Doug Naylor never got to make Red Dwarf: The Movie, settling for a forthcoming feature-length special and some dubious multi-parters instead. This isn't about those.
Instead, here are 10 films (or films-of-the-TV-series) that are either confirmed or can be deduced to have influenced the look, tone or premise of the classic sci-fi sitcom.
Not the one-off parodies like Casablanca, just the main influences. Imagined or otherwise. Most of the time.
Key:
Sci-fi
Sci-fi comedy
Comedy
Red Dwarf was pitched as 'Steptoe and Son in Space,' presumably more for the alliteration than anything significant. A couple of working-class men doomed to be trapped together in a lousy sitation and holding each other back. Sexist too, if there are any series VIII fans in.
9. Porridge (a.k.a. Doing Time, 1979) ***
I've never watched the sitcom, which presumably had a lot more of the influential bunkroom banter. Still, there's the characters managing to find the com in a bad sit, inventing TV-friendly swears and, of course, the prison setting that Red Dwarf adopted when it briefly took the Porridge influence much too seriously.
The film that made the young Rob and Doug want to write comedy, there are some parallels and shared gags in this tale of cryogenic oversleeping that will be at the very least subconscious, even if the imagery's firmly rooted in cheap sci-fi of the time. For my first Woody Allen film, I'm guessing this is about as atypical as it gets.
7. Outland (1981) ***
This space take on High Noon (itself a reference via 'Queeg') took its design cues and cynicism from Alien, but it goes in the pile of suspects for expanded-universe Jupiter mining specifics and space helmets that are either hand-me-downs or needlessly authentic rip-offs.
6. Dark Star (1974) ***
Credited as the primary inspiration for the series by Rob and Doug on multiple occasions, Dark Star's influence on Red Dwarf is self-evident from screencaps and even more when you finally get around to watching it. This cripplingly low-budget Alien precursor also veers into 2001 spoof to muddy the waters. It's entertaining, but I don't think it's quite the overlooked classic some do. It probably helps if you're on something.
5. Westworld (1973) ****
If I'm going to get into specific episode references this will never end, but there turned out to be some broader brawl and Western gags too. I'd been meaning to get around to it anyway, and even if the Red Dwarf influence is insignificant, the Blade Runner, Terminator and Jurassic Park legacies were more interesting.
4. Silent Running (1972) ****
The biggest influence on set design, at least from the third series when it gets borderline plagiarist, Dan O'Bannon also developed the drab outer-space workplace from Dark Star and made the alien more credible, inspiring various stubbornly non-extraterrestrial beasties in the sitcom.
2. Blade Runner (1982) *****
The only work cited as an influence on Red Dwarf in meta dialogue (bizarrely), its imprint is less evident than the space films outside of one indulgent special, but themes and references keep popping up – from manipulating memories to planned obsolescence and noir dystopias done on the cheap.
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) *****
Dave and Hol are the obvious references (via Grant Naylor's Dave Hollins radio sketches), their famous exchange in the first episode basically being a parody of a similarly repetitive scene in 2001, but there are influences in this certified classic all over the place, from Holly's fake-out death to design elements of Starbug (possibly via Klingons).
