10 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About Farscape

A show set in the vast reaches of space is nothing without the life thriving within it. In the case of Farscape, this means hundreds of different species of alien lifeforms ranging in sizes, personalities, and levels of danger. So why not have one of the leading builders in animatronic puppetry bring these beings to life?

The Jim Henson Company was responsible for all of the fantastic alien make-up and prosthetics used throughout the Farscape series. This included the tentacle-headed Ka D'Argo and the small, roving DRDs roaming the halls of the living ship Moya. But their most impressive works are the amazing animatronic puppets that bring many creatures to life. Including two of the main cast, Pilot and Dominar Rygel XVI.

Rygel is Hynerian, a frog-like alien species, and stands no taller than 26 inches tall. He may be small, but the animatronic took SIX people to operate. That means not only did the other cast members have to share scenes with the amphibious-looking animatronic, but also navigate the puppeteers who brought the Dominar to life.

Moya's Pilot, named Pilot, was a massive animatronic, basically built into the set of the his den. Pilot's species can't fly on their own and must be symbiotically attached to a Leviathan. To bring the squid-like being to life between FIVE-SEVEN people were needed to operate him. Due to the difficulty of removing the animatronic, the same puppet was used for every Pilot. Only the voice changed and, if required, pieces were removed or switched out.