The Lost Episode II

Sneak-Peek Storyboards - by Andrew Ellard

15 July, 2005

As you'll have read in last week's story, the big new extra for the Series VII DVD will be a Chris Barrie performance of Identity Within - the episode that made it to draft stage, but fumbled at the final, financial hurdle.

IDW Logo

It was penned by John McKay - subsequently writer for, among other things, The Canterbury Tales and movie Crush - and was the first Cat-centric episode since Series I's Waiting For God (which, even then, was actually more of a Lister story).

But in addition to the audio track - featuring Chris's spot-on character impersonations and narration, not to mention a background effects track akin to the 'Red Dwarf Radio Show' audio tapes - there will also be a collection of storyboards shown on screen.

Board artist Neil Maguire - an old hand with a pencil, who's worked on everything from Bulletproof Monk to the new Captain Scarlet TV series - has busied himself to provide the 200+ images that will illustrate the audio, capturing the spirit and intent of this lost show.

As you can see from the pictured examples, these are not just 'straight' boards. They also feature a colour wash, which adds detail to backgrounds and lighting effects to faces. It's just another layer of texture that should make 'IDW' one of the most fascinating DVD extras yet produced for Dwarf. Once created, the images are then scanned in and edited to the audio track by jack-of-all-trades Chris Veale.

The final result is a 45-minute 'almost' episode of Red Dwarf. Sure, rewrites would have altered the script substantially, and the production design and budget would have taken its toll on expensive sequences such as the GELF marketplace and multi-lifeform drinking establishment - but essentially this is it, this is Identity Within.