Question (OT)

[janamelie.livejournal.com]

Excuse the non-slashiness of this question, but I think it's an interesting one. We all know that Kryten obeys Lister's orders first because "a living human being outranks a hologram" ("White Hole"). But if it came down to obeying a direct order from Rimmer or a contradictory one from Cat, who would win out?

Would the fact that Rimmer used to be human weigh more heavily than the fact that Cat is alive and very humanoid looking? Assuming this is some kind of emergency, not a trivial disagreement.

Comments

[kronette.livejournal.com]

Kryten's broken a lot of his programming since White Hole, though. Yet, even in X, he's still obeying Rimmer even though he doesn't want to. I think Rimmer as a once-human and the 'official' highest rank on board would have to be next in line. Poor Cat would be last.

[janamelie.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does depend which version of Kryten we're talking about. In Series III and early IV he really struggled to disobey anyone and we see how much conflicting orders upset him in "Bodyswap".

You're right - he may be able to insult Rimmer now but he still tends to obey him when given a direct order e.g. "Fathers And Suns" regarding Pree's vital statistics. ;)

I wondered if being alive would give Cat the edge, but I'm starting to think not.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

I think you've got everything I had to say, but yes, Cat is a non-human, so imo doesn't count, ordering-wise. I can't remember exactly what insane orders Kryten was given in Bodyswap, but I'd think he'd generally be programmed in a 'three laws of robotics' way.

[janamelie.livejournal.com]

Rimmer ordered him to chloroform Lister because he wasn't done "borrowing" his body and knock him out if he woke up. At the end of the ep we discover he's pulled the same trick with Cat. What a smeghead, eh?

Kryten's extremely guilty but does it anyway. Since he surprises both Lister and Cat in their sleep, there isn't the issue of conflicting orders.