Old P.D. Stuff
Very very very good DT, that reproduced my thinking exactly. Of the three, I suspect that the Ourorous serpent may have been uppermost in Donovan’s mind. The Ouroboros
serpent has been a consistent literary metaphor for cycles and cyclical events, including time as a cycle or circle. These
themes of cyclical time have reoccurred
constantly through the series.
I quizzed Dave Albiston on the subject,
he was one of the first to try to implement
the idea, doing a series of maquettes. He’s
not familiar with the literary philosophical antecedents. But he did note that the idea
of a Cluster Lizard rolling up, uncoiling into this Cobra like looming stance was
visually impressive. Much more impressive
than a slither.
I’m all but certain that practical issues were also a consideration. For one thing,
it is almost impossible to effectively do
limbed animal puppets, not ones with any
mobility. I think the original concepts were that they’d CGI it, but that turned out not
to be feasible.
On the other hand, all you need for a rolling
animal is a stick. I suspect one of the
other inspirations was the image or practice
of kids rolling a hoop or a tire along the
road with a stick.
Doing a rolling creature saved a lot of
logistical headaches. The puppetry was immensely simpler.
But the rolling Cluster Lizard concept
moved further. The circular segmented body,
according to production designer Mark Laing,
was the eventual inspiration of both the
Cluster symbol and of the Gigashadow/Insect
form.