Better Than Life
Encyclopedia
Better Than Life is a science fiction
comedy
novel by Grant Naylor, the collective name for Rob Grant
and Doug Naylor
, co-creators and writers of the Red Dwarf
television series, on which the novel is based. The main plotline was developed and expanded from the Red Dwarf episode of the same name, as well as the Series 3 and 4 episodes: White Hole, Marooned, Polymorph, and Backwards.
The book is a sequel to Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers
, and was the first Red Dwarf novel to receive its first print run in hardback edition. Like the first novel, Better Than Life became a best seller and was reproduced in paperback, omnibus and audiobook versions. Two further novels, Last Human
and Backwards
, were each created as alternate sequels by the writers, and followed in 1995 and 1996 respectively.
, Rimmer
and The Cat
have discovered a cache of 'Better Than Life' headbands in one of the sleeping quarters. They fantasise that they board the Nova 5 and use its Duality Jump drive to return to Earth
.
Lister settles down with a woman who looks exactly like Kristine Kochanski
in Bedford Falls, which looks exactly like the Bedford Falls in Frank Capra
's It's a Wonderful Life
, Lister's favourite movie. He has two sons, Jim and Bexley, who are so intelligent they were able to change their own nappies. Lister also opens a successful curry shop and every day is Christmas Eve
. Rimmer becomes the head of a multi-national corporation, Rimmer Corp., and has a 50 billion dollarpound fortune. He's married to Juanita Chicata, the most beautiful model and actress in the world, with a massively fiery temper. He's also developed a solidgram to give himself a real body and a time machine
, which he uses to beat George Patton, Julius Caesar
and Napoleon Bonaparte at Risk. The Danish government
gives Cat an island, on which is built a giant golden castle, right out of a gothic fairy tale. The castle is surrounded by a moat of milk, and is staffed by 8 feet (2.4 m), scantily clad Valkyrie
warriors. He likes to travel on firebreathing yaks and shoot dogs.
Back in reality, Kryten
is cajoled by Holly
to laser messages into Lister's arms. Lister feels the pain of this in Bedford Falls, and when he applies cold cream to the areas of pain, they spell two messages - 'U=BTL' on his left arm and 'DYING' on his right. Eventually Kryten is forced to enter the game to try and retrieve the crew, and his mechanoid brain allows him to remember entering. While searching for his shipmates, Kryten accidentally wanders into a diner which is advertising for a dishwasher to work through a endless pile of dirty dishes. The next thing he knows, months have passed.
Meanwhile, the messages on his arm cause Lister to realise that he is in the game and confronts Rimmer. They travel to Denmark and meet with the Cat. While discussing how to get out. Kryten arrives and explains how they started playing, and to leave they need only want to leave.
Their collective fantasies fall apart because of Rimmer's massive self-loathing. He loses his fortune, has his body repossessed, and ends up in the body of a woman. Upon attempting to leave, he can't, and realises that all four must leave together. He travels to Bedford Falls in a giant truck, accidentally wiping out the town square in the process, ruining Lister's fantasy. They travel to Denmark, to discover that Cat's Valkyries have gone on strike, the milk moat has curdled, and a volcano
has started to erupt. The crew leave the game together.
The next morning, Lister wakes up and starts making breakfast, only to realize something is amiss. He didn't have to wait for the lifts on his way back, his alarm clock doesn't violently blare, his towel extends all the way around his waist. Eventually Lister drops his toast and it lands butter-side up, confirming his fears that he's still in the game. The rest of the crew enter and announce they've found statis units containing Rimmer, Kochanski and Petersen, only for Lister to tell them the bad . At this point, the creator of the game appears and offers them a replay. They decline, and finally return to reality. Due to their having not moved for such a long time, Lister and Cat's muscles have atrophied considerably, and they have to be placed in special suits for some time to re-hydrate and restore their muscles.
While Lister and the Cat recover, Kryten and Rimmer realise Holly has shut himself off and the ship's engines are dead. His companion, a novelty appliance named Talkie Toaster, convinced the computer to perform a dangerous repair operation which lead to Holly having a five digit IQ, but has less than two minutes of run time left. To make things worse, a rogue planet is on a crash course with the disabled Dwarf.
