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Little Yellow Bolts of Light: A Farscape Appreciation Thread

post #1 of 55
6/1/10 at 1:06pm
Thread Starter 
Being the Henson freak that I am, I've decided to give Farscape a try, a show unlike anything the Henson Company has ever produced before or since. After eight episodes, I'm in love. Everything about this show just clicks for me, and I can't wait to see where things go. I will use this thread to share my thoughts on the episodes as I watch them and hopefully foster discussion amongst any other Farscape fans we have on here.

Coming out of the first eight episodes, two of the best things about this show already are the production values and the cast. Production wise, this is one of the coolest looking sci-fi shows ever. Sure, the CGI's a little wonky in places, but it's still pretty good. Either way, the main attraction here is the aliens. The puppetry and animatronic work here is staggering, especially the two regular puppet cast members Rygel and Pilot, both of whom are going to end up favorites. Bizarre alien puppets pop up regularly, all of them great, and even the "humanoid aliens with funny makeup" manage to seem like aliens through the great makeup/prosthetic work as well as their personalities.

Speaking of personality, the ensemble cast assembled here is terrific. Ben Browder is that rare species of actor who has movie-star "hunk" looks in addition to actually being able to act. Browder's creation of John Crichton is classic, a geeky scientist who copes with this new universe by trying to act as human as he can while dropping snarky pop culture references left and right. Interestingly, the pop culture references never grate because they seem to come organically from Crichton's character, and Browder mines a lot of humor out of them. Claudia Black is an actress I've liked for a while, but Aeryn Sun is clearly her defining role right from the start, and her chemistry with Browder is great. Anthony Simcoe manages to make D'Argo both a strong, lovable warrior as well as a curiously naive young man, since for his species D'Argo is practically a teenager. Virginia Hey makes Zhaan the peacemaker of the group, and her few flashes of anger are all the more effective thanks the passion Hey brings to them. The voice artists for the regular puppets are also great: Lani Tupu (who appears in the flesh on the show as the vengeful Captain Bialar Crais) gives Pilot shades of sadness as well as humor, and Jonathan Hardy keeps stealing the show as the hilariously greedy Rygel.

The final great thing about this show so far is its sense of storytelling. The living ship Moya has no weapons and its "starburst" ability has to be used sparingly, so the writers don't have as many "outs" or technobabble solutions as, say, Star Trek (and I say this as a big Trek fan). The morality isn't cut and dry either; Crichton's new "family" consists of criminals and an ex-soldier, and they don't always get along. Their actions affect both each other and themselves, and one gets the feeling that these characters will not just "bounce back" every week. There is also a lack of moralizing or easy solutions to problems, and you have no idea how much I appreciate that. For instance, in "That Old Black Magic", Crichton finally gets a chance to explain to Crais how and why his brother died, and Crais finally appears to believe him... but it doesn't matter. Crais still wants to kill him, and Crichton broods over his failure as the episode ends. Thankfully, things aren't all serious. Farscape has a wonderful sense of humor, with witty, articulate characters who play off each other wonderfully, and Crichton confusing everyone with his pop culture references is a great running gag. Even the more "juvenile" humor such as Rygel's farting helium or his explosive bodily fluids manage to be funny thanks to the execution.

In short, I love this show, and hope there are some other fans on here as well. I can't wait to see where this journey takes me.
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post #2 of 55
6/1/10 at 1:08pm
I kind of hate this show.
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post #3 of 55
6/1/10 at 1:20pm
Hey, huge Farscape fan here. You are in for a treat. For the longest time I made fun of this show. Years ago, I decided to give it a try during season 3. BOY WAS I WRONG. It has remained my all time favorite tv show. Great writing, wit, scifi, and the cast. If you give in to the show and characters, it is very rewarding. Enjoy!
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post #4 of 55
6/1/10 at 1:22pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Merriweather View Post
I kind of hate this show.
Care to explain why? I'm certainly up for constructive criticism, but to make your first post in a thread with "Appreciation" in the title about non-specifically hating it is kind of annoying.
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post #5 of 55
6/1/10 at 1:28pm
I just find it incredibly twee and irritating. It gets trumpeted as a bold new take on the space opera, but it's mainly just recycled spacefaring cliches with a bit more sex and violence. And Muppets, can't forget the Muppets.

