- Dominator Zlurth ("The Beginning", Series X)
Dominator Zlurth was the leader of group of elite Rogue Simulants known as the Simulant Generals.
Zlurth was the commander of the Simulant Death Ship, the mobile command base of the Simulant Generals, and its fleet of Annihilator attack craft.
Surrounded by his Chancellors, Zlurth saw his subordinates as no more than toadying sycophants and inept cowards, and amused himself by sadistically tormenting them both physically and mentally, and ordering their executions when they failed him.
Like all Simulants, the main goal of Zlurth's existence was to hunt down and kill the last human alive in the galaxy, Dave Lister, whom he hunted for three million years.
History[]
Dominator Zlurth's early history is unknown, although presumably the same as other Rogue Simulants. Kryten was familiar with the Simulant Generals, appearing frightened of them, saying that they had been cross-bred into entities of pure evil.
Whilst Zlurth and the Simulant Generals slumbered on down-time, a rogue droid and thief Hogey the Roguey broke into their ship using a Molecular Destabilizer and stole a prized cloth map which showed everything of note in the galaxy.
Unfortunately for the boys from Red Dwarf, Hogey had an obsession with the Dwarfers and like many times before ended up on Red Dwarf to challenge Lister and co to "a duel across time and space". However, the Simulant Death Ship was onto Hogey, wanting their map back, and had followed Hogey to Red Dwarf. Finding the human and his lieutenants was a great bonus to Dominator Zlurth.
Dominator Zlurth ordered three Annihilators to begin bombarding Red Dwarf with Photon Mutilators, but as the Dwarf took fire, Lister and co escaped in a Blue Midget shuttle and headed for a nearby asteroid belt. The Annihilators pursued, but lost Blue Midget among the asteroids.
Dominator Zlurth's second-in-command, Chancellor Wednesday, came to Zlurth to inform him that the "human insurgent" was still alive and had escaped, imploring for forgiveness of his failure. With a face showing no emotion, Zlurth told Wednesday that forgiveness is a human quality, and has no meaning to a Simulant General. Zlurth slides his Sword of Spite across the table to Wednesday, telling him that he knows what to do. Without thinking, Wednesday stabbed himself into the gut in order to commit hari-kari. However, Dominator then told him, smiling, to polish the sword and write a formal letter of apology as a punishment, not commit a suicide. Wednesday says that Zlurth's intentions were never really made clear, then he collects his organs and leaves to put his organs back in.
Zlurth convened a War Council, but the pandering of his terrified Chancellors to him angered him further. Zlurth ordered them to stop toadying and tell also their own opinion, debate him and question his orders, because only with dissenting voices and alternate opinions would they be truly strong. One of the Chancellors dared to mention to Zlurth what happened to the last Simulants who questioned his statements, saying that it would be suicide to question the Dominator. For these comments he was immediately sentenced to death and hauled out of the room. With threats of "agonising" the rest of them, Dominator Zlurth ordered the Chancellors to send out more probes to find their enemy's ship, and begin blowing up the asteroids one-by-one, forcing them back out into the open.
When Blue Midget finally showed up, it was immediately encircled by the Simulant Death Ship and three Annihilators, preparing to attack from multiple angles. Arnold Rimmer, given a fresh sense of possibility and resourcefulness due to information revealed by the the holo-lamp, contacted the Dominator by video-link and threatened to write a complaint letter to Geneva if they will keep violating the Geneva Convention's code on prisoner-of-war treatment and the "niceties of battle". Zlurth and Wednesday ignored his warning, and Zlurth told Rimmer that it is the way of all things - you live, you die. Rimmer sarcastically retorted that he had already died and come back to life numerous times.
The Simulant Generals fired their missiles from the Death Ship and Annihilators at the same time. Lister then enacted Rimmer's plan - using Hogey's Molecular Destabilizer to destabilize the hull of Blue Midget and allow the missiles to pass safely right through the ship. This caused the missiles to hit the other Simulant crafts on the opposite sides, blowing them up and killing all Simulants aboard.
In his last moments, realising his own missiles were headed for him, Dominator Zlurth repeated Rimmer's calls for implementation of the Geneva Convention. Rimmer pretended not to hear this. ("The Beginning", Series X)