Farscape Was Almost Canceled Because Of Star Wars
Ambitious sci-fi shows like The Expanse, Babylon 5, and The Silo always struggle to stay on the air, while those that are crafted on the back of a paper napkin, like Lost, become massive hits and support an entire network. This was the case with Farscape, the little Australian puppet series that could, for which every season on air was a miracle, but fans might not know how close it came to being canceled during Season 1, thanks to Star Wars.
The much more popular franchise was going to use Farscape’s studio for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, which became a massive problem.
The Battle For Studio Space
Farscape started airing in 1999, and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones didn’t hit theaters until 2002, but because of the extensive production time required, the Sydney Fox Studios location was selected years in advance. While Rockne S. O’Bannon and the Jim Henson Company were still actively utilizing the studio to finish Season 1, they received word that SyFy (then The Sci-Fi Network) would cancel the series. As happens so often with creatives, the issue came down to money.
Farscape’s Massive Sets
Studio executives ran the numbers and determined that moving the massive sets involved in Farscape to accommodate Star Wars was cost-prohibitive. On the one hand, this makes sense, as Moya alone, with cut-outs and rigging for the puppeteers, is an impressive piece of work, never mind the different space stations and planets they had to create every week. Relocating the entire production out of Australia was going to be expensive, and, at the time, the show had yet to catch on, so cancelation did seem to be the easy choice.
Fans Were Nearly Denied Scorpius
Thankfully, that wasn’t the case, and Farscape became a classic—ironically, perhaps the closest anyone will come to emulating the sci-fi fantasy feel of Star Wars. The solution was essentially a stroke of lock, as there was an available studio in Homebush, a suburb of Sydney, that became the show’s home all the way through The Peacekeeper Wars mini-series. We were very close to living in a world where Scorpius never graced our televisions because of Yoda.
Farscape And Star Wars Shared Some Performers
Farscape and Star Wars would intersect a few more times, positively, starting with Leeanna Walsman as Zam Wesell, the bounty hunter from Attack of the Clones. She had a one-off appearance in the Season 3 episode, “Suns and Lovers,” as the magnetic cultist Borlik, which aired before her Star Wars appearance despite being filmed later. That wasn’t all, as the mad genius behind Scorpius, Wayne Pygram, turned up in Revenge of the Sith as a young Grand Moff Tarkin.
Decades later, Farscape’s Aeryn Sun herself, Claudia Black, turned up in the Star Wars universe as one of the Nightsisters in Ahsoka.
The Constant Threat Of Cancelation
Though Farscape avoided the first threat of cancelation, every season could have been its last, with or without any pressure from Star Wars. The concluding mini-series, The Peacekeeper Wars, only came about because of intense fan demand after the series was canceled following Season 4. Over the years, the show has only grown in esteem, becoming one of the greatest sci-fi shows of all time.
Meanwhile, Attack of the Clones is…not the worst Star Wars movie, so that’s something.
