Kevin Wilson's Complete Guide to Red Dwarf

Beings and Races

Holograms	The concept of the Hologram is not a new one. The technology enables a member of the ships crew can remain a member of the crew despite the normally debilitating effects of death. The ships computer on Red Dwarf (and in some cases the transport ships such as Starbug) is able to maintain and run a programme of stored information of each crewmember. This programme is comprised of a record of the crewmembers personality, memories, physical dimensions and even medical health. The programme is the run and a holographic image of the dead crewmember appears. Though each holographic image appears real, they are made up of light. In the old hologram systems this meant that there was no sensation of touch and the hologram was not able to pick up items or eat foods. Subsequent versions utilised Hard Light Drives which gave the impression of actual life.
Mechanoids	Mechanoids were created to do all the menial tasks that humans find so disagreeable. They are programmed to perform such duties as the ironing, cooking and cleaning. They are humanoid in shape, but due to rather angular features, they have a silly walk. We first saw an example of a mechanoid in the first episode of season 2. It opened with a television show apparently designed for such machines styled on the hit Australian soap ‘Neighbours’. The character watching the show was Kryten, who later became one of the central Red Dwarf crewmembers. Mechanoids have lots of interesting gadgets and gizmo’s. There is a front Groinal attachment used for doing the vacuuming. Their left nipple nut can be used to regulate body temperature and the right nipple nut is able to pick up short wave radio. The eyes are 579’s with the automatic 15 f-stop cornea. The only really dangerous substance for a Mechanoid is the addictive substance called Otrazone. This is highly addictive and ultimately destroys memory and other vital electronic Mechanoid functions.
Simulants	Simulants are Biomechanical killers create for a war that never took place. Some of them escaped the dismantling process and now they prowl around deep space searching for a foe worthy of their attention! They despise humans and all forms of humanoid life, believing them to be the vermin of the universe. The Red Dwarf crew once ran into a Simulant ship. The captain was so distressed that Starbug was not worthy of a good fight, that he put the crew to sleep and added considerable armaments and engine power to the little ship. He then revived the crew and insisted that they fight their way out! The difference between a psychotic Mechanoid and a Simulant is that the android would not rip off a human head and spit down its neck. They are virtually indestructible and could easily take several rounds of a Bazookoid suffering little damage.
Gelfs	GELF’s are Genetically Engineered Life Forms and pop up in various forms throughout Red Dwarf Saga. GELF’s are a good deal more humanoid that polymorphs or Psirens, and this, in many ways, makes them even more dangerous. GELF’s are untrustworthy scavengers with no regard for life, law or property. They skin human beings alive and turn them into beanbags. Starbug once ventured into Furry GELF space and suffered a damaged to an Oxygen Generation Unit. Lucky for the crew, the GELF’s they encountered (Kinitowawi) were a little more friendly other GELF races and were able to trade Listers libido. The GELF’s had an OGU they did not want the trinkets offered by Kryten. Instead they wanted Lister! Lister is persuaded to marry the furry GELF by an insistent Cat, Kryten and Rimmer. They hatch a plan to do a runner in the morning after the wedding.
Polymorphs	Polymorphs are extremely hostile creatures. They feed off the human psyche, they seek out the deranged, the unbalanced and the emotionally crippled. To make things worse, they are pretty darned ugly too! Looking like a rat with big teeth, they scurry around looking for some unfortunate person whose emotions they can devour. Polymorphs can also change shape. This of course makes it extremely difficult to spot them! (Lister found this out when one of them changed shape into a pair of red underpants and then proceeded to shrink). They originated on Earth, the result of a genetic experiment that went wrong. It was an attempt to create the ultimate warrior, a mutant that could change its shape to deceive its enemies. The Polymorphs therefore generally feed off people's negative emotions, fear, anger, guilt, and paranoia. It is a sort of emotional vampire that changes shape to provoke a negative response from its victim and then sucks that emotion out of them.
Psirens	Psirens look like giant cockroaches. Psirens make you think that they are the object of all of your desires and then suck out your brains with a straw. Psiren's attempt to alter the perceptions of their prospective victims telepathically. They use this power of illusion to lure their victim into their hiding place. Psirens are very difficult to kill, able to take full-on shots from a Bazookoid with relatively minor damage.
Emohawks	Emohawks are nasty creatures. It is a Polymorph that is spayed at birth and half domesticated by the furry GELF’s. It’s trained to change shape at its owner behest. Like all Polymorphs, it has the ability to steel emotions from living creatures. Emotions are, amongst the GELF’s, a highly valued trading commodity. Like all polymorphs, they are able to change shape at will, and they feed off their victims’ emotions, one at a time, usually the most negative ones first.
Skutters	Skutters are the Red Dwarf maintenance robots. They look like hover-mowers with long necks and a beak. They have some intelligence and it seems that they also have feelings. Despite being higher ranking than Rimmer, they were often seen carrying out menial tasks on his behalf. They were also received numerous negative comments from Rimmer and once complained to Lister that they should not be left alone with him. Skutters can reproduce. In the episode Parallel Universe in Season II, we saw that a dark (presumably male) Skutter was chased by a pink (presumably female) Skutter from an alternate dimension. The resulting interface produced lots of little dark and pink Skutters.