UPDATED! See the comments for further info!

Anyone heard of the rumour that the TARDIS appears in Red Dwarf? Yes? No? Maybe?

Want to know if it’s true?

Read on…

There was a little known rumour that a Mike Tucker hid a little scale model of Doctor Who‘s TARDIS into one of the Starbug hangar shots in Red Dwarf. As a joke. Now, we were told this by none other than Mike Tucker himself at Coventry’s Dimension Jump. However, he didn’t tell us WHERE it was. No slides, no description, nothing.

Hardly surprising, I have to be honest, most possibly for two reasons…

1. They probably won’t know which episode it was used for, since a lot of those generic model shots were used whenever they were appropriate, and

2. They did do it in 1989, so the chances of them recollecting doing something 12 years ago AND keeping a photo of something they did as a joke would not be close at hand.

So I went to my first port of call : www.eeggs.com.

If you find an Easter egg on a DVD, you can post it on here, and then it becomes part of their database, whether they’ve been verified or not. Kind of like IMDb, really (Norman Lovett as Davros?), so this TARDIS/Dwarf rumour was bound to be there… Sure enough…

“In the cargo bay of the Red Dwarf (where Starbug is taking off in one scene) a tiny blue British police box can be seen nestled upon one of the platforms in the background. It is only on the screen for a second, but it’s definitely an homage to Doctor Who (it’s the TARDIS!)…”

The comments weren’t much help. Check this out…

‘not a god but still a god!’ wrote:

“blue midget is a craft…. not a box!!! I know nothing about Dr.Who so I have never heard of a tardis…. ???retardis???”

What? Why did you write that? I get angry with pointless posts like these… ‘Not a god’ but still a twat!

Jon of Smeg wrote:

“I know the episode you mean, and as a hardened smeggie I can tell you now that it IS NOT the tardis. It is in fact Red Dwarf’s other transport craft, “Blue Midget” so there! Any self-respecting smeggie would know THAT!”

Ah, right, so Mike DID NOT put a TARDIS in Red Dwarf! You are a liar, Mike. Jon says so. “So there!”

Unperturbed by these unfoundedly pointless comments, I thought I’d try and e-mail Mike Tucker himself and see if he could shed any more light on this subject. After all, if anyone would be able to sort this out it would be him.

So this is what I sent him :

Hello Mike,

I was wondering if you could iron out a long-running and much confused discussion about the appearance of the TARDIS in Red Dwarf. I remember you saying at a recent Dimension Jump Meet that you had purposefully put a TARDIS as an In-Joke to working on Doctor Who. Urban Legend believers and saying that it’s not the TARDIS but in fact ‘The Blue Midget’, Obviously they don’t realise that a true ‘egg’ is something hidden by the creators for their own amusement, rather then putting it in full view of the camera. I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction of the place of this ‘Legendary Egg’ even with some pictorial evidence if possible. I get really annoyed when people who claim to “know” the answer when there are people ‘ie DJ attendees’ who know that it is definitely true, however we can’t prove it as we can’t find the egg ourselves. If you could finally place this long running (and rather frustrating) argument to rest I and a lot of people would be very grateful (and some rather shamed :))

I sent that at 1:21am on the 8th of September 2006 after a long night of trying to find this frigging police box. However, I was surprised to find this in my inbox less than 12 hours later…

Hi Daniel,

There is a TARDIS model in the Blue Midget hanger from series 3 Red Dwarf– fact. (I know’ cos I put it there) It’s a two inch-tall model that is in the corner of the hanger on the full ‘launch corridor’ set. The shot I remember it being visible is the scene where you see the full launch sequence – (the doors opening as the camera pulls back, with Hattie shouting Awoooga!) What I CAN”T confirm is that it is visible in the cuts used in the transmitted episodes.

The only pictorial evidence I know is in an early Starburst (or TV Zone). I’ll attempt to find the picture for you.

Mike

God bless him for that.

And for this…

Hi Daniel,

Photographic proof as promised.

Regards

Mike

Along with this is the aforementioned proof…

TARDIS magazine scan

I think you’ll find that THAT is irrefutable proof that the TARDIS does indeed exist in a model shot in Red Dwarf.

But which episode is it in?

