Farscape or Babylon 5?

[kirk55555]

Well, I've watched two more Farscape episodes.

A Human Reaction - Not much to say about this one. A very "meh" episode, and the only one that I've felt the need to skip parts of it just to get to the end. I don't usually do that, even with episodes I hate, but it was really boring me.

Through the Looking Glass - A good episode. Chiana was still annoying, but she seems to have recovered from her brain damage and wasn't as twitchy, so hopefully she doesn't go back to acting like she has muscle spasms. Her biggest problem in this episode (besides just being generally annoying) is that she was completely useless. The few things she did could have gone to anyone else. She knew about the split dimensions thing because of weapons her species had used, but Aeryn or D'Argo could have been the ones to know about that, and it would have worked just as well. Rygel or Zhaan could have worked the console in the yellow universe. So, she was completely useless, and annoying, but the episode was still entertaining, despite her being in it. As long as most of post-chiana Farscape is like that, good despite her being annoying/useless at times, then I can still see myself enjoying the show a lot, I just have to learn to ignore her.

 

[RoJoHen]

A Human Reaction - Not much to say about this one. A very "meh" episode, and the only one that I've felt the need to skip parts of it just to get to the end. I don't usually do that, even with episodes I hate, but it was really boring me.

Wow, this review surprises me. "A Human Reaction" is one of the best and most important episodes of the season.

 

[kirk55555]

I just disliked it. I mean, in the end

Spoiler: episode spoilers

Aliens made him think he was on earth. Stuff like that has been done a lot, and I knew when i saw the wormhole that it was all a dream or something. Once on earth, the government was evil in its treatment towards him and aliens. Big shock. To me it felt like a waste of 40+ minutes. It accomplished nothing, and didn't advance the characters in any way. I didn't hate it, I just didn't care, which is why I fast forwarded through a good chunk of it.

 

[JD]

Yeah, A Human Reaction is a big part of the show's arc.
As for Chiana, I absolutely love her. I was going to say she was one of my favorite characters in the show, but then when I started going through my other favorites and I realized I was including every character. So I think it's safe to say Farscape has one of my favorite casts of any show I've ever watched.

 

[Sindatur]

Yea, I'd say, there's stuff (and nuances) you don't want to be without from this episode when you get to the other side. I know from experience, I was distracted when I first watched this episode and I missed nuances later on. Though it was a pleasure to be able to finally live that experience for the first time, when I did my first rewatch

Having said that, I suppose if you can't stomach it now, we could wait until you ask the right question (Or don't even know to ask it) and we can direct you back to this episode. Maybe you'll be able to appreciate it more this way.

Human Reactions puts a lot of "Chekov's Guns" on the wall, some that won't become clear until the Series Ending Mini-Series

 

[kirk55555]

I'm fine with never seeing that episode again. I don't think there are any circumstances where I'll ever watch that episode. I may not outright hate it like Jeremiah Crichton, but unless someone puts a gun to my head I'll never watch it, not even the 20 minutes or so I watched the first time. If you like it, thats fine, but I would bet money (if I had any) that A Human Reaction has no importance to the overall plot whatsoever. In fact, I just read an indepth plot summary here

http://farscape.wikia.com/wiki/A_Human_Reaction

to see if I missed anything. I'm not saying anyone is wrong about it being important, but maybe its just your perspective. I mean, I suppose the aliens from it come back at some point, and maybe it becomes important then, but that doesn't mean you have to see it to know about the aliens. I'm sure, if they return, John will just go "Oh, look, you're the aliens that kidnapped and experimented on me". It doesn't seem very complicated. I also read the page on the ancients. I don't want spoilers, but I was convinced reading their page wouldn't give me spoilers beyond any throwaway episodes they are in later, and I was right. They make a few more appearances, give John wormhole knowledge, then it gets taken away (after a reappearance from that annooying mechanic, I was hoping they wouldn't mention her again). All that means is that I'll have a few more episodes to skip when I get to later seasons of Farscape. Reading the page on the aliens didn't even give me any spoilers for the plot past the episodes with the ancients, I have no idea whats going to happen to anyone or where the overall plot is going, and I read all of that page. So, if the ancients aren't too important to the overall plot, I don't know what part of that episode was important.

 

[RoJoHen]

It's amazing how wrong you are about some of your assumptions. Oh, you simply have no idea what is in store for the rest of the show.

No importance to the overall plot, huh? Well, you feel free to skip future episodes with The Ancients and see how well you fair with the overall plot.

 

[tomalak301]

I'm fine with never seeing that episode again. I don't think there are any circumstances where I'll ever watch that episode. I may not outright hate it like Jeremiah Crichton, but unless someone puts a gun to my head I'll never watch it, not even the 20 minutes or so I watched the first time. If you like it, thats fine, but I would bet money (if I had any) that A Human Reaction has no importance to the overall plot whatsoever. In fact, I just read an indepth plot summary here

http://farscape.wikia.com/wiki/A_Human_Reaction

to see if I missed anything. I'm not saying anyone is wrong about it being important, but maybe its just your perspective. I mean, I suppose the aliens from it come back at some point, and maybe it becomes important then, but that doesn't mean you have to see it to know about the aliens. I'm sure, if they return, John will just go "Oh, look, you're the aliens that kidnapped and experimented on me". It doesn't seem very complicated. I also read the page on the ancients. I don't want spoilers, but I was convinced reading their page wouldn't give me spoilers beyond any throwaway episodes they are in later, and I was right. They make a few more appearances, give John wormhole knowledge, then it gets taken away (after a reappearance from that annooying mechanic, I was hoping they wouldn't mention her again). All that means is that I'll have a few more episodes to skip when I get to later seasons of Farscape. Reading the page on the aliens didn't even give me any spoilers for the plot past the episodes with the ancients, I have no idea whats going to happen to anyone or where the overall plot is going, and I read all of that page. So, if the ancients aren't too important to the overall plot, I don't know what part of that episode was important.

