Claudia Black loves being a sci-fi sex symbol.
"Woo-hoo!" shouts the Farscape star with her raven hair, ice-cool gaze and husky voice.
"Every actor wants his or her performances to be enjoyed, and they also want to be considered appealing in some way, whether it's their personality or sex appeal. To be a space babe is an absolute delight," she said.
It will remain a delight so long as audiences take Black and her character, Aeryn Sun, seriously. Farscape is the Sci Fi Channel's most popular show, and Sun is arguably the show's heart and soul, an ex-peacekeeper racing through space aboard a sentient ship in the company of D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe), Chiana (Gigi Edgley), Rygel (John Eccleston), Zhaan (Virginia Hey) and John Crichton (Ben Browder), her would-be lover.
"Aeryn started as a very austere, obviously frightened and hard-edged individual," Black said. "We've seen some enormous vulnerability in her. She's now almost what we'd call a human being."
"The cheeky side of me would relish the opportunity to spin her in completely the opposite direction," Black said, "so that she spirals into a whole new level of development that's more the nature of a human/alien hybrid. I say that because I think that, if she becomes any more human, she'll melt."
"I think that may happen as a result of Crichton becoming less and less accessible," she said. "Perhaps he will be pushed away from Aeryn, and the irony is that she's becoming more like him just as he's shifting toward the way that Aeryn was at the beginning."
"I don't know if that's an arc they'll intentionally push all the way through season three," she said, "but the roles have shifted and Aeryn is having to care for Crichton, rather than disregard him. It's actually been good for Ben and me to have a shift in the role play. It gives us something different to experiment with."
Before any such developments can be explored, however, season two must end, and the ramifications of its final four episodes must be taken into account. The first three episodes, "A Not-So-Simple Plan," "With Friends Like These" and "Plan B," dealt primarily with Moya's crew saving D'Argo's son (Matt Newton) while Scorpius (Wayne Pygram) prepared to lobotomize Crichton.
And the season finale, "Die Me Dichotomy," airs Jan. 26.
"There were some delicious developments in the Crichton/Aeryn arc through the last few episodes," Black said.
Black is an Australian actress who grew up in Sydney and counts among her credits episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. She also played the doomed Shazza in last year's surprise-hit film Pitch Black.
Right now, though, Black's mind is on Farscape. "I love what the writers are doing with Aeryn, but there's still so much I'd like to see," the actress said. "I've not yet been able to show friendship and sensitivity to another woman, like Chiana or Zhaan. I'd really like to see a friendship grow between Aeryn and Chiana, because it's the one thing the show doesn't have. Selfishly, I want more scenes with Gigi, because I love her."
Black's wish list for the upcoming season also includes more dialogue. "From the beginning, because she was a grunt, it was all, 'Drop that! Come here! Bend down!' Now, hopefully, if she can string a few more words together, she'll be able to have a more philosophical approach to her communications with others."