Series / Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock

Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock is a 2022 Continuity Reboot of the original series, produced for Apple TV+.

The premise is essentially the same as the original series, centering on the fun-loving, cave dwelling Fraggles, the workaholic Doozers, and the giant Gorgs — but this series also introduces the Craggles, who are close cousins of the Fraggles but a lot sleepier and more low-energy, and it includes and expands on the Merggles, water-dwelling Merfolk versions of the Fraggles, who were in one episode of the original show but here feature prominently. Along for the ride are Doc, a young grad science grad student, and her dog Sprocket, who live in a rent house where a hole in the wall leads down to Fraggle Rock.

The main characters in the series are, as ever, five Fraggles who are good friends: dependable Gobo, Genki Girl Red, Granola Girl Mokey, pessimistic Boober and indecisive Wembley. Also prominent is Gobo's uncle Travelling Matt, who explores "Outer Space" (the human world) and regularly sends reports back to his nephew; in this series, Matt also sends artifacts from his travels to Gobo.

Everyone involved learns lessons about their interconnected worlds — apart from Travelling Matt, who misunderstands everything, and Doc, who doesn't even know the Fraggles exist and just unknowingly interacts with their world.

A holiday special, "Night of the Lights", was released on November 18, 2022, and a second 13-episode season premiered on March 29, 2024.

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Trope your cares away, down at Fraggle Rock!:

• Accidental Misnaming: Icy Joe can't get anyone's name right apart from her own. It's specifically shown that the reason is because she doesn't really care enough to make an effort to remember. When she starts opening up, she starts getting names right.
• Actually, I Am Him: A variant happens with Lyle Craggle, who offers to take an investigating Red to see the town leader. He walks with her a few feet, then stops and calmly informs her that it's him.
• Alien Kudzu: The strawberries Uncle Traveling Matt gives the Fraggles inadvertently end up becoming this, as one of them gets into the Gorgs' garden and starts spreading.
• Adapted Out: While most of the important characters from the original series make a return here, there are a few who don't. It's understandable with Cantus the Minstrel and Convincing John, since they were both Jim Henson characters and Cantus especially was like an Author Avatar for him (a new Cantus-esque character named Jamdolin, voiced by Daveed Diggs, appears instead, with a Doozer named Jack Hammer, voiced by Kenan Thompson, taking the Convincing John role). Others who don't show up or even get mentioned are Cotterpin's parents Flange and Wingnut, Wander McMooch, Marlon, Feenie and Rumple. Averted with Lanford, who isn't in the first season but shows up in the second season.
• Adaptation Name Change: The episode "Into the Trash" reintroduces Begoony from "The Incredible Shrinking Mokey" in a cameo role, but renames him Bongo.
• Adaptational Dumbass:
  • Wrench Doozer is a lot more of a Ditz here than he was in the original series, especially as part of his Those Two Guys routine with Turbo.
  • The Architect too is notably goofier; in the original series he was usually the Doozer voice of reason and Only Sane Man. In this series he... isn't.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Pa Gorg. It may be tied to the fact that his much smaller role in this series wouldn't leave him much time to show the redeeming qualities he displayed in the original series — but he's also quite a bit meaner in this show. The original Pa Gorg thought he was the ruler of the universe and that this entitled him to do whatever he wanted without bothering to consider anyone else's feelings or wellbeing — this Pa Gorg is actively a Jerkass who insists that Gorgs never give anything to anyone, who yells at Junior for showing compassion or generosity to anyone who is not a Gorg, and who orders anything and everything that annoys him to be thrown down the well. Sure, the well goes down to the pond in the Great Hall, but Pa doesn't know that.
  • Downplayed in Season 2, where Pa has a much larger role and we get to see more of his redeeming qualities. He's still a major Jerkass but he is nowhere near as harsh with Junior and he shows that he does care about his family, and goes through some much-needed Character Development in the final few episodes of the season.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • It's subtle, but noticeable compared to the old show, but characters like Gobo and Red seem to have undergone some sensitivity training; they have far fewer Innocently Insensitive moments and are a lot more openly supportive of their friends, even each other. In the first episode, for example, after Gobo, still screaming and running from the "beast" he had seen in Outer Space (Sprocket), ruins Red's big dive, Red angrily marches up to Gobo and demands a good explanation. When Gobo tells her what he just saw, while the original series Red would likely scoff at such a response, Red in this series immediately calms down and accepts it as such.
