Red Dwarf III - Before it turns 30 next week ! :D

Nov 8, 20197 min read

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Published: Nov 8, 2019

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Hi guy's

In just a weeks time, Series III of the beloved Sci-Fi comedy series 'Red Dwarf' will be turning 30 on Thursday 14th November 2019.

In many ways, Series III is very important in the history of the series, because all thou the series began one year earlier in 1988, the year of 1989 saw something of a reboot for the series in it's look and style that has continued every single series since over the last 30 years.

By reboot, what I mean is, for example, it changed the opening of the intro of the series completely, getting rid of the '2001 - A Space Odessy' like intro and replacing that with a fast past, rock and roll version of the 'Fun in the Sun' tune, complete with clips from the series to form the intro instead of just show shots of the Red Dwarf ship herself from different angles in space as seen in the intro for the first couple of series.

Also, what rebooted 'Red Dwarf' by the time of 1989 was the first appearance of the now famous and familiar logo with it's red oval around the series name, which has appeared in every single series right up to the most recent Series XII back in 2017.

Series III also marks the very first time all four of the famous 'Boys from the Dwarf', cast mates Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn, are seen together for the very first time, with Robert making his debut as Kryten at the start of Series III, so for Robert himself, this month marks 30 years since he made his first appearance in the series, and at present, is currently working on his 11th series of 'Red Dwarf' as Kryten with the upcoming 2020 2 hour special, which according to Robert on a recent Twitter post he made is said be 'Red Dwarf XIII'. Kryten was originally played at the start of Series II in the episode 'Kryten' by actor David Ross, but David was busy at the time by 1989, hence why he was replaced by Robert . . but it never stopped David coming back to 'Red Dwarf' as he later became the second version of the bread obsessed Talkie Toaster [the little bread obsessed bastard !

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Image result for red dwarf talkie toaster

Series III also saw the ship's computer Holly change gender. The final episode of Series II, entitled 'Parallel Universe', saw Norman Lovett's Holly meet his female counterpart, known as Hilly, played by Hattie Heyridge. Sadly, Norman decided at the time not to come back, as it would have ment travelling an insane route from his home in Edinburgh to Studio's way too far out to travel too, so for Series III to V, Hattie replaced him as Holly, with surprisingly no explanation given in the series that Holly decided to under go a sex swap operation to make himself look like his female counterpart Hilly . . . funny that.

Series III also saw massive changes to the interior of the Red Dwarf ship, but Rimmer and Lister ditching the old dull grey bunkroom in faviour of a move to bigger accomendation in the Officer's Quarter's.

Image result for Red Dwarf III Bunk Room

And finally, one of the most beloved thing's about Series III was the introduction of the famous craft, Starbug 1 !! . . yes, it is 30 years ago next week that Starbug 1, a ship said to have crashed more times then a Sinclair ZX-81 Computer according to Kryten, made her debut in the series, designed originally to replace the Blue Midget craft from Series I and II because due to the inclusion of Robert Llewellyn as Kryten, it was felt the cockpit of Blue Midget was too small to seat all four of the main characters, so a new craft was required. Interestingly, Starbug 1 was almost going to end up being called 'White Midget', but thanks to the designers of Starbug 1 realizing the ship looked somewhat bug like, they decided to paint her green, and called her Starbug 1 instead !.

I'm going to be talking about Starbug 1 next week because there is a very interesting fact about the craft which I guess some if not many fan's have maybe ever realized about the ship in her history over the last 30 years . . I won't say right now what that interesting fact is right now as I want to reveal it on the day she turns 30

So really, Series III totally rebooted 'Red Dwarf' into the series we recognize and love today. The modern series that we recognize today is all thanks to Series III itself from way back in 1989 30 years ago . . well, next week 30 years ago at least ! Nod