Kristine Kochanski
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Red Dwarf character | |
 |
|
| Kristine Kochanski | |
|---|---|
| Affiliated with | Red Dwarf crew |
| First appearance | The End |
| Last appearance | Only the Good... |
| Portrayed by | Clare Grogan, Chloë Annett |
Kristine Z. Kochanski is a fictional character from the British science fiction comedy television series Red Dwarf. Kochanski was the first console officer in the navigation chamber onboard 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.
Contents |
[edit] The Multiple Incarnations of Kristine Z Kochanski
After the publication of the first (two) Red Dwarf novels Grant Naylor took the opportunity to re-write several aspects of the back story. The crew of the Dwarf pre-accident increased by a thousand, the pre-accident setting moved two hundred years forward, from the 21st to the 23rd century and Kristine Kochanski underwent her first major transformation.
In season one Lister lusted after Kochanski, a perky working class-girl-made-good, but never had a relationship with her. Indeed he was said to have shared a total of 171 words with her, rating her below his potted plant.
In the first novel she appeared to either be more of a social climber or, more likely, to have started further up the social ladder. She is learning Japanese 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 favorite 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.
Although most of the alteration brought in after the books begin at season three, the first season after the publication of the first book, the onscreen depiction of Kochanski stayed the same. The same actress (Clare Grogan) portrayed her, and she remained the cheeky yet spunky Scottish lass of the first two seasons. The portrayal of Kochanski in the books is, broadly, compatible with both this portrayal, and Chloe Annett's later portrayal.
In season seven, following the departure of Rob Grant who (as evinced by the two books the authors of the series wrote separately) was less enamored of Kochanski than Doug Naylor, and following the temporary departure of Rimmer actor Chris Barrie the character of Kochanski was brought in to re-balance the cast and add some glamour. Clare Grogan was offered the part, but declined in order to focus on stage acting.
Instead Chloe Annett, best known for appearing in period dramas, took the role. The where the Kochanski of the books made the character more sedate, more middle class and less of a "laddette" Ms Annett's portrayal (and Naylor's writing) moved the character even further along the scale, giving her an upper middle class accent, a privileged (in 20th Century terms Public School) upbringing, fastidious manners and classical taste. In every sense bar name, this is a completely different personality to Clare Grogan's although, as said above, both are compatible with the Kochanski of the first two books.
Ms Annett's Kochanski also dated Lister for a short time before leaving her for a catering officer called Tim (although it is not specified here that he is her ex-boyfriend. It could be a fresh relationship.
In both book and series 7 versions, it is Kochanski's rejection of him that leads to Lister to his plan with Frankenstein and the stasis booth.
The Kochanski played by Ms Annett is introduced in the third episode of series seven. She arrives on Starbug accidentally having crossed from a parallel universe. In her world she discovered Frankenstein, the cat Lister smuggled on board, and hid him herself. She was discovered and frozen in stasis during the accident that wiped out the crew as, in our universe, Dave Lister was. She, like Lister, emerges from stasis millions of years later to find the crew wiped out and that she is miles from home. For reasons unspecified Holly brings back her ex-boyfriend Dave Lister as a hologram (as opposed to our world in which Rimmer is brought back with the express intent of providing Lister with conflict and thus keeping him sane). Initially a soft light hologram this Lister is unable to touch, eat or in anyway react with his world. This, apparently, makes him mature, sensitive and cultured although it is unknown with this is intended as a direct reference to, and inversion of, the lyrics to Leonard Cohen's 1968 version of Hallelujah "I couldn't feel so I learned to touch", Lister's version of course being "I couldn't touch so I learned to feel". When Lister gets a hard light drive (presumably from Legion, as Rimmer does in our universe) they rekindle their relationship.
Throughout Seasons 7 and 8 Kochanski remains with the crew, even when rejoined by Rimmer is season eight. After the halfway point of season she seems to stop trying to find ways back to her own universe, and the entirety of season eight could be watched without gaining any hint she is from a parallel universe.
[edit] Clare Grogan as Kochanski
In The End, the first ever episode of Red Dwarf (before the accident which killed the crew) Kochanski was played by Scottish actress Clare Grogan. Grogan again appeared as Kochanski in the episode Balance of Power, both in flashback and as a hologram.
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.
Clare Grogan briefly reprised the role one last time during a hallucination of Lister's in the the sixth series episode Psirens.
[edit] Suzanne Rhatigan as Kochanski
As a brief appearance in [Camille (Red dward episode)] The credits stated that a young actress that had not previously featured in the Red Dwarf series had played the role of Lister's fantasy of his perfect companion, Named in the credits as "Kochanski Camille", Although the character in question resembled more or less a female version of lister himself, down to the clothing and the attitude that he had adopted and not in any way followed on from the previous "true" Kochanski.
[edit] 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 series of Red Dwarf made so far, features both Kochanski and Rimmer.
In her universe, the alternate version of Kochanski discovered Lister's pregnant pet cat, Frankenstein, and confiscates her, but cannot 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 therefore she survives the radiation leak which killed the rest of the crew and not Lister. In this alternate dimension Holly brings Lister back as a hologram instead of Rimmer, and his intangiablity apparently leads to him becoming a near-stereotyped "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 we can assume they are more sophisticated as the alternate Kochanski seems unimpressed with their alternatives as well.
[edit] Place in the seventh and eighth series
After being trapped with the "Dwarfers" in their univerese, 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 "laddish" environment. Much of the humour in her scenes comes from the difference between her frame of reference and that of the others. Although Annett, unlike Grogan, does not have a Scottish accent, it's at this time we are told 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.
The addition of Kochanski as a regular character in the show caused mixed reactions in ther fans; some loved the idea, some hated it. In either case, times were changing and 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 adding a woman was an interesting idea to add to this environment, and especially since Kochanski had already been a minor character in the Red Dwarf canon since the first series. In many circumstances Kochasnki was used by the writers to replaced Kryten as the exposition character during the seventh and eighth series.
Originally, it was suggested that Lister had loved Kochanski from afar, but never found the courage to ask her out. This was changed to them having had a relationship that ended before the accident in the novel Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers (she went back to her previous boyfriend Tim), and later episodes have followed that version.
[edit] Kochanski as Lister's mother?
It would appear that Kochanski is also paradoxically Lister's mother, due to an unlikely combination of In vitro fertilisation and time travel acted out in the series seven episode Ouroboros. This also means that Lister is in fact his own father and Kochanski, his ex-girlfriend and continuing object of lust, is inadvertently his mother.
In later episodes this doesn't actually deter Lister from trying to renew his relationship with her. However this doesn't necessarily mean that Lister was committing incest by this or even when he unknowingly embarked on a relationship with Kochanski; as she still may not actually be his mother.
The Kochanski of series one to six (the Kochanski with which Lister had a relationship with) was a different Kochanski to the one seen in series seven and eight (the Kochanski who would appear to be Lister's mother); these two were from separate universes.
[edit] 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 VIIth and VIIIth 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 do not mind or appreciate 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.