Well I’m sorry to tell you this but it’s not in any episode. The shot in question was an alternative take on the “Marooned” opening shot. And if you want more proof, all of you who own the 2-disc Series III DVD can see if for yourselves. It’s on the Model Shot sequence on Disc 2 (Marilyn Monroe’s Foot) and it’s around the 6:02-6:03 mark.

Here is a screenshot of it from the DVD for those who still don’t believe me.

TARDIS magazine scan

I’m kind of glad to have found it, although I would never have found it without asking Mike first, because me (and apparently a lot of other people) didn’t actually know WHERE to look, never mind WHAT to look for.

Now if you will excuse me, there is a rumour that there is a TARDIS hidden in “Thanks for the Memory”…

73 comments on “Now You See It…

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  • Fantastic stuff, Danny. It’s good to finally be able to set the record straight on the Wiki entry, as well!

    Also, just look at that magazine scan. Just look at the level of detail on the ship. It’s absolutely staggering – and to think, so much of it gets lost on broadcast viewing.

  • Not usually into the technical aspect of the show, but really–that scanned model photo is gorgeous. They went for CGI instead of that?

    And the cast can’t tell the difference? (Well, at least Craig can’t, if I remember it correctly.)

    Le sigh.

  • What an excellent story-conclussion.
    Incredible detail in the modelling, what a guy…
    Now, to get Starbug on Dr Who…

  • Lush! Now rather than being just an easter egg, what if it’s a piece of genuine continuity? And if so, why was the Doctor visiting Red Dwarf and for what purpose?

    I’d write some fanfiction if I could write.

  • Ace could be the doctor.
    I had heard that rumour but I’d expected it to be bigger. I’d have never found that on my own. Good find.

  • Re: detail on models – is it not the case that ‘good’ model teams try to put in one more level of detail than is actually required? Not sure if it’s a rule of thumb here (as it can be in other things), but it’s marvellous to see how far they went for BBC sitcom.

  • By the way, does anyone else get a warm fuzzy feeling from the idea of Mike Tucker having loads of old issues of Starburst and TV Zone lying round the place?

  • Totally fantastic, this has laid to rest a long discussed issue for me. A brilliant find, Danny.

    > No, Ace was a companion

    Heh Heh

  • > Now, to get Starbug on Dr Who?

    If you look closely it’s actually the leg of the ‘Bug that smashes into Big Ben in Aliens Of London. If only…

    The Dwarf crew themselves being on Who would be most excellent. If new Dwarf was on at the moment and popular enough the BBC might have been persuaded to consider a Children In Need/Comic Relief skit featuring both shows. But I suppose there’s more chance of them doing a Who/Robin Hood crossover (wasn’t Stephen Fry’s Who episode meant to be about Robin Hood and that’s why it was axed? It was certainly about an old British legend)

  • I’ve heard it said that because Who, of course, features aliens and Dwarf has a strict no-aliens policy, they can’t possibly have a crossover story.

    My problem with the Dwarf/aliens thing is this: the dimension theory of reality.

    Because if there are infinite universes where every possibility exists, there MUST be billions of parallel existences where Earth was not the source of all life. Which, sod it, allows for the Whoniverse to run parallel to Dwarf’s.

    Discuss.

  • >I?ve heard it said that because Who, of course, features aliens and Dwarf has a strict no-aliens policy, they can?t possibly have a crossover story.

    I’m profoundly ignorant of anything related to Doctor Who (I’ve read a couple of the Eighth Doctor novels. I tried once to get some DVDs for my local library, but didn’t know where to begin), but making an absolute out of it like that (“No, a Dwarf/Who crossover could never possibly happen”) is somewhat underestimating the creative powers each franchise has at its disposal, innit?

  • > Just don?t put the Dwarf crew in the same show as the latest Dire Extraterrestrial Menace

    That’s not the point, though – the point is that the Doctor’s universe fully acknowledges life beyond Earth. This is strictly contrary to the established Dwarf lore of ‘no aliens’.

    Not only can the Dwarfers not meet an alien – of which the Doctor himself is one, so you couldn’t have him in it! – but they can’t meet anyone who HAS MET an alien. They’re antithetical fictional universes.

