List of Red Dwarf characters
Character descriptions and casting details for the Red Dwarf BBC sitcom and series of novels by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor.
Red Dwarf is a British science fiction sitcom ("Britcom" in the U.S.), created and originally written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor.
Major characters
David Lister
David Lister is portrayed by Craig Charles in the television series.
The most important thing to know about Dave Lister is that he is the last human man in the known universe. The second most important thing to know is that his best clothes have only two curry stains down the front. The third most important thing to know is that he believes he is the world's greatest rock guitarist and possibly Jimi Hendrix reborn. However, listening to his guitar playing is akin to having to undergo three root canal fillings without anaesthetic during one visit to the dentist.
Arnold Rimmer
Arnold Judas Rimmer BSC, SSC (standing for Bronze Swimming Certificate, Silver Swimming Certificate), who sometimes goes by Arnold Jonathan Rimmer is played by Chris Barrie in the television series. He is instantly recognisable by both the permanent sneer on his lips and the "H" (hologram) symbol on his forehead. He is the second lowest rank on the ship, a Second Technician, immediately over David Lister, Third Technician. The two are charged with the incredibly important job of chicken soup machine repair. He blames himself for the crew dying, since he inefficiently repaired the drive-plate, though, considering his reputation for ineptitude, the blame might more likely be on the captain who gave him that job to do in the first place.
The Cat
The Cat is played by Danny John-Jules in the television series.
The character has no name besides, "The Cat." He is the humanoid descendant of a modern house cat called Frankenstein, which had been Dave Lister's pet cat, son of, as the Cat Priest describes it, "the cripple and the idiot". He is believed to be the last remaining member of his species, Felis sapiens.
The Cat thinks only of his own well-being ("superficial is my middle name"), would "rather die than wear polyester" and claims that he is so attractive "that I have a 6-month waiting list for flights of birds to suddenly appear, every time I'm near". This is a reference to the song (They Long to Be) Close to You. Despite all of his boasting, he has never had any genuine experience with a female.
Kryten
Kryten is played by Northampton-born actor Robert Llewellyn in the television series.
Kryten (full name, "Kryten 2X4B-523P", though he never really liked the "2X4B" part — "2X4B — Why didn't they just call me 'Cecil' and have done with it") is a Series 4000 mechanoid or "slave 'noid" — a robotic servant — and is quite neurotic. He looks very humanoid, with the exception of the flat cubic planes visible on his face and head. Once the personal servant of three attractive female crew members of the Nova 5, he is now reduced to serving the slobbish Dave Lister, the only surviving human crew member on the Red Dwarf. Lister, since then, 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). In his first appearance, the episode in which he is discovered by the crew of the Red Dwarf aboard the Nova 5, Kryten was played by David Ross. Also, in series VII, he develops a neurotic dislike for Kochanski because he feels she will steal Lister from him.
Holly
Holly (initially played by Norman Lovett) is an intelligent computer. Holly's user interface appears on ship screens as a disembodied human head on a black background, and can also be downloaded onto Kryten's chest, or into a watch worn by Lister. As a male he appeared as around 50 years old with receding brown hair (completely bald on top as of series VIII), and as a female played by Hattie Hayridge, she appears as a woman of ambiguous age but probably 30-ish with long blonde hair. In Series I he was pixelated but this idea was dropped in Series II. He has an IQ of 6000, "the same IQ as 6000 PE teachers" (quote from Series I episode "Future Echoes").
Kristine Kochanski
Kristine Z Kochanski is Red Dwarf's Navigation Officer, and the ex-girlfriend of Dave Lister before she was killed by a radiation leak. In the first episode (before the accident) she was played by Clare Grogan, who reprised the role in the episode "Balance of Power", both in flashback and as a hologram. She also featured in the Series II time travel episode "Stasis Leak", and made a brief appearance as a hallucination in the Series VI episode "Psirens". In Series VII an alternate universe version played by Chloë Annett became a permanent member of the crew after Arnold Rimmer left.
Alter egos
Ace Rimmer
Ace Rimmer is played by Chris Barrie in the television series. He is an alter ego of Arnold Rimmer, and first appears in the episode "Dimension Jump", the 5th episode in Series IV of Red Dwarf.
Ace's full name is Commander Arnold Judas Rimmer — he is an alternate version of the Rimmer character who features more regularly in the series. While the regular Rimmer is a snivelling, gutless anti-hero, Ace is popular, knowledgable and a full-blown daredevil hero, although he is quite modest about his many achievements (whereas Arnold, conversely, is extremely egocentric and arrogant despite being largely a failure in life).
