Production
It was the fourth episode recorded and they felt it worked well, but it proved very difficult to write and the script confused a lot of people. Director Ed Bye was even said to have been sceptical and baffled by it. The writers were convinced viewers would be swayed by the unusual premise of the show, and an introduction was written to be read by Holly at the beginning of each episode to remind audiences of the premise of the show and what events had preceded that particular episode. Co-creator and writer, Doug Naylor, frequently had to remind the cast of these things too, as it took them a while to get their heads around the plot. Despite this, it was eventually decided by the producers that it actually introduced the fact this was a sit-com which used real scientific principles better than previously recorded episodes and aired it as the second episode.
Split-screen techniques were used as Lister talked to Rimmer's echo — just as the original Rimmer walked out the door. While Craig Charles interacted with Chris Barrie the first time, he had to then act with thin air. Where in fact, the finished shot would have Rimmer's echo walking in from the other direction and Lister trying to talk to him. This was achieved by shooting the scene with Charles and Barrie and then a separate shot of Barrie was added to the scene to follow on with the conversation with Charles.
The skutters, the tiny, motorised, three-clawed service droids, were actual working models. They were made up of parts including old shoe boxes and the engines of radio controlled cars. Interference originating from the radios of a nearby taxi company, which was particularly busy during filming of "Future Echoes", caused havoc with the skutter models on set. One reportedly poked Craig Charles in the eye, and another launched an unsuspecting attack on Chris Barrie's groin. Coincidentally the skutters were in the script very inept towards their maintenance work and mischievous towards humans.
John Lenahan voiced the Toaster and Tony Hawks provided his voice for the Dispensing machine.
After the episode aired Rob Grant and Doug Naylor became uncomfortable with how casually Lister takes the news of his future son's violent death. When this episode was adapted for Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, this was altered so it's actually Lister's grandson who dies in the navicomp explosion.
Read more about this topic: Future Echoes
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“Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called equality.”
—Erich Fromm (1900–1980)