It's not even really a pilot to be honest, as Farscape cost so much to set up that they needed a network to commit to at least 11 episodes before shooting a single one. Sets and animatronics aren't cheap, but once you've got them built you can keep using them and spread the cost out. For a while it seemed like Fox was going to be the one to greenlight the series, but the Sci Fi Channel was the one who finally came through for them. Which probably worked out better in the long run as sci-fi shows on Fox don't tend to last very long (just ask fans of Space: Above and Beyond or Firefly).
The creators are American but they decided to film and produce the series in Australia to get more on screen for their budget. They did hire one American for the cast though, star Ben Browder. This had a side-effect of dropping his character in a distant part of the universe where everyone either speaks with an Australian accent or like an Australian trying to put on a British accent.
Alright, I've already given you all the SPOILERS I can for the first half of the episode and now I'm going to go and spoil the second half too. With pictures! Enjoy.
Previously, in Premiere:
The guy on the right is John Crichton, an astronaut. A radiation wave hit and he got shot through a wormhole. Now he's lost in some distant part of the universe, on a ship full of strange alien life forms. First contact didn't go great as he stumbled across them while they were busy making a getaway on their hijacked prison transport, and they locked him in a cell. The prisoners escaped their Peacekeeper captors with a last-second starburst, but they accidentally dragged a starfighter along with them. This was bad news for Crichton as they decided to throw its unconscious pilot in the same cell as him. The moment she woke up she kicked him around, then demanded to know his name and rank.
And now, the conclusion:
ACT TWO
Their captured pilot introduces herself as Officer Aeryn Sun, Special Peacekeeper Commando, Icarion Company, Pleisar Regiment and repeats her request for Crichton's rank. He actually does have a rank, it's commander, but that's not much use to her as despite appearances he's not a Peacekeeper.
Just then Rygel figures out the right buttons to press to get a tray to come down with all the prisoners' stuff on it, including D'Argo's sword. Which he's very happy about.
We know that the escaped prisoners had all been held in a prison before this, and the ship was taking them to another prison, so this sword must have been brought over with D'Argo every time he was transferred somewhere new. The Peacekeepers take their prisoner's belongings very seriously I guess.
Crichton tries to explain that he's not a Peacekeeper, but Zhaan reveals that she's figured that out already, as their examination revealed unknown bacteria in him. You'd think if he had different organs she would've mentioned it, so it seems like he and Aeryn are pretty damn similar on the inside as well. It also seems that Zhaan is going to be the ship's doctor.
Captain Crais has been waiting for his crew to process the video of his brother's death so they can identify the pilot, and they've finally got it done. Crais checks the image and is surprised to find that the pilot is a Sebacean like them! So now we know that despite appearances the Peacekeepers aren't human and this probably isn't a Buck Rogers 'trapped 500 years in the future' scenario.
Crais decides that he's going to take his Command Carrier out of the armada and go after the escaped Leviathan ship personally, even though regulations say that he really shouldn't. The man who killed his brother is on that ship and he intends to catch him.
Zhaan can at least tell him that Moya is a Leviathan: a living ship. Organic spaceships were a thing in the 90s, playing a major role in series like Babylon 5, Lexx, and Earth: Final Conflict. In fact one appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation's very first episode and the USS Voyager has bioneural circuitry. But then after Farscape ended living ships suddenly fell out of fashion. Well, for the heroes anyway. Battlestar Galactica's Cylons and Stargate: Atlantis' Wraith still used them for a bit longer.
Unfortunately Moya's a living ship that's currently low on iriscentent fluid, after D'Argo pulled all those cables earlier, so they need to get more. Fortunately the ship's still just about fast enough to get them to a commerce planet and they don't even need to starburst to do it. Man, 'commerce planet', there's a uniquely Farscape term.
It's at this point that we learn another important fact about the prisoners: Rygel farts helium. They notice when D'Argo's voice starts getting higher pitched mid-rant. And D'Argo's also noticed that Aeryn's secretly slipped her fork into her sleeve, which sucks for Crichton as he gets thrown across the floor (again) just for being in the way.