Ace Rimmer's childhood followed that of the original Rimmer until the age of 7 when their realities split: at school one of them was kept down a year, the other was not. The one that was kept down a year would later became Ace; he claims that being a clear foot taller than the rest of his class inspired him to buckle down, fight back and work hard, and it is this which makes him so different from the regular Rimmer (who conversely spent the rest of his life making excuses for his many failures).
While Rimmer is a snivelling coward, Ace is a bold hero who travels from planet to planet wearing a gold, fur-lined flight suit and saving the lives of beautiful women (with whom he usually has sex with as well). He was originally a test pilot for the Space Corps in his own universe. In this universe there is an alternative version of Lister as well. Nicknamed 'Spanners' by Ace, this Lister is a flight engineer married to Kochanski and has twin sons called Jim and Bexley (which is the sort of family the regular Lister always aspired for). Ace's other friends included the Space Corps chaplain (played by Danny John-Jules aka the Cat) and a receptionist called Mellie (Hattie Hayridge who was also the female Holly). Admiral Sir James Tranter (it's shown on his desk) is a superior officer whom Ace nicknames Bongo (played by Kryten actor Robert Llewellyn). Although married, Bongo has a gay crush on Ace, who takes this in his stride despite being 'strictly butter-side up'.
Ace was offered the chance to pilot a brand-new kind of spacecraft, one that can cross dimensions. The first dimension he encountered happened to be the one in which Red Dwarf is set. Ace met the Red Dwarf crew including the original Rimmer. Although they are supposed to be the same person, the two quickly learned to loath each other; Rimmer was bitter at the fact that Ace got all the breaks that he did not (despite the irony that, in not being kept back a year, he himself received what by his terms would be 'the break'), while Ace regarded him as a weasley maggot. Conversely, however, Ace and Lister became firm friends, prompting a lot of snide remarks on Rimmer's part about their 'relationship'.
Following his visit to Red Dwarf, Ace extended his adventures through the multiverse, adventuring, becoming a hero, and meeting all the many alternate versions of himself. When he finally became unable to carry on (due to having "caught the business end of a neutron tank in Dimension 165", according to a later Ace), he passed his wig and his legacy on to another version of himself, who became the new Ace. Previous Ace Rimmers were sent, when they finally died, to orbit a planet in an unknown location in small yellow 'coffins', and by the time Red Dwarf's Rimmer took on the mantle, the billions of Ace Rimmers who have come before him had formed a ring around the planet.
Ace's catchphrase is, "Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!" and it is a running joke in the series that everyone who comes into contact with Ace Rimmer exclaims "What a guy!" in tones of complete adoration.
The original Rimmer has a number of nicknames for himself, none of which have been used by any other character (save for his clone in the episode "Me Squared", a mocking Lister in "Kryten", Series II Episode 1, and Camille the GELF (Genetically Engineered Life Form) in her 'Rimmer's perfect companion' form): these include Ironballs, I.B. (a derivative of the former), Big Man, Duke and Ace. Sadly, his real nickname was Bonehead.
Rimmer himself is the only one who refuses to see Ace as a hero, and he makes frequent references to Ace being gay, or Ace and Lister being in love. However, in the episode "Emohawk, Polymorph 2" in Series VI, Rimmer is the victim of an emotion-sucking mutant which turns him into Ace. He seems to enjoy his new look and attitude but is soon returned to his original appearance. Furthermore, in the episode "Stoke Me a Clipper" in Series VII, Rimmer has to overcome both his jealousy of Ace's success and his own fear when Ace confides in him that he is a hard-light hologram, and that he is dying. Ace recruits Rimmer to be the next Ace, and with a little encouragement from Lister, Rimmer leaves. Before taking off (or trying to — he hits the ejector seat instead) the new Ace Rimmer's last words are "Stoke me a clipper, I'll be back for Christmas!" ... followed by, as he realises his mistake, "Whatever."
It is unknown how this edition of Ace Rimmer fared; many fan fiction stories have this Ace Rimmer hand the ship over to another version of himself and then go home to the other Dwarfers. The new Ace Rimmer makes a cameo appearance in the Series VII episode "Blue" in which he appears in a disturbingly romantic dream of Lister's.
