Red Dwarf

***Red Dwarf*** is a British science fiction comedy franchise which primarily consists of a television sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999, and on Dave since 2009, gaining a cult following. To date, eleven full series of the show plus one "special" miniseries have aired. The latest series, dubbed Red Dwarf XII, started airing in October 2017.

The series was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. In addition to the television episodes, there are four novels, a radio version adapted from the audiobooks, two pilot episodes for an American version of the show, tie-in books, magazines, and other merchandise.

Despite the pastiche of science fiction used as a backdrop, Red Dwarf is primarily a character-driven comedy, with science fiction elements used as complementary plot devices. In the early episodes, a recurring source of comedy was the Odd Couple-style relationship between the two central characters of the show, who have an intense dislike for each other yet are trapped together deep in space. The main characters are Dave Lister, the last known human alive, and Arnold Rimmer, a hologram of Lister's dead bunkmate. The other regular characters are Cat, a lifeform which evolved from the descendants of Lister's pregnant pet cat Frankenstein; Holly, Red Dwarf's computer (Series I-V, briefly in the final episode of VII, VIII); Kryten, a service mechanoid (Series II-present); and Kristine Kochanski, an alternative-reality version of Lister's long-lost love (Series VII-VIII).

One of the series' highest accolades came in 1994, when an episode from the sixth series, "Gunmen of the Apocalypse", won an International Emmy Award in the Popular Arts category, and in the same year the series was also awarded "Best BBC Comedy Series" at the British Comedy Awards. The series attracted its highest ratings, of more than eight million viewers, during the eighth series in 1999.

### Origins

Red Dwarf was originally based on ***Dave Hollins: Space Cadet,*** a series of five sketches that aired in series two of the BBC Radio 4 series ***Son of Cliché***, produced by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor in 1984.

The sketches recounted the adventures of Dave Hollins (voiced by Nick Wilton), a hapless space traveller who is marooned in space far from earth. His only steady companion is the computer Hab (voiced by Chris Barrie).

Grant and Naylor chose to use the Dave Hollins: Space Cadet sketches as a base for a television show after watching the 1974 film Dark Star. They changed some elements from the sketches:

The 7 trillion year figure was first changed to 7 billion years and then to 3 million and the characters of Arnold Rimmer and the Cat were created. The name Dave Hollins was changed to Dave Lister when a football player called Dave Hollins became well-known, and Hab was replaced by Holly. One of the voice actors from Son of Cliché, Chris Barrie went on to portray Arnold Rimmer in the Red Dwarf TV series.

### Red Dwarf I - VIII

#### Red Dwarf

**First broadcast** February 15 - March 21, 1988

The pilot script was written in 1983; the writing duo team of Grant and Naylor handed the finished script to their agent Paul Jackson who had trouble convincing the BBC to take on the series. Three years after the initial rejections, the script was accepted by BBC North West. The series almost did not happen due to an electricians' strike at the BBC in 1987 which prevented filming and the project was shelved. Filming eventually went ahead after the industrial action was resolved. Find out more at Wikipedia and Tongue Tied.

***The End***

Aboard the Jupiter Mining Corporation vessel Red Dwarf, the lowest-ranking crew member and utter slob Dave Lister, technician third-class is sentenced to be frozen for 18-months in suspended animation as punishment for breaking quarantine regulations by smuggling his pregnant cat Frankenstein on board, a pet he had obtained while on leave on Titan. When given the option of either having the cat dissected or be frozen in stasis, he chooses to save his cat. But Lister awakes from stasis only to find the rest of the crew have since been wiped out in a radiation disaster, and he has actually been frozen for three million years. However, to both his relief and horror, he is not alone. The ship's computer Holly has revived Arnold Rimmer, his austere and petty bunkmate, in the form of a hologram, who was responsible for the accident that wiped out the crew. Also Lister's pregnant cat, Frankenstein, was sealed in the hull during the radiation leak, and her kittens bred there for 3-million years and evolved into a race of humanoid life-forms, Felis sapiens, bred from the domestic housecat and about half as smart. They meet one of these life forms on the ship, and Lister decides to call it Cat.

#### Red Dwarf II

**First broadcast** September 6 - October 11, 1988

Realising that they were limited with stories based on the huge, but empty, mining ship of Red Dwarf, writers Grant and Naylor decided to go in a different direction for Series II. A small shuttle ship, Blue Midget, was designed to ferry the crew to and from different locations. The mechanoid, Kryten, appeared in the first episode as a one off. The writers had resisted using robot characters as they had considered the practice a sci-fi cliché. A remastered version of this series was produced and broadcast in some countries.

#### Red Dwarf III

**First broadcast** November 14 - December 19, 1989

#### Red Dwarf IV

**First broadcast** February 14 - March 21, 1991

#### Red Dwarf V

**First broadcast** February 20 - March 26, 1992

#### Red Dwarf VI

**First broadcast** October 7 - November 11, 1993

#### Red Dwarf VII

**First broadcast** January 17 - March 7, 1997

#### Red Dwarf VIII

**First broadcast** February 18 - April 5, 1999

### Red Dwarf Night

February 14, 1998

On the night before the tenth anniversary of the show's pilot episode broadcast, BBC Two devoted an evening of programmes to the series, under the banner of ***Red Dwarf Night***. The evening consisted of a mixture of new and existing material, and was introduced and linked by actor and fan Patrick Stewart. In addition, a series of special take-offs on BBC Two's idents, featuring the "2" logo falling in love with a skutter, were used. The night began with Can't Smeg, Won't Smeg, a spoof of the cookery programme Can't Cook, Won't Cook, presented by that show's host Ainsley Harriott who had himself appeared as a GELF in the series VI episode "Emohawk: Polymorph II". Taking place outside the continuity of the series, two teams (Kryten and Lister versus Rimmer and Cat, although Cat quickly departs to be replaced by alter ego Duane Dibbley) were challenged to make the best chicken vindaloo.

After a compilation bloopers show, featuring out-takes, the next programme was Universe Challenge, a spoof of University Challenge. Hosted by original University Challenge presenter Bamber Gascoigne, the show had a team of knowledgeable Dwarf fans compete against a team consisting of Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Robert Llewellyn, Chloë Annett, and Danny John Jules. This was followed by The Red Dwarf A–Z, a half-hour documentary that chose a different aspect of the show to focus on for each letter of the alphabet. Talking heads on the episode included Stephen Hawking, Terry Pratchett, original producer Paul Jackson, Mr. Blobby, Patrick Stewart, and a Dalek. Finally, the night ended with a showing of the episode "Gunmen of the Apocalypse".

**Find out more** at Tongue Tied.

### Music

#### "Tongue Tied" by Cat

**First charted** October 23, 1993

* #17