Red Dwarf IV Episode 6: "Meltdown"

A bunch of impersonators get blown up in a park and Rimmer plays the most intensely realistic game of toy soldiers imaginable. Supposedly this episode doesn't have the best reputation, but personally I think the only thing that lets it down a bit is some ineffective location shooting; they're obviously just in a park, largely due to the visible brick buildings behind them. The set for the good waxdroid HQ makes some effort to emulate this to make it feel more consistent, but I can't help but wonder if they could have whipped around to find something to give the locations a touch of dressing to at least give the vague impression that Waxworld is actually a run-down theme park. Admittedly it's meant to have been abandoned for millions of years, but it's still a bit drab.

Nonetheless, "Meltdown" is a very funny and memorable episode even if it visually isn't quite as flashy as some other episodes of Series IV. The anti-war message is pretty clear, but obviously a valid one, although of course it's primarily an attack on "military idiots" who sacrifice the lives of others for the sake of their own personal glory and the excuses permitted by their notional ideology. I like that Rimmer describes the enemy as "fascists", implying he's in a morally superior position to them, and Lister's speech is memorable and, in my opinion, not especially preachy: "all the corpses that litter that battlefield can just lie there safe in the knowledge that they snuffed it under a flag of peace and can decompose in a land of freedom. Ya smeghead." It's a nice exploration of Rimmer's romantic delusions about war, which were established a series earlier in "Marooned".

There are plenty of other good elements, starting with Rimmer's Risk story. It's a bit dubious that the matter paddle can transport them to a planet two hundred thousand light years away, isn't it? Couldn't they make a series of hops back to Earth with a device that potent? We're also introduced to Rimmer's light bee at last, although it's something that had clearly been implicit to the show for a while. The effort to describe the footage of the giant bird monsters as "unconvincing" doesn't entirely make up for how scratchy and old-looking the footage is anyway; it's from a Japanese film from the Sixties I believe, and it's quite clear that it's old footage taken from another source.

The impersonators are all pretty good, I think, and I honestly don't think Elvis is overused. He's hardly in it that much. The highlight is clearly Tony Hawks as Caligula and his constant slapping of Lister. We get the show's second Herman Göring joke in this episode as well. My personal favourite, however, is Pythagoras and his obsession with triangles, much to the exasperation of Einstein: "I still feel there's a solution, probably involving triangles." "If only we numbered twenty-one; then at least we could form an equilateral triangle." I also like Rimmer's reaction to see Father Christmas in the parade: "What's he doing here?" Why is Pope Gregory XIII part of the "hero world" assemblage? I looked him up, and I'm not sure exactly what he did that's so "good". He reformed the calendar, but that seems like a fairly neutral act. Otherwise, he appears to be a pretty average early modern pope to me.

The funniest bits are probably derived from Rimmer's increasingly deranged speeches and proclamations, and Lister and the Cat in prison, particularly Lister witnessing the execution of waxdroid Winnie-the-Pooh. Lister's line about taking "a group of holy men and pacifists and turning them into the Dirty Dozen" is funny, as is Rimmer's line about how there are always casualties in war: "Otherwise it wouldn't be war, just a rather nasty argument with lots of pushing and shoving." The comedy explosions and deaths of the waxdroids are amusing as well, and feel rather reminiscent of the "How Not To Be Seen" sketch from Flying Circus. "Meltdown" is certainly a touch let down by the location work but it's still pretty memorable and funny. This one was originally meant to go out first in broadcast but was pushed to the end to avoid scaring the horses during the Gulf War, and while it works well in some respects as a series ender because of its slightly more "spectacular" narrative, I can't help but wonder if it would be regarded a touch more fondly if it had gone out first as was originally planned and was seen as a "start of series romp" instead.

Red Dwarf IV Episode 5: "Dimension Jump"

Ace Rimmer arrives and Chris Barrie and Craig Charles get gobfuls of water. Another episode developing Rimmer, this classic Red Dwarf instalment is another one hurrying to make its point in half an hour. I would argue that it's fundamentally about how we're shaped by our experiences, and leans on the "nurture" side of the argument, as opposed to the "nature" one which seems to arise at other times due to the show's portrayal of the British class system and the idea of "breeding". Here we discover that Rimmer's situation wasn't inevitable. It's something we always knew, but this makes it very clear. Yet it also raises the idea of free will, essential in Red Dwarf's often-deterministic universe; to what extent was Ace Rimmer born of his own choice to fight back, and how much was this an inevitable consequence of the headmaster's choice to have him repeat a year?

