Entertainment
This Beloved 4-Part Sci-Fi Epic Did the Genre Better Than Almost Anything Else
More than two decades after its debut, the beloved sci-fi television series Farscape still stands apart from nearly everything else in the genre. The grand space epic remains a beloved and enduring favorite thanks to its excellent cast, imaginative visual effects, and remarkable creature puppetry by The Jim Henson Company. However, what truly set Farscape apart were the charismatic performance of Ben Browder as John Crichton, Crichton and Aeryn Sun’s (Claudia Black) whirlwind romance, and the way its nonhuman and alien creatures became effervescent, three-dimensional personalities rather than elaborate background dressing.
What Is ‘Farscape’ About?
At the heart of Farscape is the show’s long-suffering protagonist, John Crichton. In the series premiere episode, Crichton is an astronaut and scientist about to test his interstellar theory during a shuttle launch. During the process, he gets caught in a cosmic wormhole and is flung across space. Launched into a whole other galaxy, Crichton finds himself the unwitting passenger aboard a ship of fugitives: a Luxan soldier framed for his wife’s murder, Ka D’Argo (Anthony Simcoe); an ethereal Delvian, Zotoh Zhaan (Virginia Hey); and a deposed Hynerian monarch, Rygel (Jonathan Hardy). The group is on the run from the ultimate power in this corner of the universe, the Peacekeepers, who act as the galaxy’s authoritarian, fascistic security force.
Did we happen to mention that the group is on a ship that’s alive? The ship is called Moya, part of a race of sentient interstellar ships known as Leviathans, capable of faster-than-light travel. Moya is bonded to her ship’s pilot and navigator, called Pilot (Lani Tupu). Also onboard the ship as an unwilling prisoner is the Sebacean Peacekeeper warrior Aeryn Sun, who is eventually forced to become a reluctant member of this crew of misfits after she is excommunicated by her own military and branded a fugitive by association. Each member aboard the Leviathan Moya is a lost soul suffering from personal trauma. They all long for a place to call home and the freedom to live without Peacekeeper persecution.
For several seasons, John Crichton desperately searches for a way to return home to Earth while he and his friends are relentlessly chased across the galaxy by Peacekeepers, bounty hunters, bandits, marauders, cutthroats, tyrants, and eventually the Scarrans. Through Crichton’s scientific expertise and eventual contact with a race of aliens called the Ancients, he gains knowledge of the wormhole phenomenon. However, the Peacekeepers and the Scarrans are locked in a winner-takes-all conflict and will stop at nothing to obtain Crichton’s knowledge of wormholes and turn it into a weapon of mass destruction, with potentially catastrophic consequences on a galactic scale.
John Crichton Experiences a Major Character Evolution in ‘Farscape’
Ben Browder brought tremendous charisma and likable charm to the role of John Crichton in Farscape. John comes off as a blue-collar astronaut, but he’s also a talented scientist. Despite his experience, he’s constantly in over his head and must escape danger by the skin of his teeth. Crichton’s journey over four seasons is very much an odyssey in space. John is constantly and tirelessly searching for a way home, but along the way, he forms new bonds and creates a new family with the shipmates aboard Moya.
Eventually, John does return home in the fourth season, where he’s reunited with friends and family — but he’s no longer the same man. The events and traumatic experiences he endured in space weigh heavily on him, and Browder portrays these scenes with incredible subtlety. When Crichton finally returns to Earth, he and the audience discover that Earth is no longer his home and that he cannot find peace there. Ultimately, John and the crew of Moya return to space, and his path back to Earth is cut off permanently.
John is a character of many facets. Browder is fearless in the role as Crichton endures one hardship after another throughout the series. He often relies on jokes and comedy as a self-defense mechanism, but Browder also nails the show’s serious, dramatic, and tragic moments. Farscape fully exploits Browder’s versatility, and his performance helps bind the entire story together.
