r/RedDwarf • u/Cornelius-B33 • 1d ago
Question/Discussion "Haven't you ever travelled interstellar?"
I've not sure how, but I only recently realised the implications of Todhunter's line in The End, where he is explaining stasis to Lister. He asks "Haven't you ever travelled interstellar?", which implies that ships capable of interstellar travel exist and are common enough that (Todhunter assumes) someone like Lister could have taken a return journey on one.
Even if the journey was still long enough to require staying in stasis, presumably these ships could still travel many light years in relatively short time, at close to or even exceeding light speed.
Until now, I'd always assumed the humans of the Dwarfiverse were confined to the solar system on slow moving ships and only the gelfs and droids and simulants had actually left (or been expelled).
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u/tmofee 1d ago
If you pay careful attention to the latest series, it’s hinted that they’re in the outer limits of explored space by now. They’re picking up automated robot television.
I always assumed that like they say in the books the space fleet stretched out their hands, discovered that they’re the only living creatures in the universe and just gave up. Why bother colonising deep space when there’s nothing else out there?
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u/cosaboladh 20h ago
Why bother colonising deep space when there's nothing else out there?
To be the something else out there. Big picture, earth—if properly cared for—can only give us 4 billion or so more years. After that, the sun is going to start boiling off our atmosphere, and oceans.
Now bear in mind that humans don't take good care of earth, and will probably never learn to. It makes sense to build supply chains between mineral rich systems, and systems with habitable planets. To extend our reach, and ensure the perpetuation of the human race. The universe is so vast, we could destroy every planet we live on until the heat death of the universe, and never run out of new places to ruin.
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u/TonksMoriarty 8h ago
*1 billion. Earth becomes too hot for life in 1 billion years as Sol's luminosity increases as it ages.
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u/CrazyMike419 1d ago
Our nearest stars are 4 to 6 light years away. That's doable with stasis. That said... Wasn't kryten found on a ship called "nova 5". A ship that was out there causing supernovas to create a coke advert?
Seems very clear that interstellar travel was a thing "in universe"
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u/Grizzl0ck 1d ago
Kryten was built in like 2340, about 150 years after the Red Dwarf started barreling it's way out of the solar system. The Nova 5 had jump drive technology far in advance of what was avaialable at that time.
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u/ThePeaceDoctot The Riviera Kid 23h ago
He was, but he wasn't built until approximately 150 years after the accident.
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u/dave_lister169 1d ago
It's hard being alone.
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u/MrScottBull 17h ago
You're not alone...there's always Rachel; just get out the puncture repair kit and we won't judge you.
Though I've been seeing her behind your back.
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u/salty-sigmar 23h ago
In the book interstellar travel is explained as having been done using stasis, but largely abandoned due to the seeming emptiness of space. It also says that the returning travellers often struggled to fit back in to society having arrived home long after the deaths of their own grandchildren.
We could make up some headcanon then that Todhunter might actually be one of those early interstellar astros and on paper is hundreds of years old, having left earth in stasis centuries ago and returned recently before taking on a fresh commission of red dwarf. Maybe it's not uncommon in space corp to meet someone born two centuries ago who was part of those early stasis based missions and is still working through their contract as SC doesn't count time in stasis as time worked. It'd make sense that an early astro would choose to stay in space since everyone they knew back on earth is long gone.
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u/Evening-Tomatillo-47 22h ago
It's just occurred to me that some of them still wouldn't get back for a really long time. In fact could some still be out there 3 million years later?
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u/salty-sigmar 6h ago
Maybe thats another of the subtle tragedies of red dwarf - for all we know there might be a booming human civilisation somewhere out at the edges of space, but the chances of lister and co stumbling upon it are beyond miniscule.
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u/Cornelius-B33 5h ago
And of course somewhere presumably there's the crew that abandoned ship at the end of Series 8, or maybe their descendants.
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u/Werthead 21h ago
The worldbuilding and continuity of the franchise has always been fairly nominal, but yes, the idea in the OG series is that interstellar travel via stasis booths was fully possible, just not routinely done.
In later seasons Kryten notes that FTL travel is possible, and they indeed use it themselves with the matter paddle and then see it in action with the holoship Enlightenment's tachyon drive. Not to mention the time wand that not only moves them back and forth in time, but also transports them to Earth at the time of Jesus (why they didn't use it to go back to the Solar system a week after the nuclear accident is waaah I've gone crosseyed).
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u/Tight-Awareness-5114 22h ago
I partly attribute that to class difference. Someone like Lister would be unlikely to travel interstellar but Todhunter doesn't realise that.
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u/Kooky-Giraffe-2415 21h ago
Damn! How great would it be to see someone create a Red Dwarf interstellar mini series!! I'd love that now!! 😋😋🚀
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u/ImBonRurgundy 1d ago
This is exploring more detail in the book where lots of ships had been fitted with stasis drives for interstellar travel but then humanity relatively quickly realise that interstellar travel was totally pointless.
There was no aliens out there and when people got back to earth after years in stasis to find all their family continued aging their children were now older than them or even had died.