Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 2, August 2001 | Page 113

F arscape and Buck Rogers

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Buck’s own search for his place in the greater scheme of things. Like so many
other television reviewers, Mark Phillips and Frank Garcia point out that the show
“lost its humor, especially the uncomfortableness Buck had being out of his own
tim e.. .It became a much more serious, 'We gotta get the bad guys!’ Ultimately, the
writing bordered on the pedantic” (60). Given all these changes, Buck Rogers would
exit the sci-fi television world with more of a whimper than a bang. And our like
able astronaut would forever remain in a state of identity crisis chiefly due to the
core group of fans forsaking the completely revised format.
Rockne O ’Bannon would not abandon his Farscape child throughout its
shaky first year and, together with executive producer David Kemper, would ex
pand on the vision of the space castaway in the second season. Defying conven
tion, the O ’Bannon-Kemper team would bring the John Crichton-Aeryn Sun rela
tionship to an eye-opening level of intimacy. In the three-episode arc, “Look at the
Princess,” John actually weds the Sebacean Princess Katralla (Felicity Price) and
fathers a child, much to Aeryn’s dismay. By the end of this fast-paced story line,
Tyno (Matt Day) takes John’s place as the princess’s husband, and more impor
tantly, we learn that John and Aeryn are indeed compatible mates. Both experience
the same sweet taste when a DNA-sensing chemical is placed upon their tongues,
signifying that they can produce many healthy offspring. A later teleplay, “The
Locket,” is considered by many Farscape aficionados to be one of the best in the
series as it shows what Aeryn’s life would have been like if she was separated from
the group and living for 165 cycles on some distant planet. Though she marries,
has children and grandchildren, and becomes widowed, John finds out that Aeryn
carries a picture of her one true love in a locket. The image, of course, is his, but all
memories are wiped out when the pair reenter a stellar mist that was originally
responsible for the advanced timeline. Starlog writer Joe Nazzaro suggests epi
sodes like these would surprise the audience by intensifying the John-Aeryn inter
action to the point where the two might be seen as taking the marriage vow some
day (Farscape 40). So while Buck Rogers laid the groundwork for the astronaut
finding a home in the new universe, Farscape would successfully build upon that
premise in future seasons.
One cannot deny that Buck Rogers in the 25th Century played a pivotal
role in shaping Farscape and other contemporary sci-fi series like it. Take for
instance Gene Roddenberrys Andromeda, which just recently premiered this Oc
tober o f 2000 in syndicated television markets. Here we have another out-of-place
Hero, Captain Dylan Hunt ( Hercules’ Kevin Sorbo), who becomes trapped with
his ship the Andromeda Ascendant in a black hole for nearly 300 years. When
Hunt emerges from his Rogerian-like stasis, he enlists the services of Deeringclone Beka Valentine (Lisa Ryder), and her crew to restore the former Common
wealth he served to its former glory. And while the Dylan-Beka relationship has