Written by Mr. Mouseburger 28th Feb 2010
Kindly submitted by KiraJenLove
SkekTek the Scientist is in his lab, ironically called "The Chamber of Life", in which he conducts horrendous experiments on animals and other sentient beings like Gelflings and Podlings. The animals have lain in a state of lethargy in their homemade cages in his lab.
Aughra, the scholar who helped Jen earlier in the film has also been captured and stands in her own cage by the wall and now, Kira a female gelfling has just been caught, and SkekTek drags her into the Chamber, forcing her to sit in a chair that faces a wall in the chamber that opens to expose the shaft of the Crystal. He opens the wall and moves the reflector into position. The beam hits Kira's face, and her eyes begin to turn milky as her life essence drips from her body.
Jen, who had been knocked unconscious by SkekSil in the tunnels under the castle, calls out telepathically to Kira - "Kira, fight them! Fight them, fight!" Kira comes out of her daze and calls out to Jen. Aughra, realising that Kira is cognizant, calls out to her - "You, Kira! Call the animals! You have the gift! Call them to freedom, NOW!"
Kira musters all of her strength, and lets out a loud, "KAMALEEEAAAAAHHH!!" She follows this up with many more calls in Podling. This call brings the animals suddenly out of their lethargy, and they begin struggling to break out of their cages.
Soon the entire lab is filled with the calls of animals, as they begin freeing themselves of their bonds. Once free, the first priority they have is to attack their Skeksis tormentor, who is futilely trying to command them to get back in their cages. Soon SkekTek is covered with dozens of biting, scratching, clawing animals that hate him, and as he is fighting them he inadvertantly backs into the lever that controls the reflector, taking the beam off Kira. He continues moving backwards, swiping at furry creatures all the while, until he trips and falls backwards through the opening to the shaft of the Crystal, falling to a fiery death below.
I submitted one too but I guess yours got picked first. Also need to dispense with the "(performer)" part since we didn't have that for skekSo.
sorry Koosh, nothing personal, just i saw this in the inbox and having just watched the Dark Crystal i thought it would be nice to add it.
I quite like noting the "performer" next to the character, as i really feel they are the ones that give the puppets life and character. After all is Gollum Andy Serkis, or is he a load of pixels in some Apple G4s
I will make the necessary changes to Skekso so we are consistent though
Bonus writeup, courtesy of Kooshmeister:
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While the Skeksis in general are a nasty lot, SkekTek the Scientist in particular is one of the main ones focused upon. It is his job to make slaves out of the cute, innocent Podlings captured by the Garthim (the Skeksis' crablike soldiers), by subjecting them to a process better described in a previous review.
Jen and Kira's quest to "heal" the Crystal isn't exactly off to a good start. The minute they arrived at the Skeksis' castle, Kira was captured by SkekSil the Chamberlain, who also buried Jen alive under a pile of rocks.
The Skeksis fear the Gelflings, because it is written in a vague prophecy or other that it will be a Gelfling who will unseat the Skeksis' power. Thus, SkekZok the Priest demands that Kira immediately be slain.
However, SkekTek, who earlier commented that the essence drained from a Gelfling was more potent than that of a Podling, convinces the new emperor to let him drain Kira before they kill her (much to SkekZok's dismay).
So SkekTek drags Kira down to the essence-draining room, where he straps her into one of those terrifying-looking chairs as Aughra, captured earlier herself, looks on from a cage. SkekTek begins the process, opening the wall to let in the light from the Crystal.
Aughra realizes that Kira has what she calls "the gift," and tells her, "Call the animals! Call them to freedom!" By this, she means the hundreds of cute, cuddly-looking furry creatures SkekTek keeps in cages for whatever reason (likely vivisection, given that he is a scientist).
Before the slave-drainer realizes what is happening, the animals, under Kira's guidance, bust free from their cages and Kira's tormentor is soon being mobbed by the things.
The immediate result of this is that the flailing SkekTek backs up against the control panel, switching off the Crystal-reflector, saving Kira. Trying to get the animals off of himself, SkekTek backs right through the hole in the wall.
There's a sort of grate or lid, which gives way under SkekTek's weight, dumping the evil scientist, with a few of the cute fluffy animals still clinging to him, down a fiery shaft.
We then cut to the ridiculously slow-moving Mystics, making their ponderous way towards the castle as a sort of half-arsed cavalry - whereupon one of them spontaneously combusts, further evidence of the connection between the Skeksis and the Mystics, as if the simultaneous deaths of the old emperor and Jen's master weren't proof enough...
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Mr Mouseburger Wrote:
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> I quite like noting the "performer" next to the
> character, as i really feel they are the ones that
> give the puppets life and character. After all is
> Gollum Andy Serkis, or is he a load of pixels in
> some Apple G4s
These aren't quite puppets, though, more like actors in suits with puppet heads. If we list the actors as "(performer)" won't we also have to do this for every creature/character portrayed by someone in a monster suit (although at the moment only Dagoth comes to mind)?
Also, in this instance, Steve Whitmire was the voice and performer for skekTek. So listing him as one or the other is a little redundant.
