60 Fun Facts About Farscape

Who conceived Farscape?

Rockne S. O'Bannon created Farscape, first pitching the idea in the early 1990s; he had earlier written the 1988 science-fiction film Alien Nation.

Which puppetry studio co-produced Farscape and built its aliens?

The Jim Henson Company co-produced Farscape and its Creature Shop built the aliens; two regulars, Rygel and Pilot, were entirely animatronic puppets.

Farscape was originally made for which Australian broadcaster?

Farscape was made for Australia's Nine Network and shot in Sydney, which is why almost the whole cast apart from Ben Browder came from Australia and New Zealand.

On which US cable network did Farscape premiere?

Farscape premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel as part of its Friday-night line-up, though the channel's later scheduling of the show became notoriously erratic.

In what year did Farscape premiere?

Farscape premiered in 1999 and ran four seasons; the final regular episode aired in March 2003, almost exactly four years later.

How many episodes of Farscape were made across its four seasons?

Farscape made 88 episodes, 22 in each of its four seasons, before a 2004 miniseries added a coda to the story.

What is the name of the astronaut hero played by Ben Browder?

John Crichton is the only human among Moya's crew, dropped into a galaxy where nobody gets his pop-culture references.

What was the name of the experimental spacecraft of Crichton's own design?

Crichton's module Farscape I was built to test a slingshot manoeuvre; it flew into a wormhole near Earth and emerged in the middle of a Peacekeeper battle.

Which space agency employed Crichton?

IASA, the fictional International Aeronautics and Space Administration, stood in for NASA as Crichton's employer.

Crichton's father, also an astronaut, is called what?

He was the middle child of Jack and Leslie Crichton, and his father's legacy shadows him throughout the series.

What kind of vessel is Moya, the ship the crew live aboard?

Moya is a Leviathan, a living biomechanoid ship bred for peace; she carries no weapons at all and relies on a fast-escape manoeuvre to flee.

What is the name of Moya's fast-escape manoeuvre through a tear in space-time?

Starburst lets Moya rip open a tear in space-time and leap a vast distance; Aeryn's fighter was caught in the first one, stranding her with the escapees.

What do the initials DRD stand for on Moya?

DRD stands for Diagnostic Repair Drone; the little beetle-like robots are grown by the ship herself as she matures.

Moya's offspring, a gunship that Aeryn named after her father, is called what?

Talyn, a gunship born to Moya with Peacekeeper weaponry bred in, arrived 'covered with weapons' unlike his pacifist mother, and took the name of Aeryn's father.

Aeryn Sun looks human but belongs to which species?

Sebaceans cannot regulate body heat, so heat delirium is a recurring danger for her.

Who played Aeryn Sun?

Claudia Black played Aeryn Sun, the Peacekeeper pilot stranded with Moya's escapees; she later voiced Chloe Frazer in the Uncharted video games.

What type of one-person Peacekeeper fighter did Aeryn fly?

Her Prowler was towed along in Moya's starburst, stranding her with the fugitives she had been sent to recapture.

Ka D'Argo belongs to which warrior species?

D'Argo is a Luxan; Anthony Simcoe spent hours in prosthetics to play the warrior, who is prone to the species' hyper-rage.

D'Argo's heavy broadsword can transform into what?

The Qualta Blade doubles as the Qualta Rifle, and it turns up as a plot point again and again.

D'Argo was falsely convicted of killing whom?

D'Argo was framed for the murder of his wife Lo'Laan, who was actually killed by her own brother Macton; the Peacekeepers chained him with hooks set around his collarbones.

What is the name of D'Argo's long-lost son?

Jothee, D'Argo's son, was sold into slavery as a boy; the search for him drove D'Argo through the first two seasons.

Zhaan, the blue-skinned priestess, belongs to which plant species?

Zhaan is a Delvian, a sentient plant species; she draws energy from sunlight, and solar flares give her intense 'photogasms' in the episode Till the Blood Runs Clear.

Zhaan was imprisoned for assassinating which person?

Zhaan's lover Bitaal led her world and refused to give up power at the end of his term; she killed him, was jailed, and her guilt shaped her spiritual path.

Why did Virginia Hey leave Farscape?

Virginia Hey left over health problems from the make-up and schedule: the daily full-body paint and long days made her ill; Zhaan was given a hero's exit saving Moya and her crew.

Rygel XVI was once the ruler, or Dominar, of which empire?

Rygel XVI was Dominar of the Hynerian Empire, ruling over 600 billion subjects by his own account, before he was deposed and spent the series scheming to regain his throne.

Which relative overthrew Rygel?

Rygel's greed and self-interest were played for laughs, but the deposed monarch had genuine steel underneath.

What gas does Rygel emit when he gets nervous, in a recurring gag?

Rygel passes helium when nervous, a trait of his species, and everyone in earshot ends up talking in a squeaky voice.

Chiana, the grey-skinned thief, belongs to which race?

Chiana is a Nebari; her homeworld is run by a rigid government called The Establishment, which mind-cleanses dissidents, and she fled it.

Who played Chiana?

Edgley's twitchy, head-tilting physicality made Chiana one of the show's most imitated performances.

After an encounter with an Energy Rider in season 3, what ability did Chiana develop?

Chiana gained brief precognitive visions after the Energy Rider incident in Losing Time; each use came at a cost, leaving her temporarily blind.

Lani Tupu, who voiced Pilot, also appeared on screen as which character?

Lani Tupu played Captain Bialar Crais, the Peacekeeper pursuing Moya through season 1, while also voicing the ship's gentle four-armed Pilot.