    Except, as I say, the dimension thory of reality allows this to, be contradicted. You can’t have a ‘no anything’ rule if you allow multiple dimensions into your fictional reality. Say Rob and Doug instituted a ‘no ghosts’ rule, that in their make-believe world there’s no such thing. Tough – as soon as infinite and all-possible realities are acknowledged, there has to BE a ‘ghosts exist’ version out there.

  • See, this is why I edited. I am, I repeat, profoundly ignorant of other SF universes besides h2g2 and Dwarf.

  • >Because if there are infinite universes where every possibility exists, there MUST be billions of parallel existences where Earth was not the source of all life.

    That’s actually a really good point…except that (parhaps) Rob and Doug (as creators) would have the right to say–for the purposes of the show, anyway–that life anywhere else is NOT possible, and therefore an alternative reality wouldn’t exist in which there was extraterrestrial life.

    Which by no means is the way I actually feel on the subject. I’m just saying that since Rob and Doug set their own rules for the show it’s not out of line for them to judge something impossible. Likewise I don’t believe there’d have to a universe in which ghosts exist, because it’s easy enough to believe that ghosts existing is not a possibility.

    Consider our own “reality.” The fact that you CAN conceive of something as an alternate reality doesn’t make it possible. If I wanted to, I could devote a good long time to considering an alternate reality in which we are all balloons blown up by some cosmic child and shaped into animal forms, and we go about our business as normal until one of us steps on a tack. In fact, I can picture that more easily than I had hoped.

    But the fact that I can imagine it doesn’t make it a “possibility,” and therefore there doesn’t HAVE to be an alternate universe in which it is true, because it’s impossible.

    Again, I’m not saying alien life is impossible. I personally don’t even feel it’s unlikely. But since Rob and Doug were setting their own reality, they have every right to dismiss aliens as impossible just as we dismiss the balloon-theory as impossible.

    They may or may not have done this, obviously, I’m not claiming any special knowledge or insight…only that it IS possible for them to have both a dimension theory of reality present in the show AND a non-contradicting no-aliens policy.

  • Also, if they simply declare that there are no aliens in their universe – not in their multiverse, as t’were – then it’s easy enough to come up with rules (Ace is the only person EVER to have crossed between dimensions, for example) to prevent aliens from other timelines ever crossing into “our” one.

    But Phil : if there are an infinite number of possibilities – as opposed to a finite number – then everything (including your crazy balloonfuck universe, and including everything not considered by anyone) is a possibility.

  • Incidentally, best gag ever relating to parallel universes, and I’m paraphrasing somewhat here :

    “Maybe somewhere there was a reality where Tranter was unable to resist the temptation to go into the bathroom and have a sly drink of whisky this early in the morning. Tranter thought about it for a moment, and decided to make it this reality.”

  • Phil’s right, of course – a creator of a fictional universe is a god. Their will is ultimate, their rules definitive. No aliens means no aliens.

    Except…except…can God create a rock that even he can’t move? It’s an old example, but it’s kinda what’s happened here. Can a god create an infinite numbers of realities where a FINITE number of things occur?

    And the logical answer is ‘nope’. As Seb points out.

    Though, that said, that also means there IS a God in half the dimensions out there. In fact, there are ALL the gods, of all religions. Which actually makes sense, because then every nature of life comes down to what the god in that universe chose to do – balloon people born of a cosmic baby, whatever!

    Thus an athiest goes to a Red Dwarf fan site and argues that the dimension theory of reality proves the existence of an omnipotent deity. Erm…sorry about that.

    (And Phil’s point is well taken, actually – the genuinely impossible, as opposed to massively unlikely, thing cannot take place in ANY reality. No matter what dimension you’re in, that rock simply cannot exist.)

