60 Fun Facts About Farscape

Who conceived Farscape?

O'Bannon had already written the 1988 film Alien Nation and created seaQuest DSV before Farscape.

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

Two regular characters, Rygel and Pilot, were entirely Henson Creature Shop animatronic puppets.

Farscape was originally made for which Australian broadcaster?

That is why almost the whole cast, apart from Ben Browder, came from Australia and New Zealand.

On which US cable network did Farscape premiere in March 1999?

It launched as part of the SciFi Friday block, though its later scheduling became notoriously erratic.

In what year did Farscape premiere?

Its fourth and final season wrapped in March 2003, almost exactly four years later.

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

The three-hour Peacekeeper Wars miniseries later added a coda to the 88.

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

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

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

He flew it into a wormhole near Earth on a test flight and came out the other side in the middle of a Peacekeeper battle.

Which space agency employed Crichton?

The show swapped NASA for the fictional International Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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?

Leviathans are living biomechanoid ships of peace with no weapons at all, only the starburst escape manoeuvre.

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

Aeryn's Prowler got caught in that first starburst, which is how a Peacekeeper ended up stuck with the escapees.

What do the initials DRD stand for on Moya?

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?

The infant was a Peacekeeper-Leviathan hybrid, born 'covered with weapons' unlike his pacifist mother.

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?

Black later reunited with Ben Browder on Stargate SG-1 as Vala Mal Doran.

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?

Anthony Simcoe spent hours in prosthetics for a character prone to species-specific 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?

The Peacekeepers chained him by hooks surgically implanted around his collarbones for the crime.

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

Finding the boy drove D'Argo through most of the first half of the series.

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

Virginia Hey eventually left because the heavy make-up and schedule damaged her health.

Zhaan was imprisoned for assassinating which person?

The victim was also the leader of the Delvian government, and her guilt shaped her spiritual path.

Why did Virginia Hey leave Farscape?

Zhaan was given a hero's exit, sacrificing herself to save Moya and her crew.

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

He was overthrown by his cousin and spent the series scheming to get his throne back.

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?

Everyone in earshot ends up talking in a squeaky voice.

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

Her homeworld is run by a rigid government called The Establishment, which she fled.

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?

The visions came at a cost, temporarily blinding her when she used them.

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

He played the season-1 antagonist in the flesh while giving voice to the ship's gentle four-armed helmsman.

What happens to a Pilot separated from its ship?

Pilots serve as helmsman, navigator and translator for their ships, and Moya's Pilot has no other known name.

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?

He stuck around all the way to the second half of The Peacekeeper Wars.

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

When the chair 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?

That buried knowledge is what every faction in the galaxy spent the rest of the series chasing.

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

Stykera can 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?

Raelee Hill played her, and Sikozu could also reattach severed limbs.

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

Melissa Jaffer's Traskan cook seemed slightly senile but was usually several steps ahead.

Commandant Grayza controls men using a substance secreted by an implanted gland. What is it called?

Rebecca Riggs's Grayza used it on Crichton early in season 4 to get at his wormhole knowledge.

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

'Dren' and 'hezmana' filled the same role, letting the show curse freely on cable.

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

It was axed after production on season 4 had ended, leaving the story on a cliffhanger.

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

The Sci-Fi Channel concluded the show was simply 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?

The German media group's troubles were part of the backdrop to the show's funding collapse.

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

Amend said the strips generated more reader e-mails than anything else he had done.

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

Brian Henson directed the three-hour finale himself.

Who directed the Farscape miniseries?

Henson had earlier secured the rights to the series after his company was sold.

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

It never won, but the nod recognised effects work done on a cable-miniseries budget.

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

Ben Browder added a Saturn for Best TV Actor as well.

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

It was outranked only by 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?

Ben Browder even has a cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

Which UK channel carried Farscape?

In Canada it ran on YTV.

Where was Ben Browder born?

He grew up in Charlotte and starred on the Furman University football team before acting.

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

It aired on 21 March 2003, two years to the week after the pilot's anniversary.

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

He has five original series to his name, including Alien Nation, Defiance and Cult.

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

Rockne S. O'Bannon and Brian Henson developed it; nearly the whole cast came from Australia and New Zealand, apart from Ben Browder.