'Just make it as weird as you possibly can' was the directive given to Brian Henson, co-producer of
Farscape and head of the Jim Henson Creature Shop. Fellow producer Rockne S. O'Bannon, together with Henson, wanted to 'used the Creature Shop to the max' to create totally inhuman creatures rather than 'actors with prosthetic wrinkles on their foreheads' a la the contemporary
Star Trek series. Henson also wished for the series to have the sort of advanced prosthetics and animatronics work they previously had only realized for feature films.
It was originally intended for more of the series' recurring cast to be realized via puppetry and heavy latex sculpting; D'Argo for instance, was originally to be realized as a heavy prosthetic body suit with an animatronic head, and Scorpius would have been a bird-like alien also with a heavy prosthetic head, but this was scaled back to just facial prosthetics for the sake of budget, with the heavy puppeteering work relegated to only two main characters; the pillbug-like Pilot and the small, slug-like Rygel. Rygel was originally intended to just be only 12 inches tall - a joke that he was a 'ruler' - but this proved unfeasible as no puppet could be articulated at that size; at that size, they would just be a hand puppet.
The Rygel puppet instead was designed to be the smallest size that could still allow the puppet to be fully articulated. Rygel's puppeteers would have to sit out of shot, watching their own performance via a monitor also out of shot; the puppeteer would also operate, via a joystick attached to a belt around their waist, the Rygel puppet's lip and mouth shapes. Another puppeteer would operate the remote controlled elements of the Rygel puppet's face.
Pilot, the second regular character to be represented as a puppet, was much more complex in both design and operation, as it had to be large enough for the rest of the cast to interact with on set. The head was an animatronic whose expressions were performed by remote control, while a performer sat inside the 'body' to rotate it, and each of the four limbs were operated by a puppeteer.
Dave Elsey had been brought over from the UK to maintain the Pilot and Rygel puppets designed by the Jim Henson Company, but was then made the head of the Jim Henson Creature Shop working in Australia where the series was filmed; Elsey was forced to hire local Australian talent rather than import American and British special effects artists, which was harder due to Australia not having a thriving special makeup effects scene like the USA or UK. Elsey's Australian team never reached more than 25 members; among them were Damian Martin (in one of his first gigs) and Adam Johansen, who would later found Australian special effects firm Odd Studio.
Elsey's team would have to regularly make new creatures on-par with the Pilot and Rygel puppets, 'The aliens that had been built by The Jim Henson Creature Shop were spectacular (...) We had to build things that were equally impressive, even though we didn’t have nearly enough time to do it'. Elsey would visit as many local book and comic shops to help find new inspiration for the various aliens; 'We found some great French comic books with this superb artwork for crazy ideas that you’d never seen in films, as well as Japanese and Chinese influences,” (...) We would bring all this stuff in and make it all join together into different things'.
The first episode 'Premiere' required a sequence set in an alien trading outpost, with of course several aliens; one of them was the arachnid-esque alien 'Proprietor' that also happened to be Elsey's first creation for the show. The Propietor puppet was six-feet tall, but only because it had been built at the wrong scale by accident! The puppet took three hours to put in place on the set and required three puppeteers to operate it; on the first day of filming, the puppeteers accidentally caused it to fall right on its face, but thankfully no damage had been done.
According to Brian Henson in an interview with io9;
'That was Dave Elsey’s first character that he did from scratch (...) I think he wanted to prove that he could be just as good as the London Creature Shop. (He) built it in such a way that it really only does that one scene and then it pretty much fell apart. I always say to the animatronic builders ‘if something is needed for only one thing, be very, very ambitious and if it only lasts for half an hour of shooting and then falls apart that’s okay, that’s a win’.
The squid-like alien prisoner Jotheb in 'Throne For a Loss' was also realized as a puppet, fitted with lights for the eyes and a puppeteer operating its tentacles in close-up shots.
The toad-like Sheyang aliens in 'PK Tech Girl' were originally made as background aliens for the pilot episode; the prosthetics were deemed impressive enough that they were made the focus of several later episodes. The Sheyang were realized as animatronic masks worn on top of a padded fatsuit, with sculpted gloves.
