`Red Dwarf': Not Of This World

TV preview "Red Dwarf" marathon, 6 p.m. to midnight Saturday and Sunday, KCTS-TV.

This is what happens when you produce limited episodes of "Red Dwarf," a wildly popular Brit-com that blends science fiction and deep-space adventure with comedy:

Fervent fans name pets after the cult show's stars - Dave Lister, Arnold Rimmer, Cat, Kryten and Holly. Heck, they cop the characters' names as their own when logging on to the Internet. They snap up T-shirts, jackets and mouse pads carrying the "Red Dwarf" name.

By choice, they call themselves Dwarfers and Smegheads.

They illicitly tape early "Red Dwarf" (or "RD," for short) shows, watching them over and over and over. They study the finer details about the crew's misadventures through space and failed attempts to return to Earth as if there were some upcoming quiz.

So when they run into Craig Charles, who plays curry-crazy, quasi-captain Lister, they quote chapter and verse: "In Series II, Episode 3, you had your appendix removed. But in Series VI, Episode 2, you had it taken out again. What gives?"

"It's a bit scary, really," Charles said. "I'm just me. I can't just go out and be someone else. I'm glad they're so obsessed - it pays the check . . . but I'm not going to become obsessed."

Seattle fans jonesing for a "Red Dwarf" fix will get their fill this weekend when KCTS-TV (PBS) airs all of Series VII, the most recent release, from 6 p.m. to midnight Saturday and Sunday.

A few thousand who pledged during an "RD" marathon weekend this spring will meet Charles and Robert Llellewyn, who plays Kryten, a service droid whose angular head has been described as a cubist nightmare. The two will also be popping up on KCTS' pledge drive this weekend.

Seattle-area "Red Dwarf" fans pledged almost $300,000 during the last two-day "RD" marathon, the highest pledge amounts "Red Dwarf" has generated, said a KCTS spokeswoman.

"This is like the Smeg capital of the world," said Arlo Smith, 14, who will go to the party.

Smith's mother, Desiree, stumbled upon the show a few years ago and thought, "Red Dwarf," what is this? The more she watched, the more she liked it. Eventually the entire household was hooked.

She calls the humor "refreshing and different."

Arlo likes it because it's obscene. "It's different, you know. It's out there and you can't find something like that on regular TV. . . . I don't think it would be the same if it was working within the networks."

How devoted is this North Seattle household of "RD" fans?

Desiree Smith, a graphic artist, paid extra for a personalized license. The top line of her decorative border says "Rimmer is a" The license plate chips in "SMEG," and the bottom border adds the word "Head."

"The very first day we put it on, we were driving down the freeway. This person honks at us. . . . She holds up in her window a photo of Rimmer. It just cracks me up - who carries a photo of Rimmer?"

For all of its fans and fanfare, the Red Dwarf show concept isn't truly new. "Star Trek" would Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before decades earlier. In the generations since, a dizzying array of knockoffs and movies, like the "Star Wars" trilogy, have been equally popular.

But fans say "Red Dwarf," which premiered in Seattle in May 1989, is a shade different.

Lister is a working man's hero, a lowly employee who worked Zed Shift with bunkmate Rimmer, unclogging chicken soup machines.

Lister is put in suspended animation for improperly smuggling a pregnant cat onboard; he's accidentally left in stasis for 3 million years.

Rimmer screwed up and killed the rest of the crew by causing a radiation leak. Brought back to life in the form of a hologram, he continues to torment Lister.

This stuff is so fascinating that fans like Patrick M. Berry make collecting the bits and bobs of "RD" trivia into a part-time job. Berry's Web site boasts a Frequently Asked Questions list that is 23 pages long.

"There are a lot of science-fiction shows on TV and plenty of comedies," Berry wrote in an e-mail message. "But it's very rare to see both in a single series. And `Red Dwarf' is the only one I've ever seen that does it well."

Charles vaulted to popularity in the United Kingdom by reading poetry on the television show "Black on Black." Job offers poured in. Many of those shows no longer exist.

"Red Dwarf" "was something that had legs and would last forever," he said. "It's like `Star Trek' in that way."

Series VII revisits Lister as a man without a country, without a mother ship, and now, the final affront: without curry. There's potential for real sex - opposed to simulated sex in the artificial reality suite. Rimmer is tapped to become the next Ace, his high-achieving alter ego. But even with a flowing mane wig, can the cowardly lion manage?

Viewers may not immediately notice a bigger change: The new series wasn't shot before a live audience.

Llewellyn, who wrote one of the episodes, worries about energy loss.

"We have to work so fast when there's an audience there," he said. "There's a kind of frantic energy that possibly wasn't in Series VII. . . . It looks like we're going to have an audience back in Series VIII, which is telling."