Red Dwarf/Characters: Difference between revisions

=== David 'Dave' Lister ===

 

 

Liverpudlian bum and all-round slob, Third Technician David Lister was discovered under a table as a baby. He is a fairly competent man, but avoids ambition which might threaten his slobby routine. Lister was the sole survivor of the Cadmium-II leak which wiped out the crew of ''Red Dwarf'', being in stasis for smuggling a cat onto the ship.

* [[Hollywood Pudgy]]: Lister's size alluded to in "Backwards" and "Bodyswap" really doesn't match up with what we see.

* [[Human Popsicle]]: He was supposed to be put into stasis for 18 months as punishment for smuggling a cat aboard, but was in there for 3 million years while the radiation decayed, setting in motion the rest of the series.

** {{spoiler|[[My Own Grampa]]}}

* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]

=== Arnold Judas Rimmer ===

 

 

Lister's immediate superior, Second Technician Arnold Rimmer (B.S.C., S.S.C.) is an ambitious but unpleasant and almost universally hated underachiever. Born on Io, Rimmer was loathed by his brothers and classmates, who went on to achieve great things while he remained a lowly Second Technician. Any references to his underachievements are immediately blamed on mitigating circumstances. He includes his only two achievements after his name, B.S.C. and S.S.C. (which stand for Bronze Swimming Certificate and Silver Swimming Certificate). He steadfastly believes in the existence of aliens and attributes any unexplained events to such aliens. It was Rimmer's incompetence which led to the leak, killing him and the other crew members. Rimmer was resurrected by Holly as a hologram after Lister's stasis.

* [[Attending Your Own Funeral]]: Rimmer has a videocassette of his death.

** Also done in ''Stoke Me a Clipper''. {{spoiler|Ace Rimmer dies and Rimmer leaves the crew to become Ace. Lister claims that Rimmer, not Ace, was killed and Rimmer, acting as Ace, attends Ace's funeral which the crew think is for Rimmer}}.

* [[Black Comedy Rape]]: Sort of. Rimmer didn't deliberately rape Yvonne McGruder, but she was concussed and thought he was someone else. The continuity of ''Last Human'' establishes that McGruder already liked him and became convinced that she imagined the whole thing after she relapsed.

* [[Broken Ace]]: Rimmer [[Emotion Eater|minus negativity and neuroses]] equals [[The Ace|Ace Rimmer]] (what a guy!). Apparently.

* [[The Neidermeyer]]: Rimmer in ''Meltdown'' manages to kill all of his own army, but considers it a victory because all the enemy wax droids are dead. A disgusted Lister gets him back.

* [[Of Course I'm Not a Virgin]]: He's not, but has had so little sex that he might as well be.

** He does manage a genuine affectionate sexual relationship later on in the series. Naturally, it doesn't last.

* [[The Other Marty]]: [[Alfred Molina]] was originally cast in the role by [[Word of God]] says that he wanted to make too many changes to the character for the writers' liking.

=== Cat ===

 

 

Cat (sometimes The Cat) is the last known member of ''felis sapiens'' (also spelt ''felix sapiens''), a race which evolved from the kittens of Lister's pet cat Frankenstein. Cat is known for his outlandish fashion sense, and gauges danger by how it will affect his looks.

* [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much]]: The religion of the Cats state that "It is a sin to be cool."

* [[Sharp-Dressed Man]]

* [[What Could Have Been]]: One story would have dealt with Cat's gradual 'domestication' but was, sadly, not filmed.

 

=== Holly ===

 

 

''Red Dwarf'''s computer, Holly starts off amazingly intelligent with a purported IQ of 6,000. However, he has become senile before Lister's return to non-stasis. After an encounter with his counterpart from an alternate universe, a blonde female named Hilly, Holly performed a sex change on himself.

 

* [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]: He's gone a bit senile with old age.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Male Holly may well be the best example in the series.

** [[Spaceship Girl]]

* [[Insufferable Genius]]: Yes, Holly. We know you have an IQ of 6000.

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: [[The Reveal]] from ''Queeg'' puts him firmly in this category.

 

=== Kryten 2X4B-523P ===

 

 

Kryten is a 4000 series mechanoid. He was encountered by the crew on the wreck of the starship ''Nova 5'', where he had obediently served his three female owners, not realising they had died on landing. Kryten was helped to break his programming by Lister and eventually chose to oppose Rimmer, before leaving on Lister's space bike. He crashed and was rebuilt by Lister, giving him a new accent and new programming.

* [[Clingy Jealous Girl|Clingy jealous droid]]: Towards Lister, going well towards [[Ho Yay]].

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: In later episodes, especially after gaining "lie mode."

* [[Embarrassing Middle Name]]: 2X4B. He has always felt its a little jerky.

** Though its better than one poor sod he knew who had the middle name 2'''Q'''4B...

=== Kristine Kochanski ===

 

 

Navigation Officer Kristine Kochanski was Lister's partner, who perished along with the other crew members. Shortly after Rimmer's departure from ''Starbug'', the crew encountered an alternate version of themselves where Kochanski had survived the leak instead of Lister. Kochanski was saved from falling into a dimensional vortex by Lister, but the vortex closed, preventing her from rejoining her crew.

=== Ace Rimmer ===

 

 

Pandimensional super-hero, Ace Rimmer is Rimmer's counterpart from another dimension. Ace was held back at school, which spurred him on to succeed. Any non-Rimmer character may remark 'what a guy!' upon meeting Ace.

== Captain Frank Hollister ==

 

 

The overweight captain of ''Red Dwarf'' who is killed off (along with the rest of the crew bar Lister) halfway through the first episode. Hasn't stopped him being the most frequently reccuring non-main cast member.

== Talkie Toaster ==

 

 

A very minor, but very well-remembered, character, Talkie Toaster belongs to Lister, is equipped with artificial intelligence and, to the annoyance of everyone, completely obsessed with making toast. Was destroyed off-screen by Lister sometime during the first two series and rebuilt (with a completely different voice and appearance) by Kryten in Series IV.

 

== Mr Flibble ==

 

Another minor character who has achieved surprising fame despite his lack of screen time, Mr Flibble is a penguin hand puppet used by Rimmer when under the influence of a holovirus. Is known for his capacity to become very cross.