    Ooh, I’m enjoying this one…

  • On Earth we are pretty much the master race, if alone, we become the master race of the universe.
    As we evolved from slime, the chances are any other life form would have evolved from the same source.
    I think with the limited knowledge mankind has it’s far easier to imagine an alternative dimension with the same basic laws as we have.
    In the world of Dwarf most of the goings on are limited to a relatively short period in evolutionary terms whereas Dr Who goes back and forth between the time of Earths birth to its death and beyond. Kryten himself is part organic very much like some of the Who beings (Daleks etc), created in the next 3,000,000 years!.
    The odd times that Dwarf has dabbled with alternatives they seem to be running in roughly the same time span as ours.
    I think Rob and Doug have said there are no aliens but that’s because no evidence has ‘yet’ been found of their existence in our time zone in our universe, once you cross those barriers anything becomes possible.
    As the Doctor can operate outside our time, can alter the oucome of events and on occasion, wipe any recollection from the minds of any ‘humans’ involved, you begin to get nearer to
    a common ground.
    So yes, I think there could be a cross over but I dont think a balloon alternative could exist…

    More importantly, I’ve just wasted my short lunchbreak writing a pile of poo, and still have no idea if you could get away with it…

  • Sorry, I have nothing to add to this HEATED DEBATE, but I just wanted to say that I think this article is fantastic.

    That is all.

  • A good article, but I’d add that they did use a shot containing the TARDIS in a transmitted episode. You can see it in the same place indicated above on the shot where the camera POV is inside looking at Starbug going out. If I find my old VHS of that series I’ll put up a screengrab.

  • Can you remember which episode it was Medd? I’ll have a look myself on the DVD if you can remember.

  • “Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mindboggingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.

    “The argument goes something like this: `I refuse to prove that I exist,’ says God, `for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.’

    “`But,’ says Man, `The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn’t it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don’t. QED.’

    “`Oh dear,’ says God, `I hadn’t thought of that,’ and promptly vanished in a puff of logic.

    “`Oh, that was easy,’ says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.

    Well, you’ve done part 1 Andrew, just watch part 2 – it’s a doozy :p

  • It’d be pretty sad if the opportunity to do a crossover was there and it didn’t happen just because the Dwarf crew can’t meet an alien. It wouldn’t be part of Dwarf canon anyway (Is Identity Within canon? I know that ‘Can’t Smeg, Won’t Smeg’ to me is more canon-worthy than VII & VIII…)

  • Were Rob and Doug opposed to alien life forms from a “Oh noes, we’re in space and there’s ALIENS!!!!” point of view, rather than just a thematic decision? I seem to recall Doug saying something along those lines.
    Given that and that fact that almost every Red Dwarf law is mutable for the sake of a story (or joke), surely if a really good cross-over script/book/etc existed, a rubber stamp couldn’t be too far away?

    But then, this is no use to the multi-/parallel-/alternate universe chatter. Which is increasingly enjoyable: continue.

  • It’s in an episode from series 3 or 5. I’ve just had a look through 4 and didn’t see it. I think the shot, or at least that angle of shot, appeared more than once as well.

    I’m having a bit of trouble playing the 3 & 5 tapes so it’s over to the people with DVDs.

  • As well as the clip from an episode I described above, I’ve found another one on the Smeg Ups VHS. Not sure if this one was part of an episode.

  • It’s definitely not three, because we scrutinised it when fact-checking for the article. It might be 5, but I’m trying to think of another instance where both ships left the craft (and Mike Tucker did say that he put it in a shot that was intended for Backwards, which it’s *definitely* not in).

  • It’s not a shot of both ships leaving the craft, only Starbug. From the inside-looking-out angle, I’m not sure you can see Blue Midget.

  • >But Phil : if there are an infinite number of possibilities – as opposed to a finite number – then everything (including your crazy balloonfuck universe, and including everything not considered by anyone) is a possibility.

    Sorry Seb, but that’s not quite how it works, and I think you’d be hard pressed to find somebody who has studied the subject that would conclude that somewhere, out there, we are balloon animals of the cosmic child. I’ll address why below, using a quote from Andrew as a springboard.

    >Can a god create an infinite numbers of realities where a FINITE number of things occur?

    Well, the thing is here, an infinite number of universes still would not include impossibilities (funny how I just read a book that touched not just lightly on this very subject)…I’m sure (and the author I was reading specifically argued) that it’s not common to find a scientist (or philosopher) who believes in dimension theory of reality who ALSO believes that, therefore, there must be a God (or gods) in some of those dimensions.

    Simply because they don’t believe God is a possibility. He is IMPOSSIBLE, therefore removed from the infinite possibility realm.

    But, you ask, just there, right above…how is it infinite if we’re chopping out possibilities?