To compare this favourably to TREK, in ANY way, is pretty insane. TREK wrote the playbook; FARSCAPE tore out a few pages and drew some puppets on them.
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post #6 of 55
6/1/10 at 1:38pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Merriweather View Post
I just find it incredibly twee and irritating. It gets trumpeted as a bold new take on the space opera, but it's mainly just recycled spacefaring cliches with a bit more sex and violence. And Muppets, can't forget the Muppets.

To compare this favourably to TREK, in ANY way, is pretty insane. TREK wrote the playbook; FARSCAPE tore out a few pages and drew some puppets on them.
*shrugs* Well, it's your opinion. I just massively disagree at this point.
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post #7 of 55
6/2/10 at 12:34am
I wanted to like this show...and you can see the entire cast were really into it. The premise was cool, some individual episodes were cool. But I just couldn't connect with it.
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post #8 of 55
6/2/10 at 1:35am
Strictly as a wannabe "saga," Farscape makes the filler version of "The Unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood" that once showed up in the back of a Classics Illustrated comic book look like a total epic.

(My Mother the Car, Me and the Chimp, and Earth 2 are all superior to Farscape in this respect.)

Farscape is just another Rockne S. O'Bannon travesty; the producers once attempted to hire on Star Trek writer Naren Shankar as a staff tech advisor, but even he wasn't able to accomplish very much in the face of the kind of embedded stupidity that O'Bannon builds into his series-format work.

It really had nothing resembling actual scripts, and aside from Virginia Hey, Claudia Black, and Good Muppets, very little to offer. You can't base a series on Good Muppets; you need a proper writer or two. I've sat through it a number of times because I like the Muppets, and the two Aussie ladies working in it (and much of the cast could actually ACT), but life is too short to put up with that much pain.
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post #9 of 55
6/2/10 at 1:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Leto II
It really had nothing resembling actual scripts, and aside from Virginia Hey, Claudia Black, and Good Muppets, very little to offer. You can't base a series on Good Muppets; you need a proper writer or two. I've sat through it a number of times because I like the Muppets, and the two Aussie ladies working in it (and much of the cast could actually ACT), but life is too short to put up with that much pain.
From the end of season 1 through season 4, Farscape was an extremely serialized show. So you're either referring to early season 1 (which was admittedly weaker), or you were jumping into the middle of season-long storylines. Either way, your opinion is uninformed.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Spider
In short, I love this show
You're in for a treat. Starting around 3/4s of the way through season 1, the show kicks into a higher gear and becomes unbelievably better from then until the end. If I were to rank the episodes of the entire series, probably 8 of my 10 lowest-rated ones would be in the first half of season 1. So if you're enjoying those, you're going to go nuts over what's to come.

Farscape is similar to Angel in that regard. A bit shaky on takeoff, but an absolute home run afterwards.

And the look they pulled off (especially from season 2 on) on such a small budget truly is amazing. Farscape had more style, and to me looked more like a living breathing universe than the Star Wars prequels or Avatar. Of course, an engaging story helps with immersion.
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post #10 of 55
6/2/10 at 2:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Farsight View Post
From the end of season 1 through season 4, Farscape was an extremely serialized show. So you're either referring to early season 1 (which was admittedly weaker), or you were jumping into the middle of season-long storylines. Either way, your opinion is uninformed.
I was downplaying how much of the show I've seen to date -- in fact, I've watched at least a good, solid two-thirds of the series by this point, under various circumstances.

The show was insulting strictly from a real-world science background alone; it didn't help matters very much that the entire series format was constantly designed around trite, incoherent, poorly-thought-out genre clichés which severely hampered the viewer's willing suspension of disbelief.

For example, there was a script concerning the backstory of Pilot's forced connection with Moya, an expansion/explication on underpinnings of the series format, that seemed decent to me. It was damaged by slop execution, and by lack of foundation for certain details in previous episodes, implying a certain degree of Acute Retcon, but it came close to working pretty well; at least, it was superior to anything we've ever seen from the vastly higher-budgeted Trekkie Franchise efforts with names like "Braga" and "Berman" appended.

However, the show-by-show retcon of major characters, the completely cockamamie and indefensible biology, physics, logic, linguistics, economics, sociology, psychology, all add up to considerably defuse the narrative validity of even the episodes that come close to being worth watching.