I understand that some commentators argue that Ace is meant to be smug and annoying, not pleasant and likeable, but I think this is somewhat missing the point; the point is that he's different, radically different – so different that he's practically the opposite of our Rimmer, and all as a result of one decision. This is something expressed by Lister, our resident amateur philosopher, when discussing his opposite number, Spanners: "Whatever he did that I didn't, he deserves the lot." It could be argued that the episode is saying that our lives are the product of how we navigate these forces beyond our control, the way our choices interact with the "choices" made for us. This is expressed by the question of who got the "break".

Any such vaguely philosophical elements aside, there's plenty of humour to enjoy in the episode, starting with Ace's reality and the alternate versions of the characters. I think my favourite might be the Padre, Danny John-Jules portraying a very different character to the Cat in such a short space. Points have to be given to Robert Llewellyn's ridiculous turn as Bongo as well, however, the best part being the hasty way he looks down and starts writing after propositioning Ace. The scene of the Dwarfers sneaking off to go fishing is perfectly enhanced by the actors' facial performances as they cringe at their own weak excuses to Rimmer. The best part of Rimmer's speech, which attributes to him even more unbelievable "lame" hobbies, is his description of Morris Dancing as "the clonk of wood on wood."

The episode also includes some terrific model work. The establishing shot of Rimmer's home in the dome on Io is very effective, as are the shots of Ace landing on Mimas and the Dimension Ship taking off. The highlight, however, must be the shot of Starbug crashing on the ocean planet, which looks entirely convincing and shows just how good the special effects team were and what they could achieve. The Mimas test base sets are good too, and the use of the greenhouse location shooting as the interior of the Rimmers' gardens is very well used and convincingly chosen as somewhere that might be found in an enclosed lunar colony on one of the moons of Jupiter. The shot of Starbug's exterior, last seen in "Marooned" I believe, gets another outing in the storm scene, which apparently pissed Chris Barrie off due to constant inundations, but looks entirely believable and gave rise to Craig Charles's classic offscreen line: "We're supposed to be space heroes!"

We get a couple of notable instances of Rimmer calling people "gits" in this episode; he says to Kryten "You're a git" and he says to Lister "How'd you feel if some git arrived from another dimension, another Lister, with wall-to-wall charisma and a PhD in being handsome and wonderful?" This seems like a bit of a movement towards conventional insults, away from "goit" and "gimboid" and the like, perhaps with the aim of getting bigger laughs. I like Lister's complaint about Cat "blundering in with your size 12s" and the jokes about the in-flight magazines, although Rimmer's panic about the card is probably the best: "Haven't we got to sit behind a woman clutching a baby?" Weirdly, Lister tosses the closed magazine in front of hologram Rimmer, who appears by the next shot to have somehow opened it to an article. Perhaps his light bee floated into his hand.

The highlight of the whole thing, of course, is Chris Barrie's performance as Ace; he's practically unrecognisable as the same person as our regular Rimmer, with the obvious effect of emphasising how different the two of them are. The choice of costuming obviously suits this too. As an episode which added something major to the show's fabric, Ace himself and "Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast", it's worth it on its own, but its ability to provoke ideas in a humorous way is what makes it stand out as another one of those classic examples of just how complex and effective Red Dwarf could be in the ideal circumstances, when performances, effects, humour, plot, characterisation, ideas and action all coalesced in a delicate balance.

Red Dwarf IV Episode 4: "White Hole"

Old Kryten is new Talkie Toaster, and Lister plays pool with planets. While a fun episode with some very memorable moments, "White Hole" suffers from essentially being two completely different and almost wholly unrelated stories jammed together such that the second story conveniently resolves the problem of the first story despite not flowing from it with any narrative logic. Put simply, the problem of the time-spewing white hole comes out of nowhere halfway through the episode and has nothing to do with the plot about Holly's lifespan being dramatically reduced and the ship being shut down. The resolution of the plot is essentially a time-reversing cop-out that would go on to be the staple of the revived version of Doctor Who.

