Fan Theory Corner

[Flap Jack]

I was surprised that I couldn’t find a dedicated thread for this topic, figured there shouldn’t be any harm in starting one (in theory).

What are your favourite/most noteworthy Red Dwarf fan theories? (Either ones you’ve come up with yourself, or ones you’ve heard from others.)

To start us off – Smeg Ups, Smeg Outs , Can’t Smeg, Won’t Smeg etc. are all canon. They take place off screen just before the end of ‘Back to Earth’. Lister is taking advantage of his new lucid squid dreaming to act out fantasies of being a real life TV character in the world where his life story is a popular comedy.

Topic

[Frank Smeghammer]

Yeah like that

[Rudolph]

It occurred to me in the past few years that Lister had a pretty sad life when he joined the Dwarf. He didn’t have any family left or long term friends. His lazy, slobby life meant he only ever had drinking buddies and didn’t have many ties back on earth. Which is why he obsessed over Kochanski so much as she was his only anchor to the idea of having family or people to care about.

I’ve always figured Lister had something of a crisis before the series. That all his mates were settling down and getting careers – Dobbin becoming a policeman, Gazza joining an insurance firm etc. – whilst he was just starting to look a bit sad and pathetic, still working the trolleys at the supermarket and spending his evenings and weekends boozing and eating takeaway curries. That his five year plan was to make something of his life without money or qualifications, that success to him was running a small farm and burger bar somewhere hot.

[Nick R]

Inspired by tombow’s Rimmer Salute thread:

The Holoship salute looks a bit like the devil horns gesture used by heavy metal musicians and fans:



We know from “Mozart, Mendelssohn or Motörhead” that by Rimmer and Lister’s time, hard rock is considered classical music:

(The Smegadrive has not coped well with the umlaut!)

My theory is it’s no coincidence that the Holoship’s crew uses a salute that derives from heavy metal culture. The Holoship crew considered themselves highbrow and so adopted things that were associated with classical music; however, by the time the Holoship was launched, classical music appreciation had incorporated things from heavy metal fandom. (I wouldn’t be surprised if mosh pits will become an expected part of classical concerts of the future.)

So the reason they salute like that is because it’s a sign that they’re so cultured that they love rawkin’ out to symphonic metal.

[Dave]

[Podey]

Ah, so when Red Dwarf seems too big at the end of Nanarchy, it’s actually normal size, and it’s Starbug and its crew that have been made small. It makes so much sense! … kind of.

Apologies for resurrecting this, but it’s definitely a massive Red Dwarf and a normal sized Starbug.  

 
That’s the whole explanation for why Lister was buff immediately after the restore and then shrunk back to normal, that the rebuilds start off big and then correct their size.

[Warbodog]

What if “Gordon” in Better Than Life wasn’t real, but was Holly doing an early dry run for Queeg, to practise his acting and gauge their reactions.

[Ben Saunders]

I refuse to accept that, because I like Gordon. I want him to be real.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

In fairness though, the name Scott Fitzgerald does speak a lot to Holly’s literary leanings. He does an awful lot of reading so I can totally see him doing a dry run and dropping a hint by using a fairly well-known author’s name to see if they spot it.

[Dave]

[Ian Symes]

Considering the dates, I assume that it’s not F. Scott Fitzgerald that’s being referenced, but more likely…

https://eurovisionworld.com/eurovision/1988/united-kingdom

Finished second, a little under a month before Better Than Life was recorded.

[Dave]

“Go” is an even better clue to Gordon.

[Warbodog]

[Dave]

[Ian Symes]

[Dave]

[clem]

[Flap Jack]

“Go” is an even better clue to Gordon.

I don’t see why. They were playing chess.

[Flap Jack]

Actually, the chess thing is another link back to Queeg, isn’t it? I’m becoming more convinced by the theory.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

What if “Gordon” in Better Than Life wasn’t real, but was Holly doing an early dry run for Queeg, to practise his acting and gauge their reactions.

I like this. It occurred to me recently (can’t remember if I posted on here or just Discord) that it might have been Holly who either manipulated or simulated the meteor hitting the ship to kickstart all of Queeg

[Dave]

Maybe when they come to end the series they should reveal that it’s all been a big wheeze by Holly and they aren’t really three million years in the future after all.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

What if all the Future Echo were Holly pissing around with multiple holograms, having come to the very quick realisation 2 living beings don’t need the power of the entire ship so can actual run a couple more

Then Balance of Power is also Holly just pissing around with holograms again 

Waiting for God, Holly pissing around with garbage pods

Confidence and Paranoia, Holly pissing around with holograms  already having invented hardlight

Me2 is Holly yet again pissing around with holograms.

Kryten, nothing to do with Holly 

Better Than Life, Holly writes an entire computer game to piss around with them all in his own playground 

Thanks for the Memory is Lister pissing around with holograms 

Stasis Leak is Holly realising 14 months work of turning all of floor 16 into a giant holodeck to trick the crew into thinking they can time travel.