The series' producers and "writers" like Rockne S. O'Bannon, Lee Goldberg, Bill Rabkin, Andrew Duggan all depended upon Farscape's Magical Technology™ as the driving force for their "storylines," and which conveniently failed whenever the "writer" needed something not to work, without reference to whether it's appropriate to even have such a failure, or tech that actually works as described.

While many viewers may not need a scrupulously-designed fictional milieu in order to derive some degree of enjoyment of disjointed and non-sequitur "plot" developments, most people simply don't bother with stories that don't make sense.

My opinion's definitely adequately formed on this one.
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post #11 of 55
6/2/10 at 2:44am
Wanted to add:

Apologies -- I realize that this is supposed to be an "appreciation" thread, and for that reason, I'll take my leave without dumping on anything any further, here. Didn't mean to go off on it the way I did...long day, I was cranky, and I know the show does have its fans.

A few years back, a friend of mine lent me his DVDs of the show's later seasons and finale mini-series, and though I gave it another go (at his behest) all the way to the very end, it just didn't work out for me, either time. Just ignore my above posts, if you want.
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post #12 of 55
6/2/10 at 4:17am
Favorite sci-fi series hands down. And Ben Browder as John Crichton is iconic (or should be anyways). A southern good old boy astronaut whose special ability is creeping insanity. The ending is aces, and feels more organic and fitting than any recent genre show (well, maybe Angel) that I could think of.
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post #13 of 55
6/2/10 at 4:26am
Ugh
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post #14 of 55
6/2/10 at 4:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Leto II View Post

The series' producers and "writers" like Rockne S. O'Bannon, Lee Goldberg, Bill Rabkin, Andrew Duggan all depended upon Farscape's Magical Technology™ as the driving force for their "storylines," and which conveniently failed whenever the "writer" needed something not to work, without reference to whether it's appropriate to even have such a failure, or tech that actually works as described.
Uh...

Warpdrive

Midocholirians

Telepathy

Time Travel

All seen from other, admired tv or movie sci-fi properties. You know the difference between hard sci-fi and say a Star Trek or Farscape, right? This complaint is just bizarre.
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post #15 of 55
6/2/10 at 4:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Leto II View Post
I was downplaying how much of the show I've seen to date -- in fact, I've watched at least a good, solid two-thirds of the series by this point, under various circumstances.

The show was insulting strictly from a real-world science background alone; it didn't help matters very much that the entire series format was constantly designed around trite, incoherent, poorly-thought-out genre clichés which severely hampered the viewer's willing suspension of disbelief.

For example, there was a script concerning the backstory of Pilot's forced connection with Moya, an expansion/explication on underpinnings of the series format, that seemed decent to me. It was damaged by slop execution, and by lack of foundation for certain details in previous episodes, implying a certain degree of Acute Retcon, but it came close to working pretty well; at least, it was superior to anything we've ever seen from the vastly higher-budgeted Trekkie Franchise efforts with names like "Braga" and "Berman" appended.

However, the show-by-show retcon of major characters, the completely cockamamie and indefensible biology, physics, logic, linguistics, economics, sociology, psychology, all add up to considerably defuse the narrative validity of even the episodes that come close to being worth watching.

The series' producers and "writers" like Rockne S. O'Bannon, Lee Goldberg, Bill Rabkin, Andrew Duggan all depended upon Farscape's Magical Technology™ as the driving force for their "storylines," and which conveniently failed whenever the "writer" needed something not to work, without reference to whether it's appropriate to even have such a failure, or tech that actually works as described.

While many viewers may not need a scrupulously-designed fictional milieu in order to derive some degree of enjoyment of disjointed and non-sequitur "plot" developments, most people simply don't bother with stories that don't make sense.