Nonetheless, there's a lot to like about "White Hole": the return of Talkie Toaster, now voiced by David Ross, Lister and Cat's struggle to keep warm in the powerless ship, Kryten being used as a battering ram, the repeating conversation and Lister getting drunk to replace Holly's planet-pushing plan. It's a good example of how, when the writing's funny enough, it's no great problem if the story isn't all there, but it really does depend on the strength of the humour, and admittedly there are a couple of points here, particularly after the power loss, in which the episode becomes a bit slow. I'm also not sure why Holly turning herself off results in the power also being shut off.

 

As with the rest of Series IV, there are plenty of memorable lines to enjoy, starting with Talkie Toaster's "How 'bout a muffin?" Kryten's over-dramatic "There are no sounds to hear!" is an early expression in the vein of "Blood chilling terror". It's also the first "two minor drawbacks" jokes, revisited in Series V, followed up by Kryten's "I'm fine thank you Susan." Rimmer's "No chance, you metal bastard" and his speech about Captain Oates are enjoyable reminders of what a bastard he really is. The payoff of the whole "no power" situation is "It's just not possible to fry an egg using a bicycle-powered hair dryer", a cracking Lister line, the kind of which we don't get enough, much like his description of the stupid activities they do in "Timeslides". I can never watch the "conserve your energy" bit without thinking of the Smeg Up in which Danny John-Jules keeps flubbing the line.

"So what is it?" The conversation about the White Hole is another classic moment, made complete by the way it starts all over again at the very beginning: "I've never seen one before; no one has..." The thing about overriding time jumps "if we concentrate" is very much in the "magic thinking" vein, though. Fortunately it's not dwelt upon. The animation of the planets depicting Holly's plan is very well-presented, incidentally, and the model work of the planets is pretty decent. I particularly enjoy Lister's description of the plan as a "felt-ripper": "That planet is off the table and into somebody's pint of beer." Rimmer's description of their choice too is a big woofer: "On the other hand we have Lister, who, and let's be fair to him, is a complete gimp." The robotic pool cue prop is surprisingly good as well. This is more an episode to watch for the laughs and the vaguely interesting, if rather absurd, concept of the reverse black hole than anything too strong in the storytelling department. Red Dwarf is, after all, a sitcom, and this outing leans more heavily to that side.

Red Dwarf IV Episode 3: "Justice"

Rimmer gets arrested and a simulant strangles himself. In my opinion this might be the best episode of Series IV, or at least my favourite. It's pretty much got it all: lots of good jokes, exploration of a main character, an interesting sci-fi concept and a decent bit of action. It's also structured more or less impeccably in a mirror-image fashion, beginning with Lister's complaints about the lack of justice in the universe, followed by the journey to Justice World to contain the potential simulant, followed by Rimmer's arrest and trial and the introduction of the Justice Field, after which the simulant is confronted and defeated, and the coda wraps up Lister's thoughts on justice from the beginning of the episode. It all comes together very nicely, without the tendency that some such busy episodes have to leave things hanging.

If I was to criticise anything about "Justice", it would be that I don't think the location shooting is terribly effective. As usual, the interior of a futuristic facility looks like an old-fashioned pump house with pipes and valves everywhere and stuff. Perhaps I'm just overthinking it and such a facility would need all that kind of malarkey, but I doubt it. On the other hand, the "Justice World" model is incredibly good, and the very simple set used for Rimmer's cell is highly evocative and conveys a great deal with very little. Obviously the courtroom set leaves a bit to be desired because it looks like a hypnosis wheel threw up on a drama studio floor, but the strength of the writing carries this. While I find the justice boots kind of amusing, largely because they enable comedy walks, they are very noticeably just polystyrene when they're blown up by the simulant. The simulant costume, by contrast, is very good. Cat's costume, it must be said, is hideous.

It's probably worth dwelling a little on the idea of Rimmer's trial. It's difficult to say whether Rimmer holds himself to blame for the accident or not; he blamed Lister for it in "The End", although he takes responsibility for it in the death video footage in "Me²". Some argue there's a contradiction in this episode as Rimmer has never very sincerely held himself responsible, but I think that the point is to imply that Rimmer subconsciously feels a sense of guilt or responsibility due to his inflated sense of self-importance, even though it was his superiors' fault for assigning him a task outside of his purview. The fact that Rimmer doesn't realise what the justice computer is talking about shows that he doesn't consciously feel guilty; it's a suppressed feeling. This is also an interesting depiction of the nature of holograms. Here Rimmer is treated as being the same person as the man who died on Red Dwarf, despite being simply an electronic replica of him. It's an issue that the show never really explores in much detail; is a person's hologram really the same person as them? Rimmer even says in "The End" that "I'm not really me", so does that make him just a simulation of the person, as is suggested early on, or, as develops more and more as the show goes on, an "electronic life form" based on that person, or as a third possibility is he somehow an actual continuation of the original person's existence?

