Complete Farscape on DVD Nov 17

[tomalak301]

So how's everyone who's rewatching Farscape doing. Watched Suns and Lovers last night and one thing struck me. While it was hilarious, and cool, and awesome, was Pilot's evil laugh a slight bit out of character. It just seemed so unexpected coming from him that hearing it might be one of the oddest things I've seen from Farscape yet.

 

[Kegg]

"A Clockwork Nebari" seemed less impressive the second time around. I don't know - maybe because I knew of course it'd all come to nothing in the end, but I don't know.

The whole Clockwork Orange bit is still the grossest thing in the series, I'll give it that.

So how's everyone who's rewatching Farscape doing. Watched Suns and Lovers last night and one thing struck me. While it was hilarious, and cool, and awesome, was Pilot's evil laugh a slight bit out of character.

My toughts exactly. What the hell? It's probably the most incomprehensible misstep in the series entire run, in that I don't understand at what point from shooting to editing to filming nobody realised how that moment didn't work. Farscape rarely if ever has a character act so inexplicably out of character as in that moment.

A fine episode overall, though.

 

[RoJoHen]

"I've got two hands, and I don't need your charity." ~John

That whole exchange is awesome, but I just love that line.

 

[IcecreamLtDan]

We've been watching them rather slowly. Started about 2 weeks ago and we've only just finished watching "Durka returns". Got on a Star Wars kick this week and finished that up last night so I imagine we'll pick it back up this weekend.

 

[Lindley]

I just finished Into The Lion's Den Part 1. Which is sort of a mixed blessing; last time, my impression was that it's kind of downhill from here.

 

[Lindley]

Holy crap, I just saw in the credits that Crais is the voice of Pilot?! Why have I never picked up on this before?

 

[tomalak301]

I just finished Into The Lion's Den Part 1. Which is sort of a mixed blessing; last time, my impression was that it's kind of downhill from here.

So you didn't like Lions Den II or Dog with Two Bones? I thought that entire arc was beautifully done, and that cliffhanger was excellent.

 

[Harvey]

Holy crap, I just saw in the credits that Crais is the voice of Pilot?! Why have I never picked up on this before?

He uses such a different intonation, and then that voice itself is modulated, that it's really impossible to tell, unless you're reading the end credits (where the voice actors re listed).

You can tell in The Peacekeeper Wars. I'm not sure if Lani Tupu wasn't quite able to do the voice after being away, or if they didn't modulate it correctly, but it sounds off in the miniseries, and much closer to Crais' voice.

 

[Trubinator]

I just finished Into The Lion's Den Part 1. Which is sort of a mixed blessing; last time, my impression was that it's kind of downhill from here.

So you didn't like Lions Den II or Dog with Two Bones? I thought that entire arc was beautifully done, and that cliffhanger was excellent.

And season four and PKW were great too. S4 might have been an overall slight step down from S3, but that's a small nitpick in my estimation.

 

[RoJoHen]

I think Season 4 works much better on DVD. I love it, but I do remember being annoyed by it during the initial run just because it took so long to get into the main wormhole arc. It's a lot easier to stomach if you can breeze through it in a marathon, though.

 

[tomalak301]

Aren't most shows like that though. I mean I remember when I was watching Season 4 of Babylon 5 online (I have the DVDs now but this was earlier in the year) and I breezed through like 6 episodes because it was so captivating. Having to wait a week for each episode (And then several weeks if there is a break) just seems so old fashioned and out of date now.

 

[RoJoHen]

Well, yeah, but I think it hurt Farscape the most in Season 4. After the awesome ending to Season 3, Season 4 just starts off completely off-track with characters missing and no explanation about what happened, and there really isn't a solid "main arc" episode again until the middle of the season with "Unrealized Realities."

Again, I love Season 4, even the first half, but I didn't realize how much I loved it until I got to rewatch it on DVD.

 

[Kegg]

Another season 4 fan here. Having rewatched the series recently, season four is overall a step down from season three, and has some mediocre-to-abysmal episodes ("A Perfect Murder", anyone?); some of it feels a trifle of a retread (Scorpius to Grayza as Crais to Scorpius) but also features some excellent hours of Farscape.

The whole return-to-Earth arc and the TV special about is greatness, "Don Quixote" was fun... and the We're So Screwed concluding arc is every bit as good as the arcs in earlier seasons. Some of Crichton's best speeches are there, and this line stuck with me on this rewatching time around:

"I want wake up like an emperor."

