Doc Trails (woo-hoo) News Posted by Ian Symes on 23rd July 2020, 10:42 It is now precisely two weeks until the first of three episodes of Red Dwarf: The First Three Million Years airs on Dave, and so I suppose it’s high time for a trailer. Expect to see this approximately a thousand times over the next fortnight if, like me, you’re trapped watching Dave’s nightly repeats of all episodes of Taskmaster ever on a loop, or here it is on Twitter: A look back at the comedy phenomenon three million years in the making.#RedDwarf The First Three Million Years, starts 6th of August on Dave. (@DougRDNaylor @CCfunkandsoul @bobbyllew @DannyJohnJules @RichardDGNaylor @RedDwarfHQ @NorthOneTV) pic.twitter.com/Otb42tg783 — Dave (@davechannel) July 23, 2020 Our initial thoughts, then: Is there a logistical reason why all the episode clips are from the Dave era? You’d think they’d want to illustrate as much of the last 32 years as possible, so maybe there’s something contractual about using BBC footage in trails. All four of the main cast present and correct in interviews on set of The Promised Land, both individually and as a group from the looks of things. Good. Ooh, those old black-and-white shots from the Series 1 rehearsals. From the ones used in the trailer, at least we can guarantee some small presence of Rob Grant and Ed Bye in the docs. I think I’m right in saying that all the “exclusive behind-the-scenes footage” glimpsed here has been seen before in Nathan Cubitt’s DVD/Bluray documentaries. That’s not to say that there won’t be any previously-unseen-even-by-us-nerds stuff across the series (especially considering there wasn’t such wide scale BTS shooting for the BBC years), but we’re not holding our breath at this stage. I mean it’s fine – this stuff will be all-new to a more casual audience, but then again is it a casual audience that’s going to be tuning in to three hours’ worth of documentary about a sci-fi sitcom? I could be completely wrong here, but that model shot towards the start, the push into the ship… has that been cleaned up, or re-composited or something? The footage itself is familiar, but it just looks crisper and smoother than usual. There is a strong chance I’m talking shit, but I just thought I’d mention it. Overall, it’s a strong trailer to entice the not-quite-so-hardcore-as-us fans, which is what’s required given that people like us are going to watch it regardless. I worry that there’s not going to be a huge amount for the likes of us to learn – Robert’s protestations that Red Dwarf is too popular to be a cult were first aired in 1998’s Red Dwarf A-Z, and jokes about his make-up regime compared to Chris’s have been made since approximately 5th September 1989 – but it’s still going to be nice to have all that stuff in one place. Thirty two years of behind-the-scenes stories consolidated into three manageable chunks. Here’s hoping, anyway.
From what I can tell, the “exclusive behind the scenes” stuff is all taken from previous DVD docs, but at least the talking heads are new. Even if they say the same thing that have for the last 15-20 years of DVD documentaries it’ll all be in a slightly different way so there is that.
jokes about his make-up regime compared to Chris’s have been made since approximately 5th September 1989 The day I started school! And also my fifth birthday. What a shit present that was. What? Oh, yes. Well this looks alright like.
I could be completely wrong here, but that model shot towards the start, the push into the ship… has that been cleaned up, or re-composited or something? The footage itself is familiar, but it just looks crisper and smoother than usual. There is a strong chance I’m talking shit, but I just thought I’d mention it. This clip struck me, too. That feeling you get when seeing a model shot that’s almost like the one you’ve seen a thousand times before, but it’s somehow different.
That is an amazing headline. Indeed. Applause and doffing of caps etc. Can someone explain to the Thickie Holdens in the group what is so great about the headline Duck Tales. Woo hoo.
Can someone explain to the Thickie Holdens in the group what is so great about the headline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAAKU9UxOeU
This clip struck me, too. That feeling you get when seeing a model shot that’s almost like the one you’ve seen a thousand times before, but it’s somehow different. It looks to me like it’s being played at a different speed to normal.
I’ve watched that trailer a few times now, and the way she says ‘phenomenon’ irritates me more than it has any right to.
I wonder who else has been interviewed, and if Chloë will be involved in some way… My evening is sorted now as well, I’m going to play some Duck Tales for the NES.
Is there a logistical reason why all the episode clips are from the Dave era? You’d think they’d want to illustrate as much of the last 32 years as possible, so maybe there’s something contractual about using BBC footage in trails. Yes. They’re in 16:9. Even if they can play BBC-era clips, I’d gather they’d want the trailer to look nice and modern with new Dwarf and not do something hideous like crop Series III which is effectively zooming in on the worst video quality the series ever had. Cropping 4:3 shows is the devil’s work, and maybe they had the sense to just use the 16:9 clips since they probably wouldn’t be allowed to show anything pillarboxed lest a mob of simpletons rise up and accidentally kill themselves fleeing the horrible blackness that is consuming their TVs. The real question is if they can show BBC-era clips, will they be sourced from the upscaled Blu-ray masters?
