I hated this show the first time I saw it. I was really turned off by the Muppets, but I gave it another shot and now proudly own the original season box sets and have them displayed prominently. I’m still bitter about the cancellation and rushed miniseries to end the run, but I regard Farscape as one of the best series I’ve ever watched, not just SciFi/Fantasy/whatever you want to call it.
The mix of humor, emotion, and balls to the walls crazy, as others have said, will definitely suck you in during the later portion of the run.
I was pretty obsessed with this show as a teenager. Haven’t revisited it recently, but now I’m feeling like I should. I think I’ve got a couple dvds lying around somewhere. One thing I remember is loving it whenever they went full-on crazy, something they seemed to do more and more often as the show went on.
If they ever get around to releasing a complete series blu-ray set I’m definitely picking it up day one.
I’m also kind of annoyed that the Farscape web-series that Sci-Fi announced a few years ago never actually got off the ground (though the still active thread about it on the Syfy boards has a rumour monger saying that Jim Henson Studios still wants to do it, they just lack the funding and ability to monetize a web series).
Loved this when I first saw it. Got the box set for Christmas and it’s made me understand some of the criticism people toss at the show. Granted, I still love it (Seasons 2, 3, and the latter half of four are just outstanding television–don’t even get me started on the awesomeness that is The Peacekeeper Wars) but viewing it now I can’t help but see how some of it is just so off.
There were plenty of episodes that were weird for the sake of being weird, which isn’t a bad thing, but they also brought nothing to the narrative. These episodes could range anywhere from boring to flat out embarrassing. When that show was on, it was on, but, man, when it wasn’t, it crashed and burned spectacularly.
Originally Posted by Kent When that show was on, it was on, but, man, when it wasn’t, it crashed and burned spectacularly.
Once they got turned loose around the end of season 1, they became absolutely fearless. Some of the shit they put Crichton through was mindblowing. It didn’t all work, but the show’s batting average was phenomenal considering how far they strayed from “safe scifi” or even “safe television”.
I’ll also say that I’d take any of the Farscape multi-part episodes over any recent scifi film. They were just uniformly awesome.
And not to spoil anything, but to get the full experience of Farscape, you should force yourself to wait at least a full year between watching the series finale and the miniseries that wrapped up the loose ends.
I own all the sets and the final movie, but for some reason I stopped watching it somewhere around late season 2.
Maybe it was when I got interested in Galactica (), can’t remember.
This might be the right time to pick it up again.
The show has many flaws, granted.
Some of the episodes were just plain awful. Sometimes I couldn’t help but feeling hopelessly geeky just for sitting there watching idiotic stuff like the planet of lawyers (or something).
But the very fact that the show never takes itself too seriously saves it from an unmerciful criticism, and truly one must say, when it delivers, it delivers.
The thing to understand is that it’s basically starting out as Dungeons and Dragons in space. I agree that there are episodes that don’t work but this is one of the all-time unsung classic TV shows.
People just need to get around the puppets, kinda. When I first heard of it I didn’t think it would be any good on the premise alone. Kinda like Firefly, actually. But when I got into it, I found it to be far more adult and surprising than almost any other show.
And why Ben Browder didn’t go on to massively great things is just beyond me. In those weird, not quite great episodes he is really something. He also wrote and/or directed a number of the especially great Scorpio episodes.
I absolutely love Farscape. It is my favorite space opera show ever. I can name some other shows that are technically “better”, but Farscape is my favorite because it has its own unique flair, due in large part to the awesome puppetry work and downright bizarre sense of humor. I think it is very telling that the “previously on Farscape” blurb at the beginning of the then series finale (before Peacekeeper Wars was a reality) flashes through all of the aliens they ever did on the show.
I think Farscape did a great job with its characters. The people on the ship grew into a strange sort of family, and they had arguments, disagreements, and fights, but they had each others backs when things went downhill. And things always went downhill.
The first half of season one is good, but once you’ve hit the first season’s finale, it just gets better and better from there, albeit with a few slight missteps along the way.
I think trying to compare Farscape with Star Trek is just weird. They are two completely different styles of sci-fi. I’d say that Farscape shares more in common with Star Wars in that they are both more like fantasy adventures that happen to be set in space.
Thanks for all the positive “you’re gonna love this!” comments, everybody.
