Farscape: Stories From The Comics In Case There’s Ever A Movie

At the time, that confirmed rumors from earlier that year, when writer Justin Monjo revealed that he was writing a script for a Farscape movie. A smaller but important element was that it sounded like the events of the Farscape movie would follow those of the BOOM! Studios comics.

It seemed the movie would pick up many years later, with John and Aeryn’s son D’Argo now 19 years old. All three would be living in hiding on Earth.

Both O’Bannon and Farscape novelist Keith R. A. DeCandido handled the writing duties on the comics, so it was no surprise that they had got the official stamp as “canon.”

However, we realize not every Farscape fan is a comic book fan. Maybe you just want the Cliffs Notes version without having to read through the Farscape comic series and its various spin-offs and tie-ins. Well, don’t worry, ‘scapers, we’ve got your back. Here’s everything you need to know about the comics before eventually diving into the newly announced movie.

Of all the items on this list, this one will likely have the biggest effect on the story of a Farscape movie. The strange powers exhibited by young D’Argo “Deke” Sun-Crichton were a major plot point throughout the comics, with the infant showing the ability to distort time.

At one point, he even shunted Crichton into an “unrealized reality” where Aeryn was still a loyal Peacekeeper and where Crichton and Aeryn had never met.

Those bizarre Farscape events eventually sent Aeryn off on a quest to try and determine the origin of Deke’s powers, at first speculating that they could be the result of her exposure to some toxin or other danger during her years as a Peacekeeper.

In the end, Deke’s mutation and the resulting powers were linked to Aeryn’s genetics, not John’s, but they remain largely a mystery, and their full extent probably still isn’t known. That mystery makes for a perfect jumping-off point for the new Farscape movie, which will have Crichton, Aeryn, and Deke forced back into galactic events when “villainous aliens” track the family to Earth.

John and Aeryn may have vowed that their son would be raised in peace, but it seems the men of the Crichton family are doomed to always possess something others will kill for.

As the Farscape comics began, Aeryn was having trouble settling into the role of a new mother. After all, she may have been conceived by parents who were in love — a rare exception among the Peacekeepers — but other than that, they played almost no role in her upbringing. In a way, the quest to learn about Deke’s powers is exactly what Aeryn needs: a distraction, something to do to distract her from the fact that she’s got no clue how to bond with a crying infant.

During her search, Aeryn discovers she is a Jaal-Sebacean, the purest of the Peacekeeper bloodlines, and reconnects with the teachings of Yemahl, an ancient and peaceful religion shunned and mocked by most modern Peacekeepers.

Skeptical at first, Aeryn eventually finds guidance and purpose in the vision of the Peacekeepers as a force for good rather than just a pack of thugs for hire. The Peacekeepers were already in bad shape after the events of Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, with many concluding that Commandant Grayza is no longer fit to lead them.

That leaves Aeryn perfectly positioned to take up another job she doesn’t particularly want but is unquestionably suited for. As the Commandant of the Peacekeeper forces on the eve of a war of unprecedented scope and destruction.

Nearly the entire run of the 24-issue Farscape ongoing series was dedicated to the so-called “War for the Uncharted Territories,” in one form or another, and it makes the stakes of the conflict between the Peacekeepers and Scarrans look quaint by comparison.

Ancient Farscape legends tell of the Kkore, a vicious, highly advanced race that periodically emerges through a spacial rift and lays siege to the Uncharted Territories. (It’s eventually revealed that the Peacekeepers’ “frag cannons” were actually based on Kkore tech.)

Unfortunately, the Kkore are more than just a tall tale, and the time has come for them to pay another visit. First attacking Pilot’s homeworld, the Kkore soon arrive in force and begin devastating every military force in the Uncharted Territories.

With Aeryn now in charge of the Peacekeeper armada — what’s left of it, anyway — she and the crew of Moya are left with the task of organizing the dwindling military might of the Uncharted Territories and trying to figure out a way to defeat the seemingly unstoppable Kkore.

Thankfully, Crichton and Aeryn have a proven knack for pulling off long-shot victories where failure seems certain, and they manage to succeed once again, thanks to an unprecedented union between pretty much every race in the Territories.

But the victory is not without some painful Farscape losses. Sikozu, Noranti, and Jothee all fall heroically during the push to defeat the Kkore. But even their deaths might not have been enough without the revelation of a long-buried secret about a fallen friend…

The humanoid plants known as the Delvians were always a bit mysterious, and there was never any question that the late Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan had her share of secrets.

The Delvians’ religion is the very core of their being and society, with their homeworld essentially a theocracy under the leadership of the so-called Delvian Seek.

But it turns out the Devlians have been sitting on a far bigger whopper than the fact that they can have “photogasms.” Namely, that, long before they called themselves Delvians…they called themselves the Kkore.

Specifically, they were originally part of a Kkore expedition that came through the gateway from Grey Space on a scouting mission to determine if the worlds of the Uncharted Territories were worthy of being conquered and added to the Kkore Hegemony.

Led by the “Great Prophet Ssaryn Zhaan,” one group didn’t make it back through the portal and instead settled on a planet they named Delvia, which means “place of refuge.”

The prophet Zhaan — for whom Farscape’s beloved blue-skinned priestess was obviously named — wasn’t a fan of the Kkore’s never-ending wars of conquest, so he formed the Delvian Seek and dedicated the lives of himself and his followers to peace, and to keeping a watchful eye out for the inevitable return of their Kkore brethren.

After 2,000 cycles had passed, they dared to hope that the Kkore weren’t coming back after all. Unfortunately, that hope was futile, but the good news was that the former Kkore/Delvians possessed one telepathic weapon that proved to be the Kkore’s undoing.

We won’t spoil all the specifics, but suffice to say it’s a twist that seems to have proven pretty divisive among Farscape fans, and which reminds me of a similar idea in an episode of Doctor Who from a while back.

If all this has got you eager to read the Farscape comics for yourself, you can buy them in digital form over at Comixology. Otherwise hopefully this primer will be handy once the new movie arrives, especially if it touches on any of this backstory in its new tale of John, Aeryn, and their mutant baby Deke.

While there are no immediate plans for a Farscape movie, O’Bannon and Henson have been discussing the possibility of bringing the show back. There is even a feeling that a 25-year gap could be advantageous for storytelling, allowing characters to grow and new stories to be explored.

Ben Browder and Gigi Edgley have expressed interest in coming back to a Farscape series or movies, and why not? Who wouldn’t want to get back into this world?