Asked how it feels to play a pioneer in space, Debrah Farentino said, "It sure beats pantyhose in a courtroom."
Ms. Farentino, who portrayed a lawyer on the "Equal Justice" series and more recently had to dress well as a love interest for David Caruso on "NYPD Blue," will get back to basics on the new "Earth 2" series that will have a two-hour premiere at 7 p.m. Sunday on NBC, before taking its regular 7 p.m. slot.
She plays Devon Adair, a wealthy woman who finances a mission to a new planet after Earth has become uninhabitable and the orbiting space stations that have become people's homes appear to be making children sick. With her son and a few other people (including Clancy Brown), Adair heads for a new Earthlike planet, but when their high-tech vehicle crashes, the group has to get by with far less equipment -- and far more skill -- than it anticipated.
"Earth 2" executive producer Michael Duggan has called the series "a wagon train-type story on another planet," and the western pioneer element will be emphasized, including in the production being done in New Mexico and in encounters with other tribes on the new planet.
Mr. Brown, the son of former Ohio Congressman Clarence J. Brown, has said the pioneer notion appealed to him, too. "There is no martial structure," he said, although many space-travel series involve military missions. "There is no structure at all. And when we meet these other creatures or have problems, we can't call on our communicators and find out what the bosses upstairs think. . . . "It is simply survival, much like it was in the settling of America. [That raises] a lot of moral problems and ethical issues: If a species is threatening your child, are you justified in destroying that species, or should you let your child die?"
Add to that issues of starvation, exposure to a hostile environment, "basic survival issues that are pretty well ignored by most of television, not just the science-fiction shows," Mr. Brown said, "That reduces it to a real visceral level, and that's what I really like."
Ms. Farentino was attracted by her character, saying "a well-rounded, developed woman just doesn't come along very often" in TV.
She is no great fan of science-fiction as such, and the executive producers of "Earth 2" come not from fantasy productions but from mainstream series -- "Law & Order," "China Beach," "The Wonder Years," "L.A. Law." One of those producers, Mark Levin, said they agreed to do the series only if it was not simple sci-fi. "We want it to be about the characters, and we want to make it completely real," he said.
"Our characters, our ensemble, is real important to us," said executive producer Carol Flint. "We have two children and two parents, but they are not a family unit. They are a mother and her son, and a father and his daughter. We have a space pilot who never intended to land here and certainly never thought he'd be grounded. . . . We have a young woman doctor who has never practiced alone before and suddenly, because she's one of the [crash] survivors, she has to rise to the task. . . .
"So a lot of our drama comes from our characters, in what will end up being a lot of life-and-death situations."
Which is where Ms. Farentino came in. On "NYPD Blue," she is first to admit she had a supporting role and that the series "is about the men." But on "Earth 2," "This is one of the few projects where you take a woman, a woman with a child, and you see her growth, her change, through a wonderful adventure."
Then there's the bonus of the New Mexico landscapes. "We've seen stars at night that you don't see. . . . Driving to the set one day, I saw a thunderstorm to the left and blue sky to the right."