Kristine Kochanski
Encyclopedia
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 television series, she is also a major character in the Red Dwarf novel Last Human
.
In series 1, 2, and 6 she was played by Clare Grogan
. In series 7 and 8 and Back To Earth she was played by Chloë Annett
. In the unaired pilot for the American version of Red Dwarf, Christine Kochanski was played by Elizabeth Morehead
.
lusted after Kochanski (as played by Clare Grogan
) from a distance and occasionally flirted with her but never had a relationship with her, never having had the courage to ask her out. Indeed, he was told by Holly that he had shared a total of 173 words with her, fewer words than he had shared with his rubber plant. Nonetheless, Lister includes Kochanski in his fantasy of buying a farm on Fiji, with her wearing a white dress and riding the horses. Lister likes to think that Kochanski was infatuated with him too, such as when he finds out that she dreamed about him three times, but is also insecure enough to believe it when Rimmer, posing as Kochanski, tells him "I just don't like you."
When Lister is revived from stasis, one of the first things he wants to do is revive Kochanski's hologram. But as the ship can only generate one hologram at a time Rimmer refuses to allow it, and goes so far as to hide all the personality discs of the crew including Kochanski's. In the episode "Confidence and Paranoia", Lister (along with a physical manifestation of his confidence) hits upon an idea of how to generate two holograms at once and also deduces where Rimmer has hidden the personality discs – only to discover too late that Kochanski's personality disc has been switched for a duplicate of Rimmer's.
In a possible future seen in the episode "Stasis Leak", Lister finds out that his future self from five years hence had gone back in time and married Kochanski three weeks before the accident, suggesting that there was hope for them in the future.
The backstory with Kochanski is different in the first novel, published after the first two series. In the book she seems somewhat more intelligent and witty, is learning Japanese
in her spare time, and holds her own against arrogant young officers. Lister has a brief but intense relationship with her, spending most of the time in her quarters making love and watching It's a Wonderful Life
, their favourite movie. Kochanski, however, reveals she is still hooked on her ex-and-future boyfriend Tim, a catering officer. She was dating Lister on the rebound, and goes back to Tim, leaving Lister heartbroken. It is Kochanski's rejection of him that leads Lister to his plan to be caught with his cat Frankenstein and be sent to stasis for the rest of the trip, resulting in Lister being the sole survivor of the radiation leak.
The third series of the TV show involved a massive overhaul of the show as a whole, including the recasting of Holly and the introduction of Kryten, a greater emphasis on science fiction in the stories, and a near-complete redesign of the ship's interior. Kochanski is not referred to in the third series, but in the fourth series it is established that the backstory with her and Lister has been changed to match that in the novels. Kochanski does not reappear except in the first episode of the sixth series, "Psirens", in which a genetically engineered life form impersonates her form.
In the seventh series, Kochanski was brought onto the show as a main character, coinciding with the departure of Rimmer. The show's creators opted not to ask Clare Grogan to return as a regular, instead recasting the role with Chloë Annett
. Annett's portrayal of Kochanski was somewhat closer to that of the novels than Grogan's, and was also made more explicitly posh. She is introduced in the seventh series' third episode, "Ouroboros", crossing over from a parallel universe
and being stranded on Starbug. In her world, she discovered the cat Lister smuggled on board and took her, but was unable to kill her and hid her instead. She was discovered and frozen in stasis in Lister's place, emerging from stasis millions of years later to find the crew wiped out and the ship far from home. Holly brought back Lister as a hologram (as opposed to our world in which Rimmer was brought back). Initially a soft light hologram, this Lister was unable to physically interact with his world, forcing him to mature and become more sensitive and cultured. When Lister became a hardlight hologram, he and Kochanski rekindled their relationship.
Throughout series seven and eight, Kochanski remains with the crew, even when rejoined by Rimmer in series eight. Near the beginning of her introduction she is determined to find a way back to her own universe, but after her efforts prove fruitless she seems to give up and accept being part of the crew in our dimension. Indeed, her origin in the parallel universe is only mentioned once in the entirety of the eighth series.
