14/05/00 AUSTRALIA: THE FAR SIDE - BEN BROWDER STARS IN NEW SCI-FI DRAMA.
By Kristy Sexton.

IF YOU believe overseas magazines such as Variety, it's one of the most
important productions in Australian TV history. Rich in local talent, on
both sides of the camera, it has been a huge hit in the US and Britain -
and it's finally coming to a TV set near you. Farscape, Channel 9's new
sci-fi series, starting Saturday night, was dubbed "lost in space" by TV
insiders because of the delay in the series coming Down Under.

Nevertheless, Farscape has just been nominated for four Saturn awards -
sci-fi's answer to the Oscars - with lead actor Ben Browder (pictured
left) nominated as Best Actor in a TV series. Browder, originally from
North Carolina, can hardly contain his enthusiasm for the role that has
seen him become one of TV's hottest actors in the US. Despite a
high-profile role on Party of Five last year, playing Neve Campbell's
older lover, Ben felt the weight of expectation when he stepped into the
shoes of his character John Crichton, an astronaut with NASA who, during
an experimental space mission, is hurled across a thousand galaxies to a
completely alien world. "He does tend to lip-off occasionally," Ben said.
"John is not your standard hero, particularly in the American vein of
television. He has a fair bit of bite in him, which is unusual for your
average space jockey, but he's an interesting character to play."

The big-budget sci-fi series, co-produced by the Jim Henson Company (of
Muppets fame), Hallmark Entertainment and the Nine Network, was produced
in Sydney, melding puppets from Henson's Creature Shop in London with
locally produced computer animation, animatronics and live action. "When
you first begin to work with the puppets, it's an odd experience, but
after a while you start to treat the puppet like another actor," Ben said.
"The only difference is when the director says `cut', Rygell (a puppet)
basically falls over and has a stroke and you go for a cup of tea." Asked
what attracted him to Farscape, Ben, displaying some of the wit his
character is known for, replies: "This job is so fun. I mean, living on a
spaceship with a bunch of aliens is a damn sight more interesting than
playing a roofer in San Francisco," he said, referring to his role in
Party of Five.

"But seriously, it is a challenging role in that it continuously stretches
you in what you are required to do." So what's it all about? Astronaut
John Crichton accidentally enters a wormhole - a kind of space vortex -
and finds himself in a running battle between extraterrestrial Nazis and a
group of escaped alien prisoners. The prisoners pull him aboard their
biomechanical spacecraft and go into a "starburst," propelling them faster
than light into territories uncharted. Unfortunately, they snick an enemy
craft and kill the brother of an overlord, giving rise to the mother of
all astro-car chases as Crichton and his new friends are hunted by the
grieving Lani John Tupu.

Along the way there's plenty of sexual tension between Crichton and a
gorgeous girloid warrior called Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black). With the
exception of the Crichton character, the human talent on camera is almost
exclusively local: Black (Good Guys, Bad Guys), Virginia Hey (Mad Max,
Mission Impossible) and Gigi Edgley (Water Rats, The Day of the Roses).
And as the irascible warrior Ka D'Argo, Anthony Simcoe finds himself a
whole lot busier than the Trading Post-obsessed character he played in The
Castle. The rest of the cast is mostly made up of Henson's astromuppets.

Aired in the US late last year, Farscape's first series was the highest
rating fare on the cable Sci-Fi Channel. That was enough to secure a
second series, which is in production in Sydney. "I find it remarkable
that it's taken till now to come to Australia, because it's an Australia
show," Ben said. "I'm the only `Yank'; there are two non-Aussies in the
production staff but that's it, it's all Australian. "Now we just have to
sit back and play the waiting game. Hopefully the audience will like the
show. "I'm just going to cross my fingers and wait and see."

(C) 2000 Advertiser Newspapers Limited.