Talk:Arnold Rimmer

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Rimmer shouldn't be under Fictional English People[edit]

Rimmer shouldn't be under Fictional English People. The only mention of where he's from on the show is that he went to Io House for school, and the books have him being from Io. So not English, just somewhere with a remarkably similar accent.

76.189.99.150 07:36, 9 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This has links to a heading on Ace Rimmer, but no such heading. I was going to remove it, but if those who developed this article could make it, that would be wonderful content. Good job on the page, incidentally.

Seems to be left over from when it was part of the Red Dwarf characters page. Fixed. -asciic 08:48, 22 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Name[edit]

An anonymous contributor changed the following text:

Arnold Judas Rimmer BSc, SSc (Bronze Swimming Certificate, Silver Swimming Certificate), who sometimes goes by Arnold Jonathan Rimmer is played by Chris Barrie in the television series Red Dwarf. He is instantly recognisable by both the permanent sneer on his lips and the "H" (hologram) symbol on his forehead.

To read:

...who sometimes goes by Arnold Judas Rimmer...

Does anybody have a citation for his not being sometimes known as Arnold Jonathan Rimmer.

In episode "Justice" (3rd of 4th season) Kryten presents him at court as Arnold Judas Rimmer. There is canned laughter when he speaks the "Judas" part. I suspect that Kryten is playing here on the self loathing, suicidal personality of Rimmer (which is what gets him to prison in the penal colony on the first place); it is not his actual name, else there would have been no canned laughter either; we are to regard it as an in-context joke. Furthermore, Rimmer seems to disaprove of the name. Lucius Domitius 19:53, 24 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The Grim Reaper calls him Arnold Judas Rimmer in the last episode of the series, but he seems to do so in a rather matter of fact way; well, Red Dwarf is not about consistency, really. Lucius Domitius 23:58, 28 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

In The Inquisitor, Lister tries to persuade Rimmer that he (Lister) knows him (Rimmer) by saying something like "Your middle name's Judas, but you tell everyone it's Jonathan". He is referred to as "Arnold J. Rimmer" all the time. So it's definitely his middle name, although he does disapprove of it (he disapproves of most of what his parents did to him, his name being no exception). Mendor 00:00, 14 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting remark; but the fact is that "Justice" predates the "Inquisitor" and is still the first mention of the name "Judas", as a joke according to all evidence. The idea might have occured to the creators to make it into Rimmer's real name after the "Justice" episode. Lucius Domitius 13:37, 16 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The Series II episode "Better Than Life" predates both of these, where the Taxman clarifies his full name, a character created by Rimmer's twisted subconscious. Andymarczak 11:42, 13 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
"it is not his actual name, else there would have been no canned laughter either". I don't follow this reasoning? Judas is an odd and therefore humorous name to have, and seems particularly apt for Rimmer, hence the laughter. Judas is his real name. 86.130.250.216 (talk) 09:40, 8 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Article currently [1] reads in part The creators of the series acknowledge that Rimmer's surname comes from a snobby prefect with whom they attended school. They claim, however, that only the boy's name was used, and not his personality because that would imply he had one. The claim is unsourced. I have been told that the name was a reference to rimming, but I have no source for that either. Andrewa (talk) 01:36, 18 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Rimmer Experience[edit]

I was redirected here from The Rimmer Experience. This article has one sentence which almost discusses the experience section of the episode, but doesn't tell us anything about the experience. The page that was at "The Rimmer Experience" before it was deleted, has a large amount of, (if not usefull then interesting), information about this section of the episode. Is there any way of getting this page "undeleted", or at least merged into this page? JP Godfrey 21:52, 15 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Have a read. Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/The Rimmer Experience --Billpg 20:49, 16 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I have. There was one vote for "Delete", one for "Keep or Merge" and four for "Merge" but in the end it was re-directed with "no content untrivial enough to be worth merging", so I have added it to the bottom of this article. (It could probably use some re-writing and finding a better place for it in the article though.) JP Godfrey 22:19, 16 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Drive Plates[edit]

Consequently, in Series 4 episode 3, "Justice", the story is rewritten on the fly and it is revealed that Rimmer's sense of responsibility for the disaster is due to his zealous egomania and that he could not possibly have been responsible for the the accident.

