Just a quick one, this, but we felt it certainly warrants more attention than premature nonsense about Series XIII on account of the fact that it actually exists. Dave, readying itself for it’s change to its position in the digital EPG, has once again given Red Dwarf a prominent place in its marketing by getting some familiar lads involved. It’s always lovely seeing The Model Unit and their work getting some attention, and you can’t get much better than this beautiful Starbug model that’s put in decades of work at this point.

It seems a trailer is being shot here rather than it just being wheeled out for a public appearance, so we’re looking forward to what comes out of of Wednesday’s shoot, especially considering the move is happening very soon. Give us a shout when you see it pop-up, will ya?

EDIT: Mike Tucker’s been in touch to point out that despite our wonderful and thorough journalistic standards, we’v e missed the fact that this trail already went out during Taskmaster on Wednesday. Er, whoops.

22 comments on “Groovy Funky Channel 19

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  • Debris beat me to it, but making that exact mistake in that exact place almost comes off as some sort of meta joke.

    What exactly is meant by “original” Starbug miniature, how far back does it go? If that still exists then why did we get the shitty 3D-printed one in XI/XII?

  • Debris beat me to it, but making that exact mistake in that exact place almost comes off as some sort of meta joke.

    What exactly is meant by “original” Starbug miniature, how far back does it go? If that still exists then why did we get the shitty 3D-printed one in XI/XII?

    Built for series III I believe, so 30 years, the old cow.

    There are a fair few that exist, in various scales based on what I’ve seen at model shows.

    We got the shitty 3D printed one because The Model Unit are very, very good at what they do and price their services accordingly.

    This model was used in Series X because Doug did the TV production equivalent of getting down on hands and knees and begging. It was borrowed, think it was just Mike Tucker and a crate with Starbug in it, and no complex shots.

    The new people are enthusiastic but probably down about 100 years worth of combined model shooting experience on The Model Unit.

    You really can see how bloody good they are when the best Red Dwarf model effects shot since 1997 is in an advert for a Freeview channel change.

  • Someone told Doug they could now play with this brand new super cool 3D printing technology on the cheap and Doug was like so what can we start printing first?

  • Someone told Doug they could now play with this brand new super cool 3D printing technology on the cheap and Doug was like so what can we start printing first?

    They did some Starbug legs, didn’t they?

  • Well Doug says the reasoning for using a 3D model is because it only takes a week to make one and they are disposable so you can crash them and do whatever to them, and if something goes wrong you can just replace it.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnn2Zs3hDTc

    The original has alot more detail in it, while the new ones looks abit manufactured really.

  • Well Doug says the reasoning for using a 3D model is because it only takes a week to make one and they are disposable so you can crash them and do whatever to them, and if something goes wrong you can just replace it.

    The original has alot more detail in it, while the new ones looks abit manufactured really.

    That’s great if you’re not paying. £20k each otherwise.

    Plus there are ways to 3D print stuff that doesn’t turn into soap powder when you crash them. Resin printed parts on ABS/ polycarb bought in hemispheres is the sensible way to get 3D printing into red Dwarf. Would also take airbrush paint. If you can’t airbrush a miniature it’s not really fit for purpose.

  • I rarely watch live TV these days, is someone able to upload the ad on YouTube or some video hosting site? Would love to see how the model looks.

  • So I saw this commercial at work the other day- twice actually. Basically what happens is a bunch of guys are loading some Dave-related stuff into the back of a huge Dave van. When it comes to Red Dwarf, they use those airplane landing stick things (not sure what they’re called) to guide it as it flies into the back of the van.

    The original Starbug miniature is only used for one shot in the commercial- a side on view as it flies towards the van. There’s a front-on shot as it actually flies into the van, but they use model footage from XII for that- it’s that one shot from the opening as Starbug flies over a planet’s surface. You know, the one that doesn’t actually appear in any of the episodes? They just reuse that, but obviously the background is changed to the inside of the Dave van. I remember it looking pretty off to me, as the two models basically look entirely different.

    So there you have it, the commercial was nothing special really, and they couldn’t even be bothered to use the original Starbug model for the whole thing. That said, the one shot of the original model as it flies towards the van did look quite good. Oh and also, there are two slightly different versions of the commercial. The only difference is that one is longer (maybe around a minute?) wheras another is shorter and has a bunch cut out (I’d say around 30 seconds but I’m just guessing here)

  • So they literally re-used a shot from XI/XII and going by that side on shot, they re-used that too and didn’t film anything new at all for this promo. If it is new, then Starbug is still suffering from that ass down head up flying technique which has dogged the Dave era model shots which look very odd.

  • Starbug is still suffering from that ass down head up flying technique

    I assume in this instance it is because it’s coming in to land

  • going by that side on shot, they re-used that too and didn’t film anything new at all for this promo.

    Ah yes, TMU were there just to watch, and Dave weren’t filming when they gave Starbug a run out.

  • Ah yes, TMU were there just to watch, and Dave weren’t filming when they gave Starbug a run out.

    Well, if all they did was one shot, did they really even need TMU there? They could have took a picture of Starbug side on and moved it across the screen.

    And as for it landing, it has only ever looked like this in the Dave era of episodes, the ship always landed all 4 legs down at the same time, (when it wasn’t crashing) not the back two first. It also takes off with all 4 legs leaving the ground at the same time, not the front two and the ship tilting upwards to take off. It just jars for me. They didn’t need to make that change.

  • Ah yes, TMU were there just to watch, and Dave weren’t filming when they gave Starbug a run out.

    Well, if all they did was one shot, did they really even need TMU there? They could have took a picture of Starbug side on and moved it across the screen.
    And as for it landing, it has only ever looked like this in the Dave era of episodes, the ship always landed all 4 legs down at the same time, (when it wasn’t crashing) not the back two first. It also takes off with all 4 legs leaving the ground at the same time, not the front two and the ship tilting upwards to take off. It just jars for me. They didn’t need to make that change.

    Actually the front two come up higher than the back two and it does tilt upwards on takeoff, even in OG Dwarf. I’m not one to stick up for Dave Dwarf model shots but that at least is accurate.

    https://youtu.be/kruJa_pm2h8

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