Prelude to Nanarchy

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Red Dwarf: Prelude to Nanarchy

Cover for Prelude to Nanarchy from RedDwarf.co.uk

Publisher	Grant Naylor Productions & Across the Pond Comics
Publication dates	2005
Main character(s)	Arnold Rimmer Dave Lister Kryten Cat Holly

Creative team
Writer(s)	Andrew Ellard
Penciller(s)	David Enebral
Inker(s)	Mar Degano
Colourist(s)	Barry Williams
Creator(s)	Rob Grant Doug Naylor

Prelude to Nanarchy is a webcomic produced in 2005 by Across the Pond Comics and Grant Naylor Productions set between the fifth and sixth series of BBC science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf. It was published online at a page a day on the official Red Dwarf website. The last page was posted on Friday, 4th November 2005.

It follows immediately from the end of Back to Reality and sets key plot points for developments in the final three series of the show. The comic was produced 6 years after the last episode of Red Dwarf was produced.

[edit] Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Following Starbug's escape from the ocean world where they encountered the Despair Squid, the Nanobots inside Kryten decide they have had enough of simply repairing Kryten's body and have amibitions to see the Universe. They leave Kryten's body in the form of a red mulch which Kryten unwittingly flicks out of his ear. The mulch then squirms away out through a grate into the next room where they begin to tunnel out of the ship. The hull breach causes a vacuum - the crew are thrown about the ship.

Holly reports that there is a hull breach a moment too late. When the crew complain about this lapse in the computer's attention, she reports that the breach is aboard Red Dwarf itself. She then changes her mind, but her image flickers off of the screen and they are unable to recall it. They discover that Red Dwarf is speeding away at a phenomenal speed and Kryten stipulates that in order to catch up the rest of the crew will need to go into Deep Sleep.

Meanwhile, aboard a newly formed sand planet not too far away, a computer monitor aboard a junk pile flickers into life and the image of the original incarnation of Holly, albeit slightly balder, appears on the screen. He calls for them to come back, but Starbug cannot hear him.