Farscape

I consider myself up on my sci fi tv, and yet I didn't know this show even existed until six months ago.

Long story short, I watched some online, was unimpressed.

Ran out of stuff to watch, started the series from the top, and now I'm obsessed with it. Hard to believe that no one besides this show and B5 thought of an animatronic alien(s).

I'm watching it. I'm still in the first season, when does it get good?

I think that's when Scorpius shows up.

Yeah, so around Nerve, or a few episodes before that. But I have a lot of love for The Blood Runs Clear, which is a big mythology episode, so I'd start there. Plus, it's got Magda Szubanski. She's the fucking greatest.

I'd say one episode earlier, A Human Reaction. Your basic Lotus-Eater Machine, but well handled. As in, the episode knows it's not fooling anybody, but it still kept me guessing.

edited 4th Mar '11 6:21:56 PM by johnnyfog

Should be ordering the new sets soon and watching again for the first time since first airing. After which I can re-evaluate whether a webisode series would have been justified or not.

I'm trying to think of something more constructive than "Yeah, this is a pretty good series" to say and I can't.

So: "Yeah, this is a pretty good series."

I thought they did the best multipart episodes. I can't think of many other shows that had the gall to be mostly stand alone, and then suddenly start belting out three or four part episodes, nearly completely randomly. Can anyone else think of a show with a similar structure? I'd be interested in checking that out. I certainly can't think of many shows with three-parters.

(Speaking of structure, I like that Fringe recently took a leaf from Farscape's book, and has been doing episodes that focus on alternate groups of people. It was awesome on Farscape, and just as awesome on Fringe — and kind of a novel way of dealing with large casts and budget issues.)

The question of when Farscape got good-or managed to Grow The Beard has been discussed by fans and even cast and crew of the series for years. If you listen to the season one commentary, Ben Browder and Claudia Black actually have legnthy discussions about which episode is really the turning point from making it a standard Space Opera into one of the best Sci-Fi shows ever made. The two most popular ones are 1.09 "DNA Mad Scientist" and 1.16 "A Human Reaction." DNAMS really pushed the envelope in the special effects area, creating a unique villain in what could have been just a standard "Dracula" rehash. AHR is the one where we got a real series overarching plot, although it's not really revealed as yet, as well as being the first episode where John and Aeryn 'do the deed.'

For me though, it's 1.07 "PK Tech Girl." This is the first episode where not only does everything come together but it you are really on the edge of your seat. It's got so many new characters and plot lines that it should be difficult to follow but the writing and direction allows the audience to get what's really going on. There is some much character development in this episode that it's hard to describe it all. Aeryn and John's relationship, after a very rocky little moment really starts to move forward by the end. D"Argo fights his first battle as a ship's commander and actually manages to win...barely. Rygel faces his deepest fears and manages to get past a rather dark memory. The special effects are first rate and the acting is about pitch-perfect. If you manage to make it through the controversial first six episodes, you'll be hooked once you watch this one.

I watched the first two seasons of Farscape around the time seasons 9-10 of SG-1 were on tv, and came to the conclusion that I really, really hate Ben Browder. He's enough that I stopped watching Farscape, because I couldn't stand him being the star of the show. I don't know why I really hate the guy, either.

I'd agree. There's something very blunt about him. He was an excellent writer though.

Wow. I've never actually heard of anybody who hated Browder. Too bad you quit the show before season three though. It was probably the best one they did.

I remember being home sick from school years ago, back when Sci-Fi channel actually played SCI-FI shows. I watched a good chunk of the first season that day, and was hooked. Sadly I forgot what the show was called. Many years later, with the aid of Tropes, I found it. I got the complete series box set as a birthday gift last year.....and still have not finished them. I really love the show, but I just don't have the time.

Farscape grew stubble around PK-Tech Girl, had a five'o clock shadow at a Human Reaction, and fully sprouted the beard when Scorpius showed up.

I remember SCIFI.

I think a lot of people are just now discovering (or rediscovering) the show now due to the release of the DV Ds at an affordable price at the end of 2009. They were simply too expensive for most people to get hold of. It's too bad this show never got the attention that it deserved. Most of that was due to the stupidity of Sci-Fi (now Sy Fy) which never understood or appreciated what the show was. The kept meddling and meddling until they just outright killed it.

I'm about halfway through Season 3 of this right now. Boy... with all the MindScrews that are done to Crichton in particular, you'd think his mind would be swiss cheese by now. Amazing show.

I love this show a lot.

I don't like the first season very much though.

One thing that was kind of cool about it is that it was a starship-based show that didn't have a Captain—as D'Argo once put it, they were an "anarchy". And they made it work, for the most part. (There were still a few squabbles about what course of action they'd take sometimes, but they usually ended up settling on a consensus—and remarkably, Crichton was usually the one who built that consensus, even though he was more the outsider in those parts than anyone else. He was probably the closest thing to a "leader" they had, in that regard.)

I've heard there was a brief-running Canadian and German series called Lexx that was built on a similar premise, and I've actually ordered the "first season" (actually a series of movies that preceded the show proper), which I found on Amazon fairly cheaply, to check it out. We'll see how it compares.

The first season of Farscape was the show finding its legs—I'll agree with others here that the introduction of Scorpius was where it kicked into high gear, with Season 3 kicking it into an even higher gear (just finished that, now waiting for Season 4 to arrive in the mail).

edited 2nd Dec '12 1:57:53 AM by WeAreAllKosh

Farscape is frelling awesome. And despite the series being cut short, Peacekeeper Wars is one of the best series finales I've seen. And the follow up comics (at least the first) aren't that different from the show.

I still haven't watched any of this, despite how awesome I found Claudia Black to be in SG-1 Season 10.

Browder's not too bad, but he's also not too good. It worked fine on SG-1 since at that point I was watching the rest of SG-1 already anyway.

I should start watching this, I've only heard good things.

Wonder how different this show would be if Jack O'Neill got stranded on Moya instead.

Or how much better Stargate would have been if Crichton ended up at SG-1?

Lexx is... different. Take how Farscape was different from Star Trek, well, Lexx is even more different, along the same axis. It's a very, very weird show.

Honestly, of all the problems the last 2 seasons of SG 1 had, Cameron Mitchell wasn't one of them. I actually liked the character. The real question is how the show would have been if we'd had Aeryn Sun (Who was awesome and useful) rather Vala (Who wasn't).

On the topic of Aeryn, I need a memory refresher. Was it her species or the Scarrans that couldn't stand extreme temperatures?

It was her species.