Here I try to answer questions about Chiana. If your question isn't asked, you may email me, and I may add it to the FAQ.
Q - What species is she?
A - Chiana is a Nebari.
Q - What episodes is Chiana in?
A - Chiana was introduced in episode 15 and remained a regular cast member through the rest of the 88 episodes and the miniseries 'Peacekeeper Wars', with the exceptions of ep 52, ep 54, ep 56, ep 58, ep 59, and ep 61.
Q - Is that her real hair?
A - No, her real hair is seen in the episode 'Taking the Stone' - er, no seriously, it's a wig.
Q - John Crichton nicknames Chiana 'Pip'; what does Pip mean and why did he nickname her Pip?
A - Pip has many meanings, but in this case is short for Pippin, meaning: n: Informal, "A person or thing that is admired."
Q - How old is Chiana?
A - We don't know.
Q - Does Chiana have relatives?
A - She had parents she just refers to as 'sires' and has a brother, Nerri, who she loves fiercely.
Q - Does Chiana have black blood?
A - No, it looks more like a blue gel. ('Durka Returns')
Q - In some episodes Chiana has a pink mouth and tongue, in others black, while her lips are black and blood is blue? What's up with that?
A - Chiana started out with a pink mouth and tongue, not using a dye in the mouth for obvious practical reasons. It wasn't clear what color it was supposed to be. In some later episodes, for some reason, she's shown with a mouth dyed black or maybe a dark blueberry blue. That's all we know.
Q - Does Chiana have a belly-button?
A - There's some confusion about that. Apparently we're to assume that yes, she does. This can be seen in one episode, 'Dog With Two Bones'. The debate comes from the fact that apparently the gray midriff cloth in her original costume was originally intended to represent bare skin. The midriff fabric was there for practical reasons, but in 'Taking the Stone', Chiana is shown in a close up, for which the midriff fabric has been removed and her midriff is made up and shows her to have no belly button. This appears intended to depict her as not having one. The later ep in which her navel shows, furthermore, is in another character's imagination. Nothing official addresses the pressing belly-button question, so the assumption is that she does have one.
Q - In some episodes, Chiana has more of an accent than others. Why?
A - Gigi Edgley has related that this was due to conflicting orders from different people in production. We like it both ways - the more Aussie accent in some early eps sounds particularly keen coming from her. Nevertheless, it seems she was finally told to go with "an American accent."
Q - Okay, what I really want to know, are her nipples black and is she pink down there?
A - .....
Q - What about that super-jump in 'Mind the Baby' and what happened to it?
A - It's presumably a trait of her species, but wasn't explained. As to what happened to it, it wasn't seen again since it was reputed to be too costly and take too much time, but in time it amazingly transformed into even more elaborate and costly anti-gravity abilities - for someone else...
Q - What happened to the "Nebari contagion" and could Chiana still be carrying it?
A - Nothing about the Nebari or anything to do with them was addressed after being brought up in 'A Clockwork Nebari', so I can't answer that. There's no reason to believe she still carries anything of it, however, since the cure came from the right places, one might say.
Q - Where is the glamorous black & white Chiana calendar?
A - A perfectly good question, but ask Henson Co. not me!
Q - What Chiana merchandise is there?
A - There was an action figure (with a couple of variants of the same figure) from Toy Vault; there were some FarScape trading cards from Rittenhouse which had Chiana on them; there are some 8x10 photos of FarScape set stills from Creation and/or Henson - beyond that I'm coming up blank... not even an official T-Shirt! All right so the Chi-Chi-Chi-Chiana! Chiapet variant might be as well passed on, but detachable furry shoulder pads that double as handy cup/pot holders might've been adorable and practical ;) Seriously, that area's gone pretty much untapped.
Q - How can I write to the actress, Gigi Edgley?
A - At this time I don't know. My best guess is to try Henson.
Gigi Edgley
Farscape Cast
c/o Muppets
P.O. Box 20726
NY, NY 10023-1488
Q - Is there an official Chiana website?
A - There was a minor fan created "official" one in 2000, but it's long gone. Lucky I'm still here eh? ;)
Q - Can Chiana see the future? What happened to her abilities?
A - Speculation is that the "energy rider" ('Losing Time') somehow lingered and gave her mysterious abilities. This wasn't confirmed in the show. Beyond that, there's little to say. The abilities soon changed and kept changing through the remainder of the series with no apparent cause or pattern, so we're not able to guess why or what went on.
Q - How did Chiana come about?
A - Chiana is a great serendipity. Chiana was originally a one-ep guest character for 'Durka Returns'. Red headed and punky, the vaguely written part was eventually cast to Gigi Edgley. The makeup and costume visual designers entirely re-conceived and re-worked the original idea to the one we saw. Gigi Edgley created the distinctive personality, movements and mannerisms, with little to no outside instruction. The result was so striking, solid and original that Chiana was promptly written in for the following episodes and eventually stayed on for the rest of the series!
Q - Will Chiana be back?
A - I can't even guess. Chiana is so versatile and suited for so much in and beyond FarScape that it's astonishing to me she hasn't been back already. With the junk we usually get instead, why something this great and original is going untapped is beyond me.
