Farscape First time watch thread....

Okay, over the course of the last couple days, due to a nasty cold and being stuck on the couch, I have finished watching Farscape. Obviously......

*SPOILERS AHOY!!!!!!!!!!*

I guess I'll start with thoughts on season 3. overall, probably my least favorite season. The Clone Saga was just too much for me. it was very obvious Crichton v2.0 would kick the bucket and as such, his sacrifice lost a lot of oomf. the stories told with v2.0 were decent, the end of that arc just fell flat which hurt the whole thing.

the end of season 3/beginning of s4 confused the bejeebus out of me, but i think i finally was able to comprehend what was happening. BTW, the crew did pick up Noranti during the evac of Scorpius' ship, right? I was bummed to see Crais and Talyn bite it so quick. I dug those two a lot and while I like how they went out sacrificing themselves, I really wished they would have made it to the end and bit the bullet then... and speaking of Talyn, both he and Moya are probably my favorite ships in a scifi show. Both were truly characters... MUCH more so than the Enterprise was in ST in my eyes. They weren't just characters, they were characters with a lot of depth. That's never happened in any scifi show i've ever watched.

season 4 i think was better than 3. Eventually during this season, I came to... tolerate, I suppose... Chiana. The new dame, Sikozu, I thought was an interesting character... and it certainly didn't hurt that she's bangin as all hell Noranti was also a fun character. all the different potions and "powders" she came up with were great. in the end, I liked her more than Zhaan in the herbalist role. I LOVED the episode "Kansas". when i first saw a time travel ep, my thought was "oh Jesus H Christ no....", as I despise time travel stories outside of Back to the Future and Bill&Ted. this one, though, was fantastic. Rygel going all Cornholio with a sugar rush was a frickin trip. Kit Kats!!!!!!!! Aeryn watching Sesame St and doing ABCs, Chiana partying out, Rygel stealing trick or treaters candy.... loved it.

The Peacekeeper Wars wrapped up pretty much everything fairly nicely. D'Argo going out in a blaze of glory was fitting, but I was definitely bummed to see it happen. He was one of those characters I didn't realize i liked so much until he died... and the entire ending with Crichton and Aeryn naming the baby after him almost had me balling. Hey, what was up with Pilot's voice in these eps? it didn't sound like Pilot from s1-4 at all. new voice actor I guess?

some random thoughts...

Harvey was great. Nosferatu Harvey, beach trunks Harvey, 70s cop Harvey... awesome.

while the actual stories of most stand alone eps were bleh imo, they still ended up be a ton of fun because of the actors. this may be my favorite cast of any scifi show.

Fanastic use of Muppets, especially Rygel and Pilot as I've brought up before.

Scorpius.... overused. face turn was too repetitive after the same thing happened with Aeryn & Crais. don't get me wrong, a great character, well acted, interesting... but we reached the saturation point with him at some point in season 3.

oh, i just remembered. how the hell did no one on the Scarran outpost know who Scorpius, or for that matter, ANY of the Moya crew were? They were all public enemy #1, yet no one recognizes them? one thing this show excelled at was plot holes... such as... Scorpius being a Scarran double agent for 10 years which we learn when he's being interogated at the end of season4... this got completely swept under the carpet in TPW with a dinky throwaway line. fortunately, while there were a ton of moments, they didn't have too much of a negative impact on the story.

Overall, I currently rank Farscape #3 on my list of fav scifi shows, tied with Ghost in the Shell: SAC, but behind B5 (1) and DS9 (2). That said, I think it absolutely craps on the rest of the ST shows, Firefly and the dreadful nuBSG. Farscape is FUCKING AWESOME. I can't wait to do another run of it. I would like to thank everyone on this message board who keeps posting threads on it, otherwise, i never would have watched.

 

No, Pilot is still voiced by Lani Tupu (Crais), same as always. The post-processing was just different.

 

I'm watching Farscape for the first time, on AXN - they're in season 1 now, showing an episode per day, every work day. They're showing episodes out of order, but so far it seems it doesn't matter. The last episodes I've seen are Rhapsody in Blue and Till the Blood Runs Clear (The Flax is airing tomorrow), but I've missed episodes 4, 5 and 6 (Throne for a Loss, Back and Back and Back to the Future and Thank God It's Friday, Again).

Is it important to see them, and how important is it to see every episode of Farscape in general? So far the stories have been standalone rather than tied to an arc, but there have been some important character moments and revelations. Are there episodes that can be skipped, and which are those that have to be seen?

 

If you missed those three episodes, you're probably fine. I don't think anything of particular importance happens in them (there is an alien in "Throne for a Loss" that pops up again in Season 2, but it's still not overly important).