In order to restart the engine, hundreds of mile-high piston
s must be test fired. Things are going well, until Rimmer accidentally crushes most of the skutters when he test fires the wrong pistons. Rimmer turns Holly on to warn him that Red Dwarf is doomed. Holly prints out a solution and shuts himself down again. Starbug is to fire a nuclear missile into a nearby sun, causing a solar flare that will knock its planet out of orbit and in turn, knock the rogue planet away from the Dwarf. Rimmer and Lister carry out the plan and although successful, Starbug crashes into the icy rogue planet.
Rimmer and Lister are marooned on the planet, Lister begins to starve and Rimmer begins to slow down. He shuts down and is brought online back on Red Dwarf, where he intends to launch a rescue operation. However, the Dwarf is being sucked into a black hole
. Holly, via the toaster, informs them that if they accelerate into the hole, they can zip through safely.
Lister, meanwhile, is having problems of his own. The ice on the planet has melted, revealing a landscape of green glass bottles. Acid rain
begins destroying Starbug. When he sees the remains of Mount Rushmore
, he finds that he is on Earth, converted into a garbage dump for the solar system and accidentally blasted from orbit. Lister discovers a tiny olive tree and befriends some cow-sized cockroach
es and vows to begin life again.
After the black hole experience, the Dwarfers finally go to rescue Lister; Rimmer and the Cat in one ship, Kryten and the Toaster in the other. Rimmer and the Cat are shocked to find a beautiful farm amidst the garbage, tended by an old Lister. Because of the time dilation of the black hole, thirty years have passed on the planet.
Kryten contacts the rest of the crew having found a polymorph
disguised as Lister, which the Toaster disables. Lister insists the polymorph's remains be shot out into space, but its offspring manages to return to Red Dwarf. It steals emotions from the crew until they are saved by a freak accident which slays the beast, causing them to regain their emotions. The stress of the battle is too much for the elderly Lister, and he dies from a heart attack.
After Lister's funeral, Rimmer informs Holly of the loss. Holly prints out some instructions to rescue a canister from certain coordinates in space. They are then to fly back into the black hole and enter a parallel dimension
, where they are to bury Lister and the canister (which contains Kochanski's ashes).
Lister wakes up in a strange hospital in a weird world where time runs backwards. He recovers from his heart attack, regurgitates lunch, and is forced to take a wallet and watch from a mugger. A message from the Dwarf crew instructs Lister to meet them in thirty years (they can't stay with him or they would have gotten younger). Lister takes a taxi to his new home, and finds an elderly Kochanski waiting for him. Lister is happy, knowing that he and Kochanski have many years behind them to look forward to.
Total Immersion Video Games', which work by inserting electrodes into the user's frontal lobes and hypothalamus
. The user becomes completely immersed within the reality of the game.
Better Than Life is a game which allows the user to live out all their fantasies and desires. When in the game, one has the ability to mentally command into existence any object, person or environment.
The problem with the game in the TV Series, however, is that it also detects subconscious
desires: if the user subconsciously hates himself then the game will eventually detect this and subject him to specifically tailored masochistic tortures.
Total Immersion Video Games - though not specifically Better Than Life - are later encountered in the Series 5 episode, 'Back to Reality
' in which a group hallucination
makes the Dwarf crew believe that the previous four years had been a video game fantasy.
and Red Dwarf: Better Than Life. The novel version of the game has far greater abilities and far greater bugs
. Unlike the TV series, which is based on the original, nonaddictive version, and which is only briefly mentioned in the novel, the novel version causes the user's imagination to develop semi-plausible explanations for certain events. For instance, in early versions of Better Than Life, the user could make a large, expensive car appear out of thin air. In the books, the user's imagination would create a scenario where they won the lottery, or created a successful business, so they could buy the car.
The danger of the game is that once the user starts to play, the game forces them to forget they actually started to play, so they believe that they are still in reality. Their conscious mind only perceives the reality of the game, and all signals from their real body, except for those of extreme pain, are completely ignored.
