There's a rebellion brewing in cyberspace. Armed with light sabres, phasers, polystyrene rocks and the odd blunt instrument, Australian Farscape fans are gunning for the Nine Network (hereafter known as the Evil Empire). Despite the network's bravery in boldly going where no Australian TV production has gone before - it costs something like $2 million an episode to make - fans of the locally made sci-fi series are angry at the way it has been, as one disgruntled viewer put it, "stuffed around" on the schedules.

The show, which tells the story of an American astronaut flung through a wormhole into a distant galaxy peopled by Australian actors and Jim Henson puppets, has been a huge hit in the United States and Britain, garnering rave reviews for its storylines, special effects and high production values. In June it took home the gong for best syndicated/cable TV series at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films' 27th Saturn Awards in the US.

Sadly for fans in Australia, though, the show here has led as peripatetic a life as its lost-in-space main character. First proclaimed by Nine as a great new show in January last year, it finally went to air on May 20 of that year but survived only six episodes before being unceremoniously dropped.

Nine cites poor ratings for the decision - it debuted at 25 that week, beaten in its timeslot only by The Bill, then dropped - but supporters say a change to a different timeslot would have been better than the subsequent now-you-see-it-now-you-don't charade.

After a few months of suspended animation it was thawed out for a chunky showing against the Olympics on Seven - returning to star opposite the Opening Ceremony - and was then mothballed once again until the non-ratings period in December when it returned in a regular 9.30 timeslot on Saturday nights until the end of the season.

It hasn't been seen in Sydney since. "At least," says cyberfan Natalie Witt, "Channel Nine was generous enough to finish airing season one. Many fans have written to ask when Farscape will return and the most answer any have received is: 'Later in the year'. I expect most would take that to mean late at night in December, if we're lucky. It seems like Channel Nine gave up on Farscape before it even went to air."

Witt goes on to talk about another gripe that has fans loading the photon torpedoes: "Why is it Australian fans have to wait so long to see a show made in Australia by many Australians with the backing of Australian companies?" As another Web site warrior put it: "How the hell is anyone ahead of the Australians when it's made in Australia? Whoever shows Farscape in Australia sucks. I'm glad I live in the UK."

To get round the fact that there's no date to start airing season two - it has already gone to air in Britain and season three is being shown in the US - many frustrated supporters are getting friends overseas to send them Farscape DVDs. One such person is Rod Herbert, who wrote: "I have spent over $350 to buy the complete season one and I have the first four episodes of season two. All the pissed-off Oz Farscape fans are following suit."

The Farscape studios are tucked away discreetly on the banks of Homebush Bay, out past Bicentennial Park and the Olympic archery centre, and marked by a small logo on the bottom of an industrial park's signboard. Inside, the laneways around the many warehouses occupied by Australia's most expensive television show have been given names that only fans would understand: there is a Talyn Drive, a Moya Street and a Creature Avenue.

The warehouses back onto the waters of Homebush Bay and a few crumbling benches provide cast members with a place to sit and relax when not filming. There are glimpses of the Olympic site in the distance and the faint rumble of traffic from Concord Road.

Inside the main set, British actor Ben Browder is filming an episode on a set that resembles something from an Indiana Jones movie: Aztec-style carvings, fine red sand and majestic temple buildings. Actor Anthony Simcoe is wandering around in the background, unrecognisable under the heavy rubber prosthetics he wears as the character General Ka D'Argo - though from the waist down he is wearing black socks and kangaroo-print boxer shorts.

Browder is filming a scene in which actor Marshall Napier, looking remarkably hairy and leonine, gets shot. "Ohmigod!" he jokes. "You killed the cowardly lion!" In the next scene Browder insists on writing "Andy" on the sole of another character's cowboy boots. "It'll be a great pop culture reference," he says. Browder is obviously enjoying himself, a state of affairs that extends to his happiness with life in Australia for himself, his wife and two young children. The family has lived here for 21/2 years since filming began and, says Browder, love it to death. Is he happy, though, with the way the series has been presented in its home country?

"Shows like this," he says, "sometimes have to find an audience. In the States you have the sci-fi channel, so you have a built-in audience. In the UK, BBC2 has its cult timeslot on Monday nights and we're sandwiched with Buffy and The Simpsons, I think.

"These are places where people go to find that genre. In Australia I don't know where the show fits into Nine's line-up, but the fact is that we're still on the air and I hope that the audience is growing for it. I'm finding more and more people coming out of the woodwork and saying, 'Hey, I saw that show'."

For actress Claudia Black, who plays Officer Aeryn Sun, there is an advantage in Farscape not being a runaway success in her home country: "Working in a vacuum means we can focus on the work rather than all the extraneous rubbish that happens on the peripheries of making the show."

Black is also as sanguine as Browder about the show's fate: "It's primarily been made for the American market so whatever other countries they can move it into are only going to be beneficial in terms of sales and merchandising. It has been moved around a bit, yes, but I think Nine has been trying to trial it in different timeslots. Their programming department is enormously successful, so you have to trust that it's as it should be ... Beyond that I'm a bit disappointed that my work, personally, when I feel I've started to improve, won't be seen by my peers.

"In my experience, Australians like to know that a show is a big hit abroad before they'll really start to take it to heart. I hope it continues to be a success overseas and that that will inspire people here to start watching it."

Over lunch in the Farscape canteen - after visits to see Moya's innards and a peek up Rygel's kilt - executive producer David Kemper talks about the history of Farscape and why the lack of a coherent schedule in Australia really isn't a problem. Kemper, an American whose own television history involves a stint as a CBS executive and then work on shows such as Star Trek: Voyager and the under-appreciated American Gothic, denies being disappointed by the reaction Farscape has received down under.

"Disappointment's not the right word," he says. "What we have here is ... Look, I remember watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. I was a 13-year-old boy and it influenced my life. I grew up with the space race ... Well, on my continent the youth grew up with a lot of that, then Gene Roddenberry brought it to us in Star Trek and we all got hooked.

"So science fiction's always been a staple, but a bit of a niche. I don't think Australia has been steeped in that mythology, so a science-fiction show is something that we have to put on the air and let it grow.

"We just got the reviews for the final four eps of season two and The New York Times says we're great ... So I think that over time the Australian people will gravitate toward quality."

The first Farscape series has been on Fox Kids on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7.30 pm since July 6, with repeats on Saturday nights. Some episodes of the second series are being shown on Nine in Victoria, WA and SA.