You can tell in The Peacekeeper Wars. I'm not sure if Lani Tupu wasn't quite able to do the voice after being away, or if they didn't modulate it correctly, but it sounds off in the miniseries, and much closer to Crais' voice.

If memory serves, they basically had a new guy doing the sound and he didn't know how the old guy did the Pilot modulation.

Now this will blow your mind: Jonathan Hardy, AKA Rygel, appeared onscreen in the series as a creator of the Leviathans during the "Kiss the Princess" arc.

Alright, since that's basically his voice on both characters it most absolutely will not blow your mind, but hush.

 

[Harvey]

Isn't it called "A Prefect Murder?" I'd say the play on words in the title is the best thing about the episode, which isn't much of a compliment. Easily the worst of the season.

 

[RoJoHen]

Isn't it called "A Prefect Murder?" I'd say the play on words in the title is the best thing about the episode, which isn't much of a compliment. Easily the worst of the season.

I would say worst of the series, personally. Tied with "I, E.T."

 

[Kegg]

Isn't it called "A Prefect Murder?" I'd say the play on words in the title is the best thing about the episode, which isn't much of a compliment. Easily the worst of the season.

You're correct, and I'd agree with RoJoHen it's one of the worst episodes of the series (though not tied with "I, ET", more "Taking the Stone").

If I were to praise the episode for anything further... the puppet work on the priest was good, above-par for a guest character puppet.

 

[Goji]

I actually think the following episode, "Coup By Clam", is much worse, thanks to sheer pointlessness, distasteful gross-out effects, and a completely implausible subplot (really? We were not supposed to notice that character was a girl until we were told so?). By the time Rygel bit off that one guy's nose, I was done.

 

[Kegg]

I actually think the following episode, "Coup By Clam", is much worse,

That's also quite poor. Definitely a low point in that season, honestly. So basically I think the Earth arc is good, the final arc is great, and there are a smattering of good, mediocre and awful episodes for the rest of the season.

Though as far as arcs go, am I the only one who thinks the whole Arnessk arc is a complete mess? The plot feels more convoluted and nonsensical each time I watch it (Grayza's ever nebulous motivations especially). Bleh. At least it does set up stuff we get some payoff on in the miniseries.

 

[Nick Ryder]

Grayza was there to be frelling hot and show off her cleavage. Honestly never really quite figured her out. I mean she's so nebulous and shifty, like... ohhhhkay... so you want for what now?

Scorpius was sorta like that early on, granted yes he was the bad guy and yes he wanted John's wormhole knowledge, but the reasons why he wanted it weren't really made clear until after we find out more about the Scarran threat and even then it was sort of confusing what he planned on using with it, other than that wormhole weapon that Ancient guy made up.

I'm still a bit surprised that Virginia Hey never really came back during that last season or during PK Wars - even if she wasn't in full on makeup - since I think I heard rumor that she got really really sick from the makeup they used on her and that's part of the reason she left the show. But it would have been nice to see like a "spirit form" of Zhann come back or hell just have her playing some Peacekeeper officer and maybe Aeryn could give a sorta wink like "You look so familiar..."

I know it would have been a tad cutesy, but then again... this is FARSCAPE. A series that had a Chuck Jones styled episode - yes I know it was a dream sequence but STILL!

 

[Kegg]

Grayza was there to be frelling hot and show off her cleavage. Honestly never really quite figured her out. I mean she's so nebulous and shifty, like... ohhhhkay... so you want for what now?

Pretty much. Grayza was one of the big weak links of this season for me, though as far as new villains went the Scarrans I thought finally came into their own this year, after being mainly notable for an ineffectual puppet/actor hybrid in earlier years and more of the idea of a threat than an onscreen threat.

Scorpius was sorta like that early on, granted yes he was the bad guy and yes he wanted John's wormhole knowledge, but the reasons why he wanted it weren't really made clear until after we find out more about the Scarran threat and even then it was sort of confusing what he planned on using with it, other than that wormhole weapon that Ancient guy made up.

The wormhole weapon thing was a retcon for the miniseries - which I was fine with. Early on it's hinted that just wormholes are useful for waging war - you could make planets disappear, cause your fleets to jump in somewhere, et cetera. I think the potential uses for an instant corridor from one point in the universe to any other point of your choice is fairly self-explanatory even if we ignore the final miniseries' universe-destroying weapon.

I'm still a bit surprised that Virginia Hey never really came back during that last season or during PK Wars - even if she wasn't in full on makeup -

Well, there was the whole 'Zhaan is dead' problem. Despite which they managed to get semi-plausible excuses for her to cameo twice in the fourth season. Not bad, that.