As Series V was broadcast and the American Red Dwarf pilot failed to set the world alight, the fans made their desires known. They wanted more Holly, they said, and also more stories set aboard Red Dwarf herself, rather than out in the darker reaches of space.

So Rob Grant and Doug Naylor cut both Holly and Red Dwarf itself from the show. Those lads are nothing if not unpredictable!

It was a shocking move, to say the least, but one which would ultimately pay off - taking the show forwards rather than backwards. Free from the wide, empty space of their mothership, the crew were stranded together on Starbug facing food and fuel shortages, vulnerable to attack from outside.

Meanwhile Holly's 'plot exposition' and 'stupidity' characteristics had already been mostly handed over to Kryten and Cat respectively. Losing Red Dwarf itself gave the show a dramatic impetus, as well as a new style that would make writing-to-deadline a little easier - there were running jokes (Rimmer's 'Space Corps directives', Cat's 'deader than's) and a handy script format that typically began with a comedy character scene, followed by an emergency-cockpit scene, then a landing, docking or crash.

Not that this style made for a straightforward production. Series VI was filmed under intense time pressure, as the BBC had requested the show for a Spring/Summer broadcast. The team battled to complete to schedule - filming location inserts as locally as possible, often in the middle of the regular studio weeks, and completing scripts just in time to shoot them - and succeeded... only for the broadcast to be shelved until the Autumn.

New to this season's crew were director Andy de Emmony and producer Justin Judd. Andy had previously worked on Spitting Image, as had Rob and Doug, and Justin had just produced a pilot of the writers' sitcom The 10%ers for ITV.

Red Dwarf VI was filmed in February and March of 1993 and broadcast in October and November of the same year.

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