Red Dwarf: Canaries (a Red Dwarf VIII feature edit)

[Cero]

An attempt to re-edit the entirety of the less-than-stellar eighth series of beloved British sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf into a feature-length special akin to The Promised Land (with the exception of three-part opener Back in the Red, which in itself would be long enough to make a separate feature, and I think somebody's already attempted such a thing).

How did I get here exactly? I suppose it's best to start at the beginning.

A while back I joined a Red Dwarf fan server on Discord that I happened to stumble on the link for whilst browsing the Ganymede and Titan forums.

They call it 'The Tank'. I believe I introduced one or two people to it already.

While I was in there, I met a most remarkable and discerning individual that some ignoble upstarts might refer to as KyoSo. Now here is someone I can have a truly stimulating conversation with, not merely for the pure intellectual challenge of debating someone who is very clearly of greater learning and clarity than I, but also for being able to do so candidly without either party needing any concern for distasteful judgment on part of the other.

Anyway, one of our talks got onto the subject of my two pet peeves about XI and XII (the episodes Can of Worms and Timewave, respectively) I got onto the idea of cutting the two down into one condensed narrative (working title Timeworms) that incorporates the simulant ship as being caught in the titular timewave and sent on a collision course with Rimmerwo- I mean, Planet Rimmer, and cut out everything else I thought didn't work with the episodes.

As I started planning this out mentally, I became concerned about the possibility that my edits would be so severe that there wouldn't be enough material left to make it to 25 minutes, and so I started brainstorming on ideas. Eventually I elected to try and bring in a less popular episode of the 'classic' series and handwave the logic of it (as Doug Naylor did in Tikka to Ride). I asked KyoSo which is considered to be the worst series of classic RD; she told me Pete Part 2.

It didn't take me too long to realise that this wasn't going to work anywhere nearly as easily as I thought; however, it did get me onto the idea of editing a more tolerable version of the aforementioned episode, which is for all intents and purposes complete and awaiting feedback from selected beta viewers.

While I was messing around with reimplementing the deleted scenes into the episodes, I was reminded that the Archie scenes had originally been filmed with Cassandra in mind. This was probably the moment that made me start wondering about a full series edit. After a while, I came around to the idea. Whole sections of various episodes could be reorganised and repurposed. The scenes on the Manny Celeste could just as easily be set on the Silverberg, where Cassandra resides. And it makes sense if they dumped one dangerous temporal artefact beneath the sea, they could easily dump another as well. Cutting out the central narrative of Krytie TV completely, Kryten's new motivation for tricking Lister into threatening his appeal by trashing Ackerman's quarters is revenge for the 'have a fantastic period' prank from Only the Good..., while Pete Part 1 leads directly into this by implying the video Kryten made was somehow or other brought to the attention of Captain Hollister.

The final problem, of course, is figuring out how to implement the chameleonic microbe plot into it. If Pete Part 2 leads directly into the events of Only the Good..., then Rimmer and Lister would still be in hot water over the T-Rex incident, and very likely ineligible for parole. Plus now Kryten doesn't have an incentive to hide Baxter's hooch in their quarters, thus eliminating their main reason to attempt escape and thus discover the microbe is on Red Dwarf, and simple alternative scenarios for escape haven't been forthcoming thus far. And that's before considering the small off-duty Czech traffic warden in the room, the cliffhanger ending that went unaddressed for more than a decade and remains largely unresolved to this day.

I've got a fairly good idea about how to address the latter; as to the former, I'm still working on that and I'm open to any suggestions. However, I do have a somewhat decent alternative scenario for how the microbe came to infect Red Dwarf, and I'm not going to spoil anything at the moment but I'm confident that the result will be a pleasant surprise for a lot of people.

Also, something else that I think will be reasonably well-received that isn't a potential spoiler danger: once the edit is complete, I'm going to start work on a secondary, alternative cut that replaces most of the CGI shots with the nearest available model shots from preceding series. Fan-smegging-tastic.

A cutlist may be forthcoming in the near future depending on how soon I can find certain additional materials, but I'm generally pretty disorganised about this sort of thing so I'm not promising anything.

