Red Dwarf Frequently Asked Questions List -- Update
John Drake
THE "RED DWARF" FREQUENTLY - ASKED QUESTIONS LIST
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Prepared by: Michael J RD.faq Version 3.0
Montoure and Renee Byrd Revised: 11/03/92
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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, which is all but confirmed and should
reach the British airwaves in the spring of 1993.
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
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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, Season Four should
be out by Christmas, and the other two seasons will be
released in 1993.
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IS THERE AN EPISODE GUIDE FOR RED DWARF?
Otto Heuer has written a very good guide, available by
anonymous ftp on toaster.ee.ubc.ca, but here's a quick list
to get you started:
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 Reality"
"Me ^ 2" Universe"
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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. Also, some fans who have seen the episode on closed-
captioned broadcasts report that the subtitles do read "shoals."
A "shoal" is a school of fish.)
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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.
Most British fans learned that the episode's name was "Parallel
Universe" from its listing in the Radio Times; some American fans
called it "Tongue Tied", after the song in the opening musical
performance. "Parallel Universe" was the most common title
used, and it has now been confirmed as the official title as
printed on the BBC videotape releases.
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WHAT ARE THE LYRICS TO "TONGUE TIED"?
As mentioned above, "Parallel Universe" began with a musical
number, which turns out to be a dream had by the self-centered
Cat. The studio audience's laughter makes the lyrics a little
hard to understand, but combining a couple of different posters'
ideas of what they were gave us this:
The Cat: (Chorus -- Lister and Rimmer:)
When I saw you for the first time (first time)
My knees began to quiver (quiver)
And I got a funny feeling (feeling)
In my kidneys and my liver (digestive system baby)
My hands they started shakin' (shakin')
My heart began a-thumpin' (boom boom boom)
My breakfast left my body (huey huey huey)
It all really tells me something
Girl you make me tongue tied (tongue tied)
Tongue tied, whenever you are near me
Tied tongue (tied tongue)
Tied tongue (tied tongue)
Whenever you're in town
I saw you on the dance floor (dancin')
I thought of birds and bees (reproductive system baby)
I barely tried to speak to ya (talk talk)
My tongue unraveled to my knees (flippety-flippety-thump)
I tried to say I love you (love you)
But it came out kind of wrong girl (wrong girl)
It sounded like min-oo-bitty-boo (tongue tied)
Na-nee-ner-ner-nee-nung, nirl
'Cause you make me tongue tied (tongue tied)
Tongue tied, whenever you are near me
Be-dobby-durgle (dobby-durgle)
Tongue tied (tongue tied)
Whenever you're around
Oh I'm beggin' on my knees
Sweet, sweet darling, listen please
Understand me when I saaaaaay
Bedurble-diggle-doggle-dooby-doggle-durgle-day
I'm trying to say nungy-nangy (nangy-nungy)
Ningy-nongy, but I can't tell you clearly (clearly)
Be-dobby-durgle (dobby-durgle)
Durgle-dobby (durble-dobby)
Whenever you're around (around)
Whenever you're around (around)
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WHAT DOES "SMEG" MEAN?
The characters in the show use it as an all-purpose profanity.
Apparently derived from "smegma," the term for 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.
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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 freeze-frame
capabilities. Try it.
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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.
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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.
Some fans who had a chance to see the filming report that some
suprising and odd changes were made, for example, the transformation
of Lister to a clean-cut and well-dressed causcasian, and the
removal of the "H" from Rimmer's forehead.
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 (da...@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.
fortune-quotes - Best lines in Red Dwarf in "fortune" format.
- (Neil Postlethwaite) presents:
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
review-IV - Review of RD Season IV (all episodes)
________________________________
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.
These books are starting to be available in the United States
and you should be able to order them from your local Waldenbooks.
A third novel is in the works, as they are contracted to do at
least one more, although their schedule producing the show hasn't
allowed them to confirm when it will be finished. In the meantime,
however, the two books will soon be combined into one large re-release
called the "Red Dwarf Omnibus," which will contain some new material.
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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
Also just released in England (although you can get it at
a few conventions in the States) is the OFFICIAL RED DWARF
COMPANION, a thin little book that has a lot of wasted space,
but some interesting quotes and information and some wonderful
color photos throughout. If you're looking for in-depth, solid
information about the show, this isn't where you'll find it;
but if you want a nice, light read, a collector's item, and
an attractive coffee-table-book, this is it. Here's the info:
From: zza...@uts.mcc.ac.uk (Geoff Lane)
THE OFFICIAL RED DWARF COMPANION
by Bruce Dessau
95 pages, 6.99 pounds
ISBN: 1 85286 456 7
Titan Books Ltd, 19 Valentine Place, London, SE1 8QH
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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, Geoff RENEE ANN BYRD
Lane, Dave Gagne, and Otto Heuer "It's still going on."
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number6
If you have any comments or questions, e-mail: or @milton.u.washington.edu
byrdie
--
Michael J Montoure \ num...@milton.u.washington.edu / Keeper of Red Dwarf FAQ
"Dehydration - 34%. Recollection of previous evening: 2%. Embarassment
factor: 91%! Advise repair schedule: Off-line for 36 hours, re-boot
startup disk, and replace head. I've got to stop reading Usenet ... "
DG LEGROS
Additional - THEME TUNE.
I have watched the series with subtitles from the BBC (as I am in England)
and the contoversial line is actually
Goldfishes nibbling at my toes
This is from the BBC, so I take as being the correct answer.
Dom
JANET D.G.L...@uk.ac.bradford
Arlie Davis
> Additional - THEME TUNE.
> I have watched the series with subtitles from the BBC (as I am in England)
> and the contoversial line is actually
> Goldfishes nibbling at my toes
> This is from the BBC, so I take as being the correct answer.
Since when has the BBC gotten everything right? *Before* having read the lines
in the alt.tv.red-dwarf FAQ, I was sure that it was "goldfish shoals, nibbling
at my toes". It fits the meter better; otherwise, the stress on the last
syllable in "goldfishes" it out of proportion.
I'm not really sure why this seems so important, though. :)
--
lrwx------ 1 aldavi01 emacsstu 9 Jun 6 12:43 .signature -> /dev/null
DG LEGROS
Possibly the Beeb did cock up, just reporting what I saw.
Dom