Kryten

Kryten (full name, "Kryten 2X4B-523P") is a fictional character in the British television series Red Dwarf. In the character's first appearance, Kryten was played by actor David Ross. However, the role has been performed most often and popularly by Northampton-born actor Robert Llewellyn.

Kryten is a Series 4000 mechanoid or "slave 'noid"—a robotic servant—and is quite neurotic. He is very humanoid, with the exception of the flat cubic planes visible on his face and head. Once the personal servant of three attractive female crew members of the Nova 5, he is now reduced to serving the slobbish Dave Lister, the only surviving human crew member on Red Dwarf. Kryten also believes in Silicon Heaven, the electronic afterlife. He is often referred to as 'novelty condom head' by the crew.

Kryten was built by DivaDroid International, one of a number of Series 4000 models based on a design by roboticist Professor Mamet. This design was actually intended as a joke on her ex-fiancé, the mechanoids being a caricature of his fussiness and pomposity.

Kryten (as played by Ross) was introduced in series 2 as the cleaning mechanoid on the Nova 5 which had crashed, killing almost all the crew (it is possible he was inadvertently responsible for this; in the first Red Dwarf novel, the Nova 5 crashed because Kryten washed the navigation computer; however this may not be regarded as part of the "official", canon story). He looked after the three survivors for three million years, refusing to admit they had died of old age, until he was rescued by the Red Dwarf. Initially Arnold Rimmer took advantage of his servility, but Lister persuaded him to rebel against his programming. He took Lister's space-bike and went out to find a planet he could grow a garden on. He was also on the SS Augustus before the Nova 5, but the crew died of old age.

At the beginning of series 3, we learn that Kryten smashed the bike into an asteroid. Lister rebuilt him, but was unable to recreate him exactly. (This was intended to explain the differences between Ross' portrayal of the character and Llewellyn's). Most noticeably, whereas he previously had an "English butler" voice, similar to C-3PO, he now had a Canadian accent.

Having lost his obedience programs, Kryten has been able to better himself. While he continues to be a sanitation droid, and to enjoy cleaning and serving others, he has also become the science expert amongst the Dwarfers, often leading missions. The dichotomy between these two aspects of his personality has led to Rimmer nicknaming him "Captain Bog-bot".

Kryten has also extended his emotional range, which has led to him deactivating his shutdown disk (DivaDroid believe in planned obsolescence). His greatest ambition is to be human, and to this end he has attempted to learn to lie and insult people (mostly Rimmer), although he has trouble with the words Smeg Head (he says smeeee heee). He did however become human for a few days after a machine changed his structure. He didn't enjoy the experience as much as he thought he would. He was briefly returned to factory settings (including the English accent) in series 8, but his hard-won independence broke through. When Red Dwarf was re-built with the crew, Kryten was reclassed as a woman due to his lack of male genitalia (that is, his lack of any genitalia: the only mechanoids given genitals were the ones created to work on Italian starships). Due to this deficiency, Kryten decided to make a penis called Archie, who runs around like a mouse. Konchanski commented that Kryten was a real man because "like most men, you just don't have any control over your penis," thereby making Kryten very proud.

Kryten had three spare heads, one of which has droid-rot (a condition similar to computer senility). The spare heads can engage in conversation with Kryten. Once, the other heads held a poll and voted Kryten as the ugly, big-eared one, upsetting Kryten. The others took turns being head head. All of these were destroyed due to the final step of Mamet's joke; eventually a 2X4B mechanoid will "blow its top". The "negadrive" which caused this has been removed, and, luckily, Kryten's personality chips survived and were placed in a new head.

Kryten formed an irrational dislike of the new Kristine Kochanski when he first met her, mostly out of a fear she and Lister will fall in love and abandon him. However he grew to respect her (although not necessarily like her) after she saved Lister's life from the Epideme virus.

The name Kryten is a reference to the head butler in the J.M. Barrie play The Admirable Crichton.