David Lister
Before the accident onboard Red Dwarf, Dave (affectionately called "Lister" by most) was the lowest ranking member of the crew. Now, he is the last human being in the universe. Lister is generally a slobby individual with very little motivation for just about anything at the beginning of the series. It is even said that he "left his previous job as a supermarket trolley attendant after ten years to avoid being tied down to a career." ("Waiting for God") However, Lister's ambition knows no bounds; when he sets his mind to something, he is almost always able to do it. Lister is rough around the edges, but he has a heart of gold and is very often taken by the emotion of a situation, helping those in need even if it means endangering his own life.
-Lister is his own father, a result of an infinite time loop paradox.
-Lister is known for his love of Indian cuisine, specificially vindaloos, kebabs, and curry.
-Lister has claimed to Kryten that the one thing that keeps him sane is his ability to drive Rimmer nuts, which he frequently does. Rimmer and Lister are frequently getting on eachother's nerves, sometimes to the point of endangering eachother's lives. This is alluded to in "Me2" when Lister states that Rimmer once tied his hair to a bed-post and sounded a fire alarm.
Arnold Judas Rimmer
Rimmer is "a cheating, weasley, low-life scumbucket with all the charm and social grace of a pubic louse", according to Dave Lister ("The Inquisitor"). In reality, Rimmer isn't all that bad. Before the accident, Arnold was the second lowest rank aboard the ship, a rank that he has never let Lister forget. Rimmer is now the acting senior officer aboard the ship and makes sure that everyone knows the pecking order. Rimmer is a hologram, meaning he cannot touch anything. He is incredibly obsessed with rules and regulations and frequently quotes (incorrectly) Space Corps directives, the rules that govern all Space Corps ships. However, there is no denying that he is a coward through and through and frequently runs away from trouble, leaving his crewmates to take the blame for his actions. Rimmer always looks out for number one, leading Lister to once again comment on Rimmer's character; "You've got a longer yellow streak than a stampede of diuretic camels."
-Rimmer has failed the engineering test at least thirteen times, and apparently makes quite a spectacle out of it. Lister claims that Rimmer once went into the exam room, wrote "I am a fish" four hundred times on the paper, did a "funny little dance", and then passed out ("The End").
-Rimmer has claimed to have only made love once. This fact, along with the fact that it only took he and his partner, Yvonne MacGruder, twelve minutes (including the time it took to eat the pizza) to complete the act, was revealed to Lister by Rimmer in an extremely inebriated state ("Thanks for the Memories").
The Cat
The creature known simply as the cat is a very well-dressed individual with a huge ego. He is a self-centered individual, obsessed with his wardrobe and appearance. He is narcissistic to the extreme, going so far to maintain a "perfect" appearance that he perms his leg hairs. Despite his admittedly shallow behavior, the Cat still cares about his shipmates, even if they only provide him food and shelter. Remember, he did evolve from the domestic housecat, so his behavior is a mirror of that old predecessor.
-The Cat is extremely lazy, claiming once to have a necessity to nap "at least nine or ten times a day" ("Queeg").
-The Cat commonly refers to the crew members by nicknames of his own invention, rarely using their actual names. Examples include "Goalpost Head" for Rimmer (due to the letter "H" on his forehead, which stands for "hologram") and "Novelty Condom Head" for Kryten (due to the unusual shape of his head).
Kryten 2X4B 523P
Kryten is a 4000 series mechanoid rescued by the Dwarfers from the crashed vessel the Nova 5. He leaves the Dwarfers shortly after being rescued, but return in the third series after he crashes his "space bike" into an asteroid and is reconstructed by Lister. Kryten is a selfless servant, constantly doing all of the chores aboard the ship, including cooking all of the meals.He offers on several occasions to sacrifice himself in order to save the rest of the crew. Kryten has also broken his programming, which means he is capable of independent thought which deviates from his preprogrammed beliefs.
-Kryten has been shown to have difficulty with insulting people. When Lister tries to teach Kryten how to insult Rimmer by calling him a "smeghead" (see "miscellaneous" for more information on this term), Kryten elongates the syllables and warps the word out of all proportion ("Camille").
-Kryten becomes the "Mr. Spock" of the crew, adding a lot of technical know-how and scientific knowledge to the group. He often has to explain certain phenomena throughout the show, such as white holes, as well as elaborate on certain creatures the Dwarfers come across, such as the despair squid and the Inquisitor.
Holly
Holly is the computer onboard the Red Dwarf. He is reported to have an IQ of 6,000, although computer senility has apparently lowered this number. Even so, Holly features heavily in the first two seasons, acting as the scientist before Kryten. He also is the one who is piloting Red Dwarf back to Earth. He is smug and often speaks his mind, as the eons of loneliness made him accustomed to being quite frank. In the third series, Holly underwent a computer sex change operation and became a female. At this point, Holly played a lesser role, gradually fading out entirely until the end of the seventh season,when he was revived as a male once more.
-The crew constantly mock Holly's decreased intelligence, leading Holly to defend his intelligence, claiming that an IQ of 6,000 is only "the same as 6,000 P.E. teachers" ("Balance of Power").
-Holly once tried to revolutionize music theory. He claimed that "instead of an octave, it's a 'decative'." He also created two new notes, "H and J".