Anyway, my thoughts on the episode “DNA Mad Scientist”: DAMN. That was pretty hardcore. These people are not a starship crew, nor are they at the semi-family stage that the Firefly crew ended up at. They’re still not quite trusting each other, and what happens to Pilot and Aeryn here is truly shocking. That’s why having John being the one saying “This is wrong” is a great move; like the audience, he’s just as horrified by the arm-chopping and Namtar (a truly great combination of suit-acting and animatronics) as we are, and his care for Aeryn and Pilot makes us care for them.
Speaking of those two, they get some great development here, and the Pilot-Aeryn bond is ending up as one of my favorites on the show. Lani Tupu and Claudia Black really get to act their socks off in this episode, and it all feels real thanks to their talent. The “B story” with Zhaan, D’Argo and Rygel’s infighting is quite good as well, and it’s curious that I don’t feel as… disappointed with Rygel as I do with the others. Maybe because I expect him to be such a bastard, as well as the fact that he fully calls out the other two for their hypocrisy. Zhaan and D’Argo revert to their baser natures here, and while D’Argo makes a beautiful semi-apology attempt at the end, Zhaan never really does, which is quite telling, I think.
Anyway, great episode, and I think it signals a change for Farscape. There’ll still be plenty of bizarre humor (I can’t wait to get to the body-switching episode in Season 2 or the Looney Tunes homage that I’ve heard about), but the stories are going to be a bit darker and more involving now. Characters will go through hell, and not always come out the better for it. In short, I’m looking forward to more great TV.
Originally Posted by FarsightView Post Once they got turned loose around the end of season 1, they became absolutely fearless. Some of the shit they put Crichton through was mindblowing. It didn’t all work, but the show’s batting average was phenomenal considering how far they strayed from “safe scifi” or even “safe television”.
Agreed. The show’s first two parter introduced one of the creepiest villians I’ve ever seen, and one that continued to surprise up to the very end of the show’s run. Every time Wayne Pygram came on screen, viewers knew they were in for a treat.
So, for those of you watching through this for the first time, who is your favorite character to this point? Or which character relationship is the most interesting thus far?
It’s a little hard for me to narrow it down as Farscape has so many great characters, but I’d probably have to say that either Chiana (who shows up late in the 1st season) or D’Argo is my favorite character. They both have interesting arcs through the series as a whole and both are badass in their own way. Then again, I always liked Rygel because you could count on him to be a self-serving bastard. I think it’s great that the puppet work on this show was so good that you just start to think of Rygel and Pilot as characters rather than just a puppet. I think part of that is Farscape kind of went out of its way to have the cast interact with the puppets as often as possible, making them feel much more real.
I watched the show pretty regularly until about halfway through either Season 2 or Season 3. I think the last episode I ever saw was the one where the Clone Crichton used a blackhole to turn a sun into a weapon, and then promptly died.
I used to love the show but I got distracted after that episode and every subsequent attempt to get back into seemed to involve too much research into the episodes I missed. By the end of its run it felt exceptionally serialised.
I do think Season One is perhaps not very indicative of how good Farscape will get. It’s saddled with a fairly weak villain (who is overshadowed completely by the magnificence of the person who replaces him), the Muppets and make-up don’t look right, and Crichton feels a little staid. By the time we get to the second season the show is just amazing and I’ve been desperate to buy the entire thing on DVD or Blu for a while. It’s just a shame the boxsets are so prohibitively expensive. I mean I was able to buy the entirety of the Sopranos and Six Feet Under and the The Wire for £60 ($110) apiece whilst the Farscape full season is about £250 ($480).
I love D’Argo and Chiana, always felt they were fascinating characters but I could never get on with Zhann as a character. I liked the basic idea of her character and that sort of murderous rage underneath her calm façade, but I just found her too be kind of dull.
I was always a big fan of Stark though. One of the things the show always had going for it was how crazily imaginative it was. It’s full on space opera, more akin to Buck Rogers than Star Trek, and that allowed them to go really out there with creature designs and ideas. Always appreciated that, I also loved that the overall big bad was a full on homage to Blake 7.
Originally Posted by Spike MarshallView Post By the time we get to the second season the show is just amazing and I’ve been desperate to buy the entire thing on DVD or Blu for a while. It’s just a shame the boxsets are so prohibitively expensive. I mean I was able to buy the entirety of the Sopranos and Six Feet Under and the The Wire for £60 ($110) apiece whilst the Farscape full season is about £250 ($480).
