Hey all, doing research on the show, trying to figure out the layout of the ship, I just got up to Season 2, I was wondering what the room is they're in when they get Kryten's distress call in Episode 2.1; it's the same one they're in while rummaging through the post pod contents in Ep. 2.2. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!
Yeah, it's the drive room. In the script, it's the same room as the drive room from series one. But it was redesigned. The bunk room, corridors and drive room all go through a massive change in series three and remain much the same until five. (And the drive room is also 'recast' depending on the needs of the story, so the same set is used for a medi lab or science lab.) While design elements suggest the crew moved to the officers' quarters, hence the new bunk rooms, there is no in-universe reason given for the redesign of the drive room. After two series set on Starbug, the show returned to Red Dwarf. The captain's office was an entirely new set this time and wholly unconnected to the drive room (to which it had been connected in the very first episode), and the corridors had another design. But Rimmer and Lister's bunk room appears to be a variation of their series one/two quarters. The dialogue suggests any changes are due to the ship being rebuilt by nanobots to it's original pre-cutback specifications. When we re-meet the team nine years later in Back to Earth, they've got another style of bunk room and, again, different corridors. Short answer: it doesn't really fit together, and trying to make it do so will scramble your noodle!
It's easy enough to fit together, I found. I always assumed the room in 'Kryten', 'Better than Life' and 'Queeg' was the Communications Suite as they call the room where they receive Kryten's distress call in 'Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'. A room desgined for transmitting and recieving broadcasts would be the best place to contact Kryten from.
I simply explain it with the sentence 'It's a big ship.' I'd imagine it would have more than one drive room.
I always assumed the "Drive Room" shown in series 2 was just the other half (what's behind where the camera is placed) of the same "Drive Room" from series 1.
Thanks all, I was hoping it was a new room, but it does appear it's the drive room, I'll just have to assume it's the fourth wall from series one. eh well.. =)