Red Dwarf prequel coming soon

Novel set before the accident that wiped out the ship's crew

A Red Dwarf prequel is coming soon.

Set before the accident that wiped out the ship's crew, the novel Red Dwarf: Titan features time travel, alternative universes and Lister and Rimmer in 'a breakneck race to save not only this, but every other reality'.

Titan was written by the show's co-creator Rob Grant with 2point4 Children writer Andrew Marshall and its synopsis hints at appearances from Cat and Kryten, too. The authors previously collaborated on the Radio 4 sci-fi comedy Quanderhorn.

Details of the novel, to be published by Orion, have appeared on a number of online bookseller websites, with a pre-order publication date of July.

However, Grant has been in touch with the Red Dwarf fansite Ganymede & Titan to clarify that the date is yet to be confirmed and that the book – the first Red Dwarf novel in more than 35 years – is still going through its final copy edit.

He shared this synopsis with the site:

'Before the beginning.

Before the accident that wipes out the crew, the mining ship Red Dwarf is in orbit around Saturnian moon Titan, and the bulk of the ship’s complement is heading down for shore leave, all with different intentions…

A strangely reluctant hen party; a relaxing cheaty golfing break; a terminally-boring cultural Odyssey; a marathon drinking and fighting binge; a stomach-challenging culinary beanfeast and an invigoratingly violent tour of Shore Patrol…

But menial chicken soup machine repairmen Dave Lister and Arnold Rimmer have slightly less noble ambitions.

Rimmer is in search of some illicit exam-cheating tech, to land a much-lusted-for promotion, and Lister plans to acquire a cat to smuggle back on board as part of a nefarious scheme to return to Earth. But mainly they just want to get as far away from each other as possible.

However, their objectives are scuppered somewhat unexpectedly when they receive a cryptic message.

A message from the future.

The two feuding crewmen are catapulted into a breakneck race to save not only this, but every other Reality.

Along the way, they’ll find themselves united again, for the first time, with some new, but somehow old friends, as they embark on a labyrinthian [sic] quest through the seediest, most dangerous underbelly of humankind’s furthest outpost, where lurk bizarre off-worldly dangers and one mysterious hidden nemesis with an obscure, yet clearly lethal agenda.'

Grant first revealed a Red Dwarf prequel was in development three years ago at a BFI event about time-bending films and television shows, though it was unclear whether it would be a return to television or take the form of a radio series, film or novel.

Titan's publication follows him settling a legal dispute with the show's co-creator Doug Naylor in 2023 which allows them to work on separate Red Dwarf projects. Naylor had been writing the television series without his erstwhile partner ever since it was revived by the Dave channel.

Last year, Naylor revealed that a new planned TV special, which was set to feature the series' established core cast of Craig Charles, Chris Barrie, Danny John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn, had been abruptly cancelled by UKTV when it decided that it was no longer commissioning scripted comedy.

The episode would have featured Lister travelling back in time to help his younger self escape from stasis, pursued by two Rimmers from the same timeframes. Naylor told Stuart Goldsmith on his Comedians' Comedian podcast that the project had got as far as generating a computer-generated version of the young Lister.

He added that if he was unsuccessful in getting the screenplay picked up by another channel, he would turn it into a novel.

Grant and Naylor published Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers in 1989 under the collective name Grant Naylor, with the sequel Better Than Life coming out the next year, followed by two further novels.

The television show ran for eight series on BBC Two from 1988-1999 before being revived by Dave in 2009 for four more series and a special.

News of Red Dwarf: Titan comes as Charles took to social media yesterday to post an image of himself with Barrie, with the caption 'the odd couple back together on earth’.