First glimpse of new Kryten costume…

[Paul Muller]

Ed Moore has Instagrammed a photo of Robert and Danny (and possibly a bit of Craig) watching the pre records on the monitor, presumably at last night’s recording.

View this post on Instagram

Watching the prerecords. #reddwarf #behindthescenes #myfujifilm

A post shared by Ed Moore BSC (@edmooredop) on Feb 26, 2016 at 2:47pm PST

Thoughts? Personally, I quite like it. I know the received opinion has been almost wholly negative but it’s got a slightly retro look about it and I don’t mind the chest plate redesign. The mask looks a lot better than last time, although I guess you have to see it in motion, and in colour, to make a proper judgement.

Topic

[si]

My thoughts as I immediately Tweeted them last night:

Okay, thoroughly investigating that Kryten photo. The costume is fine. Shoulders and neck much better. Not sure about knees/upper legs, but we’re not going to see them much, are we? Arms from the elbow up look a bit…meh…and the chest plate looks mostly okay. The mask is a vast improvement on RDX, not quite as angular, certainly, but the nose and mouth look a Hell of a lot better. Though the hands, at first glance at least – and this is my first and *only* glance so far – look too much like just a pair of gloves.
But s3 Kryten looked different to s2 Kryten, s4 different to s3. s5 changed from s4 etc etc. The changes in BtE and RDX were only more pronounced because of overfamiliarity from years of watching the earlier series, s4-s6 in particular. So no major problems at all.

—

So, yeah. Not sure about that bit at the top of the chest that just looks a bit like a dent. But like I said before, there has always been some change or other in either the mask or the costume, but as years go by, we’ve become immune to the 89-93 changes. I remember being stunned at the time by the radical change from series V to series VI. I’ve heard it said that it looks better there, and on-screen, than it does in person. But on-screen is what it’s made for, and if that looks okay, then all’s good.

[Stephen Abootman]

Just to confirm, it was from last night, Danny, Craig & Robert sat together watching one of the VT segments towards the end.

[International Debris]

Looks fairly lightweight and plasticky from that shot. Will obviously reserve judgement until I’ve seen it in action, but it doesn’t bode well for me.

[MANI506]

Even at a Red Dwarf recording, having Kryten sat in front of me would be so weird.

[Paul Muller]

I always kind of envisaged Kryten as being constructed mainly from plastic components. He’s a presumably mass produced domestic service robot, there’s no reason for him to be built like a tank.

[Ben Paddon]

I think it looks bloody marvelous.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Gah it fills me with conflicted emotions, this costume.

In person, it looks rubbish. It’s all one light gray colour, the torso looks really over-large around the midriff, which is bizarre because Robert is not fat….

On camera, for the most part, it looks pretty good…

In this picture, it looks great.

Gagh.

[pfm]

In one way I’m glad they’ve altered it so much from X, where it seemed too cumbersome. If it looks a bit ‘cheap’ it doesn’t matter because that’s always been part of Kryten’s charm. The mask, I reckon, is great! You can see more of Bobby’s face through the rubber than ever.

[Slainmonkey]

At first looking at it, I found it kinda jarring because it kinda seems to go against the grain with the stylistic evolution of the Kryten suits but in kinda grown on me. One thing I’ve noticed is that in some ways it harks back more to his suit back in series 3-5, and dumped much of the look of more modern Krytens. Honestly looking at it now I’m actually liking it much more then how his series X suit looked. With that said it still doesn’t look dark enough for my liking.

The real star of the show is the new mask which looks great, and depending it looks on camera might be up there amongst my favourites, like the series 6 or it’s even better predecessor the series 5 mask. Either way I’m actually pretty happy with how he looks and can’t wait to see more of it!

[si]

If you ask me, and you didn’t, I’m a fan of the series 5 and series 8 masks.

I think that’s one of the geekiest things I’ve ever written on here.

[Slainmonkey]

I was never a fan of the series 8 mask, the wide none and the mouth just looks wrong to me. It’s certainly not as bad as the series X mask but it’s not one I think of favorably to be honest.

[Slainmonkey]

nose*

[Slainmonkey]

Also the nostrils really bug me in the series 8 mask….

[International Debris]

Series 5 is my favourite by quite a way. 7 and 8, with their width, are a bit too human in some ways.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Series 5 and 6 were the fuckin’ BOMB as far as Kryten masks went. Both were quite different, but both got it right, to my mind. The perfect mix of angles, expressiveness and general look.

[si]

If you’re talking angles, series 5, definitely. That was the point I started buying the Smegazine, and therefore classic. To my mind, series 6, being post Smegazine-starting, is still new.

[Pete Part Three]

Pretty sure the suit has gone through a rejig between XI and XII, as the one in the photo looks slightly better than the pre-Christmas one. Sharper angles on the panels. But I don’t like the colour; far too grey. And, as Kris says, it doesn’t do Robert any favours. He looks rather barrel like.

[Paul Muller]

I can’t imagine it will be too long before we get some kind of cast photo from GNP, probably once filming has wrapped. It’s difficult to form a judgement based on one fairly low res photo, so will be interested to see it in more detail, and in colour. I do like the fact that they’ve done something different with it this time – the redesign on the chest and monitor are quite a change.

[Ridley]

Pretty sure the suit has gone through a rejig between XI and XII, as the one in the photo looks slightly better than the pre-Christmas one. Sharper angles on the panels. But I don’t like the colour; far too grey.

They should have just added some multicoloured wires.

[clem]

Only got that photo to go on but the mask looks really good to me, and I think overall I like the rest of it too, shape-wise. Wasn’t keen on the big shoulder hoops in X. I like the chest and the big monitor. Don’t like the sound of “all one light gray colour” though.

> They should have just added some multicoloured wires

Or given him one red arm.

[Paul Muller]

Well, having seen it in person at the recording last night, I can say this. It’s….fine. The mask is a bit unusual, particularly around the eyes – it seems to move very fluidly with Robert’s expressions in a way it hasn’t previously. The suit is weirdly bulky around the middle but it doesn’t look too distracting. The light grey colour, without giving too much away, blends in quite well with the rest of the set. To be honest, after watching it for about three minutes, I’d grown completely used to it.

[Author]

Replies