Red Dwarf (1988)

(Note: I would like to thank Mike Tucker, who provided me with information on which members of the VFX Department worked on which monster effect throughout the series' original run!)

The first seven seasons of cult science-fiction series had its visual effects supervised by veteran BBC designer Peter Wragg, with a team of BBC VFX Department sculptors and modelmakers under him. Wragg's team mostly handled the miniature effects and custom-made props, it also meant they would handle the series' special makeup effects.

Wragg's design for Kryten went through several variations; the first version of the Kryten mask was made for actor David Ross in the second season episode 'Kryten', and was sculpted by Paul McGuiness.

The makeup went through a revision in the following series as Kryten was now played by Robert Llewellyen; the new prosthetic, sculpted by Andrew Deubert, went through several subtle variations throughout each season, complemented with sculpted gloves. The updated Kryten prosthetic noticeably had a less pale colour and grill for the earholes.

A similar face prosthetic and gloves were made for Judy Pascoe as the female android in 'Camille', with the makeup sculpted by Paul McGuinness.

When the series had an attempted American remake, makeup artist Jeff Farley copied Deubert's Kryten makeup for the ill-fated pilot episode.

The titular monster in 'Polymorph' was realized as a puppet, overlaid on the screen with video effects in order to appear larger than it was. The polymorph puppet was sculpted by Andrew Deubert and was a cable-controlled animatronic.

Mike Tucker sculpted the 'juvenile' form of the Polymorph, that the crew nicknamed 'Kevin'.

The titular blob monster in 'Camille' was realized as a suit sculpted by Paul McGuinness, with a performer inside operating the eyestalk from inside to make it move. With the exception of 'Terrorform', McGuinness sculpted all the monsters from this episode onwards during the show's original run.

The 'Mutton Vindaloo Beast' in the episode 'DNA' was sculpted by Paul McGuiness, who also wore the suit.

The Unspeakable One in 'Terrorform' was sculpted by Alan 'Rocky' Marshall and was designed to resemble the xenomorph of the Alien films, all that really can be seen clearly is the silhouette of the actual puppet - I really do hope behind the scenes images or auction photos come out eventually!

The title monsters of 'Psirens' were a collaboration between Paul McGuiness and Mike Tucker - McGuiness sculpted the body, while Tucker sculpted the head.

The namesake of 'Emohawk: Polymorph II' was like the original Polymorph realized as a puppet, but this time as a much smaller hand-puppet designed to resemble a fleshy alien bird.

This episode also introduced the more ape-like 'GELFs' that also would act as antagonists in various episodes of the following season; these were designed in a typical manner to 'gorilla suits' but with more fleshy, human-like chest torso prosthetics, with facial prosthetic makeup complimenting it.