History YMMV / Farscape

** In "Bringing Home the Beacon", Chiana and Noranti go undercover as a lesbian couple, and seem to enjoy themselves a lot. In the same episode, Chiana gets mildly tortured by a {{Dominatrix}} masseuse, but doesn't seem especially traumatised by it...

** Les Yay:
*** Chiana and Jool get ''very'' touchy-feely in numerous episodes. Of particular note: their girl-on-girl dance in "Scratch n' Sniff", and their rather... intimate... placement of hands [[spoiler:when Jool says goodbye]] in "What Was Lost Part 2: Resurrection".
*** After Jool leaves, Chiana and Noranti spontaneously decide to go undercover as a lesbian couple in "Bringing Home the Beacon". And seem very enthusiastic about their roles.

* EvilIsSexy: Sikozu. Okay, "evil" is a bit of a stretch, though she ''is'' the only character who ever warms to Scorpius [[spoiler:and eventually joins him once Scorpius goes back to the Peacekeepers]].

** Also with fellow Sci-Fi Channel series ''Series/StargateSG1'', where Claudia Black had a recurring role as Vala Mal Doran beginning in season 7. She and Ben Browder ended up both joining the regular cast in season 9, with Vala becoming a member of SG-1 the next year.

* GrowingTheBeard: The show began as a fairly generic SpaceOpera with a unique tone and above-average writing, but had multiple beard growing moments in Season 1 that took it further:
** The first came with the episodes "[[Recap/FarscapeS01E07PKTechGirl PK Tech Girl]]" and "[[Recap/FarscapeS01E09DNAMadScientist DNA Mad Scientist]]". They took the show into darker territory, being more heavily emotional and mature while also playing up the show's weird alien elements. Many fans will cite these as ''Farscape'''s first great episodes. Notably, "PK Tech Girl" was the first episode in the series to be shot on its own rather than doubled up.
** Another came with the episodes "[[Recap/FarscapeS01E15DurkaReturns Durka Returns]]" and "[[Recap/FarscapeS01E16AHumanReaction A Human Reaction]]". In addition to being great episodes, they pushed the show to be more serialized, with the former episode introducing new crew member Chiana and the latter introducing the show's MythArc.
** Finally, most fans would agree that the show really came into its own and grew the beard toward the end of Season 1, with the episodes "[[Recap/FarscapeS01E19Nerve Nerve]]" and "[[Recap/FarscapeS01E20TheHiddenMemory The Hidden Memory]]". These episodes kicked the MythArc into full gear, took the show to its darkest and most emotionally arresting places yet, introduced main villain Scorpius, seriously kicked off Crichton's arc (and made him a much more interesting character), and began the series' BlackAndGrayMorality. Crichton's outfit even ''literally'' got [[DarkerAndEdgier darker]], as he switched to wearing [[HellbentForLeather Peacekeeper leather]].
** The beard was finally, fully, completely grown in by "Crackers Don't Matter". The second season got over the wonky aesthetics -- makeup issues and over-lit sets -- that plagued the first season, allowing for a darker and moodier atmosphere that carried through to the rest of the show. The writers really cut loose with the batshit-insane weirdness and dark sexuality that now defines the series, and the director went to town the weird wobbly steadicam that fluctuates between emulating a weekend bender and a nervous breakdown. And even moreso than the usual absurdity, it features a surreal apparition[[note]] ''which would later become fan-favorite character Harvey''[[/note]] of the villainous Scorpius...decked out in a Hawaiian shirt...who recommends ''pizza'' with ''margaritas''.

** Creator/BenMendelsohn played Sko, one of the squawking alien burglars from "I-Yensch, You-Yensch", years before ''Series/{{Bloodline}}'' put him on the map.

** "[[Recap/FarscapeS04E16BringingHomeTheBeacon Bringing Home the Beacon]]" through "[[Recap/FarscapeS05E01ThePeacekeeperWarsPart1 The]] Peacekeeper [[Recap/FarscapeS05E02ThePeacekeeperWarsPart2 Wars]]": [[InsaneAdmiral War Minister Ahkna]] is the single most [[AmbitionIsEvil ambitious]] and brutal Scarran in the entire empire. Responsible for countless Scarran conquests with subjugation or extermination, Ahkna is [[WarHawk the chief voice pushing for war]] against the Peacekeepers with full intent to [[FinalSolution exterminate the Sebacean race]]. Sabotaging peace talks via murder, Ahkna makes clear her ambition to [[TheStarscream succeed or overthrow Emperor Staleek]] and spitefully tries to murder the unborn child of Aeryn Sun and John Crichton. Hunting them for the Wormhole technology in Crichton's head, Ahkna fully intends to torture the weapon our of John so she might unleash it and create an intergalactic genocide until her empire stands supreme.

