Home Forums Ganymede & Titan Forum Which episode makes the best use of both Kryten and Holly together?

  • Creator
    Topic
  • #320677
    Nick R
    Participant

    There’s been discussion in the unpopular opinions thread about Holly’s role in the crew, and the different ways that Norman and Hattie’s versions of Holly were handled. But I have a slightly different question that might be worth its own thread.

    The story goes that Holly was removed from the series largely because Kryten and Holly’s overlapping roles meant that Rob and Doug struggled to make good use of Holly.

    So with that in mind: are there any episodes from III, IV, and V that contradict that, by proving that both characters could work well together? Are there any episodes that stand out as making great use of both characters, in both plot importance and joke delivery?


    A good place to start is White Hole, since it’s generally thought of as Hattie’s big Holly showcase episode. But I don’t really think of it as much of a Kryten episode, even though he gets a few memorable moments (the “I’ve never seen one before…” loop and his insult in the fading timeline at the end).

    Conversely, there are Kryten-focused episodes like The Last Day and Camille, but I don’t think Holly’s particularly prominent in them.

    Back to Reality might be a good candidate, since Kryten gets a good arc, and even though Holly is absent from the scenes within the hallucination, she’s vital to saving everyone at the end.


    So does anyone see a clear standout episode where both characters get used really well?



    I’m concentrating on Hattie’s episodes there, because those are the episodes where Holly and Kryten were around together and led to Holly being written out. But we could also consider how well Kryten worked with Norman’s Holly in Kryten, Nanarchy, series VIII, and The Promised Land. (And, to a much lesser extent, Skipper.) But most of those are either cameos or series VIII (and Holly’s depiction there is one of the perennial criticisms of VIII), so pickings are slim.

    It occurs to me that Kryten’s reintroduction to Holly in Nanarchy (“face, I suppose”) might be one of the most extensive dialogue exchanges the two characters directly have with each other in any Red Dwarf episode.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • Author
    Replies
  • #320680
    Rushy
    Participant

    They both had substantial roles in Timeslides (Kryten kicks off the plot, Holly is heavily present in the later Rimmer scenes)

    #320681
    Dax101
    Participant

    Probably White Hole.

    #320682
    Professor Flibble
    Participant

    Actually a bit of a hard question to answer, because I think like you say, yeah, White Hole is probably the one that jumps to mind. 

    I always thought Rob and Doug weighing up Kryten and Holly’s characters on how much they could exposit was a bit unfair, because I think both characters had other very different things going on. Kryten’s a sanitation mechanoid who enjoys what he does, Holly’s the senile computer who runs the ship. 

    #320683
    Warbodog
    Participant

    There are some memorable Holly scenes in Series V, but very brief. Some funny dialogue in Terrorform, Low Holly and borderline/passive antagonist Holly in The Inquisitor. Otherwise she was mainly useful for functional dialogue, narrating what the ship’s doing, which was still nice to have, if probably unrewarding as a role.

    #320685
    Dave
    Participant

    It occurs to me that Kryten’s reintroduction to Holly in Nanarchy (“face, I suppose”) might be one of the most extensive dialogue exchanges the two characters directly have with each other in any Red Dwarf episode.

    This was exactly the scene I was going to mention. It’s a nice little interaction and maybe the best moment the characters have ever shared together. 

    I also like Hattie-Holly’s drunken interaction with Kryten in The Last Day.

    #320686
    Professor Flibble
    Participant

    I also like Hattie-Holly’s drunken interaction with Kryten in The Last Day.

    I’ve always found this really sweet.

    #320687
    Dave
    Participant

    #320689
    Rushy
    Participant

    Why was Kryten in such a hurry? Did Rimmer also give him a time table to get all these assignments done?

    #320691
    Nick R
    Participant

    Why was Kryten in such a hurry? Did Rimmer also give him a time table to get all these assignments done?

    He didn’t want to obstruct Holly’s vision for long. Holly needs to see where he’s piloting the spaceship.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.