Red Dwarf ships
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The British sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf prominently features many different spaceships. Three feature regularly, and several have appeared for one or two episodes only but are nonetheless important to Red Dwarf continuity or well-known among the fan community.
Contents |
[edit] Main ships
[edit] 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 Frank Hollister. All of Red Dwarf's systems are controlled by the computer Holly. A small moon is embedded in Red Dwarf's underbelly - however, structurally it remains apparently unaffected (upon Red Dwarf's reconstruction the moon was gone). The "scoop" on the front of the ship sucks hydrogen from the currents in space and converts it into fuel. Red Dwarf has a large complement of shuttles, including Starbugs and Blue Midgets. Another shuttle type only mentioned in the novels but never seen or heard on the television series is White Giant (See Starbug). Red Dwarf 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 have 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 (although this retcon was implicitly reversed by Lister giving his crew number as 000169 in The Inquisitor), and in the books the figure is given as 11,169. In the programme, however, these continuity errors are more or less ignored. There is an additional 200 people in a secret prison in the bowels of the ship.
Red Dwarf itself was the main setting for the first five series of the programme, but was apparently lost for 200 years before "Psirens" of Series Six. It was later discovered that a collective of rogue nanobots which formed the mechanoid 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 series, 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 Arnold Rimmer) managed to escape in the Starbugs and Blue Midgets.
Notable areas of the ship include:
- Rimmer and Lister's original sleeping quarters - The main setting for the first two series. 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 series 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. This room was used as the background for the Red Dwarf IV DVD cover.
- The Drive Room - The control centre of the ship, where 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/her 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. Also, due to a lack of original script, it is where Lister collapses in Confidence and Paranoia.
- Parrot's Bar - A wine bar on G Deck, apparently named purely for a Casablanca 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 series 8, the main cast.
Red Dwarf itself was used as the background for the cover of the Red Dwarf I (series 1) DVD.
[edit] Blue Midget
Blue Midget is a type of shuttle which Red Dwarf carries. Its fuselage resembles that of a Chinook helicopter, although it also has features of a truck or tank (as it features caterpillar tracks and a bumper sticker that reads "My Other Space Ship is a Red Dwarf"), and its cockpit can hold a maximum of four people. Blue Midget was the only shuttlecraft used for Series 2. By Series 3, and the introduction of Kryten as a main character, a bigger shuttle was needed and Blue Midget faded into the background, only featuring in two episodes of Series 3 and not showing up at all again until Series 8.
For Red Dwarf Remastered, Blue Midget was completely redesigned to resemble a bubble car with retractable legs used for taking off and walking (replacing the caterpillar tracks).
The new design was also used for Blue Midget's reappearance in Series 8; where the ship gained its' third, substantially larger cockpit more akin to the Series VI-VII Starbug cockpit; the redesign was ascribed to the nanobots and their reconstruction of Red Dwarf and the Blue Midgets.
Blue Midget was used as the background for the Red Dwarf II (series 2) DVD cover.
[edit] Novels
Blue Midget also features in the first two Red Dwarf novels. In the second novel, after a polymorph finds its way aboard the shuttlecraft, the craft is made to self-destruct at the insistence of Lister.
[edit] Starbug
The JMC transport vehicle Starbug is the model of a small shuttle craft, green in colour. It has three bulbous sections; the cockpit, mid-section and engine rooms, somewhat resembling a bug from the exterior. Starbug replaced Blue Midget as the crew's primary choice of shuttle in series 3 and became the show's primary vehicle throughout series 6 and 7.
The original Red Dwarf came equipped with at least four Starbug vessels, as Starbugs are abandoned in Backwards and Terrorform as a result of crashes by Rimmer and Kryten, with Lister and Cat retriving the two in another Starbug both times, and in Bodyswap after Rimmer (using Lister's body) crashes it and is retrieved by the others in Blue Midget. The reconstructed Red Dwarf of Series VIII contained an entire fleet of Starbugs and Blue Midgets - it is not entirely clear whether this was purely a result of the nanobot's reconstruction or whether the original ship had also contained a fleet of the smaller vessels.
Series VI takes place a full 200 years after the final episodes of series 5. As the internal layout of Starbug differs from that of the vessel's appearances in previous episodes, it is possible that Kryten remodelled one of the Starbug vessels during this time to better suit the crews needs, being the only one not in Deep Sleep.
The new design featured four main areas: the cockpit in the front section, the midsection and galley on the middle section bottom deck, the observation room (which doubled as quarters and medibay) on the middle section top deck, and the engine room, which was over all three decks of the rear section. In addition, Starbug was finally armed with laser cannons in the episode Gunmen of the Apocalypse by rogue simulants looking for a challenge.
