David Lister, commonly referred to simply as Lister, is a fictional character from the British
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 ...
situation comedy
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 ...
'', portrayed by
Craig Charles
Craig Joseph Charles (born 11 July 1964) is an English actor, comedian and radio presenter. He is best known for his roles as Dave Lister in the science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf'' and Lloyd Mullaney in the soap opera ''Coronation Street'' (2 ...
.
Lister is characterised as a third-class technician (the lowest ranking crewman) on the mining ship ''Red Dwarf'' spending his time performing tasks under the hated supervision of
Arnold Rimmer
Arnold Judas Rimmer is a fictional character and one of the main characters of the science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf'', played by Chris Barrie. Rimmer is a second-class technician and the de facto leader of the mining ship ''Red Dwarf''. Portray ...
. In the series, he becomes marooned three million years into the future, but maintains a long-standing desire to return to Earth and start a farm on
Fiji
Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...
and open a
hot dog
A hot dog is a grilled, steamed, or boiled sausage served in the slit of a partially sliced bun. The term ''hot dog'' can also refer to the sausage itself. The sausage used is a wiener ( Vienna sausage) or a frankfurter ( Frankfurter Würs ...
and
doughnut
A doughnut or donut () is a type of pastry made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and fran ...
diner, preferably with the one true love of his life,
Kristine Kochanski
Kristine Z. Kochanski is a fictional character from the British science fiction situation comedy ''Red Dwarf''. Kochanski was the first console officer in the navigation chamber on board the spaceship ''Red Dwarf''. As well as appearing in the te ...
, a navigation officer of ''Red Dwarf''. As a character, Lister is lazy, slobbish, and unmotivated, but he frequently shows moral courage. He also likes Indian food, especially chicken
vindaloo
Vindaloo or vindalho is a curry dish from the state of Goa in India. It is known globally in its British-Indian form as a staple of curry houses and Indian restaurants and is often regarded as a fiery, spicy dish. Vindaloo evolved from the Port ...
, which is a recurring theme in the series.
Fictional history
Television
1980s
Lister 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 third technician on board the mining ship ''Red Dwarf'', ranking below his immediate superior Arnold Rimmer (
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: ...
), with whom he shares quarters, and all four of the service robots as the lowest ranked crew member on board the ship. As a technician, Lister helps Rimmer with maintenance work on
chicken soup
Chicken soup is a soup made from chicken, simmered in water, usually with various other ingredients. The classic chicken soup consists of a clear chicken broth, often with pieces of chicken or vegetables; common additions are pasta, noodles, ...
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. Lister is shown having smuggled an unquarantined pregnant cat from the moon
Titan
Titan most often refers to:
* Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn
* Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology
Titan or Titans may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Fictional entities
Fictional locations
* Titan in fiction, fictiona ...
on board ''Red Dwarf'' as part of his five-year plan to buy a farm on Fiji to bring along the cat, the cat's unborn kittens, and to get a sheep and a cow and breed horses. As punishment for bringing the cat on board, he is put into
stasis for 18 months without pay.
Lister mentions that crewmember Kristine Kochanski (
C P Grogan) was going to come with him to Fiji, but never told her before her death. 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 while Lister was in stasis, a release of lethal radiation occurred on board as a result of a faulty repair carried out by Rimmer, killing the entire crew. As a result, Holly keeps Lister in stasis for three million years until the radiation levels return to normal. Lister is left as presumably the last human being in the universe, accompanied on ''Red Dwarf'' by 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 ...
simulation of Rimmer and a humanoid creature called "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 ...
" (
Danny John-Jules
Daniel John-Jules (born 16 September 1960) is a British actor, singer and dancer. He is best known for playing Cat (Red Dwarf), Cat in the sci-fi comedy series ''Red Dwarf'', Barrington in the comic children's series ''Maid Marian and Her Merry M ...
) that evolved from his cat, who was safely sealed in the hold along with her unborn kittens when the crew died. Lister tells Holly to set co-ordinates for Fiji, which has become the "promised land" in the religion of the Cat's people.
Lister's backstory in "
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) reveals that Lister's "grandmother" raised Lister, and headbutted the headmaster of Lister's school when Lister came bottom in French, leading to Lister's expulsion. Also in this episode, ''Red Dwarf'' is shown travelling
faster-than-light
Faster-than-light (superluminal or supercausal) travel and communication are the conjectural propagation of matter or information faster than the speed of light in vacuum (). The special theory of relativity implies that only particles with zero ...
