The spaceship Red Dwarf is an enormous mining vessel owned by the Jupiter Mining Corporation and commanded by Captain Frank Hollister. It is 6 miles (10 km) long, 5 miles (8 km) tall, and 4 miles (6 km) wide, according to the novels. The jagged shape and dull red colour of the vessel has led to the vessel being described as a "giant red trash can". All of Red Dwarf's systems are controlled by the computer Holly.A small moon is embedded in Red Dwarf's underbelly — however, structurally it remains apparently unaffected (upon the reconstruction of Red Dwarf in Series VIII, the moon was gone). Also various exterior model shots of the vessel seem to indicate that a large part of the interior may in fact be rocky, leading to speculation that the vessel may have originally been carved out of a large asteroid or small moon; however this has not been clearly stated in either the television series or the novels. It is more likely that it was constructed around an asteroid or collects them on a mission for mining.
It has so far been travelling for roughly 3,000,000 years, and a few centuries on top of this. The ship has enough food and drink to last 30,000 years (although they have run out of cow's milk, Shake 'n' Vac and have just one After Eight mint left, which everyone is too polite to take).
The "scoop" on the front of the ship sucks hydrogen from the currents in space and converts it into fuel. Red Dwarf has a large complement of shuttles, including Starbugs and Blue Midgets. Another shuttle type only mentioned in the novels but never seen or heard on the television series is White Giant (see Starbug). Red Dwarf is powered by a Bussard ramjet and can, theoretically, keep going forever.
It is briefly mentioned in the first episode, "The End", that Red Dwarf has botanical gardens, when third-class technician Dave Lister and second-class technician Arnold Rimmer are sent off to repair a "faulty pourous circuit" there. If Red Dwarf has botanical gardens then it is possible the vessel has a closed ecological system or systems aboard similar to those which exist on Earth today, such as Biosphere 2 (although these are never seen in the television series).
The crew size was repeatedly stated in Series I to be 169, but the number grew with time: in the Series IV episode "Justice" it was said to have been 1,169 (although this retcon was implicitly reversed by Lister giving his crew number as 000169 in "The Inquisitor"), and in the books the figure is given as 11,169. In the programme, however, these continuity errors are more or less ignored. There is an additional 400 people in a classified prison on the secret Floor 13.
Red Dwarf itself was the main setting for the first five series of the programme, but was apparently lost for 200 years before "Psirens" of Series Six. It was later discovered that a collective of rogue nanobots which formed the mechanoid Kryten's auto-repair system dismantled Red Dwarf and created their own nano-version of the ship. The crew chased this nano-version of the ship in Starbug 1 and eventually convinced the nanobots to rebuild the ship.
Unbeknownst to the crew Holly created a new set of nanobots to resurrected the dead crew as well, causing some disorientation among the formerly dead denizens of the reconstructed Red Dwarf. The rebuilt ship was based on the original specifications, before the Jupiter Mining Corporation made cutbacks, meaning it was even larger than the Red Dwarf of the first five series, with a quark-level matter/anti-matter generator and a karaoke bar (this was at least partly meant as justification for new sets and a new CGI model of the ship's exterior).
The ultimate fate of the ship is unknown as the cliffhanger ending of the last series was never resolved (see episode "Only the Good..."). It appears as though the ship was again destroyed, this time by a corrosive microbe which ate away at the vessel. Frank Hollister and the flight officers escaped in the fleet of Starbugs and Blue Midgets. Lister, the Cat, Kryten and Kochanski escaped through a portal into a mirror universe and Arnold Rimmer was left accidentally alone on board a disintegrating Red Dwarf.
Notable areas of the ship over the past series include:
Rimmer and Lister's original sleeping quarters — The main setting for the first two series. A grey room with bunk beds built into the wall, a table, two lockers, a sink with a mirror that also acts as a computer screen and a voice activated toilet. It made a reappearance in the first episode of Series VIII. This room is to be used as the background for the Red Dwarf: The Bodysnatcher Collection DVD cover.
Rimmer and Lister's second sleeping quarters — In Series III, they relocated to a room in the unused Officer's Block; substantially larger, with a cream colour scheme and en suite shower as well as classier versions of much of the apparatus from their original quarters. This room was used as the background for the Red Dwarf Series IV DVD cover.
Level 147 appears to have been the nerve centre of the vessel. It contained the Central Drive Room, the navigational control centre of the ship, where Kristine Kochanski used to work as well as the other top officers. The Central Drive Room also contains the Navicomp, the ship's navigational computer, and several computer monitors which Holly used to project his/her image and communicate with the crew. The Captain Frank Hollister's office was also on Floor 147, next to the Central Drive Room. The stasis booth in which Dave Lister was frozen in suspended animation for three million years was also on Level 147.
The Science Room — This became the crew's main area of conducting technical business such as mind swaps and consultations with Holly, the ship's computer, in Series III–V. Apparently the vessel could be navigated from the Science Room as well as the Drive Room.
The cargo bay — The area of the ship where the fleets of Starbugs and Blue Midgets were stored and from where these ships launched and landed.
White Corridor 159 — The initial site of the accident that wiped out the crew. Also, due to a lack of original script, it is where Lister collapses in the episode "Confidence and Paranoia".
The CopaCabana Cocktail Bar — where Lister and his drinking buddies Petersen, Chen and Selby often met to drink. Seen in various episodes of Series I.
Parrot's Bar — A wine bar on G Deck, apparently named purely for a Casablanca gag. ("We'll always have Parrot's.") This area was seen in the episode "Camille".
The Tank — A two-hundred cell prison on the top-secret Floor Thirteen of Red Dwarf, which held in custody 400 hardened criminals on their way to a penal colony on Adelphi 12. However, when the nanobots rebuilt Red Dwarf (at the beginning of Series VIII), they do so to original JMC plans, also rebuilding The Tank in the process and resurrecting the inmates of the prison too. The Tank is the main setting for Series VIII as the regular cast are imprisoned there. The Tank was used as the background for the cover of the Red Dwarf Series VIII DVD.
Red Dwarf itself was used as the background for the cover of the Red Dwarf Series I DVD.
