As tuneless wunderkind Rebecca Black sang, it’s ‘Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday’, apparently, before going on to blow our collected mind by rhyming the word ‘bowl’ with the word ‘cereal’.
But while Ms Black may have been correct that ‘everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend, weekend’, she fails to take into account the excitement Friday brings with a new update from Red Dwarf’s Official Site.
And what was this week’s update? Well it was this rather lovely gallery of new photos, perfect for celebrating #WorldPhotoDay. If only we could develop them in some mutated fluid and step right into the action. But we can’t… so let’s get right into what we do the best, shall we?
A SKUTTER. BEATEN UP OLD BARRELS. BREAD CRATES. THE FRENCH LAVATORY SQUAT.
All things that we very much like seeing in the show. It’s particularly nice to see the physical prop of the Skutter return after having been added with CGI in Back to Earth, and would perhaps be even more noteworthy had Robert Llewellyn not accidentally used the wrong camera on his phone on a periscope chat several moths ago giving a nice big look at the prop.
But we’ve always been ones to avoid talking about the interesting things and focus on the petty, so lets look at that exciting topic of corridors! One of our major set gripes with Series XI was the corridors, and as mentioned in our set reports, there seems to have been a great improvement in that this time around. While we only see a tiny section of that here, the barrels are just one feature that helps to vary the available set and allow the production to reuse the same stretch of corridor with out it being hugely obvious that that is what they are doing.
ARE THEY HOLDING THE PHONE THE WRONG WAY? OH WAIT, IT’S BEEN SHOT THROUGH A DOOR TO CREATE A SENSE OF BEING IN AN ENCLOSED SPACE. SORRY!
And so on to picture two. We’ve seen shots of the cast on location a few weeks back, but this just reinforces everything that was on show there, but this time with the addition of the Psi-Scan.
It’s a great reminder of how important location filming can be to the show, and shooting in an industrial setting like this really helps to add great variety to the look of the show. Also aiding that of course is the choice of lighting, and it’s now very clear to see that the striking look for the series mentioned in the set reports is clearly not just exaggeration.
And speaking of things that are striking…
JESUS H CHRIST. KILL IT WITH FIRE. RUN. SAVE YOURSELVES.
We’re reintroduced to the creepy looking droid from the previous set photos, but this time with a shot that reveals more of the stature and the look. Combined with the smoke, setting and lighting there is no getting away from the stark Series V vibe on display, which is something we very much approve of.
We’ve seen a lot of guest characters in the last two series, but even with the Stimulants in The Beginning, none carried the same kind of horror-based threat that this character seems to, and it seems a rich vein to return to a mix things up a little.
Oh course, if you were looking for something that invoked Series V…
THE NAME’S BULLET. JAKE BULLET
Oh wait, wrong episode. But there’s something about seeing Kryten in this sort of costume that defiantly harks back to the concluding episode of Series V. Let’s take a look at his mask a moment, and address some of the concerns that had previously been raised when it was seen in pictures.
Actually, no, let’s not. Let’s just sum it up in a sentence:
THERE YOU SEE YOU WERE PANICKING OVER NOTHING.
OH MY GOD.THE SOFA FABRIC IS EATING THE CAT!
There are loads of interesting details in this photograph of the show’s two organic lifeforms. Look at the details on Lister’s boots. Oh, is that a can of Leopard Lager? I wonder what’s in the blender. Is that new lining on the bunks? That’s a different sofa from Series X. Aren’t those the cushions your mother-in-law has? But isn’t it delightful to see two guys, hanging out, enjoying each other’s company, playing video games and just laughing together? I wonder what that’s like.
WHAT A NICE BIG SHINY COCKPIT
If there’s one thing that was mostly missing from Series X, it was plots based around toilet paper. But other people also commented on a lack of a Starbug set. So it’s delightful to see a new variation on the old theme. Lister and the Cat are in front with Rimmer at Navigation and Kryten…in his seat. It’s exploding too which seems to be the norm for Starbug which is all delightfully reassuring. There’s also a big green door at the back. It’s so great to see the small green one back. Thank goodness no one from UKTV spoiled the surprise.
So there’s some thoughts on the photos. Whatever will UKTV/Babycow/Grant Naylor arrange for us to see next? Could it be some moving footage? Come back to Gazpacho Soup to find out.
I could be wrong, but isn’t picture #5 from a Series XII episode? I did see one from XI and one from XII so it’s possible I’m getting myself confused, but I’m pretty sure that was a moment in the XII episode.