Queeg is Holly pissing around with computers 

Parallel Universe Holly is pissing around with dimension jumping technology 

Backwards, Holly as autopilot of Starbug 2 deliberately hurls herself, Kryten and Rimmer into a time hole 

Marooned, Holly pretends to need to evacuate the ship and hurls a flaming meteor at Starbug

Polymorph, Holly creates and releases a genetically engineered emotion suck life form onto the ship

Bodyswap, Holly pretends the self destruct is triggered 

Timeslides, Holly pissing around with her giant holosuit again

The Last Day, Holly builds a psychotic android and sends the crew a message threatening Kryten’s life 

Camille, Holly pissing around with holograms 

DNA, Holly pisses around with a DNA machine and blames Cat

Justice, Holly is upstaged by a simulant pissing around 

White Hole, Holly shuts down the entire ship and throws it at a White Hole

Dimension Jump, Ace pissing around with dimension jumping technology

Meltdown, Holly pissing around with her old faithful floor 16 holo suit 

Holoship, Holly pissing around with holograms 

The Inquisitor, actual genuine outside peril that Holly has no hand in

Terrorform, Holly pissing around with terraforming equipment 

Quarantine, Holly pissing around with holograms 

Demons and Angels, Holly sabotages a fruit salad for the sake of tearing Red Dwarf in two. 

Back to Reality, Holly pissing around with hallucinogens. 

Series 6 and 7 Holly gets bored so let’s the Nannie’s have a bit of a piss about 

Series VIII, Holly and the nanos team up for the ultimate piss about 

[sleepey]

The rotating toilet in Balance of Power is a hologram, arounding with piss

[Technopeasant]

You are all making the flawed assumption that Holly is real to begin with, and not a hallucination of a dehydrated Lister after being sealed inside that locker on Mimas.

[Ben Saunders]

The reason Hollister couldn’t find Frankenstein is because she was an invention of Holly’s. Holly’s simple jape of convincing the lowest ranking crew member on the ship he has a cat and getting him into trouble for it is ultimately what caused the radiation leak. Holly is guilty of 1167 counts of manslaughter. They don’t appear on the Justice planet and are not tried, but if they were…

[Technopeasant]

Looking for the cat unsealed the drive plates.

[Warbodog]

Holly read the Red Dwarf RPG and is making all the fictional episode scenarios from the Series Sourcebook IRL using holograms and robots.

[Nick R]

St. Elsewhere was Holly pissing around making a TV series, which, by extension, means that every TV episode that crosses over into the Tommy Westphall universe was potentially also Holly pissing around.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

The only being in the entire universe is Holly, and we’re all just a result of Holly pissing around. 

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

But who’s eating this chicken?

[International Debris]

Holly was created by The Universe from Krysis and thus the entire series was just The Universe messing around.

[Ben Saunders]

The Universe was created by humanity, and thus Red Dwarf was actually created by humans.

[Technopeasant]

[Moonlight]

The Wizard of Oz was just Holly, pissing about.

[International Debris]

Holly loved the sitcom Red Dwarf so much he went back in time numerous times to adjust the timelines to ensure that people matching the lives of the characters would be born, just so he could act out being a part of his favourite programme.

[Warbodog]

What if the nanobots couldn’t resurrect Petersen (and several other crew members) because Lister had partially eaten his remains?

[Dave]

[Unrumble]

[Dave]

I LOLed.

[RunawayTrain]

^ so did I!

[sleepey]

1) Series 8 Kochanski says they met her in a temporal rip after finding Red Dwarf, instead of before. Yes obviously they just flipped it around to make the joke work, but give me a minute here.

2) It wasn’t a temporal rip in series 7. Kryten says it might be that as a first guess, but once they’ve been inside they refer to it as a dimensional tear or linkway for the rest of the series.

3) Cat & Kochanski are both wearing different outfits for their encounters with Big Lister & Big Red Dwarf, implying some time has passed between those scenes.

4) No one ever mentions that Kochanski comes from another dimension after series 7.

So the theory is: Series 8 Kochanski is actually from this dimension. They find a temporal rip while they wait for the nanobots to rebuild Red Dwarf, and it takes them to a time where the crew is alive*. They have a whole off-screen adventure** that ends with Series 7 Kochanski staying behind (maybe she finds her way back to Dave My Dave, or she makes a sacrifice for her other self, or whatever – committing to one would make this more of a fanfic than a theory but you get the idea), & they bring Series 8 Kochanski back through the rip instead.

* The obvious candidate would be Stasis Leak era – they found another way back in time roughly 5 years later, etc. – but if you want to get silly with it they could instead just hop forward slightly to the rebuilt ship (presumably not realising that that’s what it is) & take the Kochanski from there, which explains why there isn’t one later.

** Keep in mind that Lister is still really yoked through all of this. It doesn’t affect the theory, but it improves the mental image.

[Warbodog]

Well done, as convincing as the “pool with planets” in Demons & Angels not referring to the deleted events of White Hole, but to a completely different off-screen adventure.

[Technopeasant]

But yeah, I have always found the phrasing there in Back in the Red kinda odd.

[International Debris]

(Attn: Cappsy, the open bracket in that subtitle is wrong)

[Jonathan Capps]

Thank you!

[Technopeasant]

Turns out I could have done this as Things Exactly 2 Episodes Have In Common, but I think this is better. I have worked out how Red Dwarf will end. We already know Lister is destined to jumpstart the (second) big bang using leads from Starbug, and we know the author of the Bible dedicated it to their “darling Candy”. Well, guess who has a tattoo to Candy on their arm? None other than Olaf Petersen. Therefore, Lister is god and Petersen is his apostle. If those new specials ever get made, you’ll know I’m right.

The remaining questions are… was this done on the same night? 

And are either of them Candy?

[Author]

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