, and this causes glimpses of the future, "future echoes", to appear to the crew. Rimmer sees what he believes to be Lister being killed in the drive room. After trying to change another future echo involving the Cat and ending up causing it instead, Lister accepts his fate when Holly asks for help to stop the navi-comp from overheating. Lister survives, and a future echo of Lister aged 171—who cannot see the younger Lister and Rimmer but remembers the conversation he had when he was Lister's age—explains that it wasn't Lister that Rimmer saw die, but Lister's second son, Bexley, who appeared in a photograph with his twin brother Jim as a child in another future echo. Lister realises that this means he is going to have two sons in the future. The elderly Lister from the future tells the present Lister to quickly take his camera to the medical unit. As ''Red Dwarf'' begins to slow down, Lister sees a future echo of himself from nearer to the present who is holding baby Jim and Bexley, and the present Lister takes the photograph of the Lister holding the babies, which had previously been seen on the bunkroom wall in a future echo.
In "Balance of Power" (1988), Lister is revealed to have pined after Kochanski; Lister mentioning that he had always been crazy about Kochanski but never acted on his feelings to ask her out or make love to her. Lister asks Holly why Rimmer was brought back as a hologram instead of Kochanski. Holly explains that this is because Rimmer was the best person to keep Lister sane, and that the two had shared fourteen million words between each other, compared to the 173 words Lister shared with Kochanski. Lister asks Rimmer where the disc which contains Kochanski's hologram has been hidden so that Lister could go on a date with Kochanski, but Rimmer refuses to switch his own disc off to bring back Kochanski for an evening due to the risk that Rimmer's hologram wouldn't be turned on again.
In "
Waiting for God" (1988), Holly reads out the captain's confidential files on Lister, explaining that Lister's previous job before joining ''Red Dwarf'' was a supermarket trolley attendant, which he left because "he didn't want to get tied down to a career". After translating a holy book written by the Cat's people, Holly confirms that Lister is considered a god in the Cat's people's religion called Cloister, and that his plan of buying a farm on Fiji and opening up a hot dog and doughnut diner has become their idea of
Heaven
Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...
.
In "
Confidence and Paranoia
"Confidence and Paranoia" is the fifth episode from series one of the science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf''. It was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC Two, BBC2 on 14 March 1988. The plot involves Lister's mutated pneumonia which ...
" (1988), 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 moves in with his double as better company in the next bunkroom over from Lister. After the two Rimmers' constant arguing, Lister decides to have one of them wiped to stop this. Knowing that Rimmer would never tell Lister otherwise, Lister tricks Rimmer into revealing Rimmer's "
gazpacho soup" story while Rimmer's double is wiped instead; Rimmer believing that ''he'' was the one that was doomed.
According to Lister's backstory in "
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 ...
" (1988), Lister applied to
art college
An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on practice and related theory in the visual arts and design. This includes fine art – especially illustration, painting, contemporary art, sculpture, and graphic design. T ...
after having failed his exams. He dropped out after 97 minutes however, after learning that there were lectures every day, "first thing in the afternoon". In this episode, the crew of ''Red Dwarf'' rescue a service
mechanoid
An android is a humanoid robot or other artificial being, often made from a flesh-like material. Historically, androids existed only in the domain of science fiction and were frequently seen in film and television, but advances in robot techno ...
called
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 ...
(
David Ross) from the crash landed spaceship the ''Nova 5''. After Kryten begins serving Rimmer, Lister persuades Kryten to rebel against Rimmer (which includes showing him the movies ''
Rebel Without a Cause
''Rebel Without a Cause'' is a 1955 American coming-of-age melodrama film, directed by Nicholas Ray. The film stars James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ann Doran, Corey Allen and William Hopper. It is also the film debut of ...
'' and ''
Easy Rider
''Easy Rider'' is a 1969 American road drama film written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern. It was produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. Fonda and Hopper play two bikers who travel through the American Southwest and the S ...
'') and to become independent. Kryten changes the portrait of Rimmer he is painting to make it appear as though he was sitting on the toilet, and then pours soup onto Rimmer's bed sheets. Kryten takes Lister's space-
bike
A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist.
