Data vs Kryten (Wired Magazine)

[Pongo]

From Wired:

Data vs. Kryten

Aboard the Red Dwarf mining ship, the Series 4000 “Slave Noid” named Kryten plays neurotic butler to the crew. After inadvertently causing the destruction of the last ship he was on, Kryten ended up on the Red Dwarf. Kryten is a slave. Plain and simple. While he strives to be a little more human under the less-than-strict tutelage of Dave Lister, he really has no intention of ever becoming human. In fact, when under extreme duress his head will actually explode. Sadly, this is revealed to not be a design flaw.

Data on the other hand, is no one’s slave. While he is meticulous and literal in following orders, he does have free will. At first, he doesn’t quite understand this free will, but after engaging in more than human activities like playing music and poker he starts to long to become more human. Where Kryten’s neurosis is his downfall on more than one occasion, Data’s confidence in his abilities saves the ship on numerous occasions. Kryten just puts his in constant danger. The choice is easy if you had to decide which nonhuman you’d rather have around. Advantage: Data

The article also pits Data against Gort, C3PO, Roy Batty, and Steve Austin.

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/01/great-geek-debates-data-vs-every-other-android/

Topic

[hummingbird]

But can Data twiddle his nipple nuts and tune into Jazz FM? I think not.

[ori-STUDFARM]

He doesn’t even have a groinal attachment socket…..well, I don’t think he has?!!

[Blisschick]

>Data?s confidence in his abilities saves the ship on numerous occasions. Kryten just puts his in constant danger.

Sorry, but I think this statement is a load of crap. The author is just trying to generalize differences between the two where there aren’t any. I also think he’s comparing oranges to bananas.

[ChrisM]

Kryten did put his previous ship in danger but it’s hardly a constant thing on Red Dwarf is it? In fact, he’s often the one who comes up with the solution!

Data certainly more advanced in a lot of ways. I get the impression he is physically stronger and more intelligent, but Kryten has something Data often strives for. Emotions. Ironically his advancement is the root of his issues too (neuroses etc.)

And then there was that bit when Data finally installed an emotion chip in Star Trek Generations, and it messed him up far worse than Kryten. (He actually removed the chip for the later films.)

[Dave]

Constantly puts his ship in danger? I’d hardly call eleven times constantly. I mean, if you eat roast beef eleven times in your life, one would hardly say that person constantly eats roast beef. No, it would be a rare, nay, freak occurrence.

[Ben Paddon]

> And then there was that bit when Data finally installed an emotion chip in Star Trek Generations, and it messed him up far worse than Kryten. (He actually removed the chip for the later films.)

No, he kept the chip in but had figured out a way to enable/disable it.

[ori-STUDFARM]

What, like some sort of …..switch?!!

[Dave]

>What, like some sort of ?..switch?!!

Almost.

In First Contact Picard suggests Data disable his emotion chip, which he then does and later the Borg Queen switches it back on.

Apparently the chip was put in to Generations becauses the studio wanted a scene that explicitly explained that Data was an android. It’s a strange choice to show an uninformed audience the one thing that renders a character no longer himself by way of an introduction. In Generations its effects feature in three or four scenes and then after that I can’t remember whether it’s relevant to the other films.

[John Hoare]

The Data/emotion chip stuff is probably worth it for one glorious moment:

“OHHHHH SHIT!”

[Phil1034]

The stuff with Guinan and Geordi in Ten Forward is hilarious. “I hate this. It is revolting”, “More?”, “Please”. Whoopi’s deadpan face always cracks me up.

[Author]

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