A good article on it's beginnings is available at
http://www.kidscreen.com/articles/ks25041.asp
It gives an general overview of the show from when Brian Henson first had the idea in 1991, to the filming of the first episodes.
Where
is Farscape filmed? (Last updated - 1/19/01)
For
the first season, it was filmed at 20th Century Fox Studios (http://www.foxstudios.com.au/
) in Sydney (New South Wales) Australia. But due to an unforeseen "Menace",
they were forced to relocate. The new digs, which are essentially converted
warehouses, apparently don't have any official designation (at least, none
that I can print in a family forum *grin*). They are simply referred
to as "Homebush". Here's what Ben had to say about the new studio
in an email interview with QuietI (Joan Hedman) -
"Interview
with Ben Browder 14 June 2000
WROCS:
How would you compare working on the Season 2 facilities with
those
you had for Season 1? Is there any significant difference for the
cast
and crew? From a fan perspective, the final product is of equally
high
quality!
BB:
The Good...
Homebush
Bay - site of the Y2K Olympic games - better known as the home
of
Farscape. We have space... lots and lots of space, which we did not
have
at FOX. This means the art department gets to go crazy, and they
do.
The sets built for some episodes this year are massive, I mean
big...
really BIG. We continued to expand into more warehouse spaces as
the
year progressed. Like a plague, the Farscape production spread
across
the Homebush Universe. We are also able to keep our sets longer,
giving
us flexibility. We have worked on up to five episodes
concurrently,
allowing us to make our tight shooting schedule.
The
Bad...
Fox
was 10 minutes from the house. Homebush is an hour. You do the math.
Fox
had proper studios vs. Homebush's converted warehouses.
The
Ugly...
Fox
studios is booked out through next year, I hear. And whereas it was
nice
to be in Australia's Primo film facility... the way Farscape has
grown
in scale... I doubt a move back there is in the cards."
To
see the rest of the interview, check out her homepage for the link -
http://members.home.net/quieti/
I
highly recommend it - she has another great interview (Virginia Hey)
and
other articles/reviews there as well.