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

[RunawayTrain]

(Looks like this page has the first post glitch too – currently it’s just the thread title and the reply box, not even any page numbers for the preceding rest of the thread.  Posting to see if it’ll unglitch.)

[Flap Jack]

Yeah, it happens whenever the number of replies in a thread is a multiple of 50.

It doesn’t seem to be an issue with threads themselves, but with the logic of the “Recent Forum Posts” links, because they think the new reply is on a new page when it isn’t, because the forum was recently changed so that the OP no longer counts as a reply (e.g. the 200th reply/201st post used to be on page 5, but now it’s on page 4). You can reproduce the effect on any thread by putting an invalid page number into the address bar.

But I have it on good authority that if enough of us chant “I do believe in Cappsy!” he will eventually get so annoyed with how much we bring up this glitch that a solution will jump out and demand to be implemented.

[Rushy]

Rimmer is much more neurotic, loud and contrarian in the Dave episodes because he’s becoming computer senile. 
When the Iron Star updates him to Quantum Light, it also repairs his corrupted personality and intelligence, enabling him to figure out how to get Holly back on their side. 

[Technopeasant]

[Rushy]

1. There is no reason for there to be a secret prison on a mining ship.

2. If Hollister was actually Dennis the Doughnut Boy, he would not say it out loud in his official captain’s log. 

Theory: The entire mining operation of Red Dwarf is a sham to hide a slave trafficking operation. Hollister has deliberately staffed his ship with incompetents to ensure that no one can figure out he’s selling slaves to the distant Earth colonies. 

The log entry where he ‘unwittingly’ calls himself Dennis the Doughnut Boy is meant to exonerate him in a court of law, suggesting that he himself is incompetent and could plausibly be unaware of the existence of Floor 13. He intends to shift all the blame to Ackerman. 

[Rushy]

Holly was totally in on it, but he just forgot about the whole thing after three million years due to computer senility. 

[Nick R]

Ah yes, slave trafficking: that hilarious subject of so many classic sitcoms!

[sleepey]

People assume the doughnut boy line undermines Hollister’s credibility as captain but I reckon it’s like a Gattaca situation or a caste system where that was a limitation placed upon him & he rose above it.

[Technopeasant]

Secret? No. But given the lack of FTL travel you might as well transfer prisoners on a mining ship already taking the trip. Though you’d think they’d just put them in stasis.

[Warbodog]

Secret? No. But given the lack of FTL travel you might as well transfer prisoners on a mining ship already taking the trip. Though you’d think they’d just put them in stasis.

Presumably the Canaries were supposed to be used for actual risky mining work when needed.

[Hamish]

Secret? No. But given the lack of FTL travel you might as well transfer prisoners on a mining ship already taking the trip. Though you’d think they’d just put them in stasis.

How much power does a stasis booth require? Is this another hologram situation where you can only have one or two at a time?

[International Debris]

It’s certainly the case in the early episodes that there are only a couple of stasis booths aboard, given that there’s an argument over whether Krissie or Rimmsy gets the other.

[Technopeasant]

Presumably you could just build one larger one though. Standing room only.

[Ben Saunders]

Watching the first two series, it feels like there only are two stasis booths. Which for a crew of 100 is fine, but for a crew of 1000 and eventually a crew of 1000 + a bunch of prisoners doesn’t seem enough. They go into “deep sleep” in Starbug which is functionally the same thing, you’d just have to pop out for a quick shave and nail clipping every hundred or so years.

[Warbodog]

There’s 169 regular crew and 1,000 secret prisoners/guards.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Actually, the convict population is only 400 or less, according to Holly.

[Warbodog]

Since when have explicit figures stated in dialogue meant anything.

[Warbodog]

“The first city mayor of Warsaw was Jan Andrzej Menich (1695–1696).” – Encyklopedia Warszawy

It’s unlikely that Rimmer would make such an error. It’s more likely that Rob and Doug were giving blatant clues that the timeline was in flux as early as Series 1.

[Ian Symes]

Maybe we’ve just been mishearing it all these years.

[Unrumble]

[Cardinal_Hordriss]

On the subject of what happened to the human race… The Red Dwarf crew encounter ships, space stations and colonies 3,000,000 years away from Earth – albeit at Red Dwarf’s speed so still in the Milkyway. How could a civilisation that had spread out so far just disappear? The characters just assume the human race died out but don’t seem remotely interested in finding out how.

