Not ONE alien exists in the Red Dwarf universe. Not even an alienlet!
Grant Naylor have stated in interviews, and in the books and show, that there are NO aliens in Red Dwarf!
Rob Grant said in September 1996 (personal communication): "There are no aliens in Red Dwarf...the idea is that all life originated on Earth."
The definition of 'alien', as used by Grant Naylor, can *not* be used interchangeably with the definitions for the word 'foreign' or the word 'different'.
Let us now be absolutely certain of what GN mean by the term 'alien'. Red Dwarf contains NO life forms, or things constructed by life forms, that do not owe their existence in some way to the planet Earth. The terms 'alien' and 'Earthling' are NOT interchangeable -- just because something wasn't actually born on Earth, does NOT make it an alien. The Cat, born on Red Dwarf three million years into deep space, is not an alien because his feline ancestors originally came from Earth. In the Red Dwarf universe, if there had never been a planet Earth, then this universe would be totally devoid of all life.
In other words, everything (or its ancestors) or its creators (or their ancestors) comes from Earth, one way or the other. I know that the Boyz find many things in their travels that they initially think/hope to be aliens, but these things invariably turn out to be Earth-derived, or at the very least, cannot be proved to be alien (and so with the Grant-Naylor made constraint "no aliens" must, by definition, NOT be aliens).
LISTER:
Rimmer, there's nothing out there, you know. There's nobody out there. No alien monsters, no Zargon warships, no beautiful blondes with beehive hairdos who say, "Show me some more of this Earth thing called kissing." There's just you, me, the Cat, and a lot of floating smegging rocks. That's it. Finito.
For a period, ships full of astros in stasis booths were hurled out of our solar system, and interstellar travel enjoyed its golden age. The big hope, of course, was that they'd contact intelligent life. They didn't. Not even a moderately intelligent plant. Not even a stupid plant. Nothing. And it was surmised correctly, though it was not confirmed for a further two thousand years, that Mankind was completely and totally and inexplicably alone. In all of the universe. In all of the universe, the planet Earth was the only planet with any life forms. That's all there was.
"...we have a strict no-aliens policy, so there's no chance a vowel-less-named beast from the planet with no consonants can drop in and jolly things up a bit..."
Note that the point of all this is not
i) How it was proved that there were no aliens;
or
ii) How any of the life forms arose or ended up so far from Earth.
Neither of these things changes the *fact* that the Red Dwarf universe was *created* by Grant Naylor, who have NOT GIVEN IT ANY ALIENS. Lack of explanation does not constitute evidence of alienness -- *how* the non-aliens came to be does not change the fact that they *are* non-aliens.
Quote from Rob Grant (personal communication, September 1996) --
"...there are no aliens in Red Dwarf...the idea is that all life originated on Earth - the Psirens as part of the GELF project, and the Space Weevils are simply Weevils who adapted to vacuum conditions, carried on Earth- originated vessels."
If we are talking about the creature from the Series III episode "Polymorph", then a careful rewatching of this episode, and noting especially --
CAT:
What is it? Some kind of alien?HOLLY:
No, it's from Earth -- man made. I checked out its DNA profile. Some kind of genetic experiment that went wrong.
-- will show that polymorphs are also noot aliens.
As for the GELF Kinitawowis' pet Emohawk, it is said to be a polymorph, the origins of which we have had explained to us previously.
The Boyz at first do think this ship is truly alien, but later on in the episode (after they've had time to make a proper investigation) it is obvious that the ship is not alien, as evidenced by --
The point is, however, that explanations for everything are not necessary. We already know what they *aren't*, which is aliens -- it's a bonus if we're told what they *are*! The 'no aliens' stance is the default for Red Dwarf, therefore everything encountered *must* be assumed to be non-alien, unless it is *proven* otherwise, and this proof has *never* been forthcoming.RIMMER:
Oh, here we go. Typical knee-jerk techno-fear reaction. That machine is the greatest single technological advancement mankind has ever made. Greater than fire, greater than the wheel.CAT:
What about the dude with three heads?RIMMER:
Well, he abused it.
It is not enough that the individual *sounds* alien, eg:
This creature obviously makes its home in the Mogadon Cluster, and may even have been 'born' there, but *by definition*, must have had some connection to Earth at some point -- either its evolutionary ancestors were from Earth, like the Cat's were, or, like --
-- who was originally created by human sscientists, the liquid beast's creators or their ancestors must have come from Earth (this explanation also does just as well for other strange-sounding things such as the Vidal Beast of Sharmutt II).
'Nuff said, really. Human creations, therefore not aliens.
I can't believe I'm including these, but -- the first is a 'life form' derived from clothing of an Earth-derived person, the second is a creation of a creation of Earth-derived humans, and the third is an 'evolution' of Earth-derived food. Wow, always Earth!
The point is, that nothing the Boyz have encountered in their travels is an 'alien' in the sense that Grant Naylor have defined aliens. Without the planet Earth, the Red Dwarf universe would ultimately contain no life forms and no creations of life forms. Simple as that.
People are ready to believe in Red Dwarf aliens, despite all the evidence to the contrary, for two simple reasons:
a) They are not aware of how 'alien' is defined for Red Dwarf,
b) They think that stating 'no aliens' and then mentioning 'space weevil'
is a contradiction in terms. This is where many people make their
mistake, in thinking that this issue is one of inconsistency, when it's
simply that people have trouble grasping a certain concept -- that
of there being nothing in the universe that isn't somehow Earth-derived,
no matter how much it may look or sound not to be. In "Confidence
And Paranoia", Lister says that he never even asked Kochanski out, yet
in "Psirens", Kryten says that Lister and Kochanski dated for three
weeks. *That's* an inconsistency. That's a case of Grant Naylor
saying something, and then contradicting themselves. What people
don't seem to realise is that stating "no aliens" and then mentioning
'space weevil' does NOT constitute a contradiction! Up until such point
as *proof* is forthcoming that the space weevil is something that would
have come into existence *without* the planet Earth, the space weevil
is *by definition* NOT an alien.
That said, should *proven* aliens turn up in future Red Dwarf ('proof'
will have to constitute something a *lot* stronger than a strange name;
plus, lack of explanation of origins is not proof, as there is no
rebuttal of the no-aliens *default*), then that *will* be a
contradiction and will deservedly have its title of the mother of all
errors. But there is NO WAY, at this juncture, that this is the case.
Reread this FAQ, have a think, and above all consider that if this is the way the writers want it, and with the absence of contradictory proof, that "no aliens" is simply the way it *is*.
Annette McIntosh -- October 1996 - May 1997.