Cinefantastique Online

By Anna L. Kaplan
The third season of FARSCAPE, the SCI FI Channel’s highest-rated, original series continued to amaze, surprise, and engage its viewers. The deftly plotted stories delivered satisfying and deep character development against a background of galactic politics that increasingly involved John Crichton (Ben Browder), Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black) and the others. FARSCAPE Season [...]

By Anna L. Kaplan
Season three of FARSCAPE brought series star Ben Browder new and different challenges. He wrote his first script, “Green-Eyed Monster.” He played two John Crichtons for almost half of the season. Crichton finally got the girl, died, and yet lived on to fight the good fight, all in 22 episodes. This prompted [...]

Is Season Three Her Best Yet?
Claudia Black’s Aeryn Sun looks like a human, but is actually a Sebacean. She first appeared in FARSCAPE as a fierce Peacekeeper, bred and trained military elite. Once contaminated by her time with John Crichton and forced to live with the other species on Moya, Aeryn started a journey toward self-realization. She [...]

By Anna L. Kaplan
Everyone who makes FARSCAPE works very hard, including executive producer David Kemper. He is passionately committed to making the best television show possible. He feels the weight of that responsibility. As work was progressing on the beginning of season four, he said, “Rockne [O’Bannon] had a vision from the beginning. We are [...]

By Anna L. Kaplan
Anthony Simcoe likes to set challenges for himself, especially portraying the same character over many seasons of a television show. There are limitations to playing D’Argo on FARSCAPE, imposed by the prosthetics and costume, and the world in which the Luxan lives. More comfortable with the makeup by the time season three [...]

By Anna L. Kaplan
Gigi Edgley, the youngest member of the FARSCAPE cast, goes through the ups and downs of making the show with as much calm as she can muster. Season three had highs and lows for her, both off screen and as Chiana. Edgley explained, “This season there’s been lots of unexpected choices, character [...]

By Anna L. Kaplan
Trying to keep up with all the manifestations of Scorpius on FARSCAPE was almost more complicated than watching two Crichtons. Everything began with the real Scorpius, played by Wayne Pygram. Then Scorpius put a neural chip with a clone of his own personality into Crichton’s brain. Season two, Crichton alone could see and [...]

By Anna L. Kaplan
Francesca Buller, Ben Browder’s wife, returned to FARSCAPE season three, playing a duplicitous character named Raxil in “Scratch ‘N Sniff.” Raxil tried to convince Crichton that she could help him and D’Argo find Chiana and Jool. She was really conning Crichton. Buller wanted her husband’s help, actor-to-actor, in selling one of their [...]

By Anna L. Kaplan
Tammy MacIntosh bounced into her first FARSCAPE convention, launching into the acrobatics that she did in “Scratch ‘N Sniff.” Before the convention, she expressed some trepidation about meeting fans. To begin with, Jool got a rocky introduction into the FARSCAPE family. Zhaan was dying. Jool’s character was created to be unlikable. MacIntosh, [...]

By Anna L. Kaplan
FARSCAPE’s season three kept Lani Tupu even busier than the previous two, playing Bialar Crais and also providing the voice for Pilot. Tupu was finally credited as a regular cast member and not a guest. Crais helped save the group in “Season of Death,” and then took off on Talyn until episode [...]

By Anna L. Kaplan
Dave Elsey, creative supervisor of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™ in Australia, loves working on the FARSCAPE. When he first agreed to do the job, he set himself a goal. He recalled, “I am a fan of everything you can think of to do with sci-fi and horror, anything that might possibly contain [...]

By Anna L. Kaplan
“Green-Eyed Monster” proved to be an exceptional experience for everyone involved. First and foremost, the script was written by Ben Browder. As the series star, he appeared in every episode, but he amazingly found time during breaks, nights and weekends to complete his writing work. Browder was ready for this challenge, creating [...]

By Anna L. Kaplan
FARSCAPE takes risks. FARSCAPE refuses to be pinned down to one style or one way of doing things. Executive producer David Kemper decided long before starting season three that he wanted to do an episode of FARSCAPE mixing live-action with cartoons. It took a long time, and all of his personal conviction [...]