UPDATE 1: Noticed the first poster wasn't embedding, and since that's the one I'm actually proud of that was an issue for me. Anyhow, I think it's sorted now.

 

[wilhelm scream]

Sounds interesting, looking forward to it!

 

[Zarius]

Awesome, series eight is very ropey, but there was potential for good stuff in it, hope you can highlight all of what it did right

 

[wilhelm scream]

Will you use the alternate ending to Only the Good? It seems to match up to the references made in Series X's The Beginning.

 

[Cero]

Here's hoping!

Will you use the alternate ending to Only the Good? It seems to match up to the references made in Series X's The Beginning.

Not exactly. I've got my own idea of how to resolve the cliffhanger, I'm just waiting for technology to catch up, so in the meantime, I'm going to be settling for a variation on the ending that was used in the broadcast episode.

Actually, I've hit a bit of a stumbling block. I'm hoping it's nothing major, but I can't seem to find any solutions for this online and I'm hoping someone on here may know how to fix it. I've been working on 2 rotoscope-based composite shots in my Pete Part 2 edit that I'm planning to use as the basis of that section within the full Canaries edit, and I've been having some rendering problems where some of the elements will turn bright green, either just flashes of frames or for several seconds.

 

[wilhelm scream]

Here's hoping!


Not exactly. I've got my own idea of how to resolve the cliffhanger, I'm just waiting for technology to catch up, so in the meantime, I'm going to be settling for a variation on the ending that was used in the broadcast episode.

Actually, I've hit a bit of a stumbling block. I'm hoping it's nothing major, but I can't seem to find any solutions for this online and I'm hoping someone on here may know how to fix it. I've been working on 2 rotoscope-based composite shots in my Pete Part 2 edit that I'm planning to use as the basis of that section within the full Canaries edit, and I've been having some rendering problems where some of the elements will turn bright green, either just flashes of frames or for several seconds.

Well that's annoying. Any ideas on what's causing it?

 

[Cero]

Well that's annoying. Any ideas on what's causing it?

Not really, but it might be hardware related.

 

[wilhelm scream]

Not really, but it might be hardware related.

I'm also look forward to the alternative cut that doesn't have the awful CGI models.

 

[Cero]

I'm also look forward to the alternative cut that doesn't have the awful CGI models.

I should tell you now, I won't be able to do anything about the CG shots of The Tank or the dinosaur in Pete. It's only going to be the space shots (with White Midget from Ouroboros standing in for the Canary shuttle and the matte of Jupiter colour-corrected to blue to match the ocean moon) and underwater shots (with the Esperanto from Back to Reality representing the Silverberg). Not sure how I'm going to do the final exodus but I'd imagine it'll take a lot of rotoscoping.

 

[wilhelm scream]

I should tell you now, I won't be able to do anything about the CG shots of The Tank or the dinosaur in Pete. It's only going to be the space shots (with White Midget from Ouroboros standing in for the Canary shuttle and the matte of Jupiter colour-corrected to blue to match the ocean moon) and underwater shots (with the Esperanto from Back to Reality representing the Silverberg). Not sure how I'm going to do the final exodus but I'd imagine it'll take a lot of rotoscoping.

If I had been in charge of series 8, I would have written the scripts to use the unused model shots from series 7 (for those unaware, the reason why series 7 mostly used CGI, is because the model shots had been done early in production due to miscommunication, a lot of them having to be thrown out due to script re-writes, and due to there not being enough time to do new ones, they had no choice but to use CGI. This caused Doug Naylor to become briefly obsessed with CGI, leading to those awful Red Dwarf remasters of series 1-3 and series 8. I could be misremembering some parts, but I'm pretty sure that's what happened).

 

[Cero]

If I had been in charge of series 8, I would have written the scripts to use the unused model shots from series 7 (for those unaware, the reason why series 7 mostly used CGI, is because the model shots had been done early in production due to miscommunication, a lot of them having to be thrown out due to script re-writes, and due to there not being enough time to do new ones, they had no choice but to use CGI. This caused Doug Naylor to become briefly obsessed with CGI, leading to those awful Red Dwarf remasters of series 1-3 and series 8. I could be misremembering some parts, but I'm pretty sure that's what happened).

