Farscape is a sci fi series flung into a distant galaxy, a strange world that astronaut John Crichton has to find his new home! The show was created by Rockne S. O’Bannon who also created the film Alien Nation (1988) and the series, seaQuest DSV. Farscape was produced for Australia’s Nine Network and premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel in 1999. It lasted four season until its cancellation in 2003. Frell! Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars continued the story in mini-series form in 2004. OBannon expanded the Farscape story in comic book form by Boom Studios with a few mini-series and a series that last twenty four issues. The series was tweeted by James Gunn in 2017 to be inspirational for his Guardians of the Galaxy films. Farscape currently streams on Amazon Prime and available on November 21st as a Blu-Ray/DVD set with Farscape: The Complete Series - 25th Anniversary Edition!
“Premiere” (1999) is written by O’Bannon and directed by Andrew Prowse, a director who was known for the Australian police dramaC, Wildside. We see a sunrise at a launchpad which is watched by John Crichton (Ben Browder) in his Hawaiian shirt. Browder went ont to star as Cameron Mitchell in Stargate SG-1. He also appeared as th Sovereign Admiral in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). He is a bit sullen watching the space shuttle. At the IASA (International Aeronautics and Space Administration), his childhood friend, DK (Murray Bartlett) is excited about the launch in the locker room. Bartlett played Frank in the “Long, Long Time” episode of The Last of Us. DK (Douglas Knox) shows John the headline about childhood friends using the gravitational pull to accelerate the shuttle. John feels that there is something “big” that is about to happen.
DK notes that John’s father, Jack (Kent McCord), has arrived. McCord played Captain Troy in Galactica 1980 and appeared as Commander Scott Keller in seaQuest DSV. Jack checks on his son’s nerves and mentions he was nervous on his first EVA and walk on the moon. Crichton feels that he is in his father’s shadow. Jack says he will be his “own kind of hero.” The writing is sharp in this show. He gives his son the ring given to him by Yuri Gargarin, the first human in outer space. The engines of the shuttle, Collaroy, and booster rockets fire and we get some tense and spacy music by Subvision. Collaroy is a suburb of Sydney. The shuttle reaches orbit and a female reporter goes over the experiment. The shuttle’s bay door opens to release Farscape-1, Crichton’s ship that is white, snub with curved wings. The reporter notes that this might enable interstellar travel!
John reports to Canaveral with DK monitoring and Jack standing next to him. He starts the acceleration. Farscape-1’s engines have it slingshot around the Earth. DK suddenly tries to warn John that there is an electromagnetic wave! The scenario is like the accident that took another astronaut to a distant future in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Contact is lost and Farscape-1 is hurtled into the blue of a wormhole! Jack and DK can also watch at the loss of John. He is screaming as the ship is taken into the twisting tunnels that look almost like the gullet of a giant sea creature! Then, John is free of the wormhole, and tries to contact Canaveral. He sees asteroids floating by and realizes that he is not anywhere near Earth. Suddenly, three ships streak past him, Farscape-1 is drifting and then is clipped by another ship which explodes!
John then sees a massive, three pronged ship, Moya, and says, “That’s big.” The other ships are opening fire on Moya which is 650 meters long. John still tries to report to Canaveral as Farscape-1 is drawn into the cargo bay of the giant ship. John’s ship lands, a tiny robot, there are sparks and then a fire in the cockpit. John gets out and uses his fire extinguisher. John sees the robot, two pipe-like eyes and rounded, trilobyte body, a Diagnostic Repair Drone (DRD). He is led by a group of DRDs to the bridge. John sees two aliens at controls speaking in a garbled language. They are under attack by the other ships. Then, one (Anthony Simcoe) turns, horned brows and tattooed pointed chin, Ka D’Argo. Simcoe was the family fantasy movie, Nim’s Island (2008) and recently the historical drama mini-series, Darwin’s Brave New World.
The other is a blue-skinned female (Virginia Hey), this is Pau Zhaan.The Warrior Woman in The Road Warrior (1981) was played by Hey and in the sci fi show, Kosmos (2015), Hey played Diana Lord. I love the sudden introduction of strange aliens, the cantina aliens in Star Wars, and in a desperate situation. The tall alien lifts John by his neck and the DRD injects translator microbes through his boot. I like the translation, kinda like the Babel Fish in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but not as fun. He suddenly hears the woman tell John to answer the Luxan. D’Argo in a growling voice asks him about his ship. He throws John to the side and asks Pilot to give him control. A hologram of the wrinkled alien with a helmet, Pilot (voiced by Lani John Tupu), says that he can’t function with the control collar. Tupu was Laccone in the The Punisher (1989) and also starred in a 2019 episode of Preacher. The Jim Henson Creature Shop is able to create some fantastic aliens.