The rat-like NamTar in 'DNA Mad Scientist' was designed to be a tall, gangly creature; thus it was decided that 'werewolf-style' digitigrade leg extensions would be utilized to increase the performers height. The Namtar prosthetics were designed by Greg McKee, who also designed a 'coolsuit' to keep the performer inside from getting too hot under the studio lights.
The episode's plot revolved around Namtar performing experiments to mutate Aeryn Sun, resulting in her being mutated into a fish-like humanoid - whilst it's hard to make out in the screenshots, it was realized as Claudio Black being made to wear prosthetics around the face and chest, with a crab-like glove arm.
Several more of Namtar's patients are briefly glimpsed in the episode, realized as performers in static prosthetic masks.
Jack, the Ancient alien in 'A Human Reaction' was realized as an insectoid puppet; later appearances would have the character realized with CGI barring a brief reuse of the puppet for the character's death in 'Infinite Possibilties - Daedalus Demands'.
The alien scientist Br'Nee in 'Bone to Be Wild' was realized by heavy facial prosthetics, with stone-like growths, toadstools and moss covering his distorted face; the performer's costume was padded to make them seem bulkier than they actually were, matching the mask.
Accompanying Br'Nee is the carnivorous humanoid M'Lee, realized as actress Francesca Buller in prosthetic makeup, a light-up bubble-shaped headpiece and sculpted rubber bodysuit, fitted with spines that could pop out of the suit via a mechanism inside it.
The ape-like Keedva in 'Home on the Remains' was a performer in a furred bodysuit and animatronic mask, with the suit also having armor extensions to create a more loping gait.
The bird-like Halosians in 'Out of their Minds' were a nod to the Skeksis of
The Dark Crystal - they were realized via a similar method to the Skeksis, with the puppeteer hidden within the creature's costume, where they could operate the head via a harness underneath. Elsey in particular was deliberate with the homage due to being friends with Lyle Conway, the designer of the original Skeksis puppets.
'Look at the Princess - A Kiss is but a Kiss' introduced the Scarrans in the form of Sastaretski Cargn; the Scarran was realized as a performer wearing a large animatronic headpiece, that acted as the neck and head of the alien, with a reptilian, sloped face and sculpted musculature on the torso and prosthetic feet and hands worn over the performer's own.
The Scarran design proved enough of a success that it would be replicated in later episodes, such as Plonek in 'Season of Death'; Plonek's animatronic head has a more scaly and draconian appearance, and seemingly was given a new paintjob as Alcar in 'Infinite Possibilities - Icarus Abides'. The Plonek/Alcar suit is slightly more covered up by the costume than the Cargn suit, with no prosthetic feet.
The gremlin-like Vorc in 'Beware of Dog' was a puppet, that was noticeably only shot from the chest up in shots when it was 'running'.
The Vorc's alternate predatory form however, was a performer in an elaborate suit; the predatory Vorc is only seen in quick shots during action sequences, meaning its never quite seen in full. Apparently Ben Browder was not impressed with the predatory Vorc's design, and kept jokingly referring to it as a 'tandoori chicken'!
The arachnid-like humanoid Natira in 'Liars, Guns and Money' was realized as actress Claudio Karvan wearing an elaborately sculpted bodysuit and prosthetic makeup, seemingly a touch inspired by the works of H. R. Giger (in particular, his design for the alien Sil in
Species); on Natira's head are several mandibles that could open up like a spider's legs via a mechanism.
The alien surgeon Tocot, in 'Die Me, Dichotomy', was a performer wearing an animatronic mask, designed to have a bulbous and slightly Grey-like appearance, with prosthetics applied over the shoulders and forearms.
The fish-like Pathfinders in 'Self-Inflicted Wounds - Could'a, Would'a, Should'a' were realized as prosthetic latex masks, the gill-like segments on the sides of which could inflate, presumably via an air bladder mechanism.
The reptilian Colarta warriors in 'Thanks for Sharing' and 'Relativity' were full body suits with elaborate masks, the jaws of which would open and close; the general design of the Colarta, with the skeletal ribcage and large bulbous head, feels like another design indebted to H. R. Giger, in particular his designs for the
Alien films.
