GOLDFISH SHOALS NIBBLING AT MY TOES...

...or, all the fish you (n)ever wondered about in Red Dwarf.

With thanks to Nadine SFWBWWWW, for making us all think of fish rather more than is probably healthy; Tom Marwede, for thinking this list was a good idea and encouraging me (so I guess it's all his fault); and Oliver Corrigan, for providing a better title than the one I'd originally thought of. And thanks Grant Naylor, for being *so* piscinely-inclined! :-)

Copyright Annette, 1995 -- Too-Much-Free-Time Enterprises.

This document covers the six series of the TV show, plus the three novels and the Red Dwarf Log No. 1996. There are two sections to the list --

  1. Statistics:
    The total number of independent fishy references, broken down by episode and book.
  2. Fresh Fish:
    The actual fishy references, by category for the 36 TV episodes and the three books Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers (IWCD), Better Than Life (BTL) and Last Human (LH). The Red Dwarf Log No. 1996 (LOG) is also included.

STATISTICS.

Total number of independent fishy references = 134.

NB. Total of actual *instances* is higher; for example, in Future Echoes, there are several mentions of Lister's robot goldfish, but I have divided these into "names", "repair", "singing" and "eating" occurrences, so they are counted as *four* references only. So, while I haven't mentioned every single instance of the word "fish", or shot of a fish, etc.; each instance *is* covered within one of the 134 independent references, all of which are cited below.

The "goldfish shoals" in the theme song is counted in the above total as one reference, but does not appear again in any tallies or citations below.

Things which are technically not fish (eg. prawns, oysters, squid) are not counted, unless "fish" is covered by the specific description/name (eg. marine, piscine, jellyfish, starfish).
Number of
References
Source
22IWCD.
17BTL.
14LH.
9Dimension Jump.
6Back To Reality.
5LOG, Better Than Life.
4Future Echoes, Balance Of Power, Thanks For The Memory, Rimmerworld.
3Marooned, Bodyswap, Psirens, Emohawk: Polymorph II.
2The End, Kryten, Parallel Universe, Backwards, Polymorph, Timeslides, Camille, Terrorform, Out Of Time.
1Waiting For God, Confidence And Paranoia, Me^2, Queeg, The Last Day, D.N.A., Quarantine, Demons And Angels, Legion.
0Stasis Leak, Justice, White Hole, Meltdown, Holoship, The Inquisitor, Gunmen Of The Apocalypse.


FRESH FISH.

TV show episode names in full.
Books = Abbreviated Title, Part:Chapter.

FISH WE HAVE KNOWN.

WHO'S THAT GILL?

LOOKING FOR SOMETHING?

TOFFED UP TO THE NINES, LADDIE.

SELF-REPAIR UNIT.

SHAKE THAT BODY (PART).

FURNITURE FINISHED WITH FISH.

SINGING IN THE FISH TANK.

SWITCH ME ON, SWITCH ME OFF...

TO EAT, PERCHANCE TO TASTE.

THE MEANING OF FISH.

THE PISCINIC AFTERLIFE.

ONE FISH, TWO FISH.

GAME OVER, BOYS.

GET AN UMBRELLA.

FISHING.

METAPHORICALLY FISHY SAYINGS...

FISH UNDER GLASS.

SORT OF FISHY.

THREAT WARNING: INSULT!


FIN ;-)