Evolution of... The Sets

Revisiting and updating our design retrospective!

Back before 2012's Series X was broadcast, we published a series of retrospectives on various design features of the series. Since then, of course, the history of Red Dwarf's design has moved on significantly thanks to the production of three full series and a feature-length special - so we thought it was about time to go back to the story and bring it back up to date.

Here, then, is a look at the evolution of the show's main set design - all the way up to the present day...

In the beginning, everything was grey. Indeed, there was so much grey lining the walls of Red Dwarf in its first series that Me2, the last-produced episode of the run, even contained a joking reference to there being two different shades of the stuff.

Paul Montague's sets had followed the remit of evoking a dingy, claustrophobic feel - akin to that of a submarine. They certainly achieved that - but to such a great effect that upon commencing Series II, the production team felt the need to introduce a variety of colourful props and wall-dressing to break the monotony of the bunkroom scenes.

Click to enlarge

The colour and décor of that first bunkroom may not have been exactly what Rob and Doug had been hoping for - but what the set did do was to lay out a template for the show's "core" setting that would endure throughout nearly every series that followed. The layout of two bunks, Lister's above Rimmer's, with a table in the foreground, has so far survived all later incarnations of the main ship's bunkroom - and although the formula was altered for the Starbug-set Series VI and VII, even the prison cell of Series VIII was a direct homage to it.

Click to enlarge

The other major set used in the first series was Red Dwarf's drive room - bustling and smoky in pre-accident scenes, and still lively with monitor displays and other activity even when featuring Lister alone with Holly. This established a trend whereby ship-bound scenes not set in the sleeping quarters would instead be in some form of "technical" room - although the drive room itself would only serve this purpose for the first series. Instead, Series II featured the "science room", a set whose main characteristics were an abundance of lights and controls, and a console in the foreground that enabled the characters to face the audience while conversing with one-another.

Click to enlarge

A dramatic overhaul of the entire ship came as part and parcel of the general reinvention that accompanied Series III - and the new bunkroom, courtesy of incoming designer Mel Bibby, explained the change with a sign indicating that the crew had now moved to the Officers' Quarters. The new off-white, angular and blocky surroundings harkened back to early Red Dwarf influences such as Alien - and were larger, lessening the feeling that the crew were "trapped" on the ship. This styling was carried over to other parts of the ship - most notably the replacement science room, which now centred on a circular "console" unit that featured monitors for Holly's display - while the corridors featured a darker and grimy feel, based heavily around metal grating, that would become one of the show's main hallmarks.

Click to enlarge

The interior of Red Dwarf remained largely unchanged throughout Series III, IV and V - but these series also saw the use of another major set, in the shape of the frequently-used transport ship Starbug. The ship initially featured a two-seat cockpit - allowing, for the first time, proper "driving" scenes with crew members at the yokes - with a mid-section that was primarily intended for storage but would more often feature as a passenger area for any episodes in which all four Dwarfers used the ship. The grate-based styling of the mothership's corridors was carried over to Starbug, although the blocky octagons of the quarters were echoed in the design of the cockpit doorway.

Click to enlarge

Starbug took on significantly greater importance, however, from Series VI onwards. With Red Dwarf itself lost, the shuttle craft became the crew's new home - and so naturally, it needed an overhaul to cope with its new role. While cockpit scenes in earlier series had often involved Kryten and Rimmer having to stand behind Lister and Cat's pilot seats, this time out they were given their own workstations in a much larger front section - and this new, four-seat layout would be home to some of the series' most memorable dialogue exchanges, essentially taking the place of earlier bunkrooms.

Click to enlarge

The new Starbug did, as it happens, also feature a sleeping quarters - which also doubled as a medical room and the home of Lister's Artificial Reality exploits - but this location was far less frequently used than in previous years. It also featured a dramatically different layout - the larger bunks were now on separate walls, rather than one above the other, and both the room itself and its accompanying décor were rectangular, in a shift away from the octagonal theme of Series III-V. However, the other main ship location throughout this series was, in fact, the mid-section - enlarged, and with a grimier feel (and yet more of that classic grating), with its central scanner table it essentially served as the crew's new "living room", complete with mini kitchen to the rear.