Farscape has a lot of standalone episodes in the first season. They're not all terribly important to the plot, but you do learn things about all the characters. Frankly, "Back and Back and Back to the Future" is one of my least favorite episodes of the entire series. It's no big loss if you don't watch it.

In Season 1, the episodes that I would absolutely watch are:

PK Tech Girl
DNA Mad Scientist
They've Got a Secret
The Flax
Durka Returns
A Human Reaction
A Bug's Life
Nerve/The Hidden Memory (two-parter)
Family Ties

 

I'd also say "Back and Back and Back to the Future" is pretty weak, although it is the first episode to hint at D'Argo's complete back story.

 

Eh I have no probs with the muppets, its the characters and stories I never liked...or perhaps more accurately, I didn't like the acting on the show much so the characters didn't work for me.

RAMA

 

Yeah, I suppose, but the bulk of his backstory is all in "They've Got a Secret."

 

Finally, I have finished season 3. I got very busy and was doing good for the last few weeks to eek out a couple episodes a week once I hit the half way point of the season. I also knew that Flav was not running into viewing issues and since we were fairly at the same point didn't want to hit any spoilers by accident.

Season 3 is quite the trip.
So we are now dealing with John 2.0, no doubt about that...right? I mean I'm not going to find out ala Ben Reilly/Peter Parker some reveal later am I?

Infinite Possibilites 1&2 was really good. Liked the return of the Ancients and Furlough. I felt this two parter really helped kinda of gel the Farscape universe into a more solid epic. The revelations of the Scaraans(sp) in a team up to take over the Peacekeepers and use the wormhole tech themselves to rule the know universe to them.

Revenging Angel- I don't even know what to think of this episode. It was trippy. So much was happening but this is the episode where our Original John dies, right? I admit to sometimes getting confused on this topic. It reminded me of watching that episode of Angel where he turns into a Muppet. Kinda of ironic really.

I-Yensch,You Yensch: This really could've been a legit three parter like they've done and been part one of Lions Den. The only thing I didn't like was the bumbling simian-esque incompetent arsonists/kidnappers. The main plot of striking a deal to get on board the Command Carrier and turn over the wormhole tech to Peacekeepers to stay ahead of the Scaraans was great.

Into the Lions Den pt1&2: This belongs right up there with any great sci-fi two part story imo. Great, great story telling right here. I think I'm going to miss Crais. In the end he turned out noble despite his misguided start at the shows start for chasing down John. This really should've just been the finale.

Dog with Two Bones: This plays like an epilogue and is just anti-climatic for the first half of the episode. They then pull this stunt of *WHAM* here's a new crew member on Moya. We have our own Neelix but she's got a touch of voodoo in her. At least I follow the explanation of how she is there. Unlike Stark who just seemed to sneak up on me. Speaking of, and a yes/no will suffice, will we circle back around to Stark? Or are we just left with him on his quest to find Zhaan's spirit...which her return in S4 for even a few episodes would be win.

So, John is in the Farscape module, finds out he's going to be a dad and Moya(where did that wormhole come from?) and any lead to Aeryn who took off are gone. I hope to get through S4 as soon as I can. I really feel like this show came together in S3, fewer uneven episodes imo.

 

Indeed, I consider it the finest full season of any show ever.

Not sure what you mean exactly. John is still John, even though there were two Johns for a while.

The Scarrans are major players for the rest of the series.

John didn't die here, he just had a near-death experience. The important thing to take from this one is that while Harvey (and by extension Scorpius) can live for revenge, John can't. He wants to live for Aeryn.

A little frivolity before the big stuff happens.

Farscape is nothing if not great at making you care about the villains.

We have not seen the last of Stark.

Season 4 will slowly explain who the old woman is and what she wants. Basically she was a prisoner on the command carrier and decided to stick around.

This episode has my all-time favorite cliffhanger, in triplicate. The crew splitting up is meaningful enough, followed by the pregnancy revelation, and finally being stranded. Note that the old woman only said Aeryn is pregnant - the father might not be whom you expect.

 

Moya-John and Talyn-John are both John Crichton. The whole point is that neither is a copy. They are both equal and original versions of John Crichton.

 

^
Exactly. It's a bit like an amoeba splitting. I thought it was a nice way to sidestep the idea of one of them being the definitively 'real' John Crichton, although I think the writers also admitted it was a handy reset button - let one John develop far more rapidly in his relationship with Aeryn, and then bam!

 

I'm curious if this also prevented you from getting into the Star Wars films with Yoda as well. That's not a knock - I know a few people who couldn't get into the films because of the Muppet effect. But it seems those who were able to look beyond the Muppetry and accept Yoda seem to be more likely to accept Rygel and Pilot since they're of Yoda caliber (I contend superior), rather than being like Kermit the Frog.