I loved this show but the way it was scheduled on TV meant I missed the last season. I have that box set sitting on the shelf and this thread just pushed me to have a go at a rewatch. IIRC, Nick liked this show quite a bit and Devin flat out hates it.
Originally Posted by Polygon_WizardView Post So, for those of you watching through this for the first time, who is your favorite character to this point? Or which character relationship is the most interesting thus far? It’s a little hard for me to narrow it down as Farscape has so many great characters, but I’d probably have to say that either Chiana (who shows up late in the 1st season) or D’Argo is my favorite character. They both have interesting arcs through the series as a whole and both are badass in their own way. Then again, I always liked Rygel because you could count on him to be a self-serving bastard. I think it’s great that the puppet work on this show was so good that you just start to think of Rygel and Pilot as characters rather than just a puppet. I think part of that is Farscape kind of went out of its way to have the cast interact with the puppets as often as possible, making them feel much more real.
I’m finding the Pilot-Aeryn relationship incredibly fascinating so far, if only because I wasn’t expecting Claudia freaking Black to form a tender relationship with a giant Muppet on this show. The Crichton-Aeryn dynamic is great too, and Rygel is just a hoot. D’Argo’s pretty interesting because he has a certain sense of naivete in addition to being the big, badass warrior of the group. I’ve heard great things about Chiana and Scorpius, so I can’t wait to “meet” them.
How oddly coinicidental that this thread pops up now. I just picked up the box set a couple of weeks ago (Amazon had a super deal putting the whole thing at around fifty bucks) and have been pouring through the episodes quickly. I’m already a third of the way into season three.
I used to love this show when it aired on Sci-Fi, and I’m finding myself falling in love with it all over again as I rewatch it. Poop on the haters and nay-sayers, as I think this show is wonderfully written. It’s a character-driven romp through the cosmos - a little bit space opera and a little bit gunslinger.
Agreed that the first season was weak, but it really hits its stride by the time it gets to the mulit-parter at the end of season two. And my favourite element is always seeing Scorpy and Crichton face off in John’s head. Those scenes are always fun to watch, and you can tell that both leads are having a lot of fun with it.
And the puppetry on display is phenomenal. Up to the point that the show originally aired, I think it was the best the Henson Company had ever done. Not once do I ever look at Rygel or Pilot and think “Oh, it’s obviously a puppet.” Both of them successfully fool me into believing that they are living, breathing characters.
I will confidently argue that Farscape is a great show.
Originally Posted by Spike MarshallView Post I was always a big fan of Stark though. One of the things the show always had going for it was how crazily imaginative it was. It’s full on space opera, more akin to Buck Rogers than Star Trek, and that allowed them to go really out there with creature designs and ideas. Always appreciated that, I also loved that the overall big bad was a full on homage to Blake 7.
I like Stark as well. He is a character that is somewhat at odds with himself. He has moments of complete zen and wisdom immediately followed by utter lunacy. There are many times when Stark goes completely bonkers that are just awesome. The guy really seems like he is insane.
“My side, your side!”
One of the great things about Farscape was that it wasn’t afraid to let its characters change and evolve. Mistakes had consequences, characters switch up alliances, relationships changed…by the end of the show every single character was in a different place than where they started.
I also admire how the show manages to turn the ship, Moya, into a sympathetic character with actual motivations. It was an interesting idea that worked more often than it didn’t.
As a side note to this discussion, I’ve always been amused by how many Farscape actors ended up in the various Matrix movies.
An another slight tangent: Farscape gets the prize for perhaps the best use of the 1812 Overture in television history. Anyone who’s made it into the fourth season knows what I’m talking about.
Originally Posted by Polygon_WizardView Post As a side note to this discussion, I’ve always been amused by how many Farscape actors ended up in the various Matrix movies.
I can only think of two off the top of my head (Paul Goddard and David Franklin). Were there more?
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Originally Posted by Don S.View Post And my favourite element is always seeing Scorpy and Crichton face off in John’s head. Those scenes are always fun to watch, and you can tell that both leads are having a lot of fun with it.
I think my favorite one of their mental sparring matches has got to be in Season 3’s “Season of Death.” A very tense and emotional moment for Crichton that ends up leading to a great recurring joke down the line.