Rimmer's Duplicate

"I ... SAID ... MISTER ... GAZ ... PAAAACHO, DEAFIE!!!"

- The duplicate bullies original Rimmer

"There's precious little entertainment on this ship. I mean, if you can't attend the odd execution, what have you got left?"

- The duplicate after he isn't allowed to see Rimmer's erasing

Rimmer's Duplicate is the main antagonist from the Red Dwarf episode "Me²" and a minor villain in the novel Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers. He is an exact duplicate of Arnold Rimmer who is like Rimmer in all ways. However, he soon turns against his creator and starts taunting him horribly.

He was portrayed by Chris Barrie.

Series
Thanks to Rimmer's "little help", Lister's attempt to bring Kochanski back to life as a Hologram ends up with making another Hologram version of Rimmer. The two Rimmers befriend each other in no time and move away from Lister's bedroom to a separated one. At first, everything looks fine. However, the duplicate designs a terribly exhausting timetable with working all the day and almost no sleep. Although original Rimmer doesn't like ti very much, his duplicate eventually persuades him to do.



However, their relationship soon get worse. When exhausted original Rimmer protests, he is hushed by his own duplicated who horribly insults him. Being a copy of Rimmer, he knows everything about him, he knows all his fears, failures and problems. He taunts original Rimmer, claiming no one liked him, even his parents didn't. After the duplicate calls him Mr. Gazpacho, referring to the most embarrassing event in Rimmer's life, original Rimmer decides to leave and move back to Lister. However, it doesn't stop them to shout at each other through the wall either.

Things goes worse and worse and when two Rimmer bully each other at the cinema like a small children, it is enough for Lister to decide which Rimmer would be deleted for once and all. Lister uses a rhyme which eventually chooses original Rimmer, much to his duplicate's malicious happiness.

Before erasing the original, Lister asks the duplicate to leave the room. At first, the duplicate protests, as he wants to see an execution, but eventually gets out of the room. While talking to original Rimmer, Lister secretly erases the duplicate instead. It is later revealed Lister chose original Rimmer for erasing purposely.

Novel
When Rimmer finds a Hologram projection unit on a shipwreck of Nova 5, he uses his own disk to create a duplicate of himself in order to have at least one friend on Red Dwarf. At first, both Rimmers are happy to spend their time together. Problems, however, start just like in the episode: with the duplicate creating an exhausting timetable.

While the rest of the crew leaves the ship to mine for the isotope, Rimmers stay on Red Dwarf and attempt to repair Nova 5. As they are both Holograms and can't touch anything, their whole work contains telling the Skutters what to do. Soon, original Rimmer notices his duplicate always looks fit and relaxed despite they go almost without sleeping, causing him to suspect that his duplicate secretly takes a nap. This conflict ends up in a terrible argument which the duplicate severely taunts original Rimmer by calling him Mr. Gazpacho in. The two also give so contradictory order to the Skutters all of them blow up from exhaustion or confusion, almost destroying Nova 5.

When the rest of the crew returns and sees what happened, it is enough for them. Further, there is only a place for one Hologram on Nova 5, so when they want to leave Red Dwarf, they have to erase one of Rimmers. Lister flips a coin and original Rimmer loses.

It ends just like in the episode: while Rimmer explains Lister his Gazpacho soup problem before being erased, Lister secretly erases the duplicate.