[Brief silence for the opening of the show. D'argo's screaming for Crichton.]

ANTHONY SIMCOE: G'day and welcome to this DVD commentary, I'm Anthony Simcoe, I play D'argo on the show.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: And I am Rockne O'Bannon, creator of the series.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: Well, these episodes of Farscape introduce the wonderful Rowan Woods to the show. Who started with this episodes and has been with us, ever since. And it was fantastic to meet Rowan. For us Australians, he was very well known, because he directed a film called "The Boys", which is a wonderful drama film for which he won the AFI awards. AFI is the Australian equivalence of the Oscars, so he came as a highly decorated Australian film maker. So all the actors on the show who are Australian were actually very excited. It was like "Oh my God! Rowan Woods is coming on the show! What am I gonna do? Oh my God! Rowan Woods! Rowan Woods! Okay. Okay. I've gotta be on the money. I've gotta do it right." And we're all very nervous to meet him, which is very funny now that we've become friends with him, and he's "part of the furniture" as they say, in the best possible way.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: And this was a real baptism of fire for Rowan, because he directed this one and Back and Back and Back to the Future, together. The first six episodes we shot in blocks, two of them at a time. And this episode in particular, was a real difficult one in terms of production, because it has a planet environment, which is always difficult, it also has a lot of extras, which was the subject of a lot of discussions, in terms of how we were gonna do this many alien extras. There's a lot of CG. This shot, [transport pod, landing] is a perfect example. And Rowan just came in and we slam these two scripts in his lap, and said, you know, "Call us when you're finished."

ANTHONY SIMCOE: It wasn't shot without tension, I can tell you that, right now. He was feeling the heat of the fire. But he did an absolutely marvelous job. It was really fantastic to be working with him. These scenes down here on Sykar, are shot - aren't actually in the studio. We shot this series at Fox studios, in Australia, in Sydney. But these here aren't on the lot, they're actually shot in old, abandoned railway yards, next to Central Station, in Sydney. And they'd been converted, I think, in the mid '90's for a theater company, for The Bell Boy Street Theater Company, in Sydney, and they do lots of productions, there. And the production hired out the Bell Boy Street Theater space to, to locate the planet Sykar. So, it was nice to get off the lot and to move into this really large space. And it helps to contribute to the feel of the location, cause we're able to get these nice, big, long wide shots which we wouldn't have been able to achieve in studio.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: And that's one of the huge challenges of the series, is the fact that we weren't going to do a show that took place on the ship, every week. We really wanted these escaping prisoners to have the opportunity to visit different worlds. And that was, obviously, part of the fun of taking John Crichton, our human representative, and have him never really come into contact with anyone he's familiar with. So, this is yet another crowning example of poor John Crichton thrust into an incredibly alien world. Remember having my first conversation with Rowan Woods, the director. And we were so anxious to be sure that the show didn't have a conventional look or approach, and I'd never, obviously, spoken to Rowan before, and we didn't have - we had some film to show but not a great deal from the earlier episodes. And, so I kept saying "We just want it as odd and weird and alien as possible." And I didn't know at the time, who I was talking to. [chuckles] That I didn't have to say that with quite as much emphasis. But, Rowan, obviously, nodded and went off and has not stopped running with that edict, ever since.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: He's a specialist in weird. Amazing imagination. It's interesting, that scene that we've just scene, in the cold open, before-hand, very first time you see D'argo, my character, loose. And, I knew, that for me, this episode, or these two episodes, actually, with Rowan, were going to be a watershed for me. They were either going to make or break my own perception of where I would be going with Farscape. Because, up until then - because of several factors. One, because of the makeup and I mean, we hadn't really sorted that problem out. I couldn't move, I couldn't turn. I couldn't do any of those things, properly. There was that factor. And also, just the way D'argo was being written, I was going, I was starting to get the feeling Hello, I'm feeling a little bit closed-in, here. I've got to start to stretch the boundaries a little bit and give some indication to the writers that maybe we can take this character in a certain direction. And having D'argo drunk and seduced by this planet - down on this planet, was a real opportunity for me to take him in another direction. And, in fact, I've talked about this before, but, after this episode, I got a call from Rock, telling me that indeed, yes, we had thought of you in this way, but now we like what you did there, now we're gonna take you in another way. Rock, do you want to talk about how you originally saw D'argo and then how he evolved and changed over?