A person like Cat who has such a huge ego that he truly believes he could get ANYTHING, can get anything, while a person like Rimmer, filled with self-loathing, will eventually create a fantasy in which their entire life is destroyed- Rimmer at one point placed himself in a scenario where he was pimped out by violent escaped criminals while trapped in a female body, becoming even more disturbed when he realises that a woman he was about to marry was actually a version of his mother. Lister on the other hand had a fantasy far more mature and healthy than those of the others, just needing somebody he loved who would love him in return and the ability to leave quietly but comfortably.
Unless cared for in the real world, a user (or "Game Head") dies very quickly. While it is certainly possible for friends to forcibly remove the headset that contains the game, this results in instant death from shock. The only way to exit the game is to figure out that you're playing the game, develop the desire to leave it and then command an exit.
. Grant's Red Dwarf novel, Backwards
, released in 1996, would stay more faithful to the ending of Better Than Life and feature less from the TV show (although it lifted almost the entire plot of the episode Gunmen of the Apocalypse).
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
novel by Grant Naylor, the collective name for Rob Grant
Rob Grant
Robert Grant is a British comedy writer and television producer, who was born in Salford and studied Psychology at Liverpool University for two years....
and Doug Naylor
Doug Naylor
Douglas R. Naylor is a British comedy writer, science fiction writer, director and television producer.Naylor was born in Manchester, England and studied at the University of Liverpool. In the mid-1980s, Naylor wrote two regular comedy sketch shows for BBC Radio 4 entitled Cliché and Son of Cliché...
, co-creators and writers of the Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
television series, on which the novel is based. The main plotline was developed and expanded from the Red Dwarf episode of the same name, as well as the Series 3 and 4 episodes: White Hole, Marooned, Polymorph, and Backwards.
The book is a sequel to Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers
Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers
Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers is a best-selling science fiction comedy novel by Grant Naylor, the collective name for Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, co-creators and writers of the Red Dwarf television series, on which the novel is based...
, and was the first Red Dwarf novel to receive its first print run in hardback edition. Like the first novel, Better Than Life became a best seller and was reproduced in paperback, omnibus and audiobook versions. Two further novels, Last Human
Last Human
Last Human is the title of a 1995 science fiction comedy novel written by Doug Naylor. It is part of the Red Dwarf series of novels, based on the popular television show created by Naylor and his partner Rob Grant...
and Backwards
Backwards
Backwards is the fourth Red Dwarf novel. It is set on the fictional backwards universe version of Earth.The novel was written by Rob Grant on his own. It follows on directly from the second Grant Naylor novel, Better Than Life, ignoring Last Human...
, were each created as alternate sequels by the writers, and followed in 1995 and 1996 respectively.
Plot summary
Following on from Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, ListerDave Lister
David "Dave" Lister, commonly referred to simply as Lister, is a fictional character from the British science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, portrayed by Craig Charles...
, Rimmer
Arnold Rimmer
Arnold Judas Rimmer is a fictional character in the science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, played by Chris Barrie. He is unpopular with his crew mates, and is often the target of insults or pranks...
and The Cat
Cat (Red Dwarf)
The Cat is a character in the British science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf. He is played by Danny John-Jules.-Character development:According to Danny John-Jules, the character of Cat is based on a combination of Little Richard's look, James Brown's moves and Richard Pryor's facial...
have discovered a cache of 'Better Than Life' headbands in one of the sleeping quarters. They fantasise that they board the Nova 5 and use its Duality Jump drive to return to Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
.
Lister settles down with a woman who looks exactly like Kristine Kochanski
Kristine Kochanski
Kristine Z. Kochanski is a fictional character from the British science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf. Kochanski was the first console officer in the navigation chamber on board the spaceship Red Dwarf...
in Bedford Falls, which looks exactly like the Bedford Falls in Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
's It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern....
