Red Dwarf FAQ (2/2)
``~`` WWIVnet #8 AT 29963
Sat Apr 09 15:09:12 1994
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            THE  "RED  DWARF"  FREQUENTLY - ASKED  QUESTIONS  LIST
           --------------------------------------------------------
Created by:  Michael J Montoure and Renee Byrd              RD.faq Version 3.8
Maintained by:  Pat Berry                                   Revised: 12/22/93
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                                (part 2 of 2)
_____________________
CONTENTS OF THIS LIST

        11.  What does "LEVEL NIVELO" mean?
        12.  Who is Gordon Bennett?
        13.  What are some of the foods mentioned on the show?
        14.  How many times has Rimmer had sex?
        15.  How many people were in Red Dwarf's crew?
        16.  How can Rimmer leave the ship?
        17.  How did the Polymorph touch Rimmer?
|       18.  How many times has Starbug crashed?
        19.  Is there going to be an American "Red Dwarf"?
        20.  Is there a "Red Dwarf" ftp site?
        21.  Are there "Red Dwarf" novels?
        22.  Are there books about "Red Dwarf"?
        23.  Are there "Red Dwarf" fan clubs?
        24.  Where else can I find out more about "Red Dwarf"?

|       New or changed information is marked with a vertical line in the
|       left margin.

__________________________________
11. WHAT DOES "LEVEL NIVELO" MEAN?

        It means "level" in English and Esperanto.  The Red Dwarf is a
        bilingual ship, with English and Esperanto as the two official
        languages.  All of the characters appear to speak English, but
        in "Kryten", Rimmer is shown trying (and failing) to learn
        Esperanto from a videotape.  In the same episode, Kryten
        demonstrates that he can speak and understand the language.

____________________________
12. WHO IS "GORDON BENNETT"?

        "Gordon Bennett" is a name used by the characters, most notably
        Holly, as an expletive ("Gordon Bennett!  What was that?").
        Historically, James Gordon Bennett was the name of an American
        newspaper tycoon (1795-1872) who founded the New York Herald in
        1835.  His son, also named James Gordon Bennett (1841-1918),
        established London and Paris editions of the newspaper.  The
        Bennetts are said to have had a penchant for extravagant and
        expensive gestures, and they became widely known enough that the
        name is now an expression of disbelief in England, and is
        essentially a euphemism for "God".
	
_____________________________________________________
13. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE FOODS MENTIONED ON THE SHOW?

        "Vindaloo," the most frequently mentioned food item on the
        show, is a very, very hot Indian curry dish.  Most Indian
        restaurants have them on the menu.  They can contain almost any
        variety of meat, thus Lister's references to "mutton vindaloo,"
        "chicken vindaloo", etc.

        "Poppadoms", another Indian food item, are thin lentil-flour
        wafers resembling tortillas, deep-fried until crisp.
        
        A "shami kebab" is an appetizer served in Indian restaraunts.
        It consists of finely ground meat and lots of spices, grilled
        over a flame, and comes in a variety of shapes -- some flat like
        a hamburger, others long and thin like a sausage.  The meat is a
        mixture of pork and either goat (in more authentic restaurants)
        or beef (in less authentic ones).  You typically get two shami
        kebabs with a salad side dish.

        "Chutney" is a fruit piccalilli (pickled relish), often eaten
        with cold meat.

        "Gazpacho soup" really does exist and really is meant to be
        served cold.  Several different recipes exist.

|       A "pot noodle" is an instant noodle product marketed in the U.K.
|       by Golden Wonder, a snack food company.  It's a plastic
|       container with pre-cooked dried noodles and flavorings inside.
|       To prepare it, you open the container, pour in boiling water,
|       wait a few moments, and eat it.

______________________________________
14. HOW MANY TIMES HAS RIMMER HAD SEX?

        Only once while he was alive, with Yvonne McGruder, the ship's
        female boxing champion.  (Stated in "Thanks for the Memory".)
        The story he tells Lister in "Marooned", about losing his
        virginity in the back seat of his brother's car, appears to be
        false.  (It's definitely phony in the novel BETTER THAN LIFE.)
        In later episodes, Rimmer has had simulated sex in a virtual
        reality game ("Better Than Life") and holographic sex with
        another hologram ("Holoship").