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: Well, it was a condition of the construct of the series, that for the opening, the premier episode, the John Crichton, come in contact with aliens, that in a certain way, were icons that we kind of expect in Science Fiction material, and it was never our intent or interest to leave them as icons, we just knew that in that first one, that was kind of the joke, if you will. And so, in our casting, we were very careful to be sure to get folks who could play more than just that single range, and we knew that we had that with Anthony. And this script as Anthony says, was designed specifically to show that the fellow back there, wasn't just all deep voice and Qualta Blade. But, really, could play those variations. And, I mean, throughout the first season, we had lots of different colors for D'argo, and certainly Season Two and coming up in Three, there some really, some really unusual stuff coming up.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: And it's wonderful to take that archetype into such different territory where you would originally perceive that this warrior type person is going to behave in a very militaristic way, and really turn that on it's head and find out there's a lot more different shadings to him. In this episode - this and Episode Five, really opened that out. I'd also like to talk about Angie Milliken, here, who plays Volmae. Angie Milliken, in Australia, is a theatrical star. She appears as leads, all around the country, in all the classical plays, for Sydney Theater Company, Melbourne Theater Company, all the wonderful theater companies in Australia. And, I, right from the moment I went to drama school, right up to this day, have been in love with Angie Milliken, and her work, cause she is just such a beautiful person and such a wonderful performer. And, what she embraced in this role, was such a sense of oddness, that I really thought that she went out on a limb. And to be honest, she copped a lot of flack for it there, and to this day, there's some people who thought she missed the mark, and there are other people who think that she got it spot-on. But for my money, I think she took a really brave risk with this role physically, vocally, and put it out there. And that was also double thing for me. I'm also dealing with this "Oh my god, I'm meeting Rowan Woods" thing, and on the other hand I hear "Oh my god, Angie Milliken's coming in!" All this, what am I going to do?

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: It is, it's known as a fearless performance, and again, I think that's Rowan saying what can we do to make this as alien as possible.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: Yes.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: And it's moments like that, performances like that, I think, so distinguish this show, for audiences, that they became - they embrace the show that much earlier on, because as I said, this is an odd hour of television.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: Yes.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: We're not used to this, you know. Some things they may like and they may not. And I agree with you, I've heard the same thing about her performance, some people love it and some people don't. As far as I'm concerned, it's exactly dead-on because it is so not expected.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: Yes.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: So, couldn't have asked for better.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: Rock, I'd really love to hear your comments on what I love about Farscape, what the fact that it doesn't just exist cerebrally. For me, lots of Science Fiction strives to be - strives to have such high intellectual ideals, that it robs it of a lot of emotional, and, I don't know what to say, visceral intensity. And Farscape doesn't seem to go down that path. Do you agree, or?

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: That was very much a matter of decisions in terms of just the physical makeup of the world. We wanted to show, I think it was, more action-adventure and hands-on. We didn't want them taking transporters down to a planet and that sort of thing. We wanted it to be more mechanical, greasy, get your hands dirty kind of place. We thought that would be more interesting for John. This whole point with John Crichton's character is, he's in an environment where he doesn't know how things work. So, even though he's a very heroic figure, it's very difficult, or more difficult to be heroic when you don't know how the frelling gun works. Or how to make the ship go forward as opposed to backwards, that sort of thing. And if everything was too non-tactile, you know, too many things that were automated, and too futuristic, then we wouldn't have the opportunity to do that with that character. So that was kind of essentially where it came from. And it was also a matter of trying to keep it away from anteing that's futuristic. We didn't want it to be that, we wanted it to be more of a roll up your sleeves and get in there and work with the world.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: A different place, rather than a different time.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: Mm hm. Exactly.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: Here are the scenes where I was just absolutely having a ball. I mean, it sounds like a small thing, but it's the very first time you've seen D'argo smile to any great extent. His voice is starting to get a little bit higher, you're starting to see much looser changes coming about with the character. And the fact that I can now move in the makeup, is really making a big difference. The fact that I can turn my head, the fact that I can walk around. All things that I literally couldn't do in the first few episodes because of the structure of my makeup. That's D'argo....finally going to the Promised Land. [chuckles] Cause let's face it, D'argo's up for women on any planet. [laughs]

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: Alien sex.

[Brief silence as the scene plays out. Zhaan's changing and chatting with John.]