Turning away from such weighty matters, I like the idea of the justice field, although Lister's little speech about free will at the end doesn't seem to entirely relate to it. Perhaps this is one aspect that doesn't get explored to its full potential and is mostly set up as a plot device to kill the simulant at the end. At least it provides us with a great joke, Cat smashing the simulant over the head with a shovel and knocking himself out. There are almost too many other good jokes to mention; early on, some of the jokes about Lister's space mumps are a good example of the show's piss-taking writing at its best, especially Cat's "Maybe you could stick a spike on your head and pretend you're the Taj Mahal" and Rimmer's "Shouldn't you be in the greenhouse with the rest of the cantaloupes?" Kryten perfectly sets up the difference between simulants and androids: "An android would never rip off a human's head and spit down its neck." I really like how Lister says "Hi, killer," when he comes into Rimmer's cell, and the trial is full of great lines: "A piece of sputum floating in the toilet bowl of life", "Take the fifth!", "I'd describe the accused as a git", "Only a yoghurt" and "That is his crime; it is also his punishment." Robert Llewellyn deserves a round of applause after this that he doesn't get. Perhaps my favourite line that doesn't even get a laugh is "He's like the security guard on the front gate who considers himself head of the corporation." When you get so many woofers packed into a single scene, it's impossible for any sensible person not to recognise the greatness that is "Justice".

Red Dwarf IV Episode 2: "DNA"

Robert Llewellyn gets to act without a mask on and Kryten gets a double polaroid. "DNA" is an interesting episode, but one that I think feels incomplete. The exploration of identity and being, presented through Kryten's accidental transmogrification into a human, feels limited and cut short as the episode, for its finale, turns into a silly run-around about the Dwarfers being menaced by a curry monster. Perhaps the Kryten narrative achieves everything it needs to do with time to spare, but I can't help but feel that it could have been dwelt upon in a little more detail by exploring more of the nature of "being". It's not entirely clear whether the episode is trying to discuss the problems that would arise from humans playing god, or if it's about how you should be "true to yourself".

I wonder if the "DNA Ship" is the most futuristic thing that's ever appeared in the show. We know the Time Drive in Series VI comes from the 28th century. Is the DNA Ship even more advanced than that? It's an interesting concept regardless, suggesting that in the very far future the human species might have achieved technology that would seem practically alien to us, although it's let down slightly by the somewhat uninspiring corridor sets on the ship. It's odd that Rimmer doesn't get excited by the possibility of aliens this time. While the Glenn Miller joke is funny (and I say that as someone who appreciates a bit of Glenn Miller), doesn't his big band and swing music seem like the kind of thing that would be right up Rimmer's alley? Perhaps it's not cheesy enough. Rimmer otherwise doesn't get too many noteworthy lines in this one, the other one early on that I like being "What's the hurry? Have you got some major luncheon appointment you have to rush off to?"

Kryten's transformation is used well on the joke front; the "double polaroid" gag is classic, and the whole medical scene is reinforced by both Robert Llewellyn's exaggerated Kryten facial expressions, now no longer hidden by the mask, and Craig Charles's great reactions as Lister is exposed to the photo collection, as well as "smirk mode". Kryten's sudden ignorance of human anatomy is obviously a little inexplicable given how much time he's spent around humans, but it's at least worth it for the knob gags. The conversation with the Spare Heads is another classic, especially Spare Head 3's accent and "Shut your stupid flat head." I wonder if it's meant to be implied by Kryten's outfit that he based his wardrobe choices on the Cat's sense of style, without really having Cat's poise or fashion sense.

