The Production Designer's brief on this set was to try as best possible to capture the essence of what was a very important part of the original movie, the Scientists Lab where gelfling are drained of their life force, their 'Essence'. However we needed to also adapt the design to give us more space and options for a set we would return to over and over again in the Series.
The 'Antechamber' design is based very closely on one particular view that we see in the original film, but then quickly changes as you move through the space to accommodate cages, prison cells, lighting and view of the crystal in the crystal shaft at the back of the 'Lab' area.
An incredibly hard working set, many of the walls had to float and a swinging wall on wheels that could quickly open and close for crew access during takes throughout filming. Level changes, ramps and light wells in the floor, added significant challenges to construction of the set as every aspect of it needed to be modular, built to 'float' and pull out during filming for puppeteer access and conceal all split lines when quickly reassembled for clean wide shots or those that required the puppeteers to walk accross the finished floor surface.
The entire floor was built in a modular rostrum design that meant a section of floor could be removed and a puppeteer could be lower than the finished floor surface by either 2ft or 4ft in any area of the set. Meaning puppeteers could walk around on subfloors and ramps below the set that recreated the design but placed the puppet at the correct height when puppeteer was operating from below.
