IT. IS. TEASED. News Posted by Ian Symes on 10th March 2020, 11:18 Well, this has certainly given me a rod-on. <span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span> A twenty second teaser for the as-yet-untitled Red Dwarf Special has been released. And when teasers and trailers for new Red Dwarf get released, we like to go through them shot-by-shot in far more detail than is strictly necessary. This time we have but six proper shots to be getting on with, in a trailer that’s effects-heavy and somewhat serious and dramatic in tone, hinting that the Special will have high stakes and grand scale. And lots of BIG SPACESHIPS. Indeed, we open with Starbug flying towards what is certainly a very big and very impressive spaceship, with sky blue lights puncturing a chunky and imposing design. During this, we hear Rimmer saying: “You don’t need me. I’m not sure you ever did.” Alright, Marvin. Then we see a big old corridor, on the interior of an unknown ship. This also has sky blue lighting, which may or may not suggest a link to the previous shot. This isn’t me being coy; I went to both recordings but we didn’t see any effects shots, so I’m genuinely not sure what the exterior of this place is supposed to look like. Here, a much more positive Lister says: “Guys, if we’re going to get through this, we need to stick together.” That stupid, chirpy optimism. That inane, winsome grin. MORE SPACESHIPS. FOUR OF THEM! All clearly part of the same fleet, but with some variations in the design; the two on the top appear identical, but the lower two are different from both those and each other. But there’s that blue light again. Meanwhile, Kryten says “we have to… find a new ship”, but there’s what seems to be a rather noticeable edit in the middle, suggesting either that parts of two different sentences have been welded together for the purposes of the teaser, or at least that a longer Kryten line has been truncated to fit. Next, it’s your man Rodon, in a virtually identical shot to the first photo we saw of him, except moving. It’s also a little closer, allowing us to have a better bit of a nosey at his costume and claws. The penultimate shot is of the Starbug cockpit in a state of red alert, as the crew deal with a medium sized explosion taking place in the middle of the room. In contrast to the rest of the teaser, it’s considerably less blue than when we last saw it, and you can see that some of the panels have moved around or been replaced, yet it’s still unmistakably the same place. At this point, the snippets of dialogue start to come faster and more frantically; we hear Lister refusing to surrender and Rimmer bracing for impact, both within a couple of seconds. The dialogue concludes with Cat shouting “incoming fire”, and there most certainly is. Curious that Cat is only given two words in the first teaser for a feature length episode centered around his species, but this is here to show off an epic action effects shot, with a tiny-looking Starbug wobbling its way around an attack from one of those blue-tinted ships. There’s something very notable about this shot, but only if you’re looking out for it, so as per our spoiler policy, it’s up to people who didn’t attend the recordings to speculate, and those who did to keep schtum. Finally, we’re treated to a nice long look at a lovely new logo variant. The same fundamental design as Series III, IV, XI and XII, but with more depth and a grungy, scuffed and tatty texture. I like it a lot, and the best thing is that the bottom-right of the W and the top-left of the A have been restored, no longer cut off by the ellipse as they frustratingly were on the previous iteration. Thank you for listening, whoever’s decision that was. And so we end with the still relatively vague tagline “coming soon”, which in TV land is usually code for “probably around a month away as an absolute minimum”. That feels about right considering that Easter has been previously established a semi-official estimate, and that’s pretty much exactly a month away. If so, we’d expect the date to be confirmed in the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime we’re now only six days away from the title being revealed, according to this tweet from Doug. Fingers crossed for more pictures and a longer trailer soon too – we’ve got the taste for this now. It’s been a long two-and-a-half years…
Well it LOOKS fucking great. Very cinematic – looks like Doug’s got his wish in making the movie finally. What a character arc for him eh? It’s giving me heavy ‘final episode’ vibes.
