Into the Toasterverse Features Posted by Ian Symes on 22nd October 2025, 12:31 Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone? From November 2000 until February 2022, Red Dwarf‘s official website would be updated every single Friday (barring Christmas holidays) without fail. Over twenty years of weekly updates, bringing us the latest news on new episodes, home media releases, merchandise and cast/crew projects. And whenever there wasn’t a great deal to report on, they’d simply churn out some of the best fan writing Red Dwarf has ever had. Over the years, editors Andrew Ellard, Seb Patrick and Curtis Threadgold wrote countless features, covering behind-the-scenes history, analysis and commentary on the show’s themes, and deep dives into niche rabbit holes. But in the earliest days of what we came to know affectionately as TOS, there was also a little something extra. Unlike his successors, Andrew Ellard was a full time employee of Grant Naylor Productions for the bulk of his time working on the site. This meant that in between masterminding the best range of DVDs in British comedy history, he often had time to craft multiple updates per week. In addition to the news and the above listed features, we also had two regular interview strands: Mr Flibble Talks To…, in which the popular penguin puppet spoke to various members of the cast and crew; and Toaster Talking, in which Talkie Toaster interviews other fictional characters from the series. I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t even bother to read the majority of these at the time. I was a pretentious, entitled teenager, and this was “only” fan fiction. I was just interested in what titbits of news I could use to update my pretentious, entitled fansite. I didn’t have time for this fanwank, not when there was so much actual wanking to do. But nowadays I’m much more open minded, and the potty-mouthed archivist in me is fascinated by there being new-to-me Red Dwarf to discover and analyse. Because there’s an argument that this isn’t “fan” fiction, it could be actual Red Dwarf canon. It was published on an official GNP platform, and written by someone who went on to write in-universe DVD features and an official comic strip, as well as script editing actual episodes of the actual show. Unlike other sci-fi behemoths we could mention, Red Dwarf doesn’t have much of an extended universe. Four novels, a few stocking filler books, a relatively short lived magazine and a handful of in-character appearances on TV or online. We’ll take what we can get, so let’s really drill in to what we’re now going to refer to as The Toasterverse, because it turns out these features contain some fascinating extra details about Red Dwarf‘s minor characters. Join us on a run down for some of the most interesting things we learned on our belated read through of Toaster Talking… • Dr Lucas McLaren was the ship’s on board psychiatrist as of Series VIII. But whatever happened to Dr Brannigan, previously established in that role when he was impersonated by Rimmer in Queeg? He went on a shopping trip to Miranda and couldn’t get back to Red Dwarf, because the shuttle was late. • Pete the sparrow was originally found by Birdman on the sole of Kill Crazy’s boot. He decided to keep him as a pet, and named him after none other than Peter Beardsley. • Pre Red Dwarf, Ackerman‘s first ever assignment was on a prison transport vessel, en route to Justice World. It’s heavily implied that the Simulant that our crew encounter in the episode was on board this transporter, and furthermore that it’s Ackerman’s fault he escaped, having dropped his key cards whilst fleeing from an illicit sexual encounter. Later, in the Simulant‘s interview, he confirms that the prisoners escaped, and tore the guards to pieces until there was only one survivor – Barbara Bellini. Unfortunately, the Simulant then accidentally triggered the ship’s auto-destruct, and bravely fled in Bellini’s pod. • Dr Lanstrom was murdered by a colleague. During a birthday party, one of the philosophers at the research station became convinced that he was a product of Lanstrom’s imagination, and that if she ceased to exist, so would he. He then decided to test his theory by chopping her head off with a fire axe. Also, the Latin name for the sexual magnetism virus is given as delecto quislibet, which translates literally as “I love anyone”. • There’s an attempt to reconcile the lineage of mechanoid models in Hudzen 10‘s interview. As we know, the Series 3000 was recalled for looking too human, replaced by the unmistakably robotic Series 4000, so why does the later Hudzen model look much more human than Kryten? Apparently they went too far the other way with the 4000s, and sales plummeted because they were so unnecessarily ugly. The Hudzen was therefore a middle ground; some human-esque features, but with enough mechanical elements (such as extremely oily nipples) to avoid confusion. • Also in Hudzen’s interview, we learn that Jim Reaper was a lousy salesman, but kept his job because he was personally hired by Professor Mamet. She’d taken a shine to him because of his close physical resemblance to her ex partner John Warburton. Reaper also had a brother who was much smarter. He worked for a software company and ended up developing the Data Doctor programme, presumably modelling the eponymous avatar on himself. • Captain Hollister wasn’t actually Dennis The Doughnut Boy. As a new recruit on a space freighter called The McGovern, he was once spotted in the crew mess helping himself at the doughnut stand, and the rest of the crew mistook him for the doughnut boy. • The interview with Arlene Rimmer reveals the names of several female-universe versions of familiar characters, including Vaughan McGruder (who called Arlene ‘Noreen’), Kristopher Kochanski, and Cameron, the Pleasure GELF. It also leaves the fate of Jim and Bexley unclear; Arlene says that they hung around “for a while”, but that it “was a long time ago”, implying that they’re no longer on board Debs and Arlene’s Red Dwarf, but not confirming what happened to them. • As well as reading every book ever written during his three million years of solitude, Holly also watched every TV show ever made. The inspiration for Queeg‘s name came from The Caine Mutiny as you’d expect, but the personality? Holly based him on B.A. Baracus from The A-Team. • Aliens exist in the Red Dwarf universe. Space Weevils are of entirely extra-terrestrial origin, and were first discovered on the outer fringes of the galaxy by the crew of the Enlightenment. Unfortunately, they were unable to capture or examine any of them, due to the crew’s intangible nature. As for Nirvanah Crane herself, she died aged 93 in an atomic explosion that took out half of Pluto. This means that either the Enlightenment crew – or possibly holograms in general – were able to choose the age of their physical appearance when being brought back, or she was just an incredibly youthful looking nonagenarian. Either way, it’s quite the age gap between her and Rimmer, who Talkie speculates Nirvanah was fond of from the start, given that she took him to her quarters for sex, rather than using the dedicated sex deck. • Ech-ech-ech-ech-ech-ech-ech-ech reveals that the swamp that Starbug crash-landed in was actually a lake of piss. The arrow the Kinitawowi fired at the posse was intended to kill Rimmer, as getting rid of the most annoying member of a party is a sign of respect to its leader. • Kill Crazy‘s real name is Oswald Blenkinsop. This is one of the few nuggets of information that has previously escaped from the Toasterverse into the mainstream. In September 2016, SFX released a very Dwarfy edition to tie in with the launch of Series XI, which included a special mini-zine dedicated to the series to date. In amongst the plot synopses and character bios was the name Oswald Blenkinsop, attached to Kill Crazy as if it was established canon, presumably as a result of some Googling, given that the name had already spread to various fan wikis by then. Andrew Ellard confirmed at the time that the name was his invention, and so its inclusion in an actual published magazine indicates (if you want it to) that the Toaster Talking interviews are indeed canonical. Oh also, the reason Kill Crazy’s in prison is because he followed a woman home, murdered her entire family, tied some intestines to his car aerial, then made a lamp from a human head and slippers out of human buttocks. There’s a lot of dark stuff in these interviews, Rob Grant would be proud. • Petersen isn’t actually a Catering Officer. It’s not clear what he was supposed to be, but he hacked into the ship’s system to change his job role, because he wanted access to the kitchens in order to make moonshine. One day, the still exploded, and a crew member called Oakley lost his arm as a result. Petersen was ordered to the Captain’s Office to explain himself to Hollister, when a much more deadly explosion took place, which explains why his remains were in the Drive Room for Lister to nibble on three million years later. • The only reason Gilbert works for TensionSheet!Lister is that he lost the sack race at a butlers’ convention in Swindon, and taking the worst job possible was the forfeit. On the plus side, he is shagging Sabrina Mulholland-Jjones on the side. • Bongo reveals a lot about Ace’s dimension, and the aftermath of Ace’s departure. As per Backwards, the Space Corps weren’t terribly happy about sending trillions of dollarpounds worth of technology, along with their best test pilot, on what they already knew was a one-way journey. We learn that Spanners is married to a woman called Kristine, who plotted the course for the test flight. Padré has a similar origin story to our Cat, in that he ultimately evolved from a moggy that Lister picked up on Titan, but was the result of experimentation into hyper-evolution. They invented a device to speed time up – effectively the opposite of a stasis booth – and he was the result. The same team went on to launch the SSS Esperanto to experiment with hyper-accelerating evolution on an ocean moon. Oh, and Mellie is an android, essentially a tenth generation AI computer in a realistic-looking humanoid body. • According to Rimmer’s Mum, the reason Arnold wasn’t seen in the photographs of his brother Frank’s wedding is that he turned up in his uniform. It naturally being a technician’s uniform, the rest of the family were too embarrassed to be seen with him, and made him stay in the vestry. Also, the camphor wood trunk was supposed to go to Howard, but the increasingly doddery Mr Rimmer got the addresses mixed up. And so, joking aside, is any of this actually canon? Well, it’s entirely up to you. Did Rimmer try to steal Lister’s body parts in the early post-accident days? Do male Felis Sapiens have a sac of poison in their system that can only be nullified by having sex? Does the AA offer a breakdown service if you’re three million years from Earth? Or here’s a biggie – is Red Dwarf’s captain a man named Hollister or a woman named Kirk? Since the first novel was released in 1989, the year after the show itself debuted in the first place, we’ve been well used to the idea of Red Dwarf straddling different timelines and parallel universes. These deviations from the mainline TV series may have pretty much ground to a halt at some point in the late 90s, but they could be where the franchise’s future lies, as both its co-creators continue to actively seek opportunities both on and off linear TV. Maybe Toaster Talking was twenty years ahead of its time.