, Lister's favourite movie. He has two sons, Jim and Bexley, who are so intelligent they were able to change their own nappies. Lister also opens a successful curry shop and every day is Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
. Rimmer becomes the head of a multi-national corporation, Rimmer Corp., and has a 50 billion dollarpound fortune. He's married to Juanita Chicata, the most beautiful model and actress in the world, with a massively fiery temper. He's also developed a solidgram to give himself a real body and a time machine
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
, which he uses to beat George Patton, Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
and Napoleon Bonaparte at Risk. The Danish government
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
gives Cat an island, on which is built a giant golden castle, right out of a gothic fairy tale. The castle is surrounded by a moat of milk, and is staffed by 8 feet (2.4 m), scantily clad Valkyrie
Valkyrie
In Norse mythology, a valkyrie is one of a host of female figures who decides who dies in battle. Selecting among half of those who die in battle , the valkyries bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla, ruled over by the god Odin...
warriors. He likes to travel on firebreathing yaks and shoot dogs.
Back in reality, Kryten
Kryten
Kryten is a fictional character in the British science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf. Kryten's registration code on Red Dwarf is "Kryten additional 001". The name Kryten is a reference to the head butler in the J.M...
is cajoled by Holly
Holly (Red Dwarf)
Holly is the ship's computer on the science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf.The character is played by Norman Lovett in Series I and II and, following a "head sex change" to look like his parallel universe alter ego "Hilly", played by Hattie Hayridge in the series 3 episode Backwards, is female...
to laser messages into Lister's arms. Lister feels the pain of this in Bedford Falls, and when he applies cold cream to the areas of pain, they spell two messages - 'U=BTL' on his left arm and 'DYING' on his right. Eventually Kryten is forced to enter the game to try and retrieve the crew, and his mechanoid brain allows him to remember entering. While searching for his shipmates, Kryten accidentally wanders into a diner which is advertising for a dishwasher to work through a endless pile of dirty dishes. The next thing he knows, months have passed.
Meanwhile, the messages on his arm cause Lister to realise that he is in the game and confronts Rimmer. They travel to Denmark and meet with the Cat. While discussing how to get out. Kryten arrives and explains how they started playing, and to leave they need only want to leave.
Their collective fantasies fall apart because of Rimmer's massive self-loathing. He loses his fortune, has his body repossessed, and ends up in the body of a woman. Upon attempting to leave, he can't, and realises that all four must leave together. He travels to Bedford Falls in a giant truck, accidentally wiping out the town square in the process, ruining Lister's fantasy. They travel to Denmark, to discover that Cat's Valkyries have gone on strike, the milk moat has curdled, and a volcano
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
has started to erupt. The crew leave the game together.
The next morning, Lister wakes up and starts making breakfast, only to realize something is amiss. He didn't have to wait for the lifts on his way back, his alarm clock doesn't violently blare, his towel extends all the way around his waist. Eventually Lister drops his toast and it lands butter-side up, confirming his fears that he's still in the game. The rest of the crew enter and announce they've found statis units containing Rimmer, Kochanski and Petersen, only for Lister to tell them the bad . At this point, the creator of the game appears and offers them a replay. They decline, and finally return to reality. Due to their having not moved for such a long time, Lister and Cat's muscles have atrophied considerably, and they have to be placed in special suits for some time to re-hydrate and restore their muscles.
While Lister and the Cat recover, Kryten and Rimmer realise Holly has shut himself off and the ship's engines are dead. His companion, a novelty appliance named Talkie Toaster, convinced the computer to perform a dangerous repair operation which lead to Holly having a five digit IQ, but has less than two minutes of run time left. To make things worse, a rogue planet is on a crash course with the disabled Dwarf.
In order to restart the engine, hundreds of mile-high piston
Piston
A piston is a component of reciprocating engines, reciprocating pumps, gas compressors and pneumatic cylinders, among other similar mechanisms. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder and is made gas-tight by piston rings. In an engine, its purpose is to transfer force from...
s must be test fired. Things are going well, until Rimmer accidentally crushes most of the skutters when he test fires the wrong pistons. Rimmer turns Holly on to warn him that Red Dwarf is doomed. Holly prints out a solution and shuts himself down again. Starbug is to fire a nuclear missile into a nearby sun, causing a solar flare that will knock its planet out of orbit and in turn, knock the rogue planet away from the Dwarf. Rimmer and Lister carry out the plan and although successful, Starbug crashes into the icy rogue planet.