_____________________________________________
15. HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE IN RED DWARF'S CREW?

        In "The End", Todhunter says "There are 169 people on board this
        ship."  Yet in "Justice", the Justice Computer charges Rimmer
        with 1,167 counts of murder for causing the deaths of the entire
        crew.  What gives?

        "Red Dwarf" abounds with minor inconsistencies like this one.
        When Grant Naylor come up with a good idea (such as the "light
        bee" -- see #19), they don't worry overmuch about whether it
        contradicts something in a previous episode.  In this case, they
        evidently decided that a larger crew was more appropriate for a
        ship five miles long and three miles in diameter.

        One possible explanation is that the Justice Computer got its
        information from Rimmer's mind, and Rimmer has an inflated
        notion of his own importance.  In addition to overstating his
        own responsibility for the deaths of the crew, he may have
        exaggerated the number of people involved.

__________________________________
16. HOW CAN RIMMER LEAVE THE SHIP?

        Because Rimmer is a computer-generated hologram, some viewers
        are confused when he leaves Red Dwarf and visits planets, space
        stations, other ships, and so forth.  In early episodes, Rimmer
        was generated by the Red Dwarf's onboard holographic equipment,
        which allowed him to move freely about the ship.  He was also
        able to travel on the Red Dwarf's auxilary vessels (Blue Midget
        and White Giant), which presumably carry their own hologram
        generators.  He could only visit the surface of a planet within
        a Hologram Projection Cage, as seen in "Thanks for the Memory".

        This limitation proved to be inconvenient, so Grant Naylor came
        up with another explanation, the "light bee".  This device is a
        tapered cylinder about one inch in diameter and three inches
        long that "buzzes around inside him and projects his image" (as
        described by Holly in "Meltdown").  The light bee can go
        anywhere, allowing Rimmer to leave the ship without needing a
        projection cage.

        Some fans have theorized that the light bee was invented
        sometime during Series 2 (by Holly) or Series 3 (by either Holly
        or Kryten).  However, this doesn't explain how Rimmer was able
        to leave the Blue Midget and enter the wreck of the Nova 5 in
        "Kryten", two episodes *before* he was shown in a projection
        cage.

_______________________________________
17. HOW DID THE POLYMORPH TOUCH RIMMER?

        In the episode "Polymorph", a shape-changing creature that feeds
        on emotions invades the Red Dwarf.  This creature uses its
        shapeshifting ability to provoke an emotional response, then
        attaches a sucker to the victim's forehead and sucks out the
        emotion.  Lister, the Cat, Kryten, and Rimmer all succumb to
        the creature's attack.

        Some fans have asked how the Polymorph could possibly attach its
        sucker to Rimmer (who is, after all, a hologram).  Two possible
        explanations have been suggested: either the sucker actually
        made contact with Rimmer's light bee (see #16), or the Polymorph
        can change into a hologram.

        In the novel BETTER THAN LIFE (see #21), the Polymorph changes
        to a beam of light, suggesting that becoming a hologram is
        within its capabilities.  On the other hand, the Polymorph
        doesn't use that method in the novel; it goes to the hologram
        simulation suite, changes into electronic data, and invades
        Rimmer's personality disk.

|_______________________________________
|18. HOW MANY TIMES HAS STARBUG CRASHED?
|
|       There are at least two vehicles called "Starbug" on board the
|       Red Dwarf, and they seem to crash-land or collide with things an
|       awful lot.  Crash landings occur in the following episodes:
|
|       "Backwards"
|       "Marooned"
|       "Bodyswap"
|       "Dimension Jump"
|       "Terrorform"
|
|       The crashed Starbug was abandoned on more than one occasion,
|       from which we can deduce that either (1) there are more than two
|       of them or (2) facilities exist on board Red Dwarf to
|       manufacture replacement Starbugs.

_________________________________________________
19. IS THERE GOING TO BE AN AMERICAN "RED DWARF"?

        Probably not.  A pilot was produced for NBC, involving Grant
        Naylor as technical consultants, Craig Bierko as Lister, Chris
        Eigelman as Rimmer, Jane Leeves as Holly, Tony award winner
        Hinton Battle as Cat, and Robert Llewellyn reprising his role as
        Kryten from the British cast.