B ...
and goes out to find a
planet
A planet is a large, Hydrostatic equilibrium, rounded Astronomical object, astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself. The Solar System has eight planets b ...
with an
atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...
where he can grow a
garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...
, which had always been a dream of his.
Backstory in "
Better Than Life
''Better Than Life'' is a science fiction comedy novel by Grant Naylor, the collective name for Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, co-creators and writers of the ''Red Dwarf'' television series, on which the novel is based. The main plotline was devel ...
" (1988) reveals that Lister's "dad" died when he was six. Lister's grandmother, while trying to explain to Lister that his dad wouldn't be coming back, said that Lister's dad had gone to the same place as Lister's
goldfish
The goldfish (''Carassius auratus'') is a freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae of the order Cypriniformes. It is commonly kept as a pet in indoor aquariums, and is one of the most popular aquarium fish. Goldfish released into the w ...
. Lister thought she meant he was flushed down the toilet. Lister was eventually sent to a
child psychologist
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, ...
after he was found with his head in the toilet bowl reading his father the
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
results.
In "
Thanks for the Memory
"Thanks for the Memory" (1938) is a popular song composed by Ralph Rainger with lyrics by Leo Robin. It was introduced in the 1938 film ''The Big Broadcast of 1938'' by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross, and recorded by Shep Fields and His Orchestra ...
" (1988), when Rimmer had eight months of Lister's memory pasted over his own as a present to celebrate
the anniversary of Rimmer's death, Lister recounts to Rimmer that Lister had gone out with a girl named Lise Yates (
Sabra Williams), but the relationship ended because he did not want to be tied down, a fact that Lister later regretted. Rimmer also realises the memories he was given couldn't have actually happened because Rimmer remembers being an orphan even though both his parents were alive, meaning that at some point Lister himself had become an orphan.
In a possible future seen in the episode "
Stasis Leak
"Stasis Leak" is the fourth episode of the science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf'' series two and tenth in the series run. It premiered on the British television channel BBC2 on 27 September 1988. Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and directed b ...
" (1988), Lister finds out that his future self from five years hence has gone back in time and married Kochanski three weeks before the accident which causes ''Red Dwarf'' to leave the
Solar System
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...
; their wedding and honeymoon taking place while Kochanski is on
planet leave at the
Ganymede Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn by IHG is a chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson (1913–2003), who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee. The chain was a division ...
. This version of Lister's future has still yet to be portrayed outside of "Stasis Leak" as of Series X.
"
Parallel Universe" (1988) shows Holly's "Holly Hop Drive" trying to get to
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
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 Lister called Deb Lister (played by
Angela Bruce). Because of the laws of the female Lister's universe being different, Lister falls pregnant with his alternate self's child after a drunken sexual liaison with her.
At the start of "
Backwards" (1989), some quickly scrolling text describes Lister's pregnancy leading to successful delivery of twin boys, Jim and Bexley. Because the twins were conceived in another universe where different laws apply, they reach eighteen years of age in three days. To save their lives, Lister returns them to their universe for their father (the female Lister) to raise them. Kryten is described as being found in pieces after his space-bike crashed on an
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
shortly after these events. Lister rebuilds Kryten (now played by
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 ...
), although he is unable to recapture his former personality.
According to backstory in "
Marooned Marooned may refer to:
* Marooning, the intentional act of abandoning someone in an uninhabited area
Film and television
* ''Marooned'' (1933 film), a British drama film
* ''Marooned'' (1969 film), an American science-fiction film
* ''Marooned ...
" (1989), Lister lost 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 Michelle Fisher at the age of twelve in one of the bunkers on the ninth hole of
Bootle
Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449. It is pa ...
Municipal
Golf Course
A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, tee box, a #Fairway and rough, fairway, the #Fairway and rough, rough and other hazard (golf), hazards, and ...
.
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 tells his seventeen-year-old self (played by
Emile Charles), who at this point is a singer-songwriter in a band called Smeg and the Heads, how to gain a successful multi-billion-
pound
Pound or Pounds may refer to:
Units
* Pound (currency), various units of currency
* Pound sterling, the official currency of the United Kingdom
* Pound (mass), a unit of mass
* Pound (force), a unit of force
* Rail pound, in rail profile
* A bas ...
business empire with fifty-eight houses by inventing the "tension sheet" so that he won't 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 no longer exist. Lister is also seen living with the model and novelist Sabrina Mulholland-Jjones (
Koo Stark
Kathleen Norris Stark (born April 26, 1956), better known as Koo Stark, is an American photographer and actress, known for her relationship with Prince Andrew. She is a patron of the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust, which runs the museum of the Vi ...
