While we're eagerly waiting for the Turkey Day marathon of new episodes, I thought we could spend some of that time with a bit of retrospective speculation.
As most of us know, one of Joel Hodgson's real like hobbies was building robot sculptures from cast off products. It was that craft that resulted in the memorable 'Bot puppets that are so intrinsic to the series.
But what if Joel had taken a different path? What if he were a fan of Jim Henson's creations (maybe he is, who knows?) and decided to sculpt "critters" instead?
Funny enough, I can imagine a scenario in which Joel Robinson is accompanied not by 'Bots in the theater, but diminutive "aliens". Instead of using parts that control when "the movie begins and ends", a pair of curious rapscallion "Martians" (or whatever) crash into the SoL, damaging what minimal control Joel may have had. Because their saucer is wrecked, they too are now trapped upon the station and try to make the best of the situation, joining Joel to watch the movies, curious about human behavior.
I can see such a format unfolding much the way the actual show progressed. The "invention exchange" could have remained. AS they would be equally "innocent" of "normal" personal interaction, the alien pair could pull maybe of the same stunts. One could maintain the "worldly" and "naive" dynamic between the two and having a slight reverence for Joel as he is the first human they personally encountered.
The one element of which I'm unsure is Gypsy. Somehow, I just don't see her as an alien, one that integrates herself with the station to sustain its function. maybe she'd maintain a robot, one which was more cognitive before our "Mutt & Jeff" Martians crash into the craft and afterwards is left a bit "addled", focusing iher remaining processing resources upon things like life support and whatnot.
Okay, here's my question. If Crow and Servo were "organic" puppets, how might you imagine them?