Starbug’s INVISIBILITY CLOAK

[Podey]

I hope I’m not the only person to completely forget about the fact that STARBUG HAS AN INVISIBILITY CLOAK (!) but I suddenly had a flashback to backwards just now and remembered this scene and nearly dropped my knife and fork (I was very conveniently eating my tea at the time).

Has it ever been used or even referenced outside of this episode?!

Topic

[Jenuall]

[Moonlight]

It’s one of those things I just write off in my brain because it so clearly only exists to save VFX money and then never comes up again.

[Ridley]

It’s one of those things I just write off in my brain because it so clearly only exists to save VFX money and then never comes up again.

So it worked?

[Moonlight]

[loadoftottnumb]

It only works in Earths atmosphere innit. 

Now…..as to why it didn’t start off cloaked to which Lister then said cloak and it uncloaked……I think it’s well established that Backwards is best watched without thinking too much. 

[Podey]

I’m just gonna presume it’s all because of Timeslides. 

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

It only works in Earths atmosphere innit. 
Now…..as to why it didn’t start off cloaked to which Lister then said cloak and it uncloaked……I think it’s well established that Backwards is best watched without thinking too much. 

Oh boy do I have the thread for you …

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Ok we know it’s to save VFX. But why would Starbug, a ship to surface mining vessel, need a cloak?

this is very much the start of Rob and Doug turning Red Dwarf into a sci-fi ship with loads of cool advanced tech and not a mining ship. 

[Ridley]

– Can you see that space vehicle?

– Where?

[Flap Jack]

The twist is that Starbug’s cloaking device only works if the light is travelling in the wrong direction, and therefore it can’t be used in any other episode.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

If time is travelling backwards, everything is in reverse, is light not also travelling the wrong way and therefore you wouldn’t be able to see. As it wouldn’t be bouncing off objects into your eyes. It would travel from your eyes, bounce off an object, and then back to the sun

[Warbodog]

Farts would be more intriguing, as the smellers genuinely wouldn’t know whether they’d dealt it or not until it eventually got sucked up someone’s arse.

[Paul Muller]

The cloaking thing sort of works if you imagine it can only be used once, a bit like an airbag or ejector seat.

[Paul Muller]

I mean, aside from the reusable ejector seat that they use in the same episode. 

[cwickham]

I don’t think it’s so much to save on VFX, more that the required VFX for Starbug landing on Earth, Lister and Cat exiting it and everyone boarding it again at the end of the episode would be pretty much impossible to do.

[Dax101]

Homage to Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home.

To be fair though when have they ever needed to use a cloak since? 

[International Debris]

When attacked by simulants, space corps enforcement vehicle and their future selves in VI for a start. 

[Dax101]

Ok thats true…

[Dave]

[Ridley]

The ability to cloak is still there but the ability to activate the cloak got cloaked.

[Formica]

But why would Starbug, a ship to surface mining vessel, need a cloak?

If the rocks see them coming they might get scared and run away

[Technopeasant]

They had to disable the cloak in order to prevent war with the Romulans.

[RunawayTrain]

But why would Starbug, a ship to surface mining vessel, need a cloak?

Two potential explanations come to mind:

– Side project by some geek given the go-ahead to work on it.  (E.g. a Rimmer-like person but with the brains to match the ambition.)

– Officially sanctioned (by higher up) prototype for future cloak developments to be used in different, non-mining contexts.  (With Starburst being non-critical they could afford for things to go wrong with it.)

… maybe. 

[Ridley]

– Officially sanctioned (by higher up) prototype for future cloak developments to be used in different, non-mining contexts.  (With Starburst being non-critical they could afford for things to go wrong with it.)
… maybe. 

Prison transport..?

[Jenuall]

Best guess sirs it was something cooked up in the research labs down on Z deck.

[Moonlight]

I don’t think it’s so much to save on VFX, more that the required VFX for Starbug landing on Earth, Lister and Cat exiting it and everyone boarding it again at the end of the episode would be pretty much impossible to do.

They could have done it. It may not have looked very good, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t have been possible to achieve with the tools and people they had access to. But it eliminates a LOT of VFX shots if you simply don’t do that.

[loadoftottnumb]

Defensive mechanism, if they needed to travel undetected through potentially hostile areas. Particularly as a lifeboat type thing. 

[Ridley]

Auf Wiedersehen, limpet (mine)

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Well, shit. Who wants calamari?

[Renegade Rob]

They probably never used it again for the same reason the human race switched back to VHS from DVD’s, because they’d inevitably lose it somewhere and it was just too much of a hassle. 

[Dave]

A cloaked Starbug can actually be seen in the landing bay next to Blue Midget in Series 2.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Just imagine. They’d probably feel really silly when they found it and realised they could’ve been using the bigger shuttle for an entire year. Hope nobody got injured walking into it.

[Ian Symes]

It was only that particular Starbug that was fitted with the invisibility cloak, it wasn’t a standard feature. Then that Starbug got hit by a meteorite and crashed into an ice planet. 

[International Debris]

Now that’s how you headcanon.

[RunawayTrain]

Oh yes, I like that.

[Flap Jack]

Of course, in Series VIII the nanobots rebuilt the Starbugs according to their original design plans before the JMC made all its cutbacks, so now they all have working invisibility cloaks.

[RunawayTrain]

Of course, in Series VIII the nanobots rebuilt the Starbugs according to their original design plans before the JMC made all its cutbacks, so now they all have working invisibility cloaks.

Ah but it was a retrofit design, not in the original plans  ;)

[Technopeasant]

I dunno, would explain why the VIII crew was never seen again.

[Podey]

[Ben Saunders]

It’s a physical cloak and it blew off in the wind one day.

[Technopeasant]

It was taken back by Dumbledore so that Harry could use it now that he has come to Hogwarts.

[clem]

[Moonlight]

I nominate clem for Hall of Cloche status.

[Flap Jack]

Seconded.

[clem]

Well shucks, I’m almost glad I couldn’t sleep last night  :) 

[Author]

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