Tommy Westphall Universe
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Tommy Westphall Universe

Red Dwarf is a UK science-fiction comedy show created by Grant Naylor, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, for the BBC. It ran from 15 February 1988 to 5 April 1999 for eight seasons; a the three-episode miniseries Red Dwarf: Back to Earth in April 2009. The tenth season ran on Dave between 4 October and 8 November 2012. The eleventh and twelfth season started running in September 2016.

Series summary[]

Dave Lister (Craig Charles) is a lazy, grubby mechanic on the deep space mining ship Red Dwarf. As punishment for bringing a pregnant cat on-board the ship (and releasing it into the ducts rather than letting it be put down), he is placed in cryogenic stasis. Unfortunately shortly after this happens, his colleague - cowardly, self-loathing Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie) - screws up some radiation shielding and accidentally kills all humans on-board, including himself. The ship's computer, Holly (Norman Lovett, later played by Hattie Hayridge), leaves Lister in cryo-stasis until the radiation has died down to a safe level - some three million years later.

Lister wakes to discover that Red Dwarf is hundreds of thousands of light-years away from Earth, and that he is very probably the last human. To stop him from going insane, Holly reanimates Rimmer as a hologram, correctly calculating their antagonistic relationship will distract Lister from the bleakness of his existence. The duo are joined by Cat (Danny John-Jules), the last of a species of humanoid cats that evolved from Lister's pet over the last three million years. After two seasons they were joined by Kryten, a neurotic, OCD android, and - much later - Kristine Kochanski (initially Clare Grogan; later Chloe Anette), an alternate-universe version of Lister's long-dead girlfriend.

While the early episodes play out like a university student comedy in space, complete with slobbish environments and petty arguing, later episodes explore more science-fictional elements and introduce Gelfs, genetically engineered life-forms that have populated the universe with their creators, the humans, long gone (the Red Dwarf crew never encounter any alien life and, indeed, believe that it does not exist).

Spin-offs[]

  • Red Dwarf: Back to Earth was a three-part 2009 miniseries that caught up with the Red Dwarf crew. It is regarded by some fans as a ninth season of the show, despite its short length.
  • Red Dwarf: The Promised Land was a television film that served as another continuation of the series.

Westphall connections in Red Dwarf[]

  • In "Demons and Angels", the TARDIS from Doctor Who can be seen in Red Dwarf's docking bay as Starbug takes off. It was added by FX man Mike Tucker, who is a fan of the show.
  • In "Psirens", the crew fly over a planet full of spaceship debris. Among the crashed ships are an Eagle ship from Space: 1999, a Weyland-Yutani ship from Aliens, and a Klingon Bird of Prey from Star Trek.
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