The only thing keeping him alive is you, you're never gonna win that dude's approval, give it up!The Cat giving Arnold Rimmer advice on the emotional struggles he can sense within him regarding his relationship with his father.
Goodbye Arnold, and good luck. Naturally you won't be receiving any birthday presents from me anymore.Mr. Rimmer's final message to Arnold after informing him that he wasn't his biological father.
Mr. Rimmer is one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside Rodon) of the sci-fi comedy franchise Red Dwarf.
He was the abusive patriarch of the Rimmer family who was utterly obsessed with his sons ending up as successful military figures in the space corps due to his own failure within the field, he was also the social father of Arnold Rimmer who he resented moreso than his other sons for the fact that he was born due to his wife having an affair with their family gardener Dungo Dennis. He is essentially the reason why Arnold turned out as the man he is today.
He was portrayed by the late John Abineri in Better than Life and by Simon Treves in all of his following appearances.
Biography
Rimmer's father was born sometime in the 22nd century and had ambitions to become an officer in the Space Corps, unfortunately he was refused entry due to being one inch below regulation height, driving him to madness. Sometime after this he met and fell in love with his wife and had three sons with her, unfortunately however she was unfaithful to him due to his unpleasant personality and would regularly sleep around with multiple other men, one of these affairs with the family gardener Dungo Dennis resulted in the youngest of the Rimmer boys Arnold being born, although he did raise Arnold with his other sons Mr. Rimmer had a clear resentment towards the boy and greatly disliked him but was nevertheless still fixated on him joining the Space Corps.
Mr. Rimmer's obsession with getting the boys to become Space Corps officers resulted in him having heavily strained and poor relationships with each of his sons due to the horrific abuse they would endure at his hands which included being forcefully stretched on a rack every night to avoid them being below regulation height, being refused meals if they couldn't answer astrophysics questions correctly which resulted in Arnold nearly dying from malnutrition and finally using his sons (particularly Arnold) as Guinea pigs in his schoolwork by gaslighting them and making them doubt their own abilities and intelligence. Eventually the first three sons John, Frank and Howard became members of the Space Corps via Mr. Rimmer sending them to the Academy however Arnold didn't get this treatment, instead having to work his own way into the company, eventually finding his way on board the JMC mining ship Red Dwarf.
Mr. Rimmer kept in contact with his sons, including Arnold, only stopping once he had passed away, unbeknownst to him however both Howard and Arnold died before him and were only resurrected as holograms on their separate vessels centuries later. Prior to his own death he sent Arnold a video hologram that he instructed him not to listen to until he was an officer in the Space Corps, eventually Arnold listened to it regardless as he no longer cared what his father thought of him only to be stunned at the revelation that Mr. Rimmer was not his biological father after all and that Dungo was, in spite of the shock however Arnold realised it was a good thing as he no longer had his father's obscene standards to live up to and he could finally be his own man separate from his father's grasp.
Personality
From what we see of Mr. Rimmer he was a very unpleasant and horrible man, abusing his sons and treating all of them, particularly Arnold with huge amounts of contempt and disappointment, in spite of that however he did have some care for them, even Arnold as evidenced from how he instructed Arnold not to listen to the truth about his upbringing until he was an officer so not to destroy his self esteem. Mr. Rimmer was also reportedly insane and had a heavy obsession with the military and Space Corps which was only amplified when he was refused entry into them.
Appearance
Mr Rimmer was a rather sour-faced and stern looking middle-aged man with fair skin and grey thinning hair with a matching beard. He usually dressed rather formally or professionally befitting his profession.