), and according to Holly (now played by
Hattie Hayridge
Hattie Hayridge (born 17 December 1959) is a British comedian and actress, best known for the role of the female version of Holly (Red Dwarf), Holly in ''Red Dwarf'' during the third, fourth and fifth series. She was described as a "cult figure ...
), in this new timeline, Lister dies aged 98 after he crashes a
plane
Plane most often refers to:
* Aero- or airplane, a powered, fixed-wing aircraft
* Plane (geometry), a flat, 2-dimensional surface
* Plane (mathematics), generalizations of a geometrical plane
Plane or planes may also refer to:
Biology
* Plane ...
he had lost control of while making love to his fourteenth wife. Rimmer unwittingly changes the timelines to set things exactly how they were, and Lister, the Cat and Kryten return to ''Red Dwarf''.
Despite having previously mentioned his father and grandmother, backstory in "The Last Day" (1989) reveals that Lister never knew who his parents were because he was abandoned at the age of six weeks in a cardboard box underneath a
pool table
A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which cue sports are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables (whether for carom billiards, pool, pyramid or snooker) provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that ...
in a
pub
A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...
, with Lister never finding out why.
1990s
Lister's previously established history with Kochanski where he barely interacted with her is
retconned
Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in fictional story telling whereby facts and events established through the narrative itself are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subsequently published work ...
in "
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...
" (1991), when Lister mentions Kochanski having "finished with
im back before the accident that killed her. Following this break up, he recalls going for a walk in the botanical gardens and looking at a squirrel, thinking, "You lucky little sod. You like your job, you're your own boss and you've got no woman trouble, so you'll never feel as bad as I feel now." This affected Lister enough for him to tell the crew of ''Red Dwarf'' that for a split second, he would have given anything to swap places with the squirrel.
In "
Dimension Jump" (1991), an alternate Lister from another dimension, nicknamed "Spanners", is seen (also played by Charles). Lister explains that, after being told about Spanners by the Rimmer of that dimension—a successful test pilot called "Ace"—Spanners is a flight engineer in the Space Corps who is married to Kochanski with twin boys, Jim and Bexley, and, unlike Rimmer, Lister is pleased to learn of his success in a parallel universe.
In "
The Inquisitor" (1992), Lister is put on trial by the legendary android known as the Inquisitor (
John Docherty) to determine whether or not his existence is justified or a waste. After Lister is found unworthy of existence, the memory of Lister is erased, and the Inquisitor replaces Lister's life with that of an alternative Lister who never got a chance at life. This "Second Lister", played by
Jake Abraham
Jake Abraham (1967 – 1 October 2023) was a British actor from Liverpool. He was best known for his role in ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'', a 1998 film by Guy Ritchie. His other film appearances included Mean Machine (film), ''Mean Mac ...
, is described by Kryten as "one of the many David Listers who never got a chance to exist", while Lister believes them to be "kind of sperms-in-law". This alternative Lister is killed by the Inquisitor, while Lister subsequently tricks the Inquisitor into erasing himself from existence, causing the memory of Lister to be restored.
In "
Demons & 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 Lister (both played by Charles). 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 Lister is stabbed to death when Lister's "low" self controls Lister into doing this by remote control, while the "low" version is shot down by bazookoid fire from the Cat.
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, Lister believes he is Colonel Sebastian Doyle, a totalitarian fascist mass murderer who is section chief at "CGI" and head of the Ministry of Alteration, where he "change
people...from being alive people to being dead people". The four nearly commit suicide together, but a mood stabiliser saves them at the last second.
"
Psirens
"Psirens" is the first episode of science fiction sit-com ''Red Dwarf'' Series VI and the 31st in the series run. It was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 7 October 1993. Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor and directed ...
" (1993) further contradicts the early series' depiction of Lister having never asked Kochanski out. In the episode, while rejogging Lister's memory following Lister awakening from two hundred years of deep sleep, Kryten explicitly explains to Lister that Kochanski dated Lister for three weeks before "discard
ng him for a
catering
Catering is the business of providing food services at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, hospital, pub, aircraft, cruise ship, park, festival, filming location or film studio.