Another Scarran, Tauza, would appear in 'Incubator', with a different design to the previous versions; due to the necessity of actress Amy Salas to properly emote during her scenes torturing Scorpius; thus it was decided she would be more humanoid with prosthetic makeup - still reptilian in design, with horns around the back of the head - rather than a fully animatronic head, something the following series would run with more when having more Scarran characters.
The demonic Mu-Quillus in 'Meltdown' was a facial prosthetic mask designed to resemble cooled lave, with a stony texture and rocky formations as the 'horns'.
Another elaborate prosthetic makeup was applied on actor Anthony Simcoe in 'Scratch 'N' Sniff', as per his character D'Argo infiltrating a club disguised as an alien of another, more insectoid species.
More elaborate was the mantis-like Kabaah, a puppet with a movable head with large stalk eyes and tendrils fitted to the back; presumably the puppeteer operated it from under the 'seat' the Kabaah puppet was seated on.
The disguised Talyn Lyczac in 'The Choice' was realized as heavy prosthetic makeups applied to actor John Gregg's face, giving him a deformed appearance as if he was crossed with an insect.
Travelling with Talyn is the foetus-like alien seer Cresus, realized as a puppet operated from underneath wherever the puppet is placed.
Another Scarran redesign was seen in the form of Naj Gil in 'Fractures', whose face has a narrower, slightly more human-like appearance; a similar design was utilized for Pennoch in the following series' 'We're So Screwed' trilogy.
The 'What Was Lost' two-parter featured the fish-like humanoid Oo-Nii, a homage to the Gillman (after all, Ben Browder's character does bluntly reference
The Creature from the Black Lagoon when encountering the alien) and one of the more elaborate creature suits in the show yet; this was further complicated by several copies of suit components having to be made by the Creature Shop to fulfil all the episode's requirements. More than ten pairs of hands and feet had to be made.
Also briefly appearing is an alien goat seen being sacrificed in a vision; the goat puppet was nicknamed 'Goatzilla' by the Creature Shop!
The Tarkans in 'Lava's a Many Splendored Thing' were realized as facial prosthetics of a slightly insectoid design, and bulbous growths over the scalp; shame that for most of their screentime, they're wearing a helmet over it!
The episode also had a sequence where Noranti casts an illusion to appear as an alien belly dancer, realized as an actress wearing a heavy prosthetic mask resembling a Grey alien; this was Elsey's idea, as he felt it was about time they appeared in the series.
The hammerhead-like Lukythians in 'Promises' were prosthetic masks fitted with animatronics that could allow the eyes to blink.
The Skreeth assassin in 'Terra Firma' was a performer wearing a bodysuit and prosthetic mask, with blades resembling mantis pincers fitted on the arms.
The series concluded with 'The Peackeeper Wars', which didn't introduce new aliens barring the Tregan; goat-like aliens with protruding jaws, realized as masks fitted with animatronics allowing the mouth to emote.
'The Peacekeeper Wars' sought to finish the Scarran storyline established in the preceding season, with the same villainous Scarrans; the emperor Staleek and his cohorts Ahkna and Jenek. In a similar manner to Tauza in 'Incubator', the production team realized it would not be able for the actors for each respective villain would not be able to emote fully if they had animatronic masks fitted; thus it was decided the long-necked Scarrans were 'warriors', whilst the more human-like ones were 'leaders'. Staleek and his fellow elites were realized as heavy prosthetic makeups; humanoid but still reptilian in appearance, with the costume obscuring the back of the head to imply they still had the elongated skull structure of the other Scarrans. One of these masks was restored by Tom Spina,
the story of which can be read on his official website.
Serving the Scarrans are the Charrids, which had originally appeared in the 'Infinite Possibilities' two-parter and been recurring villains in the fourth season, were realized as prosthetic makeups designed to have a grotesque, slightly bat-like appearance, remniscient of most practical makeup designs for orcs in the 2000s onwards. Granted its hard to make out the pointed ears from under the applied hair!
