Red Dwarf - “Far From Safe” Story Bible Page 1: INDEX Page 2 : Red Dwarf – What's happened so far? Page 3 : Setting Page 4 – 11 : Principal Characters Page 12 – 15: Supporting Characters Page 16 – 18: Plot Devices (Phenomena & Technology) Page 19 – 20: Threats Page 21 - 22: Environments (Outside of Starbug) Page 23: Relevant Video Materials 1 Red Dwarf: What's happened so far? The setting of Red Dwarf is quite a simple one, in spite of its sci-fi setting. David Lister is the last human being alive. He is in deep space, aboard a city-sized mining ship called “Red Dwarf.” The ship has been travelling into deep space for 3 million years, with Lister frozen in time. His fellow crew members were all wiped out by a lethal radiation leak that stopped them from returning to Earth. The ship's computer- “Holly” awakens Lister, explains the situation and then reanimates “Arnold Rimmer”- his former bunkmate in hologramatic form to keep him company. Lister sets out to return to Earth, unprepared and unaware of the perils that await the ship out in deep space. During his travels, Lister and his comrades will face genetically engineered life forms or “GELFs”, battle droids, psychic hologramatic zombies and gestalt entities that draw on the crew's life-force. 2 Setting The game will be set at the end of season 6, between episodes 5 & 6. At this point, the “Dwarfers” have lost Red Dwarf and are attempting to find it again. They are travelling in a much smaller vessel, designed for reconnaissance and short-range travel. “Starbug” is home to the Dwarfers while they try to find their way back home. The crew are on their own in this period, with Holly being part of Red Dwarf, making him absent from Starbug. This means that the Dwarfers are forced to fend for themselves, making them more capable space-farers who rely on each other and work in shifts to hunt for Red Dwarf. Starbug is made of three large, bulbous sections; the cockpit, crew quarters and the engine room. It has been outfitted with a laser- cannon, although the nature of the show has always leaned towards making the crew run from trouble, rather than fight it. The television show has displayed the layout of the cockpit, galley, medical bay and crew quarters. Starbug in low orbit over an ice planet. 3 Principal Characters David (Dave) Lister Before becoming the last human being alive; Dave Lister is the lowest ranked person aboard Red Dwarf. As a technician third-class, Lister performs tasks that are too menial for the service robots. A man in his mid-twenties; Lister drinks, smokes and eats endless junk food. He is lazy, uneducated and unmotivated. Lister is a man of many talents, however. He is fluent in Esperanto, a decent pilot and he is capable of fixing things. In episode 5's “The Inquisitor” Lister faces a trial where he is his own judge. When questioning what he's done with the gift of life, he accuses himself: “You've got brains, man. Brains you've never used.” This scene shows that despite his lack of motivation, Lister knows that he could have done more with his life. In later seasons, we also discover that Lister is in fact his own father, creating an eternal holding pattern where humanity always exists. This is done by going back and time and placing his own infant self under a pool table in a Liverpool pub. In some regards he is virtuous, and on numerous occasions, has shown that he is not willing to kill, as well as actively opposing more violent methods of dealing with problems. On the other hand; petty theft, breaking promises and playing pranks on others are all less than benevolent activities which Lister has partaken in on the show. Lister's goal is to get back home so he can live out his dream of 4 raising horses on a farm on Fiji, with his love interest “Kristine Kochanski”. This motivation becomes secondary after a while, as he becomes distracted by the many immediate dangers and curiosities that exist in deep space. In the later seasons, Lister brings a version of Kochanski back from an alternate reality where she is the last human alive. This set of circumstances serves to remind Lister that what he really wants is to be with her. When it comes to his past romantic entanglements, he has mostly regrets. After losing his virginity aged 12 in a golf-course bunker or being locked in a crate by a jilted husband who threatened to kill him, the only real romance Lister had was with a girl called “Lise Yates”. This relationship ended when he told her he couldn't commit to her; something he clearly regrets in season 2's “Thanks for the memory” when he is forced to consider his past actions. His relationship with the other crew members is really what binds the show together. This is explained in series 3's “Timeslides”, as it shows that without Lister bringing his cat “Frankenstein” aboard Red Dwarf, the cat race never exist, the crew never discover Kryten, and Rimmer isn't brought back as a hologram to keep him sane. In a show where causality and alternate realities are explored, Lister's importance is beyond a doubt. His relationship with Rimmer is largely antagonistic. Early seasons of the show set Rimmer and Lister up as the stereotypical “odd- couple”. The irony of this is emphasised by the fact that these are two men who both came from broken homes, are stuck at the bottom end of society and are now marooned in deep space. In later seasons, the two of them become friends, as they are forced to learn more about each other. In series 3's “Marooned” episode, Starbug crashes on a planet that is ravaged by blizzards. Trapped on board; Lister and Rimmer are forced to co-operate to keep Lister alive long enough for them to be found. This episode showcases how the hardships that they endure will bring them closer together. Without looking too far into it, season 7's “Blue” involves a dream scene where Lister and Rimmer kiss. Lister awakes screaming, but later mentions how he misses certain elements of Rimmer's personality that used to drive him nuts. 5 Arnold Judas Rimmer Almost the polar opposite of Lister; Rimmer is uptight, bureaucratic and callous. These factors are often exacerbated by Lister's desire to play pranks on Rimmer and drive him crazy. Before the crew are all killed, Rimmer is Lister's immediate superior and within five minutes of the very first episode “The End”, the groundwork for their relationship is firmly established. It is evident that the two hate each other, although it seems that Rimmer enjoys having someone around who is lower on the ladder than he is, while Lister seems too lazy to do anything about it. Once the crew is killed, the ship's computer brings Rimmer back to life as a hologram to keep Lister from going mad with cabin fever. It is proposed that because Rimmer was the person Lister talked to most, he was the one best suited to keeping his spirits up. Rimmer is positively brimming with self-loathing, doubt and fear. His cowardice is one of the immutable elements of the show and it is frequently referenced. Even when he becomes a hologram that can't be physically harmed, he is prone to hiding when trouble approaches. If there is one thing that Rimmer excels at it's making excuses for himself and this goes beyond explaining why he is always the first to run when danger is near. In episodes such as series 4's “Justice”, we learn that Rimmer carries a great deal of guilt with him for his part in the disaster that wiped out Red Dwarf's crew. The audience sees that this deflecting of blame is a defence mechanism so he can avoid taking responsibility for his actions. 6 Rimmer blames his background for why he is a failure. When we are introduced to Rimmer's alter ego from a different dimension; “Ace Rimmer” - who is brave, smart, popular and charming, Rimmer takes an immediate dislike to him as he represents everything that Rimmer feels he could be if he had the chance. We later discover that the point where the two diverged is that Ace was held back a year at school which shamed him into improving himself. It's never quite clear what Rimmer's overall motivation is. He is dead, and until he attains his “hardlight body” in series 6's “Legion” episode, he is unable to physically interact with anything or anyone except other holograms. Grant and Naylor use his insecurity and need to succeed as incentive for Rimmer to do things. For the duration of the show, it seems that Rimmer's goal is to become an authority figure who is respected and admired. When it comes to relationships, Rimmer is ill-equipped. He has a book on hypnosis which he uses to try to trick women into sleeping with him. In season 2's “Thanks for the memory”, Rimmer drunkenly reveals to Lister that he's only ever had sex once and that it didn't last long. This woman; “Yvonne Mcgruder”, is referenced a couple of times in the show. 7 (The) Cat The Cat is the last known surviving remnant of a race of bipedal humanoid cats that have evolved from Lister's original pet cat “Frankenstein”.