        Historically, many English shows have been redone for an
        American audience ("Max Headroom" being an example), but many
        fans were apprehensive about the uniquely British humor not
        translating too well.

        Some fans who had a chance to see the filming report that some
        surprising and odd changes were made: for example, the
        transformation of Lister to a clean-cut and well-dressed
        Causcasian, and the replacement of the "H" on Rimmer's forehead
        with a glowing red dot.

        The pilot reportedly was a retelling of "The End", with some
        elements of "Future Echoes" thrown in for good measure.

        After rejecting this version, NBC commissioned a *second* pilot,
        which fixed some problems (such as restoring Rimmer's "H"), but
        which had some further odd changes, such as casting a woman as
        the Cat.  (Interestingly, the Cat was to be played by Terry
        Farrell, who is now better known in the U.S. for her role as Dax
        on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.")
	
        Both pilots are finished, but it doesn't seem at this point that
        either of them will ever air.  It's very unlikely that the
        option to make the series will be picked up.  Sounds like we
        won't be missing much, however.

____________________________________
20. IS THERE A "RED DWARF" FTP SITE?

        Yes.  Dave Gagne (daveg@ee.ubc.ca) has been kind enough to put
        an anonymous ftp site on toaster.ee.ubc.ca (137.82.56.10).
        There's a lot of good stuff there in the /pub/red-dwarf
        directory, including scripts, sound files, episode guides, quote
        files, and GIF and JPEG pictures.  For details, get the README
        file.

_________________________________
21. ARE THERE "RED DWARF" NOVELS?

        Yes -- two so far, RED DWARF: INFINITY WELCOMES CAREFUL DRIVERS
        and RED DWARF: BETTER THAN LIFE.  The books greatly expand on,
        and are greatly different from, the television show: although
        they do contain many ideas from the show, these ideas are put
        together in new and interesting ways.

        The two books are published by Penguin Books.  The ISBN of
        "IWCD" is 0-14-012437-3.  "BTL"'s ISBN is 0-14-012438-1.  These
        books are available in the United States and you should be able
        to order them from your local Waldenbooks.
	 
        A third novel (reportedly called THE LAST HUMAN) is in the
        works, although Grant Naylor's schedule hasn't allowed them to
        confirm when it will be finished.  In the meantime, however, the
        first two books have been combined into one large re-release
        called the RED DWARF OMNIBUS, which also contains the script for
        "Dave Hollins, Space Cadet" (the "Son Of Cliche" sketch that
        started it all -- see #3), a reproduction of the beer mat on
        which the idea for Red Dwarf was allegedly first sketched out,
        and the original script for "The End".

        A volume called simply RED DWARF, comprising the first two
        novels only, is available in the U.S. from the Science Fiction
        Book Club.

______________________________________
22. ARE THERE BOOKS ABOUT "RED DWARF"?

        Yes.  Available in England (although you can get it at a few
        conventions in the States) is the OFFICIAL RED DWARF COMPANION,
        a thin little book that has a lot of wasted space, but some
        interesting quotes and information and some wonderful color
        photos throughout.  If you're looking for in-depth, solid
        information about the show, this isn't where you'll find it; but
        if you want a nice, light read, a collector's item, and an
        attractive coffee-table-book, this is it.  Here's the info:

	THE OFFICIAL RED DWARF COMPANION
	by Bruce Dessau
	95 pages, 6.99 pounds
        ISBN:  1-85286-456-7
	Titan Books Ltd, 19 Valentine Place, London, SE1 8QH

        The RED DWARF PROGRAMME GUIDE ("everything you never wanted to
        know about the smash smega-series") is an in-depth collection of
        information about series 1-5.  It includes sections on History,
        The Characters, The Programmes, The Index, The Creators (cast
        and production crew), and The Spin-offs.  The index is by far
        the largest section of the book and is an alphabetical list of
        almost everything mentioned to during the series, from "A to Z
        of Red Dwarf, The" to "Zoom function".

