Red Dwarf Technical Manual

[Dax101]

Looking at Mike Tuckers facebook page i see he posted some concept images for what a technical manual book that didn’t get past these 2 pages (unfortunately) because publishers were apparently not interested.

Topic

[bloodteller]

This would have been excellent, can’t believe publishers weren’t interested in it

“Pointy Bits” made me laugh

[Dave]

Yeah, this would have been a great behind-the-scenes book.

[Warbodog]

A straight-up behind-the-scenes book would be better, without wasting pages on in-universe ‘funny’ context. The “pointy bits” type gags would run out of steam quickly, I’d rather know what scraps the models and sets are actually made out of.

Still would have been really nice though, obviously.

[GlenTokyo]

Wouldn’t you run into intellectual property problems if you did that though? Most models are made out of Eagle Transporter kits and whatnot.

I’d love to read it though, but apart from the above there wouldn’t be much in depth stuff you could write, they’re just really talented, it’d be like that draw an owl meme, they just fabricate stuff because they’re good. Once you get past materials and painting techniques which would be largely the same for all models, it’d just be a picture book. Which would be very nice in itself.

[Paul Muller]

“Wouldn’t you run into intellectual property problems if you did that though? Most models are made out of Eagle Transporter kits and whatnot.”

You could say the same thing about pretty much every vehicle in Star Wars. And Alien for that matter.

I think an updated attempt at this could be really great. Perhaps with a few less gags.

You could also use some snazzy 3D illustrations, or preferably, cross sections a la Graham Bleathman, who did the ones for the various Gerry Anderson shows. I would happily chew off my own arm for a copy of this Starbug illustration of his.

Met childhood hero @GrahamBleathman at Geek I-Con #Cardiff today – legend. Check out his Starbug and on-the-spot Thunderbird 2! pic.twitter.com/wKnmeEp3Us

— Tom Selway (@tomselsocial) January 15, 2017

[Ben Saunders]

Man that Starbug interior thing is so cool. But it also reminded me of how disconnected the lower levels feel from the rest of the ship in VI, feels like Kryten being turned into a cube happens somewhere else entirely (and maybe it does and my memory is failing me in my old age)

[Paul Muller]

Yeah, Series VII gets a lot of flack for expanding Starbug to preposterous levels (wind tunnel, landing bay, duct network etc), but there was a fair bit of that going on in Series VI as well. Graham’s illustration does an admirable job of fitting it all in and still leaving room for propulsion systems, fuel tanks etc.

[Dax101]

I think for Series 6 the expansion Starbug just about works, if not slightly just over the line abit in some areas.

[Hamish]

The main thing is that in VI they are never shown as being that comfortable.

[bloodteller]

Plus VI Starbug is at least somewhat plausible, whereas in VII it at least feels fucking massive. The wind tunnels, cargo bays, medibays, landing bays, miles of service ducts, medi-bay, AR Suite, laundry room etc., it’s all a bit ridiculous

[Dave]

Yeah, it’s nonsense and doesn’t make sense without some kind of timelord technology.

[GlenTokyo]

Dimensional anomalies innit.

[International Debris]

Dimensional anomalies are one thing, but the ship still looks the same size from the outside, so how the hell does Wildfire dock inside it in Stoke? Kryten spending 200 years reconfiguring Starbug so it’s at least somewhat liveable, if not especially pleasant, is one thing, but VII really should just have been set on Red Dwarf.

I feel like I’ve had this rant before.

[GlenTokyo]

Not disagreeing with you. It’s a right old crock of shit.

[Plastic Percy]

I think the VI Starbug just about works if you consider Cat and Lister’s sleeping quarters to be one multipurpose room – medical unit, science lab, AR Suite, Deep Sleep Chamber etc. Figuring out the engineering decks is a bit trickier.

[Author]

Replies