    Red: Gobo! You better have a good excuse for ruining my dive!
    Gobo: Why, ah, a giant space beast tried to eat me!
    (beat)
    Red: ...Okay. That's — that's a good excuse.
  • Junior Gorg's caring and considerate side is a lot more prominent here. He still chases the Fraggles, but pretty much only because his parents (well, Pa mostly) tell him to, and he's much more reluctant about actually hurting them.
  • The World's Oldest Fraggle no longer hits Henchy with his staff. Which also averts Would Hit a Girl, since Henchy is female in this reboot. According to Dave Goelz, this was done specifically to not model violence for young viewers.
• Aerith and Bob: In "The Merggle Moon Migration," the Fraggles witness the births of five new Merggles (approximate spellings) as they are named by the Merggle Queen: Perggle, Thurggle, Ferggle, Verggle, and Larry.
• An Aesop:
  • Like its predecessor, Back to the Rock doesn't shy away from complex, sometimes dark themes for its moral lessons relative to other children's shows. Episode 2 revolves around consent (though obviously not in a sexual context), Episode 3 demonstrates Mokey's descent into misinformation in a literal Echo Chamber, Episode 8 deals with tourism as a form of exploitation of an ethnic or cultural "other", and throughout the Doc and Sprocket segments, Doc is working on a thesis project to combat the deluge of microplastics in the oceans, and the entire series handles both the wasting and hoarding of water, and how it can affect the ecosystem.
• Appearance Angst: In "The Glow," Boober goes to extreme lengths to hide his glowing baloobius, out of fear that his friends will shun him for being a freak, but is reassured by the Archivist, who explains to him why his baloobius glows and that hers does also. When Boober finally shows his friends, they think it's neat.
• Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: Gobo and Red in "Red's Big Jump":
  Red: Hey, Gobo. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
  Gobo: Oh, that I don't wear enough hats? Totally. I mean, I have a ton, but I never really wear 'em, I don't know why —
  Red: What?! No! No! Come here!
• Art Evolution: Three decades' advancement in puppetry has led to not only more puppet techniques, but also to some of the characters' designs being tweaked and updated a little. They're mostly minor, but three changes really stand out:
  • Mokey's the most immediately noticeable, with not only her Costume Evolution and different hairstyle, but also the fact that her colors are more vibrant and saturated. She's also a bit less airy than in the original show, which according to John Tartaglia, was specifically done to give her more contemporary appeal.
  • Junior Gorg's got a rounder, more gentle-looking face, he's lost his prominent double chin, and his hair is a bit shorter, and as a result looks younger than he did in the classic series.
  • The Doozers got a lot more varied and individual looks; they're all wearing with different colored vests and clothes, whereas in the old series they tended to just wear their toolbelts. It's also more common to see a Doozer's unique hairstyle even when they're wearing their helmets, downplaying the Compressed Hair trope that was so common for them in the old series. Even more importantly, in the old series Doozers who wore helmets almost always had their eyes obscured — there were a couple of exceptions, but for the most part if a Doozer wore their helmet you didn't see their eyes. In this series, you always see a Doozer's eyes, and it's far more common to see Doozers without helmets too.
• Ascended Extra:
  • The Merggles previously made their sole appearance in the old show in the episode "Beyond the Pond." Here, the species are very much integrated into the overarching storyline.
  • Cotterpin was already the main Doozer character in the original show, but she rarely appeared in an episode unless she was one of the focus characters. Here she's in pretty much every episode and is heavily involved in the overarching season plot.
  • Turbo Doozer only appeared in one episode of the original series, but has in this series become a recurring character and forms a Those Two Guys dynamic with Wrench.