In Red Dwarf: Back to Earth
, Lister believes Kochanski to be dead, but a conversation between Lister and two children in a hallucination caused by a despair squid reveals that her death is a cover story and that in truth she dumped Lister by fleeing Red Dwarf in a Blue Midget shuttle and that Kryten hid the truth by claiming she was sucked out of an airlock. This is later confirmed by Kryten. Annett appears briefly in the special, as a hallucination of Kochanski created by Lister's desire to be reunited with her. In the end Lister rejects the hallucination, in the hope of one-day finding the real Kochanski again.
was originally cast in the role of Kochanski, but was unavailable for new recording dates following an electrician's strike, so the part then went to Clare Grogan.
actress and lead singer of the new wave band Altered Images
, Clare Grogan
. Grogan again appeared as Kochanski in the episode "Balance of Power", both in flashback
and as a hologram when Rimmer briefly impersonates her.
Grogan also featured as Kochanski in the second series episode "Stasis Leak
", this time in the flesh due to time travel
. In this episode it was revealed that Lister and Kochanski will end up married in five years time from that episode, and will have their honeymoon at The Ganymede
Holiday Inn
, implying that the couple will somehow make it back to the Solar System
within five years time. However it is unclear if this future will still come to pass as the timeline has been altered numerous times over the following series. Also, stage manager Dona DiStefano briefly portrays Kochanski near the end of this episode; producers had already sent Grogan home before realising that her character needed to appear in the scene. However, in a behind the scenes interview on the Bodysnatcher DVD set, Donna DiStefano reveals that Clare Grogan had only been scheduled to appear in the pre-recorded scenes and not in the studio scenes. DiStefano has no lines, and her face is mostly obscured by the brim of a hat.
Clare Grogan briefly reprised the role one last time during a hallucination
of Lister's in the sixth series episode "Psirens
".
, but the credits incorrectly identified her as "Kochanski Camille".
In the seventh and eighth series of Red Dwarf, an alternate version of Kochanski from another dimension
played by Chloë Annett
became a permanent member of the crew, after Arnold Rimmer
left. The writers insist she was not intended to replace Rimmer, but that Chris Barrie
had asked to take a leave of absence at the same time as a female lead was required for the cast to be retained in the proposed Hollywood movie. Series eight, the final full series of Red Dwarf made to date, features both Kochanski and Rimmer.
In her universe, the alternate version of Kochanski discovered Lister's cat, Frankenstein, and confiscated her, but could not bring herself to destroy her. As a result it is she, not Lister, who is sentenced to six months in stasis
for bringing an unquarantined animal on board, and who therefore survives the radiation leak that killed the rest of the crew. In this alternate dimension, Holly
brings Lister back as a hologram instead of Rimmer, and his intangible nature apparently leads to him becoming a near-stereotypical
"ideal man". The unreconstructed Lister from the "main" universe comes as quite a shock. It is not clear what the Cat
and Kryten
are like in her universe, but it is implied that they are sophisticated, as the alternate Kochanski makes vague references to during the season.
(apparently the trendiest part of 23rd century Glasgow
), and had spent her childhood in "Cyberschool" with perfect computer
-generated settings and perfect computer-generated friends and a pony
named "Trumper" before entering Space Cadet School.
With Chris Barrie
wanting a much smaller part in the show due to other commitments (the writers had to agree at the risk of losing him completely), another main character was needed. The writers felt that a woman was an interesting addition to the environment, especially since Kochanski had already been a minor character in the Red Dwarf canon
since the first series.
, Kochanski is originally presented as having died after the events of the eighth series. However, this is later revealed to be a lie; in fact, Kochanski took a Blue Midget and set off on her own, depressed by Lister's lack of ambition. Lister and the rest of the Red Dwarf crew suffer a collective hallucination of a world in which Red Dwarf is merely a television show, and they are all fictional characters; in that world, Lister reads a magazine with an article about actress Chloë Annett. Later, after realising that the world is an illusion, he meets a version of Kochanski and initially decides to spend his life with her; however, he eventually rejects the illusion in favor of searching out the real Kochanski and winning her back.
and time travel
in the series seven episode "Ouroboros". ("Krissie is me ex-girlfriend and me mum!") However, in later episodes, this does not deter Lister from trying to renew his relationship with her.