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: It's interesting, because the sensuality of the series is something that we worked very hard to integrate into it. It was very important to Brian Henson, from the very beginning, when we first talked about this series, that it be an adult experience. That it not be a children's show, which is obviously what the Henson company is known so well for. But he wanted something that was a little bit darker and was not necessarily something that, you know, would be perceived as strictly children's entertainment. And it was an interesting balance, we had to hit in terms of the fact that we had puppets and we had very elaborate prosthetic makeup, and that sort of thing, and then the Henson name, obviously, at the head of the show. And then to get the network and the audience to understand that, no, this isn't a Henson children's program, but it's very much something, you know, that has more going on behind it than that, that has an adult sensibility. And the sensuality, which is obviously, in our construct, a part of the universe, as a part of our environment here at home, just became, you know, an important part of the building of the series.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: Became very important for us, as performers, as well. Because it's a real challenge to make rubber and animatronics, sexy. Or if sexy, sexual. Because you don't have all the physical attributes of a normal human being. So, to make tentacles and puppets and things, sensual and sexual, was a real challenge and something that we work really hard on in these early days. Part of that process for my character, was that the chin piece you see coming down, ended up being decided, by Rowan actually, in Episode Five, a very, very erogenous zone for my character. And just things like that, making the rubber come a bit alive, giving it a function, is really contributed to the sexuality of the show.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: Speaking of which [re: Zhaan's hand on John's groin]

ANTHONY SIMCOE: Speaking of which, we have our very tasteful gag. [laughs]

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: I was gonna say, our most subtle, sensual moments of Farscape.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: It is, I think that we really found the tone of this show, in Episode Seven. I love many moments in every single one of these Episodes, but it really was a journey, marching straight towards Episode Seven, and as soon as we hit that Episode, I feel that we all discovered as a company, what Farscape was. Do you agree with that?

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: I do. It was a real turning point. It was also the first episode we shot as a singular unit. We - the idea of shooting two at a time was a valiant experiment, but one - especially with a show of this complexity, was just incredibly difficult to pull off, because it was Actor and Director trying to keep two complex stories in their heads, and you know, be able to shoot a scene from one in the morning and then - cause you're on the same set, shoot a scene from another one. And as Anthony can tell you, better than I, just - it became difficult.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: It became way too complex and complicated and became very frustrating to be bumping between things. And also, things would become - put so far down the list that we'd have to shoot some scenes so quickly, and without any attention to detail that we were lucky we got away with it in some senses. So I think we're all really relieved when we got to move to one episode per shooting schedule.

[Brief silence while the scene plays out. D'argo's explaining that it's the last day of the work cycle.]

