Arnold Judas Rimmer
is a fictional character and one of the main characters of the
science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
sitcom
A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...
''
Red Dwarf
A red dwarf is the smallest kind of star on the main sequence. Red dwarfs are by far the most common type of fusing star in the Milky Way, at least in the neighborhood of the Sun. However, due to their low luminosity, individual red dwarfs are ...
'', played by
Chris Barrie
Chris Barrie (born Christopher Jonathan Brown; 28 March 1960) is a British actor and comedian. He worked as a vocal impressionist on the ITV sketch show '' Spitting Image'' (1984–1996) and as Lara Croft's butler Hillary in '' Lara Croft: ...
. Rimmer is a second-class technician and the de facto leader of the mining ship ''Red Dwarf''. Portrayed as snobbish, pedantic, and self-centred, Rimmer is unpopular with his crewmates and is often the target of insults and general ridicule.
After he is killed by a radiation leak during an
ellipsis
The ellipsis (, plural ellipses; from , , ), rendered , alternatively described as suspension points/dots, points/periods of ellipsis, or ellipsis points, or colloquially, dot-dot-dot,. According to Toner it is difficult to establish when t ...
in the series' first episode "
The End
The End may refer to:
Film
* The End (1953 film), ''The End'' (1953 film), a film by Christopher Maclaine
* The End (1978 film), ''The End'' (1978 film), a comedy by Burt Reynolds
* ''The End'' (1995 film), a List of Canadian films of 1995, Cana ...
" (1988) Rimmer is present for most of the series as a computer-generated
hologram
Holography is a technique that allows a wavefront to be recorded and later reconstructed. It is best known as a method of generating three-dimensional images, and has a wide range of other uses, including data storage, microscopy, and interf ...
, indicated by the 'H' symbol on his forehead. From series I-V, Rimmer is intangible as a hologram and unable to interact with his environment, referred to in-universe as "soft light". Come the series VI episode "
Legion" (1993), Rimmer's Light Bee is upgraded by the titular character to a "hard light" hologram where he is now able to interact with his surroundings as well as being essentially indestructible, yet still able to feel pain. Following the character's departure in the series VII episode "
Stoke Me a Clipper" (1997), Rimmer is absent from the show until series VIII, where a human version of Rimmer is shown having been resurrected by
nanobots with no memory of the hologrammatic Rimmer's experiences and only those of Rimmer prior to the radiation leak in the first episode (likely from when he had his personality disc last updated before his death). Following a ten-year hiatus after series VIII, the character reappeared as the original hologram Rimmer in the miniseries ''
Back to Earth'' (2009) onward. Doug Naylor confirmed in 2020 that the Rimmer from Back to Earth onwards is the original Rimmer having returned from his time being Ace Rimmer. Why he returned or what happened to the resurrected version of Rimmer from series eight has not been revealed yet. For a brief time in the feature-length special ''
The Promised Land'', Rimmer is temporarily upgraded to Diamond Light, a combination of both soft and hard light.
The
creators of the series acknowledge that Rimmer's surname comes from a snobby
prefect
Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area.
A prefect' ...
with whom they attended school. They joke that only the boy's name was used, and not his personality because "that would imply he had one".
Fictional history
Television
1980s
Rimmer first appeared in ''Red Dwarf''s first episode "
The End
The End may refer to:
Film
* The End (1953 film), ''The End'' (1953 film), a film by Christopher Maclaine
* The End (1978 film), ''The End'' (1978 film), a comedy by Burt Reynolds
* ''The End'' (1995 film), a List of Canadian films of 1995, Cana ...
" (1988), where he is characterised as second technician on board the mining ship ''Red Dwarf'', ranking above
Dave Lister (
Craig Charles), the lowest ranked crew member on board the ship with whom he shares quarters, and below all four of the service robots. As a technician, Rimmer does maintenance work on
vending machine
A vending machine is an automated machine that dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or payment is otherwise m ...
s that not even the robots are assigned to. Rimmer is shown having difficulty revising for his "engineer's exam" which he hopes to pass and become an officer after having failed before prior to the episode, and he reveals that he was not academically educated like others who had become officers. After Lister is awakened from
stasis, where he was put as punishment for bringing an unquarantined cat on board, the ship's computer
Holly
''Ilex'' () or holly is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...
(
Norman Lovett
Norman Lovett (born 31 October 1946) is a British stand-up comedian and actor best known for his portrayal of Holly, the ship's computer in ''Red Dwarf''.
Career
Lovett became a stand-up comedian in his thirties, initially supporting punk b ...
) tells Lister that the ship's crew died in a radiation leak from a drive plate Rimmer had improperly repaired and Lister was kept in stasis until the radiation levels returned to normal three million years later. Rimmer is depicted as having been brought back to life as a
hologram
Holography is a technique that allows a wavefront to be recorded and later reconstructed. It is best known as a method of generating three-dimensional images, and has a wide range of other uses, including data storage, microscopy, and interf ...
, having the same drives, feelings and emotions as the human Rimmer, but being unable to touch anything. The only other survivor on board ''Red Dwarf'' is a creature called "
Cat
The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...
" (
Danny John-Jules), a descendant of Lister's pregnant cat who was safely sealed in the hold along with her unborn kittens during the radioactive crisis.
By the time of "
Future Echoes
"Future Echoes" is the second episode of the science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf'' series one, and was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC Two, BBC2 on 22 February 1988. It was written by co-creators Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and ...
" (1988), Rimmer claims to have taken the "astronavigation exam" without passing nine times, or ten, "if you count the time he had his spasm". He also claims in this episode that his father had said, "Shiny clean boots and a spanking short haircut, and you can cope with anything," right before "that unfortunate suicide business".
In "
Balance of Power" (1988), Holly reveals that reason Rimmer was brought back as a hologram was because, in Holly's judgment, Rimmer was the best person to keep Lister sane because the two had "shared fourteen million words between each other", making Rimmer the crew member with which Lister had the most interaction; in Holly's judgment, the fact that their interactions were almost entirely antagonistic was irrelevant. Lister later asks Rimmer where the disc which contains Navigation Officer
Kristine Kochanski's (
C P Grogan) hologram has been hidden so that Lister could go on a date with her, but Rimmer refuses to switch his own disc off to bring back Kochanski for an evening due to the risk that Lister might not turn Rimmer's hologram on again.
Holly has the ability to override Rimmer and switch his disc off but cannot do so because Rimmer outranks Lister and he is programmed to prioritise the former's orders over the latter's.
In "
Confidence and Paranoia" (1988), Lister believes that the only reason that Rimmer became a part of the love celibacy society was because he could not get a date, and he could never get a date because Rimmer's mother bought all of his casual clothes. Rimmer denies this, pointing out he went to bed with Yvonne McGruder, but Lister says she thought Rimmer was someone else due to her wonky vision from a
concussion
A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include headache, dizziness, difficulty with thinking and concentration, sleep disturbances, a brief ...