John and Aeryn Have a Whirlwind Romance on ‘Farscape’
Another key aspect of Farscape was the romance between its two lead characters, John Crichton and Aeryn Sun. Browder and Black exhibit tremendous chemistry throughout the series, and their characters’ romance is a crackling, epic, sometimes frustrating, but always compelling experience. The tension between them is always palpable, and creator Rockne S. O’Bannon knew exactly how to put a wrench in the works and keep them apart despite their mutual attraction.
Aeryn and John’s romance is seemingly stuck in a perpetual state of two steps forward and five steps back. Whenever they make progress, something catastrophic usually happens to tear them apart again. However, even when the relationship is at its most frustrating, that’s largely the point. Early on, it’s clear that Aeryn and John are the endgame pairing for the story, but without significant conflict, the series would have been far less compelling. The constant tug of war in Aeryn and John’s relationship makes Farscape that much more of a harrowing and intense sci-fi drama.
Another major reason their romance remains so indelible is that, during the show’s heyday, it was not commonplace for such a deep sci-fi series to place a romance at its center. Farscape had no problem juggling its interstellar plot, action, and relentless pursuit by the Peacekeepers alongside the intrigue of Aeryn and John’s deeply intense relationship. Their evolving romance gave the characters and the series added texture, creating a more immersive experience and making Farscape one of television’s best space operas.
‘Farscape’ Boasts Excellent Creature Effects
Aside from Browder’s performance and John and Aeryn’s epic romance, enough cannot be said about the artisanal creature effects and puppetry work conducted by The Jim Henson Company. The show featured plenty of aliens with a more humanoid appearance, similar to the nonhuman and extraterrestrial characters of the Star Trek franchise. However, the creators and The Jim Henson Company were not content to rest on their laurels. They let their imaginations run wild, and decades later, Farscape still has a look and feel unlike any other sci-fi series.
The biggest takeaway is that even when the show deals with elaborate animatronic characters such as Pilot and Rygel, they become fully realized personalities rather than goofy gimmicks or sight gags. They are integral members of the core cast and are given fleshed-out character arcs of their own. Considering the premise, the alien worlds and beings encountered across Farscape make the show feel far more immersive and organic. The influence of Farscape can clearly be seen in popular modern-day sci-fi franchises such as Guardians of the Galaxy. Characters like Rocket Raccoon and Groot easily could have failed, and audiences might have struggled to accept their odd nature, but they were imbued with such rich characterization that audiences fell in love with them. Even when the Moya crew encounters strange new alien races, The Jim Henson Company always strives to truly bring its creations to life. These characters are not merely window dressing. They are functional, living, breathing beings with hopes, dreams, and flaws of their own.
In scenes where alien and nonhuman characters require extensive special-effects makeup or animatronic work, the characters always provide a vibrant screen presence. The creature and effects work in the show has a natural, organic quality. Although the series is set on planets and in far corners of a galaxy unfamiliar to Earth, the various aliens always move and behave in ways that deepen the show’s immersion. In the years since The Peacekeeper Wars aired, very little has truly come close, other than perhaps the big-screen Guardians of the Galaxy franchise.
Now Is the Perfect Time to Revisit ‘Farscape’
While The Peacekeeper Wars acts as a formal ending to the series and is viewed as its true finale, there has long been talk of a continuation that sadly never came to fruition. Considering that nearly every notable property or IP eventually receives some sort of update, it would not be surprising if Farscape received another shot at revival someday. It would be exciting to check in with Aeryn and John, see how their son D’Argo Sun-Crichton has turned out, and discover what has happened throughout the galaxy since John brought an end to the Peacekeeper-Scarran conflict. Perhaps that story will be told someday, but for now, Farscape remains more than worthy of a first-time watch — or a rewatch — for anyone who wants a sci-fi series with fearless performances, a sweeping romance, and creatures that feel as alive as the human characters.
All four seasons of Farscape, along with the subsequent Peacekeeper Wars miniseries, are available to stream.
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