Rimmer and Lister are marooned on the planet, Lister begins to starve and Rimmer begins to slow down. He shuts down and is brought online back on Red Dwarf, where he intends to launch a rescue operation. However, the Dwarf is being sucked into a black hole
Black hole
A black hole is a region of spacetime from which nothing, not even light, can escape. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform spacetime to form a black hole. Around a black hole there is a mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that...
. Holly, via the toaster, informs them that if they accelerate into the hole, they can zip through safely.
Lister, meanwhile, is having problems of his own. The ice on the planet has melted, revealing a landscape of green glass bottles. Acid rain
Acid rain
Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions . It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure. Acid rain is caused by emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen...
begins destroying Starbug. When he sees the remains of Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore near Keystone, South Dakota, in the United States...
, he finds that he is on Earth, converted into a garbage dump for the solar system and accidentally blasted from orbit. Lister discovers a tiny olive tree and befriends some cow-sized cockroach
Cockroach
Cockroaches are insects of the order Blattaria or Blattodea, of which about 30 species out of 4,500 total are associated with human habitations...
es and vows to begin life again.
After the black hole experience, the Dwarfers finally go to rescue Lister; Rimmer and the Cat in one ship, Kryten and the Toaster in the other. Rimmer and the Cat are shocked to find a beautiful farm amidst the garbage, tended by an old Lister. Because of the time dilation of the black hole, thirty years have passed on the planet.
Kryten contacts the rest of the crew having found a polymorph
Shapeshifting
Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology, folklore, and fairy tales. It is also found in epic poems, science fiction literature, fantasy literature, children's literature, Shakespearean comedy, ballet, film, television, comics, and video games...
disguised as Lister, which the Toaster disables. Lister insists the polymorph's remains be shot out into space, but its offspring manages to return to Red Dwarf. It steals emotions from the crew until they are saved by a freak accident which slays the beast, causing them to regain their emotions. The stress of the battle is too much for the elderly Lister, and he dies from a heart attack.
After Lister's funeral, Rimmer informs Holly of the loss. Holly prints out some instructions to rescue a canister from certain coordinates in space. They are then to fly back into the black hole and enter a parallel dimension
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
, where they are to bury Lister and the canister (which contains Kochanski's ashes).
Lister wakes up in a strange hospital in a weird world where time runs backwards. He recovers from his heart attack, regurgitates lunch, and is forced to take a wallet and watch from a mugger. A message from the Dwarf crew instructs Lister to meet them in thirty years (they can't stay with him or they would have gotten younger). Lister takes a taxi to his new home, and finds an elderly Kochanski waiting for him. Lister is happy, knowing that he and Kochanski have many years behind them to look forward to.
Alternate version
When the two Red Dwarf novels were printed together as an omnibus, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor took the opportunity to alter the ending of Better than Life in order to clear up confusion about the book's ending. It is presumed that all subsequent prints of Better than Life include this new ending.The TV episode
We are first introduced to the game in a series two episode titled Better Than Life. The game arrives among other fantastic packages in a post pod, which is encountered after Red Dwarf turns around to head for home. It is part of a series of 'VRVirtual reality
Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
Total Immersion Video Games', which work by inserting electrodes into the user's frontal lobes and hypothalamus
Hypothalamus
The Hypothalamus is a portion of the brain that contains a number of small nuclei with a variety of functions...
. The user becomes completely immersed within the reality of the game.
Better Than Life is a game which allows the user to live out all their fantasies and desires. When in the game, one has the ability to mentally command into existence any object, person or environment.
The problem with the game in the TV Series, however, is that it also detects subconscious
Subconscious
The term subconscious is used in many different contexts and has no single or precise definition. This greatly limits its significance as a definition-bearing concept, and in consequence the word tends to be avoided in academic and scientific settings....
desires: if the user subconsciously hates himself then the game will eventually detect this and subject him to specifically tailored masochistic tortures.
Total Immersion Video Games - though not specifically Better Than Life - are later encountered in the Series 5 episode, 'Back to Reality
Back to Reality (Red Dwarf episode)
"Back to Reality" is the sixth, and final, episode of science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf Series V and the 30th in the series run. It was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 26 March 1992, written by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor and directed by Juliet May & Grant Naylor. The episode...