  • Within the show itself, Pogey has a much larger role in season 2, as do Ma and Pa Gorg.
• As Himself:
  • In season 1, the Foo Fighters guest star as themselves when Uncle Traveling Matt sees them perform "Fraggle Rock Rock" in concert.
  • In season 2, Travelling Matt finds himself at the shooting of an aespa music video, in which they perform "Get Going."
• Astronomic Zoom: The opening starts in orbit, and zooms in through Doc’s window, and even further into Fraggle Rock.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Junior Gorg, in Episode 1.
  Junior: [chanting to himself] Watch for Fraggles and don't get distracted... watch for- [sees a Flutterfly flying by] ...a Flutterfly!
• Bad Liar: Wembley is an amazingly bad liar. Not only does he make Suspiciously Specific Denials completely unprompted, but he changes the cover story three times in as many minutes.
• Beware the Nice Ones: As in the original show, Mokey, while generally calm and good-natured, can lose her temper if she's pushed too far. An example is when Icy Joe announces she's taking over Red and Mokey's cave, and it's Red who has to restrain a furious Mokey for a change.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Manty the Mantivore, who lives near Craggle Lagoon, is essentially a giant praying mantis. Unlike most examples of the trope, though, he's a Gentle Giant with a goofy voice — it's just that he has a tendency to scream "YOUUU!" in a scary way, which means the Craggles are initially scared of him.
  Manty: YOUUUUUU! ...are both welcome in my home.
  Lyle: Whaa-aaa...?
  Red: Wai— Wait. You're welcoming us?
  Lyle: Well, why'd you say it in such a scary way?
  Manty: YOOOUUUUU! know... I never really thought about it that way. It's just the way I talk. O-ooh! Do you think that's why the Craggles are scared of me?
  Lyle: I mean... it doesn't really help...
  • Manty bears a very vague resemblance to the fearsome Poison Cacklers from the original series, which in this reboot are mentioned but not seen. He's a lot nicer than the Poison Cacklers, though.
• Big Eater: Sprocket's Big Eater tendencies were already established in the original show, but here his fondness for doggie treats is taken up to eleven. He even imagines Doc gifting him a giant doggie treat wrapped in a bow as a reward for "capturing" Traveling Matt.
• Blue Means Cold: Icy Joe has blue skin, befitting both the icy caverns she explored and her initially cold demeanor.
• Book Ends: In the first episode of season 2, Doc inadvertently causes disaster down in Fraggle Rock with her experiments with wind turbines. In the final episode of season 2 she just as inadvertently saves the day with those same wind turbine experiments.
• Call-Back: In "I'm Pogey," Mokey references the outfit she wore in the original series.
• The Cameo: The Foo Fighters appear in the last Uncle Traveling Matt segment of the season.
• Cliffhanger: As the season goes on, more and more episodes end on these. Lampshaded by Barry Blueberry in "The Giggle Gaggle Games" as he literally hangs off a cliff.
• Character Exaggeration:
  • Mokey's Granola Girl spiritualism is a lot more prominent in this series.
  • The Doozers' workaholic tendencies are upped quite a bit; they complain about having to take a lunch break instead of working, celebrations last for four seconds (and that's seen as extravagant), they still have horror stories about the "Great Pause" where an accident meant all work had to stop for a full minute, and one Doozer has a mental breakdown when he gets injured and finds out he can't go back to work for three minutes.
    "If I'm not building, who am I?!"
• Cheek Copy: Downplayed with Travelling Matt, who mistakes a photocopier for a "light massage cavern" and unintentionally photocopies his entire body while getting the "light massage."
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • In the pilot, Red misplaces one of her hair ribbons after a rockslide in the Crevice of Solitude. The ribbon turns up again in episode 8 revealing to the Fraggle Five that their actions led to the Craggles' drought crisis.
  • Some of the Outer Space artifacts Traveling Matt sends back become these. In "The Legend of Icy Joe," he sends back what he believes is a sled (actually a cafeteria tray), which Wembley uses later to rescue Gobo and Icy Joe.
