There’s a good chance that many of you have never heard of “Farscape,” a sci-fi series that originally aired on Syfy back when it was still The Sci-fi Channel.
But that’s what happens when a show is off the air for almost a decade and it isn’t widely syndicated or streamed. Sure, “Farscape” is on Hulu Plus and Pivot, but that’s pretty far from reaching the wide audience that it deserves.
As created by Rockne S. O’Bannon and Brian Henson, “Farscape” followed the adventures of John Crichton (Ben Browder), an American astronaut who inadvertently sent his ship through a wormhole that took him to a distant part of the universe called the Uncharted Territories; which was filled with various alien races.
While there were no humans in the Uncharted Territories, there were Sebaceans, a race that greatly resembled humans with some genetic modifications. There was also a controlling authority called the Peacekeepers which was primarily made up of Sebaceans. Because Crichton accidentally killed one of the Peacekeepers when he arrived in the UT, he found himself hunted down by the man’s brother, Bialar Crais (Lani Tupu).
Lost and with no way to return home, Crichton aligned himself with a group of escaped alien prisoners including D’Argo (Anthony Simcoe), Zhaan (Virginia Hey) and Rygel (Jonathan Hardy) onboard a living ship called Moya. They were also reluctantly joined by Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black), a Peacekeeper who was branded a traitor by Crais for daring to sympathize with Crichton. Over time, Crichton and Aeryn developed romantic feelings for each other and new characters came to Moya, including Chiana (Gigi Edgley) and Stark (Paul Goddard) among others.
One of the unique aspects of “Farscape” was that it took full advantage of the Jim Henson Company’s mastery to create truly alien creatures who were brought to life through the use of puppets. Rygal was portrayed this way and so was Pilot (Lani Tupu), the living being who was joined to Moya. At the time, some viewers derided “Farscape” as the Muppets in Space. What those people failed to realize is that there was a huge advantage to using puppets as opposed to CGI. Because the characters were actually on the set and interacting with the humanoid characters, it gave them a greater sense of realism and the puppeteers were also able to deliver strong emotional performances through their creations.
“Farscape” had a strong first season, but it really hit its stride when Scorpius (Wayne Pygram) was introduced. Scorpius was a high ranking Peacekeeper who was half-Sebacean and half-Scarren; and he was obsessed with finding wormhole technology to prevent the Scarrens from invading Peacekeeper space. Because Crichton was imbued with wormhole knowledge by an alien race, he became Scorpius’ new target. Scorpius also forced Crais from power, leading the disgraced Peacekeeper to align with the crew of Moya before stealing her offspring, Talon for himself.
Got all of that? I know it’s a lot to take in for the uninitiated. Scorpius’ pursuit of Moya seemingly killed Aeryn (while her resurrection led to the death of another crew member) and almost destroyed Crichton’s sanity when a chip was implanted in his head that contained a neural clone of Scorpius, whom Crichton dubbed “Harvey.” This was done in part to keep Pygram in nearly every episode even when Scorpius wasn’t involved with the plot.
During the third season of “Farscape,” the crew of Moya got a first hand look at the destruction that wormhole weapons could unleash. With their options greatly diminished, Crichton, Aeryn and Crais convinced the others that Scorpius had to be stopped at all costs. To do so, they decided to form an alliance with Scorpius and sabotage his efforts from the inside.
Which brings us to “Into The Lion’s Den. Part II: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing.” As this was a two part episode, I was greatly tempted to name both as the Best Episode Ever of “Farscape.” But the second part set the bar so high that “Farscape” was never quite able to match it again. This wasn’t even the season finale! It was the penultimate episode of season 3.
At the start of the episode, Crichton is in panic mode because his attempts to quietly sabotage the wormhole project have failed and Scorpius had located Earth and threatened to destroy Circhton’s homeworld if he didn’t cooperate. Crichton’s solution was simple: Scorpius’ Command Carrier had to be destroyed along with all of the research in it while allowing the crew enough time to escape with their lives.
One of the underlying stories of “Farscape” Season 3 dealt with Crais’ attempt to be a better man than he was before. But when he betrayed Crichton’s plan to Scorpius, it seemed like an inevitable reversion to his old self. However, Crais’ true intentions were far more noble. He came up with a way to save the crew of Moya and everyone on the Command Carrier… at the cost of his own life and the life of Talon. Moya’s troubled offspring was unstable due to the Peacekeeper’s experiments, resulting in Talon’s increasing mental illness. Along with Crais, Talon sacrificed himself to save his mother in an unforgettable sequence.
The destruction of the Command Carrier was epic, especially the fantastic moment in which Scorpius climbed a set of stairs as water flooded into the room. That shot even made the opening credit sequence of the following season. Amidst the chaos, Aeryn had a small character arc resolved as she was confronted by one of her former Peacekeeper friends while attempting to help the Peacekeeper children escape. Let’s just say that it wasn’t the reconciliation that Aeryn was hoping for.
But the most memorable moments involved Crichton and Scoprius… and even Harvey the neural clone! Very early in the episode, Harvey appears to Crichton in a black and white battletorn dream sequence that was hysterical to watch. The “Farscape” creative team kept coming up with different scenarios for Crichton to interact with Harvey and this was the best one they ever did.
With destruction all around them, Crichton and Scorpius don’t battle to the death or engage in needless posturing. Scorpius simply tells Crichton that he is responsible for the death of millions when the Scarrans invade, to which Crichton responds “One evil at a time… that’s the best I can do.”
The episode even teases that Scorpius may be suicidal over the loss of his wormhole project, but of course he didn’t die. Scorpius was far too rich a character to simply be killed off. And Scorpius’ new dynamic with Crichton made things very interesting in the fourth season.
At the end, Aeryn silently comforts Crichton, but it’s a somber moment rather than a celebration of their greatest victory. Aside from all the death and destruction, what if Scorpius was right all along?
Farscape: The Complete Series just hit Blu-ray and DVD with a new 15th Anniversary edition, and that’s the best way to jump into this story. “Farscape” may be gone, but it deserves to be remembered as one of the all time great sci-fi series.
