NOVELS?

	Yes -- two so far, "Red Dwarf:  Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers" 
	and "Red Dwarf:  Better Than Life."  The books greatly expand on,
	and are greatly different from, the television series:  although they
	do contain several ideas from the series, these ideas are put 
	together in new and interesting ways.  

	The two books are published by Penguin Books.  The ISBN of 
	"IWCD" is 0-14-012437-3.  "BTL"'s ISBN is 0-14-012438-1.
	The books will reportedly be widely available in the U.S.
	sometime in August. 
	 
	A third novel is rumored to be in the works.

WHERE ELSE CAN I FIND OUT MORE ABOUT "RED DWARF"?

	There is now a new, fully sanctioned fan club for "Red Dwarf".
	Membership is $17 and includes four issues of their magazine,
	"Better than Life", a badge, and a membership card.  Write to:  

	THE OFFICIAL RED DWARF FAN CLUB 
	c/o MARK KENNEDY
	PO BOX 50552
	PALO ALTO, CA 94303

	There is also an official magazine for the series being 
	published in England.  There are supposed to be overseas
	subscriptions available, and you can find it at some specialty
        shops and convenions.  The magazine seems aimed at a younger 
	audience, but is fairly clever and has nice interviews (and 
	great photos).  For more information, write to:

	RED DWARF MAGAZINE
	FLEETWAY EDITIONS LIMITED
	3RD FLOOR
	GREATER LONDON HOUSE
	HAMPSTEAD ROAD 
	LONDON
	ENGLAND
	NW1 7QQ

	For those of you who are interested in fanzines (unofficial,
	fan-written publications), there is a new one being put out
	by Space Rat Press, entitled "Stasis Leak," including 
	several interviews and episode guides.  The first issue of
	the 'zine costs $10.00 plus $2.00 for postage and handling.
	(Make checks payable to Space Rat Press.)  They seem to have
	obtained permission from Grant/Naylor to do this, which is 
	rare for a fanzine to do.  There was apparently a slight 
	delay getting the first issue out, but it should be finished
	soon.  Write to: 

	SPACE RAT PRESS
	P.O. BOX 422
	PARK RIDGE, NJ  07656 

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This F.A.Q. may be reproduced, electronically or in print, so long as the 
authors' names remain intact.   It may not be used for profit without the 
express written permission of both authors.  
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MANY THANKS TO: Paul S. Winalski,           "There's an emergency going on."
D.J. Clark, Neil Postlethwaite,                 MICHAEL J MONTOURE AND 
Kimble Ketolainen, Jim Lyon,                        RENEE ANN BYRD 	
Dave Gagne, and Otto Heuer                      "It's still going on."
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