** Seasons 1 & 2: Selto Durka is a captain of the ironically named Peacekeepers who is well-known for being a [[TortureTechnician master of torturing people]] and [[{{Sadist}} enjoying torture far more than is healthy]]. He had kept and tortured Rygel for years before the story begins, and years later his presence utterly terrifies Rygel beyond reason. Durka enjoys torturing nearly everyone he sees, and when he captures Aeryn, he leaves a comm channel open so the rest of her crew can hear him about to torture her and burn her face off. Even worse, he tried to forcibly abort the living and sapient spaceship Moya's child so she'd be capable of going faster to take him to safety.

** "[[Recap/FarscapeS03E11Incubator Incubator]]": Tauza is a Scarran noble who oversees their breeding program, where the humanoid Sebacean women are kidnapped, (any families or loved ones with them are killed) and forcibly raped by Scarran soldiers. Tauza subjected 90 Sebacean women to this, with none surviving. One woman had a child, later named Scorpius. Tauza sought to purge the young half-breed of all "Sebacan weakness" by torturing him [[ColdBloodedTorture physically]] and [[MindRape mentally]]. Tauza lied to Scorpius, claiming he had a Scarran mother who had been raped by a Sebacean, but she later revealed the truth when Scorpius sought to rebel, showing him a video of his mother's violation to hurt him. Cruel, arrogant, [[FantasticRacism racist]] and vicious, Tauza embodied the worst of Scarran culture, and under her hand for all his formative years, it's no wonder Scorpius developed a genocidal hatred of the Scarrans.

** Later flipped on its head when Creator/JamesGunn admitted ''Farscape'' was an enormous influence on his ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' films (to the point he gave Ben Browder a cameo in ''Vol. 2''), which are the renewed Star Wars franchise's biggest competitors for fantasy space opera.

* IdiotPlot: In "Mental as Anything," John is put into a sweatbox that he can only leave when he's able to get one of the keys that continually drop through the ceiling, but move too fast so that he's forced to pull up the red hot grate to get one. Except you have to wonder why he doesn't just put his shirt over the grate to catch one. Apparently the original script had him be nude, which the network vetoed, and no one realized the issue this caused.

* LesYay:
** Chiana and Jool get ''very'' touchy-feely in numerous episodes. Of particular note: their girl-on-girl dance in "Scratch n' Sniff", and their rather... intimate... placement of hands [[spoiler:when Jool says goodbye]] in "What Was Lost Part 2: Resurrection".
** After Jool leaves, Chiana and Noranti spontaneously decide to go undercover as a lesbian couple in "Bringing Home the Beacon". And seem very enthusiastic about their roles.

* PanderingToTheBase: ''The Peacekeeper Wars'' is arguably this for the more hardcore John/Aeryn shippers.
* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Even by 2002 standards, the PC game is pretty much balls.

** Season 4, on the other hand, is sometimes considered seasonal rot for taking the series' inherent weirdness and wackiness and dialing it UpToEleven.
* SpecialEffectsFailure: In the first episode of the second season, [[spoiler:when Crais is being hooked up with the neural interface to the baby leviathan]] you can clearly see a hand holding up the metal-tentacle thing, near the bottom of the screen.
** Also, in the third season, "Jack" is switching between his human form and his actual Ancient shape and there is almost no similarity between the Muppet and the CGI used for the transformation.

* NightmareFuel: It's virtually a guarantee that everyone will find something.

* FoeYay: Crichton and Scorpius. "Insert the rod, John!" Crichton lampshades it a few times.

---> '''John Cricton''': "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis Nobody. Has. Margaritas. With. Pizza!]]"

* AssPull: The random superpowers Chiana gets in season three, during a bog-standard MonsterOfTheWeek episode, for the sole reason that the character has nothing else to do after her relationship drama with D'Argo and Jothee has been wrapped up.

** The most shameless example is Scorpius and Braca. Noted by Crichton in season four. "Yeah, feel the love, [[TheSimpsons Mr. Burns]]."

