Captain Frank Hollister Captain Frank Hollister is played by
American actor
Mac McDonald in the television series. Hollister is the captain of the interplanetary mining vessel, the
Red Dwarf. He is seen in the first episode, in which he sentences Dave Lister to eighteen months in
stasis for bringing his unquarantined cat on board. When Lister is released, Hollister, along with the rest of the crew, have been dead dust for three million years. In Series VIII, with the crew resurrected by
nanobots, Hollister becomes a main character. This is also the series where it is revealed that the captain is in fact "Dennis the Donut Boy" and that he had abused confidential files in order to work his way up the ranks and become captain. Captain Hollister briefly returns in the Series XII episode, "
Skipper" (2017), where Rimmer uses a quantum skipper to travel to a universe shortly before the crew of
Red Dwarf is killed by a radiation leak. Rimmer finds Hollister attempting to use the escape pod, which jams as the radiation leak reaches him. In the
first Red Dwarf novel, the captain is a woman named "
Kirk" and in the pilot for the unaired American version of the show the captain is a woman named "Tau". Hollister's characterization is inconsistent. Before the accident, he was a fair, just, responsible leader. After resurrection, he becomes indulgent and corrupt. he is also depicted as indulgent and corrupt in the Series XII episode, "Skipper" (2017), where Rimmer finds Hollister attempting to use the escape pod, when Rimmer is using Kryten's new "Quantum Skipper" to travel to other universes, this one set shortly before the crew of Red Dwarf is killed by a radiation leak.
Olaf Petersen Olaf Petersen is played by
Mark Williams in the television series. He is a
Danish catering officer on the
Red Dwarf mining vessel. First appearing in the pilot episode, Petersen is the best friend of
Dave Lister. He, Lister,
Selby and Chen spend most of their free time getting drunk. Like the rest of the crew, Petersen is killed in the radiation leak. His remains are found in the Drive Room as a white powder that Lister tasted. He appears in two other episodes in the first two series. Petersen is resurrected along with the rest of the crew in Series VIII, but is
not seen, although often referred to.
Selby and Chen Selby and Chen are played by David Gillespie and
Paul Bradley, respectively. Chen works in the ship's kitchens and both spend their time drunk. First appearing in the pilot episode, they spend most of their free time with Lister and Petersen getting drunk. Like the rest of the crew they are killed in the radiation leak. When the crew are resurrected in Series VIII, Selby and Chen are the first crew members the regular characters encountered. They have not been seen again.
George McIntyre George McIntyre was a minor character aboard
Red Dwarf. In the novel
Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, McIntyre was an officer on
Red Dwarf who was severely depressed due to growing debt problems. After a horrifying experience in the hands of gangsters (he returned to
Red Dwarf carrying his nose in a
Titan Hilton Hotel napkin), McIntyre committed suicide. He was brought back as a
hologram and replaced the ship's first hologram, Frank Saunders (much to Saunders' relief). Captain Hollister notes in his personal log that McIntyre was not especially crucial to the success of the mission, but was brought back anyway because Hollister was curious to hear his resurrection speech. According to the original script of "The End", McIntyre was killed by a minor radiation leak from the drive plate that Rimmer failed to repair. In the
television series, McIntyre was only seen at his "Welcome Back Reception" thanking everyone for flowers and turning up at his funeral, and his choice of music at the funeral was "
See You Later Alligator" (in certain broadcasts this song was replaced with football anthem "Here We Go") as his ashes were blasted into space. George was portrayed by Robert McCulley. He was switched off during the radioactive disaster, for
Arnold Rimmer to replace him afterwards by
Holly to keep
Dave Lister sane. The cause of his death is not mentioned in the TV series.
Frank Todhunter Frank Todhunter appeared in the first episode only and was played by
Robert Bathurst. A well spoken officer, he tries to placate the tension between Rimmer and Lister (before siding with Lister against Rimmer; "Oh, Rimmer, you
are a
smeghead"), and attempts to describe how the stasis booth works to the latter. He is also an exam
invigilator causing him to be someone that Rimmer severely dislikes. As part of
Kristine Kochanski's story to ease Lister's claustrophobia, she claims the Todhunter from her dimension is gay, despite being a married man and notorious womanizer.
Yvonne McGruder According to "
Thanks for the Memory", Yvonne McGruder was the ship's female boxing champion, and the only woman Rimmer ever had sex with while he was alive. She is mentioned in a number of episodes, but her only on-screen appearance is inside a simulation in "
Better Than Life", where she is played by
Judy Hawkins.
Prison Governor Ackerman Prison Governor "Nicey" Ackerman is played by
Graham McTavish. Seen only in the eighth series, Mr Ackerman is a stereotypically sadistic prison governor, enjoying his power over the inmates in Floor 13 (
Red Dwarfs brig), "The Tank". He has a glass eye, which at one point is stolen from him. Prone to overreaction, he is a victim of pranks from the inmates on more than one occasion. After having
sodium pentothal put into his
inhaler as a prank, he shows up late at a meeting with the captain and reveals that he was sorry, but he was busy having "jiggy jiggy" with the Science Officer's wife, and needed time to change out of his Batman costume. Following the prank Lister suggested that a Tarzan costume would be better, since it would take less time to change out of. According to various interviews on the Red Dwarf website, Ackerman was originally part of the same prison ship that was transporting the simulant encountered in the episode "Justice," but escaped from the ship after accidentally enabling the simulants to get free.
Warden Knot Warden Knot is played by Shend. Like governor Ackerman, Knot is a fairly sadistic warden. He dies in the episode
Cassandra when Cassandra predicts that
Arnold Rimmer will die of a heart attack. To evade death Rimmer pretends that Knot is called "Arnold Rimmer" and Knot, as according to prophecy, has a heart attack after learning he is going to die.
Kill Crazy Kill Crazy is a minor character played by
Jake Wood, appearing only in Series 8. Kill Crazy (real name: Oswald Blenkinsop) is a psychopathic inmate who is obsessed with killing things. He is not very bright, thinking that he could fight a
Tyrannosaurus Rex using his fists. His fighting buddy is Baxter (played by comedian
Ricky Grover). When the prisoners arrive at the destination of a mission, Kill Crazy screams "Let's go kill something!" before charging forward at great pace and knocking himself unconscious on a low doorway.
Katerina Bartikovsky Katerina Bartikovsky is played by
Sophie Winkleman. In a hallucination induced by the ink of a despair squid, the crew encounters Katerina Bartikovsky. In this hallucination, Katerina was the science officer of the Red Dwarf before the accident. She is of Russian heritage and speaks with a strong accent. Her personality is strict, serious and judgmental, with a certain amount of scientific genius and arrogance. She suddenly appears as a hard-light hologram in "Back to Earth, Part One" after Rimmer's negligence nearly results in the death of his crewmates. She uses her superior rank to make herself ship's hologram and tries to have Rimmer deactivated and destroyed; it is also evident that she has personal disdain for him. Meanwhile, she attempts to bring Lister home with a device she made with a mining laser and the DNA of a dimension-hopping squid (the hallucination's explanation for the despair squid), which the rest of the crew enters through to get back to Earth, which allows Rimmer to escape deletion. She later encounters Rimmer in a street on Earth, claiming to have gone through a second portal, where they discuss the morals of deleting holograms. Katerina argues that since holograms are simulated dead humans, then killing them is acceptable. Using this logic, Rimmer immediately pushes her into traffic, whisking her away. She is not seen again after this incident. ==Miscellaneous characters==