A journey that starbursts beyond ’The Fifth Element’, breaking the terminal frontiers of the stellar boundaries set in all the numerous installments of ’Star Trek’. For a new generation of sci-fi aficionados here we have ’Farscape’ created by Rockne S.O’Bannon, the man behind the successful ’Alien Nation’ aired in the mid-90’s.
This show focuses on the adventures of a mismatched crew of space stowaways on the run aboard a biomechanical living ship, a Leviathan named ’Moya’; all escaping ’Peacekeeper’ (a race of rapacious space warriors) captivity.
After the unexpected malfunction of the ’Farscape Project’, IASA astronaut John Crichton’s (played by Ben Browder) escape capsule is sucked into a gargantuan wormhole only to be duly spat out on to the other side of the universe. Lost in space he finds himself in Moya in the company of Aeryn Sun (a Peacekeeper with the ’Pleisar’ regiment), Ka D’Argo ( a warrior from ’Luxan’ ), Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan ( a middle aged 812 year old ’Delvian’ Priestess), Rygel XVI ( a slug like 26 inch high dominar of the ’Hynerian’ empire) and finally Pilot ( Moya’s majordomo who is a physical part of her control center). In course of a few episodes they take in Chiana ( a ’Nebari’ rebel fleeing the rigidity of her planet).
This heterogeneous crew encounters their equitable share of troubles as they trapesize through galaxies looking for a steady way to their respective abodes. Their junkets from one galaxy to another introduces them to the strangest of alien forms like the ’Ilanics’, ’Scrorvians’, ’Deneans’, ’Sebaceans’, ’Draks’, ’Sheyangs’ and many others.
Well if I venture into any more details I’ll end up giving out more than I planned. ’Farscape’ is a television show that can be experienced to the fullest only visually.
O’Bannon has incorporated the talents of the best make up artists and special effects technicians in the business namely from ’Jim Henson’s Creature Shop’. (Yes the same Henson who brought us the unforgettable ’Muppets’ and ’Fraggles’)
The creature effects and make up formats are so foolproof that you forget that you are actually looking at foam latex. As a result you experience the puppets and the people on the same level of reality. The worlds created on the storyboards are futuristic but maintain a basic strain of ancient decadence. The sequences in each episode also focus more on the people and their personal journeys rather than giving all the importance to the mission itself. The cast consists of a few familiar faces like Ben Browder and Claudia Black who plays Aeryn. There is also a host of upcoming Australian actors making their mark on the small screen.
’Farscape’ is now down to its second season and it guarantees an hour of excitement and fantasy every week. For a show that claims to push beyond the realm of fantasy ’Farscape’ lives it up to the maximum. Escape into yonder space or be left behind.