I would suggest after you finish season one, give "A Human Reaction" another shot. You might change your mind because it really is one of the most important episodes in the early stages of Farscape. But if you don't like it, you don't like it. I was just very surprised by the review.

 

[RoJoHen]

I mean, it's one thing to not like "A Human Reaction," but to claim you're going to skip all future episodes related to it because you doubt their importance to the show is just incredibly silly. "A Human Reaction" may very well be the most important episode of the entire series. You claim it has nothing to do with the overall plot (whatever you think that is), but it is actually the first episode in that plot.

 

[Reverend]

How about we stop trying to tell kirk55555 what he should be thinking and just let him discover the rest of the show n his own terms? He's perfectly entitled to have his own opinion...even if it is totally and completely wrong.

Seriously though mate, looking up future episodes to prove yourself right is a *really* bad idea. Just take each episode as it comes.

 

[RoJoHen]

I don't care what his opinions are about episodes he's seen, but he's making huge assumptions about the rest of the show that are completely unfounded.

 

[JD]

I don't think anybody is trying to tell Kirk55555 how he should think, it's just that what he's saying is pretty much the complete opposite of how things end up playing out.

 

[tomalak301]

You know, to come at it from a devils advocate point of view, I wonder if A Human Reaction works after you have seen most of the show, or at least the first two seasons. The reason for that is Kirk555 is right in that we've seen the human goes to earth but it doesn't look right cliche before and on it's own, the episode might not work. Without spoiling anything, when you get done watching the show, and you watch the show again, I'm willing to bet the feeling on "A Human Reaction" would be significantly different because you do know what is to come.

I remember when I first got into Farscape, it was midway through the second season (Almost at the end, and then you had Farscape Undressed to get you ready for Season 3). I guess I was fortunate enough to know what was going on when I did get around to seeing A Human Reaction but to see it as a one off episode, it might come across as a little cliche and boring to some.

I think that's why I suggested to see the episode again after season one. You may think that this is an episode you don't ever want to see again but skipping all the episodes with this theme tells me you might as well stop watching Farscape already. These themes covered in this episode come up again throughout the series, and, like I said, makes this episode maybe more appreciable.

 

[RoJoHen]

^Very possible. I also started watching Farscape towards the end of Season 2. I believe the "Liars, Guns, and Money" trilogy was my introduction to the show, and that was just balls-to-the-wall crazy. It was somewhere in the middle of Season 3 that I finally got around to watching the first season.

 

[kirk55555]

Its not neccesarily the theme (although the only theme this episode seemed to have was boredom, I couldn't identify any other themes, unless the aliens count as a theme). I wouldn't think there will be too many "Crichton gets back to earth, but he really doesn't" episodes. I will admit I may be a bit too hard on it, but honestly it wasn't entertaining at all. If its really that important, then thats the worst revelation i've had about the series. This has been a rough week for watching Farscape. First,Chiana, one of the most annoying sci-fi characters I've had to watch in a long time, gets introduced and becomes a main character. Then, a generic, unentertaining episode where literally nothing happens (it was all a dream/hallucination/computer simulation) is said to be one of the most important in the series. Still, I guess I wouldn't automatically skip any episode with the aliens from A Human reaction. As long as they don't do another episode about Chrichton arriving at a fake earth, I think I'll be fine.

That said, I have about 5-6 episodes left of Farscape (and probably 14-15 left of B5). After that, I'll have to wait until I have enough money to get another season (which may be next month, depending on a few things). Which season 2 I get first really depends on which one is better. Even with the recent dissappointments, I'm still leaning towards getting farscape Season 2 first, unless B5 goes from pretty good to spectacular, or Farscape really screws up its last few episodes.

 

[Trubinator]

I just disliked it. I mean, in the end

Spoiler: episode spoilers

Aliens made him think he was on earth. Stuff like that has been done a lot, and I knew when i saw the wormhole that it was all a dream or something. Once on earth, the government was evil in its treatment towards him and aliens. Big shock. To me it felt like a waste of 40+ minutes. It accomplished nothing, and didn't advance the characters in any way. I didn't hate it, I just didn't care, which is why I fast forwarded through a good chunk of it.

Wow, I'm shocked as well. That episode is definitely one of the best of the season and plays a crucial role in the arc of the show.

 

[Lindley]

Well, let's ease up on him. It's not like you could tell what the arc is purely from "A Human Reaction". It's how those events seem in retrospect that's important.

As long as they don't do another episode about Chrichton arriving at a fake earth, I think I'll be fine.

You know they had to do it at least once. It's a requirement of the "can't get home" genre. Suffice it to say that they don't go to that well very often, and they never do it in so simplistic a manner again.

 

[RoJoHen]

As long as they don't do another episode about Chrichton arriving at a fake earth, I think I'll be fine.

To be fair, next time he's way more skeptical.

 

[Skywalker]

Guys, let him make whatever assumptions he wants. How many of us knew exactly where the show was headed the first time we watched it?

 

[HighteeHeller]

I remember the first time watching it being bothered with the direction i thought it was going, or the behaviors of certain characters, until realizing that it all made sense in the end.

The beginning of season 2 and Chrichtons increasingly odd behavior put me on edge, made me frustrated. I couldn't for the life of me understand why he was turning into such a jackass. I remember not wanting to watch the show because of it. But as we all know, there was a valid reason for it, and the events in A Human Reaction was the first step down that road.