Duane Dibbley
Duane Dibbley is the dorky alter-ego of The Cat, played by Danny John-Jules with pudding basin haircut and big overbite. He first appears in the Series V episode "Back To Reality", as part of a hallucinogenic experience, designed to cause despair in the Dwarfers. His second appearance is in the Series VI episode "Emohawk: Polymorph II", and was caused by a polymorph absorbing the Cat's cool. In the BBC's Red Dwarf Night he inexplicably appears in the Can't Cook, Won't Cook parody (Can't Smeg Won't Smeg) after The Cat refuses to take part in the show.
In Series VIII episode "Back In The Red", The Cat, Lister, Kochanski, and Kryten disguised themselves as "The Dibbley Family" by wearing mop head on their heads and large false teeth.
The character's brief appearances have proved very popular. John-Jules' explanation for this was "No-one's ever written a black nerd before."
The Dog
The Dog is a minor character played by Matthew Devitt. He is an alternate version of the Cat from a parallel universe. His origins are presumably similar to the Cat, except that Deb Lister (Dave Lister's duplicate) brought a dog on board the ship, rather than a cat.
The Dog speaks in a Texan drawl. He is dirty and smelly. He likes to offer his bottom for strangers to smell. He is thrown into a panic by the word "bath" and insists it be spelt so that he cannot understand it. He seems to be the last remaining member of his species (presumably Canis sapiens). He is also hopeless at dancing. The Dog suffers from separation anxiety when the others leave him alone.
The Cat was thrilled when he thought he would meet a female version of himself, only to be horrified to find a creature that might eat him. They did not get on very well.
Queeg 500
Queeg 500 is a "back-up" computer played by Charles Augins (a choreographer who was also behind the dance sequences in "Parallel Universe" and "Back In The Red 3").
On screen, Queeg 500 is a bald African American man of middle age, with the tone and mannerisms of a US Marine drill sergeant.
In the episode "Queeg" of Series II, a backup computer known as Queeg 500 replaces Holly on Red Dwarf viewscreens when Holly accidentally gives Lister bad advice, resulting in minor injury. Queeg claims to be a backup system, and is keenly aware of Holly's senility. Queeg claims that Holly's IQ is not 6,000 but 6. Holly is very upset and exclaims "6? Do me a lemon! That's a poor IQ for a glass of water". He also claims that Holly gets his information from a children's science book, called the "Junior Encyclopedia of Space", and has been piloting Red Dwarf around in circles. Holly is outraged and claims that it is a "load of Tottenham. A steaming pile of Hotspur." He is demoted to night-watchman and Queeg takes over the ship.
Queeg soon makes the crew's lives hell. Rimmer is pleased at first by his effiency but changes his opinion when Queeg takes over his body and makes him sprint several miles a day. The Cat is horrified that he has to do the 'W' word (work) and although they do get down to scrubbing the floors he and Lister get almost nothing to eat. The crew feel awful for not sticking up for Holly.
Then Holly challenges Queeg to a game of his choice and agrees that the loser gets deleted. Unfortunately it is chess. Holly is hopeless at this and gets it confused with poker, and refers to the knights as "horsies" and pawns as "prawns". Holly loses the game, wishes everyone good luck with their lives and, singing the Carpenters hit Goodbye To Love, fades from view. Queeg takes his place on the viewscreen but soon changes into Holly, who grins smugly and announces that he was Quueg all the time. The whole thing was a practical joke to teach the crew to appreciate Holly even though he has gone a bit "computer senile".
Holly describes his prank as "the jape of the decade", "wheeze of the week" and an "April, May, June, July and August fool".
The name Queeg comes from the similarly "by-the-book" Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny.
Shipboard robots
The Skutters
The skutters are service robots.
They have bodies similar to K9 from Doctor Who but with a single limb which ends in a three-clawed hand with an electronic eye. Their claws are usually closed in such a way that they appear to have a beak.
The duties of the skutters are to perform menial tasks around the ship, such as sweeping the cinema floors after a movie, or painting the corridors different shades of grey. Lister claims they have better working conditions than himself and Rimmer, due to having a better union.
The skutters are unable to speak, but can usually make their feelings clear. Their hands are particularly well designed for giving 'up yours' with one or two digits, most often to Rimmer who they strongly dislike.
It was originally implied there were only two skutters, but later episodes suggest these were simply the skutters assigned to Rimmer (or the show only had the budget for two skutters). There are many more, as befits a ship the size of a city. In the first book, the two Rimmers accidentally crushed dozens of skutters, then blew up all the ship's skutters by overworking them during the repairing of another spaceship.