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: And, considering the early days of a television series, are always a very nerve racking time, and one very intense experience, in terms of trying to get across a singular vision that then everyone can pick up and then follow through with. And with this series, it's interesting if you were to go back and look at the early scripts, they were far more specific and far more detailed in terms of maybe some suggestions in terms of performance styles and that sort of thing, and certainly in terns of CGI shots and technical things like that. And it was right around Episode Seven and this period here, where we started to loosen that up, and the actors in the early episodes would bring so much of their own, you know, inventive stuff and go off from what was on the page, as they should, and also in terms of production, they - it got to the point where we wouldn't describe any of the alien characters. We'd say what they needed to be able to do, but we would specifically not be real detailed in terms of what they looked like, so that we would be able to take advantage of the creativity of the Creature Shop and the CG artists and that sort of thing, and let them bring their eye to it, and it really paid off.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: It's a wonderful thing to shoot those outdoor scenes there on Skier. Where they are is behind a suburb called Maroubra which is a big suburb of Sydney, of the eastern suburbs, and it's this small Chinese market-garden, next to one of the largest cemeteries in Syndey. So we sort of - our trailers, were in one part of the cemetery, and we sort of had to traipse through all these tombstones dressed up as aliens, to get down to the market-garden to start to shoot these scenes. So it was really quite a surreal experience. And then to finally see the CGI element of it, with these wonderful big cliffs in the background and the trains running through was really exciting for us, cause by this stage, we hadn't had any CGI come through, or if some, very very little. I think a couple of shot of Moya, maybe. But we hadn't - the CGI post house hadn't caught up with what we were doing, then, so we didn't have a really clear idea.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: CGI is such a miraculous opportunity to portray scale. Something that television in the past, hasn't been able to do. And that, again, was one of our important early discussions with this CG group, with Garner McClennen was, that I wanted the show to have a sense of size. I remembered the - one of the many, many things impressive about the original Star Wars was the fact that they used scale very, very well. They would do shots that were obviously not CG at the time, but were mat shots, but where the people were very small in the framing and you really got a sense of these grand environments and I wanted to do that - I had not seen that in episodic television. I wanted them to bring the scale and grand size of Science Fiction Art. Things that you see on the front of paperback novels and that sort thing. You know, that sort of grand, heroic sized stuff. And, with a bit of a dollop of fantasy, which I thought, again, I thought television hadn't gotten their hands on, yet.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: I think it works beautifully. And the step beyond that, that I love, is that Paul Butterworth not only gave us a beautiful pictorial element which gave us the size and dimensions and locations of the story, but he also has a fantastic sense of cinema, so that the shots also advance the story. I think when CGI doesn't work, it's just a well-drawn backdrop to the story. But, most of the shots that Garner McClellan and Paul Butterworth contributed to the series, really did work hard to advancing the story. So, they're really kept within the rhythm that the director wanted to use, in the piece, and I think that was a real skill that he brought to this series. [Brief silence] And to our wonderful extras. It's the first time we had a lot of extras on Farscape, as well. So that was very unusual. So, you've got also the very first *feedback*, if you like, from normal people, or from Syndey who had never heard of Farscape, obviously, and didn't know what was going on. They walk on set and see all this wonderful makeups and prosthetics and for a show of this size and certainly this style, to be shot in Sydney, is very rare. Or, if not, never to have been done before. So, it was very strange to have all these people responding to us, wearing this makeup.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: This shot [re: Zhaan & D'argo working the field, outside] is a good example of something that concerned us early on, which was how the makeup would fair, when photographed out in direct sunlight. On shows, such as Star Trek, which use, obviously, a lot of makeup, and some prosthetics, it pretty much always takes place on the ship, and it's very controlled lighting conditions, and they can light, obviously, to suit the makeup. But it was something that Brian and I were *real* concerned about, in the design of the makeup and the colors - because we knew we'd be going outside. That it be able to hold up and still look real under harsh Ozzie sun. [Brief silence] This is an example of how we use Rygel. It's very important to us - one of the things, Rygel is a very, very important character to us, obviously, but he's also a very expensive player in front of the camera, because of the time and the number of people it takes to operate him, etcetera. So, the writers - our marching orders are to always get Rygel in one place, and kind of keep him there. So, in the episode, we figure, we'll just freeze him, and that'll definitely keep him in one place.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: It was a wonderful sculpt, the frozen Rygel. Everyone on set was saying "Have you seen the frozen Rygel? Have you seen the frozen Rygel?" And everyone was walking up to the Creature Shop to have a look at it, because it's fame had proceeded it. [Brief Silence] Ben was fabulous in this Episode. He had a really heavy workload, dealing with the two episodes, jumping back and forth and he really does, as always, a wonderful job. I think on any t.v. show, you want to develop a really strong ensemble, but like any ensemble, like any time, you need a good captain. And Ben has been just a wonderful captain to the whole cast. One thing we were *really* worried about, was if someone was going to try to come down, join the cast, and really impose their authority, rather than earn it through respect. And Ben is such a gentle and well-mannered and knowledgeable person, that he recognizes the fact that only through a strong and solid team do you have a solid show. It's no good pumping yourself up and have everyone else, left in the wake. So, he's wonderful with getting everyone on board and trying to make sure everyone's happy and contributing to the scene. So, always a pleasure.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: And, he endures a lot. Because it's one of the perverse pleasures in the writing room, to simply see how much we can pile onto John Crichton, in a single episode.

[Silence while the scene plays out. D'argo gives John work clothes. ]

