The Characters briefly introduced
Lister
Dave Lister is played by Craig Charles and is the last man alive in a Godless universe. Lister was born in the 23rd century and is an Aries, he was instantly dumped by his mother. He was found in a cardboard box, beneath the pool table of a Liverpool pub, and brought up by foster parents thereafter. Lister's stepfather died when Dave was a mere six years old. Eventually, he was taken to see a child psychologist, who helped him to cope with the loss, but he still clings to the only photograph of the man that he ever had and that only shows his leg, (the picture being of his dog, Hannah).
Rimmer
Arnold Judas Rimmer is played by Christopher Barrie. Possibly the best description ever applied to Arnold Rimmer was when Kryten referred to him as an incompetent vending machine repairman with a Napoleon complex,. Rimmer has always suffered from low self-esteem and so thinks of himself as a Tosspot by Royal Appointment. It says something about the state of Holly (the ships computer) that he chose this sad specimen of humanity to resurrect as a hologram to keep Lister company! Originally a Class One Hologram, sustained by a mobile light bee and a great deal of Red Dwarf's power supply, Rimmer has been converted to hard light by the Gestalt Entity Legion, allowing him at last the gift of touch.
Holly
Holly has been played by Norman Lovett, then Hattie Hayridge, and then back to Norman Lovett. Red Dwarf, a spaceship the size of a town, takes some running and that's where Holly, a tenth-generation Al hologrammic computer with an IQ of 6000 comes in, or at least he did once. Not even a computer as complex and sophisticated as Holly undoubtedly was when first constructed, is unable to withstand the eroding of time. So Holly ended up becomming computer senile. Even before Red Dwarf's three million year jaunt into endless space began, Holly was not new; already the Jupiter Mining Corporation had started fitting their vessels with eleventh-generation computers with IQ's in the region of 8000. One such machine was Gordon, of the Scott Fitzgerald whose vast interllect made Holly seem like a mere abacus. Nevertheless, Red Dwarf's computer was prepared to take on his brighter digital kinsman in a game of postal chess. Not suprisingly, Gordon fared better in the contest, but as only one move was ever actually made, Holly did not disgrace himself with his own performance.
Kryten
Kryten 2X4B 523P (Robert Llewellyn) was constructed in the 24th century (c 2340) by Professor Mamet for Diva-Droid International, the series 4000 mechanoid Kryten was originally supplied to Nova 5, an Earth ship engaged in a stella mapping mission. From the outset the 'noid took his position as ship's service mechanoid very seriously. Like all androids Kryten was programmed to believe in Silicon Heaven, the electronic afterlife where he would someday find reward for his faithful and diligent service to mankind, but the real reason he performed his menial tasks with such enthusiasm was simply because he enjoyed them.
Cat
Cat is played by Danny -John Jules. He's vain, selfish, self centred, shallow, and has an ego the size of the Sun (and I'm not talking about the newspaper). But he's a cat, a creature of instinct, and those are some of his best qualities. Anyway, he has been useful to the Red Dwarf crew; on at least two occasions in his lifetime, he has had plans taken up by the others, and his quivering nostril hairs can detect danger miles away, even through the void of space. He's an excellent pilot, and when something needs doing, you can rely on him to refuse to do it.
Kochanski
Kristine Kochanski (Chloe Annett) isn't like her shipmates and that's putting it mildly: she's bright, intelligent, witty, she likes opera and knows her cheeses, she eats low fat yoghurt and thinks that crystalline formations are faberoo', and her jokes are about things like the third-largest city in Vietnam and Bath in the nineteenth century. She actually remembers things from school and her greatest accomplishment definitely isn't a line on the loo wall somewhere marking her highest ever pee. A more unlikely addition to the motley crew of Red Dwarf could scarcely be imagined - and indeed, given half a chance, she'd leave it like a shot. Kochanski does have at least one thing in common with Dave Lister: she is the last human being alive in the universe. Her universe that is. Kochanski's comes from a different dimension, her dimension is very much like ours, but there are one or two variations. For a start, she looks quite different from the Kristine Kochanski whom our Lister once loved and lost yet Lister still loves her. She doesn't even have a scottish accent even though she was brought up in the Gorbals, the trendiest part of Glasgow (Rimmer has always considered her counterpart in this universe to be a 'snooty cow').