Red Dwarf: Every Major Character Ranked From Worst To Best

It seems a tad harsh to mark down a character whose description can be summed up as “a human cat” as limited, but it’s the limitations of Danny John-Jules’ character that sees him hovering around the midway point of this list.

On first appearance, The Cat is a lightning bolt of energy, and great fun. He’s the breakout character of the first few episodes, a cartoonish counterpoint to Lister’s moping and Rimmer’s obnoxiousness. John-Jules interprets the part magnificently, putting in a high tempo, kinetic turn and doing everything he can to answer the perennial quandary “what might happen if cats were left to evolve unchecked for millions of years?”.

The problem is that the character is by far the most limited of the main crew. While Lister comes replete with human foibles, Rimmer with flaws but the potential to develop, and Kryten with (ironically enough) a real beating heart, The Cat stays The Cat.

The character (and performance) seem especially tired later on in the show’s run. He could well be the most distinct and wild creation the writers ever came up with, but he’s also their least textured.