Trivia / The Dreamstone

• Amateur Cast: Most of the voice actors involved in the series barely did any voice acting (or acting in general) before or after the show. For example, Stuart Lock (Rufus) was the show's production coordinator (but had some acting roles, including a role in the British dub of The Smurfs and the Magic Flute, as well).
• Cut Song: "Into The Sunset" is a bittersweet duet between Mike Batt and Bonnie Tyler that's just perfect for a Grand Finale. Sadly, it only appears on the soundtrack.
• Executive Meddling: Allegedly, the reason for most later additions to the show being female was due to staff requests to balance the cast's gender ratio (Amberley was the only female main character originally).
  • Seasons Three and Four were made primarily because ITV commissioned the team for two more seasons after the second. This caused some problems distributing the series for a while since the final two seasons were thus the property of a different company.
• Fountain of Expies: Martin Gates Productions seemed to be rather fond of the Urpneys' Terrible Trio dynamic, as proven by later projects such as the Sleazians in Bimble's Bucket and the trolls in The Snow Queen (1995). Such projects also usually feature a Kid Hero akin to Rufus or Amberley.
• God Does Not Own This World: According to writer and producer Martin Gates, this is why no revival projects have been made thus far. Creator Mike Jupp also had to step down as consultant and storyboard artist for the closing points of the series, due to being busy with future project Bimble's Bucket.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: All of six episodes were ever released on DVD in the UK, both volumes seem out of production. Even before that, only a selection of episodes from the first two seasons got a VHS release. It's even worse for the US, that's had all of one VHS.
  • Starting December 2015, Monster Entertainment begun officially uploading episodes of the series free of charge on Youtube, with plans for the rest of the series depending on fan demand. After releasing only six episodes remastered in 2015 (but with some audio issues and stretched to widescreen), Monster started live streaming the show in its original quality three years later, culminating in the show getting its own official Youtube channel. Intiially covering the entire series, it has since cut down to only a few episodes picked from each season, though the channel Little Amigo has since uploaded the rest of the series.
  • "The Daydream Bubble" was an exception, and has stayed missing from either channel (a previous upload by Monster had sound issues before being taken down, implying a faulty master of the episode).
  • As of February 2018, the first series has been released on DVD through Pidax Film in Germany, licensed through Monster Entertainment. The DVD features both German and English audio, and is easy enough to order the DVD internationally if you know German or use a translator. Season Two was released shortly after, and season 3 and season 4 have since been released, meaning all episodes of the show are available for a new generation.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: The series was initially conceived as Darker and Edgier storybook with more action and mystical concepts. While some of these concepts make it into the finalized TV series (especially the pilot episode), the setup was reinvented into a more light hearted Road Runner vs. Coyote style cartoon.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Colin Marsh replaced Leonard Whiting as Urpgor for the final season.
  • Gary Martin also took over narration duties from Peter Craze Season Two onward.
  • Odd lines by the Dream Maker were provided by Richard Tate in episodes such as "Electric Eggs". This is in fact an inversion of The Other Marty. On occasions John Franklin-Robbins did not record with the other actors in studio, Tate read his lines as a placeholder.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Gary Martin became iconic for voicing the loveable Honey Monster and did comical or likeable roles in most of Martin Gates' other works. Here however, while staying in form for narration duties, he also plays the legitimately terrifying Cold Ham Zordrak.
  • Those who know Leonard Whiting more for his musical or acting career may be startled to know he voices the screechy Mad Scientist Urpgor.
• Recycled Script: The premise for Season Three's "The Neemod" is very similar to that of Season Two's "The Monster" (ie. a giant creature comes to life and the Urpneys try and use it to steal the Dreamstone). Since the show was often Strictly Formula, several other episodes also ran in a similar fashion plot wise, albeit with the difference of whatever gimmick the Urpneys tried (eg. "The Shrinking Stone" plays much akin to "The Invisible Blob", with most of the episode revolved around the Urpneys sneaking around the Dream Maker's tower haphazardly and losing the stone after Albert exposes them, albeit via shrinkage in place of invisibility).
• Rereleased for Free: The entire series was uploaded free on YouTube by the official owners.
• The Resolution Will Not Be Identified: Despite two attempts at a "finale" of sorts in the first two seasons (the conclusions of both reversed in the episodes following), the show's true finale "Urpjaws" plays out like a standard episode. Word of God claims they were holding out hope they could do more at some point.
• Voices in One Room: As demonstrated here, most of the voice actors recorded together.
• What Could Have Been: The original story plans for the show were intended for a children's book and had a somewhat Darker and Edgier tone. In addition the story was to focus more on Rufus (who was a prophesised hero in early plans) with the Urpneys as minor comic relief. A few of the original concepts made their way into "The Dreamthief" promo and even the Opening Special, albeit in a Denser and Wackier tone.
  • Zordrak's original name was "Nasta Shelfim", an anagram for "Satan Himself". The name was changed in fear of offending religious groups.
  • Christopher Lee was offered the role of Zordrak, but he turned it down.
  • Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison and Colin Baker were each considered for the role of the Dream Maker. It turns out that they all have something in common...
  • Marketing plans were made for the show in the US, but besides a single VHS release and the odd authorised internet streams, the show got no exposure there.

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