Really Board

Illustrating the Past - by Andrew Ellard

15 June, 2007

So, we've found and finished the script. We've recorded and edited the audio. What else is left?

Well, the storyboards. Obviously.

Once again Neil Maguire - who did such a splendid job with Series VII's Identity Within - has captured the flavour of the series. Working from reference material of everything from set designs to the look of Dwarf-only cartoon character Mugs Murphy, Neil's visuals immediately evoke the way this show could have looked.

Not that we stopped there. Oh no. We also have storyboards for the lost script extracts. So, at last, you can see a fully-pregnant Lister in Dad. If, y'know, that's your kinda thing.

One full episode plus four script pieces of varying lengths make for exhausting work, but Neil has gone into things with gusto. Each image is rendered in pencil, then inked and given a nifty colour wash - shading that really gives a warmer, three-dimensional and textured look.

While Bodysnatcher has been meticulously rebuilt to resemble Series I - occasionally to the writers' chagrin, with the on-screen canteen still clearly too small to accommodate a thousand people! - the other extracts belong to a curious Dwarf nevertime. Dad, in particular, has been fused from two radically different-looking series, so places the characters in the Series III sets while still wearing their Series II costumes.

As you can see from these examples, it's a great-looking result, one that Rob Grant and Doug Naylor admired during their recent commentary recording. We can't wait for you to see it.

More DVD Details will follow soon...

Red Dwarf: The Bodysnatcher Collection will be out in the UK on October 22nd.