Yeah, looks really good, and the decision to go for a serious and dramatic trailer works (presumably to be followed by a full trailer with more gags soon). Kryten’s line about finding a new ship feels a bit oddly chopped to be misleading though, doesn’t it? Like he’s giving us some Star Trek wacko jacko.
Yeah, looks really good, and the decision to go for a serious and dramatic trailer works l. Didn’t XI or XII have ‘serious’ trailers?
That was really good. A lot of tension there. Whilst I’m sure it’ll be plenty funny, I’m happy for another 90mins of something a little more serious if that’s what this ends up being. Effects look good, and the whole thing felt cinematic, which I’m sure was the point. 10/10 for whoever was responsible for putting this together
Go watch the series XI teaser. That had a similar tone. Did not make that series more serious though. Same with the series 8 trailer actually.
I hate Cat’s jacket. He looks like an old lady. But yes, looks good. Bit blue. I hope the jokes are okay!
I actually wouldn’t mind something abit more serious tbh. Lets have a villain thats threatening like the early days and not turn out to be a joke.
It’s almost hilarious how much better this looks in the spaceships department than XI / XII. I _told you guys_ they should just switch to CG.
Is that supposed to be Starbug at 0:13 into the video? It looks odd if it is. Like part of it is missing…
I don’t think it’s spoiling anything to say I reckon that there’s stuff to be revealed about this that weren’t necessarily shown to the studio audiences.
Is that supposed to be Starbug at 0:13 into the video? It looks odd if it is. Like part of it is missing… It definitely appears to be Starbug. Looks like the rear section is missing.
Looks like its just the main cockpit section flying… does starbug really need the engines? :P I still prefer the Models personally. but the CGI looks better then it did for series 7-8 and remastered.
The CGI looks sensational. Without the dedicated model unit of the first six series, CGI is definitely the way to go forward. Seems to be naturally carrying on from what they achieved in the AA adverts. That being said, I would not be surprised if they re-use the establishing shots of Red Dwarf itself from previous series. I just hope they don’t use the shot of the flat bigature from Series X which popped up a little in XI/XII. >Looks like its just the main cockpit section flying… does starbug really need the engines? According to Tikka Remastered… no. According to Back in the Red Part 1… yes.
Yeah! Frustrating to not see more, but that is what a teaser is so I can hardly complain. This is definitely pitching it to have higher stakes and potentially status quo altering events than an average Dwarf outing, even if it turns out it doesn’t actually have them. As PFMC84, chardir and Dax101 have already pointed out, the noteworthy thing about that last shot has got to be that Starbug only has its front half. So at least we can be sure that Lister is safe from the laser fire. He’s off somewhere else, working his way through the curry supply.
I don’t mean to insult anybody who poured their blood, sweat and tears into the production of XI and XII, but… the model shots… weren’t great. Especially some of the Starbug stuff just looked naff – but all the CGI stuff looked great, so I too wish for them to switch entirely to CGI, and think what we’ve seen in this trailer so far looks great. I dunno if we’ll ever get a fully CG Dwarf model, or if we really want that, due to the issues of detailing/resolution/cost etc that that may entail. I would aim to stick to a Dwarf model with everything else being CGI. What a short teaser – I like what’s there, but it’s not much, heh. I like hearing Rimmer talk in a more hushed tone, and I like that Lister sounds more scouse than he has in recent years.
The title of the special now appears to be out there, if you wish to look for it – there is a pre-order listing for the DVD.
I searched “pre order Red Dwarf DVD” and it was a couple down. Easy for a film lover to find. EDIT: I fucked up. Thought it was on a site called cinephile.com but it wasn’t. Sorry.
As the one who tweeted Doug and harped on the lack of a name for months. . . that’s kinda lame if its the actual title.
Oh yeah, teaser looks nice, but not much I can really sink my teeth into to really comment any further besides, “Pretty.”