An uprising of G.E.L.F.s seems unlikely, those we’ve seen that have technology seem tribal, insular and not vast in number. 

An uprising of droids seems unlikely. The simulants may have rebelled but Justice implies that they were not victorious as many were taken alive and sent to prison. While some seem to have developed their own culture and spacecraft since they seem to operate more like bands of sadistic pirates than a civilisation. 

Other rogue droids were alone or few in number.

A plague also seems unlikely as the human race had spread across such a wide area, planets being far easier to isolate and quarantine than cities or countries on a single planet. In absolute medical crises, we see that whole planets could even be burned to destroy a virus.

In Trojan, Kryten’s description of the quantum rod implies that the ship is capable of intergalactic travel so it is possible that humanity left the Milkyway for pastures new… but why? Why abandon the entire Galaxy? Leaving no one behind and no message for any stragglers? 

Now, to get conspiratorial… Holly must know. As far as we know, Holly remained concious for the duration of Lister’s time in stasis. While ships will have given the radioactive Red Dwarf a wide berth it’s likely that the JMC or the Space Corps stayed in touch, ensuring that the ship stayed away from space lanes or anything important. Also, Holly demonstrates knowledge of things that occurred long after the accident, implying they were still in receipt of data, either being sent it gratuitously, like the JMC onboard computer, or perhaps Holly deliberately accessed other computers to learn what was happening in the galaxy and stave off total boredom. The point is that it seems highly unlikely that whatever happened to the human race would happen without Holly knowing… but he/she never tells the crew about it.

[Dave]

[Jenuall]

Where do we think they actually are in space at this point?

They travelled 3 million years whilst Lister was in stasis, but do we know what speed they were going? Were they constantly accelerating all that time? Was Red Dwarf just on cruise mode the whole time and so not actually going very fast?

Do we even know if they were going in a set direction? Holly may have been going around in circles for 3 million years and so they didn’t actually get THAT far away from “populated space”.

Then you have to consider what they’ve done since Lister was brought out of stasis. In The End they establish the goal of returning home so presumably they have redirected their course back toward Earth at some point. In Future Echoes they achieve (or even break) lightspeed for a period of time, how much further back toward Earth did this realistically get them? How much of that 3 million years at “non-LS” in one direction was reclaimed during their brief foray into faster than light travel? Theoretically it could be quite a lot, but I don’t think the rules of FTL travel are ever really that well established in the Dwarf universe.

Throw in 30 real-time years of bumbling along, presumably broadly still in the direction of Earth, plus some deep sleep journeys as well, and well who know where the fuck the boys could be now. 

All that said I don’t think it’s THAT unrealistic that 3 million years of potential progress in travel and technology could result in a scenario where at least some other beings have come to occupy the same areas of space that the Dwarfers now find themselves in. I always thought the Holoship was a pretty valid case for other people they could realistically meet, but as you open that up to more GELFs, Simulants and just pure human derelicts it does start to become a little bit harder to accept that they would be so lucky (or unlucky!) to keep meeting people

[Ben Saunders]

They wouldn’t have been straight-lining it all the way to Earth, and the deep sleeps of VI and VII won’t count because they were searching for the Dwarf itself at that point.  They stop completely many times, as early as Kryten, so are no longer travelling LS.

[Rushy]

I think Holly’s long forgotten where Earth is

[Cardinal_Hordriss]

Where do we think they actually are in space at this point?
They travelled 3 million years whilst Lister was in stasis, but do we know what speed they were going? Were they constantly accelerating all that time? Was Red Dwarf just on cruise mode the whole time and so not actually going very fast?
Do we even know if they were going in a set direction? Holly may have been going around in circles for 3 million years and so they didn’t actually get THAT far away from “populated space”.
Then you have to consider what they’ve done since Lister was brought out of stasis. In The End they establish the goal of returning home so presumably they have redirected their course back toward Earth at some point. In Future Echoes they achieve (or even break) lightspeed for a period of time, how much further back toward Earth did this realistically get them? How much of that 3 million years at “non-LS” in one direction was reclaimed during their brief foray into faster than light travel? Theoretically it could be quite a lot, but I don’t think the rules of FTL travel are ever really that well established in the Dwarf universe.
Throw in 30 real-time years of bumbling along, presumably broadly still in the direction of Earth, plus some deep sleep journeys as well, and well who know where the fuck the boys could be now. 
All that said I don’t think it’s THAT unrealistic that 3 million years of potential progress in travel and technology could result in a scenario where at least some other beings have come to occupy the same areas of space that the Dwarfers now find themselves in. I always thought the Holoship was a pretty valid case for other people they could realistically meet, but as you open that up to more GELFs, Simulants and just pure human derelicts it does start to become a little bit harder to accept that they would be so lucky (or unlucky!) to keep meeting people

