S1E1: Astronaut and scientist John Crichton is a young jock who enjoys watching the sunrise over the launch pad. His old man is a retired glory-days astronaut who casts a long shadow that John struggles to both shrug off and come to terms with. When his dad tries to offer advice on the morning of an experimental mission, John tells him, “I can’t be your kind of hero.”

John’s mission is dangerous and untried: He is going to fly a specially-designed spacecraft in an attempt to manipulate Earth’s gravity, which should then sling-shot him into space at record speeds. If successful, it will be the first step towards interstellar travel.

Inadvertently, John’s test flight turns into that first step. He’s pulled into a wormhole that spits him out in the middle of an apparent space fight. His craft is pulled onboard a much larger ship named the Moya where he finds himself under suspicion by the frantic inhabitants: Actors in prosthetic makeup and bad clothes. Or, aliens. It’s hard to tell.

The Moya is under attack by the Peacekeepers, a radical military force that is attempting to re-claim some very wanted cargo. ‘Wanted,’ as in dead or alive. Yes, these aliens are actually escaped prisoners. They escape the Peacekeepers by using the Starburst maneuver, which is a sugary name for a faster-than-light jump. John is knocked out.

John wakes up. He’s naked in a jail cell with a human-looking woman named Aeryn Sun. She’s a Peacekeeper Commando whose ship was pulled into the Starburst magnetic field during the jump. She throws John to the ground and straddles his neck in the most subtle form of romantic foreshadowing ever.

The Moya is a biomechanical ship, a living thing that needs care and rest. The aliens decide to stop at a nearby commerce planet to pick up needed supplies. In the meantime, John and Aeryn break out of their holding cell using a fork stolen from dinner. We aren’t actually shown how the fork does this, but I can roll with the lock-picking assumption. After all, it’s the least of assumptions I’m rolling with at this point.

Aeryn is a militant follower of orders and intends to re-capture the escaped prisoners. John wonders if they shouldn’t have some compassion for the aliens’ plight, but Aeryn doesn’t know the word. When he describes it, she nods and says flatly, “I hate it.” He follows her anyway.

They steal back Aeryn’s ship and head to the commerce planet to rendezvous with the Peacekeepers. Everyone gets cornered and Aeryn reclaims her side with the military, but switches sides again when her Commander, Bialar Crais, believes John murdered his brother. (Turns out, when John came through the wormhole, another ship clipped him and exploded. The pilot was Crais’ brother. Dramatic.) In a fit of compassion, Aeryn insists John is neither smart nor brave enough to have intentionally killed anyone. She’s branded contaminated and put in handcuffs.

As it was bound to happen, a rapid escape comes next. When a soldier becomes distracted, John steals his gun and a stand-off ensues. Although in danger herself, Aeryn resists tagging along, claiming her life has always been about duty. John tells her, “You can be more.” Swoon? Sorta.

Back on Moya, John comes up with the perfect plan to outrun the gaining Peacekeepers. They dive deep into the commerce planet’s gravity and slingshot themselves way out of range. Yes, John fulfilled his experimental mission after all. But is he safe? And will he ever get home again? Join us on our inaugural Rerun journey as we watch season one of Farscape!

Spaceman says: “I felt some G-Force!”

Spaceman Exclamation Ratings

Great: “Bitchin!”

Pretty good: “I felt some G-Force!”

Not so hot: “Not sure this puppy can fly!”

Not recommended: “Let’s get outta here!” 

Farscape ran from 1999-2003 on the SyFy channel. 

Cast: Ben Browder (John Crichton); Claudia Black (Aeryn Sun); Lani Tupu (Bialar Crais); Virginia Hey (Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan); Anthony Simcoe (D’Argo); Jonathan Hardy (Rygel)

Photo by oskay

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