    Simple. Hold your hand out in front of you and spread your fingers. No matter how you’ve spaced them, there is an infinite amount of space between each finger. Whatever amount of space is there, you can halve it, and halve those halves, and halve THOSE halves, and so on, right into infinity, and mathematics will never stop you from continuing indefinitely. It’s exactly like the old Achilles problem, in which he can never catch the turtle because for every 10 feet Achilles runs the turtle moves an inch.

    By this logic there’s infinite water in a bathtub and infinite coffee in a mug as well, which isn’t actually incorrect, it’s just that we’re using “finite” and “infinite” to mean very discernable things, which they aren’t always. The infinite can (and does) exist BETWEEN extremes, not always in the conventional idea of BEYOND extremes.

    That said, I realize you aren’t disagreeing with me Andrew, I just thought it might be worth exploring the idea. It IS possible to have infinite universes without absurd impossibilities having to dominate any of them, whether that “absurd possibility” is balloon animals as sentient beings, God, or extra-terrestrial life.

    Who’s to say what is absurd and what’s not?

    Well, arguably, nobody. In reality. But within the reality of their own show, Rob and Doug have every right to dismiss something as absurd. Which is, essentially, a longwinded way of coupling their “no aliens” with their “dimension theory.” You’re welcome, GNP.

  • > That said, I realize you aren?t disagreeing with me Andrew

    I’d hope so, seeing as I’d taken a less-well-read crack at that ‘no impossible beings’ thing myself!

    Though I’m not convinced the baloon thing is entirely impossible. The body seems awfully ballooney to me. (Though maybe that’s just mine.) Lungs, stomachs, bottoms, boobs, inflatable male genitals – I think we may even usurp the Flying Spaghetti Monster and his noodly appendage with this one! :-)

    http://www.venganza.org/

    P.S. Possibly the D-theory allows for a deity or deities in other universes, just not one who is omnipotent. 2001=esque higher beings could be vaguely credible; only being all-powerful falls down through logic alone…

    > Which is, essentially, a longwinded way of coupling their ?no aliens? with their ?dimension theory.?

    Except aliens are an extremely likely thing. Or, if not, certainly an extremely CREDIBLE thing. Given that the RD universe buys into both the Big Bang AND evolution, an infinite number of dimensions inevitably suggests a reality where the randomness of the universe’s creation led to life evolving, in a unique way, somewhere other than Earth, and into something ‘other than human’.

    I’m not convinced even the gods of the series can dismiss something as absurd at that point – not, at least, without challenging their own uses of evolution, Big Bang theory and the dimension stuff.

    …ah, except, of course, there a fuckload of continuity errors throughout the series. Which makes this whole thing dismissable as ‘change of scene, change of logic, thank you and goodnight’.

    Bollocks.

  • >I?d hope so, seeing as I?d taken a less-well-read crack at that ?no impossible beings? thing myself!

    Oh yeah, I wouldn’t degrade your argument at all, especially as it got me thinking about the nature of infinity. The fact is that we don’t disagree, but you approached it in a way I wouldn’t have, which, consequently, taught me something about my own belief. God I love that.

    >Given that the RD universe buys into both the Big Bang AND evolution, an infinite number of dimensions inevitably suggests a reality where the randomness of the universe?s creation led to life evolving, in a unique way, somewhere other than Earth, and into something ?other than human?.

    Ah, now this might just be the crux of the problem, here. Because it’s easy (well, relatively easy) to take “no aliens” and “dimension theory” and manage to have both (for the purposes of a television program anyway), but now you’re mentioning specifics which, let’s be honest, are sloppy to exclude. You’re right to mention them, and, unfortunately for me, that complicates my end of the argument.

    Assuming that the RD universe is very much like our own (there’s a lot to suggest it, and the evolution/Big Bang stuff practically cements it), and that alien life is not unlikely in our own…then what changed for Dwarf? Sure, we CAN still say that Rob/Doug reached into their universe and plucked aliens up by the scruffs of their necks and tossed them out just for the sake of tossing them out…but that’s cheap. Even if that’s true, it still has to work in a LOGICAL sense for the show…

    There genuinely might be a good explorative essay in this subject, and I blame you for the lack of productivity at work this is going to cause me.

  • > There genuinely might be a good explorative essay in this subject, and I blame you for the lack of productivity at work this is going to cause me.

