Poor Melissa Jaffer...

[JF8785]

I just read the TV Zone special, and apparantly the reason why Noranti looks so different is because MJ had a very severe reaction to the new make up, and she only filmed four days. They had to bring a new actress in, and MJ dubbed the lines. This also explains why Noranti wasn't seen much thoughout the mini.

[cyberman]

Thank You! I've been wondering about this ever since the U.S. release of the mini. I mentioned this in one of my first posts.

http://www.farscapeworld.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2738&highlight=

You'll notice that many of her scenes she is almost completely shrouded in shadow. There are even a few sequences that you can tell it's a different actress. I thought I was going crazy!

It's too bad that she reacted to the make-up. I wonder what the difference was between her work on Season 4 and the mini.

[Emram]

Who was the actress they replaced her with? Has she been in Farscape before?

[cyberman]

I'm not sure. I'm assuming she got a credit. I'm at work and can't check my VCR recording.

[CdnFarscape]

It's too bad that she reacted to the make-up. I wonder what the difference was between her work on Season 4 and the mini.

I know that Wayne Pygram's Scorpius makeup went from "hot flesh" back to the "normal" makeup (silicon? latex? I can't remember now)... maybe Melissa Jaffer's make-up had a similar change...

Cdn

[Dani Moure]

Who was the actress they replaced her with? Has she been in Farscape before?

I'm betting it's Amanda Wenban. She's the only actress not credited to a character, and she's credited in both parts at the end as "And Amanda Wenban". I have to admit I was baffled as to who she played, but it makes sense now.

So does the apparent change you can see in Noranti during part one. It's a great shame, too. I haven't read teh interview myself yet, but I know she was supposed to play a much larger part. As I said in my review, the fact she didn't was one of my few complaints.

[scapecadet]

Yeah, DK said in one of the interviews that he had to go and rewrite almost the whole show without her. She was meant to be fairly high profile.

[cyberman]

I wonder if this is why Stark had such a large and influential role in the mini. The creative team probably had to parcel out all of Noranti's dialogue and actions to other characters. Stark would be a logical candidate for anything that would have to do with mysticism or anything unconventional for that matter.

[JF8785]

Yes it was Amanda as Noranti, and Noranti was originally going to help Aeryn during the childbirth scenes, but obviously it was rewritten for Chiana.

[Emram]

I thought it was a little strange, having Chiana instead of Noranti helping with the birth. I hadn't realised that Melissa wasn't playing Noranti for the majority of the mini.

[Talysman]

I didn't notice either, although I did notice that her character wasn't involved very much. The same can be said for some of the other characters as well, although for different reasons. When you condense what appears to be about half a season's worth of episodes into a four-hour mini-series, "supporting characters" will always have less to do and say.

Make-up is a tricky thing in the business, and has been since the beginning. Buddy Ebsen, who would have been the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, was allergic to the silver make-up. Just one example of many...

[BritAngie]

Wayne was saying he had some alergic reaction to the adhesive they used this time too. I can only guess they had to use a different type they had used before.

[AlmostOutOfFuel]

Ok, this makes me feel a little better.

Noranti seemed to me from the end of Season 3 to be Scorpius's big secret ace-in-the-hole, so I was dissapointed when the mini-series didn't address her and didn't give Scorpius a big ace-in-the-hole.

So it sounds like they were planning on addressing that, but just couldn't.

Now I forgive them.

Darn that make-up. It was one of the problems with Zhaan AND Noranti. Make-up has frelled up so much stuff...

[Scaper Queen]

I believe they used foam as the new make-up for Wayne. I was really surprised hwo they had Noranti protrayed in the mini...not at all like she should have been

[lvsxy808]

I don't believe Noranti was Scorpius' ace-in-the-hole. I believe she was the original candidate for Scarren spy.

We know Scorpius had her imprisoned on his Command Carrier, but not why. We know she glommed onto Crichton immediately when she arrived on Moya. She was called "full of bitterness and regret" in Twice Shy. I had some other brilliant reasons why, but I forget them now.

When she pulled out, her role had to be split between others. Her caregiver role was given to Chiana and her spy role was given to Sikozu, even though it totally didn't make sense with Sikozu's history. It couldn't be Grunchlk because no-one would care, and he had to be the red herring. It couldn't be anyone else because they were too important or unimpeachable. Sikozu was the only one left.

I don't believe either that Noranti would have had any of Stark's eventual role with the Eidolons. That story was just too perfect a cap for Stark's story arc - finally coming to peace with himself and helping there be no more death. And there had been hints all through season 4 that Stark would return ("John Quixote," Sikozu/Stark in "Unrealized Realities"/"Prayer"), so i fully believe he would have had a significant role in season 5.