History of catering
The earliest account of major service ...
officer. In the episode, Kryten explains that ''Red Dwarf'' was "stolen", with the crew now based inside the shuttlecraft ''Starbug'' chasing after ''Red Dwarf'' to recover it.
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
The House of Borgia ( ; ; Spanish language, Spanish and ; ) was a Spanish noble family, which rose to prominence during the Italian Renaissance. They were from Xàtiva, Kingdom of Valencia, the surname being a Toponymic surname, toponymic from ...
,
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 ...
. The Lister from the future has also been damaged in an accident, having become nothing more than a brain in a jar. 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
"Tikka To Ride" is the first episode of science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf'' Series VII and the 37th in the series run. It was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 17 January 1997. Written by Doug Naylor and directed by Ed By ...
" (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 from ever going 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.
In "
Stoke Me a Clipper" (1997), Lister pretends to be a hostile knight who escaped from ''Starbug''s artificial reality suite in order to prove Rimmer is heroic enough to take over as the new Ace Rimmer and leave ''Starbug'' for other dimensions to "right wrongs". Rimmer fires blank rounds at Lister, and Lister pretends to die, with Rimmer not realising this deception.
In "
Blue (Red Dwarf)
"Blue" is the fifth episode of science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf'' Series VII and the 41st in the series run. It was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 14 February 1997, was written by Kim Fuller and Doug Naylor, and was d ...
" (1997), Lister finds himself missing Rimmer's company after the hologram goes off on adventures with Ace Rimmer, but is alternately confused and horrified at the thought that he might have feelings for him, and after seeing Rimmer's ego-trip of a ride, declares their friendship officially over.
In "
Ouroboros
The ouroboros or uroboros (; ) is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent symbolism, snake or European dragon, dragon Autocannibalism, eating its own tail. The ouroboros entered Western tradition via Egyptian mythology, ancient Egyptian iconogra ...
" (1997), Lister meets a Lister from a parallel dimension (played by Charles), when a "linkway" through "non-space" is opened when the membrane between the two realities temporarily collapses. Lister realises that that dimension's Lister is a hard light hologram. The parallel Lister explains that he was killed in the radiation leak that wiped out the crew of ''Red Dwarf''. In a flashback, following Lister breaking up with Kochanski (now played by
Chloë Annett
Chloë Victoria Annett is an English actress. She played Holly Turner in '' Crime Traveller'' and Kristine Kochanski in series 7 and 8 of the sitcom ''Red Dwarf''.
Biography
Early life and family
Annett was born and brought up in East Finchle ...
) the previous week, the parallel Lister is shown returning to ''Red Dwarf'' and smuggling a cat on board, after a few days' shore leave on the moon
Mimas
Mimas, also designated Saturn I, is the seventh-largest natural satellite of Saturn. With a mean diameter of , Mimas is the smallest astronomical body known to be roughly rounded in shape due to its own gravity. Mimas's low density, 1.15 ...
—and not Titan as previously claimed—to get over Kochanski. This version of Kochanski later apologises for the
Dear John letter
A Dear John letter is a letter written to a man by his wife or romantic partner to inform him that their relationship is over, usually because his partner has found another lover. The man is often a member of the military stationed overseas, al ...
she sent Lister the previous week. She describes her love life with Lister as having gone nowhere and amounting to "hanging out in
ister'sbunk, eating delivery curries and having fantastic sex". She explains to Lister that she is back together with her ex, a chef called Tim. Kochanski discovers the unquarantined cat Lister smuggled on board and takes her, but is unable to kill her and hides her instead.
Back in the present, the parallel Lister explains that Holly brought him back as a hologram, and when the cat was discovered, Kochanski was the person who was punished and put into stasis instead. The original Lister also realises that the parallel Lister's relationship with Kochanski was rekindled. Kryten later tells the original Lister that after the parallel Lister's death, that dimension's Lister was originally a soft light hologram before becoming hard light, and this made him "caring in a way that most men aren't". Kochanski asks Lister to fill an in-vitro tube with Lister's DNA, as she hopes to one day have children. When Lister realises that he is his own father and Kochanski is "me ex-girlfriend and me mum", Lister hurries to retrieve the tube. Lister saves Kochanski's life during an attack on the linkway by a GELF spaceship, but Kochanski is subsequently stranded in Lister's dimension when the interdimensional rip self repairs, and becomes a new member of ''Starbug''s crew. Lister says that after the baby Lister is grown in a
uterine simulator, Lister travels back in time to leave his infant self (played by
Alexander John-Jules) under a pool table at the Aigburth Arms pub. The story subsequently skips ahead to when this happens.