ANTHONY SIMCOE: I remember these scenes fondly, in this little room, because it was the first time that I really started to add lots and lots of joke off-set. [chuckles] So, which became the Farscape norm. And also, lots of dancing.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: Dancing and music and alien environments is always a crap shoot. It's like, you never know.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: The really exciting thing about shooting the show in Sydney, is that we don't make, or haven't made Science Fiction television, in the past. So, it's a novelty. Novelty in the very best sense. It's a project that people really want to be involved in, in Sydney. And how this influences the show, is that the cast is extremely experienced. We have a cast on this show with many films, many television shows, many theatrical productions, under their belts, because they're very keen to work this type of medium, because we don't get the opportunity in Australia. So, that was one of the most exciting things for me to come to, when I joined the show, is to find that I was surrounded by not only such talented people, but also by people with such a great deal of experience. And how that influences what you see on the screen, is the bravery of the choices, by not only the regular cast, but many of the guest cast make, as well. Visa vie Angie Milliken, with Volmae. If you have performers who have done theater, who have done mask work, who have worked in stylistic productions, outside of normal straight drama or soap opera, then they're more readily available to embrace the physical choices needed to make Science Fiction television. And you can certainly see - it's not that they are theatrical in the worst sense of the word, it's that they bring with them an imagination which sits outside the box of normal human expression. So, that they can really change the way that they move, the way that they talk, the physical nature of how they respond to things. That, in turn, contributes to making them alien. And that's a wonderful thing about working with all these actors. [Brief silence] The one eye opening at a time, on Volmae, is something that I love. Although, I know that Angie was really glad to get those contacts out of her eyes, each day. In fact, many times, when we were shooting this, as she was opening up her eyes, one at a time, the contacts would fall out. So, one eye would open up and then, pop, contact on the end of the eyelashes, and it was like "oh no.". But she was wonderful. Wonderful to work with. Beautiful makeup by Leslie Vanderwalten.

[Brief silence as the scene plays out. Volmae encourages John to eat the food and enjoy. He spits it out when she turns her back. Scene moves to Aeryn complaining that she doesn't want to work on Rygel.]

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: This was a real interesting episode for the character Aeryn Sun. It - in the premier, Crichton gets her to come with him and the escaping prisoners by saying a phrase that resonates for a lot of the fans of the show, which is "You can be more.". And, in the next couple of episodes after the premier, she was still pretty straightforward, military, Peacekeeper character, as she should be. And this is the first time she's gone up back to the ship with Rygel, alone, thinking nothing was wrong and now she's up here having to do something that's very uncomfortable for her, which is do something with her mind, perform scientific experiments. And it's real interesting to see, and Claudia did it with tremendous subtlety, which gave us a lot of play, through the rest of the season. And she didn't give it all here, where she was playing the uncomfortableness, I mean she just really did this exactly right. And, it's a wonderful turning point for the Aeryn Sun character. Kind of the beginning of her blossoming as someone who can be more.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: That's one of the great challenges of working in series television, is the arch of the whole series. Normally when you come in and do a film or you come in and do a play, you've got an arch over a very specific and short period of time. But here, you have to really make sure you're not giving things away, too far in advance, too quickly, too easily or indeed, in such a labored manner that no one's going to care. And plotting that long term journey is really important, and I think Claudia and I agree completely, just took us from that Peacekeeper, military, stiffness if you like, to her blossoming period, throughout the series, in perfect stages, that we were constantly interested in it, as a dramatic tension. And it wasn't something that we realized at the end, it was something that we were living with and interested in, throughout the whole series. Cause she plotted it in such a specific way.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: Now, you see this is a definite stepping stone between - from the premier episode, she's the, you know, a very contained, Peacekeeper soldier, to later episodes where she's obviously very much a ardent protector and - of the other family, that she's grown to know. And right up to when Moya asks her to help name the baby, which is an incredibly emotional moment, for the character, on screen. And for the audience, as well.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: I'm laughing, looking at that shot, where Ben's pulling the plant out of the ground, because we had gone through so many of that prop, because of the way that we'd established the way that we'd take it out of the ground, we'd dig around it, and then pull it by the root at the top, But, as we kept pulling it, it kept breaking the prop, in half. And I think by the time Ben got to that shot, they were saying "Look, we can't afford to break any more of these. Do you mind just reaching underneath it and pulling it out like a football?" And he's like "Yeah, no problem."

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: Our production designer, on a show like this, is such an important player, obviously. You look at the environments that he has to create. Ricky Eyres who was production designer from the very beginning and designed all of the interiors of Moya, as well as each of the, obviously, environments from each of the individual episodes. Behind Ben there is a very elaborate train car, that he discovered at the location, and was able to integrate it into the - not just the look of that particular spot in the necessary set, here, but carried themes from it, obviously, as you can tell in terms of color, etcetera, to other parts of the Sykar environment. And very, very creative use of what's on hand, on a location. And Ricky's real good at that. He's worked on Phantom Menace and Saving Private Ryan and his earliest - one of his earlier projects was The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. The television version of the Harrison Ford series of films. And, again, made that such a rich experience.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: Very interesting having Ricky on set, because he's always carrying around his design bible. And the level of detail he goes to is something that I've never experienced in a designer before and I know that, from talking to the directors, is that they found it a really profound experience as well. He'd come in and he'd talk to the directors, apparently, I've been told "You know, I think you should use this lense here. I've built this set to be shot, you know, on this lense from these three angles." He's really detailed, he really knows his lenses. He knows specifically and technically how the set should be shot. Not in terms of dictating to the directors what they should do, but very good at communication from where and how this set was built to look good. And that's a wonderful skill and it's great that he takes that interest, in it. I think for all people involved with film making, whether they're actors or designers, whatever, they really understand the technicality of the lenses and the cameras and how they're going to work and how they're going to contribute to the shooting. It makes the dialogue between all the different departments much more fruitful. Tina Thompson, who, if any British people watching this or listening to this DVD will know from Australian soap series called Home and Away. She's been a Australian soap star for many years. Tina Thomsen. This girl here.

