Pluto was a relatively small, frozen dwarf planet out towards the end of Earth's Solar System. By the time the JMC mining spaceship Red Dwarf left the Solar System, at some point in the mid-to-late 22nd century, Pluto was one of the few planetary bodies in the Solar System that had not yet been colonised by the Space Corps.
History
Television Series
Pluto was mentioned in Lister's "ippy-dippy" song - or more specifically, Pluto's moons - when Dave Lister "eenie meenie minee mo"ed to choose which of the two Rimmers he would delete in the Red Dwarf cinema. ("Me²", Series I)
Rimmer's chat-up-lines were so bad that a woman once moved to Pluto rather than go on a second date with Rimmer. ("Parallel Universe", Series II)
Lister remembered watching the first woman land on Pluto, a monumental event he equaled with losing his virginity, when Cliff Richard got shot, or when a giant toupee was placed over the Earth to cover up the hole in the ozone layer. Three million years later, Lister reminisced about these events to Rimmer when trapped in the crashed Starbug on the marooned planetoid in Deep Space. ("Marooned", Series III)
Other Mentions
In an interview between Nirvanah Crane and Talkie Toaster on the official Red Dwarf website, the hologram Nirvanah Crane reveals that she died on Pluto at some point in the early 2500s. Whilst conducting tests on diminishing nuclear fallout, some scientists inadvertently blew up Pluto with Crane on it. Crane was resurrected as a hologram and, as one of the best geniuses in the Solar System, was posted to the Holoship. Interview
In the battle between Earth and Pluto to avoid becoming the "Garbage Planet" of the system, the Plutonian delegation "made rather a weak case, drawing attention to their planet's erratic orbit and its position on the edge of the solar system," presumably as they had no distinct usefulness. (Better Than Life)
Rimmer used Pluto as an idiom when on a backwards running Earth. When going through a reverse police car chase, the crew had to unclimb a mountain. Lister tried to reassure Rimmer that it was safe. Rimmer, naturally sceptical due to the bizarre nature of this universe, refused and replied “not in a month of Plutonium Sundays” (Backwards)
Trivia
- Most of Red Dwarf as a show was filmed before the 2006 reclassification of Pluto as a "dwarf planet", whilst it was still designated one of the nine planets in the Solar System.
See Also