My opinion's definitely adequately formed on this one.
I find absolutely everything about this post utterly baffling. Farscape had probably the most consistent mythology and characterization of any sci-fi show that ran longer than a season in the past 20 years (and that's with some fairly extensive time travel plots in the latter seasons). You say you've seen 'roughly two-thirds' of the series, but you don't indicate what order you saw the episodes you've seen in, or from which seasons. And then you have the gall to assign your own obsessive compulsive need for all the science in a science fiction show to match up with your own understanding of How Things Work to the viewing public at large (honestly I'd like some examples of your problems with the 'physics, logic, linguistics, economics, sociology, psychology' of the show so I can dismantle them. Beyond starburst and Hech drive being the kind of handwave-y FTL propulsion that comes with the territory of being a space opera, I can't really think of anything completely fucking insane they did with the physics).
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post #16 of 55
6/2/10 at 2:08pm
I have always been curious about this show but never got around to watching it. After reading the generally favorable talk about it in here i'll toss the first season into the old Netflix Queue and give it a try.
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post #17 of 55
6/2/10 at 3:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ali View Post
Uh...

Warpdrive

Midocholirians

Telepathy

Time Travel

All seen from other, admired tv or movie sci-fi properties. You know the difference between hard sci-fi and say a Star Trek or Farscape, right? This complaint is just bizarre.
Don't be silly. The people who wrote Farscape didn't even understand the concept of the speed of light, or what a "hologram" is. They have no business having an opinion on anything having to do with physics, and have proven it repeatedly.

Farscape is *fantasy*, not hard SF, and no assertion to the contrary will alter the fact that it was written and produced by technical incompetents with limited imaginations.

Science Fiction, properly done, is an exercise in ideas; a puzzle-solver's recreation with dramatic overtones. NOT ONLY must the writer do the research, and understand the technology being employed, but the writer must logically and defensibly extrapolate from the one or two assumptions at the base of the conceptual structure. Characterization and relationships are again an automatic presumption; if the story isn't about believable people, who'd want to read it?

The point here is that, yes, legitimate SF is *much* harder to write well than the average story about -- for example -- "relationships and death." The latter is based in common experience, and the writer must master no new material, and doesn't need to communicate the details of an alternate environment or milieu.

The production of decent SF requires sufficient education, experience, and analytical skill to create a milieu that does not exist; be it a variant society, or our own world with one or two minor changes in technology, the plot structure must coherently and rationally explore the concomitants of the speculation...and do this while telling a story about the characters that makes them interesting enough people to hold the reader's/viewer's interest.

ANYBODY can whack out stories about "relationships and death." Barbara Cartland and Danielle Steele became millionaires proving it.

It took a double degree in Astronomy and Physics, and decades of studying language, sociology, biology, chemistry, anthropology, engineering, history, music, general science, *and* innate talent, to make a Poul Anderson. Every single one of Anderson's stories deals with "relationships and death" -- and a good many other things -- in a tapestry of creativity that the average writer couldn't come near in a million years.

This is what legitimate SF is about; the creation of entire worlds and realities. It is beyond the capacity of the vast majority of writers, and anyone who can do decent SF can type out an acceptable story about lost astronauts and Muppets that is "true to life," with his or her left hand, while watching TV, dead drunk.
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post #18 of 55
6/2/10 at 4:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Leto II View Post
Farscape is *fantasy*, not hard SF
So is Star Wars.

Farscape was a great little show, and Chris you have a ton of good stuff coming your way.
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post #19 of 55
6/2/10 at 4:34pm
I've only seen the first season, and so far my favorite moment comes very early on. In an attempt to foil some sort of tracking device, the crew land Moya in a bog and sink her into the mud. Someone asks Pilot to report on the ship's status, and he replies, "She's very scared." It's details like that, unexpected yet natural in context, that make the show special.
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post #20 of 55
6/2/10 at 5:51pm
This show really gets in to it's stride later on - i really like it (and I'm not usually a fan of australian stuff), my only beef was that the lead (Crichton) is so damn hard to like, his american accent sounded fake - which is hard considering how american he is. but then i saw him play lee majors in that weird charlie's angels biopic a few years ago and I forgave him.
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post #21 of 55
6/2/10 at 6:36pm
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.
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post #22 of 55
6/2/10 at 11:30pm
I really enjoyed the show when it was on-even got all the box sets. If you like it now..I echo the others, it gets better.
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post #23 of 55
6/2/10 at 11:41pm
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.
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post #24 of 55
6/3/10 at 3:15am
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).
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post #25 of 55
6/3/10 at 3:35am
double post
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post #26 of 55
6/3/10 at 3:58am
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.
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post #27 of 55
6/3/10 at 4:13am
Quote:
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.
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post #28 of 55
6/3/10 at 3:56pm
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.