Kryten referred to a skutter as "Bob" in the episode "The Last Day". Series VIII also featured a skutter named Bob, presumably the same one, along with his wife Madge. One of the skutters has also been referred to as Stabbim — Rimmer inventing this name very hastily to cover his not very covert actions when he was trying to stab Lister's Paranoia (the result of a hallucination when Lister contracted highly evolved pneumonia that made his hallucinations real) with a hypodermic syringe in the episode "Confidence & Paranoia". Rimmer has occasionally given the skutters not entirely flattering nicknames, including "Pinky and smegging Perky" after the pig marionettes in the 1960s British television programme Pinky and Perky in the episode "Better Than Life", and "El Skutto" for the skutter who played draughts against him in "Queeg".
Rimmer's skutters, if not all of them, are fans of John Wayne, having their broom cupboard filled with pin-ups and having a letter from the John Wayne Fan Club.
Skutters were not programmed to believe in Silicon Heaven, to keep the cost down. They find the concept ridiculous. In 'Parallel Universe', it appears that skutters are capable of reproduction, but the precise mechanics of this are not elaborated upon.
In Robot Wars, hosted by Craig Charles, one team produced robots called "Scutter's Revenge" and "Spawn of Scutter", possibly in reference to the skutters. Charles played on this by saying "I wonder what a scutter is?" after the former robot won its bout during a tournament.
Talkie Toaster
Talkie Toaster is a minor character, a monomaniacal toaster that tries to steer every conversation to the subject of toast.
Owned by Dave Lister, Talkie Toaster is a toaster with Artificial Intelligence who is completely obsessed with making toast and annoys everyone on board. He appears in Series I (and in a deleted scene in Series II) with a stainless-steel cover and a circular light on the side which flashes as he speaks. He appears in Series IV, and is described in the book, as a red toaster made of plastic, with his name "Talkie Toaster" emblazoned on the side and rather more flashing lights, although they have nothing to do with when he speaks, which is indicated by the press-down handle that would usually be used to start bread toasting. In Series I he is voiced by John Lenahan, and in Series IV by David Ross (who originally played Kryten in Series II). The flashing red and green lights on the Series IV version originally came from Box, the computer in Star Cops.
In the TV show, the Toaster would keep interjecting in conversations in surprisingly and annoyingly smart ways, and whenever possible would try eventually to steer the conversation towards toast. He likes to greet people with the phrase, "Howdy-doodly-do, how's it going?" Eventually this became too much for Lister who smashed the Toaster into 3000 separate pieces with a 14lb lump hammer (which the Toaster later describes as "First degree toaster-cide").
Kryten eventually repaired the Toaster in order to use him as a guinea-pig for "intelligence compression" — restoring his former intelligence (his AI chips were very badly damaged) at the cost of reducing his operational lifespan. After it worked with him Kryten tried it on Holly, but a miscalculation made her twice as smart as she used to be and left her with only three-and-a-half minutes to live. Later on by blocking up a "white hole" (opposite of a black hole, and which spews out time) time was reset to before the Toaster was repaired so he did not end up repaired after all. The Toaster's repaired personality was somewhat different to his original one: it now had a different voice and no longer tried to hide its obsession with toast. Where before, the Toaster would cut into a conversation, insult someone, and then make some reference to toast, the new Toaster was barely able to go more than two sentences without asking if someone would like a cooked bread product.
In the book, the Toaster helped Holly double his original IQ but shortened his life to three and a half minutes. He consectively won seven hundred and ninety three chess games against Holly. During this time, the Toaster also saved the crew from death: while Holly was a genius, he explained to the Toaster how to escape from a black hole, information which later came in useful when the crew encountered one. The Toaster did not, however, merely volunteer this information: it forced the crew to eat ridiculous amounts of toast before talking (The Cat later explains that the toast was burnt, cold and soggy). When the crew is attacked by a polymorph (although the Toaster had taken out an earlier Polymorph by firing red-hot metal plates from its grill), and the crew loses a certain emotion (Rimmer loses his anger, Lister loses his fear, The Cat loses his vanity and Kryten loses his guilt), the Toaster is destroyed by Kryten. After getting his guilt back, Kryten rebuilds the Toaster. Unfortunately the Toaster thinks he is a moose.
The Toaster was apparently manufactured by a Taiwanese company named "Crapola Inc."
The Toaster's interviews with various Red Dwarf characters (complete with offers of toast) can be found on Red Dwarf's official website.
The Chocolate Dispenser
The Chocolate Dispenser has a minor role to play in series VIII which is being stolen from by Rimmer and then complaining about it.
