Farscape, a new science fiction offering which is already wowing them overseas, finally makes it's debut on Australian TV.
The series, being shot in Homebush, Sydney, tells the tale of astronaut John Crichton (sic) (Ben Browder) who is hurled across thousands of galaxies into an alien world during an experimental space mission.
Crichton arrives in a strange new world to be dragged aboard a prisoner ship populated by the blue-skinned mystical high priestess Pa'u Zotoh Zhann (Virginia Hey), the reptilian warrior General Ka D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe, The Castle) and a cast of sophisticated muppets created by Jim Henson's award winning Creature Shop.
Pilot Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black), is fighting on the side of the jailers when she is captured by the prisoner ship.
Although the show is only just set to debut in Australia, it is already a hit in the United States (The Sci-Fi Channel), the UK (BBC2), Canada and Sweden.
Ben Browder, best remembered for his role as Sam, a love interest for Neve Campbell in Party of Five, is the show's biggest name, but his co-stars are already well on their way to stardom.
Black's gun-toting warrior Sun, has won a prominent position on the Space Babe's website along with classic sci-fi characters like Barbarella and Black has a best actress nomination from the Saturn's, sci-fi'd version of the Emmys.
"I found out from a website" says Black.
" I'm thrilled to be in the company of Gillian Anderson from the X-Files and Kate Mulgrew from Star Trek but it's a little surreal. All these shows we're up against are from the big networks. We're just from a little cable station."
Black is not the only Farscaper nominated for an award. The show itself has a nomination, as do Black's co-stars Browder and Hey.
The way Black tell the story, she is lucky to have a role in the series at all.
She was working on horror film Pitch Black, filming in Coober Pedy, when she was asked to test for the show.
" I'd been working as a reader for other actors who were testing. Aeryn was to be cast from America or Britain. I didn't even think I'd have a chance to audition for the role," she says.
"Someone must have liked what I did. They asked me to put an audition on tape. I had to fly in from Coober Pedy where they were making Pitch Black to do my tests with Ben Browder. After that the ball got rolling pretty quickly."
Black, a former significant other of Marcus Graham, has kept a low profile until now -her roles include playing a dead body in the critically acclaimed ABC series The Seven Deadly Sins and a hermaphrodite on Good Guys Bad Guys.
Pitch Black, an Australian made horror film which opens here this week, came out of left field to debut at number one in the United States earlier this year.
And Farscape is attracting attention from both viewers and industry types.
We're getting hundreds of letters," says Black. "People want to tell me how much they enjoy the character I play and how much they admire the work of everyone on the show. Some want us to sign photos but we can't oblige at the moment. We're still waiting on stills."
Black was not even a sci-fi fan when she scored her role on the show.
"I'm not diehard for anything," she says. "I grew up with sci-fi around me. I enjoyed Bladerunner, Terminator, Star Wars, Alien. I love a good action film in terms of technique and the way they are filmed.
"Farscape draws on many elements. There's comedy, drama, action. I think it's more fiction than science fiction and I hope audiences in Australia won't be shy.
"The first episodes are an important introduction for the audience to a new world. By episode seven, people are really starting to explore that world in depth."
The question most fans are asking is whether the chemistry between Sun and Crichton, formed in episode one, will ever reach the relationship stage.
"I don't think I should give too much away," says Black.
"I can tell you about Aeryn. She is thrust into a world which is different from anything she has ever known with escaped prisoners and a human, a species she has never encountered before. She comes from a race where there is no parental upbringing, where there is a pack mentality, where you work as part of a team."
"She goes on a voyage of self discovery which is about discovering the essence of the individual, about discovering emotion and free thought."
" She and Crichton form an alliance of sorts to help one another but where it goes from there I won't say," she says.