, written by Doug Naylor. As with all of the Red Dwarf novels, however, Last Human is not considered part of the television canon due to significant variations between the television and book continuities. Kochanski's role in the novel – as a new member of the crew – is similar to that of her role in the seventh and eighth series of the television series, with notable differences:
In the novel, following being reunited with Lister as an aged couple in a world where time runs backwards (following the death of Dave Lister in the "real" universe), Kochanski and Lister have entered into a loving relationship with each other. Now part of the Red Dwarf crew, Kochanski is in a clear position of authority as the highest-ranking member of the crew – a fact that Rimmer clearly resents (having been robbed of what minuscule authority he could claim in that position), although the others either appreciate or at least do not mind due to her clear intelligence and competence. The novel ends with Kochanski and Lister, stranded on an idyllic world in an unknown parallel universe, attempting to start a family with help from the Luck virus.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
from the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
. Kochanski was the first console officer in the navigation
Navigation
Navigation is the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks...
chamber on board the spaceship
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
Red Dwarf. As well as appearing in the television series, she is also a major character in the Red Dwarf novel Last Human
Last Human
Last Human is the title of a 1995 science fiction comedy novel written by Doug Naylor. It is part of the Red Dwarf series of novels, based on the popular television show created by Naylor and his partner Rob Grant...
.
In series 1, 2, and 6 she was played by Clare Grogan
Clare Grogan
Clare Grogan is a Scottish actress and singer. She is sometimes credited as C. P. Grogan.-Early life:...
. In series 7 and 8 and Back To Earth she was played by Chloë Annett
Chloë Annett
Chloë Victoria Annett is an English actress, best known for her role in series 7 and 8 of the British sitcom Red Dwarf.-Early life and family:...
. In the unaired pilot for the American version of Red Dwarf, Christine Kochanski was played by Elizabeth Morehead
Elizabeth Morehead
Elizabeth Morehead is an American actress best known for her various television appearances.Her most memorable television performance was in the Seinfeld, episode, "The Pez Dispenser", where she played a professional pianist and the girlfriend of George Costanza...
.
Multiple incarnations
In the first two series, Dave ListerDave Lister
David "Dave" Lister, commonly referred to simply as Lister, is a fictional character from the British science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, portrayed by Craig Charles...
lusted after Kochanski (as played by Clare Grogan
Clare Grogan
Clare Grogan is a Scottish actress and singer. She is sometimes credited as C. P. Grogan.-Early life:...
) from a distance and occasionally flirted with her but never had a relationship with her, never having had the courage to ask her out. Indeed, he was told by Holly that he had shared a total of 173 words with her, fewer words than he had shared with his rubber plant. Nonetheless, Lister includes Kochanski in his fantasy of buying a farm on Fiji, with her wearing a white dress and riding the horses. Lister likes to think that Kochanski was infatuated with him too, such as when he finds out that she dreamed about him three times, but is also insecure enough to believe it when Rimmer, posing as Kochanski, tells him "I just don't like you."
When Lister is revived from stasis, one of the first things he wants to do is revive Kochanski's hologram. But as the ship can only generate one hologram at a time Rimmer refuses to allow it, and goes so far as to hide all the personality discs of the crew including Kochanski's. In the episode "Confidence and Paranoia", Lister (along with a physical manifestation of his confidence) hits upon an idea of how to generate two holograms at once and also deduces where Rimmer has hidden the personality discs – only to discover too late that Kochanski's personality disc has been switched for a duplicate of Rimmer's.
In a possible future seen in the episode "Stasis Leak", Lister finds out that his future self from five years hence had gone back in time and married Kochanski three weeks before the accident, suggesting that there was hope for them in the future.
The backstory with Kochanski is different in the first novel, published after the first two series. In the book she seems somewhat more intelligent and witty, is learning Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
in her spare time, and holds her own against arrogant young officers. Lister has a brief but intense relationship with her, spending most of the time in her quarters making love and watching It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern....
, their favourite movie. Kochanski, however, reveals she is still hooked on her ex-and-future boyfriend Tim, a catering officer. She was dating Lister on the rebound, and goes back to Tim, leaving Lister heartbroken. It is Kochanski's rejection of him that leads Lister to his plan to be caught with his cat Frankenstein and be sent to stasis for the rest of the trip, resulting in Lister being the sole survivor of the radiation leak.
