Kryten (Red Dwarf)

"Kryten" is the seventh episode^[1] from science fiction sit-com Red Dwarf, the first from series two,^[2] and was first broadcast on BBC2 on 6 September 1988. Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and directed by Ed Bye, this episode introduced the mechanoid character Kryten. The episode was re-mastered, along with the rest of the first three series, in 1998.

Plot

Red Dwarf receives a distress call from a crashed spaceship, the Nova 5. As usual, Rimmer (Chris Barrie) claims this to be aliens. But according to the on-board service mechanoid that sent the distress call, Kryten (David Ross), the ship contains lifeforms of a much less hostile nature — women. The Red Dwarf crew boldly spruce themselves up to respond to the call. However, on arrival the gang are shocked to find the droid character Kryten has been looking after, clothing and feeding three skeletons ever since the crash, and have been that way for centuries. Kryten however, takes some convincing. How will he cope now? What will he do? After all, he is programmed to serve on the human race (as he explains, "I serve, therefore I am"). In the end, Lister (Craig Charles) takes pity on him and brings Kryten back to Red Dwarf.^[3]

Rimmer, not surprisingly, gives Kryten a huge list of chores to do, but Lister, not used to lace curtains and bendable boxers, decides to take Kryten under his wing. With a little help from Marlon Brando and James Dean he intends to turn the mechanoid into something of a rebel. It seems Lister's tutoring on rebelling are unsuccessful, until Kryten paints a picture of Rimmer sitting on a toilet in his admiral uniform. He then throws a container of soup onto Rimmer's bunk and insults him. He dresses up in leathers, borrows Lister's space bike and speeds off. (However, he is to return a few months later in a subsequent episode).

Production

The writers realised that the huge Red Dwarf ship on its own did not generate enough story material and to accommodate this new direction for the series a small shuttle ship, Blue Midget, was designed to ferry the crew to and from different locations.^[4] The new ship was based on an "every day car" that would go from A to B. Miniature crew models were made to fit inside the small ship and filming was added to footage of the Red Dwarf ship.^[5]

It took up to eight hours for David Ross to get into the Kryten make-up

This is the first appearance of Kryten, who wasn't originally intended to become a main character and is not seen again in Series 2. David Ross played Kryten in this episode, but because of scheduling clashes Robert Llewellyn played the character when he became a regular from Series III onwards.^[6] The writers had resisted using robot characters as they had considered the practice a sci-fi cliché.^[4]

Kryten's appearance was of a mechanical-looking butler with an angular head. The head mask had provided the most problems to the make up and effects team. Prosthetic foam originally used for the mask kept falling apart and eventually a latex piece was produced.^[7] Initially it had taken David Ross up to eight hours to get into the full Kryten make-up. To make matters worse, Ross suffered from claustrophobia.^[8]

Johanna Hargreaves appeared as the Esperanto teacher and Tony Slattery voiced an android actor in the Androids television show.^[9]

Cultural references

• Howard Goodall wrote the Androids theme tune with the Australian soap opera Neighbours in mind. The song, containing similar lyrics and tune, was trimmed down due to time constraints.^[10]

• Rimmer is trying to learn the Esperanto language and has been for the last eight years. Part of the background in the narrative of Red Dwarf is that because the Space Corps is an international organization, Esperanto is commonly used as a secondary language aboard its ships, e.g. corridors aboard the ship are labelled in both English and Esperanto (Level/Nivelo). This is the only episode that has Esperanto dialogue.

• Rimmer also appears dressed as an admiral to visit the crashed ship, and is described by Lister as looking like Clive of India. Rimmer describes the dead women as having "less meat on them than a Chicken McNugget". The "Mc" in McNugget is removed on the remastered DVD due to trademark issues with McDonalds, although if Rimmer's lips are watched the reference is quite clear.

• Lister insists that Kryten should watch classic rebel films like The Wild One, Rebel Without a Cause and Easy Rider, hoping that the films, including the Marlon Brando rebel speech, would help the mechanoid break his servile programming. Kryten quotes Marlon Brando in the last line of the episode: Rimmer asks, "What are you rebelling against?" and Kryten replies in an affected voice, "What d'ya got?"^[11]

• While preparing for their first contact with the Nova 5 crew, Rimmer asks Lister to call him by names that would make him look good in front of the female survivors, such as his high school nickname. Lister retorts that his nickname was probably "bonehead" and Rimmer reluctantly confirms, but adds that he wished to be called "Ace". The character "Ace Rimmer" would later appear in the series IV episode Dimension Jump and turn out to be a mirror version of Rimmer from an alternative universe in which he became a hero loved by all.

• Kryten's initial plight parallels Harry Harrison's 1968 short story "I Have My Vigil," in which a robot narrates his daily routine of caring for a small group of astronauts, oblivious to the fact that they are dead.

Reception

Originally broadcast on the British television channel BBC2 on 6 September 1988 in the 9:00 pm evening slot,^[12] the episode gained average viewing ratings,^[13] and received a mixed response from viewers. One reviewer stated that "the episode would be a brilliant one if Kryten weren't a little too C3PO-ish."^[14] The episode also received a mixed response from fans, voting it 22nd in a 1992 Red Dwarf Magazine readers' poll with 1.4% of the votes. This ranked it the lowest of Series 2's episodes.^[15]

Remastering

The remastering of Series I to III was carried out during the late 1990s.^[16] Changes throughout the series included replacement of the opening credits,^[17] giving the picture a colour grade and filmising,^[18] computer generated special effects of Red Dwarf^[19] and many more visual and audio enhancements.^[19] Changes specific to "Kryten" include a new ending with Kryten flying Lister's space bike off into distant space away from Red Dwarf.^[20]

See also

• Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, the first Red Dwarf novel, features an expanded version of events from this episode and builds on the backstory.^[21]
• "Backwards", the Series III episode when Kryten begins appearing as a main character.

Notes

• This is the first episode we see Rimmer touching things, albeit only other holographic objects.

References

References

• Howarth, Chris; Steve Lyons (1993). Red Dwarf Programme Guide. Virgin Books. ISBN 0-86369-682-1. 

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Kryten

• "Kryten" at BBC Programmes
• "Kryten" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Kryten" at TV.com
• Episode Guide - Series II at RedDwarf.co.uk