A Brief History of a Doorway in Red Dwarf (1989-96)

Sometimes I write things about Red Dwarf which could be considered vaguely useful. Other times, I obsess about a door.

This door, to be exact. Hi there.

This scene is, of course, from “Polymorph” (RX: 3-4/10/89), and takes place on Red Dwarf’s cargo decks. We get a better shot of it earlier on in the episode, just before Cat gets suckered by the eponymous non-alien:

This was one of the show’s guest sets, rather than the standard recurring ones. It’s quite possible that this door might never have been seen again.

But that wouldn’t make much of an article. One week later, during production of “The Last Day” (RX: 10-11/10/89), the same door was used for Hudzen-10’s appearance on the landing gantry:

A quick side-by-side comparison will show that the wall piece is identical; note the nodules attached to the far left of the wall, the hazard tape surrounding the door itself, and the distinctive control panel to the right:

And that’s the end of the series. In between Series III and Series IV, the show moved down from Manchester’s Oxford Road studios, down to Shepperton. Will our door manage to make it down too?

Yes… but in a rather unexpected way. Let’s take a look at the end of “Justice” (RX: 14-15/11/90), as Lister does his big moralising speech before falling into a sewer.¹

It’s perhaps a little difficult to see in this shot, but that is indeed our door: repainted from cream to grey, and bolted onto the end of the brand new corridor set for the series. This is what Production Designer Mel Bibby had to say about the new set:

Moving onto Series IV, Bibby already had his standing sets from the previous series, so he was able to concentrate his efforts on creating new side sets. “We put in the back corridor, which played a big part in the fourth series, because prior to that the sleeping quarters, the ‘Bug and the science room were all separate sets. They weren’t linked together. There was a bit of an ante corridor outside the sleeping quarters, but that was all.

“When we went to Shepperton we suddenly had this long run, and I was asked to create this corridor that they could move around in. At the same time, we decided to link all the sets together, even the ‘Bug, which isn’t really linked with the others because it’s out in space, but by putting an exterior door into it, it was a door to somewhere else. With the opportunity to link all the sets together we were able to play with the space a lot better than we did before.”

– “Corridors, Consoles and Cockpits”, Red Dwarf Smegazine, March 1993

Whenever Series IV is discussed, this brand new corridor set is often brought up, usually with a crack about how this scene in “Justice” has the cast walking down the corridor and doubling back on themselves, as the set wasn’t large enough. What isn’t usually mentioned is that this “brand new” set contains at least one hefty element taken from the previous series.

Indeed, it gets quite a lot of use in Series IV. Our door gets starring role at the start of “White Hole” (RX:12-13/12/90), sitting behind Kryten in what we’re probably expected to believe is one of Red Dwarf’s apps rooms, but is really just the end of the new corridor set:

It also features prominently in the scene in “D.N.A.” (RX: 19-20/12/90) where the gang run away from the rampaging curry monster. The first picture here in particular proves that this is the same door that we first saw right back in Series III:

Amusingly enough, this scene is where Lister specifically makes reference to “Polymorph”:

LISTER: Remember last Easter, twelve months ago to the day, the Polymorph?
KRYTEN: That’s right. You were attacked by a killer shami kebab!
LISTER: How can the same smeg happen to the same guy twice?

Not only did the same smeg happen to the same guy twice, but it happened through the same door.

Come Series V, and not much has changed. The door is still part of the same standing corridor set, and features prominently in several episodes. There is one interesting wrinkle, though.

Take a look at these shots from the first episode of Series V recorded, “Demons & Angels” (RX: 31/10/91 and 1/11/91):

The first picture is from the broadcast episode, and looks pretty much as it did in Series IV, aside from the sign above the door indicating we’re on the Low ship. The second picture is from a scene which was later reshot, and only appears in the deleted scenes on the Series V DVD. Hold that thought; we’ll be returning to “Demons & Angels” later.

Next up, “The Inquisitor” (RX: 7-8/11/91). And what have we here?

Yes, for this episode, a hand scanner has magically appeared above the door’s control panel, as part of that episode’s plot with characters having to prove their identity… and to enable the gag with the severed hand in the second picture. Lovely.

