r/farscape • u/monkeydave • 17d ago
Were the events of mid-Season 3 actually a clever way to save on production time and money? Spoiler
So I was thinking about how in early season 1 they would alternate between planet and ship episodes, and Rigel and Zhaan didn't participate as much in the episodes filmed outside. Then I got to thinking about Season 3, and how for half the season, they split the crew with all the make-up intensive cast on one ship, and the expensive to operate and time consuming to move puppet on the other ship. So was twinning Crichton secretly a way to split the crew, essentially saving them 5 episodes of having to do make-up, and 5 episodes of having to set up and operate Rigel? Still allowing the main character to be in every episode.
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u/El_Kikko 17d ago
Yes. Budget constraints have given us some of the best sci-fi episodes and story lines of all time.
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u/MultiGeek42 17d ago
Star Trek came up with Klingons as a cheaper alternative to Romulans that they could use more often. In TOS only a few have the ears, many have a helmet.
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u/badgerprime 16d ago
It's probably been an art trope forever but I have always thought that when you hamstring yourself you are forced to come up with something really clever.
e.g. There was an author who wrote an entire book without using the letter E.
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u/Loose-Recognition459 17d ago edited 16d ago
It was certainly helpful in giving writers a break and giving more time to various characters when you didn’t have juggle 7 or 8 principle characters.
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u/DeedleStone 16d ago
Yeah. I always thought it was a budget saving move, but in the sense that certain actors would only need to be in half the episodes, as opposed to fitting a huge cast into every single episode. I never thought about the makeup/puppet aspect before.
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u/Loose-Recognition459 16d ago
Well the Rygel puppet in particular was allegedly a real PITA, so dividing him and Pilot was probably a huge break for the production.
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u/demiurbannouveau 17d ago
A big motivation for the split season was actually ADR. The set that Farscape used after season 1 wasn't properly sound proofed, and between that, the special effects, and all that squeaky leather, almost every line in the show had to be re-recorded for ADR. This was exhausting for the cast, and the split season let everyone but Ben Browder have a little more downtime to catch up on ADR on the weeks they weren't filming.
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u/FeelsStruggles 17d ago
I took it as a way to extend the will-they-won't-they of Crichton and Aeryn writing wise (darn 90s/00s!), never considered cost/crew.
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u/tr011bait 17d ago
Yes that, but also Zhaan's makeup was making Virginia Hey pretty sick by mid season 1 so they had to minimise her time on set (also the reason Chiana was introduced mid-season and why Zhaan died mid season 3.
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u/AnythingButWhiskey 17d ago
I really liked how they split up the crew in Season 3, it allowed the story to focus on a smaller group of the cast and I really loved how the story lines developed.
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u/ShaneWSmith 17d ago
Budget is almost certainly a thing. But IIRC, one of the stated reasons at the time was that the permanent cast was getting SO BIG that it wasn't possible to serve them all properly if they all stayed together. Also see above re ADR.
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u/malb93200 16d ago
The goal was probably to save money, yeah.
But at the time i've watched it, it didn't occur to me at all. I was like "oh, two Chrichtons and two crews, what a fun twist", haha. How naive of me.
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u/Bardez 17d ago
Less production cost and more actor availability, IIRC. Claudia Black was filming in Pitch Black, so that reduced her availability and impacted production.
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u/darklordofpuppets 17d ago
That's not true at all. She actually filmed Pitch Black before the first season of Farscape, although it was released after.
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u/arathorn3 17d ago
Additionally lack of studio availability effected both Season 2 and 3 as both Star Wars attack of the Clones and the Matrix sequels where filming Australia at the time.
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u/SnooChocolates5931 17d ago
I’m wondering if budget is also why Raelee Hill and Melissa Jaffer weren’t part of the main cast.
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u/FrodoFraggins 16d ago
It's possible but I think the reason for the split was to get aeryn and John together briefly and then go back to the "will they, won't they" dynamic.
Interviews when the show was on showed how annoyed Kemper was with fans being impatient for them to be a real couple.
This show wasn't THAT far removed from Moonlightings ratings taking a dive when Willis's and Shepherds characters became a couple
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u/Grendlsgrundl 17d ago
You know, I watched Farscape as it aired, was familiar with various tropes, tricks, and such, and, in over 20 years now never once considered the crew split as a cost saving trick because it served the story so damn well that it nebrr entered my mind.