Farscape

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utterly insane Aussie sci-fi

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Farscape was a science fiction television series produced in Australia by the Jim Henson Company with the backing of U.S. cable broadcaster the Sci Fi Channel.

Originally conceived in the early 1990s by Rockne S. O'Bannon, Brian Henson and writer/executive producer David Kemper under the title Space Chase, the show centers on present day American astronaut John Crichton (played by American actor Ben Browder), who has found himself flung through a wormhole to a distant part of the galaxy, where he is constantly caught in the middle of conflicts between planets, empires, and the incompatible personalities of the escaped prisoners with whom he has taken refuge.

Farscape was one of a new generation of popular science fiction television shows in which the main concerns are surviving in a hostile, chaotic universe and dealing with interpersonal conflicts, instead of exploration, warfare or law enforcement.

Henson has traditionally specialized in puppetry (see Muppets), and Farscape is no exception. Two main characters are animatronic puppets: the miniature deposed Dominar Rygel XVI of Hyneria (voiced by Jonathan Hardy) and the ship's Pilot (voiced by Lani Tupu), a multi-armed elephant-size creature physically and mentally bonded to the living Leviathan ship, Moya.

In 2000 and 2001, Farscape won two Saturn Awards for Best Syndicated/Cable TV Series and Best TV Actor (Browder). In 2002, Farscape won two Saturn Awards for Best Syndicated/Cable TV Series and Best TV Actor (Browder), as well as receiving nominations for Best TV Actress (Claudia Black as former-soldier Aeryn Sun) and Best Supporting TV Actress (Gigi Edgley as the pixieish rogue Chiana). Farscape had already completed production of its fourth season, with a fifth season contracted, when it was abruptly cancelled, effectively ending the series on a cliffhanger.

In September 2002, the Sci Fi Channel, which was then owned by ailing conglomerate Vivendi, unexpectedly opted to withdraw its funding of the fifth season, cancelling the popular, critically-acclaimed show. Fans mounted a massive letter, phone, e-mail, and advertisement campaign hoping to either pressure Sci-Fi into restoring the show or convince another, more financially solvent, network to take over the series.

Early plans to have the sets scrapped after production of the fourth season wrapped and news of the cancellation broke were quickly reversed, partly as a result of the immense fan campaign; the sets were instead put in storage pending future decisions.

In 2003/2004, The Jim Henson Company produced a mini-series to wrap up most but not all of the plot threads dangling at the cancellation of the regular TV series. The four-hour Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars aired on the SciFi Channel in October of 2004.

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Season One

"My name is John Crichton, an astronaut. A radiation wave hit and I got shot through a wormhole. Lost in some distant part of the universe on a ship, a living ship, full of strange alien life forms. Help me. Listen, please. Is there anybody out there who can hear me? Being hunted... by an insane military commander. Doing everything I can. I'm just looking for a way home."

John Crichton was an IASA astronaut working on the experimental Farscape project. During the Farscape-1 test flight, a wormhole appeared, shooting John into the far side of the galaxy. Finding himself in the middle of a skirmish, he was captured and brought aboard the Leviathan Moya, a living ship.

Onboard were Ka D'Argo, Dominar Rygel XVI, and Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan. The three prisoners had taken control of Moya and were in the middle of an escape. Eventually, the prisoners managed to remove Moya's Control collar and Starbursted away from the battle. Officer Aeryn Sun's Prowler was caught up in the Starburst and taken aboard soon after Crichton's arrival.

As a result of her contact with the prisoners, Aeryn's commanding officer Captain Crais declared her "irreversibly contaminated". Having nowhere else to go, both she and John joined the unlikely band of allies.

Captain Crais' brother was killed in a collision with Crichton's Farscape module during the first few seconds after arriving through the wormhole. Motivated by revenge, Crais pursued Moya through the Uncharted Territories. The crew soon encountered the fugitive Chiana, who became the newest member of their crew. Also, as a result of D'Argo breaking a shield set up by the Peace Keepers, Moya became pregnant.