Also, shouldn't Kira be listed as the killer? The animals were more or less acting under her guidance, and if that's good enough to make Sheena, another character who can communicate with animals, the killer when she used flamingos to kill Zanda and the helicopter pilot, it's good enough for Kira.
Also also, skekTek is a Baddy (Minor) at best in my opinion.
Yep, I think he's minor too. You make a compelling argument for Kira to be listed as the killer.
This is one of my all-time favourite films so I might have to rewatch it soon.
As a sidenote, I love his glowing bionic eye.
I would not class Kira as the Killer at all. Aughra reveals this when she tells Kira to "call them to freedom". Once they are free, their own instincts take over and they assault and torment their tormentor of their own volition, not because Kira is some "pied piper". They may be cute and furry, but it does not mean they shirk the responsibility of killing SkekTek.
Sheena was slightly different as, if i remember correctly, she used the flamingos as a device to kill by ordering them to fly into the helicopters rotor blades.
Out of interest, I thought i put SkekTek as baddy minor??
Mr Mouseburger Wrote:
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> I would not class Kira as the Killer at all.
> Aughra reveals this when she tells Kira to "call
> them to freedom". Once they are free, their own
> instincts take over and they assault and torment
> their tormentor of their own volition, not because
> Kira is some "pied piper".
>
Throughout the sequence of skekTek being mobbed Kira is talking to them. Like, nonstop. I don't speak whatever language she was using (Podling?) but she was instructing them to do something, and since they spent the entire time swarming skekTek I assume it was, "Attack the bad guy."
I'm not entirely sure she intended to kill skekTek, but she clearly was using the animals and wanted them to keep up their attack.
Mr Mouseburger Wrote:
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> Sheena was slightly different as, if i remember
> correctly, she used the flamingos as a device to
> kill by ordering them to fly into the helicopters
> rotor blades.
>
Actually they got in through the open doors and pecked at the villains. The pilot crashed the helicopter due to having his eyes pecked out. But you are right that the flamingos were more instruments than the lab animals here. I consider them instruments nonetheless, regardless of whether they had preexisting reasons for attacking skekTek.
Saying which, I also want to point out that it's interesting that the movie doesn't actually bother explaining what the animals are caged up for. The information about them being used for experiments comes from the script where they're mentioned as "the victims of cruel experiments" when the Chamber of Life is first described, and in the novelization, which gives more gruesome details. But in the movie no reason for their presence is given. I had to guess at their purpose based on the fact skekTek is called "Scientist" in the credits; that guess turned out to be correct.
As a side note, most people I encounter, oddly, assume skekTek is the one called "Slave Master" in the credits (which is actually skekNa, the guy with the hook and eyepatch). And so the presence of the animals is a total mystery to them.
Oh yeah, and to further back up my insistence that Kira be listed as killer despite the animals being the attackers, what's that movie where Milla Jovovich;s character is listed as the killer even though a different character, a sniper, took the shot? If the nameless sniper despite pulling the trigger can be listed as an instrument to Milla's character so too can the animals to Kira.
But if you want to restrict killer credits to the ones who do the actual killing, in addition to leaving skekTek's death untouched I recommend you give that sniper his proper credit.
I'm with Koosh on this one, give the Gelfling Maiden her fair dues!
Hey, about a week ago, I submitted a few more deaths for "The Dark Crystal" - one for Kira, and one for the Landstriders. I also submitted a death for "The Abyss", but I haven't seen any of these yet. Did you get them? Should I resubmit them? Also, how do I add photos to the review?
Koosh, i see where you are coming from, but to my mind, the sniper in A Perfect Getaway is different, as Milla Jovovich is asked which one should he kill. At that point the power of life and death over Cliff is hers. Kira never has this power, she frees the animals, but they kill SkekTek of their own volition, not on her orders. The death in Sheena: Queen of the Jungle is also different, as Sheena telepathically controls the flamingos to crash into the Helicopter, thereby making her the killer.
Gelflings are not murderous - they are peaceable puppets, and so i can't imagine her ever wanting to kill a creature, even one as hideous as a Skeksis.....
KiraJenLove - i am sure you did add some others - but if i can say, you are actually quite lucky, as there are a lot of people who submit deaths on here months (even years) ago, and they have still not been added. As Kooshmeister has said, he actually submitted a write-up for this a while back. You were lucky in the fact that a) i had literally just watched the film, so was on a "the Dark Crystal" high, and b) i was looking at my email, and this death was there, right in front of me, so i added it.
Y'know, Mouseburger, the more I think about it, the more you're right. This is like the scene in The Beastmaster where the ferret attacks Maax to fall down the fire pit. Although Dar can communicate with and control animals, the ferret attacked the villain of its own volition (as he was about to stab Dar). The same holds true for skekTek here, I suppose. The animals were helping Kira but attacked the villain of their own will.
That's another great animal-related death scene, too, in Beastmaster. I look forward to doing writeups of Maax's death as well as that of the Jun leader (one of my favorite final battles ever).