SkekTek
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In the 1982 film The Dark Crystal, skekTek is the court Scientist of the ruling Skeksis race. He plays an important part in the story, since it is his job to drain captured Pod People and Gelflings of their life essence. This process turns the victims into slaves which perform the work at the Skeksi castle. The website habidabad.com also states that the Scientist alters slave vocal cords to fit them for the castle choir.
In pre-production notes for the film, skekTek, who is also called the Doctor, is identified by his self-mutilated body, especially an artificial leg and bionic arm. His pale, pink-white neck is held in place by a brace with metal bits, and his body is fed through chrome and plastic tubes. One eye is fitted with a telescopic eyepiece.
While most of the Skeksis wear robes of brocade, skekTek's latex sheeting is covered in bandages, mechanized gears and levers, electrodes, suture pins, and hissing pneumatic devices. He trails a train of bloodstained gauze. His spine is spiked with metallic blades. It is mentioned that the Scientist may suffer from epilepsy.
Other design references for the Scientist include:
- A colostomy bag
- An iron lung
- Italian futurist sculpture
- An oxygen tent
- A pacemaker
- A raincoat flasher
In the book The World of The Dark Crystal, purportedly written by the wise woman Aughra, it was the Scientist who gave Aughra the most help in building her massive observatory before the split of the UrSkeks into good and evil mirror images. After the split, skekTek has degenerated into a crank, but maintains an advantage in the fear-based society of the Skeksis because the other Skeksis understand nothing of his work. SkekTek's alter ego amongst the good hearted but backwards urRu is urTih the Alchemist.
In the film, skekTek attempts to drain the essence of Kira. However, urged by both Jen and an imprisoned Aughra, summons the aid of the various animals caged in his lab to attack their sadistic master, leading to a fatal fall. However, when the Scientist perishes, so too does his urRu counterpart.
