Syndey, Australia -Hard-charging space trooper Aeryn Sun shows a bit of her deeper side in the upcoming second season of the SciFi Channel's Farscape, according to actress Claudia Black.
"Without giving anything away, we learn more about Aeryn's background and the history of her relationships with men, which explains why she is the way she is with Crichton," said Black, who plays Sun, in an interview with SPACE.com.
"We'll start to understand her complexities a bit more."
Black is currently filming the 11th episode of the second season of the popular Outback space tale. Farscape chronicles the travails of astronaut John Crichton, who leaves Earth in 1998 aboard an experimental space ship only to fall into a wormhole and be spat out on the other side of the universe.
Determined to survive, Crichton joins a motley crew of far side locals, including the military-trained Sun, who becomes his lieutenant and tensely platonic romantic foil.
Black was as tight-lipped as a Peacekeeper soldier about how Crichton deals with the scattering of the crew across space in the final episode of the first season. But she did say Farscape fans will notice a number of changes in the new season.
Among other things, colors will be richer due to a new director of photography, and the entire cast will undergo costume changes as new episodes are screened. Shooting under expanded studio space in Sydney this year has also provided the opportunity for more sets.
"The ceilings are lower, but we have more room," Black said. "In terms of what the fans will notice, there will be more different scenes."
You can never find a Peacekeeper when you need one.
Starting February 18, moviegoers will also see Black in the science fiction feature film Pitch Black. She plays "Shazza" one of six passengers to survive a space ship crash on an apparently barren planet.
Along with one surviving member of the crew, the group must cope with the elements, including a once-every-six-decade eclipse in which subterranean nocturnal beasts surface to binge-feed.
"Shazza is much less empowered than Aeryn, and Shazza kind of sticks to the shadows," Black said. "I'd say the only link between the two of them is that they are strong, independent women."
While she says making Pitch Black was "exhilarating," it was also grueling. Location shooting took place in cold and wet conditions in the harsh South Australian mining town of Coober Pedy, and during the studio work at Warner Brothers' Queensland studios many shots were filmed in near total darkness.
Black was still finishing up on Pitch Black when she wrapped up filming the first season of Farscape.
"For a short period, I filmed the two characters in tandem, and then had to shake off Shazza entirely in order to focus on Aeryn," she said.
More influenced by Blade Runner than Alien.
Asked what SF works influenced her, Blade Runner crops up. "I saw it for the first time when I was about 10, and then saw the director's cut about 10 years later," Black said.
"I was amazed at how much of it had imprinted on my mind. It was an enormously progressive and intelligent look at the future."
So, where does she see society evolving as humanity enters the space age?
"Without a doubt, space is our future," she said. "The sooner we learn to colonize other planets, the better, since planet Earth isn't going to be here much longer for us."
Indeed, she believes that it may only be through eventual contact with other life forms that man may gain a fuller idea of why he exists. And she doesn't mind borrowing a line from the film Contact to make her point.
"If we really are the only people here, what a waste of space," she said.
Future roles and the role of science fiction.
She believes SF movies, books and other forms of entertainment play a crucial role in society, goading humanity to develop knowledge to meet the technological vision.
"Science fiction has enormous influence because it propels people into thinking about how the future will be," she said. "Everything in science fiction seems to come true."
Looking ahead to the day when Farscape or Aeryn Sun proves mortal -what might Black do then?
"I'd like to do a period piece, or something by David Mamet or Tom Stoppard, and I very much liked Shakespeare in Love," she said.
"Science fiction creates strong roles for women, endowing women with strength and responsibility," she said. "But I wouldn't mind playing the opposite of that, perhaps a romantic comedy."