Lister's squirrel story seems to give a bit of a mixed message in my opinion. On the one hand, it says that being human is overrated. At the same time Lister's trying to argue that you shouldn't try to be what you're not. Lister doesn't seem to reach the conclusion that being human involves coping with bad feelings; instead he encourages Kryten to change himself back. So what's Lister's point, really, with the squirrel story? It'd make more sense if he concluded it by saying that despite envying the squirrel he realised that he had to deal with the pain he was feeling because he was a human. Then again, that still doesn't really apply to Kryten's situation. Thus I feel that the philosophical question of the episode isn't entirely successfully ruminated upon to its logical conclusions. I prefer the story about the wine bar. Lister's imaginings of becoming middle class and "playing squash every Tuesday night with a bloke called Gerald" is quite reminiscent of his complaints about Kochanski's assumed husband in "Stasis Leak". I also enjoy Kryten's line about being "a complete and total polaroid head."

The curry monster is a funny idea, and looks pretty decent, but ultimately it's a fairly mindless run-around at the end of the episode. The main advantage of it is Rimmer's line "I don't believe I'm running away from a psychopathic curried man." Lister's transformation into "man plus", and the line about how lager is "the only thing that can kill a vindaloo" are both funny bits, although it really does feel like a "comedy ending" in which the laws of a joke somehow become the laws of reality, as the beverage suited for washing down a spicy curry becomes the actual Achilles' heel of a creature made of curry. The Robocop referencing in the "man plus" costume might be a touch too on-the-nose as well. That being said, the bluescreen work to get miniature Lister into the shot and throwing the giant beer cans is surprisingly effective. One thing I'd say is that in the series' running order, this episode possibly takes a bit of a hit because it's another episode largely concentrated on Kryten and his relationship with Lister straight after Camille, something that might have been avoided if the broadcast order hadn't been changed, although perhaps they were always going to be broadcast one after another; I'm struggling to figure out what the original order was meant to be. Still, it's overall another pretty strong instalment showing that Series IV is where it's at.

Red Dwarf IV Episode 1: "Camille"

Kryten falls in love with a blob and pulls a Rick Blaine on her. Following on from Series III's "The Last Day", Series IV begins by spending some time on Kryten's character development, as we see some more human virtues emerge under Lister's tutelage. It's noteworthy that this Kryten, who goes on dates with a GELF and disobeys orders, is a far cry from the neurotic Kryten that would begin to emerge more and more in later series. Here he's increasingly self-assured and confident, with nary a mention of domestic duties to be found. This is obviously bolstered by the presence of Robert Llewellyn's real-life partner, later wife, Judy Pascoe, as mechanoid Camille (and the voice of blob Camille), who steps smoothly into the guest role and whose rapport with her opposite number is very engaging to watch. In general, I like what's implied by the way Camille manifests. Cat seeing himself is a little predictable but very funny. I think it's clever that Rimmer's perfect companion, beyond being a hologram, is a very conventionally beautiful, posh woman with exactly the same interests and hobbies as him. We don't get a strong impression of the personality of Lister's Camille, but the implication is someone easygoing with a sense of humour. I think the right decision was made to not have Lister's Camille look like Kochanski (despite the fact that she's credited under that name).

"Camille" is also a repository of a tonne of cracking lines. The lying lesson is timeless, but the best part has to be the payoff later when Rimmer tells Lister that Kryten "kept waving a banana in front of me and calling it a female aardvark." The "smeg head" flash cards are probably funnier than the "smee hee" gag itself. The conversation between Kryten and Rimmer is full of excellent lines too: "Camille looks like your sister-in-law? What happened? Was she involved in some kind of horrific car accident?" and "I think you look like a giant half-chewed rubber-tipped pencil." Cat's description of Rimmer as "Captain Sadness" is funny, and the line about Camille smelling of WD-40 is amusing. Cat's lines after seeing himself are good: "Someone get me a brandy!" I've also always liked the way Camille says "I'm just a huge green blob!" In addition, the term "tête-a-tentacle" is entertaining, as is Lister's response: "When Steve McQueen met the Blob, he tried to kill it. It probably never crossed his mind to try and take it out to a restaurant." There are a couple of great bits of Rimmer self-deprecation as well: "No one's ever said I was charming before. They've said 'Rimmer, you're a total git.'" "It was all a mighty bit too strange. I mean, actually meeting someone who didn't want to vomit all over me in complete loathing and disgust."

