One of the most pleasant cinematic surprises of 2019 came in the form of the much-anticipated prequel series for Jim Henson’s 1982 masterpiece
The Dark Crystal. The 10-episode saga
Age of Resistance debuted on NetFlix in late August, delighting fans worldwide with its innovative puppetry and epic storytelling. The original film is like a poem, and this new series is like a novel, described by many as “
Game of Thrones with puppets.”
As a lifelong obsessive devotee of the original
Dark Crystal since the age of 7, I was thrilled to discover that
Age of Resistance not only honored its source material, but expanded it with new layers and improved upon its various characters, set pieces, and nuances. If you haven’t looked upon its wonder yet, it is worth your time in every frame. Spoilers lie ahead, so if you’ve enjoyed the series already, continue to read my “words that stay” and dreamfast with me.
The Dark Crystal takes place on the planet of Thra, which is not mentioned by name even once in the original film, but repeated many times in this new series. All creatures are a part of Thra, except for the Urskeks/Mystics/Skekses, who come from another world. There is no reference to a divine Creator, for Thra is alive and deified as the source of all living things. The spirituality of this world is a more pantheistic one, and yet within this context, there are echoes of the gospel which emerge regardless. In particular, we see Mother Aughra come up with a plan to give up her life for her beloved Gelflings, who respond by saying “we’re not worth it.” Aughra replies, “Yes you are.” After her sacrifice, she returns to the tomb of Thra and is resurrected when another character, the mystic Archer, also gives up his life for the sake of others.
Aughra’s best line after her resurrection is, “I wasn’t sure if it would work.” I love this line, as it reflects the character of a creator God who says “Let us create…” in a playful sense of “let’s see what happens.” The language of the creation account in Genesis is that of a triune God of Father-Son-Holy Spirit, a community which suggests let us create a world and fill it with living creatures. Let’s write a story and see what happens. If and when things go wrong, let us enter this world and redeem it, because it’s worth it...and loved.
One of the most delightful and literal surprises of the series occurs in Episode 7, where we meet the Heretic Skeksis and the Wanderer Mystic, who proceed to put on an opera and puppet show explaining the True History of Thra. (The irony of this sequence, of puppets using puppets, is where the playful spirit of Jim Henson himself is most exemplified. He delighted in meta-narratives of his sort, like in the
Muppet Show episode where Kermit explains to Gonzo that puppets are sort of like “wiggling dolls.” Gonzo replies, “That’s boring! Who wants to watch dolls wiggle?” to which Kermit laments in a wink to the audience, “I didn’t have the heart to tell him.”) The characters of the Heretic and Wanderer themselves seem like they would be more at home in the whimsical worlds of
Labyrinth or
Fraggle Rock than the bleak dystopian world of
The Dark Crystal...but being a prequel, we become witness to glimpses of an era when the world was still “green and good,” before the dark times...before the empire of Garthim and Gelfling genocide.
The performance of the Heretic and the Wanderer is a hand-crafted menagerie of wood, fabric, and found objects. Painted facades roll in on rickety wooden wheels, and hand-sculpted suns descend on squeaking strings, like a theatrical display of folk art. It harkens to the playful theater sets by the likes of Maurice Sendak and scenes from films like Wes Anderson’s
Moonrise Kingdom and Terry Gilliam’s
Adventures of Baron Munchasen. And what’s more, it has been meticulously crafted over the course of hundreds of trine (years), waiting for the chance to share it with an audience. This audience, upon seeing it, will be inspired with the courage to save their world and stand up against evil.
This creation of art for the purpose of sharing it may be part of what led to the Heretic and Wanderer being exiled from their former communities of Skekses and Mystics to begin with. As the Mystics go into hiding, the Skekses take it upon themselves to dominate their world and harbour its riches for themselves. They hoard secret knowledge, demand tithes from the Gelflings, and ultimately end up draining the essence of living things so they may cheat death and rule forever. The Skeksis are all about consumption for their own benefit, competition amongst themselves, and even inflicting punishment upon themselves in their own twisted plays for power. Their squabbles rub off on the Gelflings, who have separated themselves into clans with great contempt for one another.
The Heretic and the Wanderer, by contrast, long for community. They wish to be one again, and not separated. They use the art of theater and puppetry to express this longing, this ache for a better world and return to harmony. Their performance resonates mostly with the Gelfling Deet, who has lived her whole life underground, shielded from the prejudices of the outside world. Sharing in community is how she has learned to live, as shown throughout the series in her kindness and openness while exploring Thra for the first time. Her comrades Brea and Rian are at first jaded and impatient by this weird theatrical display, but eventually are won over and changed by its message of unity and hope.
In 1983 there was a
Fraggle Rock episode where the Fraggles follow a treasure map, thinking they will find the “lost treasure of the Fraggles” that will make them rich and powerful. What they find instead is a music box, which plays a simple instrumental melody, and they begin to hum along to it. The Fraggles realize, at the end of their quest, that the lost treasure of their existence is simply a song. This same theme is brought to light again in Age of Resistance, through the song of Thra that animates their world. Behind the sonic vibrations of each individual song, each piece of art or storytelling shared with another, there are echoes of one universal song, incarnating in infinite forms, whispering secrets about who we are, where we come from and where we’re going. Perhaps beyond the proscenium is a playful Heretic or a wise Wanderer, an Artist saying, “look upon my wonder.”
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