And now that hand scanner has been installed, why bother taking it off? Sure enough, despite only being added for this specific episode, it remains for the rest of the series. For example, in “Holoship” (RX: 14-15/11/91), it’s clearly visible:

It’s also visible in “Quarantine” (RX: 28-29/11/91), during the memorable scene where Kryten gets an axe embedded in his spine:

This door doesn’t appear in “Back to Reality” (RX: 5-6/12/91)… but here is where we come back to “Demons & Angels”. And more specifically: reshoots.

The basic story of the reshoot day for Series V of Red Dwarf has been known about for years. Robert Llewellyn talks about it in his autobiography, the first edition of which was first published in 1994.

“The final recording was great fun. We’d had to pre-record quite a bit, so there wasn’t so much to do when the audience were in. This is great for us as we finish early, not so much fun for the live audience who don’t get to see a great deal. There was a party that night, but it wasn’t like the normal end-of-run parties, wrap parties they’re called in the trade. […]

The reason the party was a bit of a flop was that we all knew we had to be up at the crack of dawn the next day. We hadn’t actually finished. We had one more tough day in the studio. Pick-ups, it was called. Picking up all the bits we’d failed to get during the seven previous weeks. This isn’t surprising as Red Dwarf is a fiendishly difficult show to make. I have had this fact underlined after working on other shows, which are so simple and easy in comparison.

That last day in the studio was a real killer. It seemed all the hardest parts of the series had to be done again, and some bits we’d never done had to be made for the first time.”

– Robert Llewellyn, The Man In The Rubber Mask (p. 121). Kindle Edition.

This would seem to indicate that the reshoot day took place on the 7/12/91, the day after the main record for “Back to Reality”. The paperwork for “Demons & Angels”, meanwhile, gives an additional shooting date of 8/12/91, which is probably more likely than Robert’s recollections.

Not that it really matters. Either way, we now have our explanation for the following. Here are two different versions of the scene where Kryten puts together the Triplicator near the end of the episode:

The first picture is from the original version of the scene, as present in the deleted scenes on the Series V DVD; the second picture is the reshot version done on the pick-up day, as seen in the actual episode. And now we know why that door suddenly sprouts the hand scanner halfway through the episode; because those scenes were reshot weeks later than the rest of the episode, after the scanner was added for “The Inquisitor”.

*   *   *

We then take a break for very nearly five years.

Or do we? For Series VI, the action was moved from Red Dwarf itself to Starbug, and the sets were changed considerably. But that corridor remained, with a fair chunk of it originating from Series IV. In the episode “Rimmerworld” (RX: 4+6/3/93), the corridor doubles as part of a Simulant ship.

Take a look at this shot:

Underneath the “POD LAUNCHED” sign: is that a white light, with a faint red light underneath it? Could that in fact be the control panel of our doorway? Maybe, maybe not. I’m not going to dare call that one.

Oh well. Onto Series VII, shot between May and August 1996. With the move to shooting without an audience, and the huge changes to the sets involved with that decision, maybe our little doorway has been dumped entirely… hang on, what’s this at the start of “Tikka to Ride”?

Yer nodules, yer hazard tape, yer distinctively-shaped window… surely that’s it? And indeed, when we reach “Stoke me a Clipper”, all is confirmed:

Brilliantly enough, even the hand scanner which was attached purely for “The Inquisitor” is still there. A door which started off as a one-off piece of set in “Polymorph”, and then became part of the standing corridor set on Red Dwarf, is now part of the set representing Starbug instead.

Which makes what happens in “Ouroboros” extremely pleasing. Appropriately enough considering the episode’s title, we come full circle, and that doorway becomes part of Red Dwarf again, in a flashback scene:

And who would have guessed that flashback scene contained a huge piece of set first used seven years previously in Series III?

Ah, yes, Series III. I’ve saved the very best until last. Because I left out one very important use the door has in that particular series. It also appears in “Bodyswap” (RX: 25-26/9/89), with a sign which looks suspiciously like it was added in post-production.

Forget cool scenes with Polymorphs and curry monsters. It was also the door to the bogs.

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1. Yes, a sewer. Listen to the sound effects as he falls. ↩

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