I don't think it was part of a rewrite.... I figured that Rimmer DID feel guilt about the accident because he WAS responsible, but Kryten was instead twisting the facts just to get Rimmer off the hook. I mean later in the episode Rimmer DID point out how Kryten twisted the facts in order to win... - Nick15

I thought, the whole point of that joke is that Kryten didn't have to "spin" anything to get Rimmer off. He was telling the truth. Just shows how useless Rimmer was, (Before he became a hologram). However, there was a flash-back when we saw Captain Hollister yelling at Rimmer, saying that it was his job to mend the drive plates. Not sure which ep. it came from, but it might have been "Stasis Leak" from series 2. JP Godfrey 11:24, 17 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I think I can be geeky enough to say that you are thinking of the flashback in Me squared. Andymarczak 08:43, 3 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There was also a scene in "Back in the Red" where the resurrected Rimmer goes thorugh the crew files and warns about how if some "total idiot" repaired the drive plate incorrectly, he could wipe out the crew.

76.189.99.150 07:36, 9 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This sounds like yet another case of the writers not actually caring about whether or not something alters continuity, leaving ambiguity as to whether or not it even does. In the books Rimmer clearly isn't responsible and as that's where the first mention of "Z-Shift" appears it's possible Grant Naylor were thinking of this. But in "Justice" Rimmer's initial reaction to it being pointed out he was responsible is "Oh that!" not "I didn't do it!", and there's also his later comments about Krten twisting the facts, suggesting that at the very least he consciously believes he mucked up, not that he was in overall responsibility.
Plus arguably Kryten's case is a very misleading portrayal of Rimmer's personality. Rimmer spends his entire life and death blaming others for his misfortunes (indeed in "The End" he blames the accident on Lister for getting sent to stasis and not being there to help him repair the drive plate) and feeling responsible for something he had no hand in at all would sit very oddly with this. Yes his subconscious contains a great deal of self-loathing and there could be an element of that in the guilt in his subconscious, but surely that would be directed at his lack of importance (and the self-inflicted nature of his lack of importance) - guilt that he wasn't in a position to prevent it or be responsible - rather than the over inflated sense of self-importance that Kryten talks about. Rimmer's self-importance has always based on what he thinks he can be (or would be if he'd had the breaks others got and the right parents and the right nobby background and the right room mate and knowledge that gazpacho soup is served cold etc...) and what meagre pieces he can scrape from what he is (e.g. the highest ranking remaining crewmember or even the importance that vending machines dispense the right products so that the crew are content) not on being responsible for errors. Timrollpickering 03:15, 13 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • I just always thought that Kryten was proving that it was not Arnold's fault because he should of not been put into a position to do that sort of work in the first place. With everyone on board knowing what he was like. Thus making it the Captains responsibility. --MattyC3350 (talk) 05:12, 28 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Tidy up[edit]

I've tidied up the page a bit and tried to put everything into a more logical and lucid structure, as previously it was going from his life to his personality to his death and then back again. I also removed the section about 'The Rimmer Experience', since it seemed unnecessary to devote so much space to a single joke about the character (and I'm not sure, but I don't think we're allowed to provide entire song-lyric quotes on Wikipedia, as was the case) when it could be summed up in a single sentence or paragraph - nevertheless, I've retained the text and provided it here, and am willing to be convinced that it could be important. Any comments are welcome.--Joseph Q Publique 15:07, 23 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The Rimmer Experience would be irritatingly obvious to everyone (both on-set, and off-set) who has seen it, and therefore only worth mentioning because of that. Reproducing the entire lyrics is an exercise in pedantry.

