Kristine Kochanski

Kristine Kochanski
Red Dwarf character
First appearance	"The End"
Last appearance	"Red Dwarf: Back to Earth (Part Three)"
Portrayed by	Clare Grogan (series 1, 2, 6) Chloë Annett (Series 7, 8, Back to Earth)
Information
Significant other(s)	David Lister
Children	David Lister

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. ^[1][2]

Multiple incarnations

In the first two series, Dave Lister 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. ^[3] 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 Pigg 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 Scottish 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".

Kochanski Camille

Suzanne Rhatigan as "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 Rhatigan, but the credits incorrectly identified her as "Kochanski Camille".

Chloë Annett

Chloë Annett as Kochanski

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.

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 Gorbals (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.

Back to Earth

In the three-part special Red Dwarf: Back to Earth, 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 fertilisation 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.

Last Human

Kochanski also appears prominently in the Red Dwarf novel Last Human, 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.

References

1. ^ Red Dwarf Series II (2002-07-19). "Dwarf USA | Features". Red Dwarf. http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/features/history/red-dwarf-usa/. Retrieved 2009-03-23. 
2. ^ "Red Dwarf (1992) (TV)". Imdb.com. 2003-08-09. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103521/. Retrieved 2009-03-23. 
3. ^ Red Alert, p. 8, SFX, Issue 181, April 2009

External links

• Kristine Kochanski at the Internet Movie Database