** [[BewareTheSillyOnes Rygel XVI]] was Dominar of the [[Characters/FarscapeHynerians Hynerian]] Empire, ruler of over six hundred billion subjects, before he was deposed by his cousin and spent over a hundred cycles in Peacekeeper captivity. He masterminded the prison break aboard Moya, and never lets the others forget it. While he's frequently dismissed by the rest of the crew due to his diminutive stature, relentless {{greed}} and self-absorption, Rygel is intelligent, cunning, a competent negotiator and statesman, and can be surprisingly violent when the situation demands it. While he makes no secret of the fact that he's out for himself first, neither will he betray the crew for no reason -- as he's smart enough to know they're helpful allies, and he has to be fairly certain he'll actually profit from turning on them. If there's nothing to be gained by working against them, he'll have a flawless scheme up his sleeve to protect them. As the series goes on and CharacterDevelopment sets in, Rygel lets his genuine care and love for Moya and his friends show more often, but never loses his capacity for brilliant scheming and brutal violence as needed. In "[[Recap/FarscapeS03E19IYenschYouYensch I-Yensch, You-Yensch]]" he becomes one of very few to cross wits with Scorpius and come out on top.

* SeasonalRot: Season 3 is generally less well-regarded than the others and saw the show's ratings steadily decline as a result. Season 4, which took the series' inherent weirdness and dialed it UpToEleven in a variety of ways, is also sometimes seen as this.
** Although YMMV heavily on the former point, since today Season 3 is often considered the best season of the entire series.

** Crichton's beard in "Jeremiah Crichton". Good luck paying attention to anything else while watching that episode.
*** Funnily enough, in the DVDCommentary for "Jeremiah Crichton", Ben Browder relates how fans were angered that Crichton's beard in "Crichton Kicks" apparently looked more fake than the one used for the former episode. [[RealityIsUnrealistic Browder genuinely did grow an actual beard for the latter episode]].
*** The episode "Jeremiah Crichton" also had a scene where Rygel's puppeteer is visible on the right side of the screen.

*** Even worse is [=SyFy=]'s cancellation of various shows after ''Farscape'', basically using the same methods (such as changing the show's time and day of airing to cause lower viewer numbers) in order to cancel shows they no longer wish to continue to fund. Other shows that were victims of this include the previously mention ''Series/{{Caprica}}'', ''Series/DarkMatter2015'' and ''Series/{{Defiance}}'' (another show created by ''Farscape'' series creator Rockne S. O'Bannon).

* FriendlyFandoms: With the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' fandom. ''Mass Effect'' shows a lot of influence from ''Farscape'', and even had ''Creator/ClaudiaBlack'' voice two characters in the games.

* HarsherInHindsight: In the Season 1 episode "Back and Back and Back to the Future" (one of the earliest examples of a [[DarkerAndEdgier dark episode]]), Crichton's forward-flashes in time depict [[FemmeFatale Matala]] aggressively performing sex acts on him, and the scenes very much come across as though she's raping him. [[spoiler:Flash forward to the Season 4 two-parter "What Was Lost", in which Crichton is raped by Grayza.]]

** In a meta sense, Sci-Fi Channel's cancellation of the series. On the official website, when the news of the cancellation was made, Sci-Fi posted up a [=FAQ=]s on their ''Farscape'' show page answering "questions" about the show's cancellation. Jump forward to 2010's ''Caprica''. After one season the show was cancelled. [=SyFy=] reused the exact same [=FAQ=]s they posted on the ''Farscape'' page with very minimal changing of details (such as the name of the show that was being cancelled).

** The series also has very strong overtones of "''Series/BlakesSeven'' with an effects budget". This was openly admitted in the final season with the addition of the villainous Commander Grayza, whose dress sense and hairstyle are clearly inspired by the BigBad of ''Blake's Seven'', Supreme Commander and later President Servalan.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: "Prayer". Wall-to-wall torture and death with no respite. The scene with Scorpius and Crichton spinning in the cockpit doesn't further the plot in any way; it's there so the show can throw in a joke at the very beginning. Still, the episode is worth watching in a ''Did they actually just do that'' sort of way.

*** Even worse is [=SyFy=]'s cancellation of various shows after ''Farscape'', basically using the same methods (such as changing the show's time and day of airing to cause lower viewer numbers) in order to cancel shows they no longer wish to continue to fund. Other shows that were victims of this include the previously mention ''Caprica'', ''Series/DarkMatter2015'' and ''Defiance''.