A few years ago the Jim Henson company made a prequel series to the movie “The Dark Crystal” where the art of puppetry was given the chance to stand on it’s own as a craft that truly shines when given the chance to. You should give it a go if you have the chance. This beautiful culmination of artistry that is The Dark Crystal TV show would however have been completely impossible if it weren’t for the absolutely ground-breaking show that is Farscape.
Farscape was an Australian-American cooperative production sci-fi show that was a trailblazer for the genre. And it was produced by the Jim Henson company and Hallmark. Yes the Hallmark known for every type of card from get well soon to happy birthday and those incredibly corny movies produced a science fiction television show in collaboration with the Jim Henson company. This collaboration culminated in one of the best television shows to come out around the turn of the millennia, though sadly it is often forgotten in favour of bigger shows like Stargate. Which is an incredible shame, because I love it to bits, every single part of the show is made with love, drawing from other shows in wonderful ways.
One of the major inspirations for the show was the 1988 British TV show Red Dwarf, a space comedy about the last remaining human trying to make his way home to earth after finding himself stranded in a far off wing of the galaxy on the mining ship Red Dwarf, which is populated by autonomous robots that repair and maintain the ship called skutters that are controlled by off-screen puppeteers. There is also a robot called Kryten, named after the J.M. Barrie plat The Admirable Mr. Crichton. Farscape is a science fiction adventure about IASA scientist John Crhriton trying to find his way home to earth after finding himself stranded in a far off wing of the galaxy aboard the living ship Moya which is maintained by autonomous robots known as DRDs which are controlled by off-screen puppeteers.
By wearing its inspirations on its sleeve like this we really get to see that Farscape is truly a love letter to the genre, it does this so well that every homage makes you smile. So much love and effort has been made put into the show that is evident in the smallest details. The amount of work that went into building makes the universe feel so incredibly real. The Galaxy would be populated by diverse aliens that actually look alien, cultures that clash in the intergalactic melting pot under the hard fist of the fascism of the peacekeepers. Using incredibly complex prosthetics and puppetry the individuals species of the galaxy are made truly believable.
Something else that I love when watching the show is how instead of trying to hide away the camp that has saturated the genre from early days it chooses to lean into it. The puppets are goofy and definitely puppets, there is an episode with a puppet in full s&m gear, the main villain has a cooling cell in his brain, THE SPACE SHIP IS ALIVE FFS. Gods do I love this show, go watch it now.