The real-life Miranda
Miranda, also known as Uranus V, is a moon of the gas giant Uranus, out towards the end of Earth's Solar System. It was colonised by the Space Corps sometime after the 21st century.
Although not seen in the Red Dwarf franchise, Miranda is mentioned numerous times in both the novels and the television series.
History[]
Encounters with Red Dwarf[]
Before its crew were killed by a radiation leak and the ship drifted out of the Solar System, Miranda was one the frequent destinations of the Jupiter Mining Corporation spaceship Red Dwarf, much like Mimas or Titan. The freighter presumably transported ores to or from Miranda, and the crew of the ship would sometimes spend planetary shore-leave there.
On an early stay over at Miranda, Red Dwarf drinking buddies Dave Lister and Olaf Petersen were forced to go teetotal since no alcohol was legally permitted on Miranda, likely due to its frontier nature as a far outpost. It was the first time Petersen ever remembered being sober, and Lister in a long time. (Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers)
At a later time, Lister visited Miranda again, this time with Arnold Rimmer and some other crewmates from Red Dwarf, and the ban on alcohol had since been lifted. At the "Hacienda" space bar, Rimmer drunkenly voiced aloud the rumour that fellow crewmember MacWilliams was "in favour of sleeping with the dead". Right to his face, when he was with four of his biggest mates. This caused a bar room brawl, and Rimmer was "out the door quicker than a whippet with a bum full of dynamite", and leaving Lister to face the music. Lister later used the event as an example of how Rimmer was such a basic, natural coward. ("Marooned", Series III)
Lister's Acquisitions[]
Lister had an affinity for electronic junk, and one of his many collectibles was the Talkie Toaster he bought at a souvenir shop on Miranda. (Better Than Life) Other collectibles Lister purchased on Miranda was musical toilet paper. It is likely Lister bought his robot goldfish from the same store.
In the TV series, Lister bought his pet cat (from which the cat race later evolved) on Titan (pilot episode), and on Mimas in Kochanski's dimension ("Ouroboros").
However, in the novel, Lister got Frankenstein on Miranda, which would be more logical since this was supposed to have occurred further out in the Solar System (just before the accident). Therefore, in a sense, Miranda could be called the homeworld of the Cat race, or at least in the continuity of the novels.
Trivia[]
- Miranda is the name of Cat's mermaid girlfriend (human bottom, fish up top) in BTL. ("RD: Better Than Life")