The episode's VFX shots were produced by Australian effects house Garner MacLennan Design, who had mostly worked on commercials up to this point. I suppose there weren't many big-budget space operas being filmed in Australia for them to work on.
There were a few big-budget movies filmed there though. In fact Dark City and The Matrix were both shot in Farscape's studio: Fox Studios Australia. Unfortunately Star Wars: Attack of the Clones wanted to film there as well and this led to Farscape being evicted from its first home after season 1.
They're just showing off with their alien designs now though. This trader is a bit more elaborate than your typical crinkled forehead alien on Star Trek, plus it has significantly more teeth. I mean seriously, why does it even need all those things? I wonder if it can close its mouth in a way that lets it use them.
Rygel's busy proving that despite being a puppet he's as much a proper character as the others, as he's the one negotiating for the fluid they need to escape. It's lucky that the Peacekeepers kept his possessions locked away as well, as royalty tends to carry some expensive jewellery, like the ring he's trying to trade.
He figures out that he must have travelled here through a wormhole and that he needs to find another wormhole to get back (or create one), but Aeryn points out that he won't be finding any wormholes inside a cell. Fortunately he has a solution for that: he had a fork hidden in his sleeve as well! Man, D'Argo, Rygel and Zhaan are going to feel stupid when they see how quickly their prisoners manage to escape. Years they were locked up.
Wait, how is a fork going to help them escape?
Aeryn wants to sabotage the ship before leaving, but Crichton's not keen on that. This leads to the two of them having a conversation about compassion that got a little too cringy for me. Aeryn literally asks him what compassion is, like she'd never even encountered the concept. I'm cool with her being a bit 'Seven of Nine', but that's pushing it a little.
Crichton decides that maybe the escaped prisoners will be better allies than someone who hasn't even heard of kindness, but she talks him into sticking with her. I think they're going to skip the sabotage though. Also they're leaving in her prowler, not Farscape 1, which is probably wise.
You know, it's only just occurred to me that Crais has pointy Starfleet sideburns. But he also has a goatee, because he's evil.
Crichton has a nice subtle moment here when he realises he's on another planet and says "I'm on another planet." It sounds like I'm mocking it but I'm really not. It helps that it actually looks like a real place, unlike the bazaars you typically get in Star Trek.
They filmed this in a disused power station, which means that the Australian production crew really knew how to make sci-fi. Star Trek, Doctor Who, Red Dwarf, Aliens... every good science fiction franchise eventually visits a power plant. And a water treatment plant. Well, except for Babylon 5, which never left its studio.
Sending a carrier after a few escaped prisoners is massive overkill so D'Argo figures Aeryn or Crichton must be very important to the Peacekeepers. Then he grabs Rygel so they can leave.
ACT THREE
Aeryn wants to report the fugitives' departure but Crichton's still keen on her just leaving them alone. Unfortunately it turns out that D'Argo secretly stayed behind, and he and Aeryn pull a combat pose in the street.
Crichton tries to convince D'Argo to just escape back to Moya (which gets Aeryn calling him a traitor), but he's not leaving without them. He stayed behind so that he could grab the two of them as insurance. I guess sending Zhaan and Rygel back to the ship without him was a diversion? Or maybe they just needed to get those barrels of fluid applied to Moya ASAP? Either way D'Argo's put a surprising amount of faith in Zhaan, Rygel and Pilot deciding not to fly off without him.
I don't think he's thought this whole thing through though. First, how's he supposed to get back up to the ship without a transport pod? Second, how is bringing Captain Crais' most wanted back up to Moya supposed to help? Surely that's just going to encourage further pursuit.
Crichton and Aeryn suddenly switch their attention elsewhere and D'Argo mocks them for trying the ancient 'there's someone behind you' routine on him. But it turns out they were actually distracted by Crais walking up behind him with a Peacekeeper squad.
Aeryn walks up to Crais but he just ignores her, focusing entirely on Crichton. Crais asks his name, Crichton replies, but he gets less talkative when he gets the feeling that the Peacekeeper isn't entirely on his side. Aeryn has to be the one to tell her commander that the alien's from a planet called "Erp".
