Post pod

Three million years...about average for second class post.

A post pod (also called a mail pod and a homing pod) is a small, red and cigar-shaped unmanned spacecraft. The purpose of the post pods are to deliver mail, cargo and technology to larger, manned Deep Space vessels. The post pods can maintain propulsion and track their targets indefinitely.

Appearances

They were shaped like the red "Pillar" post boxes found in England on Earth. Post pods were regular visitors to ships like Red Dwarf, providing them with new entertainment videos, games, letters and parcels from home. When Red Dwarf left the Solar System, it soon started to outrun the following pods which tracked the ship through deep space. When Lister was released from stasis after three million years, the ship turned round and the pods started to catch up.

The first post pod to reach Red Dwarf contained Zero-G football videos, Earth news, T.I.V. games, new movies and letters for the crew. Holly got a message from his computer counterpart Gordon that was the first move in a game of postal chess. Most of the letters were for Lister, who sent off for every special offer he could find, just so he received mail from someone. Arnold Rimmer received a letter from his mother, informing him that his father had died. To try and improve Rimmer's mood, they decided to use the Better Than Life game which had also come with the post pod. (["[RD: Better Than Life|Better Than Life]]")

A homing pod delivered a single video letter from Kryten's creators, DivaDroid International, telling his owners of his impending expiry. ("The Last Day")

Another post pod reached Red Dwarf years later and contained, among other things, a letter to Lister from ex-girlfriend Hayley Summers. It explained that she was pregnant and that he might be the father. He then spent days searching through the pod for the next letter, but was less than pleased to discover that she had received the results of a DNA test showing it was her colleague Roy who was the guilty party. ("Dear Dave")

Gallery

Better Than Life

A post pod in space

The pod turns towards Red Dwarf''

The Dwarfers open the post pod in the Red Dwarf Drive Room

The skutters take their John Wayne fan club mail
("Better Than Life", Series II)

Dear Dave

Kryten empties a sack of letters in the sleeping quarters
("Dear Dave", Series X)

Remastered

The post pod in the remastered version of "Better Than Life"

The DivaDroid mail pod in the remastered version of "The Last Day"

Trivia

• The shot of the Divadroid homing pod in "The Last Day", and also Hudzen-10's Diva-Droid Shuttle approaching Red Dwarf later in the same episode, were simply reused shots of the back of the post pod from "Better Than Life".
  • However, when the episodes were remastered, the DivaDroid mail pod and shuttle were given their own appearance and design.

Behind the Scenes

The post pod prop, courtesy of Propstore

• The royal crest on the front of the pod is barely visible, but has the initials PwR on it, implying that the English monarch's name began with a P. This might have something to do with the visual effects supervisor being called Peter Wragg.

• The model for the post pod was designed like a pillar box and measured 30 cms in length. It was eventually put up for sale on the Propstore website.