November 13th, and it’s the big day when the first episode recording for Series XI goes before cameras. It’s perhaps one of the most exciting times when everyone is as in the dark as everyone else, and we aren’t having to be careful of what we say because of potential spoilers. So make the most of the occasion with a round up of all of the little interesting tidbits that have emerged since our last news roundup.
If you missed our previous edition, you can find it here, and if you’d rather list to us discussing through some of the topics in it, you can download the latest edition of The Garbage Podcast. But for now, let’s look at all of the more recent news.
Firstly, the exciting revelations this week about guest sets. The return of Starbug is something that we had been expecting from Doug’s comments at Dimension Jump, but in the past week we’ve had some solid confirmation of that with the below tweets and instagram picture from Ed Moore:
Starbug is in the building. #RedDwarfXI
— Richard Naylor (@RichardDGNaylor) November 6, 2015
Starbug is looking awesome. #reddwarfXI — Doug Naylor (@DougRDNaylor) November 10, 2015
All of which of course is throughly encouraging. While we were all absolutely thrilled with he way Blue Midget was used and updated in the lat series, Starbug is just such a key part of the show that to have it back again in full with a fully practical set is brilliant. Interestingly though, this isn’t the only new set we’ve learned about in the last few days:
The Science Room is also looking awesome. So are the corridors. #reddwarfXI
— Doug Naylor (@DougRDNaylor) November 10, 2015
Danny and Craig at the end of week one. #reddwarfXIpic.twitter.com/AeD4ywAa8t — Doug Naylor (@DougRDNaylor) November 12, 2015
A return for the science room is certainly something that we weren’t expecting, but it’s most definitely welcome. They appear to be reusing the stretchers used in X in the picture Doug has uploaded, and the look of the room (presuming that that’s what we are looking at here) appears to be going for a slightly different vibe to what we had in Series X, with more use of greys again. We aren’t talking about the cast.
It definitely sounds like a move is being made to open up the ship again with these new series, and combined with the location filming we can’t wait to see the results. The corridors for the Dwarf are something that we weren’t so keen on with Series X, so it’ll be interesting to see how they look this time around. That’s is of course if indeed they, the drive room and the bunk room are indeed being reused and perhaps revamped. We can take a fairly good guess that at least the bunk room is however thanks to the second of the below photos from Bobby:
Pic from the #RedDwarfXI set. Snicker snicker. pic.twitter.com/JMyDwJ7jXK
— Robert Llewellyn (@bobbyllew) November 13, 2015
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Getting ready. Cameras on standby sir. pic.twitter.com/R0AwZ8os3P — Robert Llewellyn (@bobbyllew) November 11, 2015
As you can see in the top left hand corner, the bottom of the table and chairs from the bunk room appear, showing that that appears to be something that is being reused, and doesn’t appear to have undergone a repaint since X as it did after Back to Earth. Elsewhere on the ship, we’ve also had a little peak at what we’re likely to be seeing on the screens around the Dwarf in this photo from Craig:
A bit of the set.might get in trouble pic.twitter.com/Lhb1v6dV48
— Craig Charles (@CCfunkandsoul) November 11, 2015
With X, we mostly saw the computer screens feeding out machine code or abstract designs as in Blue Midget, with an occasional JMC logo in the bunk room. With this new screen feed, does this mean we may be likely to see a brand new set of things on screens that are perhaps more akin to Series VI with it’s wireframe Starbug etc? Only time will tell as we rush towards the episodes going before cameras.
Of course, with the audience record being so close, the cast have been on set this week prepping, and this has included a read through for various people from UKTV and Baby Cow as shown in the below photo from Danny:
Wet bottoms all round! Just finished first read for @UKTV head honchos. Note where audience sit and coffee stain is. pic.twitter.com/PGp8oszv4D
— Danny John-Jules (@DannyJohnJules) November 10, 2015
The photo gives us a little glance at some of the new names involved with the show such as Henry Normal from baby Cow, as well as some returning faces such as Kerry Waddell. We may also be seeing the names of a couple of guest actors for the first time with Mark Quartley and Daniel Barker. You can find a full examination of all of the names in the picture over on Ganymede and Titan.
One last potential detail that did emerge however was the following tweet from Richard Naylor:
Can anyone help, I’m looking for a film which has an elevator plummeting down a lift shaft.. any ideas?
— Richard Naylor (@RichardDGNaylor) November 12, 2015
With Series X, Doug on several occasions took to Twitter to ask for help with things that he couldn’t find an answer to, such as where does one get galvanised nails in 23 AD. Could this be a similar circumstance? We’d say it’s entirely likely. That is unless Richard is planning some kind of horrific atrocity if the cast forget their lines and is looking for inspiration.
And with that, that’s about all of the important things to leak out from production since our last roundup. Tonight sees the first audience recording, and we once again remind you that if you have tickets to this or any other episode to please not post post spoilers online, especially with the show being a long way from airing. With Series X we managed to get by with very little getting out, aside from a quickly removed picture and a couple of character confirmations that some guest actors agents published online. It would be fantastic if we can manage this again and respect the wishes of GNP, Baby Cow, and most importantly, Doug.
However, if you are looking to follow the hype from the audience pre and post show, be sure to follow us on Twitter for the most up to date updates.