This is a list of characters from the TV sitcom Red Dwarf.

Major characters

Overview

+ Main cast of Red Dwarf Character Actor Seasons I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII Arnold Rimmer Chris Barrie colspan="6" colspan="1" colspan="6" Dave Lister Craig Charles colspan="13" The Cat Danny John-Jules colspan="13" Kryten David Ross colspan="11" Robert Llewellyn colspan="2" colspan="11" Holly Norman Lovett colspan="2" colspan="4" colspan="3" Hattie Hayridge colspan="2" colspan="3" colspan="8" Kristine Kochanski C.P. Grogan colspan="2" colspan="3" colspan="1" colspan="7" Chloë Annett colspan="6" colspan="2" colspan="4" Captain Hollister Mac McDonald colspan="2" colspan="5" colspan="1" colspan="3" colspan="1" colspan="1"

Details

Character Actor Series Arnold Rimmer Chris Barrie Main: I–VI & VIII–XIII; Recurring: VIIArnold Judas Rimmer (BSC & SSC) is Lister's bunkmate brought back to life as a hologram (his character wore an "H" symbol on his forehead, which stands for "Hologram") to keep Lister sane. He is unpopular with his crew mates, and is often the target of insults and pranks. Prior to his death, Rimmer was the ship's second technician, which makes him the second-lowest ranking crew member. He retains the rank, even though being a hologram makes him physically incapable of fulfilling his duties. He is technically the highest-ranking member of the crew for much of the shows' run, so he appoints himself as the interim captain. He is only respected as such by Holly and Kryten, although begrudgingly. He is petty, jealous and often dim-witted. Because he is a hologram, he cannot leave the ship unless someone else is carrying a portable device made by Kryten. Also, he is a "non-essential resource", so if the ship runs low on power or Lister dies, Rimmer will be shut down. In season 6, Legion ("Legion"–S6E2) upgrades Rimmer's hardware to 'Hard Light', making Rimmer immortal and indestructible, and also allowing him to touch and feel things. In the middle of Series VII, a chance encounter with an old acquaintance leads him to temporarily depart the crew to do something meaningful with his existence ("Stoke Me a Clipper"–S7E2). This Rimmer hologram is not seen again until "Back to Earth"—other than in a dream ("Blue", S7E5)—but a non-hologram Rimmer is part of the resurrected crew in Series VIII. From "Back to Earth" onwards, the original hologram Rimmer has re-joined the crew, with no explanation as to what happened to the human Rimmer from series VIII. He has had a poor relationship with practically everyone he has ever known, especially his own father. Even he finds himself unbearable when he encounters an alter ego or a hologram of himself. It is implied that Rimmer caused the original catastrophe due to his shoddy maintenance work, a suspicion he himself harbours. In early episodes, he claims to not believe in God or religion due to his upbringing in an unusual denomination. In later episodes, he proves that he is rather open-minded about theology and philosophy. Dave Lister Craig Charles I–XIII Dave Lister is the last human male in the known universe due to an accident leading to him being kept in stasis for three million years. His best clothes have only two curry stains down the front—and he wrongly believes himself to be a fantastic guitarist.Lister: Don't patronize me. I can't play the guitar. Anyone with half an ear can tell that. Kryten: Sir as soon as your personality's fully restored, you will firmly believe that you can play the guitar like the ghost of Hendrix. – As a technician, third class, he is also the lowest ranking member of the crew. He is obsessed with former crewmate Kristine Kochanski. He makes returning to earth or reuniting with Kochanski his two main goals. He mainly eats Indian food and drinks lager, and often considers a lack of either as a "crisis situation". Lister long claims to have never known his father. Lister is put in stasis for 18 months as punishment for bringing a cat on board the ship. He is woken three million years later, long after all other humans have died out. He sees "future echoes" ("Future Echoes"–S1, E2) which confirm that he will have at least 2 sons (Jim and Bexley) and will live to at least 175. He also learns that Cat's species believed him to be their god 'Cloister' ("Waiting for God"–S1, E4), but Cat never makes this connection. He later becomes pregnant after having intercourse with his female alter ego in another dimension ("Parallel Universe"–S2, E6). Lister discovers that he is his own father in a 'failsafe' that prevents the universe from ending ("Orobouros"–S7, E3). A wormhole shows Lister an alternative timeline in which Kochanski survived the accident and he is the Hologram and Kochanski's husband. Kochanski gets stuck in their timeline, but she and Lister never properly get together. He also loses his arm when he is infected by a virus ("Epideme"/"Nanarchy"–S7, E7-8), but this is restored with the Red Dwarf ship by Kryten's nanobots. In series IX, he is the last human again, but the ship believes he is two people (himself and his own son). Lister realises how close he came to winning Kochanski and becomes even more determined to get her back. While he is normally sarcastic and lazy, he can be self-sacrificing and intelligent when someone's life is in danger. The Cat Danny John-Jules I–XIIIThe character has no name besides "The Cat". He is the humanoid descendant of a modern house cat called Frankenstein, who had been Lister's pet cat. The cat society (Felis sapiens) left Red Dwarf seeking the promised land ("Waiting for God"–S1, E4), leaving behind those who were too ill or old to travel. The Cat is the son of the cripple and the idiot. The Cat's personality mirrors that of a cat—thinking only of his own well-being, vain and superficial. Despite all of his boasting, he has never had any genuine experience with a female. In early episodes, he serves no purpose but to be extra company to Lister and Rimmer. But he eventually becomes a self-trained navigator and shuttle-pilot, as well as helping with scavenging raids. His sense of smell allows him to detect floating objects outside of the shuttle. He almost never refers to anyone by the name, instead using insulting nicknames (e.g. Kryten is called "Peanut-head" or "Tin Can"). His vanity gives him false illusions about his singing and dancing abilities, but genuinely becomes better at these as the show progresses.Kryten David Ross Guest: II Robert Llewellyn III–XIIIKryten is a neurotic Series 4000 mechanoid robotic servant. He is humanoid, with the exception of the flat cubical face and head. Once the personal servant of three attractive female crew members of the Nova 5, he was found and rescued ("Kryten"–S2, E1) by Lister who has been teaching Kryten to "break his programming" in order to develop his own personality and develop human character faults (such as the ability to lie). Despite leaving to live independently, he has become the crew's service mechanoid by series III, having been rescued by Lister once again and rebuilt following a spacebike accident. Despite restoring functionality, Lister was unable to restore Kryten's former personality (S3, E1). His programming forces him to be obedient to Lister and Rimmer, even when he knows Rimmer's instructions do not make sense. He also has encyclopedic knowledge on almost all known subjects (all having been uploaded to his memory). In series VII, after Rimmer leaves, Kryten is the most neurotic member of the crew and becomes jealous of Kochanski.Holly Norman Lovett Main: I–II, VII & VIII, XIII; Guest: XII Hattie Hayridge III–VHolly is an intelligent computer. Holly's user interface appears on the ship's screens as a disembodied human head on a black background, he can also be downloaded onto most television screens, and can roam around on a monitor mounted on a cart. Holly regularly proclaims that he has an IQ of 6,000, though there are frequent references to the fact that it is now much lower due to three million years alone—"computer senility". He is briefly replaced by a female Holly program having undergone a computer head sex change operation (as explained in the opening of S3, E1), with the new appearance based on Hilly (Holly's alter ego in "Parallel Universe"–S2, E6). The male version is restored when the crew find his original hardware. Early episodes opened with Holly giving a brief synopsis of the series, closing with an added joke.Kristine Kochanski Clare Grogan Recurring: I, II; Guest: VIChloë Annett Main: VII, VIII; Guest: IXKristine Z Kochanski is Red Dwarfs Navigation Officer who was the object of Lister's lust before she was killed by a radiation leak. In Series VII, the crew discover an alternative universe where Kochanski survived with Lister as her hologram ("Orobouros"–S7, E3). She ends up stuck on Starbug and takes Rimmer's place in the crew.