Crais accuses Crichton of charging into his brother in his WHITE DEATHPOD and tells him he'll enjoy pulling him apart to see what humans are made of. He'll be disappointed, as they're apparently pretty similar to Sebaceans apart from the bacteria.
As they're being taken away D'Argo tells Crais that warrior to warrior he vows that one day he will kill him. I reckon he should be more careful about making promises he may not be able to keep. Like, maybe Zhaan or Rygel will kill him first, what will he do then?
Meanwhile, back on Moya, Rygel is eating again. Plus the ship's fluid tanks are nearly full. So that's good. I was worried it'd just leak right back out again, as we haven't seen them do anything to repair the damage they caused.
One of the Peacekeepers searches Crichton and comes across Yuri Gagarin's good luck charm. It turns out to be some kind of toy that comes apart, though he doesn't know what a toy is so he thinks it's a field resourcefulness exercise. His friend wants to see it too, thinking that it's a weapon, and while they're busy fighting over it Crichton grabs an actual weapon from their belt!
ACT FOUR
Aeryn's still really against letting D'Argo go, seeing as he's an escaped criminal (who did admit to committing an actual crime earlier), but Crichton points out that they're all fugitives now and negotiates with D'Argo to take Aeryn with them on Moya.
The three of them head to her prowler and I guess they all manage to fit inside somehow as next thing was see is the ship landing on Moya. Pilot is surprised that D'Argo's brought Crichton and Aeryn with him, even though he stayed for the sole purpose of bringing them both back. Personally I'm more surprised that Zhaan and Rygel stuck around just for D'Argo. I guess they've already formed a bit of a bond.
Oh that's not a biplane they're looking at by the way, that's a blue Star Wars hologram of Crais' Command Carrier. Turns out he's finally decided to come after Moya and he's activated the frag cannons. Aeryn's not eager to betray the Peacekeepers by revealing information about the range of the Command Carrier's weapons... but she does, and it turns out they're getting way too close. The obvious solution is to just starburst again but Moya still needs more time to recharge.
Unfortunately Pilot can't pilot the ship right now as he's got his many hands full just keeping the systems going at this speed, so someone else is going to have to take the helm... and Crichton's wise enough to know that the Peacekeeper pilot is the right choice. Well actually he asks D'Argo first, but he's not trained as a pilot. I guess Zhaan or Rygel must have been the one to fly the transport pod down to the commerce planet earlier.
This is just like that scene in the movie Star Trek: Insurrection, which came out three months earlier, except it's not as goofy somehow. It helps that that the stick flips out of a console instead of rising up from the middle of the damn floor for no reason. Plus it's not immediately recognisable as an unmodified PC joystick... because it's made from a Logitech TrackMan Marble FX trackball instead.
We get an Empire Strikes Back moment here as Aeryn turns Moya back towards the pursuing ship and flies right past their bridge window on her way to the planet they just left. Crais is kind of pissed off at this point and takes control of the Carrier's weapons himself so that he can end this already. He's a busy man with things to do, he can't avenge his brother all afternoon.
ACT FIVE
Virginia Hey spent three hours getting painted blue on a normal day, so whoever stripped off for this shot must have had a horrifically early drive to work. Anthony Simcoe also had three hours in makeup to play D'Argo (though he didn't have to also shave his head).
Crichton hasn't entirely bonded with his new crew but at least he's earned their trust enough to be let out of the cell now. Plus D'Argo's stopped grabbing him and throwing him around!
D'Argo puts his sword to Crichton's throat and tells him that he's spent eight cycles aboard this ship and if he does anything to threaten his freedom he's going to kill him. Yes, I can see why he'd be a bit... angry about that. Wait, D'Argo spent eight years aboard Moya, he was at a prison for a while before that, and he's thirty years old now... how old was he when he was arrested? Here's another question: did D'Argo just get bored of sharpening his blade? Because it doesn't pierce Crichton's skin at all.
Anyway, message received: these guys have become allies, but they're desperate and traumatised and a long way from being friends. So it's little bit different from Star Trek: Voyager then.
