Model Shot Recycling

The worst example for me is the very distinctive Justice World design being reused in Out Of Time. It’s so specific, designed to look like the scales of justice, that it’s really jarring to see it suddenly crop up in another context.

In general though I don’t really mind model shot recycling, especially when it’s fairly generic flyby/establishing shots of Starbug or Red Dwarf. If it’s good enough for Thunderbirds then it’s good enough for RD.

The Starbug ‘skid’ left is the only one that bothers me.

You expect a certain amount of model footage reuse so you kinda just let it go right?

(Anything with models, puppets etc does the same thing – Gerry Anderson springs to mind)

Ok it’s a bit jarring when it’s a distinctive shot, but I’d rather they save their money and use it elsewhere. 

Not a model shot but I’ve always wondered why they wouldn’t repeat a successfully filmed turn instead of giving us this one where both Danny and Robert obviously forget they’re supposed to turn.

I need to go back over X – XII, but I think I’m right in saying that the Starbug interior sets have ‘Starbug 19’ signs up, but the model still has the ‘Starbug 1’ registration on the side. Although it’s a nice detail that when they return to Red Dwarf in The Promised Land and pick up a new Starbug to go over to the cat fleet, the signs on the set have been updated to ‘Starbug 20’.

That’s one of the best Starbug shots in XI / XII too. The others are often don’t give the ship a real sense of scale and usually have a locked camera.

Let’s be real though, something clearly went wrong with some element of the production when half the Starbug shots are shitty 2D fakes and literally every other shot of RD is this one (with the exact same annoying music cue):

X seems like it had a mess of a production and was saved in post. Meanwhile XI / XII seem to have had an excellent production but then a lot went horribly, horribly wrong in post. Between the model stuff, the music edit so fucked up it comes across a temp edit that was never finished, triply so for XII, and other nonsense, it’s just frustrating when this is my favorite version of the show outside the Bubble.

I have a friend who made fan edits of the Dave era fixing a lot of these issues and those have kinda become my go-to copies to watch.

That’s one of the best Starbug shots in XI / XII too. The others are often don’t give the ship a real sense of scale and usually have a locked camera.

Let’s be real though, something clearly went wrong with some element of the production when half the Starbug shots are shitty 2D fakes and literally every other shot of RD is this one (with the exact same annoying music cue):

X seems like it had a mess of a production and was saved in post. Meanwhile XI / XII seem to have had an excellent production but then a lot went horribly, horribly wrong in post. Between the model stuff, the music edit so fucked up it comes across a temp edit that was never finished, triply so for XII, and other nonsense, it’s just frustrating when this is my favorite version of the show outside the Bubble.

I have a friend who made fan edits of the Dave era fixing a lot of these issues and those have kinda become my go-to copies to watch.

I love me some models, but I genuinely think the VIII shot looks better here which is sad.

It has a bit of the classic BBC VFX moco pan about it though which helps it compared to a lot of not very dynamic awkward shots or 2D Powerpoint motion path shots that feature in XI/XII.

I’m surprised there isn’t a comprehensive list of all of the recycled shots on this website

We are open to hosting guest posts if anyone fancies it…

But slightly sped up in the third instance!

Excellent giffing, it has to be said.

Cheers, all made possible thanks to some top quality tools of course!

It’s slightly annoyed me that the third is out of sync, OCD part of my brain wants to try and fix it now!

Welcome to the OCD club !!!