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. 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.
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. The writers had resisted using robot characters as they had considered the practice a sci-fi cliché.
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. 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.
Johanna Hargreaves appeared as the Esperanto teacher and Tony Slattery voiced an android actor in the Androids television show.
Read more about this topic: Kryten (Red Dwarf)
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