Hard light

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Hard Light is a fictional concept, used in science fiction, including DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and the British comedy sci-fi series Red Dwarf. The concept is similar to the "photon resequencing" used in the Star Trek universe to produce solid-seeming holograms.

The Marvel characters Dazzler and Quasar are able to project solid blasts of force, referred to as Solid Light. Quasar and the villain Lightmaster are also able to form mobile shapes of this energy.

On Red Dwarf, it is first used in the series 6 episode Legion. The strange creature, later found out to be the combination of all the crew's minds, changes Rimmer's light beam from soft light to hard light. In this form, Rimmer can do anything a human can do, such as feel the cold, eat, and touch non-holographic artifacts. Plus, although his "pleasure and pain responses" stay the same, he cannot come to any harm, as is proved when Kryten whacks him over the head repeatedly with various objects in an attempt to knock him out, so the Legion entity will "diminish in power". This proved to be a lot easier for the cast and crew, as Rimmer could not touch anything before this event. It has also been said that a hard light hologram would require a lot of power to use. Rimmer's hard light presence is used only for short periods of time (from this episode and onward throughout the rest of the show), such as when the Red Dwarf crew is gathering supplies from a derelict ship. Due to this, Rimmer spends most of his time as a soft-light hologram.