' in which a group hallucination
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
makes the Dwarf crew believe that the previous four years had been a video game fantasy.
The novel
Better Than Life plays an important role in the two novels Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful DriversRed Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers
Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers is a best-selling science fiction comedy novel by Grant Naylor, the collective name for Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, co-creators and writers of the Red Dwarf television series, on which the novel is based...
and Red Dwarf: Better Than Life. The novel version of the game has far greater abilities and far greater bugs
Software bug
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...
. Unlike the TV series, which is based on the original, nonaddictive version, and which is only briefly mentioned in the novel, the novel version causes the user's imagination to develop semi-plausible explanations for certain events. For instance, in early versions of Better Than Life, the user could make a large, expensive car appear out of thin air. In the books, the user's imagination would create a scenario where they won the lottery, or created a successful business, so they could buy the car.
The danger of the game is that once the user starts to play, the game forces them to forget they actually started to play, so they believe that they are still in reality. Their conscious mind only perceives the reality of the game, and all signals from their real body, except for those of extreme pain, are completely ignored.
A person like Cat who has such a huge ego that he truly believes he could get ANYTHING, can get anything, while a person like Rimmer, filled with self-loathing, will eventually create a fantasy in which their entire life is destroyed- Rimmer at one point placed himself in a scenario where he was pimped out by violent escaped criminals while trapped in a female body, becoming even more disturbed when he realises that a woman he was about to marry was actually a version of his mother. Lister on the other hand had a fantasy far more mature and healthy than those of the others, just needing somebody he loved who would love him in return and the ability to leave quietly but comfortably.
Unless cared for in the real world, a user (or "Game Head") dies very quickly. While it is certainly possible for friends to forcibly remove the headset that contains the game, this results in instant death from shock. The only way to exit the game is to figure out that you're playing the game, develop the desire to leave it and then command an exit.
Other versions
- New edition
- The new paperback edition was released in April 1991 by Penguin Books Ltd.
- Red Dwarf Omnibus
- Released in November 1992 by Penguin Books, the Omnibus contains the novels Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers and its sequel Better than Life together in one volume, both of which are slightly corrected and/or expanded. In addition, the omnibus also includes a jokey reproduction of the text that appeared on the infamous beer mat that the premise for the series was originally written on, a script for an episode of Dave Hollins: Space Cadet, and the original script of the pilot episode "The End".
- Better Than Life (Audiobook)
- Unabridged and abridged audiobooks, read by regular cast member Chris BarrieChris BarrieChris Barrie is a British actor. He first achieved success as a vocal impressionist, notably in the ITV sketch show Spitting Image...
(who plays Arnold RimmerArnold RimmerArnold Judas Rimmer is a fictional character in the science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, played by Chris Barrie. He is unpopular with his crew mates, and is often the target of insults or pranks...
in the series) were released by Laughing Stock Production in December 1996. Originally released on cassette, digital filesets of the audiobook now circulate.
Sequels
Rob Grant and Doug Naylor began collaborating on a sequel under the title The Last Human. During the making of the novel, the two decided to split their partnership. The two were contracted to write two more Red Dwarf novels, so they took a novel each. For his novel, Doug Naylor took much of what they had been working on, combined it with dialogue and plots from the TV show and renamed it, Last HumanLast Human
Last Human is the title of a 1995 science fiction comedy novel written by Doug Naylor. It is part of the Red Dwarf series of novels, based on the popular television show created by Naylor and his partner Rob Grant...
. Grant's Red Dwarf novel, Backwards
Backwards
Backwards is the fourth Red Dwarf novel. It is set on the fictional backwards universe version of Earth.The novel was written by Rob Grant on his own. It follows on directly from the second Grant Naylor novel, Better Than Life, ignoring Last Human...
, released in 1996, would stay more faithful to the ending of Better Than Life and feature less from the TV show (although it lifted almost the entire plot of the episode Gunmen of the Apocalypse).
See also
- Red DwarfRed DwarfRed Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
- Simulated realitySimulated realitySimulated reality is the proposition that reality could be simulated—perhaps by computer simulation—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" reality. It could contain conscious minds which may or may not be fully aware that they are living inside a simulation....