WATCH NOW
When Farscape was unfortunately cut off during season four in 2003, David Prowse who served as a writer on the series, Rockne O’Bannon, and Andrew Prowse had a hard choice to make. After starting work on the fourth season, they planned on ending the series on a cliffhanger because they assumed that they would be coming back for a fifth season of the Jim Henson Company funded show. But a tough decision now had to be made: should they take a quick rewrite or air the episode as intended and let it serve as a sort of finale to the show? The latter decision was chosen. Not only did they end the episode with “To Be Continued…” but decided to air the episode as it was intended to be.
Jim Henson Company decided to fund the show so that there could be a 5th season, but when the show was cancelled it was met with a large amount of resistance. To keep the fans satisfied, they decided to fund the mini series called The Peacekeeper Wars. The mini-series resolved the cliffhanger and gave a sense of closure to all the main storylines of the show. The show was released on Sci-Fi channel in 2004. It is astonishing how all of the stars of the show were reunited alongside and other characters during the mark off the mini-series.
The question of whether The Peacekeeper Wars was needed to be told remains contentious. Even if there were many unresolved plot points, from a character perspective, it seemed like the fourth season’s “Bad Timing” had succeeded in bringing closure.
The series commences with Crichton shot through a wormhole, triggering fantasies of living a normal life on Earth. In the episode “Bad Timing”, that life closes off from Earth. The rest of the universe is treacherous and unkind, and to protect Earth, he has no choice but to cut it off from the Universe. While he is getting closed off by the wormhole, a new life with a new family awaits him. Aeryn and Crichton’s life is in full bloom after what appears to be long anticipated tribulation. Aeryn is confident that the child she is bearing is Crichton’s. Following D’Argo and Chiana’s reunion in the previous episode, this event leads to an engagement.
Scorpius even has a girlfriend now, so everything seems to be going well for everyone (unfortunate Braca). As Crichton has his last conversation with his father while he is in Moon’s orbit, one golden era of Crichton’s life comes to a close. The series reaches an abrupt end and shines light on how Crichton’s father tries to compliment him by saying that there are a lot of new beginnings, which courtesy of Crichton’s knowledge on wormholes leaves us wondering what types of adventures await.
Above everything else, the ever intriguing mystery of why exactly Aeryn and Crichton are abruptly shattered into pieces never fails to puzzle viewers, for that revelation only dawns upon you when viewing the last few seconds of the show.
Even if the climax of Crichton and Aeryn’s engagement serves as a perfect concluding point, the showrunners had different plans; and boy did they follow them through to the end. Even so, this could serve as the end of the story in Crichton’s life, however, this is a rather unwarrantedly dark and depressing end. But then those words “To Be Continued” appeared which gave viewers a sense of assurance that this was not the ending they had in mind for Crichton and Aeryn’s story; even though it seemed like we would not be able to find out the answer to this ‘one’ dilemma.
And so, we move on to The Peacekeeper Wars. At the end, the miniseries is truly an amazing piece of work. First of all, we understand how Crichton and Aeryn escape from drowning in the first scene and how most of the important characters receive some form of closure. Some characters reach it via resolution while others had to ‘die’ in order to find peace. Only Chiana’s narrative appears to be incomplete; the Nebari would get involved in the fifth season, however there is no space for them here.
The most interesting part of the tension in the series also appears like it’s getting resolved. The backstories concerning wormhole technology, weapons, and the threat of war between Peacekeepers and Scarrans come to a head. Even though the episode “Bad Timing” furnished a feeling of emotional termination, The Peacekeeper Wars brings forth a far better resolution of the actual plot.
The crux of the problems in TPKW stem from an attempt to do justice to over a dozen hours worth of planned and scripted storytelling within three. Due to her prior “dreaming” in season four, Chiana suffered from blindness& some tossed out line stating Chiana now possesses “new eyes” meshes well with the idea that she was intended to serve as more than an afterthought in this season’s five episodes.
Rygel’s desire to reclaim his lost crown is brought to fruition but other than a cursory mention to him where he captured cousin, it’s not confirmed that it’s all gone a bit pear shaped over there on Hyneria without him and “it” has to be covered in a line or two.
Although Sikozu was never the most trustworthy (or loved) character, her betrayal of Scorpius comes out of nowhere and doesn’t sit well with her proclaimed aims after season four and once again has to be explained in a few lines.