Well, at least a few of these were interesting for highlighting minor errors in episodes that I hadn’t noticed or potential backstory I hadn’t really thought about, particularly Lanstrom’s. But I think that stuff’s better left to the imagination and I’m glad the series proper doesn’t waste time explaining things like all the Bobby doubles. Petersen’s seemed the most pointless, while Ackerman’s was the most infuriating. Justice World is SO far away, ffs.
I quite like these as possible explanations for apparent discrepancies and coincidences, although I think my definition of canon is probably limited to stuff that Rob and/or Doug had a hand in directly writing themselves.
Most of these are quite fun, but the Ackerman one suggests that Justice World and Simulants are contemporary with pre-accident Red Dwarf, which really doesn’t tally.
Fascinating stuff. The extra lore is definitely a mixed bag. I like the explanations for Dennis the Doughnut Boy, Brannigan, and the various in-universe Bobby Llewellyns, but some of the details just feel too neat, like Mellie being a robot and Padre also being a hyper-evolved cat (which just feels weird in general). I was satisfied that there just so happened to be regular people in Ace’s universe who looked like that. The revelation about Petersen seems a bit harsh on him. I quite liked the idea that Petersen was drunk and immature when off the clock, but a surprisingly competent manager when working.
The (unnecessary) attempt to solve the psychiatrist continuity only makes it more complicated. How does Brannigan’s hologram know the shuttle was late if Brannigan never returned to Red Dwarf to update his personality disc with that information? It’s like when a first-person narrator dies at the end of the story. Why is he still on file? McLaren gives the direct quote from Queeg in the interview as his own musing, making it seem more like that was his hologram all along. Why not just assume there was more than one psychiatrist?
The (unnecessary) attempt to solve the psychiatrist continuity only makes it more complicated. How does Brannigan’s hologram know the shuttle was late if Brannigan never returned to Red Dwarf to update his personality disc with that information? I took this to be deliberate irony. That while on the crew Brannigan was often telling anecdotes about shuttles being late, and then by a twist of fate he was unable to return from shore leave – and he therefore avoided being a victim of the radiation leak – due to a shuttle being late. Not that his quoted line about the shuttle being late was in direct reference to this one event.
The fact that they’re usually so good is what makes the times that they’re late such incredible anecdotes! Everyone loved Brannigan on Red Dwarf, he was such a lad.
I don’t think any of this is going in my head-canon but it’s fun all the same. I especially like the stuff about Ace’s dimension. Mellie being an android works quite nicely with her Blade Runner-esque look. (I know replicants are bioengineered rather than robots, but still.) Also it’s pretty funny how these interviews attempt to explain all these things, and yet there’s zero context for how or why Talkie is conducting them in the first place. There’s even more official fanfic type stuff in the Space Corps Database, like this bio for the Dog, who “evolved from Deb Lister’s pet dog, Dracula”. I thought that came from the Arlene interview or the one with Dog himself, but can only find it there.
Why would “Dracula” be the female equivalent of “Frankenstein”? Surnames stay the same, after all – in that universe, the scientist would have just been called Victoria Frankenstein.
It’s Lister alphabetical rule for pet names. Dog = Dracula Feline = Frankenstein Robot Goldfish = Lennon & McCartney
Why would “Dracula” be the female equivalent of “Frankenstein”? Surnames stay the same, after all – in that universe, the scientist would have just been called Victoria Frankenstein. In the Parallel Universe universe, everyone is called Drac. Drac Hollister, Drac Todhunter, Arlene’s auntie Drac.
Lister having a dog called Dracula is just an extension of the joke of Dog as a character – that instead of being gender swapped, the counterpart character is “opposite” in a different way. … except Lister’s dog would need to be male anyway, because it was pregnant.
Most of these are quite fun, but the Ackerman one suggests that Justice World and Simulants are contemporary with pre-accident Red Dwarf, which really doesn’t tally. Trojan outright states that simulants are around in the “present” of Red Dwarf but haven’t rebelled yet.