The ending, which pastiches Casablanca, might be considered a little blatant and on-the-nose, although to a lesser extent than how "Back to Earth" handled its Blade Runner connections. It's also interesting to note that this was back in the days when Lister was depicted as being an enthusiast for classic films; in "Me²" he goes to see Citizen Kane, in "Kryten" he's said to have shown Kryten The Wild Ones, Easy Rider and Rebel Without A Cause, in this he shows his appreciation for Casablanca and in "Holoship" he's getting teary-eyed at a generic romantic film. By contrast, Series VI and VII would present Lister as someone who enjoys schlock horror films, a quality considered a "low" trait in "Demons & Angels". I suppose you could imagine fairly easily that he likes both.

I kind of wish that we could have seen more of the Kryten of this episode in later episodes; someone who just hangs out with Lister and the Cat rather than doing chores for them, who watches films and relaxes rather than obsessing about cleaning and domestic duties, who was breaking his programming as an android butler, rather than being an emotionally fragile toilet cleaning robot. It's a bit sad to think that Kryten's character development peaked this early, with Rimmer's coming a series later in "Holoship" and Lister not really getting it until "Back to Earth", weirdly all episodes that are connected in some way or another with film plots (even if the one in "Holoship" is generic). There's got to be something academic to discuss in that: 'Red Dwarf – exploring the relationship between human psychological development and the influence of film media in the modern age.'

Red Dwarf Series IV Overview

To a comparable extent to Series III, Series IV of Red Dwarf feels like the show at, perhaps, its most "friendly". There's not a great deal of interpersonal conflict between the characters, when they're in mortal danger it's not treated in a particularly dramatic fashion, the science-fiction concepts are comfortably vague and unrealistic, and they meet a variety of oddball characters. I'd almost be inclined to say that, despite dealing with some reasonably weighty themes in several episodes, this is Red Dwarf at perhaps its most pleasantly light-hearted, as opposed to, say, the farcical comedy of Series VIII.

Series IV increases the amount of time the characters spend off the ship, visiting other locations and travelling either aboard the now-ubiquitous Starbug or through other means. It more firmly establishes a wider universe, as we begin to discover, as Red Dwarf makes its slow return journey to Earth, a galaxy littered with the detritus of an extinct human civilisation, the artefacts of which now are scattered across space. The show comes up with more and more interesting ways to have guest characters despite the lack of humans; this series notably first introduces the term "GELF", Genetically-Engineered Life Form, as well as the concept of simulants as danger lurking in deep space, both of which would become staples of the show in future years.

A couple of episodes explore Kryten's character, a couple explore Rimmer's and one juxtaposes Lister and Rimmer's attitudes towards war and violent conflict. The series also sees the previous storyline being adjusted somewhat in order to accommodate ideas Grant and Naylor developed in the Red Dwarf novels: the idea that Red Dwarf had a crew of over one thousand people, and that Lister had, in fact, had a brief relationship with Kristine Kochanski rather than simply admiring her from afar. Both of these ideas would resurface more prominently in the Doug Naylor-only era from Series VII onwards. Series IV also sees, for the first time, an episode adapting a story from the novels rather than the reverse, as the "pool with planets" concept originated in the novel Better Than Life.

Series IV, to the best of my knowledge, sees few design changes relative to Series III, as the show's look seems to have been firmly established at this point. I think Lister gets his even bigger furry hat in this series, which I think rather suits the character, and Cat has some particularly bizarre outfits, particularly in "Justice" and "Dimension Jump". I've often thought that Kryten has an extremely rectangular head in this series, but the mask is obviously an improvement over the previous iteration. The series also has some excellent models, including the DNA Ship, Justice World and Ace Rimmer's ship, the launch sequence for which is very pleasing.

If Series IV has any particular problems, they might be found in a couple of structural issues with the writing for some episodes and some location choices. I would argue that the ending of "Camille" is a bit too derivative (much as "Back to Earth" would be 19 years later), "DNA" doesn't entirely follow through with all of its ideas, and "White Hole" quite clearly feels like two different stories jammed together. The location work used for Justice World and Waxworld in "Justice" and "Meltdown" respectively is not entirely convincing. Other than that, I would say that Series IV is a solid string of interesting and entertaining episodes and a strong continuation of the show's Series III reworking which, as usual, introduced some now-classic concepts to the show's ongoing fabric and featured some of the show's best set pieces.