In its first appearance, having been stolen from by Rimmer, it set off an alarm to alert the Captain of chocolate being stolen. It later goes on to inform Rimmer concerning his becoming its 'nemesis'. His last appearance involved it telling Rimmer that the formula which he got from the parallel universe which would stop the virus that was destroying the ship had, in fact, become the formula for the virus again.
Some fan fic includes the dispenser continuing its vengeance by giving Rimmer poisoned chocolate, thus needing to remake him as a hologram again.
Other Red Dwarf crew
Captain Frank Hollister
Captain Frank Hollister is played by American actor Mac McDonald in the television series.
Hollister is the overweight captain of the interplanetary mining vessel Red Dwarf. He is seen in the first episode, in which he sentences Dave Lister to eighteen months in stasis for bringing a cat on board. When Lister is released Hollister, along with the rest of the crew, has been radioactive dust for three million years.
In the first episode, Hollister is introduced giving a speech at the funeral of a crew member. Later in the episode he confronts Lister about the existence of Lister's pet cat, Frankenstein, giving him a choice between either giving the cat up for extermination or going into stasis. He is also briefly seen in the final episode of the series in Arnold Rimmer's video of his own death. He has just enough time to blame Rimmer for the accident which is about to wipe out the crew before the initial explosion hits. The credits for this series only list him as "The Captain".
He has a more substantial role in the Series II episode, "Stasis Leak", in which the regulars travel back in time. He is seen once more upbraiding Lister, this time for slipping hallucinogenic mushrooms (also known as "freaky fungus") into Rimmer's breakfast, and later in a chicken outfit for a costume party, being attacked by Rimmer who believes him to be a hallucination. Rimmer paints him with a bucket of paint which the Captain has assigned him to paint the ship with, stating "I'm sorry, but I don't take orders from poultry!"
In Series VIII, with the crew resurrected by nanobots, Hollister becomes a main character. While his main purpose still seemed to be railing at Lister and Rimmer, we learn more about him, that his wife's name is Martha; that his weight problem is at least partially due to his love of orange popsicles, mint-choc ice cream, Coca-Cola, and Martha's muffins; and that he gained his position through blackmail and is really "Dennis the Doughnut Boy". He now suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after an incident with a baby T Rex. According to Rimmer, Hollister won the "Mr. Fat Bastard 2044" award.
In the Red Dwarf novel, "Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers", The captain of the ship was not Hollister, but a woman whose last name is coincidently "Kirk" and is American and overweight. She too met the same fate as Captain Hollister in the TV series.
Olaf Petersen
Olaf Petersen is played by Mark Williams in the television series. He is a Danish catering officer on the Red Dwarf mining vessel.
First appearing in the pilot episode, Petersen is the best friend of Dave Lister. He, Lister, Selby and Chen spend most of their free time getting drunk. Rimmer considers him to be "a Danish moron". When Petersen goes to have a mind scan for his hologrammatic programme, he was sp drunk the machine crashes three times claiming a non human life form was aboard the ship.
Like the rest of the crew, Petersen is killed in the radiation leak. His remains are found in the Drive Room as a white powder that Lister tasted. However he subsequently appears in two other episodes: in a first series flashback to before the accident in "Balance of Power" and when Lister and The Cat travel back in time to before the accident in the Series II episode "Stasis Leak". Also in "Balance of Power", an error with the ship's hologram generation unit results in Rimmer being given his arm.
Petersen is resurrected along with the rest of the crew in Series VIII, but is not seen, although often referred to.
The novel Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers reveals that Petersen was aboard Red Dwarf in order to make his way to the dome colony on Triton, where he had bought an extravagant house for only two thousand dollarpounds — the cheapness being because the colony's oxygen atmosphere had not been installed yet. It also explains that he was not chosen to keep Lister company as a hologram despite being his best friend, because according to Holly, "The only thing you had in common was consuming ridiculous amounts of alcohol, and he couldn't keep himself sane let alone others."
In the novel Backwards a Petersen from an alternate reality where the radiation leak never happened makes an appearance — he explains that he is still aboard Red Dwarf and not living in his house on Triton because alcohol was prohibited. (This may contradict the first book, which says that, on a previous visit to an alcohol-free moon, Petersen was so impressed by sobriety he became a teetotaller overnight. However, this can easily be explained as another difference between the two universes.)
Selby and Chen
Selby and Chen are played by David Gillespie and Paul Bradley, respectively. Chen works in the ship's kitchens and is always drunk. Selby is always drunk, too. They both have a crush on Kochanski.