. Lister, with the help of a solid manifestation of Lister's confidence (played by
Craig Ferguson
Craig Ferguson (born 17 May 1962) is a Scottish-American actor, comedian, writer and television host. He is best known for having hosted the CBS late-night talk show ''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'' (2005–2014). He is the winner of ...
), deduces where Kochanski's personality disc is hidden as well as a means of how the ship can power two holograms at once. Lister is still unable to go on a date with Kochanski, however, as the disc inside Kochanski's box has been swapped with one containing a duplicate of Rimmer.
In "
Me²
"Me2" (pronounced "me, squared") is the sixth and final episode from series one of the science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf'', which was first broadcast on BBC2 on 21 March 1988. Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and directed by Ed Bye. The ...
" (1988), Rimmer is shown moving in with his double as better company in the next bunkroom over from Lister. Rimmer's double reveals that all of Rimmer's brothers were academy educated, but he was not. Rimmer claims that this was because his father could not afford it. Rimmer also mentions taking a film course at
night school, although he confuses a cartoon showing at the cinema in the episode with ''
Citizen Kane
''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American Drama (film and television), drama film directed by, produced by and starring Orson Welles and co-written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz. It was Welles's List of directorial debuts, first feature film. ...
''. Lister watches a video of Rimmer's death, where his last words are "
gazpacho soup". Demonstrating intense, literal self-hatred, the second cruelly insults and berates the first. Believing that Lister is going to wipe his hologram anyway because of the two Rimmers' constant arguing, Rimmer explained his dying remark as referring to a dinner at the captain's table with six officers, during which he made a ''faux pas'' where he had his gazpacho soup taken away to be brought back hot, not realising that gazpacho soup is meant to be served cold. This caused the officers at the table to laugh at him, and he was never invited back. The incident haunted Rimmer for the rest of his life (and beyond). Gradually, his obsession over the incident caused him to remember it as the most disastrous, imbecilic action of his life, and it undermined his self-esteem out of all proportion. Lister, displaying deep empathy, tried to comfort Rimmer, assuring him that "anybody could make a mistake like that." His confession complete, Rimmer prepares to be wiped, but Lister admits that he had already wiped the second Rimmer instead; Lister had allowed Rimmer to believe his "death" was imminent because Lister wanted to know what the "gazpacho soup" remark meant, and he knew that Rimmer would never tell him under any other circumstances.
Despite "Future Echoes" having previously suggested that Rimmer's father killed himself, according to a letter received from Rimmer's mother in "
Better Than Life" (1988), Rimmer's father (played by
John Abineri) had died peacefully in his sleep and Rimmer appeared unaware about how his father had died before Lister read out to Rimmer what his letter said. Rimmer's backstory in this episode revealed that Rimmer had hated his father, who had fixated on Rimmer and his three brothers to join the Space Corps and become officers when Rimmer's father had been rejected for being an inch below regulation height. To this end, he refused to allow them to eat unless they could answer complicated astronavigation questions. This led to Rimmer almost dying of malnutrition. Rimmer's father also stretched his sons on a
traction machine to make them taller, causing Frank to be 6'5" by the time he was eleven. Rimmer disliked his parents enough to the point where he divorced them from himself when he was fourteen; Rimmer received paid
maintenance
The technical meaning of maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices, equipment, machinery, building infrastructure and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential installa ...
until employment age and access to the family dog every fourth weekend.
According to "
Thanks for the Memory" (1988), Rimmer did a maintenance course at Saturn Tech. Rimmer also claims that his sexual liaison with McGruder was the only point in his entire life he had had sex.
In "
Queeg" (1988), Rimmer mentions how, after being burnt once by a person he considered his best friend, he had considered no-one in his life to be "true friends", and that friends were only friends when it suits them. He explains that when he was fifteen, he had a "friend", Porky Roebuck, with Rimmer believing that Porky's father having an affair with Rimmer's mother proved how close he and Porky were. Porky and Rimmer went on a Space Scouts survival course together, where Porky was the ringleader of a plan to eat Rimmer; Rimmer being tied to a stake and having
barbecue sauce
Barbecue sauce (also abbreviated as BBQ sauce) is a sauce used as a marinade, basting, condiment, or topping for meat cooked in the barbecue cooking style, including pork, beef, and chicken. It is a ubiquitous condiment in the Southern United ...
poured on him before he was almost cooked. Lister believes that Porky was "only" bullying Rimmer.
"
Parallel Universe" (1988) shows Holly's "Holly Hop Drive" trying to get to Earth within a few seconds. Instead, however, it lands the crew in a female-oriented
parallel universe with another version of ''Red Dwarf''; its crew including a female version of Rimmer called Arlene Rimmer (played by
Suzanne Bertish). Regarding Rimmer as little more than a "discardable sex object", the female Rimmer sexually harasses and gropes Rimmer and tries to
hypnotise him even after Rimmer shows no interest.
In "
Backwards" (1989), Rimmer facilitates a driving test for the mechanoid
Kryten
Kryten is a fictional character in the British science fiction situation comedy ''Red Dwarf''. The name ''Kryten'' is a reference to the head butler in the J.M. Barrie play ''The Admirable Crichton''. Originally referred to as a Series III mec ...
(
Robert Llewellyn
Robert Llewellyn (born 10 March 1956) is a British actor, comedian, presenter and writer. He plays the Android (robot), mechanoid Kryten in the Science fiction, sci-fi television sitcom ''Red Dwarf'' and formerly presented the engineering gam ...
), where Kryten causes the ''Starbug 1'' shuttle to fall into a time hole. The ship crash lands on Earth in a reality where time runs backwards, leaving Kryten, Rimmer and Holly (now played by
Hattie Hayridge) stranded. Rimmer and Kryten start working as the novelty act "the Sensational Reverse Brothers" and begin to enjoy life in this new reality, but after three weeks, they are fired by a pub manager (
Arthur Smith) for a fight that Rimmer and Kryten only become involved in later that night. Lister and the Cat come to rescue Rimmer, Kryten and Holly in another ''Starbug'' to get back to ''Red Dwarf''.
According to backstory in "
Marooned" (1989), Rimmer did not lose his
virginity
Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereo ...
to McGruder, but to a girl Rimmer met at cadet school called Sandra in the back of his brother's car.
However, when adapted in the novel ''
Better Than Life'' (1990), it is revealed Rimmer was lying.
In "
Polymorph" (1989), Rimmer considers the relationship he had with his brothers to be "close". He mentions that he was the butt of the "occasional" practical joke growing up. Despite varying from apple pie beds and black eye telescopes to hiding a small land mine in Rimmer's
sandpit
A sandpit (most Commonwealth countries) or sandbox (US and Canada) is a low, wide container or shallow depression filled with soft (beach) sand in which children can play. Sharp sand (as used in the building industry) is not suitable for su ...
, Rimmer believes that none of this was "sinister". Rimmer says that some considered his mother (played by
Kalli Greenwood) to be cold and aloof, but himself believes that she had no time for fools. Rimmer believes this to be "tragic", because they would otherwise have got on "famously".
