What did you prefer, Series 1-2 sets or the latter Series onwards?

[Tonguetied]

Some say Series 1-2 sets were the best, others disagree and claim that they prefered the sets of later series. We know that the early series sets were dirt cheap, they look as though they were going to fall apart; That the colours were too dull. However I believe that these sets really gave the early shows that certain atmosphere which I certainly missed in later series. The colours gave it a very monotonous look sure, but hey this is a big mining ship, not a luxury space cruiser. It gave it a sense of greatness. Lister and Rimmer’s bunkroom had a great design, as did the other rooms seen in the first two series. Later series, did have great designs, but I felt it was missing something that the earlier series had. The simple clean look which I felt should have been retained. Sure it was cheap, but hey, some things in life don’t cost much to be great. Anyway tell me your views, which do you prefer, or are you indifferent?

Topic

[International Debris]

I assumed at least a couple were left behind, particularly the Backwards one and the completely fucked one in Bodyswap. There are obviously more Starbugs than just one, given that there are two in those particular episodes.

[Ben Saunders]

I’m certain they leave behind the Marooned one as well.

[Dave]

And in Terrorform.

[bloodteller]

i think it’s mentioned as early as Backwards that there’s multiple Starbugs, isn’t it? Kryten mentions he took all his flying lessons in “Starbug 2” and so isn’t used to the controls in Starbug 1.

[Dave]

I think the question is at what point we found out there were more than two, ie. an entire fleet of them – like you say, there have been at least two ever since the ship was introduced.

[Dax101]

Well they got rid of the landing pad shot at the end of series 7 so in the series 8 redo of that sequence they show 5 starbugs in a row just to show us there isn’t just one.

[Me Own Stunts]

> there have been at least two ever since the ship was introduced.

I’ve never doubted this. The presence of the number 1 and 2 on various model shots also conveyed that there were at least 2. I just never imagined that there was a much more vast supply, and that whenever they crashed a Starbug they simply abandoned it, got another Starbug off the rack and painted that replacement with STARBUG 1.

I think I just prefer the sense of continuity of them using mostly one Starbug, and that when it crashed they restored and repaired it offscreen. It’s not a big deal, but it’s what I assumed and took for granted. When there were loads of Starbugs and Blue Midgets at the end of series 8 I put it down to series 8 being shit.

[International Debris]

I fall somewhere between the two camps: I always assumed they probably had a few of each – a ship that size, they’ve got to have more than three shuttle craft – but the amount seen in Only the Good… doesn’t work for me either.

That said, you’d imagine there would be regulations about lifeboats in order to get everybody off the ship.

[Plastic Percy]

<<Off the top of my head there’s Backwards, Marooned, Bodyswap, Terrorform, Out Of Time, Back In The Red Part One…>>

That’s the five I’m counting, as the others we see them repaired and made to fly again. As stated, Out of Time doesn’t really count as the timeline is undone and it and the crew are restored in Tikka to Ride.

<<That said, you’d imagine there would be regulations about lifeboats in order to get everybody off the ship.>>

Apparently not, given they have to abandon the inmates on Floor 13.

[International Debris]

I think it’s fair to say Rog and Doub really should have written the JMC operations and regulations manual before starting to write the show itself, it would have saved them from making all these mistakes.

[Moonlight]

I can’t take this ambiguity. I’m going to track down Starbug and tell him I’m never watching Red Dwarf again.

[Author]

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