Posted in: NBC, SYFY, TV, YouTube | Tagged: alien, Amazon Prime, ben browder, bleeding cool, brian henson, cable, david franklin, farscape, Gigi Edgley, guardians of the galazy, james gunn, kirk thatcher, lani tupu, paul goddard, rebecca riggs, ricky manning, ridley scott, rockne s bannon, science fiction, sdcc, Space Opera, streaming, television, the jim henson company, tv

Farscape SDCC Panel Discusses Series' Lasting Legacy, Possible Return

Here's an unexpected panel for Comic-Con@Home: "Farscape… To Be Continued" brought together some of the original cast and the writers to talk about the show. The main reason? Farscape is now on Amazon Prime and there has been talk of its return. Series creator Rockne S. Bannon (who also wrote the first Alien movie directed by Ridley Scott) and producer Brian Henson (son of Jim Henson and now head of The Jim Henson Company) have been working on bringing back the show and shooting in Australia with the original cast. The panelists include Gigi Edgley (Chiana), Ricky Manning (writer), Rebecca Riggs (Commandant Grayza), David Franklin (Lieutenant Braca), Lani Tupu (Captain Crais), and Paul Goddard (Stark), moderated by Kirk Thatcher (Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge).

The series was the anti-Star Trek. American astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder) goes through a wormhole to find himself the only human in a chaotic warring galaxy. Taken prisoner by a fascistic military dictatorship called the Peacekeepers, Crichton escapes with a crew of prisoners on a living ship called Moya. Now he and his crew of criminals, rebels, and rogues have the entire galaxy gunning for them. Virtually everyone they encountered tried to kill them or screw them over. Crichton and the crew of the Moya were not heroic representatives of a peaceful military establishment like Star Trek. They were rebels and criminals fleeing and fighting a fascist regime. This ran counter to the conservative politics of most American space opera.  The non-human aliens on the show were created by The Jim Henson Company, which effectively made them muppets.

Farscape also contained the funniest subtext of any Science Fiction show. It was really about a hapless American dude stuck in the Australian BDSM scene where everyone he met wanted to sex him up. This was implicit in the scripts and the performances of all the actors, and it was often hysterically funny. Ben Browder played John Crichton as increasingly freaked out and unhinged by his experiences. It was the most original and unpredictable space opera of its time and a huge influence on James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy. You can watch the cast and writers reminisce about the show in full here:

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