    Glad to be of no help. :-)

    The books throw some light here. It’s suggested that Mankind used their new-found space-travel abilities (and in, fact, the stasis booths) to explore, explore, explore. Culminating in…absolutely nothing,

    It’s from this that I recently surmised (um…somewhere else, now I look back, and now I can’t remember where I said it) Lister’s attitude to Rimmer in the show. His utter incredulity regarding aliens. It’s presented an old legend now, only clung to by flat-Earthers, because the proof (or lack of) has been found (or not).

    And obviously, it’s pretty unlikely. A few centuries on (say the 23rd for now) it’s suggested we’ve travelled/seen far enough to make ‘no aliens’ a reasonable conclusion at this point. That’s a lot of our one, infinite universe to have apparently explored. Still, that’s the text, and we’ll stick with it; it’s the Grant/Naylor creation theory, and they are the gods.

    That being the case, the Dwarf universe basically says this: likelihood of aliens was large, enough to go looking for, costing masses, based on creation and evolution data – but, having done that, there are now categorically NONE in this universe.

    Thus they are hoist by their own logical petard. Their dimension theory accounts for ‘every possibility’. Aliens were considered scientifically possible, there just…weren’t any. Thus there ARE aliens. We just haven’t seen them. Because they haven’t enetered our alien-free reality.

    Of course there’s also a dimension where aliens nicked Ace’s ship and travelled to some alien-free dimensions. But at this point I start to bleed from the ears…

  • Did God once weave a magic spell
    And from his thoughts all life dispel
    Or did we form through natural course
    Created by organic force..

    Touching on the meaning of life for a moment, many religious people believe we are here to be tested, I/E earning our place in Heaven or the damnation of Hell…
    Which is all well and good perhaps, but we can all take the wrong paths in life..
    If there were a God who created Earth, might he not think, ah, what if I created more Earths in parallel universies or dimensions, where the same people exist but choose different paths (bring on Rimmer)…

    I had a friend once who believed that the universe was nothing more than a huge cell that kept dividing and expanding, our big bang being the point of seperation. he felt that each new cell would be *almost* identical to the previous one, hence multi-dimensions. There was of course a lot more to his theory though the finer details are a tad hazy due to us always being drunk when discussing it.

    I myself strongly believe that there must be other life forms out there but base this largely on the law of averages..I seem to recall that the show Q.E.D covered this from many angles but concluded that with so many stars/planets and other objects out there, it would be impossible for other life forms not to exist, though those life forms may not be what we expect. They went on to ask what happens when a coin is flipped a million times (a very small number in universe terms). The law of averages means that heads and tails will come up roughly the same ammount of times, though on average, twice in a million flips, the coin will land on it’s edge.
    I think the point being, always expect the unexpected and never dismiss the possibilities. Maybe Earth was the coin that landed on it’s edge, but given the shear volumne of stuff out there, Life somewhere else has to be more than a probability…

  • Just a quick thought, seeing as I’ve written enough garbage for one day….

    Throughout the debate, people are quoting points raised in the writings of Rob and Doug that dismiss the existence of aliens, true enough. They may well have said in person that no aliens exsist in the Dwarf world that they created, yes ok.
    Red Dwarf however was and hopefully still is an ongoing story.
    That being the case, would there be a problem in our inept crew going on to disprove everyone that has gone before them. I could see a certain irony in a twist like that.
    Your not actually changing the continuity of what’s gone before, you are actually discovering something that hasn’t been discovered before.
    Our mob, seemingly alone in space, could make the biggest discovery in the history of mankind and have nobody to tell..
    Ok, maybe not..

  • Steve, your last post strikes me as eerily reminiscent of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead – please tell me you’ve seen it? If you haven’t, consider it recommended (I’m elitist and prefer the stage version to the film, mind).

    On the off-topic; on the subject of a God creating a myriad universes to observe all people in all positions [subscribing for a moment to the ‘here for certification’ point of view], there’s nothing stopping our hypothetical Deity from doing as such. Given that He’s already whipped up one universe, an’ all.
    Actually, looking at some of the bizarre stuff that our particular universe does on the minuscule scale, it’s not hard to imagine a universe populated by the statistical aggregate of all potential universes/people in a given range. Which is a nice thought to explore at some point.

    Sleep now.

