Back in the days of yore, one had to wait a week between episodes of a series. During these dark times, I remember anxiously looking forward to Friday nights, and not because it meant two days of no job or fun social outings. No, Fridays meant new episodes of my favorite sci-fi series, Farscape.
The setup involves astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder) testing an experimental aircraft which accidentally takes him through a wormhole to a far-flung galaxy.
Landing in the middle of a prisoner breakout, Crichton's ship collides with one of the officer's ships. he joins a ragtag group of aliens aboard a living starship. Initially, the series centered around the group running from the authorities, but became more serious when the various alien races suspect Chricton might possess the knowledge to weaponize wormholes.
Similar to the concurrently-running Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Farscape was a mix of standalone episodes and episodes contributing to an overall seasonal story arc. It also sported a fair amount of humor, especially as the characters interacted with each other. Likewise, the combination of computer-generated and practical effects (courtesy of Jim Henson's Creature Shop) gave an authentic look to the series, which seemed very ahead of its time.
The series ran for four twenty-two episode seasons before the Sci-Fi Channel decided to cancel it unexpectedly, citing declining viewership and expensive production costs. There was a massive fan campaign to restore the series, which prevented the sets and props from being scrapped outright.
By way of compromise, Sci-Fi opted to allow the cast and crew to film a two-part miniseries (182 minutes in runtime) to serve as a series finale. Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars aired in October 2004, and wrapped up most of the loose ends from Season Four.
This twist on the Star Trek formula left a mark on science fiction television, no doubt inspiring later shows, such as Firefly and the Battlestar Galactica reboot. James Gunn even cites Farscape as an inspiration for his Guardians of the Galaxy films.Source
Farscape is currently available to stream (in the USA, anyway) on Amazon Prime. It may also be available on other platforms, depending on when you read this or what country you read it from.
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