If the ship thought its weight gain programme had ended with Series VI, however, it was very much mistaken. Moving away from the deliberately claustrophobic feel of the previous series - as well as revelling in the freedom to build larger, four-walled sets due to the absence of a studio audience - the in-story explanation of "dimensional anomalies" expanded the interior dimensions of Starbug greatly (while apparently, in TARDIS-esque fashion, retaining the same external size).

Click to enlarge

There was now a much more liberal distribution of location use across scenes, rather than largely limiting material to the cockpit and mid-section - and this meant that although those two areas stayed largely the same, we saw some entirely new rooms as well as changes to existing ones. The sleeping quarters were redesigned, keeping the same overall styling as in Series VI, but now with a layout that was a touch more reminiscent of the original Series I bunkroom - complete with corner sink unit. But we were also introduced to a new dedicated medical room, a gigantic cargo bay (actually filmed in an aerospace wind tunnel), a separate AR suite and a variety of high-ceilinged corridors.

Sadly, the Dwarfers would only get to enjoy their vastly-spacious Starbug for a single series - as it was summarily destroyed upon crashing into the cargo bay of the newly-rebuilt Red Dwarf at the beginning of Series VIII. The reconstruction of the mothership to its "original design" offered plenty of potential for redesigning classic elements - although the first glimpse of an onboard room was a recreation of Paul Montague's original sleeping quarters design.

Click to enlarge

Elsewhere, however, rooms such as the Captain's office, as well as the corridors in general, received a sprucing up that moved them away from the ramshackle feel the ship had had in the show's middle years. Hollister's own quarters, which we might have expected to have the off-white design of the old Officers' Quarters, in fact had a blue paint job, and felt more like a room in a hotel than on a mining ship...

Click to enlarge

Not that our intrepid crew got to see very much of this new ship, of course - the arching series plot of their imprisonment in "The Tank" meant that instead, another entirely new set was required. Putting Lister and Rimmer back in stacked bunks, with a foreground table, the prison cell deliberately evoked that very first bunkroom - the same one the audience had been shown in Back in the Red Part 1, helping drive home the subliminal image - while the metallic grates called to mind the classic ship's corridors.

Click to enlarge

One final change for Series VIII was that, with Starbug destroyed, the crew needed a new shuttle craft cockpit. Blue Midget had had a cramped feel way back in its very first appearances in Series II, and although enlarged for Series VIII, that continued by virtue of the sheer number of characters that were crammed into it. The layout was actually, more than anything, reminiscent of Series II's science room - with characters directly facing the camera rather than the angled perspective of Starbug's cockpit.

Following the end of Series VIII, the crew - for reasons as yet unspecified - found themselves back alone on Red Dwarf by the time of Back to Earth - and back living in quarters that were simultaneously brand new and yet immediately classic. During the gap between productions, Mel Bibby had sadly passed away - but incoming designer Mark Harris kept the spirit of both his and Paul Montague's work alive in admirably faithful fashion.

Click to enlarge

The colouring of the new bunkroom set was a return to the original grey - albeit in a lighter, multi-toned way - but the overall aesthetic, particularly in the octagonal walls and doorways, was pure Series III. And yet with the addition of a door on the right-hand side of the bunks, the layout even had hints of the enlarged Starbug. The set was drenched in more in the way of character detail than ever before, while a brand new console table and corner computer mainframe ensured that the room had a constant sense of activity and motion. And for the first time, thanks to the four-walled nature of the set, Rimmer and Lister had a gigantic window out to space opposite their bunks.

Ultimately, however, this redesign was destined only to be used for Back to Earth - as the production of a full Series X necessitated creation of an entirely new batch of sets. The layout of the bunk area was retained, with its secondary door to the right and computer station to the left. The storage area over on the right hand side of the set, meanwhile, became a new kitchenette area - helping, along with Lister's new sofa, to give the impression of a room where Lister would spend most of his days.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

More significant, however, was the overall change in aesthetic. Gleaming whites and greys were nowhere to be seen - instead, for the first time, the red hue of the ship's exterior found its way indoors, with the addition of a yellow and black warning tape motif and exposed pipes, wires and machinery that all combined to give a grungy, industrial feel - as if the crew had nestled themselves in the deepest, grimiest bowels of the ship.