Aeryn's the next to come over and chat, and the topic soon switches to Crais. Crichton's been told that the Peacekeepers don't have jurisdiction out here in the Uncharted Territories so Crais is going to leave them alone from now on. But Aeryn reminds him that Crais is determined to catch his brother's killer and he probably doesn't care much about jurisdiction right now. Recurring antagonist status: confirmed.
It's a nice scene, as it shows Crichton's compassion (giving him a 'pet the dog' moment to make viewers like him), it shows that the little robots are actually adorable, and it shows that he's making the ship his home and starting to help out. Plus the robots understand him and can obey instructions.
Finally Rygel comes by to steal Crichton's stuff, ask if he's a sound sleeper, and then pull this face as he drives away:
The episode ends with Crichton recording a message to his dad that he'll never get. Turns out that the whole series of events hasn't made him any less scared, he's still got those rattlers in his stomach, but he's not going to give up trying to get home.
CONCLUSION
I had a vague recollection of what happened in Farscape's pilot episode before this rewatch, but everything after Aeryn appeared in Crichton's cell was fuzzy for me. I knew that Aeryn and Crichton escaped and went to a planet, that Aeryn was declared 'irreversibly contaminated' by Crais and arrested, that Crichton somehow got a gun to free them, and that Moya escaped the Command Carrier using Crichton's slingshot move, but other than that I had no clue.
Turns out that's pretty much all that happens! This episode is basically an exposition delivery system cleverly disguised as a story, with every line of dialogue carefully designed to tell us something new about the world or the characters. I can imagine a new viewer coming into this and being a little overwhelmed by all the information that's being thrown their way. Which is good I suppose, because that's exactly how Crichton feels.
Crichton's a guy from an ordinary world of white walls and octopus shirts who gets dropped into a bizarre Henson universe that Spielberg movies didn't entirely prepare him for. I can't really judge how weird the weirdness is anymore though as I've already seen the whole series start to finish and I'm very comfortable with the setting. I was mostly just happy to be back on Moya again after so long! It was strange seeing Crichton acting so normal though. He barely throws out any pop culture references that no one else could possibly get.
He's the protagonist of the story and we're introduced to the world through his eyes, even if the point of view does stray to the other characters from time to time. He's not the most proactive and capable character though. In fact he's mostly confused, shot, spat on, knocked out, stripped and locked up. Though he soon demonstrates a useful talent: swiping things. First a fork, then a gun. The teaser sets Crichton up to become a different kind of hero to his dad and by the end he does. He's the kind of hero that accidentally kills a guy and then goes on the run from the law with a group of escaped prisoners. They seem... nice though.
Right now D'Argo's a bit of a Klingon with more nose hair, Zhaan's kind of like Ilia from Star Trek: The Motion Picture) wearing body paint, and Rygel's a puppet, but they're given just enough here to hint at some depth. Plus who wouldn't want to watch a series where a Klingon, a Deltan and a puppet go on space adventures? Especially when they're so well-acted and colour-coordinated.
One thing that struck me about the episode is how good it looks. It's like a painting, as you can nitpick the individual brush strokes (the bars on the cell look a bit cheap, Rygel's obviously made of rubber...), but when you step back and look at all together it becomes a work of art. Even the visual effects shots look like a step beyond what shows like Babylon 5 and Voyager were able to achieve at the same time, even if the animation isn't always perfect. Sure there's a bit of a trend towards an orange and blue colour scheme, which became overused in films after this to the point of becoming obnoxious, but it suits the series. Plus you've got the Peacekeepers in red and black, and Crichton and IASA in white, so everyone has their own colour theme.
Speaking of themes, the soundtrack... got better over time I thought. The music in the teaser sounded pretty terrible to me, full of cheesy sounds (it reminded me of the soundtrack to the first episode of the Doctor Who revival actually), but once Crichton made it through the wormhole it started to fit together much better. It found its tone.
I wouldn't call this a standout episode of the series and you can really feel how contrived it all is. They had to explain everything and set up the status quo for season one in just 50 minutes. But I was never less than entertained and the characters are already very endearing. When they're not threatening each other I mean. Things are a bit tense right now.
NEXT EPISODE?
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