Anubis Stone

The real form of the Anubis Stone

The Anubis Stone was a small battery of mythical, unlimited power. The artefact had political and religious significance for the Felis sapiens who had evolved on Red Dwarf and now explored the Galaxy in their own fleet.

Description

The Anubis Stone was hidden within an innocuous casing of black, smelly, varnished beetle dung. However, inside the stone resembled a smooth, golden pebble, glowing with yellow energy. It was etched with symbolic markings of unknown meaning: a triangle pyramid with three circles around each of the three sides.

History

The origin of the stone is unknown, but it was long held in reverence by the Felis sapiens. In their religion, their deity Cloister would eventually return and reclaim the sacred stone, using its power to free the cat race, defeat its enemies, and lead the cat race to their "promised land" of Fuchal.

After the survivors of the Cat Holy Wars fled Red Dwarf in the Cat Ark, the remaining Felis sapiens came to reside aboard a new fleet of starships. Aboard this new fleet, the Anubis Stone was kept in a secure location in the flagship, where none were allowed to touch it.

When he seized power, the Anubis Stone came into possession of Rodon, self-appointed 'living god' and leader of the Feral Cats, strengthening his dictatorial position over the Cat Fleet.

The Anubis Stone was eventually stolen by thee Cat Clerics, Sol, Luna and Peanut, who fled Rodon's persecution in a small shuttle with the last copy of the Book of Smeg. They aimed to bring the Anubis Stone to Red Dwarf in their search for their god Cloister, who was actually Dave Lister. Rodon gave chase, and when the Cat Clerics ran out of fuel, they took refuge in Iron Star. Fortunately, they were found by the boys from the Dwarf and rescued when they escaped in Starbug.

Kryten initially suspected that stone was not serendibite, the most precious mineral in the Galaxy, but after Lister had began licking it, it turned out that it was actually a piece of fossilised beetle dung.

Lister would later discover that this was a ruse, and that the Anubis Stone was very much real, when he cracked it and found the Anubis Stone inside, glowing with yellow and white energy. Lister attached wires from Arnold Rimmer's Light Bee to it, which supercharged Rimmer into a Diamond-Light Hologram calling himself "The Mighty Light", and used these powers to defeat Rodon.

Rimmer finally used up the Anubis Stone to revive Kryten after Kryten had been fully exhausted his own battery. Since the power source was used up, Rimmer could no longer use the Stone to have superpowers. (The Promised Land)

Gallery

Aboard Iron Star, Dave Lister is given the Anubis Stone by the Cat Clerics, and licks it

Count Ludo takes the Anubis Stone from Sister Luna

Rodon holding the Anubis Stone before beaming away

Back on Red Dwarf, the Feral Cats decide that the Anubis Stone is worthless and throw it back to Lister

Lister musing on what could be inside...

Listers cracks it open

The Anubis Stone is discovered inside

Lister connects Rimmer's Light Bee to the Anubis Stone

Rimmer being recharged into The Mighty Light

Rimmer prepares to use the Anubis Stone to bring Kryten back to life

Trivia

• Anubis was a god of the underworld, death and embalming in the Ancient Egyptian religion of Earth. Anubis was often depicted as having the body of a human but the head of a jackal or wolf.
  • This mythological figure had evidently filtered down into the religion of the Felis sapiens millions of years later, although fittingly they believed that Anubis had the head of a cat instead of a dog. Kryten however also incorrectly remembered that Anubis had the head of a cat, so the error may have arisen from a common misconception.
  • Also fitting is that the Felis sapiens 'embalmed' the Anubis Stone in an innocuous casing to conceal the power within.
• The Anubis Stone was covered in a layer of varnished beetle dung in order to disguise its true power. It is unknown where the Felis sapiens obtained the beetle dung, since they had never been to Earth.
  • It is possible that the 'beetle dung' originates from spaceship-bound critters such as Space Weevil.

Behind the Scenes

• Richard Naylor said on his Twitter feed that there was a whole scene written with the three Cat Clerics stealing the Anubis Stone; this scene would have also explained the origin and/or the nature of the Anubis Stone. However, it was decided that the scene would have to be cut for pacing reasons, and the scene was not filmed. This caused criticism from some fans since the omission of this scene reduced the Anubis Stone to a MacGuffin.

See Also

• Serendibite (What the Anubis Stone is supposedly composed of)
• Helium-7 (Another very rare and expensive resource)
• Ouroboros (Ouroboros batteries are another everlasting power source)