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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reddwarf.png]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:The Boyz from the Dwarf [[note]]Clockwise from bottom right: [[ItsAllAboutMe Rimmer]], [[TokenHuman Lister]], [[BenevolentAI Holly]], [[TheFashionista Cat]] and [[RobotBuddy Kryten]][[/note]]]]
3
4->''"As the days go by, we face the increasing inevitability that we are alone in a godless, uninhabited, hostile and meaningless universe. Still, you've got to laugh, haven't you?"''
5-->-- '''Holly summing up the show'''
6
7''Red Dwarf'' is a British sci-fi TV SitCom (1988-93; 1997-99; 2009; 2012; 2016-17; 2020) and book series created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor about an enormous interplanetary mining ship (the eponymous ''Red Dwarf''), the crew of which is almost completely wiped out by a radiation leak [[FirstEpisodeTwist in the first episode]].[[note]](The TV series was born as a short serial in the radio comedy show ''Radio/SonOfCliche'', also written by Grant/Naylor. The parent "series" on radio was called ''Dave Hollins: Space Cadet'' and contained sketches and ideas later recycled for the TV series.)[[/note]] One man survives: a chicken-soup-machine repairman from UsefulNotes/{{Liverpool}} named Dave Lister (Creator/CraigCharles), preserved because he is in suspended animation as punishment for bringing [[ChekhovsGunman a pregnant cat]] on board illegally. The shipboard AI, Holly (Creator/NormanLovett [[note]]Played by Creator/HattieHayridge from Series III-V.[[/note]]), sets a course out of the solar system, planning to release Lister from stasis once the radiation from the leak drops to a safe level.
8
9[[TimeSkip Three million years go by]].
10
11Lister awakens to the news that EverybodysDeadDave. As he is now the [[LastOfHisKind last living human]], the ship's computer Holly creates him some company, despite his personal preferences, in a hologram of his despised former bunkmate, [[SmallNameBigEgo Second Technician Arnold J. Rimmer]] (Creator/ChrisBarrie) -- on the basis that an ongoing mission to get on Rimmer's nerves in death as well as in life would do most in the long run for Lister's sanity. The pair discover the Cat (Creator/DannyJohnJules), the last known member of ''his'' race ''Felis sapiens'', which evolved from the pregnant cat that got Lister put in suspended animation in the first place. Lister decides that he wants to return to Earth, despite the fact that no-one aboard knows if the human race still exists, and despite the problem that the journey back will take another three million years at sub-lightspeed.[[note]](Even turning the ship around at near lightspeed will take 4000 years according to Lister -- though this is later contradicted by the series 2 episode "[[Recap/{{Red Dwarf Season II Better Than Life}} Better Than Life]]", where the ship has already turned and started heading towards Earth. [[MST3KMantra Red Dwarf was never too concerned with continuity]])[[/note]] The final regular member of the cast, Kryten (Creator/RobertLlewellyn [[note]]Played by Creator/DavidRoss in his debut appearance.[[/note]]) -- an android the others discover still serving his crew, unaware that they had all died years ago -- appeared as a one-shot character in the second series before becoming a permanent addition in the third.
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13Despite the superficially high concept, this was fundamentally just another BritCom about amusing characters bickering amongst themselves, similar to ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', with a fair amount of monsters, TimeTravel and the like thrown in. However, it is notable for a sci-fi-based series in that the writers actively worked to [[AvertedTrope avert]], or at least [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]], many tropes associated with the genre -- nearly always for comedic effect.
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15Following Series VI in 1993, Grant and Naylor's writing partnership came to an end, and since then Naylor has continued to helm the franchise by himself. After an initial pause followed by two [[SeasonalRot less well-received series]], Series VIII finished in 1999 and various factors -- primarily repeated attempts to [[DevelopmentHell get a feature film off the ground]] -- meant a complete lack of any new TV (or book) output for fully ten years.
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17Unexpectedly though the rights were eventually picked up from the [=BBC=] by digital channel Dave[[note]](a free-to-air channel owned by Creator/{{UKTV}}, which operates several free and subscription channels)[[/note]] and it produced and broadcast a three-part, PostModern, movie-length miniseries ''[[Recap/{{Red Dwarf Back To Earth}} Red Dwarf: Back to Earth]]'' across the Easter weekend of 2009. ''[=BtE=]'' broke digital TV viewership records at the time of airing, signalling that the show still had an audience after a decade of TV absence. Not long after, Dave commissioned a full, more conventional series of 6 half-hour episodes recorded in front of a studio audience, returning the show to its 'classic' original format for the first time since 1993. This eventually aired in 2012 as Series X -- officially retconning ''[=BtE=]'' into a 'ninth series', a subject of much contention in the fanbase due to it taking place after a fictional Series 9 that exists only within the show's reality. Two more series filmed back-to-back followed in 2016 and 2017, with a growing sense that the show was recovering something of its old footing once more. From 2019, the characters' enduring place in pop culture saw them appear in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRCKxseKanA an [=AA=] roadside breakdown assistance ad]]. And then, despite the 30-year failure of TheFilmOfTheSeries to ever get made, an aptly-titled special feature-length episode ''[[Recap/{{Red Dwarf The Promised Land}} Red Dwarf: The Promised Land]]'' at last appeared in 2020.
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19Despite plans for two more specials, in 2021 Naylor was removed from Grant Naylor Productions (the company he had co-founded along with Rob Grant) which left the Red Dwarf rights [[ScrewedByTheLawyers in a limbo]]. In March 2023 Naylor was reinstated as director of the company, and it was eventually announced that both Naylor and Grant (who has not been that involved in the series for decades) will be launching separate iterations of show across several media, though it wasn't clarified what this would mean.
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21In November 2023, Rob Grant announced he was working on an AlternateContinuity prequel series called ''Red Dwarf: Titan''. Set before the crew were killed with Lister and Rimmer taking shore leave on the titular moon with accompanying {{Novelization}}.
22
23%%%
24%% The success of ''Back to Earth'' is noteworthy in that it led to another series being commissioned for the first time in 13 years. The show's success in general is not for this page.
25%%%
26
27There are also ''Literature/RedDwarf'' tie-in novels.
28* ''Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'' by "Grant Naylor" (1989)
29* ''Better Than Life'' by "Grant Naylor" (1990)
30* ''Last Human'' by Doug Naylor (1995)
31* ''Backwards'' by Rob Grant (1996)
32
33Fleetway Editions published ''[[Magazine/RedDwarf Red Dwarf Magazine/Red Dwarf Smegazine]]'' (the title changed after the third issue), featuring comics and stories which are some of the only officially licensed material not written by Grant or Naylor, from 1992-94.
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35[[TabletopGame/RedDwarf Red Dwarf: The Roleplaying Game]] was released by Deep 7 in 2002.
36
37There were two attempts to get an ''Series/RedDwarfUSA'' series off the ground in 1992. However, both of them failed in the end.
38----
39!!"Would You Like Some Tropes?":
40[[index]]
41* RedDwarf/TropesAToI
42* RedDwarf/TropesJToQ
43* RedDwarf/TropesRToZ
44[[index]]
45
46
47----
48
49-->'''[[JustForFun/StatlerAndWaldorf Statler]]''': I don't know about you, Waldorf, but being stuck in a spaceship for three million years sure doesn't sound fun to me.
50-->'''Waldorf''': It could be worse. We'd have those guys for company.
51-->'''Both''': DOH - hoh - hoh!
52
53->''"It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere..."''

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