Prelude to Nanarchy

*Red Dwarf: Prelude to Nanarchy*
Red Dwarf: Prelude to Nanarchy
Publication information
Publisher	Grant Naylor Productions & Across the Pond Comics
Publication date	2005
Main character(s)	Arnold Rimmer; Dave Lister; Kryten; Cat; Holly
Creative team
Created by	Rob Grant; Doug Naylor
Written by	Andrew Ellard
Penciller(s)	David Enebral
Inker(s)	Mar Degano
Colorist(s)	Barry Williams

Prelude to Nanarchy is a webcomic produced in 2005 by Across the Pond Comics and Grant Naylor Productions set between the fifth and sixth series of BBC science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf. It was published online at a page a day on the official Red Dwarf website. The last page was posted on 4 November 2005.

It follows immediately from the end of Back to Reality and sets key plot points for developments in the final three series of the show. The comic was produced 6 years after the then-most-recent episode of Red Dwarf was produced.

Story

Following Starbug's escape from the ocean world where they encountered the Despair Squid, the Nanobots inside Kryten decide they have had enough of simply repairing Kryten's body and have ambitions to see the Universe. They leave Kryten's body in the form of a red mulch which Kryten unwittingly flicks out of his ear. The mulch then squirms away out through a grate into the next room where they begin to tunnel out of the ship. The hull breach causes a vacuum - the crew are thrown about the ship.

Holly reports that there is a hull breach a moment too late. When the crew complain about this lapse in the computer's attention, she reports that the breach is aboard Red Dwarf itself. She then changes her mind, but her image flickers off of the screen and they are unable to recall it. They discover that Red Dwarf is speeding away at a phenomenal speed and Kryten stipulates that in order to catch up the rest of the crew will need to go into Deep Sleep.

Meanwhile, aboard a newly formed sand planet not too far away, a computer monitor aboard a junk pile flickers into life and the image of the original incarnation of Holly, albeit slightly balder, appears on the screen. He calls for them to come back, but Starbug cannot hear him.

Controversy

In Back To Earth, Cat claims that he brought the elation squid back from the ocean planet seen in Back To Reality. However, if the events of Prelude to Nanarchy are taken as Canon, this does not make sense, as the crew went into Deep Sleep for 200 years in Psirens, then upon their return to Red Dwarf in Back In The Red, Starbug is destroyed.

External links

Prelude to Nanarchy Web Comic - The full comic on the official Red Dwarf homepage
Red Dwarf homepage
Across the Pond Comics