They frequently refer to themselves as being 3 million years away from Earth, Holly days so in every SOS, that’s why Lister was going to go back into stasis until they got back. Travelling at sublight speed, even for so long, wouldn’t get the ship out of the Milkyway. 

As to how far humanity has spread, the Trojan made it seem theoretically limitless via the quantum rod’s ability to contract spacetime. 

[International Debris]

In Future Echoes they achieve (or even break) lightspeed for a period of time, how much further back toward Earth did this realistically get them?

None, they haven’t turned around by that point (hence Lister’s line that it’ll take them 4,000 years to turn around at the start of the episode). So that only takes them further from Earth.

[Jenuall]

In Future Echoes they achieve (or even break) lightspeed for a period of time, how much further back toward Earth did this realistically get them?

None, they haven’t turned around by that point (hence Lister’s line that it’ll take them 4,000 years to turn around at the start of the episode). So that only takes them further from Earth.

Yeah but that has always made zero sense, just turn around first! Even with the combined intellect on board at that point in time they should know that it makes no sense to start accelerating until you’re pointing in the right direction! 

[Warbodog]

they should know that it makes no sense to start accelerating until you’re pointing in the right direction! 

It seems like it’s the millions of years of steady acceleration (I’m sure the physics totally checks out) that brought them to light speed, so they couldn’t risk slowing down, and those 4,000 years would be made up in the long term. After they slow down, they lose the momentum, so don’t care and just start parking and exploring.

[Cardinal_Hordriss]

In Future Echoes they achieve (or even break) lightspeed for a period of time, how much further back toward Earth did this realistically get them?
None, they haven’t turned around by that point (hence Lister’s line that it’ll take them 4,000 years to turn around at the start of the episode). So that only takes them further from Earth.

Yeah but that has always made zero sense, just turn around first! Even with the combined intellect on board at that point in time they should know that it makes no sense to start accelerating until you’re pointing in the right direction! 

In all fairness 4000 years is only one 750th of 3 million so in the grand scheme of thinks it’s not the huge diversion it seems to be. 

[International Debris]

Yeah but that has always made zero sense, just turn around first! 

They’re about to hit light speed anyway, it’s not related to them wanting to go home.

[Jenuall]

Which is another thing that I find hard to reconcile. Have they been accelerating for 3 million years? Why? What purpose does that serve? And it’s oh so incredibly convenient that Lister came out of stasis just in time for them to reach light speed! Good job the half life of Cadmium II was exactly the right value to make that calculation work!

JMC having a default disaster policy of “get the ship out of harms way” when a radioactive disaster happens makes sense, but that policy being “keep accelerating forever” is batshit

[RunawayTrain]

I don’t have the brainpower to develop the thought but remember Holly has gone senile, so potentially that could explain some illogical decisions or technical ‘faults’ that make certain things happen.  Like perhaps RD was supposed to accelerate to a certain point but Holly forgot/ignored and that’s why they kept accelerating.  Or maybe he just chose to give light speed a try, for some reason.

[Cardinal_Hordriss]

Which is another thing that I find hard to reconcile. Have they been accelerating for 3 million years? Why? What purpose does that serve? And it’s oh so incredibly convenient that Lister came out of stasis just in time for them to reach light speed! Good job the half life of Cadmium II was exactly the right value to make that calculation work!

JMC having a default disaster policy of “get the ship out of harms way” when a radioactive disaster happens makes sense, but that policy being “keep accelerating forever” is batshit

I don’t have the brainpower to develop the thought but remember Holly has gone senile, so potentially that could explain some illogical decisions or technical ‘faults’ that make certain things happen.  Like perhaps RD was supposed to accelerate to a certain point but Holly forgot/ignored and that’s why they kept accelerating.  Or maybe he just chose to give light speed a try, for some reason.