In "
Timeslides
"Timeslides" is the fifth episode of science fiction sit-com ''Red Dwarf'' Series III, and the seventeenth in the series run. It premiered on the British television channel BBC2 on 12 December 1989. Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and dir ...
" (1989), Lister is seen travelling back in time by entering a
photographic slide
In photography, reversal film or slide film is a type of photographic film that produces a Positive (photography), positive image on a Transparency (optics), transparent base. Instead of negative (photography), negatives and photographic printin ...
with mutated developing fluid, and he tells his 17-year-old self (played by
Emile Charles) how to gain a successful multi-billion-
pound business empire with 58 houses by inventing the "tension sheet" so that he would not join the Space Corps and get trapped on ''Red Dwarf'' in deep space. By becoming the inventor of the tension sheet and never joining the Space Corps, Lister's entire timeline is altered, causing Kryten to never be rescued and the Cat race to have never existed. Rimmer is left on his own with Holly and tries going back further in time to his eight-year-old self's (played by
Simon Gaffney) days in
boarding school
A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...
so that he invents the tension sheet. Rimmer unwittingly restores events to how they were before by causing the original inventor of the tension sheet — Thickie Holden (
Stephen McKintosh), who is in the same dorm room as Rimmer and overhears Rimmer speaking to his younger self — to become the one who patents the tension sheet, but for reasons unclear to both Holly and Rimmer, Rimmer somehow changes his past so that he is alive back on ''Red Dwarf''. His happiness is short-lived, however, as he dies within minutes anyway after hitting a box containing explosives.
Rimmer is seen in the next episode, "
The Last Day" (1989), once again as a hologram. According to his backstory, Rimmer's parents were "Seventh-Day Advent Hoppists" and believed that every Sunday should be spent hopping, because their version of the
Bible
The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
had a misprint in
1 Corinthians 13 and they had
interpreted this passage literally. He mentions that the first time he was
French kiss
A French kiss, also known as cataglottism or a tongue kiss, is an amorous kiss in which the participants' tongues extend to touch each other's lips or tongue. A kiss with the tongue stimulates the partner's lips, tongue and mouth, which are sens ...
ed was from his uncle Frank while he was asleep. Frank had inadvertently gone into Rimmer's bedroom instead of Rimmer's mother's bedroom.
1990s
According to Lister in "
Justice
In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...
" (1991)--and in the novels--before the nuclear accident that killed the crew of ''Red Dwarf'', Rimmer was in charge of "Z Shift", and it occupied his every waking moment. Lister said that Z Shift's "most vital responsibility" was making sure the vending machines did not run out of fun size
Crunchie
Crunchie is a brand of chocolate bar with a centre of honeycomb toffee (known as "sponge toffee" in Canada and "honeycomb" or "cinder toffee" in the United Kingdom as well as "hokey pokey" in New Zealand). It is made by Cadbury but was originally ...
bars.
In "
Dimension Jump" (1991), an alternate Arnold Rimmer, whose friends call him "Ace", is shown as a successful and heroic test pilot in the Space Corps and commander who crosses dimensions to meet another Rimmer — the hologrammatic Rimmer living on ''Red Dwarf''. Ace's interdimensional ship collides with the ''Starbug'' shuttle, causing it to crash land on an ocean planet. With Lister's help, Ace repairs ''Starbug''s starboard engine. After returning to ''Red Dwarf'', Ace decides he cannot stay as he could not bear to be near the weaselly Rimmer of this universe. Ace cannot return home but decides to explore other realities with "a billion other Arnold Rimmers to meet." Ace explains that the diverging point in their lives where Ace gets his big break and Rimmer does not is that at the age of seven; Ace was held back a year in his class while Rimmer advanced as normal. Being kept down a year was, according to Ace, what changed him and made him fight back.
According to "
Meltdown" (1991), Rimmer's only physical presence is a small "light bee"; a piece of hardware which buzzes around and projects his holographic image.
This has been contradicted on a few occasions by his ability to move completely through solid objects such as walls or by the ability of solid objects or living characters to pass completely through Rimmer.
A theory amongst fans is that the 'Light-Bee' technology had come from the Nova-5, with Kryten.
In "
The Inquisitor" (1992), the crew is targeted by the eponymous Inquisitor, an immensely powerful and immortal android who survived to the end of reality and determined that the only point of existence was to live a worthwhile life, and now roams the timeline erasing the worthless from history. In a rare moment of self-reflection, Rimmer recognises that he has made no contributions to the world and fears being erased. However, when judged by the Inquisitor he claims that he never had the potential to be anything more than he is, admitting that he is "nothing" but that also "from what I started with, nothing was up". The Inquisitor finds this argument convincing and determines that, by his own meagre standards, Rimmer has justified his existence.
In "
Demons and Angels" (1992), ''Red Dwarf'' is blown up when the beam of a device called the triplicator is put into reverse, putting the engine core into meltdown, while creating a "high" and "low" version of ''Red Dwarf'', complete with their own versions of Rimmer (both played by Barrie). Before the lifespans of both versions of ''Red Dwarf'' expire after an hour, the crew collect pieces of the triplicator from both ''Red Dwarf''s and restore the original ''Red Dwarf'' by amalgamating the two copies with a rebuilt triplicator. The "high" version of Rimmer has his light bee crushed by Lister when Lister's "low" self controls Lister into doing this by remote control, while the "low" version disappears with his version of ''Red Dwarf''.
In "
Back to Reality" (1992), ink from a "despair squid" causes Lister, Rimmer, the Cat and Kryten to share a hallucination, with the hallucinations attacking things they each consider "quintessential to
heir
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...
self-esteem". In the hallucination, Rimmer believes he is a vagrant with a coat smelling of yak's urine called Billy Doyle, with Lister being his more important half-brother, a totalitarian fascist mass murderer called Sebastian. Kryten also explains that because "Billy" has the same upbringing growing up with "Sebastian", Rimmer could not blame his own shortcomings on Rimmer's parents. The four nearly commit suicide together, but a mood stabiliser saves them at the last second.
In "
Psirens" (1993), Kryten explains that ''Red Dwarf'' was "stolen", with the crew now based inside ''Starbug'' chasing after ''Red Dwarf'' to recover it.
In "
Legion" (1993), Rimmer encounters a being known as Legion (Nigel Williams), who upgrades Rimmer's projection unit from "soft light" to "hard light", giving him a physical form and the ability to interact directly with the world, in addition to making him virtually indestructible.
In "
Emohawk: Polymorph II" (1993), an emotion-leeching "emohawk" attacks ''Starbug'' and consumes Rimmer's bitterness, turning him into his "Ace Rimmer" persona. The emohawk is captured, and Lister freezes it with liquid dillinium. The crew plan to extract the emohawk's DNA strands and re-inject Rimmer with them to return his emotions to normal, but the Cat clumsily freezes everyone else before this can be done.
