teacake does Farscape: Spoiler Free first time viewing

[teacake]

Greetings people! Fresh off my Stargate first time viewing thread I am now onto Farscape. I have already watched the first 8 episodes in the series last year, but ended up putting it aside. So I'm starting my Farscape review thread with episode 9.

PLEASE NO SPOILERS!! I did all 10 seasons of Stargate and not a single person let a spoiler slip, so I'm very much hoping for the same here

DNA Mad Scientist: I was very confused. At first I thought that Zhaan and Ka D'Argo were acting like lunatics because of something injected into them when the DNA was being extracted. The usual going mad from alien toxins deal. But it seems that no, they really did of their own free will cut off the Pilot's arm. So now I'm confused because this didn't jell at all with what I remembered of Zhaan or of the treatment of the Pilot prior to this. However it has been a while since I saw the first 8 eps so perhaps this is not as out of character as it seemed?

Does his arm grow back?

Never give your DNA to strangers, NOTHING good has ever come of it.

I loved NamTar the scientist's legs, the were amazing.

[teacake]

They've Got a Secret: That was a moving story of D'Argo's family. A peacekeeper escapes her existence to run away with an alien lover.. only to die at the hands of her own brother. Hopefully this isn't just a sad story that we rarely hear of again.

AND, the ship has a shuttle in the oven. Now that's a twist, will be interesting to see what happens with it!

Seriously, tragic tale aside, isn't this the most fugly kid you ever saw?!

He looks like baby Tuvix!




And, some delightful moments..

[lvsxy808]

Yay! Always good to have more people share the wonders we've seen.

We'll definitely all try to keep it spoiler free, but people get very excited about this show.

teacake wrote:

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DNA Mad Scientist: I was very confused. At first I thought that Zhaan and Ka D'Argo were acting like lunatics because of something injected into them when the DNA was being extracted. The usual going mad from alien toxins deal. But it seems that no, they really did of their own free will cut off the Pilot's arm. So now I'm confused because this didn't jell at all with what I remembered of Zhaan or of the treatment of the Pilot prior to this. However it has been a while since I saw the first 8 eps so perhaps this is not as out of character as it seemed?

The writers actually say that this is the first ep that really felt like the Farscape they always wanted to make, with the characters at each other's throats. These are not a crew of trained officers who elected to be together - they are strangers forced together by circumstance, and it doesn't take much to get them to turn on each other, especially when an intelligent villain quickly zeroes in on exactly what buttons to press to get them to do it.

With D'Argo, we're used to him being violent and dangerous. The whole hyper-rage thing, as seen in "Back and Back and Back to the Future." But notice that even he has to take a second to work himself up to the attack on Pilot, and makes a point to apologize as best he knows how afterwards.

Rygel we know to be as selfish as ever, it's no big surprise that he would sell the others out. That's pretty much his MO.

But you're partly right about Zhaan. She is capable of violence - the reason she was in prison in the first place was for murdering her lover, and she put the kid in his place handily enough in the drug-addict episode. But in general she does try to rise above such things. There's a dichotomy in her character - you might call it hypocrisy, or just not always succeeding at keeping up to her own standards.

teacake wrote:

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Does his arm grow back?

Luckily yes. Pilots are pretty resilient in that way. But that's part of why they felt it was acceptable to do what they did to him - because they knew it would grow back. Not that anyone else thinks that justifies it. But Pilot himself is kind of submissive - he's not happy about it, but he accepts it because he feels it's just his place to help Moya's inhabitants, whatever they may need.

teacake wrote:

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I loved NamTar the scientist's legs, the were amazing.

Farscape has some astonishing animatronic creations. It's infuriating to those of us who love the show when potential viewers dismiss it just because it features "muppets." But the sheer creativity and technical skill brought to bear on this show is far and above almost any other show you could name. And those animatronic characters are better written and better performed than the actual humans on, say, Enterprise. After a few more episodes you will completely forget that Rygel and Pilot aren't real.

teacake wrote:

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[Sindatur]

Welcome back to Farscape Teacake, by the time you get to the last string of episodes for S1, you should be in love with the show, this first half of s1 starts a little rough, but, is definitely starting to approach greatness by end of S1.

DNA Mad Scientist really shocked me when I first saw it, and told me this show was really something different and things weren't going to be black and white and TNG-Lovey-Dovey.

Very adorable picture of Browder there

[The Mirrorball Man]

teacake wrote:

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But it seems that no, they really did of their own free will cut off the Pilot's arm.

That's when I fell in love with Farscape.

[teacake]

Sindatur wrote:

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DNA Mad Scientist really shocked me when I first saw it, and told me this show was really something different and things weren't going to be black and white and TNG-Lovey-Dovey.

It makes me think that though they treat the pilot as a one of them they really see him as there to serve them via his service of the ship. Would they have so quickly (there wasn't even a debate!) sawed off his arm if it didn't grow back?

It's interesting because Zhaan is often doing the spiritual alien bit, just so evolved past pettiness and greeds.. and suddenly she's operating out of raw need. And then we see that the evolved persona is one of training and discipline, not something she was born with. I was kind of surprised that we saw D'Argo's sorta apology but nothing from her!

Very adorable picture of Browder there

Between the adorable Claudia's legs..

[teacake]

The Mirrorball Man wrote:

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That's when I fell in love with Farscape.

It's too bad I put Farscape aside after the previous ep which was the stock standard evil alien feeding off people's emotions deal. I remember yelling at the screen, not this again!! I knew I'd pick it up later though.

[BillJ]

I tried to watch Farscape but it looked so cheap and the acting was pretty bad. Gave up after a couple of episodes.

[Lucky]

I'm glad you started back watching, Teacake. Farscape is hands down my favorite sci-fi show of all time. It is brilliant. DNA Mad Scientist is one of my favorites, the show is becoming more complex and the characters more layered. It only gets better from here, by the end of this season I think you'll be completely hooked.

[Greg Cox]

BillJ wrote:

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I tried to watch Farscape but it looked so cheap and the acting was pretty bad. Gave up after a couple of episodes.

You should give it another try. FARSCAPE just gets better and better.

[The Mirrorball Man]

In my opinion the third season of Farscape is the best season of any science-fiction series of all times ever in the whole universe.

[bigdaddy]

YAY!

I'm glad you picked Farscape. When you get to the better episodes (aka almost anything besides season 1) I might start watching them with you. I have only seen it once over a year or so ago.

[RandyS]

I can't be the only one who likes season one??

[teacake]

Lucky wrote:

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I'm glad you started back watching, Teacake. Farscape is hands down my favorite sci-fi show of all time. It is brilliant. DNA Mad Scientist is one of my favorites, the show is becoming more complex and the characters more layered. It only gets better from here, by the end of this season I think you'll be completely hooked.

I've noticed just in these two episodes there seems to be a lot more body language nuances between John and Aeryn and they are speaking to each other less as puzzled strangers. Now that may be because I just came off their Stargate seasons and I'm enjoying the actors more.. but really so much of this era of sci fi takes a season to really fly. Not sure if it will beat Bab 5 in my favorites though!

There were a few episodes so far that reminded me of overdone Trek stories, IET and That Old Black Magic but hey it was only the first 8 episodes.. I am full of hope!

[Greg Cox]

RandyS wrote:

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I can't be the only one who likes season one??

The first season definitely has its high points. But, like TNG and DS9, the show got better as it found its voice.