First appearing in the pilot episode, they spend most of their free time with Lister and Petersen getting drunk. Their motto is "Skive hard, play hard."
Like the rest of the crew they are killed in the radiation leak. However they subsequently appear in a flashback before the accident in the Series I episode "Balance of Power".
When the crew are resurrected in Series VIII, Selby and Chen are the first crew members the regular characters encountered. They are not seen again. An unbroadcast scene revealed that they would have done everything in their power to prevent Lister being sent to the Tank (the ship prison), but the pub was open.
Chen came up with the theory that everyone has two people inside themselves, Confidence and Paranoia. When Lister contracts a mutated form of pneumonia, his hallucinations of his Confidence and his Paranoia become real.
George McIntyre
George McIntyre was a minor character in the first Red Dwarf book.
McIntyre was an officer on Red Dwarf who was severely depressed due to growing debt problems. After a horrifying experience in the hands of gangsters (he returned to Red Dwarf carrying his nose in a Titan Hilton napkin), McIntyre committed suicide. He was brought back as a hologram and replaced the ship's first hologram, Frank Saunders (much to Saunders' relief). In the TV series, McIntyre was only seen at his "Welcome Back Reception" thanking everyone for flowers and turning up at his funeral. His choice of music at the funeral was "See Ya Later Alligator" as his ashes were blasted into space. He was switched off during the radioactive disaster for Rimmer to replace him to keep Lister sane.
Frank Todhunter
Frank Todhunter appeared in the first episode only (he was not seen after the crew were resurrected in series VIII). He was played by Robert Bathurst.
Todhunter's job title is never explained, though he may be the first officer (executive officer) of Red Dwarf. He is in charge of the stasis booth and tries to describe how it works to anyone who goes there. He is also an exam invigilator. When Rimmer takes his exam, he panics, does his Full Rimmer salute to Todhunter, then faints.
Rimmer describes Todhunter as a "total gimp". He also claims Todhunter's success was due to a privileged background, speculating that he had been breastfed on chilled champagne and gazpacho soup.
In the novel Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, Rimmer attempts to pass himself off as "Christopher Todhunter" when, on their first meeting, Lister attempts to blackmail him about his visit to an android brothel. Whether this was a reference to a genuine Red Dwarf crew member, or a made-up name is unclear; Todhunter's role later in the story is taken by First Technician Petrovich.
Warden Ackerman
Warden Ackerman is played by Graham McTavish.
He is a stereotypically sadistic warden, enjoying his power over the inmates in Floor 13 (Red Dwarf's brig). He has a glass eye, which at one point is stolen from him. Prone to overreaction, he is a victim of pranks from the inmates on more than one occasion. After having sodium pentothal put into his inhaler as a prank, he shows up late at a meeting with the captain and reveals that he was sorry, but he was busy having "jiggy jiggy" with the Science Officer's wife, and needed time to change out of his Batman costume. Following the prank Lister suggested that a Tarzan costume would be better, since it would take less time to change out of.
Kill Crazy
Kill Crazy is a minor character played by Jake Wood, appearing only in Series 8.
Kill Crazy is a psychopathic inmate who is obsessed with killing things. He is not very bright, thinking that he could fight a Tyrannosaurus Rex using his fists (after all, how's the T-Rex going to punch him with those tiny arms?). His fighting buddy is Baxter (played by comedian Ricky Grover). When the prisoners arrive at the destination of a mission, Kill Crazy screams "LET'S GO KILL SOMETHING!" before charging forward at great pace and clattering himself unconscious on a low doorway.
GELFs
While the Red Dwarf universe does not contain aliens, many GELFs, or Genetically Engineered Life Forms, have been featured in the series.
The Polymorph
A polymorph is a shape-shifting organism that can change into anything it pleases and lives by draining a person of a negative emotion.
It was designed to be the perfect warrior, blending into any background, but mutated into something terrifying. When it boarded Red Dwarf, in the episode "Polymorph" it drains Lister of his fear, the Cat of his vanity, Kryten of his guilt and Rimmer of his anger. The crew manage to defeat the monster with heat-seeking laser bolts.
In the book, Better Than Life, the polymorph has similar effects, except that the shock of regaining his fear kills Lister (who at this time is in his 60s, due to time dilation). The crew then takes Lister's body to a backwards universe, where they will pick him up in 36 years time, when he has de-aged to his "normal" age. In Backwards he stays for half a century.
One of the polymorph's forms appears very similar to the Alien from the film, 'Alien' (1979). Many other similarities between their behaviour exist as well, such as picking off crew members one by one.