John Crichton came into contact with a mysterious race known as the Ancients. They implanted the equations and a sort of "sixth-sense" for wormhole travel in his subconscious mind. Not knowing of the existence of this knowledge in his mind, Crichton attempted to embrace his new life aboard Moya, but was captured by the Sebacean-Scarran hybrid Scorpius. Scorpius discovered the wormhole knowledge, and implanted a neurochip to attempt to unlock it for use in his wormhole weapons project.

With the assistance of Chiana, Moya gave birth to Talyn (a prototype Leviathan Hybrid Gunship). The crew helped Crichton and fellow prisoner Stark escape from Scorpius' clutches, and after Crais' command was overthrown, the ex-captain joined them, only to leave soon after with Talyn.

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Season Two

Not only trying to survive in the Uncharted Territories, the crew of Moya must now concern themselves with eluding Scorpius, discovering the truth about the Ancients, and tracking down the renegade Crais and Talyn.

As their journeys continued, D'Argo and Chiana grew closer and soon fell in love, while at the same time, Crichton and Aeryn battle their own complicated attraction towards each other. The crew came into contact for the first time with the ruthless Scarrans, a cruel and power-hungry race, who soon learn of Scorpius' interest in Crichton.

D'Argo discovered that his son Jothee is a slave, and the crew is divided. Do they go in search of Talyn? Do they try to rescue Jothee? Do they turn tail and try to get as far away from Scorpius as they can?

Stark returned to Moya with a plan to rescue D'Argo's son, as well as a substantial number of his own people from slavers. They will rob a bank. Things go from bad to worse, resulting in Crichton giving himself to Scorpius, trading himself for Jothee, and the crew's stolen cargo turning into ship-eating 'spiders', and as a final resort, the crew has to burn Moya to destroy them.

After another narrow escape, Crichton realised that Scorpius' chip had been the cause of various and frequent hallucinations he had been experiencing. Seeking out a Diagnosan to remove it, the crew landed on an ice planet where living subjects, frozen near death were held in stasis to be used as organ donors. The neural clone 'posessed' Crichton, and killed Aeryn. After Aeryn's funeral, Scorpius reclaimed the chip and then left Crichton alive, the speech centers of his brain destroyed, condemned to suffer mutely as payback for all the trouble he caused.

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Season Three

The appropriately titled season opener told fans everything they needed to know about what was to come in Farscape's successful third season: Season Of Death.

Crichton is healed by the Diagnosan who miraculously survived Scorpius' attack, but all is not well. Zhaan used her spiritual energies to bring Aeryn back from the edge of death - the former Peacekeeper having been frozen in stasis before her time. This revival left Zhaan incredibly weak and dying. In her grief, Chiana began an affair with Jothee behind D'Argo's back and after an attack on the medical facility, the crew escape aboard Moya, with several frozen 'donors' in tow.

The crew tried desperatey to find a planet where Zhaan could heal and replenish her energies but they were too late, and an accident involving a wormhole and Moya's Starburst rendered the living ship fused with another. Zhaan sacrificed her own life to save Moya's and for her crew from the wormhole that would have torn them apart.

Joolushko Tunai Fenta Hovalis, known to her friends by her full name, and nick-named 'Jool' by the crew, awoke from stasis and joined the crew after Zhaan's death. Chiana's and Jothee's actions severed all relationships betweens themselves and D'Argo. Jothee fled. Then, during an encounter with a dying Leviathan, Crichton was twinned, cloned — split into two completely identical Crichtons.

Crais and Talyn reappeared, being pursued by Peacekeepers and resulting in the crew having to split up; Crais, Aeryn, Rygel, Stark and one of the Crichtons escaped aboard Talyn, leaving D'Argo, Chiana, Jool, and the remaining Crichton aboard Moya.

Missing Aeryn, Moya's Crichton plunged into the wormhole studies that could get him home. Meanwhile, Aeryn and the other Crichton began a trusting, passionate relationship aboard Talyn. Her heart was broken when he gave his life to keep wormhole technology out of the claws of the Scarrans.

