Investigating ‘Farscape’: Uncharted Territories of Sex and Science Fiction

My name is John Crichton. ‘I’m lost’. An astronaut. Shot through a wormhole. In some distant part of the universe. ‘I’m trying to stay alive’. Aboard this ship. ‘This living ship’. Of escaped prisoners. During its fourth and - for the present - final season, Farscape was the Sci-Fi Channel’s highest rated original series. With its dedicated fan-base, Farscape seasons are still top-billing Sci-Fi DVDs. This first proper analysis of the show, written by a scholar-fan, uncovers Farscape’s layers and those of the living spaceship Moya. Jes Battis proposes that Farscape is as much about bodies, sex and gender, as it is about wormholes, space ships and interstellar warfare. It is this straddling of genres that makes the show so viewable to such a broad audience, of which almost half are women. He explores Farscape’s language and characters, including Moya, its creation of ‘family and home’, of masculinity and femininity, and the transformation of an all-American boy.