Farscape

Mouthwash · Jan 14, 2015

I pictured a late-90's garbage sci-fi ripoff upon reading the description, and the concept does seem a bit silly, but it is actually the most amazing show I have ever seen. You fall in love with the characters. The only thing that it compares to, emotionally, is Animorphs.

Any others who have watched it? (I'm up to season three.)

Ajidica · Jan 14, 2015

It is an ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT SCI-FI SHOW!

Season 4 is a bit rubbish as they were trying to breath some new life into the show by getting a bunch of new writers, which lead to some very uneven episodes, but it gets a lot better as your near the finale.

Season 3 is probably my favorite season overall.

Lastly, for me at least, Scorpius is up there with Darth Vader on the 'Totally Awesome Villain' list.

Mouthwash · Jan 15, 2015

Ajidica said:
Lastly, for me at least, Scorpius is up there with Darth Vader on the 'Totally Awesome Villain' list.

Reminded me more of Visser Three, both in personality and story arc. But I would say that Farscape's writing is comparable to that of Star Wars.

Ajidica · Jan 15, 2015

Empire Strikes Back level writing you mean. Farscape writing is far superior than what we saw in the prequels. I mean, Natira (the blue spider alien from Season 2 finale) received better characterization and depth in three episodes than Anakin got from an entire trilogy.

EgonSpengler · Jan 15, 2015

I've only watched the first season, but Farscape definitely seems like an under-appreciated show. I think it arrived during a lull in space opera, between Deep Space 9/Babylon-5 and Battlestar Galactica/Firefly, so I'd think there would have been an audience for it, but it hasn't gotten the attention those others do.

I did notice that the show does some different stuff. That could maybe turn off some people. Episodes starting in media res, for example, "3-1-2" storytelling, and lots of alien-looking characters. I recall Henry Rollins talking about the irony in how narrow-minded and orthodox some punk-rock fans could be, and I know that some fans of science fiction can be the same way. Fanboy reactions to the notion that Spider-Man could be black, or that Starbuck could be a woman, etc.

Oh, and Claudia Black :groucho:

Spoiler :

Terxpahseyton · Jan 18, 2015

It is in my to-watch-list. Good to hear it will be worth it

bhsup · Jan 20, 2015

I love the show and all the characters. Lani Tupi (hope I got that right) did a great job as the bad guy early on. Since you're just stating it, I'll not provide you any spoilers.

EgonSpengler · Jan 20, 2015

I liked the way Gigi Edgley played Chiana. I thought she managed to be odd without being over the top. Kinda sexy, too.

Kaitzilla · Jan 20, 2015

Mouthwash said:
I pictured a late-90's garbage sci-fi ripoff upon reading the description, and the concept does seem a bit silly, but it is actually the most amazing show I have ever seen. You fall in love with the characters. The only thing that it compares to, emotionally, is Animorphs.

Any others who have watched it? (I'm up to season three.)

Any others. :crazyeye:

I was a true frelling Scaper.
Scorpius for President!
Best part was when they were Nuclear Terrorists.

When ~~SciFi~~ SyFy :ack:

canceled Season 5 after promising it would happen a week earlier, I stopped watching TV ...forever.

Ahem
http://www.farscapeworld.com/helpfarscape.php

Link to video.

The nerdcry was loud enough to get the Peace Keeper Wars made to end the series. (And the hatemail

)
Not sure if it is on Netflix, but I'm pretty sure it's on Youtube somewhere.

If you still need more of a Farscape fix after that, you'll have to go to comic books where the story continued.
http://farscape.wikia.com/wiki/Farscape_(2008_Comic_Book_Series)

Season 1 is so-so but Season 2-4 are incredible.
Best show in the world if you crave weird.

"Animal, you have beautiful eyes."

Mouthwash · Jan 20, 2015

Kaitzilla said:
Not sure if it is on Netflix, but I'm pretty sure it's on Youtube somewhere.

Seasons 1-4 are on Netflix; however the Peacekeeper Wars are not.

Season 1 is so-so but Season 2-4 are incredible.

If you think the fourth season was better than the first, then the latest Transformers movie would be more suited to your palate than Farscape (plenty of 'weirdness' there). I'm actually shocked at how awful the first half-dozen episodes are, and I'm honestly only finishing because of what Ajidica said.

Here are reviews, on an episode-by-episode basis, explaining what went wrong. (There are spoilers, obviously.)

Kaitzilla · Jan 20, 2015

Mouthwash said:
Seasons 1-4 are on Netflix, but not the Peacekeeper Wars.

If you seriously think the fourth season was better than the first, then I think the latest Transformers movie would be more suited to your palate than Farscape. I'm actually shocked at how awful the first half-dozen episodes are, and I'm only finishing because of what Ajidica said.

