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In the episode Legion, Rimmer says

In all our travels we have met precisely 31, 3,1 individuals and we’ve never felt moved to invite a single one to join us. True, most of them wanted in some way to suck out our brains, or erase us from history altogether, but nevertheless, they still weren’t what we would consider, the right stuff. We feel that you are different. We feel that you, like us, have the courage and dignity to make it, as a Dwarfer!"

Is this list accurate and if so who are these 31 people?

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  • 2
    I doubt it's an accurate figure. They met 24 in the episode Meltdown alone. And then another 15 in Backwards. imdb.com/title/tt0684164/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast imdb.com/title/tt0684144/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast
    – Moogle
    Mar 23, 2016 at 16:48
  • Added TV tag. The Dwarf Characters are pretty much alone in the book series. On the plus side, in the books, special guests don't get to steal all the good lines.
    – Major Stackings
    Mar 23, 2016 at 23:42
  • Another plus side in the books: Craig Ferguson attempts no American accents.
    – Politank-Z
    Mar 24, 2016 at 0:20
  • Queeg? Does he count?
    – Andrew Tice
    Mar 24, 2016 at 11:36
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    They might have forgotten a lot of them due to memory wipes and time line weirdness. It's debatable if Rimmer considered the Meltdown waxworks as people, rather than Risk pieces. You could also argue that Rimmer is incorrect since Kryten and Camille were invited to join the crew. (Not counting the many alternative selves they encountered)
    – Imperator Helvetica
    Mar 24, 2016 at 11:45

1 Answer 1

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In some rough calculations. Legion is Season 6 Episode 2.

If we count individuals as people or creatures who the crew have met (not aspects or copies of themselves) after the accident - we have:

24 in Meltdown (Thanks Moogle)
15 in Backwards (Also Moogle)
1 in Inquisitor
1 in Camille (2 if you include her husband, but no one really met him.)
1 in DNA (The Psychopathic Curry Man)
1 in Justice (The simulant prisoner)
2 in Polymorph
1 in Bodyswap (The former crew officer who is decanted into Lister's body)
4 - Timeslides is complicated - Alternate future Lister's wife and butler, Thicky Holder, Rimmer's brother Frank and the commanding officers of the Third Reich. Count that as Hitler only. Rimmer technically met Thicky earlier, so he probably doesn't count as new. That's 4
1 in The Last Day (Kryten's replacement - Hudzen 10)
1 in Parallel Universe (While gender-flipped Rimmer, Lister and Holly are the same person, Dog is not Cat)
2 in Confidence and Paranoia (The titular manifestations of Lister's mind)
1 in Waiting for God (The Cat priest - although only new to Cloister)
At least half a dozen in Holoship - though none of them could 'join the crew' without deactivating Rimmer. 8 credited.
There were the Psirens too - notable especially for wanting to eat brains. About 7 of them.

That's 70 in total.

Kryten himself might count too. Queeg being Holly in a mask doesn't. Talkie Toaster was known to Lister before the episode.

Short answer: No, Rimmer was lying while trying to flatter Legion. Maybe if he meant people who the whole crew (including Kryten?) met for the first time. With enough time to have a conversation? That would rule out some of the monsters.

Ultimately it's the rule of Funny over accuracy. On the other hand the Red Dwarf crew have met themselves with incredible frequency (and cheaper than paying guest actors!)

In response to Richard's comment:

20 Humans
8 Holograms
27 Androids (Including wax droids and simulants)
11 GELFs
1 Felis Sapiens
1 Canis Sapiens
2 physical manifestations of Lister's space 'flu.

I just thought - technically Lister gave birth to twins too, the result of the drunken liaison with himself. Who knows what they count as.

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  • The characters in Meltdown were wax droids. I suspect if you limit it specifically to humans, former humans and lifeforms who could realistically survive within our universe, you'll come up with a closer number.
    – Valorum
    Mar 26, 2016 at 23:12

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