• Christmas Episode: A special holiday episode, titled "Night of the Lights," premiered on Apple TV+ on November 18, 2022. This time, it also pays lip service to other holidays, with Traveling Matt observing Chanukah, Kwanzaa and Diwali celebrations as well as Christmas.
• Continuity Nod: The Doozer Tube communication system from the Fraggle Rock: Rock On! shorts is employed here.
• Creator Cameo: Some of the puppeteers are seen in a commercial for hair-care product in one of Traveling Matt's postcards.
• Creepy Good: The talking rocks in the Echo Chamber. They look and sound eerie and sinister, but they're actually benevolent.
• Composite Character: The Craggles of Craggle Lagoon share traits with both the Cave Fraggles from "Fraggle Wars", being drably coloured Fraggle look-alikes who don't share the main cast's love of games and loud noises, and also seem to have inherited the ability to share each other's dreams from the original show's Fraggles, who used the ability in "Boober's Dream".
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Icy Joe, who turns out to have acquired that nickname not for her daring explorations of icy regions, but for her harsh, unfriendly personality. She begins thawing out at the end of her debut episode, noting that "personal growth is exhausting."
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Ma and Pa Gorg don't get a whole lot of attention here, and are rarely seen leaving the castle. Pa does have a bit of plot relevance, as he's the one who orders most of the bad stuff Junior does in the series, and it's Junior finally standing up to him and disobeying his orders that proves to be the key to the final solution to everyone's problems in the season finale — but he doesn't get much screentime and only appears in a few episodes. Ma gets even less attention; her appearances are essentially just cameos. They both get more prominent roles in season 2.
  • The Craggles and Merggles play important roles in season 1, but only show up for cameos in season 2.
• Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes:
  • The Craggles all sport these to emphasize their low-energy, sleepy nature. However, in the dream world they lose this look and appear wide-eyed and energetic.
  • Mokey still has them, although they're somewhat toned down in her updated design.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Traveling Matt, as much as ever, regarding the world of the Silly Creatures. Surprisingly often though, it leads to him giving Gobo some genuinely good advice and being Right for the Wrong Reasons.
• Epic Fail: Wembley and the fire brigade put out a fire that turned out not to be a fire but Boober making soup. It's the sort of mistake that other fictional firefighters have made before... but in this instance it was a cold soup. Boober is understandably exasperated.
• Epic Tracking Shot: At the end of the first episode, the camera moves out of Fraggle Rock, into what Fraggles call Outer Space... then further out, into what we call Outer Space, as in orbit, before speeding back down to begin the intro reprise.
• Expy: Jamdolin is a pretty obvious one for original series character Cantus the Minstrel, down to even his basic puppet design, but not to the point where it feels disrespectful to Jim Henson, who performed Cantus in the original show. Jack Hammer is also somewhat of an Expy of Convincing John in terms of personality, although he's a Doozer rather than a Fraggle.
• Flanderization: Traveling Matt as opposed to his character in the original series. While he was always an Unreliable Narrator, more than a little self-absorbed and prone to Comically Missing the Point, he did make the occasional (painful) contact with reality. Here, he's a total Cloudcuckoolander who's convinced everyone in the world adores him even when people are yelling at him to get lost, and he's seriously stepped up his bragging game when it comes to his own skill and bravery. He'd come across as a compulsive liar if it wasn't so clear that he totally believes his own words.
• Gender-Blender Name: The legendary Icy Joe is a female Fraggle, despite the masculine name. Unlike many examples of the trope, this isn't played for laughs — or even really commented on.
• Gender Flip:
  • The original Doc was an elderly man. In this series, "Doc" has undergone this, along with a Race Lift and an Age Lift, and is now a young Black woman who is studying for her doctorate (played by musical theatre star Lilli Cooper). She refers to herself in the pilot episode as "Doctor Doc," and the Muppet Wiki calls her that to distinguish her from Gerry Parkes' Doc.
  • Henchy (the World's Oldest Fraggle's assistant) was male in the original show, but female here.