In "
Rimmerworld" (1993), Rimmer steals an escape pod locked on course with the nearest habitable planet. Because of the
time dilation
Time dilation is the difference in elapsed time as measured by two clocks, either because of a relative velocity between them (special relativity), or a difference in gravitational potential between their locations (general relativity). When unsp ...
caused by the pod going through a
wormhole
A wormhole is a hypothetical structure that connects disparate points in spacetime. It can be visualized as a tunnel with two ends at separate points in spacetime (i.e., different locations, different points in time, or both). Wormholes are base ...
, it takes 600 years from Rimmer's perspective for ''Starbug'' to catch up with him, even though it is only moments from the point of view of ''Starbug''. In the meantime, using cloning equipment inside the pod, Rimmer uses his DNA to create a society of thousands of Arnold Rimmers (all played by Barrie), who backstab Rimmer and imprison him before Lister, the Cat and Kryten rescue him centuries later.
In "
Out of Time" (1993), Rimmer mentions that all trace of ''Red Dwarf'' has been lost. In the episode, a ''Starbug'' from fifteen years hence arrives, with Lister, Rimmer, Cat and Kryten's future selves intending to copy some components from the present ''Starbug''s time drive so they can fix the fault in their own drive and continue their lives of opulence, socialising with notorious figures of history such as the
Habsburgs
The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...
, the
Borgias,
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...
,
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
and
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician, aviator, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which gov ...
. Lister tells the future crew to leave, and the future ''Starbug'' fires upon the present day one, apparently killing the crew and blowing ''Starbug'' up.
In the following episode, "
Tikka to Ride" (1997), Lister mentions in a video log that the future ''Starbug'' destroying the ''Starbug'' of the present meant the time drive they had used ceased to exist in both the present and the future, or in other words, killing the present crew of ''Starbug'' in the present also killed the crew in the future, making it impossible for the future crew to travel back in time to kill themselves in the present. The Cat later mentions in the episode that time returned to the point before the time drive was discovered. As for Rimmer, he either forgot about his attempt to destroy the time drive at the end of ''Out of Time'', or kept his act of selfless heroism a secret, knowing no-one would believe him if he told them.
In "
Stoke Me a Clipper" (1997), Rimmer is approached by a dying Ace Rimmer (played by Barrie), who is not the Ace Rimmer which Rimmer had met previously, nor an immediate replacement but a distant successor and a hard light hologram with a damaged light bee. Ace asks Rimmer to become a defender of the multiverse upon Ace's death. Although initially hesitant, Arnold finds himself rising to the challenge and leaves to start his new life. Lister, for a time, desperately misses him, and it takes a therapeutic song by a simulation of Rimmer (played by Barrie), shown in "
Blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...
" (1997), to remind him what a horrible presence he could be.
When ''Red Dwarf'' is restored by Kryten's
nanobots at the end of the episode "
Nanarchy" (1997), the entire crew is restored to life as well by a new set of nanobots created by Holly (again played by Norman Lovett) after Kryten's had gone missing, including Rimmer, as shown in ''
Back in the Red'' (1999). Because he is resurrected as he was at the time of the accident, he lacks any of the growth that the "other" Rimmer has gone through since the series began, reverting him back to his original persona. In ''Back in the Red'', Lister, Rimmer, Kryten, Cat and Kochanski (now played by
Chloë Annett) are sentenced to two years in the ship's
brig
A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the l ...
for misuse of confidential information. In "
Cassandra
Cassandra or Kassandra (; , , sometimes referred to as Alexandra; ) in Greek mythology was a Trojan priestess dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecy, prophecies but never to be believed. In modern usage her name is e ...
" (1999), the five of them get signed up by Lister to the convict army the Canaries after Holly lies to Lister that they are a singing troupe.
In "
Only the Good..." (1999), when a corrosive microorganism is shown destroying ''Red Dwarf'' and everyone else evacuates to a mirror universe, Rimmer is trapped on the disintegrating ship. At the end of the episode, he encounters the
Grim Reaper, who announces that Rimmer is dead and then tells him that they will travel to the
River Styx. Rimmer interrupts him, saying "Not today, matey!", knees him in the groin, says "Remember, only the good die young!", and flees.
2000s
In ''
Red Dwarf: Back to Earth'' (2009), set nine years later, ''Red Dwarf'' is intact; the human race is apparently "virtually extinct" in the universe apart from Lister again; Lister, Rimmer, the Cat and Kryten are the only people on board the ship; and Rimmer is shown to be the original hard light hologram version and the most senior officer on board again; how these have come about and what happened to the micro-organism and the Nano version of Rimmer is not explained onscreen, but later, in 2020, Doug Naylor confirmed that the Rimmer from ''Back To Earth'' onwards is the original Rimmer having returned from his time being Ace Rimmer (why he returned, or what happened to the resurrected version of Rimmer from series eight, has not been revealed yet). In this special, a female "despair squid", whose ink causes joy and elation instead of despair to defend herself, causes Lister, Rimmer, the Cat and Kryten to share a hallucination where they believe they are fictional characters from a TV series called ''Red Dwarf'', and their dimension is "invalid". This leads them to be shown being pulled into the nearest "valid" reality. They confront the "Creator" of ''Red Dwarf'' (
Richard O'Callaghan) on a version of 21st century Earth who is ready to kill off the characters, and Lister accidentally kills him. The four subconsciously realise that they're hallucinating, and they wake up on board ''Red Dwarf''. Kryten and Rimmer speculate that they were able to choose whether or not they wanted to wake up because of the strengthened antibodies of the four from the previous encounter with the despair squid.
2010s
In "
Trojan
Trojan or Trojans may refer to:
* Of or from the ancient city of Troy
* Trojan language, the language of the historical Trojans
Arts and entertainment Music
* '' Les Troyens'' ('The Trojans'), an opera by Berlioz, premiered part 1863, part 18 ...
" (2012), Rimmer discovers that one of his brothers, Howard (
Mark Dexter
Mark Lee Dexter (born 21 April 1973) is an English actor who trained at RADA.
Life and career
Dexter was born in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England.
As a teenager, he was an early member of the Central Junior Television Workshop which led ...
), serves as a hard light hologram on a Space Corps vessel. Rimmer lies to his brother, telling him that he is the captain of the abandoned space vessel ''Trojan''. To his surprise, he finds that Howard is, like him, a vending machine repairman who became the superior officer on his ship. In Howard's case this followed an attack by Simulants. Howard is mortally wounded during a skirmish with the rogue Simulant who killed the crew, Sim. Crawford (
Susan Earl), and Rimmer takes the opportunity to further lie to Howard on his deathbed about his lifestyle.
According to Rimmer's backstory in "
Lemons" (2012), Rimmer was given the middle name "Judas" because
Judas
Judas Iscariot (; ; died AD) was, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane, in exchange for thirty pieces of ...
, as characterised by the religious denomination that Rimmer's mother belonged to, the Church of Judas, embodied all of the traits Rimmer's mum wanted him to have. According to the Church of Judas,
Jesus
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
asked Judas, whom the Church believed was Jesus' twin brother, to swap places with him; Judas sacrificing himself and his reputation so that
Jesus would appear to have been resurrected after showing up following
the crucifixion of Judas-as-Jesus.
