"Farscape" Premiere (1999)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Andrew Prowse

Writer:

Rockne S. O'Bannon (writer)

TV Series:

"Farscape" (1999)

Original Air Date:

19 March 1999 (Season 1, Episode 1)

Genre:

Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Astronaut John Crichton's "Farscape-1" space module is swallowed by a wormhole and spat out on the other...

Plot Keywords:

Alien | Space | Technology | TV Series Pilot | Made For Cable TV

Awards:

1 nomination

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	...	Pilot / Capt. Bialar Crais (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)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Australia | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

USA:TV-PG

Filming Locations:

Australia

Company:

Hallmark Entertainment

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.

Goofs:

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

Quotes:

Officer Aeryn Sun: It's not you, it's me... I don't like YOU.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Random Acts of Violence (#3.13)" (2003)

Outstanding & Underrated show that re-defines Sci-Fi

Not many television shows appeal to quite as many different kinds of fans like Farscape does...I know youngsters and 30/40+ years old;fans both Male and Female in as many different countries as you can think of that just adore this T.V miniseries. It has elements that can be found in almost every other show on T.V, character driven drama that could be from an Australian soap opera; yet in the same episode it has science fact & fiction that would give even the hardiest "Trekkie" a run for his money in the brainbender stakes! Wormhole theory, Time Travel in true equational form...Magnificent. It embraces cultures from all over the map as the possibilities are endless having multiple stars and therefore thousands of planets to choose from.

With such a broad scope; it would be expected that nothing would be able to keep up the illusion for long, but here is where "Farscape" really comes into it's own element...It succeeds where all others have failed, especially the likes of Star Trek (a universe with practically zero Kaos element!) They ran out of ideas pretty quickly + kept rehashing them! Over the course of 4 seasons they manage to keep the audience's attention using good continuity and constant character evolution with multiple threads to every episode with unique personal touches to camera that are specific to certain character groups within the whole. This structure allows for an extremely large area of subject matter as loyalties are forged and broken in many ways on many many issues. I happened to see the pilot (Premiere) in passing and just had to keep tuning in after that to see if Crichton would ever "Get the girl", after seeing them all on television I was delighted to see them available on DVD & I have to admit that it was the only thing that kept me sane whilst I had to do a 12 hour night shift and developed chronic insomnia...Farscape was the only thing to get me through those extremely long nights...

Do yourself a favour; Watch the pilot and see what I mean...

Farscape Comet