D’Argo begins tearing apart controls.Then, another alien, tiny and wizened, Dominar Rygel XVI (voiced by Jonathan Hardy) enters. Hardy played Labatouchee in Mad Max (1979) and was in the fantasy film, Wishbone (2006). He has checked the ship and found that they are headed to prison colony. John realizes that they are escaped prisoners! The ship is battered, but suddenly the control collar is free. Pilot, whom we see nestled in his console in a cavernous chamber, like a conductor wrapped up in chords. He is bonded to the ship and Pilot is her conduit to the passengers. D’Argo asks Pilot to go into starburst. A command is given to stop to the ships, Prowlers. Pilot warns the crew that they are going into starburst. Energy crackles between the three spikes of Moya. The energy, iriscentant fluid, starts to envelop the hull of the ship before it is lost in a flash of light!
The ships of the Peacekeeper fleet includes several Leviathans and a Carrier. On board a Carrier, Captain Crais (Tupu) is given the report by Lt. Teeg (Christine Stephen-Daly). The Prowlers have returned. The Hynerian royal, Rygel XVI, had the key codes freeing the prisoners. Crais is confident in his brother as a Prowler pilot. Teej shows him satellite visuals of the Farscape-1 and his brother’s Prowler striking it before crashing into an asteroid! She adds that another ship was lost in the Leviathan’s Starburst. Crais is obsessed with finding the pilot of the unknown ship! Moya leaves the Starburst and Pilot reports about the Prowler. The enemy ship spins towards the Leviathan. Rygel spits in John’s face, he is angry, and then D’Argo uses a prehensile tongue to knock him out! Later, Pa’u Zotah Zhaan introduces herself as a Delvian priest. She casually admits that she was imprisoned for leading anarchy on her homeworld.
Ka D’Argo says he had killied his commanding officer and tells Zhaan he is thirty cycles old. She says he is a boy and that as warrior and priest they might get their freedom. John gasps awake in a cell, sees Rygel, and realizes his clothes are missing. Rygel says his cousin, Bishar, disposed him when he was sleeping! John’s clothes were removed so he could be examined and he is able to find his clothes and get dressed. Rygel tells John that he can’t be trusted and points out the other prisoner. It is a Prowler pilot in a black suit! The pilot stands up and takes off the helmet. This is a human looking Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black). An earlier role, Sharon Montgomery in the sci fi film, Pitch Black (2000) starred Black and recently she was Klothow, a Great Mother, in Ahsoka. John tries to introduce himself, but Aeryn bashes him down and asks for his rank and regiment. John says he is a scientist. Not exactly a Meet Cute moment.
John tires to explain that he is from Earth. Rygel is able to unlock their personal belongings and takes his royal ring. Zhaan and D’Argo reach the cell and free them for a meal. Lt. Teen shows Captain Crais the image of the pilot, John, and says he is a Sebacean. John is led by Zhaan who explains that Moya is a living ship. Pilot tells D’Argo that his damage to the controls has slowed the ship with the loss of iriscentant fluid. Aeryn eats the meal and slips in utensil into her sleeve. Zhaan tells them that they are approaching a commerce planet. She asks Aeryn if there are Peacekeepers, but D’Argo says she is only infantry and only takes commands. Rygel farts and they find their voices are high pitched, it is helium! D’Argo knocks away the utensil from Aeryn she just pops a fruit into her mouth. On the planet, Rygel bargains for barrels of the fluid with a giant alien with split, toothed jaws.
John realizes that he was transported by a wormhole and shows Aeryn that he had taken one of the utensils. They walk down a corridor and she is unfamiliar with the word compassion. They leave in Aeryn’s Prowler to the planet. Teej informs Crais that Aeryn has escaped with the pilot of the “white pod.” A human caught up with a conflicted crew of aliens was an inspiration for James Gunn in creating the Guardians of the Galaxy which he mentioned in a 2017 tweet. It also has the small crew members trying to survive in a galaxy ruled by an oppressive force and they are on the run in the Uncharted Territories like Firefly. There are some of the crew and they are joined by others; the pale Nebari, Chiana (Gigi Edgley) and the half-masked Stark (Paul Goddard) in the first season. In the third season, the thief, Jool (Tammy MacIntosh) joins Moya's crew. They also face the true villain, Scorpius (Wayne Pygram) who looks vampiric and dresses in a black coolant suit. Farscape is fantastic sci fi world with creative aliens, humor, and the adventure of an astronaut who is truly a stranger in a strange land!
Five+ Leviathans out of Five!
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