OtherWorld Science Fiction TV: Farscape

DVD
VHS

Farscape (1999-2003):
IMDB Listing

Rockne S. O'Bannon

Ben Browder
Claudia Black
Virginia Hey
Anthony Simcoe
Gigi Edgley
Lani Tupu
Paul Goddard
Wayne Pygram
Tammy McIntosh

... Creator

... John Crichton
... Aeryn Sun
... Zhaan
... D'Argo
... Chiana
... Crais
... Stark
... Scorpius
... Jool

Farscape is the first original programming developed by the SciFi Channel to be a success. It took some of the stock elements of scifi television: human lost in space; warrior alien; mystical alien; big, cool starship; non-humanoid aliens by way of puppets. The show took these elements and turned them on their ear. Crichton regularly references pop culture including well-known science fiction. Farscape doesn't take itself too seriously, most of the time.

Now that the show has run three seasons, it does take itself more seriously. It still goes for obvious clichés, but it now has unrequited love and several backstories and even a continuous loose story arc. In the middle of all its self-parody, the show developed its own identity. New characters have been introduced to keep storylines fresh and add new conflicts. Besides, the spiritual alien Zhaan got tiresome. It still has great comic moments such as an episode where John deals with an internal conflict by imagining everyone as Loonie Tunes-like cartoons.