Alter egos Ace Rimmer

Arnold "Ace" Rimmer is an alter ego of Arnold Rimmer, also played by Chris Barrie. Ace first appears in the episode "Dimension Jump" (S4, E5) and is the antithesis of Rimmer. He is modest despite being a popular, knowledgeable, charming, daredevil hero. He comes from a seemingly perfect universe, in which Rimmer and Lister lived happy, successful lives and were good friends.

Ace's childhood paralleled Rimmer's up until the age of seven, when one of them was kept down a year at school while the other was not. The one kept down became Ace, who claimed that the shame of being a clear foot taller than his classmates inspired him to buckle down, fight back and work hard, while Arnold spent the rest of his life making excuses for his many failures.

Ace travels from planet to planet wearing a gold, fur-lined flight suit and saving people's lives. He was originally a test pilot for the Space Corps in his own universe, which also features an alter ego of Lister (nicknamed 'Spanners' by Ace) who is a flight engineer married to Kochanski and has twin sons, Jim and Bexley (the exact family to which the regular Lister always aspired). Ace's other friends included the Space Corps chaplain (played by the Cat actor Danny John-Jules), a receptionist named Mellie (played by Holly actress Hattie Hayridge), and Admiral Sir James Tranter, a superior officer whom Ace nicknames 'Bongo' (played by Kryten actor Robert Llewellyn). Despite being a happily married heterosexual, Bongo has a crush on Ace, who takes it in stride despite not reciprocating his feelings. Unlike Rimmer who desperately wanted to be an officer but turned out to be a vending machine attendant—Ace is a commander, but is always modest about the attention he receives. He spends time with Spanners, the engineering crew, and the enlisted men/ratings. He even refused to attend a lavish party his fellow officers threw for him, instead planning to go to a smaller one with Spanners and the enlisted.

Ace was offered the chance to pilot a brand-new spacecraft, one that can cross dimensions—leading to him meeting the Red Dwarf crew. Rimmer was instantly bitter that Ace was everything he dreamed of becoming himself. Ace had hoped that Rimmer was like him, but later regarded him as a "weasly maggot". In contrast, Ace and Lister became firm friends, prompting a lot of snide remarks from Rimmer about their 'relationship.'

Following his visit to Red Dwarf, Ace extended his adventures through the multi-verse and meeting many alternative versions of himself. When he finally became unable to carry on ("Stoke Me a Clipper"–S7, E2), he passed his legacy on to another version of himself, who became a new Ace. In turn, when it was the new Ace's time, he passed the torch on. As each Ace died, their light bees were sent in orbit in small yellow 'coffins' around an unknown planet, and by the time Red Dwarfs Rimmer took on the mantle in "Stoke Me a Clipper", the billions of Ace Rimmers who came before him had formed a golden ring similar to Saturn's (and resembling the logo of the TV series).