Both in the OG and remastered versions of Future Echoes, Red Dwarf isn’t moving any faster than usual prior to breaking the faster than light barrier which would rule out acceleration. I wonder if instead of a build up of speed, it was power that the ship was accumulating for the jump.

If that was the case then you could tie in the timing of Lister being released if Cadmium somehow inhibited this process in the way Xenon inhibits nuclear reactor output.

Thus the FTL jump and Lister being released just before would be connected. 

[Warbodog]

And it’s oh so incredibly convenient that Lister came out of stasis just in time for them to reach light speed!

So many things they do are improbable already, from all the things they happen to chance across in Deep Space rather than nothing to the extreme coincidences like finding a frozen Red Dwarf crew member in Epideme and however they found Kryten again.

[Nick R]

In all fairness 4000 years is only one 750th of 3 million so in the grand scheme of thinks it’s not the huge diversion it seems to be. 

[Cardinal_Hordriss]

In all fairness 4000 years is only one 750th of 3 million so in the grand scheme of thinks it’s not the huge diversion it seems to be. 

I love how fast everyone on here is with their RD meme making. I’m sure it will wear off after I’ve been here for a bit but for the moment, it’s great lol.

[RunawayTrain]

^ As you can see, quoting images doesn’t work.  The only way I’ve found – which took me a frustratingly long time to work out – is to download them, then include them as an image in the quote box.

If anyone knows a better way, please share!

(Also the novelty of everyone’s quick memeing has nowhere near worn off for me, I love it!)

[Unrumble]

^ As you can see, quoting images doesn’t work.  The only way I’ve found – which took me a frustratingly long time to work out – is to download them, then include them as an image in the quote box.

You can just copy and paste them, which is marginally quicker. 

[Flap Jack]

If anyone knows a better way, please share!

1 – Inspect the image element to copy its HTML, or right click the image and copy its location on the site.

2 – Switch the text editor to code view, and paste the “img” tag from your copied HTML (or type out the “img” tag and set the “src” attribute to the copied image location), then wrap it in “blockquote” tags, like so:

3 – Switch back to regular view, and finish your reply.

OK, it might not be easier, but it feels cleaner not to make a copy of the image.

[Dave]

If anyone knows a better way, please share!

1 – Inspect the image element to copy its HTML, or right click the image and copy its location on the site.
2 – Switch the text editor to code view, and paste the “img” tag from your copied HTML (or type out the “img” tag and set the “src” attribute to the copied image location), then wrap it in “blockquote” tags, like so:

3 – Switch back to regular view, and finish your reply.
OK, it might not be easier, but it feels cleaner not to make a copy of the image.

[Nick R]

[Jonathan Capps]

The editor needs to be fixed. Just not found a better one yet…

[Jenuall]

[Nick R]

The current G&T post editor: 

The future G&T post editor (hopefully):

[Cardinal_Hordriss]

The sadistic Frankenfurter Rimmer was very funny but I do wonder why for him being evil meant being gay… I’m not saying I take issue with it. I’m just interested in understanding it as a writing choice.–

Holly went Goth.

Cat became more bestial. 

Kryten became run down and dirty.

Lister became a gunslinger.

They’re all antithetical not just visually but personality-wise to the regular posse. 

I suppose it could be that Rimmer is incredibly straight laced and boring so making him a confidently flamboyant character might fit the pattern but so would an evil Ace Rimmer. Rimmer has used homophobic insults in the past but no more than was normal for the time the episodes were made so it can’t be flipping a homophobe into a raging queen. So it comes back to – being gay is funny. 

[Moonlight]

If anyone knows a better way, please share!

1 – Inspect the image element to copy its HTML, or right click the image and copy its location on the site.
2 – Switch the text editor to code view, and paste the “img” tag from your copied HTML (or type out the “img” tag and set the “src” attribute to the copied image location), then wrap it in “blockquote” tags, like so:

3 – Switch back to regular view, and finish your reply.
OK, it might not be easier, but it feels cleaner not to make a copy of the image.

Can’t you just right-click the image, select “copy image address” and paste that as the image URL under the button for adding pictures? That’s what I’ve been doing for ages and it’s extremely quick.

[Technopeasant]

[Warbodog]

Dave Lister is the mother of his twins, despite being male.

Selby’s mother was a man who has slept with Kochanski.

Selby is Lister’s son, Jim. Jim Selby.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Author]

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