His middle name[edit]

Was in it Judas? In episodes Only the Good...--Brown Shoes22 03:58, 12 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Rimmers sexual exploits[edit]

In the article it states that rimmer has only had sex with one woman (Yvonne Mcgruder) but in "Holoship" (series V)its shown (or at least heavily implied) that he had sex with Nirvanah Crane(the exact quote is something along the lines of "You make love like a chinese meal...")I'm not the best at editing articles and I didn't want to make such a huge change...so could someone whose more capable make the edit or explain to me why its not credited? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Agent452 (talk • contribs) 21:37, 13 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes but Nirvanah only came along after he was dead so isn't relevant to his life. Timrollpickering 22:39, 13 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"Who sometimes goes by Arnold Jonathan Rimmer"[edit]

I am a great fan of this show and A. J. Rimmer is my favourite character. Having say this I cannot remember a time in the series that he is refered to as "Arnold Jonathan Rimmer" All I can remember is him being called "Arnold J Rimmer, Arnold Judas Rimmer, A J Rimmer, or Smeghead. Maybe it should go, "Who sometimes goes by Smeg head, Smeg for Brains, Goalpost Head, Flared Nostrils.. ext" MattyC3350 (talk) 07:12, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Lister made a comment in "The Inquisitor" that Rimmer implies to people that his middle name is Jonathan. It's a one-off comment, hardly notable and shouldn't be mentioned. Nreive (talk) 08:40, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for that :) I remember that one instance now. I agree I dont think it is really notable. Thanks :) MattyC3350 (talk) 10:16, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Father[edit]

I have deleted the following passage because I am a big Red Dwarf fan, but I have not seen anything in the show to suggest that there is any basis for this information. The only evidence that exists is his fathers suggestion that he "had an alibi for his sperm that night" but that is just along the lines of deriding things that a lot of disappointed fathers say about underachieving children "He's no Son of mine" etc etc...Also, he does bear an uncany resemblance to his Brother Frank in the episode "Timeslides" (because he is also played by Chris Barrie!). Anyway, this is the passage I removed until someone can provide any other evidence to support it. "There is evidence scattered throughout the series that Rimmer may have a different father than his brothers — specifically, that he may be the only one of the four Rimmer children to be the biological child of both Mr. and Mrs. Rimmer. [citation needed] He claimed that his father had an alibi for his sperm on the night of conception." magnius (talk) 09:16, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Image copyright problem with File:Holoship (Red Dwarf).jpg[edit]

The image File:Holoship (Red Dwarf).jpg is used in this article under a claim of fair use, but it does not have an adequate explanation for why it meets the requirements for such images when used here. In particular, for each page the image is used on, it must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Please check

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Main Image[edit]

Given the main image is of Rimmer on an alien Holoship, in a different uniform, with a different 'H' moniker on his forehead, it's perhaps not the best image to represent the article. Could we find a different one? 86.130.250.216 (talk) 09:38, 8 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

FIRST OFFICER RIMMER[edit]

Why is Rimmer referred to as "First Officer Rimmer" in the season 7 episode, "Stoke me a Clipper?" In "Better Than Life", I'm assuming that the reference to Rimmer having actually passed a previous Astro-Navigation exam and thereby being promoted to Navigation Officer First Class, is discounted based on the fact that in the next scene an 'in-game' character appears and Lister exclaims, "We're still in the game!" So how can he be an officer? 60.240.5.113 (talk) 08:13, 5 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't seen it but reading our article I would think it is linked to the alternative Rimmers that are part of the plot. Britmax (talk) 08:51, 5 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You're an article contributor for Red Dwarf but you haven't seen all the episodes? I would've only thought die hard fans would be motivated to edit these. In that episode, a memorial is held for the original Rimmer even though he does not die. However, Lister refers to him as "First Officer Rimmer." So it's not one of the alternative Rimmers. This one is certainly a mystery and probably one only Doug Naylor could answer.60.240.5.113 (talk) 15:36, 5 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

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