Reuniting, the crew's relationships were stressed, but they found a semblance of unity in a new goal: aiding Crichton to end Scorpius' wormhole research. Scorpius granted them safe passage aboard his Command Carrier while Crichton continued his research. Crais and Talyn sacrificed their lives to blow up the ship, destroying both the wormhole technology research and Scorpius' career.

After Moya carried Talyn's remains to a Sacred Leviathan Burial Space, the crew splintered, pulled apart by the currents of their differing goals. Crichton, alone without Aeryn and drifting in his Farscape Module, witnessed the others' departures from Moya. He had lost his home, he had lost his friends, and now he had lost Aeryn. An unexpected, random wormhole opened up and swallowed Moya whole, leaving Crichton stranded and alone.

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Season Four

Alone on a dying Leviathan, Crichton is working on unlocking the knowledge in his head and the mystery of the wormhole when his peace is interrupted by the Kalish girl Sikozu. Together, and soon joined by Chiana and Rygel, they find themselves fighting for their lives and soon arrive on Arnessk to be greeted by D'Argo and Jool.

Reunited, but with the absence of Aeryn, Jool decided to stay behind. The monks awakened on the planet after hundreds of years of sleep needed her talents more than her friends did and so she said goodbye.

Aeryn returned, and along with Sikozu, Noranti and Scorpius, their adventures continued. Crichton's knowledge was desired by both the Peacekeepers and the Scarrens, and both sides were growing impatient. The crew quickly realised that neither side could ever posess the knowledge in Crichton's brain. If it fell into the wrong hands it would mean death and destruction.

Crichton's work opened up a wormhole to Earth, and his new friends - his family, were introduced to an unsuspecting planet. They knew Earth was a target, and the human race had to be prepared. Giving all the help he could, Crichton made the decision to return with Moya and the others. Earth was not yet ready, but maybe he could still help...

Finally, after Scorpius and Sikozu left together, returning to the Peacekeepers, the crew retired for a much deserved vacation. Taking refuge on a water planet, Moya and her inhabitants could rest. Alone on a boat, Aeryn accepted John's proposal, but their happiness was cut short when they were crystallised by unknown split-faced beings... To be continued...

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Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars (miniseries)

Production of a four-hour miniseries began in December 2003, written by creator Rockne S. O'Bannon and Executive Producer David Kemper and directed by Brian Henson.

In May 2004, the Sci Fi Channel, now owned by NBC Universal, announced that it would run a two-episode conclusion titled Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars that was intended to wrap up the Season Four cliffhanger and additionally tie up some general elements of the series. The miniseries first aired on Sunday October 17 2004.

Interestingly, Henson refers to the four hours as episodes 4.23-4.26, though the New South Wales Film Office refers to the production as a '2 x 2 h. Telemovie'. Production of the miniseries ended in March 2004 and, in addition to the announced airing on the Sci Fi Channel in the U.S., was also scheduled to be broadcast in the UK on Sky One on January 16 and 23, 2005 and by a (currently unnamed) terrestrial broadcaster after that.

The miniseries was not shown on BBC Two, as the BBC decided the acquisition cost would be too high. On July 14, 2005, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars received an Emmy Nomination for "Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special."


Early fan speculation hoped that high Nielsen Ratings for The Peacekeeper Wars miniseries would prove the viability of renewing the series. Any continuation as a new weekly series seems unlikely, though miniseries' are possible, as are feature films. Brian Henson has stated on many occasions that he would like to bring the Farscape saga to the big screen. Fan efforts are now pointed in that direction. In October 2005, Farscape entered syndication in the US, airing on Superstation WGN and on a variety of local cable, satellite and broadcast affiliates.

he miniseries has been released on DVD in the US by Lions Gate Films and in the UK by Contender, and is available in many retail outlets and online. The US version features both parts on one disc, edited together to make it a three-hour movie while the UK version is a two-disc set with one episode per disc. Both versions contain a making-of documentary, and only the UK version has deleted scenes.