Although it is never identified as such, it is clear (at least to science fiction fans) that Red Dwarf is powered by a ramscoop, a staple technology of speculative fiction that permits spaceships traveling at sufficient speed to collect sparse interstellar hydrogen atoms as an essentially unlimited fuel sources.
Two pilot episodes were made for a never-produced American version of the series, Red Dwarf (1992) (TV), also known as "Red Dwarf USA". In the first pilot, the cast included Craig Bierko (Lister), Chris Eigeman (Rimmer), Jane Leeves (Holly), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Hinton Battle (Cat), Elizabeth Morehead (Kochanski), Michael Heintzman (Munson) and Lorraine Toussaint (Captain Tau). The second version of the pilot recast Terry Farrell as Cat, and Anthony Fuscle as Rimmer. The show's failure to be sold allowed Leeves to join "Frasier" (1993) and Farrell to join "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993)
The series was first shown on BBC2 on 15 February 1988
For the recordings of the first series, the producers dragged in the customers of a local pub to fill the audience for the laughter track; a far cry from Series 8 where often over 200 fans had to be turned away.
The first series almost never happened. It took Rob Grant and Doug Naylor over four years to persuade the BBC to make it, and it was then postponed for six months thanks to a technicians' strike.
The scroll at the beginning of the first episode of the third series, "Backwards", explains all the changes from the second series, but goes by too fast to read. It says: RED DWARF III THE SAGA CONTINUUMS The Story So Far... 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 Baxley. However, because they 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 three days after your birth. Shortly afterwards, Kryten, the service mechanoid who had left the ship after being rescued from his crashed vessel, the Nova 5, is found in pieces after his space bike crash lands onto an asteroid. Lister rebuilds the 'noid, but is unable to recapture his former personality. Meanwhile, Holly, the increasingly erratic Red Dwarf 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. And now the saga continuums. AND NOW THE SAGA CONTINUUMS... RED DWARF III THE SAME GENERATION -NEARLY-
The mechanoid Kryten is named after the title character from J.M. Barrie's play "The Admirable Crichton", an effortlessly competent butler to an upper-class Victorian family.
Norman Lovett (Holly) originally auditioned for the part of Rimmer.
When the show first started, the purpose of Kristine Kockanski was merely as the object of Lister's lust. Later in the series, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor decided that this attitude was somewhat immature on Lister's part, and rewrote the continuity so that the two had had a brief affair shortly before the radiation leak.
Danny John-Jules arrived for his audition as the Cat in character and in full costume.
Norman Lovett left after the second series because of the pressure of living in Edinburgh, rehearsing in London and filming in Manchester.
Throughout the series, writers Rob Grant and Doug Naylor stuck to their original (if slightly restrictive) edict that no aliens should exist and that the human race is alone in the universe.
Hattie Hayridge was written out for the sixth series because writers Rob Grant and Doug Naylor decided that Kryten's presence and his role as the provider of plot exposition made Holly superfluous.
David Ross, who originally played Kryten in the character's first appearance, was unable to return to the role when Kryten became a regular character because he was appearing in the play "A Flea in Her Ear" and was unavailable. He was replaced by Robert Llewellyn.
The show was nearly canceled two days into rehearsals of the first series due to an electricians' strike.
In the original script for the first episode, George McIntyre's funeral song was "Heaven is Ten Zillion Light Years Away" (Stevie Wonder) rather than the final version's "See Ya Later, Alligator".
The design of the Cat's pink suit from the first series was copied from an old black suit belonging to Danny John-Jules' father, who got married in it. John-Jules brought it in after deciding none of the designs provided were really appropriate for the character.
Rob Grant and Doug Naylor were disappointed with the cheap uniform-gray color scheme that dominated the first two series. From the third series, Mel Bibby was brought in as production designer and redesigned the sets.
Doug Naylor was particularly eager to vary the end credits wherever it was considered practical.
