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In the character's first appearance, Kryten was played by actor David Ross .

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-fiance, 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 inadvertantly 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 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 Centuri 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 noticably, whereas he previously had an "English butler" voice, similar to C-3P0, 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. 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" 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. One time 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 has formed an irrational dislike of the new Kristine KochanskiKristine Kochanski is a character on the British sitcom Red Dwarf''. She was the ship's Navigation Officer, and the ex-girlfriend of Dave Lister before she was killed by a radiation leak. In the first episode (before the accident) she was played by Clare, mostly out of a fear she and Lister will fall in love and abandon him.

The name Kryten is a reference to the head butler in the J.M. Barrie play The Admirable CrichtonThe Admirable Crichton refers to James Crichton of Eliock and Cluny a sixteenth century polymath who lived in Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland. He was renowned for his learning in many fields, but lost his life after being stabbed by a university student.