50 free Red Dwarf trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Red Dwarf trivia quiz covers all thirteen instalments of the sci-fi sitcom, from 'The End' in 1988 to The Promised Land in 2020. It starts with the basics — why Lister was in stasis, what the H on Rimmer's forehead means, where the Cat came from — and moves on to Kryten's Silicon Heaven, Holly's two faces, Ace Rimmer, Duane Dibbley, Talkie Toaster, hard light, the Emmy-winning 'Gunmen of the Apocalypse' and the only episode with a content warning. It also goes behind the scenes: the Radio 4 sketch it grew from, the actor originally cast as Rimmer, the electricians' strike, Howard Goodall's theme, the 'fire risks' remark, the four-year hiatus, the novels, the never-made movie and the Dave revival. About a third of the questions are easy for casual fans; the rest are for people who can quote the astronavigation exam count. If you like this, our general sci-fi and British sitcom pages are next. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia's Red Dwarf articles and the sources they cite, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Red Dwarf was created by which writing duo?
Rob Grant and Doug Naylor
They wrote the first six series together; Grant left in 1995 and Naylor carried on with new co-writers.
Q 02How long was Dave Lister in suspended animation before waking as the last human alive?
Three million years
Holly kept him in stasis until the radiation from the leak that killed the crew had died down.
Q 03Why was Lister in stasis when the radiation leak killed everyone else aboard?
As punishment for smuggling a cat on board
The cat, Frankenstein, was pregnant and safely sealed in the cargo hold, which is where the Cat's whole species came from.
Q 04What was the name of Lister's smuggled pregnant cat?
Frankenstein
The Cat learned about her at school as 'the holy mother'; her descendants evolved into a race of humanoid felines.
Q 05What is Arnold Rimmer's middle name?
Judas
Fitting for a man his crewmates despise; he is a hologram for most of the series, marked by the H on his forehead.
Q 06What symbol on Rimmer's forehead marks him out as a hologram?
An H
From series I to V he is 'soft light' and cannot touch anything; Legion upgrades him to hard light in series VI.
Q 07By his own count in 'Future Echoes', how many times had Rimmer failed the astronavigation exam?
Nine, or ten with the spasm
His failure to become an officer is the wound at the centre of the character.
Q 08Which actor was originally cast as Rimmer before struggling with the concept and being replaced?
Alfred Molina
Alan Rickman also auditioned; the role went to impressionist Chris Barrie, whom the writers knew from Spitting Image.
Q 09Which BBC sitcom starred Chris Barrie as a leisure-centre manager called Gordon?
The Brittas Empire
Barrie was a Spitting Image voice artist and later played Lara Croft's butler Hillary in the Tomb Raider films.
Q 10What was Craig Charles doing for a living when he was cast as Lister?
Performance poetry
The Liverpudlian 'punk poet' was first asked whether the Cat character might be seen as racist, then decided to audition for Lister.
Q 11Which gladiator-style game show did Craig Charles present from 1998 to 2004?
Robot Wars
He also narrated Takeshi's Castle, played Lloyd Mullaney in Coronation Street and hosts a funk and soul show on BBC radio.
Q 12What is Lister's dream for when he gets back to Earth?
A farm on Fiji with a doughnut diner
Ideally with Kristine Kochanski; his other great love is chicken vindaloo.
Q 13What was Lister's rank aboard Red Dwarf?
Third technician
The lowest of the low, ranking directly under Rimmer, who was a second technician.
Q 21Holly was originally written as what, before Norman Lovett was offered the part?
A woman
Lovett had gone up for Rimmer; the role was also meant to be voice-only until he suggested showing the face.
Q 22Which BBC regional centre finally commissioned Red Dwarf in 1986, using a spare budget?
BBC North West
The money had been set aside for a second series of Happy Families that never happened, and producer Paul Jackson pushed for Red Dwarf instead.
Q 23What delayed filming of the first series in early 1987?
An electricians' strike
The title sequence had already been shot in January; filming was rescheduled for September and the pilot aired on 15 February 1988.
Q 14Kryten's name is a reference to the butler in which J. M. Barrie play?
The Admirable Crichton
The writers had originally planned no robots at all; Kryten was meant to be a one-off.
Q 15Who played Kryten in his one-off first appearance in series II, before Robert Llewellyn took over?
David Ross
Ross was unavailable when the character became a regular, but later returned to voice Talkie Toaster.
Q 16Kryten was rescued from which crashed spaceship?
Nova 5
He is a Series 4000 sanitation mechanoid, bound by behavioural protocols until Lister teaches him to break them.
Q 17Kryten believes devoutly in what afterlife?
Silicon Heaven
Lister tries and fails to convince him it does not exist; it is where all the calculators go.
Q 18Which engineering game show did Robert Llewellyn present?
Scrapheap Challenge
He now runs the Everything Electric YouTube channel and conventions about electric vehicles.
Q 19Which two actors played the ship's computer Holly?
Norman Lovett and Hattie Hayridge
Lovett had auditioned for Rimmer; the female Holly took over for series III to V.
Q 20Red Dwarf grew out of a sketch called 'Dave Hollins: Space Cadet' on which Radio 4 show?
Son of Cliché
In the radio version the computer was called Hab and was voiced by Chris Barrie.
Q 24Who wrote and performed the Red Dwarf theme music?
Howard Goodall
Jenna Russell sang the closing theme, and Goodall himself sang 'The Rimmer Song' in the series VII episode 'Blue'.
Q 25Which Red Dwarf song, released by Danny John-Jules as 'The Cat', hit UK number 17 in 1993?
Tongue Tied
Goodall wrote the music and Grant and Naylor the lyrics for the series II episode 'Parallel Universe'.
Q 26Which series VI episode won an International Emmy in 1994?
Gunmen of the Apocalypse
The crew end up in a Wild West simulation facing the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Q 27Which episode is the only one to open with a pre-credits warning about its content?
Polymorph
The shape-shifting, emotion-stealing creature is regarded by many fans as the show's finest hour.
Q 28Which character upgraded Rimmer to a 'hard light' hologram in series VI?
Legion
Hard light made him tangible and virtually indestructible, though he could still feel pain.
Q 29In which series VII episode did Rimmer leave the show to become Ace Rimmer?
Stoke Me a Clipper
He returned in series VIII as a nanobot-resurrected human with no memory of his hologram years.
Q 30Ace Rimmer, the heroic alter ego from a parallel universe, first appeared in which episode?
Dimension Jump
The two Rimmers diverged at age seven, when one was kept down a year at school and knuckled down.