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Noranti isn't
the only Farscape cast member that Jaffer played in Season Four, During the
universe- swapping episode Unrealized Reality, she also took on the role of
Rygel, although it wasn't necessarily her first choice, "Everybody else
chose the character that they wanted," she admits, "and the only one
left was Rygel, so I drew the short straw, "I actually loved playing
Rygel, because he's such a vile and hideous person. He's so self-obsessed and
I loved it. At first I thought, 'Oh no, I have to wear that head!' and it was
really quite difficult to wear. The battery for his eyebrows and whiskers was
right at the nape of my neck, which meant that for the
entire day I
couldn't move my head forward or back. But I loved it, and I loved doing the
ADR [Additional Dialogue Recording] work and putting his voice into it. I was
quite pleased with it, but everybody else said, 'Oh we don't want to play
Rygel!' and I was left to do it. Gigi of course didn't want to play me; well,
she did want to play Noranti, but when she had to wear the mask, she came up
to me and said, 'How do you manage to do this?’”
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 Appearances can
be deceiving, even in Deep Space. When Noranti was introduced at the end of Farscape's third
season, the question on everyone's lips was pretty much, 'Who the hell is this crazy old lady,
and what is she doing aboard Moya?' But according to actress Melissa Jaffer, viewers would have
discovered an awful lot more about the character if the series had continued.
"I was originally told that she
would be a combination of a university professor, a Buddhist guru and a Catholic nun,"
claims Jaffer. "She was someone who could advise, solve problems, help people, make
decisions, and take control of situations. She also possessed this extraordinary mystical gift
that she had through her third eye, but coupled with early Alzheimer's. Given that sort of
character, any actor would say, 'Wow!'
"All of those things were possible with Noranti, and
they were all possible with me. I don't mean that in any boastful sense, but I've played all of
those elements before, so it was a huge disappointment for me that the original character
breakdown, which was written by [executive producer] David Kemper and was so good, never actually had time to develop."
 Part of the problem, says Jaffer, is
that having created this eccentric new character, the show's writers never really knew how to
use her. "I was brought in ostensibly to replace Virginia Hey's character [Zhaan] with an
eye to the divine eternal, and the supernatural values that she used to look after. But in my
opinion, it's very difficult to replace that ethereal, extraordinary look of Virginia, who's an
extraordinary looking woman. You can replace her with a very earthy, older character, but you
still can't replace that wonderful gift that she had. So faced with all that, they tried to go
in a completely different direction but keeping some of the same elements with Noranti. When she
was finally put together, she worked very well, which I can't say about a lot of characters I've
played, but they didn't quite know what to do with her."
 As an example, Jaffer cites the
character's mysterious third eye, which was created by Creature Shop chief Dave Elsey, but never
explained and rarely used. "What happened was, none of the script writers wrote for the
Noetic eye, so one day, I said to my make-up artist Katherine Brown, 'We've got to start using
this eye whether they like it or not'. It was sitting there doing nothing, so Katherine read
every script and plotted the places where she'd use the eye {which was operated by remote
control), and it was entirely our decision. She'd say, 'Do you think it's this colour?' and I'd
tell her, 'Yes, go for the purple or whatever'. There was no direction for the eye, but
fortunately, I had this wonderful make- up artist who wanted to do something with it, because it
gave her a much stronger role than just sitting there waiting for me to come off the set, and
she was absolutely terrific."
 A
widely-respected stage and television actress, Jaffer has had no shortage of work in recent
months, including a recurring role in the series All Saints, a two-hour police drama Blackjack,
and the upcoming Australian/ UK co-production Snobs. " I've been quite busy since leaving
Farscape," she confirms. "I'm back working 'naked' as
I call it, without my mask, which is quite funny. After Farscape, some of us suddenly
have to be concerned about the way we look, and I actually loathe that. All the things like,
'Gosh, don't I look shocking in that light?' start to worry
you again."
And with Farscape over, does Melissa
Jaffer have any regrets? "I would like to have seen the Noranti of really keen intelligence
used more. I'd like to have seen her take command more often, which she was more than capable of
doing, and was in the original character breakdown. I didn't expect it to happen right away,
although I still believe that having done the politically correct thing in casting an older
woman, they didn't know what to do with her, which is the way life is. But I say that with no
hard feelings about anything. It was a totally enjoyable experience. I worked with some of the
best directors we have here, and some wonderful writers and producers, and I'd be more than
happy to work with any of them again."
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