The third series of the TV show involved a massive overhaul of the show as a whole, including the recasting of Holly and the introduction of Kryten, a greater emphasis on science fiction in the stories, and a near-complete redesign of the ship's interior. Kochanski is not referred to in the third series, but in the fourth series it is established that the backstory with her and Lister has been changed to match that in the novels. Kochanski does not reappear except in the first episode of the sixth series, "Psirens", in which a genetically engineered life form impersonates her form.
In the seventh series, Kochanski was brought onto the show as a main character, coinciding with the departure of Rimmer. The show's creators opted not to ask Clare Grogan to return as a regular, instead recasting the role with Chloë Annett
Chloë Annett
Chloë Victoria Annett is an English actress, best known for her role in series 7 and 8 of the British sitcom Red Dwarf.-Early life and family:...
. Annett's portrayal of Kochanski was somewhat closer to that of the novels than Grogan's, and was also made more explicitly posh. She is introduced in the seventh series' third episode, "Ouroboros", crossing over from a parallel universe
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
and being stranded on Starbug. In her world, she discovered the cat Lister smuggled on board and took her, but was unable to kill her and hid her instead. She was discovered and frozen in stasis in Lister's place, emerging from stasis millions of years later to find the crew wiped out and the ship far from home. Holly brought back Lister as a hologram (as opposed to our world in which Rimmer was brought back). Initially a soft light hologram, this Lister was unable to physically interact with his world, forcing him to mature and become more sensitive and cultured. When Lister became a hardlight hologram, he and Kochanski rekindled their relationship.
Throughout series seven and eight, Kochanski remains with the crew, even when rejoined by Rimmer in series eight. Near the beginning of her introduction she is determined to find a way back to her own universe, but after her efforts prove fruitless she seems to give up and accept being part of the crew in our dimension. Indeed, her origin in the parallel universe is only mentioned once in the entirety of the eighth series.
In Red Dwarf: Back to Earth
Red Dwarf: Back to Earth
Red Dwarf: Back to Earth is a three part TV miniseries continuation of the science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf, broadcast on the British television channel Dave between 10 April and 12 April 2009 and subsequently released on DVD on 15 June 2009 & on Blu-ray on 31 August 2009. It was the first...
, Lister believes Kochanski to be dead, but a conversation between Lister and two children in a hallucination caused by a despair squid reveals that her death is a cover story and that in truth she dumped Lister by fleeing Red Dwarf in a Blue Midget shuttle and that Kryten hid the truth by claiming she was sucked out of an airlock. This is later confirmed by Kryten. Annett appears briefly in the special, as a hallucination of Kochanski created by Lister's desire to be reunited with her. In the end Lister rejects the hallucination, in the hope of one-day finding the real Kochanski again.
Alexandra Pigg
Liverpudlian actress Alexandra PiggAlexandra Pigg
Alexandra Pigg is a British actress who first came to prominence as Petra Taylor in the TV soap opera Brookside. Her best known film appearances are as Elaine in Letter to Brezhnev , for which she was nominated for a BAFTA award, and as Bridget Baines in A Chorus of Disapproval...
was originally cast in the role of Kochanski, but was unavailable for new recording dates following an electrician's strike, so the part then went to Clare Grogan.
Clare Grogan
In the first episode of Red Dwarf, Kochanski was played by ScottishScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
actress and lead singer of the new wave band Altered Images
Altered Images
Altered Images were an early 1980s Scottish New Wave / post-punk band. Led by lead singer Clare Grogan, the band branched into mainstream pop music, and had a string of chart hits between 1981 and 1983.-Early career:...
, Clare Grogan
Clare Grogan
Clare Grogan is a Scottish actress and singer. She is sometimes credited as C. P. Grogan.-Early life:...
. Grogan again appeared as Kochanski in the episode "Balance of Power", both in flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
and as a hologram when Rimmer briefly impersonates her.
Grogan also featured as Kochanski in the second series episode "Stasis Leak
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 by Ed Bye, the crew travelling back in time, before the...