  • I read a theory once that was an interesting spin on reincarnation, in that we all reincarnate into another universe after death, and in fact that parallel aspect runs through one individual “soul”. For example, if I had visited a parallel universe where there was a female version of me, that person wouldn’t be an alternative version of me, but actually me in another life. Thus, travelling through dimensions would be akin to crossing time as well as realities, but time’s position (it’s essence and methods) in an alternative reality is a totally different ball game.

    Sorry that’s a bit sketchy but it’s all from memory. I’ll see if I can dig the article out.

  • >Steve, your last post strikes me as eerily reminiscent of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead – please tell me you?ve seen it? If you haven?t, consider it recommended (I?m elitist and prefer the stage version to the film, mind).

    Now there’s a film I should watch again. It struck me as highly entertaining at the time, but I hardly remember any of it now, beyond there being a great “tennis” scene. Didn’t it launch Gary Oldham’s film career?

  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead – a fantastic film, and an even better play. I did a scene from that once for my GCSE drama a few years back. The way they sort of inhabit Shakespeare so well is admirable.

  • Right. We looked over III and IV at the weekend – and I’ve just looked over V. I can’t see the TARDIS anywhere.

    I’m not saying it’s not there if you’ve definitely seen it though, Medd – just that I can’t spot it!

  • >Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead – a fantastic film, and an even better play. I did a scene from that once for my GCSE drama a few years back. The way they sort of inhabit Shakespeare so well is admirable.

    Speaking of Tom Stoppard and Shakespeare, I’ve not yet seen R&GAD performed as a play, but I have seen Dogg’s Hamlet and Cahoot’s MacBeth done together. Fantastic when well staged.

  • “Dude, these guys rock… they’re like Bill and Ted meets… Cheech and Chong!”

    “Well, I prefer to think of them as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern meets Vladimir and Estragon.”

    “YES! … wait, who?”

  • This is from Series 5: Demons and Angels. 3 minutes 53 seconds into the episode, just after the crew have failed to get Holly to open the Cargo Bay doors.

    Again, click to see it properly. This isn’t the image I remember using x years ago when I had to prove this to someone else so I guess there’s at least one more around somewhere.

  • Wow! There it is – right in the middle of the shot! I remember looking carefully at that shot as well, so fuck knows how I missed it…

    Ta Medd.

  • What’s interesting about that is that it’s a flipped shot, because the picture i’ve got has the TARDIS at the BACK. And this one has the TARDIS on the opposide of the set.

  • Now, I vaguely recall something about the *outside* shots of the cargo bay being flipped, which would tie in with that.

    I’m sure they were flipped for a specific reason – but I can’t remember what it is.

  • Right, that’s it – someone get on to Big Finish and tell them they need to do an audio play where The Doctor visits Red Dwarf. He’s there quite a lot, isn’t he?

  • lol all you people saying there couldent be a cross over, well now the tardis has been in red dwarf means the doctor has too and theoretical this means tht there has allready been an alien on red dwarf, and what are those big hairy man monsters in red dwarf(lister gets marryed to one, (oh and the sirens) are they not ailens, i know all other “aliens” are explained by human experements gone wrong but have the hairy things been explained this way?

  • Yes. They’re called GELFs – Genetically Engineered Life Forms: They’re a genetic experiment which originated from Earth, much like the Polymorph. Same with the Psirens.

    See the No Aliens FAQ.

  • lol thts me told, :) thanks for clearing tht up … is there a section on here tht keeps the movie info updated?

  • We’re launching an FAQ soon – but the current status with the movie is still “script written, but Doug Naylor is still looking for funding”.

  • Hell, even if the movie does get made, I’d like to see the script–it might be an interesting examination of the journey from script to screen.

  • Mr. Naylor should have waved that at people “no longer interested in the audience Red Dwarf formerly used to attract”.

  • Great work!, Doctor who meets Red dwarf!….am i in heaven?……what other dreams of mine will come true?….perhaps kate beckinsale and angelina jolie WILL wrestle in a mudpit!.

  • If you go to about 3 53 in the episode deamons and angels and look to the right of starbug there is blue midget and the Tardis

  • >deamons and angels

    I think The Mind of Reality was the better of Red Dwarf’s Pertwee stories.

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