One of the most attention-grabbing though possibly one of the most planned out plot arcs in Rygel ending up pregnant with Aeryn and Crichton’s child is still baffling. This is the primary focus for Part 1 of TPKW, and since it was designed to allow Claudia Black to portray her character more freely, it does feel as if it were all a rush to figure out a way to fit a story into a single feature length episode. Midway through the season, there had to be some sort of explanation as to why there was no Michael for the rest of season five, so this was thrown into the mix as a solution.
It is more than obvious that the major focus of the mini series is the Aeryn Crichton and Rygel storyline. These open up a whole array of possibilities, some of which could potentially destroy galaxies, but when Crichton is seen in a coma, we know the mini series will end with him in a stable state.
Since this was the series finale, all bets are off, and anyone can die, this Game Of Thrones like state is rather unfortunate. To be honest, it is understandable that Farscape was a very bold show, taking into account that there is an entire universe where it could have potentially ended with the destruction of the entire galaxy. Then, setting the starting incident of his Extreme Chicken game somewhere else might have been even more illuminating than that first scene of our heroes in a universe that is very much still existing.
The whole series is acted and filmed in a manner which builds a lot of tension regardless of the fact that there is one recurring and one regular character’s death in the show, which is quite shocking and dramatic.
When you have a reasonably good high body count show, eliminating a regular character is almost a standard. This is why D’Argo was chosen, being the most logical option. By season four, D’arhgo’s arc was pretty much complete as he had gotten his revenge and elected captain by Moya’s crew. He was now truly confident with himself. D’arhgo was shown to be content as he married Chiana and owned a really cool Luxan ship. The mini-series depicts the start of D’arhgo’s reconciliation journey with his son, Jothee. But in the end, he was doomed and had nowhere to go.
His death would also have an impact on Crichton the most without causing him to feel too shattered (as Aeryn’s would). If Crichton or Aeryn (or the baby) were to be killed off, it would have been too melancholic; killing Rygel off might have been too light-hearted; and killing off Moya and/or Pilot would have resulted in no ship, no home. D’Argo or Chiana had to die, and since D’Argo was happier with himself and closer to Crichton, D’Argo it was.
At least now everybody can stop acting as if they are in command and are not simply following orders from Crichton, and thus can appoint him as their captain.
Even if TPKW was made on an impressively short scale of time after the series, a couple of elements do tend to stand out for casual viewers. Evil Peacekeeper Grayza’s pregnancy was an outcome that was forced because the actress, Rebecca Riggs was pregnant, so it couldn’t be prevented.
Anyways, considering the information we have regarding Peacekeeper reproduction (it’s often performed through a breeding program, the fetus is capable of being chilled in a freezer for up to seven years as long as it’s at a very early stage of development, and there’s one other twist it needs to be released by a surgeon; which – the final twist due to the low budget of the mini-series after being released, the fetus has to come out within a few days), Grayza’s decision to have her fetus released at this particular moment, during her attempts at instigating a conflict with the Scarrans, is illogical (furthermore, she appears to be pregnant for a longer period of time than Aeryn. It is simply a consequence of human/Sebacean hybridization oddities).
Everything pales in comparison to Jool greeting Crichton by kissing him and being upset to find Aeryn, which comes out of nowhere and has no background whatsoever. The last time we saw her, Jool was mooning over D’Argo.
But these are just small issues. Overall, TPKW has delivered a thrilling and thorough conclusion to the series. Even an incomplete resolution to the plot is better than no resolution and any minor issues are rendered irrelevant by the glee of finally watching Crichton and Aeryn marry. With Aeryn giving birth while being shot at in a city under siege is obviously an outlandish setting for a wedding, but helps paint the immensity of the spectacle. Along with the immensely tough offspring, who has survived Sebacake heat delirium and survived being doll-sized, tortured, almost nuked, and even shattered into pieces. Let’s not forget the elevator escapade too. All of this happens before he is a day old.
It’s true that these final sequences are a bit too cheesy even for me but such excesses were Farscape’s occasional weaknesses along with blowing up half the crew. Though Farscape has rightfully earned some cheese, less so after all the death and destruction. If it had to end, this is as good as an excuse as any.
To watch more movies like Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars (2004) visit 123movies
Also Watch for more movies like: Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars (2004)