[Brief silence as the scene plays out. She begs Crichton to help free them.]

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: One of the things to keep in mind is that everything you see on screen is a decision. I've said this about directing films before, that literally everything you see, whether it's obviously camera placement or even time of day, is a decision. And on this show, that really comes to the fore-front, because we didn't want to create a show that looked or the feel of anything that had come before it. We really wanted to be distinctive. And we - and one of the big contributors to this, was the international nature of the show. Obviously the Henson company, and myself and David Kemper are American influence, the huge Ozzie production, and directors and actors, Ricky Eyres who's British, several of the puppeteers and Creature Shop people are from England. And I think this kind of melding of cultures and sometimes clashing of cultures, have really made this as distinctive an experience as it is. And I don't think we would have gotten this look - I know we wouldn't have gotten this, anything close to this, if we'd stayed strictly on American shores, or really, anywhere else. One of the other huge advantages of Australia, is the very exotic landscape. And gives us, without having to go very far from Sydney itself, the opportunity to portray some pretty unusual alien landscapes. And that was one of the other appeals of heading down there.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: It's one of the contributing factors of having Australians telling Science Fiction, as I said before, we never made this medium, in this way, before. So, whether it's good, bad, or indifferent, it's unique. It's new. It's predominantly Australians telling Sci Fi. And I think that's what brings a new flavor, and that melange between those three cultures is really fascinating. And it was great to have the guidance and experience and the backup of Rock and David and Brian, who'd not only grown up with it in much closer contact than we had, but have contributed to it significantly. We're able to learn those lessons and bring them into an Australian context, and that's really been fantastic.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: This is also - a moment coming up here - is the revelation that the Peacekeepers have, in fact, made a foray into the Uncharted Territories. Which is something we had not established in any of the other episodes. At the end of the premier, Crichton and the others aboard Moya, escape into the Uncharted Territories, and the impression is given that Crais and his command carrier are the only Peacekeepers who actually come into the Uncharted Territories, to pursue. But this, introduces the notion that the Peacekeepers have - do make forays into the Uncharted Territories, and it's something that we start to touch on, you know, more and more, as the series went on.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: The fact that they're unseen, I think at this point, really helped contribute or solidify the nature of the Peacekeepers. I really appreciated that, certainly made them much more menacing than they had been, previously. I think, to be honest, we missed the mark a little bit in Episode Three and we gave a visual look to the Peacekeepers that perhaps not everyone was really happy with. And then we started to redress the balance from this point on. Would you agree?

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: Uh, yeah, I would. And again, I mean, that was in the earliest days of the series.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: The very earliest.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: This is, again, another wonderful Ricky Eyres production inspired transition from the Sykar environment, just outside the door to this very Peacekeeper image. And Ricky used, as his inspiration, for the Peacekeepers, early Twentieth Century Russian Industrial design and look. And he went with the colors. In fact, that symbol, what he uses as the Peacekeeper symbol, is something he's varied from a symbol he found on a very early Russian Revolutionary poster.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: Oh, I didn't know that! It's fantastic. [Brief pause] I love the fact they've got a symbol like a Swastika, that you associate with that empire. Evil Empire.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: And it - and it's wonderful, and I'm sure the Russians didn't intend this, but it's this wedge, encroaching on a softer form, you know, I mean, it really, it's wonderfully evil, you know, invasive. And Ricky sees stars.

[Silence as the scene plays out. Volmae wants John to take the bulbs on his ship.]