The official ''Red Dwarf'' website claims that the suggestion within "Ouroboros" is that the diverging point between Lister's timeline and Kochanski's alternate timeline happened when Kochanski takes "her" Lister's cat, meaning that "almost everything else
eforeabout
ochanski'stimeline was supposed to have played out along similar lines to the main one".
In "
Epideme" (1997), Lister has his right arm amputated in an attempt to rid his body of the Epideme virus (voiced by
Gary Martin). Kochanski ultimately gets rid of the virus by temporarily stopping Lister's heart and containing the virus in deceased ''Red Dwarf'' crewmember Caroline Carmen's (
Nicky Leatherbarrow) arm, injected with blood and
adrenaline
Adrenaline, also known as epinephrine, is a hormone and medication which is involved in regulating visceral functions (e.g., respiration). It appears as a white microcrystalline granule. Adrenaline is normally produced by the adrenal glands a ...
, and tricking the virus into thinking the arm belongs to Kochanski. In the following episode, "
Nanarchy
"Nanarchy" is the eighth, and final, episode of science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf'' Series VII and the 44th in the series run. It was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 7 March 1997. The episode was written by Paul Alexand ...
" (1997), Kryten tries looking for his self-repairing
nanobot
Nanoid robotics, or for short, nanorobotics or nanobotics, is an emerging technology field creating machines or robots, which are called nanorobots or simply nanobots, whose components are at or near the scale of a nanometer (10−9 meters). ...
s to rebuild Lister's arm. Returning to the part of space where they were last seen, the crew discovers ''Red Dwarf'' has been converted by the nanobots into a planetoid made of sand and Holly restored to his old settings (again played by Norman Lovett) and abandoned there, with the ''Red Dwarf Starbug'' spent years chasing after being a subatomic version shrunken down and eventually exploring Lister's laundry basket, and the remaining bits they didn't want being left on the planetoid. Kryten orders the nanobots to rebuild Lister's arm and turn the planetoid back into ''Red Dwarf''.
In ''
Back in the Red
"Back in the Red" is the opening three-part episode of series VIII of science fiction sit-com ''Red Dwarf''. Part 1 was first broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 18 February 1999 followed by Part 2 on 25 February and Part 3 on 4 ...
'' (1999), Holly creates a new set of nanobots to bring the entire crew on board ''Red Dwarf'' back to life after Kryten's had gone missing again. Included among the resurrected crew is Rimmer, after the hologrammatic simulation of Rimmer left ''Starbug''. Lister, Rimmer, Cat, Kryten and Kochanski are sentenced to two years in the ship's Military prison#Brig, brig for misuse of confidential information. In "Cassandra (Red Dwarf), Cassandra" (1999), the five of them get signed up by Lister to the convict army the Canaries after Holly lies to Lister that they're a singing troupe. During a mission with the Canaries, the mainframe computer of the SS ''Silverberg'', Cassandra (Geraldine McEwan), who can predict the future with an accuracy rating of one hundred per cent, tells Lister that he chokes to death aged 181, while trying to remove a bra with his teeth.
In "Only the Good..." (1999), a corrosive micro-organism is shown eating apart ''Red Dwarf''. After Rimmer tries and fails to obtain the formula for an antidote from a "mirror universe" where everything is opposite, and not being able to find anyone on ''Red Dwarf'' upon returning, a vending machine (voiced by Tony Slattery) informs Rimmer that everyone crossed back into the mirror universe. The machine opening the way to the mirror universe is shown to have been destroyed by the micro-organism, leaving Rimmer stranded and the only crew member aboard ''Red Dwarf'' in his universe.
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 a hard light hologram and the most senior officer on board again; how these have come about and what happened to the micro-organism is not explained. 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. Lister initially believes that Kochanski is dead as well, but two children in the hallucination (played by Charlie Kenyon and Nina Southworth) inform that Kryten lied to him, and she actually left him after taking a ''Blue Midget'' shuttle. Kryten later confirms this. After waking up, Lister subsequently starts looking for Kochanski to get her back.