Found it, it’s on simplyhe.com under the “Coming Soon” listings. Won’t say what it is on here for anyone who wants it to be a surprise, but it’s a fairly standard title. Sums up the premise of the special fairly well (is also Not A Pun, surprisingly)
Sorry it has the name in the url, but its from Dave themselves (also you’re gonna know the title sooner or later I guess)
Lol. Right, I’ve edited the comment that mentions the actual title, and will do a news piece shortly with the details behind a spoiler warning, in case anyone wants to avoid it. Please don’t mention it in this thread again, just to keep things clean for the spoiler-phobic.
If you search the title on google. a dave page pops up too. there is nothing on the page. but it exists ready for when they do start using it.
Yeah I posted the link, in hindsight maybe too quick to do so, but in reality knowing the title would be less of a spoiler than knowing Holly is supposed to return, so history will venidicate my actions.
Found it, it’s on simplyhe.com under the “Coming Soon” listings. Starts going through the listings and sees: Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar 500 Years of Organ Music vol. 2 I kind of like the sound of Red Dwarf: Tanks For Stalin though.
Yep the title could be considered kinda spoilery. also slightly similar to another episode from last series.
Is that an image of a bearded man in the shot of Starbug under fire? Could you be more specific? Yep the title could be considered kinda spoilery I mean, its one thing to not want to see publicity photos or read the synopsis, but the title is going to be front-and-center on TV guides and official home media releases so to really get iffy on it for spoiler reasons seems futile.
No Holly in the trailer, and going by the Starbug cockpit we have seen there’s no monitor for him to appear on either, unless it’s gonna be CGI’d in during post production…?
I don’t think so, just looks like a nicely executed dolly shot. This all looks very exciting, really looking forward to seeing more.
I don’t think so, just looks like a nicely executed dolly shot. Sorry, was replying to Dax101’s comment, there.
I’m really hoping from that opening line that Rimmer’s going to get some actual character development in this after being reduced to a pantomime villain during most of X/XI/XII
I’m really hoping from that opening line that Rimmer’s going to get some actual character development in this after being reduced to a pantomime villain during most of X/XI/XII The pantomime-y acting with him and Cat in recent series, and the AA adverts (Rimmer’s weird quick aggressive “YES!” and Cat’s OTT cartooney delivery on his one line in the latest ad really make me cringe) have been getting to me lately. Other than ‘The Beginning’, there are one or two episodes that felt like they wasted the opportunity to give Rimmer some good character development. Sometimes, frustratingly so. I’m really hoping that opening line is actually promising something really good with him in this.
I wouldn’t base their character growth off 1 minute advertisements, they’re going to be archetypes in the shorter time allocated to them. Red Dwarf being a sitcom you’re going to have characters repeat themselves, it’s like Malcolm in Malcolm in the Middle, obviously he’ll reset his growth more often than not, that’s what sitcoms do to their characters. Obviously the special will not be doing that, it’s a movie, and as such he’ll be getting an arc since they have a longer, linear way to deliver that now. It being the opening line, yes, I’m going to take a serious, major gamble and say that its promising emotional appeal.
That was really good. A lot of tension there. Whilst I’m sure it’ll be plenty funny, I’m happy for another 90mins of something a little more serious if that’s what this ends up being. Effects look good, and the whole thing felt cinematic, which I’m sure was the point. 10/10 for whoever was responsible for putting this together I’m dying to know what’s going on in your profile pic. Are you playing drums in somebody’s living room? It looks like a pretty hardcore situation
Well you wouldn’t expect any character growth in an advert. and you shouldn’t. thats not what the advert is for. but i do agree Cat and Rimmer do seem abit exaggerated in performance at times. which can be forgiven for the advert, but the show…
It being a small resolution profile pic I couldn’t possibly say for sure but if I were to speculate I’d suggest that there is a lot of drumming to what I’d guess is ‘heavy metal’ music. The shaved head and the tattoos and the naked torso also lead me to the conclusion that he would be drumming away to either China Drum or Pantera. Or a song of his own devising, which, by the looks of it, is a serious song.