", this time in the flesh due to time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
. In this episode it was revealed that Lister and Kochanski will end up married in five years time from that episode, and will have their honeymoon at The Ganymede
Ganymede (moon)
Ganymede is a satellite of Jupiter and the largest moon in the Solar System. It is the seventh moon and third Galilean satellite outward from Jupiter. Completing an orbit in roughly seven days, Ganymede participates in a 1:2:4 orbital resonance with the moons Europa and Io, respectively...
Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn is a brand of hotels, formally a economy motel chain, forming part of the British InterContinental Hotels Group . It is one of the world's largest hotel chains with 238,440 bedrooms and 1,301 hotels globally. There are currently 5 hotels in the pipeline...
, implying that the couple will somehow make it back to the Solar System
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
within five years time. However it is unclear if this future will still come to pass as the timeline has been altered numerous times over the following series. Also, stage manager Dona DiStefano briefly portrays Kochanski near the end of this episode; producers had already sent Grogan home before realising that her character needed to appear in the scene. However, in a behind the scenes interview on the Bodysnatcher DVD set, Donna DiStefano reveals that Clare Grogan had only been scheduled to appear in the pre-recorded scenes and not in the studio scenes. DiStefano has no lines, and her face is mostly obscured by the brim of a hat.
Clare Grogan briefly reprised the role one last time during a hallucination
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
of Lister's in the sixth series episode "Psirens
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 & Doug Naylor and directed by Andy de Emmony...
".
Kochanski Camille
Lister's fantasy of his perfect companion in "Camille" was initially intended to be Kochanski (played by Clare Grogan once again), but it was felt that the inexplicable and implausible re-appearance of Lister's true love (or at least enduring obsession) would tip him off too early as to the true nature of the creature that Kryten rescued. The character was changed in clothing and attitude to more or less a female version of Lister, played by Suzanne RhatiganSuzanne Rhatigan
-Career:She moved to London in the early 1980s and found work as a session singer for Stock, Aitken and Waterman Records, before embarking on a solo career, recording her debut album with Fred Maher in 1992, To Hell With Love, which was released the following year. For some time in the early 1990s,...
, but the credits incorrectly identified her as "Kochanski Camille".
Chloë Annett
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
played by Chloë Annett
Chloë Annett
Chloë Victoria Annett is an English actress, best known for her role in series 7 and 8 of the British sitcom Red Dwarf.-Early life and family:...
became a permanent member of the crew, after Arnold Rimmer
Arnold Rimmer
Arnold Judas Rimmer is a fictional character in the science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, played by Chris Barrie. He is unpopular with his crew mates, and is often the target of insults or pranks...
left. The writers insist she was not intended to replace Rimmer, but that Chris Barrie
Chris Barrie
Chris Barrie is a British actor. He first achieved success as a vocal impressionist, notably in the ITV sketch show Spitting Image...
had asked to take a leave of absence at the same time as a female lead was required for the cast to be retained in the proposed Hollywood movie. Series eight, the final full series of Red Dwarf made to date, features both Kochanski and Rimmer.
In her universe, the alternate version of Kochanski discovered Lister's cat, Frankenstein, and confiscated her, but could not bring herself to destroy her. As a result it is she, not Lister, who is sentenced to six months in stasis
Stasis
The term stasis may refer to* A state of stability, in which all forces are equal and opposing, therefore they cancel out each other....
for bringing an unquarantined animal on board, and who therefore survives the radiation leak that killed the rest of the crew. In this alternate dimension, Holly
Holly (Red Dwarf)
Holly is the ship's computer on the science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf.The character is played by Norman Lovett in Series I and II and, following a "head sex change" to look like his parallel universe alter ego "Hilly", played by Hattie Hayridge in the series 3 episode Backwards, is female...
brings Lister back as a hologram instead of Rimmer, and his intangible nature apparently leads to him becoming a near-stereotypical
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
"ideal man". The unreconstructed Lister from the "main" universe comes as quite a shock. It is not clear what the Cat
Cat (Red Dwarf)
The Cat is a character in the British science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf. He is played by Danny John-Jules.-Character development:According to Danny John-Jules, the character of Cat is based on a combination of Little Richard's look, James Brown's moves and Richard Pryor's facial...
and Kryten
Kryten
Kryten is a fictional character in the British science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf. Kryten's registration code on Red Dwarf is "Kryten additional 001". The name Kryten is a reference to the head butler in the J.M...
are like in her universe, but it is implied that they are sophisticated, as the alternate Kochanski makes vague references to during the season.
