Premiere (19 Mar. 1999)

Astronaut John Crichton's "Farscape-1" space module is swallowed by a wormhole and spat out on the other side of the universe into the middle of a space battle. Taken on board "Moya", a ... See full summary »

Director:

Andrew Prowse

Writers:

Rockne S. O'Bannon (creator), Rockne S. O'Bannon

Stars:

Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Virginia Hey

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Ben Browder	...	John Crichton
Claudia Black	...	Officer Aeryn Sun
Virginia Hey	...	Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan
Anthony Simcoe	...	Ka D'Argo
Kent McCord	...	Jack Crichton
Lani John Tupu	...	Captain Bialar Crais / Pilot (voice) (as Lani Tupu)
Murray Bartlett	...	D.K.
Greg Blandy	...	Peacekeeper Guard #1
Colin Borgonon	...	Peacekeeper Weapons Officer
Christine Stephen-Daly	...	Lt. Teeg
Damen Stephenson	...	Bio Isolation Man #1
Lawrence Woodward	...	Bio Isolation Man #2
Jonathan Hardy	...	Dominar Rygel XVI (voice)

Storyline

Astronaut John Crichton's "Farscape-1" space module is swallowed by a wormhole and spat out on the other side of the universe into the middle of a space battle. Taken on board "Moya", a huge bio-mechanoid living ship, desperately trying to escape Peacekeeper captivity. On board Moya is a group of alien fugitives trying to escape from the ruthless Peacekeepers, a local military regime. While managing to escape the immediate threat, John Crichton forms friendships with the prisoners and continues to look for a way home. But later a race of beings called, "The Ancients" implanted knowledge about the power of wormholes in his mind and this knowledge makes him a wanted man throught the Uncharted Territories. Now, John and his crewmates are on the run from ruthless alien races that want his knowledge so they can make wormhole weapons to take over the universe. Despite all that happens to him, despite his friendships and relationships with the crew, at the end of the day he wants to get home...

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Plot Keywords:

alien | space | technology | tv series pilot | made for cable tv

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Genres:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Official Sites:

Farscape Official site @ Sci-Fi Channel

Country:

Australia USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 March 1999 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Australia

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hallmark Entertainment, Jim Henson Television, Nine Network Australia

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Crichton was originally going to take off from NASA. NASA was approached, and they agreed, but NASA insisted on approving/reviewing the ENTIRE script for the episode, even though they were only going to be in the first few scenes. Producers declined, and they came up with IASA instead.

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Goofs

Anthony Simcoe's real nose can be seen beneath his prosthetic facial makeup several times.

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Quotes

Aeryn Sun: It is my duty, my breeding, since birth! It's what I am!
John Crichton: You can be more.

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Connections

Followed by Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars (2004)

User Reviews

Action-packed, funny, interesting, great special effects... refreshing!

This is perhaps the television series with the greatest potential of any series around. The production values are in a class of their own. The characters are rounded and interesting. This is entertainment at its best. Some of the aliens are quite grotesque, but there is an underlying humour which makes it unmissable. I hope that this series goes on for many years and will have many spin-offs. Science Fiction has had its bad press, some justified, but this is truly a flagship science fiction series and I thank Henson for it. Top marks.