It’s the cockpit, dummy News Posted by Ian Symes on 15th December 2015, 11:20 It’s truly commendable how the hundreds of eager Red Dwarf fans who attend audience recordings every week manage to keep the show’s secrets safe, in compliance with their hero Doug Naylor’s wishes. The same cannot be said for the cast. In another tweet-that-may-soon-be-deleted, Robert Llewellyn has provided a picture of the cast and crew watching today’s rocket launch on the set: It doesn’t take much guessing to figure out which particular set this is, particularly in conjunction with this tweet from Ed Moore. Frustratingly for us fans, but probably much to the relief of the production, it doesn’t show a great deal of detail, what with it being taken from an angle that’s unlikely to be used too often on-screen. But those are some lovely panels and instruments, eh? Not sure about the product placement of that iPad, though – seems totally out of place in my opinion.
Oh, that looks lovely. I obviously haven’t seen the rest of the set, but that’s not as radically different as I expected/feared.
I was honestly expecting it to be green after all the “different” stuff, esp. after blue Blue Midget and red Red Dwarf sets in RDX.
Me too, actually looks a lot better than I was expecting, although I’ll reserve judgement until we’ve seen a bit more of it.
Really don’t mean to put a downer on things, but I’d have to say I don’t feel this photo really reflects how Starbug looked on the monitors for me when I saw a recording. Once it has lighting etc. it changes considerably, and this doesn’t properly show what we’ll see on screen I feel. But of course that is just my opinion, and as we’ve seen people seem to be polarised on the Bug’s new look.
All those controls and detail below the view screen are lovely, and surely a camera angle similar to this will be used once or twice in the broadcast, otherwise why make so much detail in front of the actors that viewers will likely never see? (Also, surely the controls are too far away from the pilots to be practical? They’d have to stand up to reach the top of those screens or the switches below the view screen!) It also looks a lot smaller than it did previously, not sure if it is gonna come across as small on screen and whether all 4 actors will look very cramped when they are all seated together inside.
Is there set for the Starbug mid-section? Or is that considered too spoilery to reveal? I’m still trying to understand how revealing whether there’s a mid-section set or not is a spoiler anyway. We’ve always had one, so it is to be expected that there is one, but, considering the size of the cockpit now being reduced and people’s unwillingness to reveal the status of a mid-section set, my guess is that there isn’t one this time round. Which would be rather disappointing if true. It won’t feel the same if the crew are just always stuffed in the cockpit and we don’t ever see them moving about inside the ship.
I’m still trying to understand how revealing whether there’s a mid-section set or not is a spoiler anyway… Because it’s information that hasn’t been released by the cast, crew or production.
Technically the crew haven’t revealed if there’s even going to be a bunk room (I don’t think) So would that be classed as a spoiler?
But it’s information that shouldn’t need to be held in secret for any reason. Knowing if there is a mid-section or not isn’t going to spoil the show. It’s like asking if the new Star Trek TV series is going to have a set for the bridge. In both cases they have always had one before, and the mid-section has been a constant part of the Starbug set since Starbug was first introduced, so it is to be expected that it will be there. The fact that the question/answer over the mid-section is being treated like a major plot point is strange. I understand them wanting to tell people that there is a new science room (and some series have not had it) but the mid-section has always been there, hence why they probably thought there would be no need to specifically mention it because it just fell under the “new Starbug set” umbrella and people would possibly take from that that it is indeed there.
>But it’s information that shouldn’t need to be held in secret for any reason. That’s not really your call to make though, and nor is it ours, so that’s why people are being cautious with exactly what information is reported… or maybe people just don’t know. I’m going to throw your point back at you, since I’m failing to see why anyone gives such a shit if there’s a mid-section or not, it’s hardly going to make or break the show, so why does it matter so much?
Perhaps the mid-section is made up of the Rimmer Experience, and every time anyone wants to go to the kitchen they have to listen to the whole Munchkin song in its entirety… “Kitchen?! Spoilers!”
As I haven’t been to a recording, I can’t confirm either way but I’d imagine, as the studio space at Pinewood is pretty cramped and there have been no mentions of any mid-section in any reports, that there probably won’t be one. Which is fine. I can see why it would be a nice thing to have but it’s not really a necessity for storytelling, and the amount of time Starbug will be onscreen probably doesn’t justify it. This is of course, pure speculation.
>I’m going to throw your point back at you, since I’m failing to see why anyone gives such a shit if there’s a mid-section or not, it’s hardly going to make or break the show, so why does it matter so much? I’m only asking because I’d like to know out of pure curiosity. I would be a bit disappointed if it wasn’t included as we’ve always had a mid-section set, so for it to be left out or not used will be a bit disjointing. Plus I’m not the only person on here and other sites that have asked about it. You may fail to see why people care or want to know but that’s not my problem.
We’ve been told there’s no drive room, which is surely as much of a spoiler as there’s no Starbug midsection. I don’t care to know either way at the minute, I’m more than happy to wait, but there does seem to be a touch of inconsistency…
I didn’t see a Starbug midsection be used at the recording I attended. I also didn’t see Kill Crazy, a drive room, my flatmates, or a pigeon shitting on Rimmer’s head etc etc. Whether or not those are in the show at other points, I cannot comment on. Feel free to remove this if it infringes G&T’s spoiler policy.
Certainly it would seem like space is a concern at the smaller Pinewood studio so the mid-section of Starbug is the obvious one to be a temporary set to be used only as and when they need it as it is the most basic set (if you are talking Series III-V style). I’d dare say they’ll have the cockpit closed off like in Series VIII and only have it open for episodes in which the mid-section is used, if it is at all.
I’m figuring that if they need a mid-section, they’ll just dust off the one they built for Blue Midget and add a few cosmetic differences.