A Gravity Field is a form of technology in the Red Dwarf universe.
History[]
Television Series[]
It is unstated exactly how it works, but it provides the artificial gravity for the spaceships, space stations and colonies of the Space Corps. Io was one such world that had a Gravity Field - unfortunately for a seven-year-old Arnold Rimmer, who was hung upside from a tree by his brothers. ("Dimension Jump", Series IV) Titan apparently had no Gravity Field, since one could experience eating curry at one-fifth gravity at the Titan Taj Mahal. ("Me²", Series I)
There was a sign in the hangar bays of the massive JMC mining vessel Red Dwarf, next to a Starbug shuttlecraft. that warned against activating the "hyperdrives" of the shuttles within the Gravity Field of Red Dwarf. ("Backwards", Series III)
Dave Lister is seen briefly leaving the Gravity Field whilst on his space walk along the outer hull, as he tries to flee Confidence. ("Confidence and Paranoia", Series I) Lister is also seen floating outside the Gravity Field, as seen by Kryten outside the sleeping quarters porthole, after Lister had lost the keys to Starbug in a poker game with BEGGs on the BEGG moon. ("Entangled", Series X)
When Red Dwarf was left de-powered without Holly or the engines, the Gravity Field, along with the Oxy-Generation Units, were the few things the boys from the Dwarf were able to keep running on emergency back-up power. ("White Hole", Series IV)
The scouters apparently were able to create their own Gravity Fields, since they were able to "hover".
Novels[]
When Red Dwarf was taken over by "agonoids" (a race similar to Simulants) whilst the gang were in Starbug, the agonoids fought over who would get the privilege of being "The One" - the agonoid who would get to kill the last human in the galaxy, Dave Lister. The oldest and wiliest agonoid, Djuhn'Keep, set a number of traps for the other agonoids so that he himself could be "The One", under the guise that the traps were for the human's companions. This included increasing the Gravity Field of Red Dwarf, so that most of the agonoid race were fixed to the spot, and eventually crushed into wet puddles on the floor. Those agonoids who were strong enough to still move, or quick enough to get to the shuttle bays to avoid the increasing gravity, were either impaled, electrocuted or blown into space by various traps. One of the latter blown into space was Pizzak'Rapp, who actually came closest to being "The One" when he incidentally landed on the hull of Starbug. (Backwards)
Gravity Fields feature in the Doug Naylor Red Dwarf novel, Last Human, as the Oblivion Virus takes out the Gravity Field of Lotomi 5. Mayflower was powered by a "Negative Gravity Field". (Last Human)
Trivia[]
- Gravity Fields, or their inverse, presumably featured in the most popular sport in Earth's Solar System, and Lister's favourite sport, Zero Gravity Football.
- Gravity Pool was a bar game, and in 2155 Dave Lister was found as a baby in a box under the Grav Pool table of the Aigburth Arms. ("Ouroboros")
- Arnold Rimmer notes that one of the Space Corps Directives dictate that "Space Corps super chimps committing acts of indecency in zero gravity will lose all banana privileges. ("Back to Earth, Part Two")
- Gravity Fields were presumably used by some Space Corps officers for some surprising activities. Space Corps Directives 34124 states that 'No officer with false teeth should attempt oral sex in zero gravity.' ("Legion", Red Dwarf 1996 Log Book)
- One of Lister's favourite possessions was a zero-gravity edition of the Kama Sutra ("Me²", Series I)