In a flashback depicted in "
The Beginning
The Beginning may refer to:
Film
* ''The Beginning'' (1970 film), a 1970 Soviet film
* '' Missing in Action 2: The Beginning'', a 1985 American action film
* '' Psycho IV: The Beginning'', a 1990 American horror film
* ''Star Wars: Episode I � ...
" (2012), Rimmer is shown during his youth (played by
Philip Labey) attending Io
Polytechnic
A polytechnic is an educational institution that primarily focuses on vocational education, applied sciences, and career pathways. They are sometimes referred to as ''institutes of technology'', ''vocational institutes'', or ''universities of app ...
on
Io, where one of his lecturers covering
psychological profiling is the man he believes is his father, Lecturer Rimmer (now played by
Simon Treves
Frederick Simon Treves (born 19 June 1957) is an English actor, director and writer, best known for playing Harold 'Stinker' Pinker in three series of ITV's ''Jeeves and Wooster''. In 2018 he played Aleister Crowley in the short film ''Boc ...
). After Rimmer is late for a lecture, Lecturer Rimmer uses Rimmer as a test subject in a social experiment regarding
peer pressure
Peer pressure is a direct or indirect influence on peers, i.e., members of social groups with similar interests and experiences, or social statuses. Members of a peer group are more likely to influence a person's beliefs, values, religion and beh ...
. Three million years later, the hologrammatic Rimmer is seen on board ''Blue Midget'' being given the task of planning out a defensive strategy against a Simulant attack fleet; after failing to come up with one, Rimmer plays a recorded message from Lecturer Rimmer in an attempt to escape his feeling of being weighed down by his father's expectations. In the message Lecturer Rimmer, thinking that by now Arnold has achieved enough, reveals that Arnold is not his son, but that his real father was the family gardener Dungo. This revelation liberates Rimmer from the spectre of his lineage on the grounds that he has accomplished a great deal by the standards set by his biological father, and he is able to formulate a successful plan of attack that destroys the Simulant vessels before returning to ''Red Dwarf''.
It is strongly implied in this episode that this version of Rimmer remembers dying from the radiation leak but also remembers saving the ship from the corrosive micro-organism that was devouring it in the episode "Only the Good...". This is a combination of the respective memories of the hologram Rimmer, who later became Ace, and the resurrected Rimmer who faced Death in the Series VIII cliffhanger. However, attempts by Rimmer and Kryten to explain how he saved the ship at the end of that series are interrupted.
In "
Officer Rimmer" (2016), Rimmer is promoted to first lieutenant by a bio-printed copy of Captain Herring (
Stephen Critchlow), when Rimmer saves Herring's ship the ''Nautilus'' by a fluke. He separates ''Red Dwarf'' by instigating a class system, and he sets up an officers' club featuring copies of himself (played by Barrie). Rimmer accidentally creates a monstrous amalgamation of Rimmers (also played by Barrie) that absorbs all the other Rimmers apart from the original. Rimmer resigns his rank, again becoming second technician, so he can leave the officers' corridor and get to safety. Lister, Cat and Kryten subsequently kill the monster.
According to backstory in "
Timewave" (2017), when Rimmer was six, his parents sent him to a different prep school, St Tremble's, so he could get his confidence back after being ridiculed every day and
wedgied every night. According to Rimmer, games were not competitive there, and everyone won a "you're really special" trophy on
sports day
Sports Day (British English & Canadian English), field days (American English), or play days (Canadian English) are events staged by many schools and offices in which people participate in competitive sporting activities, often with the aim of w ...
. He said that his sex life had been a "shambles" ever since one of Rimmer's brothers told him sex advice at school that the most important thing was the clitoris; Rimmer misheard it as "to spit on her wrist".
In "
Mechocracy
"Mechocracy" is the fourth episode of '' Red Dwarf XII'' and the 71st in the series run. Originally broadcast on the British television channel Dave on 2 November 2017, it was made available early on 26 October 2017 on UKTV Play.
The machines ab ...
" (2017), Kryten is elected president of the machines on ''Red Dwarf'' after running against Rimmer.
In "
Skipper" (2017), Rimmer, in search of a fresh start, decides to leave his universe using a quantum skipper that can skip to other universes where he feels less of a loser. In his first jump to a new universe it is the moment just before he causes the radiation leak but, for an unexplained reason, he is a hologram with his old letter 'H' on his forehead when this happened. After multiple attempts at finding a suitable universe, Rimmer arrives in a universe where he is alive, married and a navigation officer. However, upon discovering Lister is more successful and rich than he is, Rimmer returns to his original universe and breaks the quantum skipper, finding the pain of living in that universe "too much".
2020s
In ''
The Promised Land'' (2020), Rimmer is disgusted by Lister's new
hoarding
Hoarding is the act of engaging in excessive acquisition of items that are not needed or for which no space is available.
Civil unrest or the threat of natural disasters may lead people to hoard foodstuffs, water, gasoline, and other essentials ...
habits, which have completely filled their former bunkroom to the brim with useless junk, so much so he refuses to go in there. After receiving a distress signal, Rimmer refuses to respond, deciding they're too old to be embarking on new adventures, ordering Kryten to erase the memory of receiving it from his memory. After being banished off ''Red Dwarf'' by the newly rebooted Holly (void of his old memories and computer-senilic personality), the crew eventually come across a ship possessing new and powerful technology, specifically related to holograms. Against Kryten's initial warnings, Rimmer is upgraded to 'Diamond Light', which grants his superpowers; however, Rimmer is quickly depleted of power and returns to his old form, his Light-Bee's battery now burnt-out, he is forced to be "plugged-in" to several power leads to stay online. After encountering three cat clerics, fleeing from their fellow ''felis sapiens'' under the command of cat-warlord, Rodon, who board the station. Rimmer alongside the crew are taken hostage briefly until Rodon, now at a distance, fires on the ship and allows the crew to escape.
Crashing on a desert moon, Rimmer is forced to power down further as he's considered a nonessential resource, going into a
black-and-white
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings.
Media
The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...
state. Whilst the crew are chased by Rodon's battlecruiser, Cat angrily insists Rimmer is a simple machine. Rimmer rejects this initially, quoting "
I think, therefore, I am", however quickly loses confidence in this and enters an existential crisis. After the crew successfully escape into a sandstorm, Rimmer is comforted by Lister, who compares their dynamic to the sun and moon, producing moonlight even though the moon cannot initially generate it itself. By morning, the crew discover they are buried under the sand, however Rimmer formulates a plan to contact the rebooted Holly, which Kryten manages using an antenna extension from his hand. Rimmer tricks the rebooted Holly into downloading his former incarnation's memories, with the rebooted Holly believing he'll inherit his "wisdom" from all the years he was alive. After doing so, the restored Holly rescues the crew and they manage to return to ''Red Dwarf''. However, the felis sapiens under Rodon are waiting for them, and Rodon orders their deaths by planting a bomb on ''Red Dwarf''. Using the acquired Anubis Stone attained from the cat clerics, they once again transform Rimmer into his former "Diamond Light" incarnation, who uses his powers to dispose of the bomb off ''Red Dwarf'' and subsequently helps bring down Rodon's main battlecruiser in the following confrontation.
