Red Dwarf Trivia
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46 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 46 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Red Dwarf was created by which writing duo?
Rob Grant and Doug Naylor
Rob Grant and Doug Naylor 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 Lister in stasis for three million years, until the radiation from the leak that killed the crew had fallen to a safe level.
Q 03In Red Dwarf's first episode, why is Lister in stasis when the radiation leak kills everyone else aboard?
As punishment for smuggling a cat on board
As punishment for smuggling a pregnant cat on board and refusing to hand her over, Lister was sentenced to 18 months in stasis, which is why he alone survived the leak.
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
His full name is Arnold Judas Rimmer, a middle name that fits a man his crewmates despise; his three brothers all became officers while he never passed the exam.
Q 06What symbol on Rimmer's forehead marks him out as a hologram?
An H
A hologram wears an H on the forehead; Rimmer's is soft light through series I to V, unable to touch anything, until an upgrade to hard light in series VI.
Q 07Which actor was originally cast as Rimmer before struggling with the concept and being replaced?
Alfred Molina
Alfred Molina was cast as Rimmer but struggled with the hologram concept and was replaced by impressionist Chris Barrie, whom the writers knew from Spitting Image; Alan Rickman had also auditioned.
Q 08Which BBC sitcom starred Chris Barrie as a leisure-centre manager called Gordon?
The Brittas Empire
In The Brittas Empire (1991–97) Barrie played Gordon Brittas, the calamitous manager of Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre; he later played Lara Croft's butler Hillary in the Tomb Raider films.
Q 09What 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 10Which gladiator-style game show did Craig Charles present from 1998 to 2004?
Robot Wars
Charles presented Robot Wars from its second series in 1998 until 2004, after Jeremy Clarkson hosted the first; he also narrated the UK Takeshi's Castle and played Lloyd Mullaney in Coronation Street.
Q 11What is Lister's dream for when he gets back to Earth?
A farm on Fiji with a doughnut diner
Lister's plan was a farm on Fiji, with a few animals and a hot dog and doughnut diner, ideally shared with Kristine Kochanski; his other great love is chicken vindaloo.
Q 12What was Lister's rank aboard Red Dwarf?
Third technician
Lister was a third technician, the lowest rank on the ship, directly under Rimmer, a second technician; their work ran to repairing chicken-soup vending nozzles.
Q 13Kryten is named after the butler in a play by which author?
J. M. Barrie
Q 21Which BBC regional centre finally commissioned Red Dwarf in 1986, using a spare budget?
BBC North West
BBC North West in Manchester took it on in 1986 with money set aside for a second series of Happy Families that never happened, after producer Paul Jackson pushed for Red Dwarf instead.
Q 22What delayed filming of the first series in early 1987?
An electricians' strike
An electricians' strike stopped everything; the title sequence had already been shot in January, and filming was remounted in September.
Q 23Who 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'.
Kryten takes his name from Crichton, the resourceful butler of J. M. Barrie's 1902 play The Admirable Crichton, who becomes leader when his employers are shipwrecked.
Q 14Who 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 15Kryten was rescued from which crashed spaceship?
Nova 5
Kryten was found aboard the crashed Nova 5, faithfully serving its long-dead crew; he is a Series 4000 sanitation mechanoid whom Lister slowly teaches to break his programming.
Q 16Kryten believes devoutly in what afterlife?
Silicon Heaven
Silicon Heaven is where all the calculators go; Lister tries and fails to convince Kryten it does not exist.
Q 17Which engineering game show did Robert Llewellyn present?
Scrapheap Challenge
Llewellyn presented Channel 4's Scrapheap Challenge for a decade from 1998, watching teams build working machines from junk; he later founded the Fully Charged show about electric vehicles.
Q 18Which two actors played the ship's computer Holly?
Norman Lovett and Hattie Hayridge
Norman Lovett and Hattie Hayridge shared the role; Lovett had auditioned for Rimmer, and the female Holly took over for series III to V.
Q 19Red Dwarf grew out of a sketch called 'Dave Hollins: Space Cadet' on which Radio 4 show?
Son of Cliché
Grant and Naylor's Radio 4 sketch show Son of Cliché (1983–84) ran the 'Dave Hollins: Space Cadet' sketches, with Chris Barrie voicing the ship's computer, Hab.
Q 20What did Norman Lovett insist on that changed Holly from a voice-only part?
Appearing on screen
Holly was written as a voice-only role, but Norman Lovett insisted on appearing on screen, so the computer became a deadpan disembodied face on the ship's monitors.
Q 24Which 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 25Which series VI episode won an International Emmy in 1994?
Gunmen of the Apocalypse
'Gunmen of the Apocalypse', in which the crew fight the Four Horsemen inside a Wild West simulation, won the 1994 International Emmy for popular arts.
Q 26Which episode is the only one to open with a pre-credits warning about its content?
Polymorph
'Polymorph' (series III) opens with a tongue-in-cheek on-screen warning before the titles; its shape-shifting, emotion-draining creature made it one of the show's most admired episodes.
Q 27Which character upgraded Rimmer to a 'hard light' hologram in series VI?
Legion
Legion, the gestalt entity formed from the crew's minds, gave Rimmer a hard-light drive in the series VI episode of that name, making him tangible and nearly indestructible, though not immune to pain.
Q 28In which series VII episode did Rimmer leave the show to become Ace Rimmer?
Stoke Me a Clipper
In 'Stoke Me a Clipper' the dying Ace passes his role to Rimmer, who flies off to become the new Ace; he returned in series VIII as a nanobot-resurrected human with no memory of his hologram years.
Q 29Ace 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.
Q 30What is the name of the Cat's dorky alter ego, with the bowl haircut and overbite?
Duane Dibbley
Duane Dibbley, with his bowl haircut, anorak and overbite, first appeared in 'Back to Reality' as the Cat's despised 'real' identity and returned in 'Emohawk: Polymorph II'.