Place in the seventh and eighth series
After being trapped with the "Dwarfers" in their universe, the alternate Kochanski adds something of a new dynamic to the show. She is an upper-middle class female officer in what was a decidedly male dominated environment. Much of the humour in her scenes comes from the difference between her frame of reference and that of the others. Although Annett lacks Grogan's Scottish accent, the series now reveals that she was from the GorbalsGorbals
The Gorbals is an area on the south bank of the River Clyde in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. By the late 19th century, it had become over-populated and adversely affected by local industrialisation. Many people lived here because their jobs provided this home and they could not afford their own...
(apparently the trendiest part of 23rd century Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
), and had spent her childhood in "Cyberschool" with perfect computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
-generated settings and perfect computer-generated friends and a pony
Pony
A pony is a small horse . Depending on context, a pony may be a horse that is under an approximate or exact height at the withers, or a small horse with a specific conformation and temperament. There are many different breeds...
named "Trumper" before entering Space Cadet School.
With Chris Barrie
Chris Barrie
Chris Barrie is a British actor. He first achieved success as a vocal impressionist, notably in the ITV sketch show Spitting Image...
wanting a much smaller part in the show due to other commitments (the writers had to agree at the risk of losing him completely), another main character was needed. The writers felt that a woman was an interesting addition to the environment, especially since Kochanski had already been a minor character in the Red Dwarf canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
since the first series.
Back to Earth
In the three-part special Red Dwarf: Back to EarthRed Dwarf: Back to Earth
Red Dwarf: Back to Earth is a three part TV miniseries continuation of the science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf, broadcast on the British television channel Dave between 10 April and 12 April 2009 and subsequently released on DVD on 15 June 2009 & on Blu-ray on 31 August 2009. It was the first...
, Kochanski is originally presented as having died after the events of the eighth series. However, this is later revealed to be a lie; in fact, Kochanski took a Blue Midget and set off on her own, depressed by Lister's lack of ambition. Lister and the rest of the Red Dwarf crew suffer a collective hallucination of a world in which Red Dwarf is merely a television show, and they are all fictional characters; in that world, Lister reads a magazine with an article about actress Chloë Annett. Later, after realising that the world is an illusion, he meets a version of Kochanski and initially decides to spend his life with her; however, he eventually rejects the illusion in favor of searching out the real Kochanski and winning her back.
Lister's parents
It appears that Kochanski is also paradoxically Lister's mother, and Lister is his own father, due to an unlikely combination of in vitro fertilisationIn vitro fertilisation
In vitro fertilisation is a process by which egg cells are fertilised by sperm outside the body: in vitro. IVF is a major treatment in infertility when other methods of assisted reproductive technology have failed...
and time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
in the series seven episode "Ouroboros". ("Krissie is me ex-girlfriend and me mum!") However, in later episodes, this does not deter Lister from trying to renew his relationship with her.
Last Human
Kochanski also appears prominently in the Red Dwarf novel Last HumanLast Human
Last Human is the title of a 1995 science fiction comedy novel written by Doug Naylor. It is part of the Red Dwarf series of novels, based on the popular television show created by Naylor and his partner Rob Grant...
, written by Doug Naylor. As with all of the Red Dwarf novels, however, Last Human is not considered part of the television canon due to significant variations between the television and book continuities. Kochanski's role in the novel – as a new member of the crew – is similar to that of her role in the seventh and eighth series of the television series, with notable differences:
In the novel, following being reunited with Lister as an aged couple in a world where time runs backwards (following the death of Dave Lister in the "real" universe), Kochanski and Lister have entered into a loving relationship with each other. Now part of the Red Dwarf crew, Kochanski is in a clear position of authority as the highest-ranking member of the crew – a fact that Rimmer clearly resents (having been robbed of what minuscule authority he could claim in that position), although the others either appreciate or at least do not mind due to her clear intelligence and competence. The novel ends with Kochanski and Lister, stranded on an idyllic world in an unknown parallel universe, attempting to start a family with help from the Luck virus.