ANTHONY SIMCOE: I love Ben's look on his face, he goes "Angie's just out there, Anthony" I always see in Ben's head, he's probably thinking - it's probably not true at all, but I always see Ben going "What are you doing?" [laughs]

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: But, that's Crichton, too. It's absolutely perfect.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: Absolutely. It's wonderful double-edged sword for me. Fantastic. [Brief pause] Ben's very helpful with all the guest cast, trying - as we all are, trying to make them feel comfortable. Because it can be a very intimidating set to come and work on. Not because of the people, but because of the nature of the uniqueness of Farscape. It's a very, very different set to walk on and have animatronics, and puppets and prosthetics, and that can be very intimidating for some of the guest cast. So, we always work incredibly hard at trying to make everyone feel really comfortable with the environment.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: Certainly at this stage, no one had seen a frame of film, really. I mean, by this stage, I think we may have had a couple of directors assemblies possibly. But we'd be, obviously, loathed to send those out to guest cast as an example of what we were doing. So then, it really became a matter of touring the guest cast around and again, it was all very verbal, I think, at that stage. So, yeah, they were really coming in and, you know, winging it.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: Yeah.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: The big advantage of CGI is that you can take elements and combine them to make a really fantastic shot. For example, taking actual photographic elements of mountains and adding created illustrations that you marry into that, so you can take the mountain environment over the left side of the screen, and marry it to the building structure in the center and build a really interesting image that you couldn't do with just a regular mat shot, as they used to do in the years before computers.

[Brief silence. John wants to talk to Aeryn in a secluded spot, but she wants to know right now what's going on. She wants to just grab Zhaan & D'argo and go.]

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: One of the joys of this show, is the fact that it's such a crucible, such a cauldron of conflict. Star Trek has done incredibly well with it's military crew and it never, sort of, has any arguments between themselves and all the conflict comes from the outside. And one of the things we worked very hard on with this show to do, to create, to say this kind of crucible, where we throw these characters together and they have to interact, and need to work together but they don't always do so in any sort of comfortable fashion. And it makes the writing really cooks, and when it cooks...and it really fuels the performances.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: It's a wonderful thing to act. I was really drawn to these scripts originally, cause of that exact nature. I didn't want to have - or I didn't think it would be interesting to have happy families in space. And the fact that we can be at each other's throats, is something that makes it incredibly interesting, all the way along. And then the teamwork and the companionship and the trust, has to be earned. And that journey to earning that trust, and then letting it down again, and then rebuilding it, is something that makes Farscape really interesting. Because you get to see those journey's, over a period of time.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: And the trust come and goes. It doesn't, you know, as you say, it has to be earned. And because there's history, you know that, you know, when it does wane, when the trust wanes, that it's, you know, has seedance to that. You know, I mean, you know that the seeds, you know, that are fueling that animosity. Hitchcock always said, you know, "The hardest line to deliver is 'Tennis anyone?'". Because there's nothing to it. If there's some attitude behind it, it's a much easier line to deliver. It's funny, the things we take so for granted, are the very things that are hardest to decide what they should be. Music being one of them, the style of dance. Food. I noticed the plate of food, there. The food cubes from the premier and how we would portray what these aliens would eat. Is something that was difficult to do, because we didn't want it to be obviously something that you could immediately recognize. Yet, it did have to be something that was edible. So, again, you know, biiig meetings. Decisions on what that's gonna be.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: Lots of food coloring on food from Chinese supermarkets. That's the staple Farscape diet. [chuckling]

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: It was a market run to the Chinese market.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: These scenes [Sykarans vs. John/Aeryn] were incredibly difficult to shoot, we had so many extras and so many elements to tie together. And also, at this stage, I remember, our backs were really against the wall and this sequence was the very last thing we shot in this block, remembering that we're shooting Episodes Five and Six simultaneously. And this, I've got to admit, was a really stressful day. Everyone was working really hard this day, and I'm glad that we got through it.

[Silence as the scene plays out. D'argo threatens them, if they destroy what he's got. John calls for Rygel. Rygel's a bit slow on his cue.]

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: Rygel's participation here was something we designed in, early on. We were, again, trying to make the show as out there as possible. And the notion that Rygel could save the day by using his body fluids, as a weapon, was something we thought that we just couldn't resist. Initially, from the earliest moments, we had him ride in the back of a truck, and spraying to save the day. But obviously in the edict to keep Rygel in one place, we ended up placing the action in this one location. But, we would not let go of the notion that Rygel would save the day, but wouldn't have - I was going to say wouldn't have a weapon in hand, but he in fact, probably did.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: Interesting watching myself in these scenes, because as I've said before, it's the first stage of us fixing up D'argo's makeup, in terms of the comfort, for me to wear, being able to move around. But also, visually, we've just changed makeup artists. My very first makeup artists was Engand...Engand? England!

