Red Dwarf

:This article describes the British science fiction comedy television series. For the type of star, see red dwarf.

Spin-offs

The franchise has expanded to include four novels, written by the show's creators, Doug Naylor and Rob Grant.

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• Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers - Grant Naylor - ISBN 0-45-145201-1
• Better Than Life - Grant Naylor - ISBN 0-14-012438-1
• Last Human - Doug Naylor - ISBN 0-14-014388-2
• Backwards - Rob Grant - ISBN 0-14-017150-9

The first book, Red Dwarf, had cover art that could be interpreted as saying Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers is the title, and the book is often called this to distinguish it from other incarnations.

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Due to various reasons, Grant and Naylor decided to both work alone when writing the sequel to Better Than Life, and so two completely different sequels were made. Last Human (by Doug Naylor, who would go on to make two further television series) introduced Kochanski to unsuspecting fans and felt very much like series seven of the TV programme, while Backwards (by Rob Grant) was more in keeping with the previous two books. The styles in both sequels vary wildly to each other and the two predecessors. Many fans believe that both novels are far inferior to the two books written in collaboration.

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All four books contain well-loved elements from certain episodes of the television series. Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers contained lines and story elements from The End, Future Echoes, Kryten, Me² and Better Than Life. Better Than Life contained elements from Better Than Life, Marooned, Polymorph and Backwards (the "playing pool with planets" sub-plot was written before the White Hole TV episode).

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Last Human contained elements from Backwards, Polymorph II: Emohawk and DNA. The novel Backwards contained elements from Backwards, Dimension Jump and Gunmen of the Apocalypse. While these elements are taken from the original source material, they were cleverly enhanced (and often improved) to fit in with the overall plots of every book due to not being inhibited by budgetry constraints.

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All four books were published in audiobook format, the first two read by Chris Barrie with Last Human read by Craig Charles and Backwards read by its author Rob Grant.

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The BBC World Service re-recorded the first two books as The Red Dwarf Radio Show with Chris Barrie narrating and included additional sound effects. The first series was broadcast on 3 December 1995 to 17 February 1996 and the second March 13 1997 to March 28 1997.

Related Topics:
BBC World Service - 3 December - 1995 - 17 February - 1996 - March 13 - 1997 - March 28

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The song "Tongue Tied", originally featured in a dream sequence in the episode Parallel Universe, was released as a single in 1993. It reached number 17 in the UK charts. It was expected to get higher, only a planned Top Of The Pops performance did not come to happen, thus halting momentum for the single.

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A planned Red Dwarf: The Movie has been delayed from its original schedule. According to the official website, it will enter pre-production 'shortly', with details of a release date to follow. Unfortunately it has been over a year since any news has been heard regarding the movie.

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