The mining spaceship Red Dwarf belongs to the Jupiter Mining Corporation. In the first episode a radiation leak kills everybody on board except for technician Dave Lister (Craig Charles) who is in suspended animation at the time. His preganant cat Frankenstein in the cargo hold also survives. Three million years later Holly (Norman Lovett) the ship's computer, is able to take Lister out of stasis. He is the last human being in the Universe.
Holly also creates a "hardlight hologram" of Lister's former bunkmate Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie) to keep him company. The Cat (Danny John-Jules) is also on board, the last known "Felis Sapiens", a humanoid that evolved from Frankenstein. During the second series the "Dwarfers" rescue mechanoid Kryten (Robert Llewellyn) from a crashed spaceship and he joins them.
Lister: "Drop dead!"
Rimmer: "Already have."
Lister: "Encore!"
At the end of Series V, Lister loses Red Dwarf and the crew travel in the smaller Starbug craft for two series. In Series VII Rimmer leaves (but apears as "Ace" Rimmer) and is replaced by Kristine Kochanski (Chloe Annett), Lister's ex-girlfriend. In the final Series VIII, Rimmer returns and Red Dwarf is reconstructed by Kryten's nanobots, but the series ends in an ambiguous cliff-hanger with Red Dwarf being eaten by a virus and the crew depart.
Dave Lister is an appealing slob who is a terrible guitar player and his favorite word is "smeg". Arnold Judas Rimmer is an obnoxious, neurotic, repressed, self-important hologram. He has a permanent sneer on his mouth and an "H" symbol on his forehead. The Cat is completely selfish, a vain braggart whose fangs make him look like a vampire despite his cat-like personality. Kryten 2X4B-523P is a Series 4000 mechanoid or "slave 'noid" and develops some human-like characteristics such as neurosis. Holly is the ship's computer user interface, a disembodied head on a viewing screen. Norman Lovett was eventually replaced by Hattie Hayridge in the role. Kristine Kochanski is the Navigation Officer, an object of lust for Lister.
When Ace Rimmer's ship jumps into Red Dwarf's dimension, Lister and Kryten emerge from the Artificial Reality suite. Lister says, "The red, green and blue alert signs are all flashing. What the smeg does that mean?" Kryten replies, "Well either we're under attack, sir, or we're having a disco."
Lister: "Sometimes, I think it's cruel giving machines a personality. My mate Petersen once bought a pair of shoes with Artificial Intelligence. 'Smart Shoes' they were called. It was a neat idea. No matter how blind drunk you were, they could always get you home. But he got rattled one night in Oslo and woke up the next morning in Burma. You see, his shoes got bored going from his local to his flat. They wanted to see the world, you know. He had a hell of a job getting rid of them. No matter who he sold them to, they'd show up again the next day. He tried to shut them out, but they just kicked the door down."
Rimmer: "Is this true?"
Lister: "Yeah. The last thing I heard, they sort of... robbed a car and drove it into a canal. They couldn't steer, you see."
Rimmer: "Really?"
Lister: "Yeah. Petersen was really, really blown away about it. He went to see a priest. The priest told him... he said it was alright and all that, when shoes are happy that they'd get into heaven. You see, it turns out shoes have 'soles'."
Rimmer: "Ah, what a sad story. Wait a minute."
(thinks for a minute)
Rimmer: "How did they open the car door?"
RED DWARF is a British sci-fi comedy that ran on BBC2 from 1988 until 1999 and has a global cult following. Starting in 1993 (Series VI) there was a 3 1/2 year gap with no new episodes produced. The show is quite original, but some episodes spoof 2001, ALIEN, STAR TREK, NEIGHBOURS, CASABLANCA, TOP GUN, and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Continuity problems are common, such as Lister having his appendix removed twice. However, it is a funny, entertaining and intelligent series with a loud laugh track. 52 half-hour episodes were produced. The first was broadcast February 15, 1988 and the last telecast was April 5, 1999.
Four "Red Dwarf" novels have been published, all in audiobook format. There are also about a dozen genuine books, such as "The Official Red Dwarf Companion". A pilot episode for an American version of the series, known as "Red Dwarf USA" was produced for NBC in 1992, but never broadcast. Co-creator Doug Taylor has a script for a "Red Dwarf" feature length movie, but it has not yet been produced. Hopefully it will resolve the cliff-hanger last episode.
Others who have appeared on RED DWARF include: Mac McDonald (Captain Frank Hollister), Mark Williams (Olaf Petersen), David Gillespie (Selby), Paul Bradley (Chen), Jake Wood (Kill Crazy), Ricky Grover (Baxter), Graham McTavish (Warden Ackerman), as well as Tony Hawks, Rupert Bates, Tony Slattery, Brian Cox, Craig Ferguson, Nicholas Ball, Sarah Alexander, Arthur Smith, Gordon Kennedy, Jack Docherty, Lee Cornes, Morwenna Banks, Don Henderson, Don Warrington, Angela Bruce, Koo Stark, Jenny Agutter, Maggie Steed, Jane Horrocks, Geraldine McEwan, Frances Barber, Ainsley Harriot, Ruby Wax, and Timoth Spall.
RED DWARF was created and originally written by "Grant Naylor", a pseudonym for Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. The last two series were written by Doug Naylor with others, most notably Paul Alexander and Robert Llewellyn. Ed Bye produced and directed most shows. The theme and incidental music were written by Howard Goodall. Jenna Russel sings the dreadful theme song. The melody of the song is half-decent but it is complete garbage lyrically--surely the very worst and most inappropriate theme song in television history. It's sickening, absolutely smeggy.