Kryten, in a state of disrepair since the beginning of the story, is now on his last legs. After some convincing of a very hesitant "Diamond Light" Rimmer, he decides to use his Anubis Stone on Kryten to save his life, though stripping him of his superpowers. However, Rimmer is given a final boost when the felis sapiens, freed of Rodon's rule, decide to worship him, having their armada manifest into a large 'H'.
Novels
In ''
Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'' (1989), Rimmer is a First Technician. Rimmer first meets Lister while ''Red Dwarf'' is docked at
Mimas, a moon of
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...
. There, Rimmer is under the persona of "Officer Christopher Todhunter" and dons a phony admiral uniform and
false mustache. He encounters Lister, who has stolen the Mimas-equivalent of a
taxi
A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...
known as a 'Hopper' to earn money, and pays him to take him to the
red-light district
A red-light district or pleasure district is a part of an urban area where a concentration of prostitution and sex industry, sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, and adult theaters, are found. In most cases, red-light district ...
of the city where Rimmer plans to frequent a droid
brothel
A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...
, while lying and saying he intends to eat at a restaurant.
Unlike in the television series, Rimmer's incompetence does not cause the radiation leak that kills the crew. Instead the radiation leak is an entirely unrelated event caused by the negligence of a navigation officer.
In ''
Better Than Life'' (1990), similar to the
episode of the same name, the crew play Better Than Life, an extremely addictive
virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...
video game that slowly kills the user through tantalizing their yearnings by utilizing the user's
subconscious
In psychology, the subconscious is the part of the mind that is not currently of focal awareness. The term was already popularized in the early 20th century in areas ranging from psychology, religion and spirituality. The concept was heavily popu ...
desires. The crew slowly become engrossed in their individual fantasies, with Rimmer imagining himself as gaining enormous fame and adoration upon the crew's return to Earth and earning billions from memoirs and other deals. However, Rimmer's subconscious, unable to cope with good things happening to him, corrupts the game to make Rimmer's fantasy and later the other crew's fantasies go terribly wrong and make them want to leave the game. After Lister is trapped on another planet for over thirty years while the rest of the crew are trapped in the time dilation of a black hole, the now-sixty-year-old Lister has a heart attack while confronting a Polymorph, but Holly gives Rimmer instructions on how they can bring Lister back to life by taking him to a universe where time flows backwards.
The two novels follow divergent paths after the crew retrieve Lister from the backwards reality.
In ''
Last Human'' (1995), Rimmer's one-night stand with Yvonne McGruder led to the birth of a son. Unbeknownst to either, there truly was mutual attraction, but both decided to wait for the other to make the first move after that one night—Rimmer to prove a point and McGruder because she was delusional due to her concussion—leading to their going separate ways. Yvonne transferred off ''Red Dwarf'' where she had Michael McGruder, who was born prior to the radiation leak that killed Rimmer and most of the crew on board ''Red Dwarf''. She told him false stories of his father's courageous acts of valour and through these fictitious tales McGruder was inspired to become a Space Corps Marine and sign-up for a dangerous mission on board the ''Mayflower'', a large spaceship with
terraformation capabilities, with the potential prospect of meeting his father, who via the
black box
In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a system which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs (or transfer characteristics), without any knowledge of its internal workings. Its implementation is "opaque" (black). The te ...
of ''Red Dwarf'' he learned was resurrected as a hologram to keep the sole survivor, Lister, sane.
Following a series of events, Lister had spent a period of time alongside McGruder and a handful of survivors from the ''Mayflower'', separate from the main crew of Rimmer, Kochanski, Cat, and Kryten. Upon their reunion with Lister, Rimmer was introduced to McGruder by Lister, who fainted at first glimpse of Rimmer, who also fainted when told who McGruder was. Later, encouraged by Lister, Rimmer confessed he was not the hero McGruder was told he was by his mother and that he should look up to her instead. However, McGruder was distraught by this and left, later being held hostage by Lister's Other Self, an evil doppelganger of the real Lister. When given the opportunity to incapacitate Lister's Other Self, Rimmer choked and was also taken hostage, further disappointing McGruder.
Imprisoned, Rimmer, with the help of Kryten, escapes and equips himself with a weapon he uses to defend the crew from Lister's Other Self, gaining the respect of Lister, Kochanski, and McGruder, but is shot through the light-bee and critically injured in the process. The crew manage to dispatch of Lister's Other Self but are quickly confronted by the Rage, a
gestalt
Gestalt may refer to:
Psychology
* Gestalt psychology, a school of psychology
* Gestalt therapy
Gestalt therapy is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes Responsibility assumption, personal responsibility and focuses on the individual's exp ...
manifestation of pure anger, which threatens to destroy everything in its path, including the crew. Rimmer, via his light-bee, volunteers to deliver the Oblivion Virus, the antidote able to eliminate the Rage. Kryten uploads in onto Rimmer's light-bee and as the crew take refuge in nearby caves Rimmer flings himself into the gestalt, killing it. Following this, the crew set up a search-party, headed by McGruder, to retrieve Rimmer's light-bee and hopefully bring him back.
In ''
Backwards'' (1996), after the crew spend a decade trapped on the backwards Earth, they return to their universe to find that ''Red Dwarf'' has been stolen and Holly basically destroyed by the Agonoids, a race of
misanthropic
Misanthropy is the general hatred, dislike, or distrust of the human species, human behavior, or human nature. A misanthrope or misanthropist is someone who holds such views or feelings. Misanthropy involves a negative evaluative attitude tow ...
robots. The crew gain a brief ally in the form of Ace Rimmer, an alternate and dynamic version of Rimmer who arrived in their world in a dimension-hopping prototype ship, but Ace subsequently sacrifices himself to save Lister from an Agonoid. When one Agonoid kills the rest of his race so that he can be the one to torture Lister, the crew are able to expel him into deep space, but the agonoid is able to infect ''Starbug'' with the Armageddon Virus before they can return to ''Red Dwarf''. In an attempt to fight it, Kryten purposely contracts it himself and, in a simulation of the
American wild west, is the sheriff of a small town in a battle against the
Apocalypse Boys, the simulated manifestation of the Armageddon Virus. Rimmer, alongside Lister and Cat, enter the simulation to help Kryten. However, the Apocalypse Boys prove stronger than anticipated and end up melting Rimmer's light-bee and destroying Kryten, as well as rending ''Starbug'' inoperable. With nothing left to keep them in this reality, Lister and the Cat use Ace's ship to travel to another reality where their counterparts died while playing ''Better Than Life'' but Rimmer and Kryten are still alive.
