Farscape

Farscape is an Australian-American science fiction television series, produced originally for the Nine Network. It premiered in the US on Sci-Fi Channel's SciFi Friday, 19 March 1999, at 8:00 pm EST as their anchor series. The series was conceived by Rockne S. O'Bannon and produced by The Jim Henson Company and Hallmark Entertainment. The Jim Henson Company was responsible for the various alien make-up and prosthetics, and two regular characters (the animatronic puppets Rygel and Pilot) are entirely Creature Shop creations. Although the series was planned for five seasons, it was abruptly cancelled after production had ended on its fourth season, ending the series on a cliffhanger. Co-producer Brian Henson later secured the rights to Farscape, paving the way for a three-hour miniseries to wrap up the cliffhanger, titled Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, which Henson directed. In 2007, it was announced that the creator was returning for a web-series but production has been repeatedly delayed. A comic book miniseries was released in December 2008 that was in continuity with both the series and the hoped-for webisodes. In 2019, Amazon Prime Video released a remaster of Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars. Overview Farscape features a diverse ensemble of characters who are initially escaping from corrupt authorities in the form of a militaristic organization called the Peacekeepers. The protagonists live inside a large bio-mechanical ship called Moya which is a living entity. In the first episode, they are joined by the main character, John Crichton (Ben Browder), a modern-day American astronaut who accidentally flies into a wormhole near Earth during an experimental space flight. On the same day, another stranger is picked up by Moya: a Peacekeeper named Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black). Despite his best intentions, Crichton makes enemies, the primary one being Scorpius. There are a few standalone plots, but the show gradually unfolds progressive story arcs, beginning with their recapture by the Peacekeepers, followed by Crichton's search to find another wormhole back to Earth, and an eventual arms race for wormhole technology weapons. Secondary arcs explore the way in which the characters change due to their influences and adventures together, most notably Crichton and his obsession with wormhole technology, his relationship with Aeryn, and the neural clone of Scorpius in his brain that haunts him.