We don’t currently have a dedicated sub-forum for Red Dwarf, so I thought I might put it in the Voyager one instead.
RD and VOY have often been observed to have a lot of similarities in both premise and progression. Here I take a look at how they compare:
Holographic technology
Both USS Voyager and JMC Red Dwarf have holographic projection installed as standard. VOY has them only in sickbay and the holodecks (with some efforts in Season 2 to install them elsewhere) whereas RD has them all over. VOY can easily run multiple holographic projections at a time with no more strain on the ship’s power than any other system, but on RD projecting just one takes almost as much electricity as everything else on the ship combined. Despite this, Starfleet holograms give off a lot of heat (Macrocosm) whereas Space Corps holograms don’t (Polymorph).
The Doctor is initially confined to those parts of the ship which have projectors in place, but later acquires the mobile emitter which allows him to move elsewhere (Future’s End). It’s not made clear how long the battery lasts on the mobile emitter, but it can apparently be used as a battery for other things (Gravity). Rimmer initially can’t go outside of a spaceship environment unless a special projection cage is put in place for him (Thanks for the Memory) but later has a “light bee” which acts much like the mobile emitter (Meltdown). Exactly when he acquired this is unclear, but he is seen off-ship on earlier occasions (Backwards, Timeslides). Again the battery life is unclear as on one occasion it runs out and he switches off (Psirens) but on another he can apparently last for six hundred years unaided (Rimmerworld).
Rimmer initially only exists in “soft light” form, meaning he can’t touch anything, but is later upgraded to “hard light” after some educated fiddling with his light bee (Legion). Starfleet holograms are hard light as early as 2364 (Encounter at Farpoint) but can switch to soft light when needed (Phage).
Auxiliary craft
Voyager is launched with at least two types of shuttle onboard. In the first season and a half we only see the Type 8 Shuttlecraft, which is about 6m long and has two pilot chairs with maybe eight passengers seated in the back (Parallax). The speed of this craft is unspecified. We later discover they also have the Class 2 Shuttlecraft (originally called “Type 9”) which is about 8m long with two pilot chairs and maybe standing room for another two people (Threshold) The top speed is Warp 4 (64c on TOS scale) (Resolutions).
In Series 5 the Delta Flyer is built (Extreme Risk). The exact specifications of this vehicle are unclear but it is clearly faster and considerably larger than the other shuttles with four pilot seats and a substantial aft section. Exactly how many shuttles are aboard is unclear but Chakotay at one point says they have “a full complement” (Alice) despite how many have already been crashed or blown up, so perhaps they have facilities to rebuild those as well. The Type 8 is used exclusively until the Type 9 appears, then they’re about half and half for the next season. Once the Delta Flyer is introduced the Type 8 is quickly forgotten.
Red Dwarf II introduces the Blue Midgets as the main auxiliary craft. We don’t get to see it in much detail but it’s presumably quite small. Red Dwarf III introduces the Starbugs, which are about the size of four-storey detached houses and have multi-room interiors. Several of them are seen to crash and we don’t know how many there are in total – the highest ordinal we see is 19 (The Promised Land). The interior of Blue Midget is inconsistently depicted – originally having one central pilot seats with two passengers behind (Kryten) then later expanding to have four control seats and a small aft section (Back in the Red, The Beginning). Starbug’s cockpit originally has two pilot seats with standing room behind in the cockpit, but while the crew are stranded on one of them and spend centuries in stasis Kryten remodels the cockpit to have four command chairs instead (Psirens). Later appearances suggest this change has been copied to the other Starbugs as well (Twentica).
Getting home
Now here’s the clincher – for two series that are supposedly about a seemingly-impossible journey across the galaxy back to Earth, they both seem to get to Earth (or at least the Alpha Quadrant) a lot:
Voyager is sent back to 1996 Earth and several of the senior crew spend time on the planet, but Starfleet from the 29th century forbids them from staying (Future’s End). Later the Doctor is able to email himself back to the Alpha Quadrant (Message in a Bottle, Life Line) but this method doesn’t work for non-holograms. In Series 5 both Janeway and Seven of Nine are sent back to the fleet yards orbiting Mars in 2371 (Relativity), then in Series 7 Chakotay travels through a ship that is split into multiple time zones, at least one of which is from before the Caretaker’s array caught them and thus technically puts him back somewhere between Bajor and the Badlands (Shattered).
Red Dwarf has a lot of these without good (or any) explanations for why they don’t just stay: First they find a stasis leak that allows them to travel back to the ship before the drive plate accident (Stasis Leak), then they find themselves on an alternate version of Earth where time is in reverse (Backwards), then they find a mutated developing fluid which lets them walk into times and places shown on old photographs (Timeslides), then they find a matter paddle which can teleport them thousands of light years in an instant (Meltdown), then they find a time drive which at some point they figure out how to use for space travel as well (Out of Time), though even without that they could just go back in time six million years then drift back to Earth in stasis. Later the time drive is used to go back to Dallas in 1963 just so Lister can get a curry (Tikka to Ride), then he somehow goes back to his own childhood home to leave his infant self on a pub floor (Ouroboros), then there’s a rejuvenating shower which accidentally puts him on Earth at the time of Christ (Lemons), then a space hole that puts him on Earth in an alternate 1950s (Twentica). Have I missed any?
