Red Dwarf is a British comedy sci-fi television series created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor and produced by the BBC which chronicles the adventures of the last human being alive and his friends, stranded three million years into deep space on the mining ship Red Dwarf.
The series aired in the UK on BBC Two from 1988-1999. There are 55 half-hour episodes in eight seasons, as well as a 2009 mini-series entitled Red Dwarf: Back to Earth.
Red Dwarf originally aired in South Africa on DStv's BBC Prime (now BBC Entertainment) channel, from 1999-2008.
A rebroadcast of Season 2 premiered on BBC Entertainment on Monday 31 August 2009, at 19h30. New episodes air on weekdays at the same time. There are six episodes in the second season.
Synopsis
Boldly going where no one in their right mind would even bother, this Emmy-winning comedic parody of the sci-fi genre takes fans on a giant joyride three million years into the future.
Red Dwarf is a set on board the Jupiter mining ship Red Dwarf. Dave Lister ranks 169 out of 169, lower than the Skutters - the maintenance robots. His boss/room-mate is Arnold Rimmer, an obsessive, incompetent, nerdy smeghead who has failed his astronavigation exam 16 times.
Lister has recently been dumped by officer Kristine Kochanski and is still in love with her, but by the end of the first episode, all the crew except Lister are dead from a radiation leak caused by a badly sealed drive plate.
Imprisoned in stasis before the radiation leak, Lister is released millions of years in the future with the accolade of being the only surviving member of the human race - and what a representative he is.
The inventor of the fried-egg-and-chillipickle sandwich, Lister is the scruffiest, smelliest individual ever to slob around the universe. Holly, the ship's senile computer, decides Lister needs company to keep him from going insane.
Enter Arnold Rimmer, now a hologram, but with all the neuroses and failings of the original model, and Cat, a descendant of the ship's cat who has evolved over millions of years into a self-obsessed humanoid creature who sleeps, eats and fawns over his appearance.
Aimlessly roaming the universe, this ramshackle crew of space bums encounter alien pods, mutated viruses and distorted time.
And if that doesn't keep Lister amused, there is always the question of why Rimmer's last words were "Gazpacho soup?..."