Alex

 

Thanks for the feedback Inkling. I'll look forward to Starks return and maybe another??
So the child's father may not be who I think. Whaaaaa????

The Peter Parker/Ben Reilly comment is in reference to a mid 90's tale dubbed The Clone Saga in the Spiderman books where one of his foes, The Jackal clones him and there is a big to do about which is the real Peter and which is the clone. The accepted clone at the time takes the name Ben Reilly. Named for Uncle Ben and Reilly is May's maiden name. That's what i was getting at with the Moya-John/Talyn-John.

I hope to start S4 later this week but by weekend for sure if I get no interruptions.

 

Obligatory Season 4 Warning:

The show has an odd change in tone and production value in the beginning of Season 4. It can be a bit off-putting at first. I still love it, and there's a lot more going on than you might pick up on the first time around, but after Season 3 it might throw you off.

 

Agreed. Although the second half of the season is a return to form. And the concluding miniseries is damn near perfect!

 

I've started the fourth season and am 8 episodes into it thus far.

I was not really impressed with the season opener, Crichton Kicks, not sure if that's blasphemy. With the way S3 ended I just expected to hit the ground running looking for Aeryn.

That said, I really found lots to like, if not the whole episode in the next 7 episodes. What Was Lost 1&2 were both great! It was a type of Times Arrow type episode, or that's the closest parallel I view it as.

Lava's A Many Splendored Thing was a much deserved break from the drama and tension of the two parter. The schtick of shooting Crichton with the force belt on so he could be in the lava was fun.

So is Scorpius the new Crayce? He's now reluctantly(or not, his motives are shrouded) on board Moya with the crew after allegedly dying and we aren't real sure how he's back as seen in Promises.

John Quixote was great if for no other reason we got to see Stark and Zhaan again even if they were manifestations. At times it had the Wizard of Oz vibe going which for me was more cool since I just saw Wicked over the weekend for the first time.

I Shrink..., was again a more straight up humorous episode. Makes me wonder if every 4th episode is going to be the light hearted one. I liked the one line John said when answering how he was going to beat them all, "Die Hard style, one at a time". Really great but lurking underneath it is the subplot with the Scaraans and their bid to control worm hole tech.


I'm hating having several days of breaks in between viewings cause it'll be the weekend again before I can dive back in with A Perfect Murder.

 

"A Prefect Murder" is probably my least favorite episode of the entire series, not because of the story, but because of the way they tell it.

I'm glad you're liking Season 4. What are your opinions of Sikozu and Noranti? Most people hated them the first time around, but I actually found by the end of the show that they were some of my favorite characters.

 

Sikozu I'm liking thus far. She came off, imo, more likeable right off the intro than Jool. That said I've warmed up to Jool more now as well, probaly in part to the two parter What Was Lost.

I still haven't warmed up to Noranti, I don't sense any connection with her or how she can progress relationships or motives on Moya.

 

Yeah, Noranti was kind of an odd duck. I didn't really start liking her until "Bringing Home the Beacon" towards the end of the season.

 

I have had a lazy Saturday and made use of it by getting another 5 episodes under my belt.

A Perfect Murder: This felt like a typical sci-fi episode. My only beef with them using this episode at this point was that they just entered Tormented Space and the episode was all planet based. I really could've gone for some crazy visuals actually in, you know Tormented Space. It was a standard two sides against the middle with, as John says, the Beekeeper using his bugs to have Aeryn be that antagonist that restarts the clans into war again.

Coup by Clam: Not much really going on here imo. I was bit underwhelmed with this episode. The only element I felt that should've moved character interaction forward was Scorpius ingesting clams from both types to allow the others a prolonged duration. This should've built some trust, if temporary, but the episode ends and there is nothing of note from this seeming sacrifice on Scorpius' part.

It isn't obvious but the next 3 episodes are another 3-parter with Unrealized Reality/Kansas/Terra Firma:
These were all great episodes imo, right in the middle of the season. I couldn't help but feel a bit of nuBSG midseason 4 similarity. They arrive at Earth, just 1986, like it seemed BSG was on Earth, just nuked at Revelations(yes I went and looked at my boxset for the title ) Liked the conversation between Caroline and Aeryn about what/who John wants. Thought that was interesting if a bit short. Really the whole "aliens among them" went well during Terra Firma. I guess if most aliens were actually bipedal humanoids and spoke some English I'd be less startled also. The brief mention of 9/11 was a nice touch.

Good midway point of the season. So back on Moya and into space from here on out. Shame about D.K. and his wife getting killed though.
Got plans tonight and I'm going to the Titans/Bengals game tomorrow but when I resume it's episode Twice Shy. Is the return to Tormented Space good?