Which Peacekeeper technician bonded Pilot to Moya, as shown in The Way We Weren't?

Velorek, a Peacekeeper technician, grafted the young Pilot onto Moya after the original Pilot was shot dead; Aeryn, then a Peacekeeper, was among the shooters.

Scorpius is a hybrid of a Peacekeeper-race mother and a male of which reptilian race?

His Scarran half makes him run dangerously hot, hence the cooling rods in his skull.

Who played Scorpius?

Pygram also played the neural clone that lived inside Crichton's head.

What name did Crichton give the neural clone of Scorpius living in his head?

The nod is to the Mary Chase play Harvey, about a man whose best friend is an invisible six-foot rabbit.

The neural clone in Crichton's head first appeared in which episode?

The clone first surfaced in Crackers Don't Matter, taunting Crichton in a Hawaiian shirt, and stuck around all the way into the 2004 miniseries.

What device did Scorpius use in his attempt to rip the wormhole knowledge out of Crichton's mind?

Scorpius strapped Crichton into the Aurora Chair, which replays memories painfully; when it failed he implanted a neural chip instead, which is where the clone came from.

Which mysterious race hid a repository of wormhole knowledge in Crichton's brain?

The Ancients planted the wormhole knowledge in Crichton's mind in the season-1 episode A Human Reaction, and every faction in the galaxy spent the rest of the series chasing it.

Stark, the masked, half-mad crewmate, is a Stykera, a subrace of which people?

Stark is a Banik, a slave race, and a Stykera among them, able to ease the suffering of the dying, which the show used to devastating effect.

What happens when Jool, the Interion, is frightened?

Tammy MacIntosh played the pampered academic who joined in season 3.

Sikozu, who can walk on walls by shifting her centre of gravity, is which species?

Sikozu is a Kalish, played by Raelee Hill; her species can reattach severed limbs, which she demonstrates in season 4.

How old is Noranti, the 'Old Woman' who joined at the end of season 3?

Noranti, Melissa Jaffer's Traskan healer and cook, gives her age as 293 cycles; she seemed slightly senile but was usually several steps ahead.

What is the substance from an implanted gland that Commandant Grayza uses to control men?

Heppel oil, secreted by a gland implanted in her chest, let Rebecca Riggs's Grayza bend men to her will; she used it on Crichton early in season 4.

Which of these is a Farscape swear word used in place of English expletives?

Frell stood in for the F-word, alongside 'dren' and 'hezmana', letting the show curse freely on cable.

How many seasons had Farscape been planned to run before its cancellation?

Farscape was planned as a five-season story; its US network cancelled it in September 2002, as season 4 was finishing, leaving the story on a cliffhanger.

Roughly how much did each episode of Farscape cost to make?

Each episode cost more than $1 million, around $1.5 million by most accounts, and its US network judged the show too expensive to renew once ratings dipped in season 4.

Which company acquired Farscape's puppet-making co-producer in 2000, during the show's run?

EM.TV, a German media group, bought the puppet studio in 2000 for about $680 million; its financial collapse soon after was part of the backdrop to the show's funding troubles.

Which cartoonist devoted his syndicated comic strip to Farscape's cancellation?

Bill Amend of FoxTrot devoted a week of strips in 2002 to Farscape's cancellation, with the characters campaigning to save the show, and readers responded in huge numbers.

What was the title of the 2004 miniseries that finally wrapped up the story?

Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, a two-part miniseries shown over two nights in October 2004, resolved the cliffhanger ending of season 4.

Who directed the Farscape miniseries?

Brian Henson directed the miniseries himself, after the Henson family bought their company back from its German owner in 2003 and reclaimed the rights to the series.

For what did the 2004 miniseries earn a Primetime Emmy nomination?

The 2004 miniseries was nominated for the 2005 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie or Special, recognising effects done on a cable budget; it did not win.

How many Saturn Awards for Best Syndicated/Cable TV Series did Farscape win between 2000 and 2002?

Farscape won three Saturn Awards for Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series in a row, and Ben Browder added a Saturn for Best Actor on Television.

Where did TV Guide rank Farscape on its Top Cult Shows Ever list in 2004 and 2007?

TV Guide placed Farscape at No. 4 on its Top Cult Shows Ever list in both 2004 and 2007, behind only shows with far bigger audiences.

Ben Browder and the actress who played Aeryn were later regulars on which other sci-fi show?

Browder played Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell, the new commanding officer of SG-1, in its last two seasons.

Which director has credited Farscape as an inspiration for his Guardians of the Galaxy films?

James Gunn has cited Farscape as an influence on his Guardians of the Galaxy films, and he gave Ben Browder a cameo as a Sovereign admiral in Vol. 2.

Which UK channel carried Farscape?

BBC Two carried Farscape in the UK, while in Canada it ran on the youth channel YTV.

Where was Ben Browder born?

Ben Browder was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1962, grew up in Charlotte, and played football at Furman University before acting.

What is the title of the season 4 finale, which left the series on a cliffhanger?

Bad Timing aired on 21 March 2003, four years almost to the day after the pilot, and ended with Crichton and Aeryn crystallised by an alien weapon and 'To be continued...'.

Farscape's creator also created which undersea science-fiction series?

seaQuest DSV, the 1993 NBC undersea series produced with Steven Spielberg, came first; Farscape's creator later also created the series Defiance and Cult.

Under what working title was Farscape first conceived in the early 1990s?

Space Chase was the working title when the idea was pitched in 1993; it became Farscape when production got under way in Australia later in the decade.