According to the placated Rimmer, "just because it's an armour-plated alien killing machine that salivates unspeakable slobber, doesn't mean it's a bad person."
The Emohawk in the episode "Emohawk: Polymorph II" is a domesticated variant, although it seems to drain parts of personality instead of emotion, belonging to the Kinatawowi. It drains Rimmer of his bitterness and Cat of his cool, turning them into Ace Rimmer and Duane Dibbley.
Kinitawowi
The Kinitawowi are a tribe of humanoid GELFs, apparently based upon orang-utan DNA. They first appear in the episode "Emohawk: Polymorph II" in which Lister was married to the chieftain's daughter in exchange for supplies.
The leader of the Kinitawowi tribe was played by celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott.
Brufweno
The Brufwino GELFs are another tribe of humanoid GELFs, appearing in the episode "Identity Within" (originally in Series 7 but replaced by "Duct Soup". "Identity Within" can be seen as a story board on the Series 7 DVD).
In the episode, Kryten states that they were bred as butchers on ships, whereas the Kinitawowi were bred as quartermasters. They are much taller than the Kinitawowi and are very handy with swords. Their word for cat has the meaning "deep fried crispy bar snack".
Pleasure Gelf
Pleasure Gelfs are telepathic. They can sense whatever the people around them would be attracted to, and make them believe that this is what they're seeing. The Pleasure Gelf in the episode "Camille" took the form of a female Series 4000 GTi mechanoid with Kryten. It wished to hide its true nature from him, but was unable to do so when the crew compared notes. Rimmer saw it as his sister-in-law Janine, Lister saw it as a Liverpudlian woman, and the Cat saw it as himself. Holly didn't see anything, stating that it was because she didn't have any desires, or possibly her screen was foggy. (Given the attraction between Holly and Hilly in Parallel Universe, it is surprising that she did not see Hilly, with a face like either her own or that of her previous male incarnation.) In its true form Camille was a huge green blob, with eye-stalks and tentacles. Kryten decided he loved it anyway (The Cat described it as "Something that dropped out of the sphinx's nose!"), but it eventually left to help its partner, a Pleasure Gelf named Hector, in its attempts to cure their condition.
The novel Last Human features a GELF called a Symbi-morph which is very similar to the Pleasure Gelf, but seems to have actual shape-shifting abilities. Its neutral or "true" form is an (apparently) androgynous humanoid with a black and white matrix colour scheme. It has five telepathic hooks which it can fire into someone to read their mind and shape-shift accordingly, with each additional hook making the connection more powerful. Lister was allowed to spend a night with a symbi-morph before fulfilling a deal to get rid of an eighteen-year prison sentence, but rather than being given a "broken" one (one subservient to the authorities) he was given Reketrebn, a symbi-morph with a strong will of its own, bonded with four hooks to an abusive Dingotang named Deki. Although they were only bonded with one hook, Lister managed to convince Reketrebn to help him escape and run away from Deki, by whom it was being severely mistreated.
Psirens
In the episode of the same name in series VI, Psirens are telepathic GELFs that look like giant beetles. They live in an asteroid belt and lure travellers to the asteroids in order to suck out their brains with a straw.
They achieve this by projecting tempting illusions in a similar manner to the Sirens of Greek mythology. Lister, for example, sees Psirens who have assumed the appearance of women he loved in the past such as Kochanski (played by Clare Grogan), or a glamorous woman (Samantha Robson) whom he lusted for all through puberty.
Dingotangs
Seen in the book Last Human, they are chimera-type GELFs: orangutans with the heads of dingoes.
Dolochimps
Seen in the book Last Human, they are chimera-type GELFs with the heads of dolphins, the bodies of chimpanzees and the legs of giant locusts.
Alberogs
Seen in the book Last Human, they are chimera-type GELFs with the heads of albatrosses, the bodies of bears and the legs of giant frogs. Alberogs make up most of the population of the asteroid Arranguu 12, the site of the Gelf Forum of Justice. The Regulator of Justice is an Alberog.
Snugiraffes
Seen in the book Last Human, they are chimera-type GELFs with the heads of cobras, the bodies of giant slugs and the legs of giraffes, who also appear to have had a bucket of mucus thrown at them. Snugiraffes are called the most repulsive creatures ever to have lived, with the exception of George Formby — even just seeing them can trigger vomiting (or, in the case of holograms and mechanoids, dry-retching). They are still highly prized, however, because they eat everyone else's effluence and process it into a smokeless fuel. The warden of Cyberia, the cyber-prison on the asteroid Lotomi 5, is a Snugiraffe. It isn't troubled by the reaction other beings have to its appearance, considering vomiting to be a form of greeting.