In the abridged audiobook, as read by author
Rob Grant
Robert Grant is an English comedy writer, television producer and co-creator of the ''Red Dwarf'' comedy franchise. Since ''Red Dwarf'', Grant has written two television series, ''The Strangerers'' and ''Dark Ages (TV series), Dark Ages'', and ...
, the wild west simulation section is cut and instead Rimmer's light-bee is sucked into deep space following a hostage crisis with the Agonoid, Djuhn'Keep, onboard ''Starbug''.
Personality
Rimmer's primary character traits include
anal-retentiveness, over-adherence to protocol,
cowardice
Cowardice is a characteristic wherein excessive fear prevents an individual from taking a risk or facing danger. It is the opposite of courage. As a label, "cowardice" indicates a failure of character in the face of a challenge. One who succumb ...
, bitterness and a severely inflated ego which is likely a coping mechanism to counteract for his deep-seated sense of
self-loathing, which he tries but sometimes fails to hide from others. As the highest ranking survivor aboard the ship (despite being a hologram), Rimmer often deludes himself into believing that he is in charge and that he has somehow been moulding "his" crew into an effective spacegoing unit, despite the fact that the others tend to take suggestions from Lister or Kryten in a crisis. In "
Blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...
" (1997), it is revealed that Rimmer keeps a "war journal" in which he twists events to depict himself as a hero who is braver than Lister, smarter than Kryten and cooler than the Cat.
Rimmer's poor repair work on the drive plate was responsible for the radiation leak that killed the crew, and Rimmer bore the guilt of this (although he also partly blamed Lister for the accident, as he was unable to help repair the drive plate due to being in stasis at the time).
However, in "
Justice
In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...
" (1991), after Rimmer is sentenced for over 9000 years for the accident, Kryten successfully argues at his appeal that Rimmer's guilt is misplaced – as a second technician (and one who "couldn't outwit a used teabag"), he could not possibly have been responsible for (and indeed would not have been trusted with) work that might endanger the crew if not performed correctly. Kryten further argues that Rimmer only felt guilty for causing the accident because of his delusions about his importance to the mission, comparing him to a front-gate security guard who considers himself corporate head. Kryten then went on to state that Rimmer's only crime is that of being Arnold J. Rimmer, which should also serve as a punishment. In keeping with his defective personality, Rimmer continually objects to his own defense (despite its effectiveness) on the grounds that he believes he is being portrayed unfairly.
Rimmer was finally able to live his fantasy of commanding an army in the episode "
Meltdown" (1991), leading an army of "good" wax-droids against a much larger force of "evil" wax-droids. Although Rimmer ultimately succeeds in destroying the opposing army, his forces are completely wiped out when he uses most of them as a diversion and then has Kryten turn up the heating to melt all the droids.
In addition to his fondness for militarism,
elitism
Elitism is the notion that individuals who form an elite — a select group with desirable qualities such as intellect, wealth, power, physical attractiveness, notability, special skills, experience, lineage — are more likely to be construc ...
and
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...
music,
Rimmer also enjoys
Morris dancing and is an authority on
20th century telegraph poles,
especially those observed while
trainspotting.
Rimmer has also been attempting to learn
Esperanto
Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...
for eight years, but has failed miserably. In "
Marooned" (1989), he reveals he used to play golf and hated people (like Lister) who abused the facilities.
Many episodes of ''Red Dwarf'' focus on the conflict between Rimmer's ego and his neuroses. In "
Confidence and Paranoia" (1988), Rimmer manages to trick Lister into generating a hologram duplicate in order to provide him with a companion;
however, as a consequence of Rimmer's self-loathing, in the follow-up episode "
Me²
"Me2" (pronounced "me, squared") is the sixth and final episode from series one of the science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf'', which was first broadcast on BBC2 on 21 March 1988. Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and directed by Ed Bye. The ...
" (1988), the two Rimmers are incapable of getting along, and their interaction becomes so bitter and hate-filled that the duplicate must be turned off.
In "
Better Than Life" (1988), Rimmer enters a
simulated reality
A simulated reality is an approximation of reality created in a simulation, usually in a set of circumstances in which something is engineered to appear real when it is not.
Most concepts invoking a simulated reality relate to some form of compu ...
designed to fulfil all his desires. However the game instead tortures him, as Rimmer's self hatred is so great that his deepest desire is to make himself suffer.
In "
Terrorform" (1992), a "psi-moon" sculpted to reflect Rimmer's psychological make-up becomes a desolate, swampy hell-hole dominated by Rimmer's Self-Loathing, personified as a sadistic beast, with a metaphysical graveyard marking the "demise" of his various virtuous qualities. Despite his cowardice, and tendency to run from any kind of danger or fight, Rimmer is the member of the crew most willing to kill, preferably in the safest and most cowardly way possible, although, due to a mixture of cowardice, and the fact that for much of the series he cannot physically harm anyone, he seldom manages to. He attempts to coerce Lister to shoot a dangerous Simulant (
Nicholas Ball) in the back (bemoaning the fact that said Simulant was currently awake),
suggests shooting Kryten and Lister into space when they appeared on the ship in a timeline where they had been erased from history,
suggests that he and Kryten eject Lister and Cat from ''Starbug'' when it is revealed that the ship lacks fuel to reach the nearest planet – although this is also prompted by the discovery that the ship only had air for seven minutes and was ended when Rimmer learned that his projection unit only had enough power for four minutes
— and in a despair squid-induced hallucination of 21st century Earth, casually pushes a fellow hologram (
Sophie Winkleman) into traffic after she repeatedly threatens to have him "erased" and claims that hologram-killing is "morally, ethically
..fine".
In "
Officer Rimmer" (2016), Rimmer deems it better to sacrifice others for the safety of the crew.
Rimmer's personality flaws are in fact almost completely a result of his hang-ups. An alternative version of Rimmer,
Ace Rimmer, who was kept back a year in school, learned
humility
Humility is the quality of being humble. The Oxford Dictionary, in its 1998 edition, describes humility as a low self-regard and sense of unworthiness. However, humility involves having an accurate opinion of oneself and expressing oneself mode ...
and inner strength, and grew up to become a charming and well liked Space Corps
test pilot
A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testin ...
, interstellar
hero
A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...
, and sexual seducer.
Surprisingly, however, Rimmer is still capable of nobility, honour and love. When ''Red Dwarf'' encounters a holoship with an all-hologram crew composed of the "best and brightest" in the episode "
Holoship" (1991), Rimmer desperately wants to join. A female officer aboard the ship, Nirvanah Crane, played by
Jane Horrocks
Barbara Jane Horrocks (born 18 January 1964) is a British actress. She portrayed Bubble and Katy Grin in the BBC sitcom '' Absolutely Fabulous''. She was nominated for the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for the title role in the stage pl ...
, falls in love with him and sacrifices her place on the ship for Rimmer, only for Rimmer to do the same in return for her. This act of nobility surprises even Rimmer himself.
In "
Out of Time" (1993), Rimmer is disgusted by his corrupt future self to the point where he'd rather do battle with him than surrender ("Better dead than smeg!"), Rimmer later frantically risking his life to save the others after their future selves kill them.