I don't think that's quite right, as I recall the reason they used CGI for 8 was because the practical model they built was too large for the studio.

 

[wilhelm scream]

I don't think that's quite right, as I recall the reason they used CGI for 8 was because the practical model they built was too large for the studio.

So why not make it smaller? That's what they did for series X (where they cut out a section from the middle of the model to make it small enough for the studio).

 

[Cero]

So why not make it smaller? That's what they did for series X (where they cut out a section from the middle of the model to make it small enough for the studio).

They'd only just had the full thing made, it'd have been a pity to waste it. Besides, they were hoping to use it in the planned movie.

 

[wilhelm scream]

They'd only just had the full thing made, it'd have been a pity to waste it. Besides, they were hoping to use it in the planned movie.

They actually did a single test shot for it using the full model:

 

[Cero]

Yes, I'm aware.

Anyway I think the rendering issue has been resolved for now but stay tuned. I've also taken KyoSo onboard as an editing advisor, which is really lucky for me because KyoSo has had years of really unusually good experience in writing, editing, pacing and the like for someone not directly in the industry.

 

[Cero]

I think I've worked out how to get around the problem of how to connect the chameleonic microbe to the end of Pete Part 2. I've shuffled the sequence and mildly re-edited things so that Kill Crazy doesn't steal the Time Wand, and they only report back to Hollister after they destroy the Time Wand (no baby dinosaur in this version - hopefully this won't be too controversial a cut, but I just can't keep it in and keep the narrative consistent), which leads into them recuperating from the after-effects of the fight in the Med-Bay (no hooch and no Baxter squeezing rolls either - I know, I'm a terrible person for cutting out Graham McTavish's 'sssuperrrrsuck' moment, but don't forget Kryten doesn't have a motive for hiding the hooch now because his revenge plot was changed to Ackerman's quarters being trashed in Krytie TV).

The only change otherwise is I've roto'd Ian Masters into some of the shots of them discovering the microbe during their escape (and done my best in kind to match the lighting and hue, though for some reason his prison uniform staunchly refuses to respond to the majority of HitFilm's specialised colour tools). I'm looking into my options on what to do with him next but I'm not sure there's a lot more material of him to work with, and I might just have him escape on Blue Midget by himself if I can't work anything else out. I wouldn't like him to just disappear completely with no fanfare.

 

[wilhelm scream]

Nice Rotoscoping, looks very convincing!

 

[Cero]

Nice Rotoscoping, looks very convincing!

Thank you, I'm glad you think so! We'll have to see how it looks in motion though lol

 

[wilhelm scream]

Thank you, I'm glad you think so! We'll have to see how it looks in motion though lol

Well if it makes you feel any better, it's better than any rotoscoping that I've ever done.

 

[Cero]

I'm satisfied that the assembly cut is about 90% complete. I did initially have grander plans, but it'd take too long to source and/or create new footage to portray what I had in mind (and I can't seem to get in contact with an individual who's in possession of certain materials crucial to the plan taking shape), so that plan's been scrapped, so it's probably alright if I share what I had in mind. Essentially I was adding in new material based on an early draft of Epideme that had been altered to fit the chameleonic microbe storyline, with the lines provided by a neural net voice clone AI of the voice actor who'd originally been slated for the role, Patrick Stewart. At the time it seemed like a work-around of the escape pod narrative, which I'd cut out as it didn't seem to add anything to the story aside from some questionable 'cringe comedy' on Rimmer's behalf, but the fact that I'd have to build it entirely from scratch created more problems than it solved.

The only major problem I have now that I've figured out where placing the pod works best, is pacing between the discovery of the Time Wand and the discovery of Cassandra. It's a little jarring to cut from them discussing smuggling the wand onto the ship, straight to "we've located the mainframe, maybe it can tell us something", but I think I've figured out a solution to that as well.