Kryten's suffocating rubber costume is, according to actor Robert Llewellyn, a nightmare to wear - he can be in it for up to 17 hours at a time.
In the show's original concept Lister was described as 41, Holly was female, and Lister was to have spent seven billion years in suspended animation rather than a relatively short three million. The original number of crew members was to have been 129 rather than 169, though this too was later revised during the course of the series.
A cartoon character called Mugs Murphy was specially created for the show. Although he was only seen in "Me2", Lister wears a Mugs Murphy T-shirt with the phrase 'D-D-Don't Shoot!' written on it throughout the first two series.
Rob Grant makes a cameo appearance in "Backwards" - he is the man with dark glasses, smoking. Doug Naylor makes an appearance in "Krytie TV" as the man in the old black and white film. Ed Bye makes a cameo appearance as Death in "Only the Good".
The Aigburth Arms - the pub in which Lister was left under the pool table as a baby - is a real pub. Rob Grant and Doug Naylor used to drink there when they were at Liverpool University.
Chris Barrie (Rimmer) originally auditioned for the part of Lister.
Robert Llewellyn is the only member of the British cast to appear in the failed American pilot, Red Dwarf (1992) (TV), however Chris Barrie was offered the chance to reprise Rimmer in the same series.
BBC Visual Effects destroyed their only model of Red Dwarf for a sequence in the fifth series episode "Demons and Angels", where Kryten's triplicator sets off a chain reaction that destroys the ship. The production team made sure that all model sequences required for the current series were completed beforehand. The ship doesn't appear in the sixth series (the running plot being that of Red Dwarf having been stolen) and only appears in the seventh series as archive footage from earlier episodes. It wasn't until the eighth series that a computer-generated version was used.
Alan Rickman was first choice for the part of Rimmer, while Alfred Molina was considered for Lister, but it was decided that it might prove difficult to get these two successful movie actors to return for further series if the show became a success, so the idea was dropped.
The breakout of the Gulf War caused a change to the running order of the fourth series. The original opener "Meltdown" was replaced with "Camille", as it was felt that the former's anti-war message was not appropriate.
The Self-Loathing creature from "Terrorform" was based on an unused design from "Doctor Who" (1963).
After co-creating and co-writing the show for five years, Rob Grant left before the seventh series. This was apparently due to a large falling out with fellow co-creator Doug Naylor. As a result, new writers were hired to co-write the seventh and eighth with Naylor.
The seventh series was the only series not to be filmed before a studio audience. This was to allow greater freedom in camera positions and set design.
Chris Barrie initially decided only to appear in two of the eight episode in the seventh series, but was persuaded to double his commitment and appear in four, although in these two additional episodes he only appears in flashbacks and dream sequences. He returned for all of the eighth series.
Aware that "sci-fi" could be taken to mean "expensive", the series was initially pitched with the suggestion that Red Dwarf's interiors could be shot in the BBC canteen.
As with all other series, the seventh series was shot on videotape. But it was subsequently treated with an experimental "filmizing" process, to give the illusion that it was shot on film. This technique has since become common on British comedy and drama series, with varying acceptance by fans. It was also applied to series 1 and 2 for their "re-mastered" re-releases, but this, along with the models being replaced with CGI, prove unpopular with the fans, and has been dropped for subsequent video/DVD re-issues.
Chris Barrie starred in both this series and "The Brittas Empire" (1991) at the same time.
Signs in the hallways of the Red Dwarf are in English and Esperanto.
As of 2006, the series is technically still in production by the BBC, 18 years after it debuted. This makes it the second-longest running science fiction series of all time, behind "Doctor Who" (1963). Due to the erratic nature of British TV scheduling, however, only 8 series have actually been produced.
After falling out with Gareth Gwenlan, Head of BBC Comedy (he was opposed to the show, saying "You can't have a sitcom in space. There's no settee."), creators Rob Grant and Doug Naylor decided to use Gwenlan's surname as one of the show's made-up swear-words.