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON [slight Swedish accent]: Her name was Ingand.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: [chuckling] Yeah. And he had to go back, so then Colin Weir another makeup artist from the UK took over on this episode, and you start to see subtle changes in the way that D'argo looks, which is quite interesting. For example, the tattoos is powdered down a little bit more and not so - not so many dark colors and also they painted me a bit more differently around the eyes. We start to see D'argo look a little too red, here, actually and that only lasted for one or two Eps, before we had tone down that redness. It's still quite interesting. I mean Colin also was just an intermediary step towards Damien Martin who looks after me and has been looking after me for all of Series Two and most of Series One. It's interesting to look at how that makeup evolves. Not only in terms of my comfort, but visually.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: Yeah. It's interesting, cause the red obviously, doesn't hurt here, at all. Because it suits the fact that everyone else looks like they've been out, you know. The intent was that they'd been out there working, you know, in the really harsh Sykar sun, you know, for hours and hours with no days off. With the exception obviously, of Volmae, here.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: Oh, so they're the same race. Only because she hasn't been working in the fields, that she....

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: Yeah, and if you looked at the very subtle veinage - I wanted the fact that you could almost see through skin. And that you could see veins and that sort of thing, through her skin. So, her look, is actually what should be the typical Sykaran look. It's just the others have been co-opted by the Peacekeepers to work slavishly out in the bright sun, day after day after day. In speaking to the notion that if we really want to do a show that isn't a children's experience, it's something that, as I mentioned before, Henson was real anxious to see happen. And so the introduction of the worm to Crichton's stomach, in the earlier scene, we're gonna see it in a moment, as they extract it, was one of those images that you wouldn't normally see in a - one of the muppet productions. The little being itself, is what the Hensons call "a cat in a bag". Which is basically just a little thing that gyrates like that and normally, I guess you put in a bag and it looks like a cat, you know, moving in the bag. But they use it quite often for a lot of different puppet things and things that they do. And here they put the outside of the worm, and using that. I thought, Brian just casually said "Oh yeah, and we'll use the cat in the bag" and just thought...very funny.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: Wonderful. At the other end, when you very first see it go into his stomach, that's - Ben had a life cast done and they made a foam latex version of his stomach, punched the individual hairs in, and that's how they're then able to make the shot actually look like it was going in Ben's stomach, they draw the object into his stomach.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: I see Claudia here, I mean she's really made a - this has been a wonderful - and very few scenes, she hasn't been in a lot of scenes in this particular Episode. But the transition from the woman in the early scenes with the gun in her hand, to someone who was not happy with the notion of it being her responsibility to do the science and to this, where she's very confident about it. It was really quite remarkable. And here is our piece de la resistance.

ANTHONY SIMCOE: This was one of the most enjoyable scenes for me to come to, in Farscape, in the first eight episodes. Because we finally get to hear some ambitions from D'argo that are totally beyond what it is to be a warrior. To say that I've actually wanted a farm, to say that I wanted a rural life. Something beyond what you perceive of me. And it was really wonderful and I've gotta say, one of the great shames of this scene is that we were so out of time. That we didn't have time to come in and do any coverage. And it was great regret and we always wanted to and hoped to do it another day, but we couldn't, so it's a beautiful move anyway, and this scene still plays and it's wonderful. But I personally would have been in a bit tighter, but that's just me, cause I'm the actor. [laughs]

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: But it is a tribute to what you're doing here, in that it does so well play. I mean it just plays.

[Brief silence]

ANTHONY SIMCOE: You just start to experience a little more profoundly this ever changing relationship between Zhaan and D'argo which is incredibly interesting in the first series. You shift from teacher to student with these two, throughout the course of the series, which is really interesting, because it starts so solidly as her as the teacher and him as the student, that it's interesting when those roles are challenged.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: What's the line in one of the very last episodes of the first series?

ANTHONY SIMCOE: It's - I'm paraphrasing, but she says something like "When did our roles change, sweet D'argo?" and I say "When it required it." [Brief silence] That's the end of that wonderful episode directed by Rowan Woods. [Brief silence] Well, thank you very much for listening to this DVD, hope you find it enjoyable. I'm Anthony Simcoe, and I'll see ya next time.

ROCKNE S. O'BANNON: Thank you very much. Take care.

END OF COMMENTARY.