2010s
In "Trojan (Red Dwarf), Trojan" (2012), Lister describes himself as the "last human being alive", with Kryten saying the same thing about him in "Dear Dave" (2012), while in a recorded message for his son (himself) in "Fathers and Suns" (2012), Lister tells himself to "find Krissie [Kochanski]" after getting himself an education,
and in "Entangled (Red Dwarf), Entangled" (2012), Lister mentions asking the Biologically Engineered Garbage Gobblers (BEGGs) for help with finding Kochanski.
According to backstory in "Twentica" (2016), Lister hotwired cars to go shoplifting from the age of seven until he was eleven, when he was on the . He also lies that he is a descendant of the scientist Joseph Lister to gain the crew access to the Lady Be Good Club.
In "Officer Rimmer" (2016), Lister reveals that as a kid he sold the rights to his genome to his friend Dodgy for 100 dollarpounds and half a packet of cigarettes. Kryten explains that this means thousands of companies, including a call centre, were licensed to produce biological copies of Lister. Lister wonders if this means all the "smartarse Scousers in call centres" are him.
In "Skipper (Red Dwarf), Skipper" (2017), Rimmer uses a quantum skipper to travel to a universe where Lister is kind and hardworking. Here, Lister got put into stasis because he smuggled a pet rat on board, rather than a pet cat. The rat race did not have a religious war when they evolved, but stayed on ''Red Dwarf'', living on most of its decks. In another universe, Rimmer discovers Lister has become captain of ''Red Dwarf'' subsequent to Lister spotting the faulty drive plate, and has become wealthy from the shares he owned after ''Red Dwarf'' discovered a planet rich in helium-7.
Novels
Within the continuity of the books by Grant Naylor, Lister's official date of birth is 14 October. Lister is described as going on a drunken Monopoly (game), Monopoly board pub crawl in London with his friends to celebrate his 23rd birthday, where he gets very drunk; when he awakens, he is on
Mimas
Mimas, also designated Saturn I, is the seventh-largest natural satellite of Saturn. With a mean diameter of , Mimas is the smallest astronomical body known to be roughly rounded in shape due to its own gravity. Mimas's low density, 1.15 ...
with no money. After six months, having failed to make enough money to get back home, he signs up for a job on ''Red Dwarf'', which, unknown to him, is due to make a four-and-a-half-year mining run to Triton (moon), Triton before heading back to Earth. Smuggling a cat on board was in fact a deliberate attempt to get discharged and sent home early.
In the book ''Better Than Life'' (1990), after spending two years in the game Better Than Life, Lister eventually discovers Earth, but discovers that it has left the orbit of the Solar System and finds that eight-foot-long cockroaches are the dominant species. He becomes their king and plans to rebuild the planet. The others find him thirty-four years later (after believing Lister was missing for a fortnight due to a time dilation). Later, after Lister dies of a heart attack in a confrontation with a polymorph, his body is taken to the alternative universe where time runs backwards and is told that he will be rescued in thirty-six years' time. Two accounts of what followed are ''Last Human'' (1995)
and ''Backwards (novel), Backwards'' (1996).
In ''Last Human'', the crew fight an alternate version of Lister who was adopted by different parents, this Lister choosing the wealthy but psychotic Thorntons over the poorer but more emotionally stable parents which the normal Lister had. As a result, this Lister grew up to be a sociopath, often manipulating others with his efforts, claiming not to believe in even the concept of love, and perfectly willing to murder his shipmates in order to achieve his goals.
In ''Backwards'', the crew try to meet up with Lister at a Souvenir shop at Niagara Falls on backwards Earth, where they discover that Lister will be involved in a murder. They see Lister being unarrested and embark on a backwards pursuit. They find that Kryten was the one who killed a hillbilly which had Lister sentenced to eight years in prison (all in reverse). They miss their flight window and must spend the next ten years on the reverse Earth. They eventually leave for their own universe.
Appearance
Lister is normally dressed in a leather jacket and deerstalker hat, his boiler suits and his lengthy dreadlocks that he grows only from the back of his head.
Lister has a tattoo on his right buttock, dedicated to the love of his life: it is a heart with an arrow through it and underneath it has in dripping curry sauce, "I love Vindaloo". It was obtained while on planet leave on Ganymede with Petersen, who spiked his cocktail with four-star petrol. When Lister woke up the next day, he had enrolled as a novice monk in a Ganymedian monastery.
