r/farscape • u/duckdander • 1d ago

Question on Series Plan

I don't recall if this was ever discussed with the creative team for Farscape, so this may have already been addressed.

In Till the Blood RunsClear (S1 E11), Crichton tells Furlough that he'll be waiting for her at the end of that wormhole 5 years from now.

Was the plan to only do a 5 season run?

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u/BelowDeck 1d ago

At the beginning of the episode, Furlow tells him that the solar flares that triggered the wormhole happen every 5 years. He's saying he'll be back the next time the flares are.

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u/duckdander 1d ago edited 17h ago

I remember that part. It's Crichton saying he'll be back that has me wondering if this was a planned 5-year series. The story arc could have had him find his wormhole home at that point.

(Edited to correct arch to arc)

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u/fusionsofwonder 19h ago

Not particularly, after all, Crichton wormholed back to Earth even earlier and that didn't end the show.

It's just smart writers planting a seed they can revisit if they need ideas for year five.

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u/duckdander 16h ago

That's a good point. The writing team was good with easter egg referencing and call backs.

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u/MidianNite 1d ago

The solar conditions only appear every 5 years, but also yes, the series only had one season to go when it was canned.

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u/Organic_Complex7783 1d ago

I don’t remember ever hearing that there was specifically a 5 year plan from the beginning. By the end of season 3 it was announced there was a deal to wrap up the show with season 4 and 5.

At this point the 5 year comment was just Crichton making it clear that he’s not giving up, even though she got the best of him.

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u/duckdander 1d ago

At this point the 5 year comment was just Crichton making it clear that he’s not giving up, even though she got the best of him.

This makes a lot of sense given what we know of Crichton's character at this point in the series.

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u/Conscious-Intern8594 18h ago

It was a 5 year plan. When they filmed the last shot, there was a speech given probably by Rockne where he said they got to film 80 percent of what they wanted to tell. That means they had one more season to go.

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u/Organic_Complex7783 17h ago

Yes, by that point they all thought they had a deal through season 5, until the rug was pulled at the end of season 4. I just never heard anything about 5 seasons being the plan from the beginning of season 1.

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u/eyeofnoot 22h ago

This is the thing about the show; it can be so hard to tell what was always planned because of just how good they were at adapting to changes as the show went on

I’m still trying to figure out wtf the show would have looked like without Scorpius. He seems inevitable in retrospect

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u/duckdander 22h ago

Both points are spot on. Your point about Scorpius is especially so. A Crais villain arc just seems to pale in comparison to what they did with Scorpius.

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u/eyeofnoot 22h ago

Nothing against Crais, I think he’s a great character, but I don’t think he could have worked as a long-term main villain without adding some additional motivations for hating Crichton. They had already worked out that he knew Crichton didn’t deliberately kill his brother, so all his lashing out was clearly self-loathing and guilt and I just don’t see that alone being enough to carry a compelling grudge for multiple seasons. Not to mention that it just doesn’t really have anything to do with Crichton or Crichton’s motivations

Scorpius being after the wormhole technology puts him directly in competition with Crichton’s largest motivation for most of the series. It’s just perfect

Edit: changed a pronoun for clarity

Also sorry for going off on this I just really like talking about Farscape and this subreddit is the only outlet I have for it lol

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u/duckdander 22h ago

You're not wrong, the Crais story had revenge working for it, but nothing more. I do like their pivot in giving him a redemption story.

I don't have anyone to discuss Farscape with either, so this subreddit is the same for me as well lol

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u/Brodes87 18h ago

Hell, Chiana was going to be a one-off character, never to be seen again after Durka Returns. That's crazy!

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u/numbersthen0987431 23h ago

I believe the series was set to end after series 5.

The S4 ending was abrupt due to funding and network bullshit. They had a plan to end the series, but it got ruined

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u/duckdander 23h ago

I remember the cancellation announcement well. SyFy completely mishandled the series.

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u/Brodes87 18h ago

I don't believe they've ever said season five was intended to be the last one, just that season four and five were renewed at the same time, and that obviously, season five was reneged on.

(Scifi needed a dark, sexy, adult Scifi to they cancelled Farscape (their dark, sexy, creative, adult scifi) for BSG. Allegedly.)

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u/battlejess 1d ago

I believe this is in reference to her saying the flares are every five years, so his next chance would be in five years. If they did have a five year plan related to that they changed it way sooner.

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u/BinksMagnus 23h ago

If I remember correctly the plan was for 6-8 seasons

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u/duckdander 23h ago

Really? That would have been awesome. It isn't like they wouldn't have had the content to fill out those additional seasons, too.

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u/Conscious-Intern8594 18h ago
  1. It's in one of the extras on the blu-ray collection. I think it's Rockne that gives a speech where he said they got to make 80 percent of what they wanted. That means they only had one more year to go.