Red Dwarf the last 8 years based on that trailer. Like the look of them all sat in the midsection, that at least is something different, as you can’t really do anything new with the talking head sections.
I was trying to remember if Dave ever showed BBC era dwarf in any trailers or adverts. and they did for the 25th anniversary and i think for a count down advert for series 10. This trailer is abit underwhelming really and probably did need to BBC era stuff thrown in and even a taste of what sort of material we will get. rather than just series 11, 12, PL footage with some black and white images that can be found on the official site.
I could be completely wrong here, but that model shot towards the start, the push into the ship… has that been cleaned up, or re-composited or something? The footage itself is familiar, but it just looks crisper and smoother than usual. There is a strong chance I’m talking shit, but I just thought I’d mention it. This clip struck me, too. That feeling you get when seeing a model shot that’s almost like the one you’ve seen a thousand times before, but it’s somehow different. I thought this too, Red Dwarf looks sharper and the starscape looks loads better. Also there’s one right near the end of s Starbug heading toward Red Dwarf, flying away from camera, feel like i’ve not seen that before? The actual shot of Starbug yeah but not heading toward the Dwarf
I’m getting this in early. Take a drink when you hear the following: A reference to the pilot script being rejected because it didn’t feature a sofa. The cast getting shit-faced every night in the Manchester. Are you legit? She took my ball away. Robert almost getting eletrocuted on his first day. Back to Reality. Emmy Award. The Split. Filmisation was the BBC’s idea. Dads’ Army in Space The Film. Back and better than ever. We’ll keep making this till we drop. Rules: Keep your fingers wrapped tight around that bottle and don’t fucking stop until you’ve had more than enough.
The cast getting shit-faced every night in the Manchester. Danny’s timekeeping. Dads’ Army in Space Steptoe & Son in Space. Porridge in Space. Back to Reality. Emmy Award. See also: Gunmen of the Apocalypse. Ace Rimmer Duane Dibbley.
I do seem to recall years back when Andrew Ellard was a regular commenter here, he said that he had unearthed some rushes footage from Series III and IV after the doing the DVD doccos. They are so far the only two series to have no rushes footage in their doccos (which is mad considering of all the series, I assumed it would’ve been 1 & II) If my memory of Andrew saying this is correct, then I hope maybe there’s a good chance we’ll finally see them on these. But maybe it’s wishful thinking shrugs who knows? I’ll keep my fingers crossed until 6th August anyway.
Yes. They’re in 16:9. Even if they can play BBC-era clips, I’d gather they’d want the trailer to look nice and modern with new Dwarf and not do something hideous like crop Series III which is effectively zooming in on the worst video quality the series ever had. Ah, I hadn’t considered this factor, it probably is just wanting the highest quality stuff. But then again, they have no qualms about showing cropped and upscaled 4:3 SD material in trails normally, thinking back to similar shows such as their OFAH and Fawlty Towers retrospectives. This trailer is abit underwhelming really and probably did need to BBC era stuff thrown in and even a taste of what sort of material we will get. rather than just series 11, 12, PL footage with some black and white images that can be found on the official site. Yes, but the trailer’s not for us. Agreed that BBC clips would have been a good idea, but it shows an absolute shitload of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews, which completely gets across the USP of the programme. As a percentage, how many Dave viewers do you think will watch that trailer between episodes of Top Gear or QI and go “well, you can find those black and white images on reddwarf.co.uk so I’m not fucking watching this”?
Looking forward to it. After 30 plus years we have no right to get new stuff. Red Dwarf, the gift that keeps on giving.
There’s a piece on Chortle with some of the facts from the docco that sound like it’s going to be as expected – a lot of stuff people like us already know, the occasional thing I don’t think we did. https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2020/08/04/46631/how_red_dwarf_producers_feared_cat_might_be_racist
The BBC turned the show down three times as respected head of comedy Gareth Gwenlan didn’t understand the appeal. The writers later got their own back when his surname became a term of abuse on the show. ^ From the Chortle article: Oh THAT’s what that word was! (Netflix subs render it gwenlin, and it’s not something that’s bugged me enough before to investigate anyway, but nice to know/understand now.)
There’s a piece on Chortle with some of the facts from the docco that sound like it’s going to be as expected – a lot of stuff people like us already know, the occasional thing I don’t think we did. I guess it couldn’t be any other way, really. You can’t properly tell the story of Red Dwarf without covering a lot of that well-worn information.
