Thanks to Cappsy and Ganymede & Titan for bringing to our attention of an interview with Bobby for US video podcast Triangulation. Over the course of the interview, they discuss his various projects, and it’s less than ten minutes before they try to get details about series X. Bobby, however, was sticking to his guns:
I’m not allowed to say anything….I have said a one or two things inadvertently and then realised id given away half the plot
Well that lasted all of 30 minutes. Before we go any further, be aware that this is something of a spoiler, and does roughly detail the plot of one of the episodes. If you don’t want to be spoiled, do not read on any further. And after Cappsy spent time typing out what was said, I’m going to keep up the traditon of us copying each others transcripts like so:
There is a wonderful, and I’m not going to give away the plot… there’s a moment that really stands out… there’s some time travel in Red Dwarf, where the time travelling machine is of a Swedish design and we have to put it together ourselves and we do it so badly, of course, it goes wrong and there’s a fabulous episode where we’re basically searching for a way to get back to our own time. But we’ve gone back in time quite a long way and we’re on Earth and we meet a very significant figure and it’s buried into the dialogue very beautifully and it doesn’t sort of reveal itself until this moment when the very famous historic figure turns around and introduces himself. And when you’re rehearsing this you’re not sure this is going to work, it looks a bit half baked and you’re not quite convinced and when that moment happened in front of the audience the actor playing the significant historical figure couldn’t even say his line, they all got it immediately, the laugh was deafening. And that was a really wonderful moment and quite a complex… you know, Red Dwarf storylines are not simple, they’re dealing with some very complicated concepts and time, space and… you know, tears in the fabric of spacetime and all that sort of thing and for the audience to get it that clearly, they knew where we were, why we were there and who this person was before we even said what we thought was the joke line.
Now, this is the first time that anyone has given an overview of sorts for any episode this series, and obviously I’m going to have to be very careful how I discuss this. The episode Bobby refers to is not one I saw, but I do know the rough details such as who the person they meet is. So, in line with this sites spoiler policy, which I really must get around to codifying, we will only discuss the details mentioned here and in fairly vague terms.
The first element to talk about here is the Swedish furniture gag. Personally, I love the idea, and think it’s a great bit of satire. One wonders whether Doug spent a part of last year trying, and failing, to construct Ikea furniture. It’s also nice to see them using a new time machine which provides a gag, rather than reusing a past element for continuities sake.
Secondly, it’s nice to be able to discuss the scope of this episode at last. For anyone concerned that this series would be entirely ship bound dues to budget, those fears really are unfounded. The set on this episode was particularly impressive from what I have seen, as you’d imagine it would have to be in an episode with the crew off ship going back in time. Of course, the show has a history of going back in time with episodes like Tikka To Ride, which in plot terms is surprisingly one of the more remembered shows. I still remember one of my university lectures on the Cuban Missile Crisis with its various slides dedicated to that episode. All I can say is that with this particular famous historical figure, I am certain the episode will lead to much discussion. Let the speculation begin. In the meantime, here’s a nice picture Richard Naylor tweeted from Bill Pearson’s workshop of a Bobby that’s less likely to give those details away.
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