How did the Statis booth in Red Dwarf work?

Question

Would it be possible in real life?

Answer 1

Put simply the booth placed a person into suspended animation. It's not actually possible in real life at the moment but scientists are working on the theory so one day who knows it may well be possible. If it does become possible then the potential uses are countless. Long distance space travel would become a possibility and people with terminal illnesses that have no cure at the time could be placed into suspended animation until a cure was found. Just remember, anything you read about in science fiction starts of with an idea somebody has had and you can guarantee that some scientist somewhere is working on the theory to try and make it a reality. After all somebody in the 14th century would not have thought that space travel was possible but somebody came up with a way to make it possible in the end.

Answer 2

It was explained to Lister when he was put inside during the first episode, which I've loaned to my niece and can't look at it to give you a quote right now, but remember that it was something to the effect that space time was blocked and although Lister still existed, he no longer was a part of space time, he was a non-existent mass. Or words to that effect and no, it would not be possible in real life. Most of Red Dwarf is just pure comedy with a minuscule portion of science tossed in. All the better to enjoy, right! Sure like that show.



By the way, do a search for Red Dwarf and there is one site that gives you the scripts from the episodes and will have the way the Stasis booth is explained to Lister.

Answer 3

Scientists discoverd the phenomen behind the statis machine when they notice the effect the lord of the ring films had on people. Somehow 3 hours had passed and nobody had noticed.

They cross correlated this effect with the effect of being stuck with Uncle Ernie and listening to his war stories. Somehow 10 minutes felt like hours.

They answer lay in a gap in the universal perception parts of the mind. People have a link between their imagination and the way they perceive the world about them.

Quite simply exploit this and not only did they discover time seemed to stay still for the mind but also for the body aswell. It has been used for bad effects aswell for example the drama Friends, although basic in script and poor acting. used the effect subliminally hidden in the broadcasts.

If you read this far then good on you.

Answer 4

It was a 'stasis booth'. This effectively put things (ie Lister) in a state of suspended animation. This effect is often used in sci-fi for example Fry in Fururama and the crews in the Alien films

Answer 5

Would it not be similar to what happens in a black hole.

The gravity is so huge that time appears to go very slowly or not at all.

i.e. lister is on the inside to all others he is not moving but to his perspective everyone else is moving very quickly. listers area of space is experiencing a slower time than the outside of the booth. Lister is moving in his own frame of reference but to others these movements occur in intervals that are years long. So time is passing quicker on the outside of the booth. For lister the time spent in the booth might be short but when he steps out years might have passed on the outside. It would be like looking in on a video in fast forward if you consider your timeline is not moving quickly and the timeline for the characters on the video is fast forwarded you see their time passing quickly while yours remains constant. press play and the time has passed for the people in the video but for you only seconds have passed.(i know its a bad example)

Lister would not be able to see the people moving in fast forward as they would be moving so fast they would be invisable



Would require too much energy to be viable also the amount of gravity needed would be imparcticable.

Answer 6

i think you mean the stasis booth. it created a kind of vaccum but instead of sucking out oxygen and everything else it only sucked out time. it may be possible but i doubt it an if it did then it wouldn't be for another century or 2

Answer 7

There was somone standing behind the scenery pulling levers.

Answer 8

It requires copious amounts of Imaginarium which is very expensive.

Answer 9

similar to a portaloo