Red Dwarf X: Trailer Breakdown

You’ve all seen the trailer now. But did you all catch everything? Well let’s see as I take a look at each shot of the new trailer. Possible spoilers ahead, unless I’m wrong with my speculation, in which case possible ramblings of a mad man ahead.

Click each image to enlarge.

 

The first image of what is presumably the new logo. Nice.

Kryten and Lister talking about how he is the last human being alive. Perhaps the bleak loneliness of his existence is beginning to get to him, as with Rimmer in ‘Out of Time’ or as previously happened to Lister in ‘Timeslides’.

This is the first look we have of Kryten’s mask in full action. I can see why the mask has some complaints. It is perhaps something to get used to.

The first proper look at the Red Dwarf model. It is the iconic passing shot of the logo. Beautiful.

Lister eating a rather large and overfilled kebab in the drive room. The drive room proceeds to explode. I can’t see any clues as to which episode this is from.

Both of these pictures would seem to be from the episode ‘Lemons’ (Episode 3). Rimmer seen bashing a yellow thing followed by a later shot of Rimmer and Kryten carefully placing a yellow device. From pictures released during filming, the set in the second picture seems to match that episode. The yellow thing that Rimmer is bashing would seem to be a lemon.

First is an image of Blue Midget leaving the ship, followed by what I would guess to be the Blue Midget cockpit of the new series. Does this mean that we won’t be seeing Starbug in the new series? Or perhaps they use both. This would seem to be the first appearance of the Blue Midget model which was built for the Remastered series but only used to render the CGI version.

Cat being Cat! With milk! A blurry picture of this clip was released a couple of months back. Nice to see it in full action.

Kryten: Mister Lister gambles you in a poker game, sir. I’m afraid to report he lost you.

Cat: We’re all deeply sorry, bud. Apart from me and him and him.

So it seems the plot of one episode, perhaps episode 4 or 5, involves Rimmer being lost in a poker game. Wouldn’t be the first time Lister has lost at cards. In the unmade/animated Series VII episode, ‘Identity Within’, Lister lost Starbug in a poker game after he got drunk.

Now what on Io could be causing this hurricane in the sleeping quarters. And who on earth is the man in the middle? On closer inspection it is definitely not Lister in his divers outfit from this video (as I originally thought). It looks to me like it could be a simulant of the style from Series IV and VII (rather than the style from Series VI).

Lister receives a Father’s Day card with dreadlocks attached to it and a piece of poppadom inside. This would seem to tie in with an idea that Doug proposed to fans back in April 2011 as reported in the Ganymede and Titan podcast which covered the Sunday of the event.

Some extra notes from Alex:

What with having been at the recordings I can’t speculate on the footage as James can, but there are a few things that I thought I’d just add. First of all, the footage that none of us had seen before of course is the model footage, and it has to be said that the new Dwarf looks lovely with all of its detail. I’m still not sure about the overall shape at the moment though, as where it has been shortened at the back it has retained its long nose which has given it a slightly front heavy look. That said, were we not familiar with a certain look of the ship I’m sure this wouldn’t be a he issue, so there’s every chance I’ll get used to it.

Secondly, some footage is reshoot from the original recordings. The scene with the cast being blown around the bunk room is the most prominent example of this, with the audience previously having been shown a rough take to get an idea of what was supposed to happen in the scene. It’s fantastic to see it realised here and I hold high hopes for the episode it is from. It’s also nice to see that the set from the footage with Kryten in a cockpit has come out nicely as it is in actual fact a redressed set. While it appeared quite different at the recording it seems even further removed here and is a real testament to the set design on the series.

As to the issue of concerns, much has been said about Kryten’s nose in this series and this footage makes it quite apparent why. I would state however that by episode 6 most of us had stopped dwelling on it so it may well just be one of those things that you get used to. Also, the shot of Blue Midget isn’t the greatest composite the show has ever used, though nowhere near as bad as the likes of the CSO work in Kryten. Whether this is the result of different footage from the two different model shoots not *quite* matching still remains to be seen, but it’s not something that plays on my mind too much, especially when the Dwarf model looks so nice.

Overall though, it’s really just a taster of the series with minimal footage of guest sets and stars. There’s certainly a lot of exciting stuff to come, and being just a teaser this trailer thankfully barely touches on most of it. We await the forthcoming weekly material on the Dave website with great interest.