  • A more vague example with Turbo Doozer, who was male in the original show, but in this show is played by non-binary actor Ali J Eisner, who gives the character a voice that sounds somewhere between female and boyish. After some confusion, Eisner confirmed in a June 2023 Tough Pigs interview that the character was written to be female, but ended up effectively non-binary in practice, as the crew basically started referring to them by every pronoun after Ali was cast.
  • Doc's landlady Mrs Schimmelfinney is the counterpart to the original Doc's friend Ned Schimmelfinney. Unlike Ned, however, we actually get to hear her voice this time.
• Hiccup Hijinks: All the Merggles, merfolk versions of the Fraggles, are all stuck with uncontrollable hiccups as a result of the polluted water in Fraggle Rock. Gobo, Boober and Wembley all try to scare the hiccups out of them, but they end up being terrible at it. In the end, an accident causes them to crash into each other, making the Merggles laugh and cure their hiccups. At that moment, Wembley then hiccups, and the others look at him in horror, but it turns out it was just a one-time.
  • Boober fears this happening to him when he gives his New Day's Day address in "The Flight of the Flutterflies." In an Imagine Spot, he imagines himself getting full-body hiccups as a result of drinking a radish shake too fast, rendering him unable to open the Flutterfly Box and making the other Fraggles mad at him.
• Humiliation Conga: Boober imagines this happening to him when he gives the New Day's Day address - specifically, he imagines tripping and falling on his face, landing in a patch of flowers that make him break out in a rash, and getting a violent case of full-body hiccups from drinking a Radish Shake too fast. It's enough to make even the normally chill Mokey lose her temper and snap at Boober for always thinking of the worst case scenario.
• "I Am" Song: The first episode opens with the song "Party Down in Fraggle Rock," in which each of the Fraggle Five gets an establising character line:
  Red: I'm always twirling, diving -- let's get going!
  Mokey: I always keep it Zen; stay in the moment!
  Gobo: I'm an adventurer, I lead the crowd!
  Boober: I'd rather do laundry.
  Wembley: I love my friends! I'll say it loud!
• I Ate WHAT?!: As Doc sits down to write her research paper, Sprocket hands her a snack. After she takes a bite, she realizes it's a doggie treat, and Sprocket eagerly devours the rest.
• Interspecies Romance: The World's Oldest Fraggle apparently has been romancing the Queen of the Merggles.
• Ironic Echo: In "The Legend of Icy Joe," when Mokey tries to keep Red from losing her temper over Icy Joe taking over their cave.
  Red: Excuse me, just WHAT do you think you're d—
  Mokey: [clapping hand over Red's mouth] Don't explode. Keep breathing through difficult situations, right? Yeah? Yeah, watch. [sweetly] Hello, Icy Joe! Sunshine to you! Um, just a point of clarity, this is actually our cave, and that's Red's bed you're sprinkling with soil.
  Icy Joe: Ooh, blah, blah, blah. Icy Joe was here long before any of you...
  Mokey: Well...
  Icy Joe: ...So this is MY cave. Thanks for keeping it warm, Dookie. [snickers]
  Mokey: [losing temper] I'll keep you WARM, all right!!!
  Red: [clapping hand over Mokey's mouth] "Breathe deeply into difficult situations," remember?
• It Will Never Catch On: During the First Frost, Red advocates playing "a new kind of rock hockey, but instead of greaseberry leaves we slide on ice!" Gobo immediately dismisses the idea, claiming (in his trademark Canadian accent, no less) that hockey on ice will never work.
• Lampshade Hanging: The Fraggles have always called the human world "Outer Space", however, the intro hangs a lampshade on that by beginning in orbit, as in what we call Outer Space.
• Long-Runner Tech Marches On: The Doozers. In the original, they just built scaffolding and other basic constructions out of extruded radishes. Following on from Fraggle Rock Rock On, where they invented the antenna they were transmitting with, the modern Doozers have, among other things, a fully functional hydro-electric power plant!
• Me's a Crowd: Wembley splits into four Wembleys (none of whom can be seen or heard by his friends) in "Four Wembleys and a Birthday," as a result of trying to please Gobo, Red, Mokey and Boober who each want to celebrate Wembley's birthday a different way.