[More sections to be added later.]
RD and VOY have often been observed to have a lot of similarities in both premise and progression. Here I take a look at how they compare:
Holographic technology
Both USS Voyager and JMC Red Dwarf have holographic projection installed as standard. VOY has them only in sickbay and the holodecks (with some efforts in Season 2 to install them elsewhere) whereas RD has them all over. VOY can easily run multiple holographic projections at a time with no more strain on the ship’s power than any other system, but on RD projecting just one takes almost as much electricity as everything else on the ship combined. Despite this, Starfleet holograms give off a lot of heat (Macrocosm) whereas Space Corps holograms don’t (Polymorph).
The Doctor is initially confined to those parts of the ship which have projectors in place, but later acquires the mobile emitter which allows him to move elsewhere (Future’s End). It’s not made clear how long the battery lasts on the mobile emitter, but it can apparently be used as a battery for other things (Gravity). Rimmer initially can’t go outside of a spaceship environment unless a special projection cage is put in place for him (Thanks for the Memory) but later has a “light bee” which acts much like the mobile emitter (Meltdown). Exactly when he acquired this is unclear, but he is seen off-ship on earlier occasions (Backwards, Timeslides). Again the battery life is unclear as on one occasion it runs out and he switches off (Psirens) but on another he can apparently last for six hundred years unaided (Rimmerworld).
Rimmer initially only exists in “soft light” form, meaning he can’t touch anything, but is later upgraded to “hard light” after some educated fiddling with his light bee (Legion). Starfleet holograms are hard light as early as 2364 (Encounter at Farpoint) but can switch to soft light when needed (Phage).
Auxiliary craft
Voyager is launched with at least two types of shuttle onboard. In the first season and a half we only see the Type 8 Shuttlecraft, which is about 6m long and has two pilot chairs with maybe eight passengers seated in the back (Parallax). The speed of this craft is unspecified. We later discover they also have the Class 2 Shuttlecraft (originally called “Type 9”) which is about 8m long with two pilot chairs and maybe standing room for another two people (Threshold) The top speed is Warp 4 (64c on TOS scale) (Resolutions).
In Series 5 the Delta Flyer is built (Extreme Risk). The exact specifications of this vehicle are unclear but it is clearly faster and considerably larger than the other shuttles with four pilot seats and a substantial aft section. Exactly how many shuttles are aboard is unclear but Chakotay at one point says they have “a full complement” (Alice) despite how many have already been crashed or blown up, so perhaps they have facilities to rebuild those as well. The Type 8 is used exclusively until the Type 9 appears, then they’re about half and half for the next season. Once the Delta Flyer is introduced the Type 8 is quickly forgotten.
Red Dwarf II introduces the Blue Midgets as the main auxiliary craft. We don’t get to see it in much detail but it’s presumably quite small. Red Dwarf III introduces the Starbugs, which are about the size of four-storey detached houses and have multi-room interiors. Several of them are seen to crash and we don’t know how many there are in total – the highest ordinal we see is 19 (The Promised Land). The interior of Blue Midget is inconsistently depicted – originally having one central pilot seats with two passengers behind (Kryten) then later expanding to have four control seats and a small aft section (Back in the Red, The Beginning). Starbug’s cockpit originally has two pilot seats with standing room behind in the cockpit, but while the crew are stranded on one of them and spend centuries in stasis Kryten remodels the cockpit to have four command chairs instead (Psirens). Later appearances suggest this change has been copied to the other Starbugs as well (Twentica).
Getting home
Now here’s the clincher – for two series that are supposedly about a seemingly-impossible journey across the galaxy back to Earth, they both seem to get to Earth (or at least the Alpha Quadrant) a lot:
Voyager is sent back to 1996 Earth and several of the senior crew spend time on the planet, but Starfleet from the 29th century forbids them from staying (Future’s End). Later the Doctor is able to email himself back to the Alpha Quadrant (Message in a Bottle, Life Line) but this method doesn’t work for non-holograms. In Series 5 both Janeway and Seven of Nine are sent back to the fleet yards orbiting Mars in 2371 (Relativity), then in Series 7 Chakotay travels through a ship that is split into multiple time zones, at least one of which is from before the Caretaker’s array caught them and thus technically puts him back somewhere between Bajor and the Badlands (Shattered).
Red Dwarf has a lot of these without good (or any) explanations for why they don’t just stay: First they find a stasis leak that allows them to travel back to the ship before the drive plate accident (Stasis Leak), then they find themselves on an alternate version of Earth where time is in reverse (Backwards), then they find a mutated developing fluid which lets them walk into times and places shown on old photographs (Timeslides), then they find a matter paddle which can teleport them thousands of light years in an instant (Meltdown), then they find a time drive which at some point they figure out how to use for space travel as well (Out of Time), though even without that they could just go back in time six million years then drift back to Earth in stasis. Later the time drive is used to go back to Dallas in 1963 just so Lister can get a curry (Tikka to Ride), then he somehow goes back to his own childhood home to leave his infant self on a pub floor (Ouroboros), then there’s a rejuvenating shower which accidentally puts him on Earth at the time of Christ (Lemons), then a space hole that puts him on Earth in an alternate 1950s (Twentica). Have I missed any?
[More sections to be added later.]
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