In "
The Beginning
The Beginning may refer to:
Film
* ''The Beginning'' (1970 film), a 1970 Soviet film
* '' Missing in Action 2: The Beginning'', a 1985 American action film
* '' Psycho IV: The Beginning'', a 1990 American horror film
* ''Star Wars: Episode I � ...
" (2012), Rimmer is also able to formulate a plan to save the crew from the Simulant Generals.
Rimmer has also showed the capacity to respect other viewpoints in conflict with his own; in "
The Last Day" (1989), he tries to convince Lister that he should respect Kryten's right to believe in
Silicon Heaven in spite of it conflicting with Lister's own beliefs,
"
Lemons" (2012) sees Rimmer eager to meet
Jesus
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
despite being an
atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
, and in "
Samsara" he presents a well-reasoned argument about the flaws in the concept of the Karma Drive. In "
Polymorph" (1989), Rimmer leads Kryten and Cat in the hunt for the intruder and in "
Bodyswap" (1989), he takes charge of the hunt for ''Red Dwarf's'' self-destruct mechanism. Once Rimmer is sapped of his anger by the Polymorph, he is a conciliatory pacifist wishing to promote peace between the creature and various members of the crew and keen to not hurt anybody's feelings during their discussions.
In "
Backwards" (1989), he revels in his success as a showbiz performer and extols the virtues of a world without war, famine, crime or death. In "
Tikka to Ride" (1997), Rimmer protests against abusing the Time Drive - the very thing he tried to destroy at the end of the previous episode- and chastises Lister for doing so.
Appearance
Rimmer's status as a hologram in most episodes of ''Red Dwarf'' is shown by the 'H' on the centre of his forehead, leading to nicknames from the
Cat
The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...
, such as "alphabet head" and "
goalpost
In sport, a goal may refer to either an instance of scoring, or to the physical structure or area where an attacking team must send the ball or puck in order to score points. The structure of a goal varies from sport to sport, and one is pl ...
head". Rimmer keeps his unmanageable hair
relatively short, deciding that it makes him feel like more of a man.
When Lister and the Cat respond to a drill too slowly, Rimmer argues for increased discipline and sensible haircuts, believing that "every major battle in history has been won by the side with the shortest haircuts" (resulting in the Cat insulting his hair-do by saying that he has hair like his, just not on his head).
Rimmer's Space Corps uniform changes several times during the course of the show. In the first two series it is a grey-and-beige shirt-and-tie ensemble; in Series III and IV this becomes a green suit with a shiny high-collared jacket, which is changed to red in Series V; in Series VI and VII, Rimmer's jacket becomes quilted and is red when he is in soft-light form and blue for hard-light (with a belt with his 'Light-Bee' remote attached); the alive Rimmer in Series VIII wears an all-beige uniform similar in design to the original, and a purple jumpsuit when he's imprisoned in "The Tank". In the 2009 three-part special ''Back to Earth'', Rimmer wears a blue suit similar to his Series III and VI green suit but with the addition of a plain waist-high belt worn over the jacket and a quilted collar.
From
Series X onward, Rimmer sports a dark blue tunic; lacking the belt and light blue boots of the ''Back to Earth'' outfit.
The 'H' on his forehead also changes from series to series: it starts as a grey colour and a blocky shape; in Series III, it becomes bright blue and reflective; in Series V, it's changed to a thinner and more stylised font. His 'H' also briefly changes to a reflective red colour set inside a circle when he temporarily joins the holoship SS ''Enlightenment''.
Casting
Among the actors who auditioned for Rimmer were
Norman Lovett
Norman Lovett (born 31 October 1946) is a British stand-up comedian and actor best known for his portrayal of Holly, the ship's computer in ''Red Dwarf''.
Career
Lovett became a stand-up comedian in his thirties, initially supporting punk b ...
(cast as
Holly
''Ilex'' () or holly is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...
instead),
David Baddiel,
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie (; born 11 June 1959) is an English actor, comedian, singer, musician and writer. He first gained professional recognition as a member of the English comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry.
Fry and Laurie act ...
, and
Alfred Molina
Alfred Molina (born Alfredo Molina; 24 May 1953) is a British and American actor. He is known for his leading roles and character actor roles on the stage and screen. In a career spanning over five decades he has received a Drama Desk Award ...
.
Initially Molina was cast as Rimmer,
however, the role was recast and filled by
Chris Barrie
Chris Barrie (born Christopher Jonathan Brown; 28 March 1960) is a British actor and comedian. He worked as a vocal impressionist on the ITV sketch show '' Spitting Image'' (1984–1996) and as Lara Croft's butler Hillary in '' Lara Croft: ...
, a professional voice-actor and impressionist. Barrie, who had originally auditioned for Lister,
was familiar with
Rob Grant
Robert Grant is an English comedy writer, television producer and co-creator of the ''Red Dwarf'' comedy franchise. Since ''Red Dwarf'', Grant has written two television series, ''The Strangerers'' and ''Dark Ages (TV series), Dark Ages'', and ...
and
Doug Naylor
Douglas Rodger Naylor (born 31 December 1955) is an English comedy writer, science fiction writer, director and television producer.
Life and career
Naylor was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England, and studied at Chetham's School of Music ...
having worked together on ''
Son of Cliché'' and ''
Spitting Image'' and with the producers on ''
Happy Families'' and various
Jasper Carrott
Robert Norman Davis (born 14 March 1945), known by his stage name, Jasper Carrott, is an English comedian, writer, actor, singer and television presenter. His credits include '' An Audience With Jasper Carrott'' (1978), '' The Secret Policeman ...
productions.
He has appeared in all but four episodes of the show, which he missed in series VII due to scheduling conflicts.
Rimmer was played by
Chris Eigeman
Christopher Eigeman (born March 1, 1965) is an American actor and film director.
Eigeman is best known for roles in films written and directed by Whit Stillman: '' Metropolitan'' (1990), ''Barcelona'' (1994), and '' The Last Days of Disco'' (19 ...
in the first American pilot and then by Anthony Fusco in the second pilot.
The character's distinctive 'H' was replaced with a marble-shaped object in the first pilot, but the 'H' returned in the second one. Chris Barrie was given an offer to reprise his role, but turned it down for fear of being tied into a restrictive, long-term contract, which is common in American television production.
The female Rimmer, "Arlene 'Arnie' Rimmer", in the Series II episode "Parallel Universe" was played by
Suzanne Bertish, an actress primarily known for her classical stage work. She had been asked by director
Ed Bye to play the part.
"Young Rimmer", who had minor speaking roles in three episodes in Series III and IV, was played by child actor Simon Gaffney. Series X episode "The Beginning" features another "Young Rimmer", this time at college on Io, who was played by Philip Labey.
Notes
References
External links
Arnold Rimmer's Character Profile at Dave.uktv.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rimmer, Arnold
Television characters introduced in 1988
Red Dwarf characters
Fictional astronauts
Fictional clones
Holography in television
Fictional characters with mental disorders