• Mistaken for Romance: Jamdolin mistakes Boober and Mokey for a couple when he sees the two embracing and Mokey leaning her head on Boober's shoulder after his New Day's Day address.
  Jamdolin: Sorry. You two were having a moment. [Boober and Mokey stammer, embarrassed] I see that now. Carry on. [leaves] That was awkward.
• Musical Nod: Every episode features a new performance of an existing Fraggle song, in addition to one original song written for this series. Also, obviously...
  Dance Your Cares Away, Worry's For Another Day...
• Mythology Gag: This series is full of them, which are sure to instantly ring a bell for any fan of the original show. A few examples:
  • The intro begins with the camera descending, from outer space, to look through the window of Doc's workshop, with an ascending whine sound. A version of this, using a aerial shot of the lighthouse, was originally only used in the British version of the original series.
  • In one of the episodes, the Wise Council of Fraggle's biggest concern is when to have lunch. This is a reference to the early development of the original show, where the creative team pitched this one of the Fraggles' main concerns in life.
  • The Doozer constructions heavily rely on hexagonal pieces, something Cotterpin Doozer proposed in "All Work and All Play."
  • Icy Joe at one point calls Wembley "Wilfred," which was the name he temporarily took for himself in "The Secret of Convincing John."
  • Doc and Sprocket's landlord's name is Mrs. Shimmelfinney, and the mention of her name evokes gagging noises from Sprocket.
• Named by the Adaptation: The lizard-like creature that was reincarnated from Mudwell in "Gone, But Not Forgotten" makes a return in "Four Wembleys and a Birthday," and it's revealed his name is Mr. Grizzard.
• Never Bareheaded: Seems to be a bit of a fashion statement for the Craggles — while you do see the occasional bareheaded Craggle, the vast majority of them always wear hats. Pretty nice hats at that, too.
• Pie in the Face: Boober becomes the victim of this in "Deep Dive," due to Wembley slipping on a greaseberry leaf. Just as in "Fraggle Wars" in the original series, it helps solve a major problem by inciting laughter.
• Plot Allergy: In "Night of the Lights," it's established that Doc is away visiting her grandmother, who is allergic to dogs, for the holidays; thus, Sprocket has to stay behind under the care of Mrs. Shimmelfinney.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Travelling Matt, surprisingly often and especially compared to the original series, tends to draw very sound conclusions from his adventures in Outer Space — after having misunderstood absolutely everything that happened along the way,
• Rhymes on a Dime: Jamdolin speaks mostly in rhyme.
• Sarcasm Failure: In the first episode, Gobo becomes upset when Traveling Matt tells him that being an explorer isn't for everyone after witnessing his fear of Sprocket outside the Fraggle hole, and wants to prove that he can be as brave as his uncle. Red sarcastically suggests going to the dangerous Crevice of Solitude (where Uncle Matt had misplaced his backpack), which Gobo takes as a genuinely good idea, much to her shock.
• Sequel Hook: The final shot of the season finale reveals that the camera Travelling Matt brought from Doc's workshop is still connected to her laptop, and is filming the Fraggles... and the live footage is appearing on Doc's laptop.
• Shared Dream: The series gives this ability to the separate-but-very-similar Craggle species instead of the Fraggles. Craggles spend more time sharing their dreams while asleep than being awake, and in said dreams are far more energetic than their sleepy awakened selves.
• Sleepyhead: The Craggles. The Fraggles initially take the Craggles' constant yawning as a sign that they're bored, but it turns out they're just tired. Craggles spend most of their time asleep and their stay at Fraggle Rock has them awake for longer periods of time than they're used to.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Doc and Sprocket somehow manage to engage in this on occasion, even though Sprocket can't actually talk.
• Split-Personality Switch Trigger: In "Four Wembleys and a Birthday," Wembley's attempts to be at his friends' different birthday activities causes him to physical separate into four versions of himself.