And of course, the cast is golden.
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post #29 of 55
6/3/10 at 5:36pm
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.
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post #30 of 55
6/3/10 at 6:13pm
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.
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post #31 of 55
6/3/10 at 6:42pm
Thread Starter 
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.
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post #32 of 55
6/4/10 at 3:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Farsight View 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.
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post #33 of 55
6/4/10 at 4:58am
Working through season one now. Really enjoying it thus far.
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post #34 of 55
6/4/10 at 9:06am
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.
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post #35 of 55
6/4/10 at 9:49am
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.
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post #36 of 55
6/4/10 at 10:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spike Marshall View 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).
This Region 1 box set from Amazon drops to around £35 every now and then.

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.
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post #37 of 55
6/4/10 at 11:04am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Polygon_Wizard View 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.
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post #38 of 55
6/4/10 at 11:22am
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.
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post #39 of 55
6/4/10 at 12:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spike Marshall View 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.
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post #40 of 55
6/4/10 at 1:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Polygon_Wizard View 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?

Quote:
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.
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post #41 of 55
6/4/10 at 2:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kent View Post
I can only think of two off the top of my head (Paul Goddard and David Franklin). Were there more?
Those were definitely the two I was specifically thinking of. For some reason I thought there were more, but I couldn't find any when I tried looking it up. I guess my mind inflated the actual truth on me a bit.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kent View Post
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.
Can I get a "hell yeah"?!
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post #42 of 55
6/4/10 at 3:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Spider View Post
I've heard great things about Chiana and Scorpius, so I can't wait to "meet" them.
Scorpius is quite simply the best villain ever put on screen, imho.
The concept behind the character, the delivery of the lines... awesomeness.
And I still have two seasons to watch...
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post #43 of 55
6/5/10 at 10:57am
Thread Starter 
"They've Got A Secret":....well, I think I can safely say I wasn't expecting a pregnant starship when I started this show. I mean, it makes sense (sort of) when you think about it: Moya's a living starship, so why shouldn't she be able to reproduce? Still, the concept is so oddball that I can't help but love it, and the episode does a nice job of misdirecting both the characters and the audience about the nature of Moya's secret.

"Rhapsody in Blue" was pretty good, especially in making Zhaan more interesting, and "Till the Blood Runs Clear" was an amusing diversion with some nice character scenes. Onto the next disc!
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post #44 of 55
6/5/10 at 12:18pm
Virginia Hey is just so goddamn cool as Zhaan. And I love how on the commentaries the other actors call her "Bluey".
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post #45 of 55
6/9/10 at 5:26am
Virginia Hey was phenomenal as Zhaan. That character really centered the entire ship, and her relationship with each individual character was fantastic to watch.
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post #46 of 55
6/9/10 at 6:11am
I have to say I'm kind of happy to see all the love for Farscape in this thread, as when I first arrived on the boards there was a lot of hostility toward the show. I've been a big fan for some time, but I'm not necessarily going to argue that it's a GREAT show. It's just a fun space opera, and sometimes, that's enough. For a while this was "must-see TV" for me, so I'm glad to see you guys are digging it. Love hearing the reactions.
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post #47 of 55
6/9/10 at 9:12am
Just don't alert a certain "rhymes with Denim" guy, and the hostility should remain at a minimum...
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post #48 of 55
6/9/10 at 10:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kent View Post
Virginia Hey was phenomenal as Zhaan. That character really centered the entire ship, and her relationship with each individual character was fantastic to watch.
It's too bad that she became severely allergic to the makeup and eventually had to leave the show.
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post #49 of 55
6/9/10 at 12:55pm
I like Zhaan's concept too but the character becomes rater stale, at some point, and it has little more to offer anyway when she "leaves".
And I'm actually enjoying the "replacement", Jool, so far
(going through season 3 right now).

Yes, the show is what it is, but it's fun, and I have to say: if it looks cheap and fake here and there, it's NEVER because of the puppets!
Those are, really, one of the best things overall (thanx to the voice actors too, of course).
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post #50 of 55
6/9/10 at 1:01pm
I hated Jool when she first showed up, probably because of her extremely annoying "so loud it literally melts metal" scream, though I eventually grew to like the character.
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