He also has another tattoo claiming that he loves Petersen placed on his inner thigh, which stems from an unidentified incident where the two got so heavily drunk together that Lister had no idea what was happening to him.
Personality
Lister is very lazy, and more importantly, unmotivated. He is a slob: his best shirt is one with ''only'' two curry stains on the front.
He enjoys "bumming around", drinking large amounts of lager, and eating Indian cuisine, Indian food and listening to a band called Rastabilly Skank.
He is a supporter of the London Jets zero-gravity football team, and speaks with a Liverpool, Liverpudlian (Scouse) accent.
He prides himself on being a good man, a man of moral courage.
When confronted with an evil version of himself on a corrupted version of Red Dwarf in "Demons and Angels" (1992), Lister says of his evil counterpart, "But he kills; I'm not capable of that."
Likewise, when he kills "the Creator" of the ''Red Dwarf'' TV series during his hallucination in ''Back to Earth'' (2009), his initial reaction is to state that he doesn't kill people and doesn't understand why he did it. In the episode "Waiting for God" (1988), he also showed an extreme amount of remorse when he hears that vast numbers of the Cat's race have been killed due to holy wars and one of their arks flying off and crashing into an asteroid due to declaring him their god.
Lister's religious beliefs are unclear. In the episode "The Last Day" (1989), Kryten states that Lister is a pantheism, pantheist, believing God to be in all things;
however, in the later episode "Back to Reality" (1992) he is described as the "ultimate atheist".
Lister has had a number of relationships with women, albeit not all successful (his lack of ambition being the main cause for not settling down).
Lister managed to learn the international language Esperanto from Rimmer's tapes, while Rimmer himself was unable to.
In the episode "Thanks for the Memory" (1988), Arnold Rimmer described that, even though all its ingredients were wrong, a fried-egg chilli chutney sandwich somehow made a right and likened this fact to Lister's personality.
He is capable of piloting a spaceship and has a knack for mechanical repairs, particularly amateur cybernetics. He also considers himself good at pool (game), pool, saying that he was nicknamed "Dave Cinzano Bianco Lister" because once he was on a table you couldn't get rid of him. When the Inquisitor from the 1992 episode of the same name appeared on ''Red Dwarf'' to judge the crew, he declared that Lister's failure to put his brain to good use was evidence that he had not lived a worthwhile life.
Lister is also an avid junk collector who has purchased (among other things) a talking toilet,
a Red Dwarf characters#Talkie Toaster, talking toaster with artificial intelligence, and two robot goldfish, which he named John Lennon, Lennon and Paul McCartney, McCartney (the latter of which swims backwards and is prone to breaking down).
Guitar
Lister is very attached to his guitar. In Series I, Lister's guitar is firstly a silver acoustic Clarissa Roundback (Polverini, Italian Ovation Guitar Company, Ovation copy, S1E5, 19:41). Then in "Marooned" (1989), his guitar is shown to be a black, electric guitar – according to Lister it is an "authentic Les Paul copy".
In "Fathers and Suns" (2012), Lister describes his guitar as a Gibson Les Paul.
The guitar appears to be destroyed or lost in several episodes, while somehow being recovered: in "Emohawk: Polymorph II" (1993), the Cat breaks Lister's guitar.
By "Tikka to Ride" (1997), he seems to have it intact again.
While Lister is prison in the episode "Krytie TV" (1999), Petersen recovers the guitar from the wreck of ''Starbug'' offscreen, and has it sent it to Lister. Later, in "Fathers and Suns", as punishment from his father (himself) for not applying for a robotics course, Lister's guitar is flushed out of one of ''Red Dwarf''s airlocks and is "half a light-year away".
When Professor Edgington (Sydney Stevenson) sees Lister's guitar case in "Entangled" (2012), Lister mentions that he plays guitar.
American pilot
In the Red Dwarf#U.S. version, unaired pilot for the American version of ''Red Dwarf'', Lister was played by Craig Bierko.
Notes
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lister, Dave
Adoptee characters in television
Black people in television
Fictional alcohol abusers
Fictional amputees
Fictional astronauts
Fictional Black British people
Fictional cannibals
Fictional characters displaced in time
Fictional people from Liverpool
Fictional sole survivors
Orphan characters in television
Red Dwarf characters
Television characters introduced in 1988