Aliens exist in the Red Dwarf universe. Space Weevils are of entirely extra-terrestrial origin, and were first discovered on the outer fringes of the galaxy by the crew of the Enlightenment Uni does say Earth is the only planet with INTELLIGENT life, not life full stop.
The Evageeks Wiki for Evangelion has a system of tiered canon, where the show is primary (not sure about the Rebuild movies after the final one did hint they are in fact a sequel to the original after all, I haven’t checked since 2015), the manga is secondary, and everything else is teritary. Everything is canon unless directly contradicted by a higher tier. I admire this system.
Novel canon is primary. Show canon is secondary. Toaster interviews are tertiary. Red Christmas is quaternary.
And the Space Corps Database? Which definitely needs an article now. Honestly the Smegazine comics are probally tertiary. Turns out its even more complicated than I remembered. https://wiki.evageeks.org/Theory_and_Analysis:What_Is_Canon%3F
I’d personally still keep the show as primary canon. Most of what works in the novels is pre-accident and can largely be transposed over, and most of what comes after is unpleasantly grim compared to the series.
Most of these are quite fun, but the Ackerman one suggests that Justice World and Simulants are contemporary with pre-accident Red Dwarf, which really doesn’t tally. I’ve been thinking about this, and we don’t actually know for sure that *Ackerman* is contemporary with pre-accident Red Dwarf. Of the crew members that appear in VIII, only Hollister, Chen and Selby (plus Petersen, mentioned but not seen) were known to us beforehand. The rest of them could all be inventions of the nanobots/Holly, or plucked from different points in space and time.
Most of these are quite fun, but the Ackerman one suggests that Justice World and Simulants are contemporary with pre-accident Red Dwarf, which really doesn’t tally. I’ve been thinking about this, and we don’t actually know for sure that *Ackerman* is contemporary with pre-accident Red Dwarf. Of the crew members that appear in VIII, only Hollister, Chen and Selby (plus Petersen, mentioned but not seen) were known to us beforehand. The rest of them could all be inventions of the nanobots/Holly, or plucked from different points in space and time. Oh God don’t. As if VIII isn’t enough of a clusterfuck as it is. Most of these are quite fun, but the Ackerman one suggests that Justice World and Simulants are contemporary with pre-accident Red Dwarf, which really doesn’t tally. Trojan outright states that simulants are around in the “present” of Red Dwarf but haven’t rebelled yet. Howard and Sim are post-accident – Howard knows Rimmer disappeared with Red Dwarf. Could be a couple of decades after easily.
Also given that Howard is a hologram, there’s no limit to how much later it could have been (unless I’m forgetting a moment where this was explicitly ruled out, which is possible).
The big question is how and when Howard died yes. The Toaster really needs to get to the bottom of it.
To be fair, Howard didn’t seem that interested in how Arnold died either – Rimmer brushes off the accusation that he died on Red Dwarf, but he doesn’t get pressed for any other details. Howard’s also just fully unbothered about the fact that he’s now millions of years displaced from his own time and that his brother’s ship apparently has an alien navigation officer.
Howard’s also just fully unbothered about the fact that he’s now millions of years displaced from his own time and that his brother’s ship apparently has an alien navigation officer. He’s from the Toasterverse where aliens exist, time and space are no object and the universe is the size of Springfield.
It also leaves the fate of Jim and Bexley unclear; Arlene says that they hung around “for a while”, but that it “was a long time ago”, implying that they’re no longer on board Debs and Arlene’s Red Dwarf, but not confirming what happened to them. Possibly Ellard again trying to tidy up the question of how Rimmer saw a future echo of Bexley dying? I kinda like the idea the twins returned to their birth dimension only to detonate unnoticed in the drive room. Or it happened off-screen unceremoniously, which is how old Lister knows.
Possibly Ellard again trying to tidy up the question of how Rimmer saw a future echo of Bexley dying? I kinda like the idea the twins returned to their birth dimension only to detonate unnoticed in the drive room. Or it happened off-screen unceremoniously, which is how old Lister knows. The Backwards text says they hyper-aged to late teens / young adults, which is a completely unnecessary detail unless it was to make Bexley’s death a prophesied near-future like Stasis Leak that would be teasingly on the horizon but they probably wouldn’t have to deal with because they figured they wouldn’t still be making the show at that point.
Reading this is a reminder of how lucky we were to have Andrew Ellard working on Red Dwarf for all those years. The guy is a huge talent and did so much for the show. I hope he’s doing really well.