Here are some reviews, on an episode-by-episode basis, explaining just what went wrong. (There are massive spoilers, obviously.)

The 4th season just keeps stacking the action and weirdness higher that's all.
4th season and 1st season are apples and oranges. 4th has my vote.

I mean really, how can you top
SPOILER

Spoiler :

That really long article complaining about Season 4 episodes is just 1 fan taking it too seriously.
I bet he wrote 100,000 words trying to explain the character Stark. :hmm:

It's the tension between fun/silly/weird and deadly serious that makes the show so great.

And ya, that tension is front and center in the 4th season final episodes in spades.

Ajidica · Jan 20, 2015

I bet he wrote 100,000 words trying to explain the character Stark.

You don't like Stark?

Once Xhan (or however you spell her name) was gone, Stark was my favorite Moya regular.

Kaitzilla · Jan 20, 2015

Ajidica said:
You don't like Stark?

Once Xhan (or however you spell her name) was gone, Stark was my favorite Moya regular.

Stark was great.
Was he really the crazy one, or was he the only normal one? :lol:

Why was half his head missing anyway?
I never figured it out.

No idea why blue alien chicks are so popular, but they are. (Mass Effect, Avatar, Farscape, Fifth Element, Outsider Webcomic, Mystique?, Guardians of the Galaxy, Halo, etc)

filli_noctus · Jan 21, 2015

From discussions I've observed a lot of the usual space opera demographic found it too silly. Personally I think those guys are idiots.

It's both impressive and somewhat depressing that twelve years later it still has the best aliens of any TV show ever.

bhsup · Jan 21, 2015

Hrm. I think I have to disagree with your last point. I personally thought Babylon 5 had the best aliens. Not that Farscape's sucked or anything, mind you.

Terxpahseyton · Jan 21, 2015

Kaitzilla said:
No idea why blue alien chicks are so popular, but they are.

It is exotic (weird color) and spacey (blue as the light of technology) but doesn't remind you of sick people (yellow), plants (green) or the devil (red). And violet / pink would be too girly. And brown and black and white we already got. And orange - is just a bit too intensive as a color, perhaps.

filli_noctus · Jan 21, 2015

bhsup said:
Hrm. I think I have to disagree with your last point. I personally thought Babylon 5 had the best aliens. Not that Farscape's sucked or anything, mind you.

Are you coming from the visuals or background depth? If the latter I'd have to agree with you but visually only Lorien comes close to the Luxans and nothing approaches the Scarrans, Hynerians or Pilots (I would give you the Shadows but the CGI is rather dated these days).

EgonSpengler · Jan 21, 2015

Terxpahseyton said:
It is exotic (weird color) and spacey (blue as the light of technology) but doesn't remind you of sick people (yellow), plants (green) or the devil (red). And violet / pink would be too girly. And brown and black and white we already got. And orange - is just a bit too intensive as a color, perhaps.

I think that's probably a good analysis.

There also might be something about how the colors look when filmed. I recall the green women in various Star Treks as very unconvincing, looking very much like they had green makeup on (Rachel Nichols in the reboot looked especially fake to me). Maybe the blue women are more convincing because the makeup artists did a better job, or maybe there's something about the color blue that meets my subconscious "believability test."

As to the aliens, I think Babylon-5 and Farscape both did exceptionally well with the humans wearing prosthetics and makeup. I would call that a draw. Maybe give B5 a bonus point for being first.

Spoiler :

But it was in the variety and the puppetry (or, rather, the Muppetry) and the sheer nuttiness of some of the designs that Farscape distinguishes itself, to me.

Spoiler :

Sofista · Jan 22, 2015

I watched it a few years ago, without knowing about the abrupt end. I was devastated: I really loved it, and thought it was very far from having exhausted its potential.
Kaitzilla: does the comic series round up the story well?

bhsup · Jan 22, 2015

filli_noctus said:
Are you coming from the visuals or background depth? If the latter I'd have to agree with you but visually only Lorien comes close to the Luxans and nothing approaches the Scarrans, Hynerians or Pilots (I would give you the Shadows but the CGI is rather dated these days).

I was coming more from the background side of things. Visuals never bugged me, probably because of my exposure to trek when we had to accept that the difference between aliens was ears, eyebrows, and severe hair cuts.

That said, I friggin' loved Centauri hair.

Farscape

Escaped Lunatic

High Quality Person

Escaped Lunatic

High Quality Person

Deity

Nobody

Deity

Deity

Lord Croissant

Escaped Lunatic

Lord Croissant

High Quality Person

Lord Croissant

Hmmn

Deity

Nobody

Hmmn

Deity

Deity

Deity

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