Chiana, a Nebari runaway, was offered asylum aboard Moya after being sentenced to direct mind cleansing by her Nebari jailers.
Chiana was a late addition to the show, not showing up until 15 episodes in. Another reason that Farscape outshines Trek - organic growth of the cast. People are always drifing in and out of the story, and Chiana's drift brought her in as a prisoner in the episode "Durka Returns." In fact, she was supposed to die at the end of it, but the producers liked the character so much that they held onto her.
The detailing on the figure's costume is great. She wears an intricately ridged outfit, and the sculptors really took the time to convey that - there are tons of raised squiggles all over. There are little fur pieces glued on her shoulders, as well. Her expression is great - the sort of wide-eyed wonder Chiana seems to have.
Though Chiana doesn't have much movement, her pose works better than D'Argo's. She's standing with a strange, bow-legged stance, but that's just what the character does on the show - Gigi Edgely imparts Chiana with some strange physicality. That wasn't a part of the original intent, but just something the actress thought would work for the character.
There's some confusion over what color Chiana's supposed to be - even in the figures. On the show, she's gray, though she often looks blue due to the odd lighting. Toy Vault sort of split the difference, painting her a bluish-gray. A dry-brush has helped bring the details of her costume out, keeping her from being one dark black mess.
Chiana comes with a bladed weapon of some sort, handcuffs and a neck collar. Cool as the cuffs are, her limited articulation doesn't let her get her wrists close enough together for them to be any good. She can hold the big weapon with no trouble, but more articulation would have served her well.
The box set also includes a pair of DRDs, the diagnostic repair drones that keep Moya running healthily.
They're tiny little beetley things, with two little eyes on the end of stalks. The detailing on these accessories is really outstanding, so it's a shame there were only two of them in the box. The cardboard insert that holds the figures is printed with a photo of a hallway inside Moya, so you can make a nice little diorama.
Cancelling Farscape was a monumental mistake. 'Scapers proved to be even more devoted than Trekkies, and when the cancellation was announced, they leapt into action, many organizing their various efforts through the Save Farscape site: they wrote letters to the network, to its parent company (Vivendi Universal), to advertisers and sponsors, to any outlet that might reasonably have an influence on the show's future.
When Bonnie Hammer tried to speak to news outlets about upcoming projects, all reporters wanted to discuss was the cancellation of Farscape and the fan reaction. She said Children of Dune, they said Crichton. She said Tremors: The Series, they said Aeryn Sun. The show was almost universally praised as a bastion of high-quality television, and its cancellation did nothing but generate bad publicity for the network.
Finally, the fans' message got through to the network: SciFi announced a four-hour miniseries, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars. Built (loosely) around the outline for Season 5, The Peacekeeper Wars promises to be huge. In order to condense 22 episodes into four, a lot of the slow build has been ditched in favor of complete balls-out action. The entire cast has returned, ready to show SciFi why it was wrong in the first place, and the audience - 'Scapers and novices alike - will do the same.
Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars premieres Sunday, Oct. 17, at 9 p.m., 8 Central, and continues Monday at the same time. Depending on how the miniseries does, there may be more in the future. Big boxed sets of all four full seasons are available on DVD, as well, so if you get hooked, you can catch up.
Season 1 |
Season 2 |
Season 3 |
Season 4
Who's your favorite resident of Moya? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.
John Crichton, on an experimental mission aboard his Farscape One module, was accidentally shot through a wormhole and found himself definitely not in Kansas anymore.
The Crichton figure is okay, but certainly nothing groundbreaking. The likeness is decent but not good, with just a passing resemblance to actor Ben Browder. His clothes are sculpted well, but he moves only at the neck, shoulders, wrists and waist.
John's got a few decent accessories: a cloth jacket, his space helmet, a radio headset and a baby Drak. What's a baby Drak? Well, it seems the Drak are interstellar parasitic insects who decided to set up shop on Moya in the episode "Exodus from Genesis." This is a baby one. The helmet is detailed nicely, and even 
Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan, an 812-year-old, tenth-level priest, was imprisoned on Moya for the murder of another Delvian priest - her lover - who she suspected was using his power to lead Delva astray.
The detailing on the Zhaan figure is really good. The sculptors seem to have really put a lot of work into capturing Virginia Hey's complicated makeup. It's just a shame they didn't put as much care into designing articulation: Zhaan moves at the neck, shoulders, wrists and hips, and because she's so unashamed of her body, she's butt naked under the dress.
That makeup is what eventually led to Virginia Hey leaving the show - it was adversely affecting her health. Shame, really. Zhaan's accessories include a cloth robe, a head scarf and a bottle of the sleep mist from "Throne for a Loss." The shawl can be removed, but the rest of the clothes are stitched on. The bottle fits in her hand easily, which is nice.
Ka D'Argo, huge and powerful, was wrongly imprisoned by the Peacekeepers as a scapegoat for the murder of his Sebacean wife, Lo'Lann.
The sculpt is probably the best in this box set - and while his Planet of the Apes Burton-style costume is detailed well, it's the likeness that really stands out. Anthony Simcoe's buried under a lot of makeup to play D'Argo, and the sculptors seem to have gotten it all: moustache thing, meat dreads [tankas --ed.], eyebrow ridges, crazy beak nose, everything! They even remembered to put the slave rings around his collarbones.