        RED DWARF PROGRAMME GUIDE
        by Chris Howarth and Steve Lyons
        ISBN:  0-86-369682-1

        You can also pick up RED DWARF -- PRIMORDIAL SOUP: THE LEAST
        WORST SCRIPTS, by Grant Naylor.  The book contains the complete
        scripts for "Polymorph," "Marooned," "Dimension Jump,"
        "Justice", and "Psirens."

        ISBN:  0-14-017886-4

____________________________________
23. ARE THERE "RED DWARF" FAN CLUBS?

        There is a fully-sanctioned fan club for "Red Dwarf". Membership
        is $17 and includes four issues of their magazine "Better than
        Life", a badge, and a membership card.  Write to:

        Official Red Dwarf Fan Club
        c/o Mark Kennedy
        P.O. Box 50552
        Palo Alto, CA 94303
        [Can anyone supply the U.K. address?]

|       The U.S. also has a fully-sanctioned fan club.  Membership is
|       $25 for the first year and includes a T-shirt, membership card,
|       cast picture, and the club newsletter (published approximately
|       every other month).  Renewals are available for $12 per year.
|       The club does not have meetings, but does sponsor occasional
|       special events, such as a complete showing of Series Six in the
|       fall of 1993.  (Series Six has not yet been broadcast in the
|       U.S.)
|
|       Mike Gardiner (mwg@msen.com) has agreed to serve as an unofficial
|       Internet contact for this club.
|
|       Red Dwarf Fan Club
|       1409 W. 14 Mile Rd
|       #276 Madison
|       Heights, MI  48071

        In New Zealand, a club called Zed Shift produces a quarterly
        magazine, operates a mail order service for New Zealand members,
        and holds the occasional meeting.  Members recieve four issues
        of "Garbage Pod" (the magazine), a guide to Red Dwarf, a
        membership card, and a hologram "H".

        The cost of membership in NZ dollars is:
        New Zealand - $15
        Australia - $20
        Rest of world - $25

        For a registration form, send an SAE or IRC to:

        Zed Shift
        PO Box 10104
        Wellington
        New Zealand

_____________________________________________________
24. WHERE ELSE CAN I FIND OUT MORE ABOUT "RED DWARF"?

        An official magazine for the series is published in England.
        Overseas subscriptions reportedly are available [anyone know
        where?], and you can find it at some specialty shops and
        conventions.  The magazine seems aimed at a younger audience,
        but is fairly clever and has nice interviews (and great photos).
        The title sometimes appears on the cover as "Red Dwarf
        Smegazine."  For more information, write to:

        Red Dwarf Magazine
        Fleetway Editions Limited
        3rd Floor
        Greater London House
        Hampstead Road
        London
        England
	NW1 7QQ

        For those of you who are interested in fanzines (unofficial,
        fan-written publications), there is one being put out by Space
        Rat Press, entitled "Stasis Leak," including several interviews
        and episode guides.  The first issue of the 'zine costs $10.00
        plus $2.00 for postage and handling.  (Make checks payable to
        Space Rat Press.)  They seem to have obtained permission from
        Grant Naylor to do this, which is rare for a fanzine to do.
        They don't know whether there will be a second issue or not, but
        the first issue is out and it looks good.

        Space Rat Press
        P.O. Box 422
        Park Ridge, NJ 07656

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This F.A.Q. may be reproduced, electronically or in print, so long as the 
authors' names remain intact.  It may not be used for profit without the
express written permission of the maintainer.  Bribes cheerfully accepted.
Comments, questions?  Send e-mail to pat@berry.Cary.NC.US.  (Compliments are
always nice, too.)
           --------------------------------------------------------
THANKS AND A DOUBLE-RIMMER SALUTE TO: Paul S. Winalski, D. J. Clark,
Neil Postlethwaite, Kimble Ketolainen, Jim Lyon, Geoff Lane, Dave Gagne,
Ross Smith, Otto Heuer, Simon Jerram, FRUITBAT, Dan Crow, Grame
Griffiths, Dale Clayton, Mik Stevens, David K Fraser, J. Reynolds, Mike
Gardiner, Cyrill Nuernberg, and especially Michael J Montoure and Renee
Ann Byrd.
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(end of part 2 of 2)
