Snacky is an automated droid snack dispenser who, with a little convincing and cajoling from the boys from the Dwarf, was able to gain some confidence and rise far above his origins to become a competent engineer.

History

The Dwarfers first discovered Snacky as they scavenged an abandoned space station. Rimmer and Kryten found Snacky and began a conversation with him, being impressed that he had four buttons. Snacky said that he once served one of Rimmer's old colleagues, Flight Coordinator Ronald Littlewood. Rimmer and Kryten tell Snacky that the space station is about to be destroyed in asteroid storm, and ask Snacky to come back back to Red Dwarf with them. This is because they believed Snacky to be the highly advanced medi-bot Asclepius, who was actually elsewhere on the station attempting to operate on the Cat and Lister, having since gone mad.

Both Kryten and Rimmer continue to assume that Snacky is Asclepius even after they save Cat and Lister, with Rimmer even attempting to use his psychiatric skills, before finally discovering the truth after they attempt to get him to change the genetic information of Cat's kidney to match with Lister's, which had been stolen by the real Asclepius.

Snacky is quite frustrated by the whole incident, but is later convinced by the Dwarfers to recall the findings of the scientist Romero G. Gonzalez, who would discuss his work with his colleagues while going for snacks. Based on this knowledge Snacky himself is able to become a quite capable stasis booth engineer, hacking the stasis field to create a portal allowing the crew to go back in time to steal past Lister's kidneys in order that present Lister may live.

Snacky would continue to move around Red Dwarf making repairs as he went, now a confident engineer. Snacky later experimented with some of the elevators, allowing at least one of them - a vengeful Shaft 14 - to travel close to the speed of light by installing a nuclear reactor to its counterbalance, much to Rimmer's despair. ("Give & Take". Series XI)

Gallery

The first appearance of Snacky aboard Asclepius' Station

Snacky profile

Snacky's back end

Warning - low on pretzels

In the Red Dwarf sleeping quarters, Rimmer asks Snacky for a therapy session

Snacky hacks a stasis booth on B Deck to create a time portal and send the Dwarfers into the past

Trivia

• Snacky is one of the few Red Dwarf guest characters not to have been forced to leave the ship or been killed by the end of the episode.
  • Snacky's current whereabouts are unknown, but given the size of the ship, and the presence of many other similar AIs, it is quite possible and likely that he is still wandering around Red Dwarf, making many more changes and improvements as he goes.
• Snacky mentions to Rimmer that he had previously served one of his old crewmates, Flight Coordinator Ronald Littlewood, although this never gets mentioned or referred to again later in the episode.
• Snacky's visual design is deliberately modelled after Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet, with Rimmer even commenting that he looks like something "out of an old sci-fi movie".
  • Writer Doug Naylor wanted Snacky to be as "cheesy" as possible. It was Naylor himself who came up with the idea to have the "egg flipper" on top of Snacky's head.
• Snacky appears alongside the Skutters in LEGO Dimensions during the Red Dwarf easter egg level for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.