For series VII Starbug was redesigned again (made substantially larger, and apparently much bigger inside than out, on this occasion the result of a time paradox) and rendered in CGI. The new model had a smaller cockpit window (as a result of the rest of the craft being larger) and newly backward-angled legs, and its larger size allowed for many extra rooms, including separate quarters, a medibay and an AR suite. This Starbug would finally be destroyed when the ship crashed and exploded in the newly-rebuilt Red Dwarf at the start of Series VIII.
Starbug was used as the background for the Red Dwarf III DVD cover.
[edit] Novels
In the Red Dwarf novels, Starbug also crashes onto an ice world: a rogue planet which, after being captured in a star's orbit and having its ice melted, turns out to be the Earth itself, which was ripped from its orbit after being officially renamed "Garbage World" and turned into the solar system's rubbish tip. Following the thawing of the ice, Starbug is all but destroyed by extremely concentrated acid rain. However, Starbug is back and functional in both the following novels (again, possibly a second Starbug vessel).
[edit] Notes
Starbug's introduction was prompted by the introduction of Kryten as a main character, which required a new, bigger shuttle to hold the crew. The original concept of Starbug was named White Midget and was going to be white. With the second episode seeing Starbug crashing into snow covered planet the design team decided to recolour the ship green to increase contrast and renamed it "Green Midget", before realising its similarity to a bug and renaming it once more as "Starbug". However, a script error does have Lister saying "How else can I pilot White Midget?" - although he was misnaming Blue Midget, the reference has left some fans intrigued. A ship named White Midget would finally appear on-screen in Series VII, in a flashback to Kochanski's alternate universe pre-accident. Like the crew's alternate uniforms in blue rather than beige, however, this is presumably a difference in her universe - although a different, unnamed, white ship would appear as the Canaries' primary transport in series VIII.
The Red Dwarf Companion includes a sketch of an unused shuttlecraft design that is described as being the design for White Midget. This also features an early Starbug design labelled "Green Midget".
In the audio commentaries for the series 4 DVD, Chris Barrie surmised that Starbug's spherical construction was the reason for its durability.
[edit] White Giant
White Giant is a shuttlecraft on Red Dwarf that only features in the Red Dwarf novels and is never mentioned in the television series. It's never explained what the craft looks like. It is thought that the craft's name may be a reference to the original name of Starbug - White Midget.
In the second Red Dwarf novel, Rimmer and Cat use White Giant to find Lister on Garbage World. Given that Starbug was destroyed by acid rain, and Blue Midget's destruction, White Giant was left as Red Dwarf's only remaining shuttlecraft. However, in the two sequel novels Starbug is back and White Giant never appears - presumably because of Starbug's popularity in the television series.
[edit] White Midget
Starbug, while in its early design phases, was known as White Midget. The ship was renamed due to its bug-like shape, although the original name is mentioned in the Series III episode "Bodyswap".
In the Series VII episode "Ouroboros", a new ship, also known as White Midget, is seen approaching Red Dwarf in a flashback. The ship is a model, and is built around the Blue Midget model.
[edit] Guest ships
[edit] Nova 5
The wreck of the Nova 5 was discovered in the second series episode "Kryten", and is in fact the first spacecraft seen in the show apart from Red Dwarf. The series 4000 mechanoid Kryten was still servicing his long-dead crew when encountered by the members of Red Dwarf. Nova 5 is never seen after that episode, but is mentioned several times afterwards.
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 the novel Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers explains that the crash was caused by Kryten cleaning the computer with soapy water.
In the novel, Nova 5 is an American vessel owned by The Coca-Cola Company which was sent on a mission to induce the supernova of 128 supergiant stars in order to create a five-week-long message in the sky visible even in daylight, reading "COKE ADDS LIFE!" After the Red Dwarf crew find the wreck it is brought aboard and repaired in order to utilise its Duality Jump engine, which could get the crew back to Earth within three months. However, although the ship is successfully repaired, circumstances prevent them from ever going through with it.
[edit] The DNA Ship
This was an unnamed vessel of extremely advanced construction - so much so that Rimmer assumed it belonged to aliens intent on returning Glenn Miller. Its most notable feature, however, was an advanced machine for the transmogrification of human DNA.
All that is known of its origins is that it was of Earth design and crewed by humans - one of whom now had three heads.
