Red Dwarf (series)

Red Dwarf is a British science-fiction comedy television series created by and Doug Naylor and aired on BBC Two and.

The series follows Dave Lister, a crewmember of the Jupiter Mining Corporation ship Red Dwarf, who awakes after three million years in suspended animation and discovers all the crew have been killed and that he is the last living human. Arnold Rimmer, another crewmember, is revived in hologram form. The Cat, a humanoid who has evolved from Lister's pregnant cat, and Kryten, a service mechanoid, later join the crew in the course of the series.

As a British BBC science-fiction series, Red Dwarf shares several connections with Doctor Who, both on screen and behind the scenes. First broadcast in 1988, Red Dwarf is the second longest-running British science-fiction television series behind Doctor Who.

Television
In the episode , as the crew prepare to exit Red Dwarf in Starbug, the Doctor's TARDIS can be seen parked within the cargo bay doors to the right. This shot was originally filmed for the episode , but was cut.

In , the crew are thrown into the real world. After discovering they are merely fictional characters, they visit a science fiction themed store called They Walk Among Us. In the store, the Cat points out a cover of the magazine SFX, which features the crew's image. The cover also mentions Doctor Who, describing an exclusive interview, that year's upcoming television special, and the end of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. In the real world, this was an actual special edition cover of SFX for the April 2009 issue, of which only 50 copies were printed. The main cover instead featured an image of David Tennant and Michelle Ryan as the Tenth Doctor and Christina de Souza.

Prose
In the novel , Kryten owns a sonic screwdriver.

References to Red Dwarf in the DWU
In the comic story Spam Filtered, the Eleventh Doctor says he once knew a hard-light hologram who was a "bit of a jobsworth". While not explicitly stated, this is very likely a reference to Arnold Rimmer, as a hard-light hologram character known for his stubborn adherence to Space Corps Directives.

Crossover
The first crossover between Red Dwarf and Doctor Who came as part of Red Dwarf A-Z, a celebratory television special looking back through the series of Red Dwarf. One of the segments, titled "E for Exterminate", featured an interview with two Daleks. The Daleks state they are not familiar with the TV series Red Dwarf as they do not watch anything on BBC Two, and all TV is merely human propaganda. They also take credit for the works of William Shakespeare, and Beethoven. After this however, one Dalek does state "that light bulb gag was funny though", prompting an argument between the two. It ends with one exterminating the other. The scene then cuts to the Red Dwarf crew inside Starbug, with Lister referring to the Daleks as "Albanian washing machines". The aforementioned light bulb gag then plays out when Rimmer orders a step up to "red alert". The ending featuring the crew was made up of two clips from the episode .

Crew
Jenna Russell was the singer of the Red Dwarf theme, which plays in the closing credits of nearly every episode. In DWU media, she played the floor manager in the television stories Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways. She also voiced Porcelain Polly and Missus in the Big Finish Jago & Litefoot audio story Encore of the Scorchies and one of several Scorchies in The Wax Princess.

Dominic Glynn was the composer of Red Dwarf in addition to being the composer of Doctor Who's incidental music during the late 1980s.

Ed Bye directed several episodes of Red Dwarf from series I to VIII. Bye was also the production manager for the parodical Doctor Who untitled sketch in The Lenny Henry Show. He also produced and directed the Red Dwarf A-Z which featured the Daleks. Bye would later direct the Children in Need special Looking for Pudsey, which featured the Twelfth Doctor.

Mike Tucker served as visual effects assistant on both Doctor Who and Red Dwarf.

Peter Wragg was the visual effects designer for the Doctor Who television stories The Visitation, Resurrection of the Daleks and Mindwarp. He also served as the principle effects designer on Red Dwarf for most of its original run.

Alan Machin provided the studio sound for several Doctor Who and Red Dwarf television stories.

Howard Burden was a longtime costume designer on Red Dwarf in addition to serving as costume designer on Doctor Who from 2012 to 2014.

Other connections
Unlike Doctor Who, the Red Dwarf universe does not feature alien races. Instead, other races are created as a result of human actions, both intentionally and inadvertently. The cyborg race known as the Simulants and Agonoids share similarities with the Cybermen. However, instead of seeking to convert humanity, Simulants and Agonoids seek to kill all humans and those who serve them, a similarity with the Daleks and their desire to eliminate all non-Dalek lifeforms. The experimental cyborg Kahler-Tek from the television story A Town Called Mercy has a similar origin story to the Simulants, having been created as a weapon for war.

The Felis sapien species, evolved from Dave Lister's cat, shares similarities with the Catkind race. Unlike the Catkind however, which resemble humanoid cats, the Felis sapiens resemble humans with feline characteristics.

The Doctor Who comic story The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who shares several plot similarities with Red Dwarf: Back to Earth. Both stories feature a plot where the cast of the show end up in the real world. The key comparison is that, like in Back to Earth, Matt Smith is presented as filming the events to the comic as a TV story as the events play out. Likewise, as Dave Lister meets his actor Craig Charles in Back to Earth, the Eleventh Doctor also meets Matt Smith.

During Red Dwarf's seventh series, the ship Starbug shared some similarities with the Doctor's TARDIS. With the use of a time drive, Starbug had the ability to travel through time. In addition, Starbug was also now bigger on the inside. This was explained as being the result of a "dimensional anomaly" following a battle with a technologically advanced future Starbug, the result of which led to both Starbugs effectively merging.

In the comedy sketch The Kidnappers, several science fiction memorabilia is seen within the bedroom of Mark and David, including some from Red Dwarf. David is also seen wearing a shirt with the image of Ace Rimmer.

A Red Dwarf level appears in the video game LEGO Dimensions, depicting the ship's sleeping quarters, science room and various other rooms. Also depicted are the droid Snacky and some Skutters. This level is accessed via the TARDIS, as part of the Fantastic Beasts story pack. Unlike how Doctor Who is depicted in the game, the main characters of Red Dwarf do not appear.

Chris Barrie, the actor for Arnold Rimmer, was reportedly one of many names put forward for the part of the Eighth Doctor during the production of the 1996 TV movie.

The studded ball used as the atom accelerator on the Eleventh Doctor's TARDIS console was also used as a component of the Groinal Exploder in the Red Dwarf episode .

An unused alternate design for the Destroyer done by Mike Tucker would later form the basis for a monster featured in the Red Dwarf episode .