Others
The Cat Priest
The Cat Priest was the only member of the species Felis sapiens seen on the television show Red Dwarf apart from The Cat.
The Cat Priest was blind. He was the Cat's teacher and guardian after his parents died, but Cat was never really interested and preferred to go off investigating. The Cat Priest was once a devout follower of the Cat religion, but over time as the Cat race died he lost his faith.
When the Cat Priest was dying, Lister appeared and revealed that he was the Cat god Cloister. The Priest apologised for losing his faith, saying "You tested me, and I failed you." Lister assured him that had not failed, and he would get into Fuchal. The Cat Priest's last words before he died were "This is the happiest day of my ..."
In the remastered version of the episode in which he appeared, the Cat Priest's body was cremated and the ashes jettisoned into space.
Mr. Flibble
Mr. Flibble is a hologrammatic penguin hand puppet. He is fluffy and malevolent, and often "very cross". In the episode "Quarantine", Rimmer wears Mr. Flibble on his hand and together they terrorise the rest of the crew. Rimmer had been infected by the Hex virus which gave him extra mental powers and made him completely insane. Both Mr. Flibble and Rimmer are armed with the dreaded power of Hex vision. When they attack with this power, their eyes glow red, and then a deadly beam of energy is discharged from their eyes. Mr. Flibble is now an interviewer on the Red Dwarf official website, aided by the right hand of website coordinator Andrew Ellard.
Simulants
Simulants are artificial life forms, broadly similar to Mechanoids. Designed to be as close to humans as possible, the ones seen in the series have all been psychotic. The first Simulant featured in the series was in the episode "Justice", where it was in stasis pending a trial and incarceration at the Justice Station. The pod it was held in thawed out and it attacked the crew, pursuing them into the Justice Zone, an area in the Justice Station where if you tried to commit a crime, the consequences happen to you. Because of this, it destroyed itself trying to attack Lister. Simulants have frequently appeared since when an episode calls for a "general villain". It was a Simulant captain that fitted Starbug with laser cannons, to make their fight more interesting. The name is probably a play on the Replicants in Blade Runner.
In the novel Backwards the Simulants are renamed Agonoids. They took control of Red Dwarf while the crew were trapped in another reality, transforming it into a 'Wheel of Terror' that would trap the crew in the centre when they returned and force the agonoids to race for the privilege of being 'The One' who would kill the last human. However, one agonoid killed every single other agonoid in order to ensure that he would be the one to kill Lister, but was then sucked into space when he attempted to attack the crew on Starbug.
Guest stars
Many co-stars of the first few episodes have gone on to greater things, such as Robert Bathurst, Tony Hawks, Paul Bradley and Mark Williams. But later series have attracted established stars, some of whom were fans of the show.
- Professor Mamet ("Psirens") — Jenny Agutter
- Legion ("Legion") — Nigel Williams
- Nirvanah Crane ("Holoship") — Jane Horrocks
- Andy The Technician ("Back To Reality") — Timothy Spall
- Lift Hostess ("Stasis Leak") — Morwenna Banks
- Hudzen ("The Last Day") — Gordon Kennedy
- Sabrina Mulholland-Jjones ("Timeslides") — Koo Stark
- TV Presenter ("Timeslides") — Ruby Wax
- Cassandra ("Cassandra") — Geraldine McEwan
- Gelf Chief ("Polymorph II: Emohawk") — Ainsley Harriott
- King Of Camelot ("Stoke Me A Clipper") — Brian Cox
- Queen Of Camelot ("Stoke Me A Clipper") — Sarah Alexander
- Epideme (voice) ("Epideme") — Gary Martin
- Simulant ("Beyond A Joke") — Don Henderson
- Android Actor (voice) ("Kryten") and Vending Machine (voice) ("Only The Good") — Tony Slattery
- The Inquisitor ("Inquisitor") — Jack Docherty
- Captain Tau ("Psirens") — Anita Dobson
- Fascist Policeman ("Back To Reality") — Lenny Von Dohlen
- Captain Vorheese ("Stoke Me A Clipper") — Ken Morley
- Confidence ("Confidence & Paranoia") — Craig Ferguson
- Paranoia ("Confidence & Paranoia") - Lee Cornes
- Night Club Owner ("Backwards") - Arthur Smith