[edit] Wildfire
Wildfire is Ace Rimmer's personal ship. It was created by the team on Mimas including "Spanners" Lister, and is capable of crossing dimensions. Ace Rimmer agreed to test-fly it even though it was a one-way ticket, and used it to cross into our dimension where he met our crew. Afterwards he used it as his own dimension-jumping spaceship, and gained a reputation across many dimensions as a kind of superhero. When each Ace dies, Wildfire is given to the next one.
Wildfire is a one-man craft with only a cockpit, and is run by a computer who has a crush on Ace Rimmer. It first appeared in the episode "Dimension Jump", which also introduced Ace Rimmer. Its second appearance was in the episode "Stoke me a Clipper", where it was slightly redesigned, being small enough to fit inside Starbug's hangar.
Wildfire is never named in the TV series: it's only named in the Red Dwarf novel Backwards, where it was built on Europa rather than Mimas. After Ace's death, Wildfire is taken by Lister and Cat so they can escape the sun Starbug is flying towards.
[edit] SSS Esperanto
The SSS Esperanto was an ocean seeding ship. Its three-year mission was to introduce life to potential S3 (Earthlike) planets, and speed up the evolutionary process. It succeeded in causing five million years of evolution within three solar years.
The SSS Esperanto crashed onto the ocean floor of the planet it was on when it was attacked by one of the creatures it had caused the creation of: a squidlike creature whose ink had hallucinatory and despair-inducing properties. The ink caused all the crew, and even a stray fish, to have hallucinations which made them commit suicide.
When Starbug found the Esperanto, the crew were also attacked by the squid and had a group hallucination which led them to believe all their experiences in Red Dwarf was a video game. In their hallucination, a technician named Andy says that to kill the squid they were supposed to use the SSS Esperanto's laser cannons, citing the name "Esperanto" as a clue (Esperanto means "one who hopes", and hope defeats despair).
The Esperanto was used as the background for the Red Dwarf V DVD cover.
[edit] The Simulant Ship
This unnamed vessel appears in Gunmen of the Apocalypse and Rimmerworld. It is heavily armed, though apparently not very well defended. It contains a number of components looted from other vessels, including an escape pod taken from a seeding ship. It also incorporated a great deal of advanced technology (most notably a teleporter) and a large store of food in order to sustain the Simulants' torture victims.
The ship's first design was in the shape of a human skull. This was changed to a goat skull and finally, to make it fit in with the overall Western theme of Gunmen of the Apocalypse, to a cow skull.
[edit] Gemini 12
The Gemini 12 was a 28th-Century ship which was capable of time travel. On its maiden voyage (an excursion to the 20th Century) the entire crew was killed by an influenza virus. The ship was sent out into deep space and a security system was activated around it: a reality minefield, which consisted of bubbles of unreality which would change the reality around the ship (changing a crew member to a droid, making another no longer exist, giving all of them animal heads) within each bubble.
Starbug went through the unreality bubbles, with the crew in Deep Sleep so they wouldn't be affected, to find out what they were protecting. When they found the ship they took the Time Drive and installed it on their own ship. Soon after they came into a conflict with their future selves from 15 years from then (who had grown decadent and amoral through abusing the Time Drive) which concluded with their future selves killing them. This caused time to reset to before they discovered the Gemini 12. They once again went and retrieved the Time Drive afterwards on Lister's insistence, so they could go back in time to Earth and replenish their curry supplies.
The Gemini 12 has had four different appearances, none of which are compatible. For the first episode it appears in, Out of Time, they weren't able to build a new model and instead used stock footage of Justice World, a space station from a previous episode. For the next episode, Tikka to Ride, there was a failed attempt to build an all-new CGI design before it was decided to use another ship that would appear later in the same series, the SS Centauri. Finally, for Tikka to Ride Remastered on the Red Dwarf Series VII DVD, an entirely new design was made using CGI.
[edit] Enlightenment
The Enlightenment is a hologramatic ship that hosts a crew number of under 2000. For any new crew members, another crew member must go through a series of two tests. If the original crew member fails the test or withdraws, the new crew member takes the place of the original crew member along with their runtime. The Enlightenment ship carries arrogant crew members who see stupidity everywhere. Ship regulations say that each crew member must participate in sexual congress at least 2 times a day, it is a health rule. The ship only appears once, in the episode "Holoship" (Series 5, Episode 1). In the commentary for this episode Danny John Jules amusingly gasps when the characters refer to the Enlightenment as "a computer generated ship".
In the Series V extras DVD, there are unused clips of the Enlightenment bending its main structure about its articulation points; no other ship in the Red Dwarf series is known to do this.