• Stylistic Suck: Doc, making a KoolClips video about the dangers of microplastics, is concerned when her video doesn't get any views — and so she makes a new "w-w-w-w-wacky" video, using all the attention-grabbing tricks she can think of to get people to like, share and subscribe. The result is a loud, obnoxious and barely comprehensible mess with garishly superimposed letters on the screen, disturbing sound and image filters, and no less than twelve jarring scene transitions in fifteen seconds.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Jamdolin the Troubadour, who physically resembles and plays the same role as Cantus the Minstrel — though he's far more energetic and less serene, with a bit of a Beatnik vibe that Cantus didn't really have.
  • Jack Hammer the Doozer also seems to be one for Convincing John, as well.
• Tempting Fate: In "Night of the Lights," when the Fraggles get separated from the World's Oldest Fraggle in the cave.
  Jamdolin: That's an interesting development.
  Wembley: That's one way to put it!
  Gobo: Oh, don't worry, Wembley. We'll find him. It's not like we're lost out here in the dark. Besides, we still have our Glow Grapes.
  [Two Num-Num Birds appear and, despite the Fraggles' protests, grab the Glow Grapes out of Gobo's and Wembley's hands and devour them, plunging the Fraggles into darkness.]
  Num-Num Birds: Sorry! We're very hungry this time of year!
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Downplayed with Pogey — the other Fraggles don't seem to mind them as such but tend to find their cluelessness wearisome, especially Red.
• Those Two Guys: Wrench and Turbo Doozer have this dynamic in the show.
• True Companions:
  • The Fraggle Five, especially in the first episode. Near the start, Wembley can't make up his mind on whether to use a short, red ribbon or a long, blue ribbon as decorations for Uncle Traveling Matt's homecoming party. Wembley eventually begins wembling, and his friends' first instinct is for Gobo and Red to grab Wembley's feet and hang him upside down, while Mokey crouches down and helps Wembley with breathing. Later, when Traveling Matt concludes upon seeing Gobo's scared reaction to Sprocket that he (Gobo) isn't ready to be a brave explorer like him (leaving Gobo disappointed), Red, Wembley, Mokey and Boober are briefly seen trying to console him. Then, when Gobo decides to prove his bravery to his Uncle Matt by venturing into the Crevice of Solitude to retrieve Matt's missing backpack (an idea accidentally suggested by Red), his friends talk him into letting them come with him. At the end, their companionship is rewarded when Gobo refuses to come along with Uncle Matt into Outer Space in favor of staying in Fraggle Rock with his friends (as a compromise, Matt promises to send postcards and artifacts back to Fraggle Rock for Gobo to retrieve).
  • Doc and Sprocket were already this in the original series, but in the reboot, it's made more evident. In the original series, Doc's absent-mindedness often caused him to forget to care for his dog and Sprocket was often left to fend for himself regarding food and water. There's less of that here, as Sprocket is cast less as a pet and more as a best friend who just happens to be of a different species.
• Unreliable Narrator: As usual, Traveling Matt's postcards to Gobo are entirely contradictory to what is actually going on Outer Space. Though, as was in the original series, his explanations make a sort of sense in Fraggle terms; just not in human ones.
• Wolves Always Howl at the Moon: Just as in "Capture The Moon", Sprocket is shown to do this when there's a full moon out. Only this time instead of trying to get him to stop, Doc joins him... much to the dismay of Mrs. Shimmelfinney, their landlord.
• Wrongfully Attributed: The song "Fraggle Rock Rock," performed by Foo Fighters in their guest appearance, was wrongly reported by some sources (including Rolling Stone) as an original song by the band. The song was written for the 1983 series by Philip Balsam and Dennis Lee and was featured in the Season 1 episode "Wembley And The Gorgs." All Dave Grohl did was give it a new arrangement, reworking it from a 1950s rockabilly-inspired piece into something more modern and alternative.
• You All Share My Story: The season's most salient theme is the interconnectedness of all things. As in the original Fraggle Rock, the Fraggles, Doozers, Gorgs, and even the Outer Space characters are inextricably linked, even if they don't realize it at first. The only way to stop the spiraling crises facing their world is for the various creatures to come together and learn from each other.