The new styling saw both the return of a classic design feature - yes, that crate-style grating, so heavily associated with the Bibby era, was back again - as well as the creation of a new one. As documented on the series' behind-the-scenes documentary, texture was added to the walls via the use of cutlery trays from a certain well-known Swedish home store. The distinct, asymmetrical patterns would continue to be seen throughout the series and sets that followed.

Click to enlarge

The bunkroom wasn't the only new ship-based set created for Series X - there was also, for the first time since Series II, a new Drive Room. This made for a handy alternative "base" location for scenes onboard the ship, and its four-seat configuration was reminiscent of Starbug and Blue Midget - indeed, a redressed version of the room doubled as the latter ship's cockpit in The Beginning.

As Series XI and XII went into back-to-back production, for the first time since all the way back in 1992 the same fundamental look and feel could be carried over from one series to the next. There was still room, however, for a redress and refresh of the bunkroom set - with some changes made by new production designer Julian Fullalove for aesthetic preference, and others to suit plot-based purposes.

Click to enlarge

Much less time was spent in the bunkroom in Series XI than in Series X, however - with the majority of ship-bound scenes instead taking place in the new Science/Medical Room set. This area had a completely different aesthetic from the grimy nature of the bunkroom - instead it was bright and gleaming, with a retro-futurist styling in its wall panels and consoles. Things were also spruced up a little in the corridors - while the predominant red look was maintained, there were lighter grey panels and walls used too, with new LED strip-lighting that made things feel a little less run-down than in the previous series.

The real draw for fans, however, was the chance to see a new Starbug cockpit - and the classic shuttle craft was reimagined in smaller, yet instantly familiar, form. The seats and control panels were given the feel of a mid twentieth-century aircraft, with analogue switches and lights contrasting nicely with Red Dwarf's future setting. The octagonal doorway, meanwhile, was a callback to the style of the original Series III 'bug - although the "ALERT"/"NOT ALERT" sign above, installed for apposite gag purposes, was all-new.

Photo courtesy of Matthew Clark. Click to enlarge

Despite being filmed so close together, there was a change in behind-the-scenes crew for Series XII - with incoming production designer Keith Dunne being given the opportunity to refresh and expand upon what had been put in place just a few months earlier. The most noticeable changes were in the bunkroom, where the bunks themselves were updated with new video screen panels and wall graphics. Starbug also gained a new set of backlit panels and graphics, courtesy of new graphic designer Matthew Clark - a long-time Dwarf fan who jumped on the opportunity to litter his designs with easter eggs.

Series XII, with its closing instalment Skipper, also saw the show once again required to recreate designs from the first series. The existing red corridors were repainted grey and gained classic-style "LEVEL NIVELO" signs - but the real fun came with staggeringly accurate recreations of the original bunkroom and Captain's Office, which even extended as far as using the correct font on printed A4 papers.

Click to enlarge

Starbug also gained a midsection for use in Series XII, with a grey aesthetic - although this was a feature that would be required more, and hence expanded upon, in 2020's The Promised Land special. Once again, although the same base sets were brought out of storage, work was required to restore and update them - although the bunkroom didn't require a full redress due to being filled with Lister's hoarded junk for the first half of the shoot, and in the second half the space was given over to that new midsection. The central table used in the craft's interior was reminiscent of the one used back in Series VI - while the door between cockpit and rear, previously a weighty hinged one, was now a convenient slider to allow for the many required transitions between sections.

Click to enlarge

Despite the many changes Red Dwarf's set designs have gone through in the past three decades-plus, it's remarkable how throughout it all, it's possible to define a distinctly Red Dwarf "feel". Whether riveted submarine portholes or grungy red piping, crate-based roof grating or cutlery tray wall detail, octagonal doorways or stacked bunks - you know a Red Dwarf set when you see it, and you know it always feels like home.

Related articles