A character from
Red Dwarf. Also an
Episode
Kryten began life as a service
mechanoid aboard the
nova 5. After a computer error (It disliked being cleaned with a
mop and
bucket), the nova 5 crased into an asteroid, leaving kryten alone with the ship's three crewmembers.
Thousands of years later, the crew of
Red Dwarf stumble across the wreck. Kryten does his best to play the good host, but the rest of the crew are somewhat
Unconversational.
Dead quiet, in fact. Kryten follows the crew to red dwarf, rather than face not having anyone to serve.
Rimmer is quite happy to order kryten around, and make up pointless tasks for him to do.
Lister can't stand to see kryten be treated like this; he wants Kryten to be following his dreams, like he is trying to do.
Kryten, however is happy just to serve people. It's all he's ever done. When Lister pushes the issue, he admits to having dreams '
I'm in a garden. I've never even seen a garden, except in books. And I've planted everything, and made it grow. It's my garden, and there's no-one there but me, just me and all the things I made live'.*1
Lister's instruction, accompanied by
Easy Rider,
The Wild Ones and
Rebel Without A Cause convinces Kryten to defy his original programming, and rebel agains Rimmer. He leaves on Lister's bike, not to be seen again until the next series.
The
series 4000 mechanoid was designed by
Professor Mammet, and its personality was modeled after her
ex-husband. It is uncertain whether the
Groinal attachment *2 has the same origin. In
Kryten, Kryten is played by
David Ross. In series 3 onwards he is played by
Robert Llewelyn.
1 - This is probably the most moving line in Red Dwarf, and I've taken the liberty of quoting it in its entirety. Robert Llewelyn's kryten has grown up, doesn't have the sadness of David Ross's
2- A huge umbilical hose to which a hoover, floor polisher, or even an egg whisk can be attached
'So you can just plug in the groinal attachment and whip up a spanish omelette? I can, sir, but you'd be surprised how few people would be prepared to eat one'