Written by Old Bluffer 2nd Nov 2006

As explained in the previous review, The Skeksis are a cruel and evil race of tyrants.
They oppress any other creatures they can and no race is more helpless against them than the Podlings.
These diminuitive humanoids are shown early on in the film to be both ugly and yet impossibly cute.
It is also revealed that Kira, the last of the female Gelflings, was adopted and raised by a village of the pod people when she was a baby.
This small community proves to be filled with happy podlings, who live in rustic harmony without annoying the audience like a mob of ewoks.

Gelflings Jen and Kira attend a Podling folk festival, complete with live bands and real ale.

It is with some shock therefore, that in a children's film, these innocent creatures are shown serving the Skeksis as mindless zombies.
The Dark Crystal goes further than this though, and fully explores the process by which a healthy podling is transformed into a pitiable drone.

Cut to the Skeksis stronghold, where dozens of fluffy creatures are imprisoned in tiny cages. The camera focuses on a terrified looking podling, and the Skeksis Scientist, SkekTek then looms into view.


"You're next, little podling!"

The poor fellow is plucked from his cage and forcibly manacled into a gothic chair. The podling isn't stupid, he can see two other chairs with his previous cellmates already transformed into drones, and he struggles as hard as his tiny frame allows him to.

"This won't hurt. We just want to drain your liv-ing essence! Then you can be the same as the other podlings here - a slave!"


Terrified podling fails to get reassurance from the previous victim of the Dark Crystal

SkekTek then pulls a lever, and the wall starts to open, allowing the reflected light from the Dark Crystal to corrupt the helpless podling. He visibly shrivels under the relenting beam of light, as his life essence trickles out from a tube to be carefully collected by the Skeksis.


It is safe to assume the Skeksis did not sign the Geneva convention.


This is a seriously traumatised puppet.


For the podling, there is no happy ending, he is well and truly zombified.

Things aren't all good for SkekTek though. The new emperor comes to drink the life-replenishing Podling Essence Potion but the effects only last a scant few moments. He curses the potion maker as a "Slave Squeezer!", who miserably tries to explain "It always worked better when we used Gelflings."

This sets the stage for Kira to be captured and have her life essence drained as well.

I've rated this scene highly, because even though the characters are just puppets, they manage to convey more drama than a lot of multi-million dollar Hollywood stars ever could. It's also unusual to have such a disturbing scene in a story aimed at children, but the film is enhanced by its inclusion.