Can I just take a moment to complain that they’ve clearly uploaded the same extra-compressed social media copy of the trailer to YouTube? It’s so blocky and bandy in places (particularly the fades to black) I almost thought it hadn’t fully loaded the 1080p video yet and was running at a much lower resolution, but nope. It’s just much lower quality than it needs to be for YouTube. Considering it’s basically just a showreel of the gorgeous visuals I really think they ought to have uploaded in the highest quality possible, which is _substantially_ higher for YouTube than social media like Twitter. I mean it’s a 20 second video. It can’t have taken up that much space in high quality. This is is obviously a massive issue and I would take exception to anyone who doesn’t think it’s a big deal and/or didn’t even notice. A preemptive “Shut up, bloodteller” and I’m done.
Saw on Twitter that Nick (Fuckin’) Helm has RT’d this teaser with the comment “Holy smeg.” Did we know he was a fan? (If that’s what he is, as opposed to an ironist.)
Got the chance to see the teaser more up close now, and seeing as nobody has mentioned it yet, it looks like Starbug lost it’s back half during that end chase sequence with the cat ship.
Is that an image of a bearded man in the shot of Starbug under fire? Could you be more specific? Looking for a blatant clue in the shot of Starbug under fire I enlarged the image on a tablet device and in the explosion cloud to the left of Starbug I can see an image of what last night looked like Santa Clause but tonight more awake different lighting it looks like Terry Pratchett resplendent in his trademark hat.
Got the chance to see the teaser more up close now, and seeing as nobody has mentioned it yet, it looks like Starbug lost it’s back half during that end chase sequence with the cat ship. It’s been mentioned. And I noticed it pretty much immediately.
Also, seeing as no-one has mentioned it yet, I’m thinking they might meet other Cats in this episode.
> No Holly in the trailer Red Dwarf itself also notably absent. Wondering whether they “have to find a new ship” because the Cats have taken over Red Dwarf.
They’re finally doing something with the Cats! The one part of the mythology with any potential depth! (it being a sitcom and all) Fucking finally!
https://rivalriesarefun.bandcamp.com/ We haven’t played for yes. Life got in the way. But that’s all our music there.
Had a listen. I liked it, and it did remind me of China Drum a bit. So maybe there’s something in this speculation lark ;)
Also, seeing as no-one has mentioned it yet, I’m thinking they might meet other Cats in this episode. k guys, I think I heard the first time
You know I’ll set my own website up, it’ll be a virtual game with you stomp a steel-toed boot into a pair of testicles and it’ll be called “Kick Veni in the Balls Till You Break the Mousepad” and I’ll link it when its ready
I’ve very uncomfortable about the choices for capitalisation in Doug’s tweet there. ‘Poster’ and ‘Live’ really don’t need it. Also the lack of “The” prefixing ‘Promised Land’ and a lack of a colon, though I’m not sure if that specific stylisation has been confirmed yet or not.
There’s two variations to this poster, a Dave one and a Red Dwarf one. I prefer the one without all the Dave crap on it personally. https://twitter.com/reddwarfhq/status/1239871365957718016?s=21
I am also guessing what the title of the G&T article is going to be, and if it’s not what I think it is then I will be very upset.
There’s two variations to this poster, a Dave one and a Red Dwarf one. I prefer the one without all the Dave crap on it personally. Nice. Having both lets us see some more of the details obscured by the logos on each.
That there poster is really something, isn’t it? (“Yes, its a poster”) I like both versions – the picture looks prettier on the Red Dwarf one, but the Dave version looks more cinema-like, which I think is nice. Noticed that Rimmer’s wearing his armour there, too.
It would have been more interesting having the Rimmer costume revealed in this poster than as a stand-a-lone publicity shot. Imagine how we would have reacted if it was the first time we saw it on that poster.
