Farscape or Babylon 5?

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by kirk55555, Jul 30, 2012.

  1. kirk55555

    kirk55555 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I know, I just mistyped. I did get the K the first time I mentioned him, I just messed it up after that.
     
  2. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

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    You should find both shows consistently good most of the time, very soon. S1 of Babylon 5 is much better on a rewatch, where you can realy appreciates everything that was set up.
     
  3. Professor Zoom

    Professor Zoom Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah... that's not really the secret actually...
     
  4. kirk55555

    kirk55555 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The way We Weren't (Farscape) - Now THIS is the farscape I like. Not focusing on Jar jariana. This was a great episode. I enjoyed it a lot from beginning to end. There were so many cool/interesting moments. I did think they were a bit unfair to Aeryn. There were about six soldiers shooting the first pilot, even if she hadn't shot, the pilot would have died. I didn't care about aeryn's old love interest, but besides that it was a great episode.

    Home on the Remains (Farscape) - This episode was a mixed bag. Some parts were good, like John and Rygel trying to escape the monster, and Aeryn/Zhaan on the ship. But, the episode is about 60% about Chiana, and everything with her is just bad, so overall its a mediocre episode that I enjoyed parts of.
     
  5. tomalak301

    tomalak301 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I'm glad you liked this episode because it's my favorite episode of the entire show. You want character development, you got a whole boatload of it here, and when you think back to DNA Mad Scientist and how She has Pilots DNA inside her, it just makes that entire ending scene all the more powerful. This was just beautiful film-making, at it's highest.
     
  6. kirk55555

    kirk55555 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Dream a Little Dream (Farscape) - I really didn;t like this episode, it was boring, and I really didn't care about what it was about.

    Out of Their Minds (Farscape) - This was a good episode. there were a lot of funny moments (like John teaching Rygel how to....excrete waste in a human body :rommie:, or Chiana and aeryn catching John messing around with Aeryn's body). Overall, an entertaining episode.
     
  7. The Lensman

    The Lensman Commodore Commodore

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    The "invisible aliens" get spookier.

    And B5 never "jumps the shark" since it was pretty much executed as planned (taking into account all the "trapdoors" built in for unplanned real world events that is).
     
  8. Lindley

    Lindley Moderator with a Soul Premium Member

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    That's why it was moved back. Originally it was to have been the season 2 opener, minus the framing story.
     
  9. kirk55555

    kirk55555 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    That would have been a bad way to start the season :cardie:

    My three Chrichtons (Farscape) - This was an average episode. It had some ok moments, and it had some bad moments (I REALLY hate Chiana). I liked the idea, but I had most of the story figured out when the aliens said one needed to die. I knew they'd decide on the caveman, but it wouldn't happen for some reason (Chiana :scream: ), and that the evolved John would turn on the normal John, and that the new extra Johns would both go away some how. This wasn't a bad episode, but it wasn't very good, either.
     
  10. Kegg

    Kegg Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I really don't think I've encountered anyone who hated Chiana as much as you (or at all, at that matter). It's quite interesting, as I can actually see why someone might find the character grating (but I always loved her and felt the first season picked up a bit with her addition, so there's that.)

    The Deadshirt - That's oversimplifying, since JMS condensed the plot arcs he planned for both seasons four and five into season four and then got picked up for a fifth season on another channel which resulted in a season that dealt with a ton of unplanned material... and that would be ignoring the way his plans for the show's future shifted radically over the years to the point the initial arc envisioned when shooting "The Gathering" is practically a different show.
     
  11. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

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    When did S5 get 100% condensed into S4, certainly before the fear of S4 cancellation. To the best of my knowledge, the S4 Cancellation cost was the final Four or so episodes of S4 were supposed to stretch some things into the first four or so of S5, while the new Arc Elements that start cold at the beginning of S5 would've started slowly, more organically at S4 tail end to take their place so there was a smooth transition between seasons, rather than a Babylon5gasm at the end of S4 and a cold restart in season 5. And of course, the Actor who left had to have their arc redistributed to other characters.
     
  12. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Yeah, I admit I'm a bit intrigued and puzzled by this as well. I mean, sure, different strokes for different folks and all, but, boy, you really seem to dislike Chiana. I'm curious: what about her bugs you so much?

    Personally, I always thought she was a lot of fun. What's not not to love about a monochromatic, visually striking, morally flexible, loose-cannon thief and wild child?
     
  13. kirk55555

    kirk55555 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I just can't stand her. Her whole personality just annoys me. She's obnoxious, useless, and unentertaining. If a character is going to have an obnoxious personality on a tv show, they need to make up for it by being useful and/or entertaining (like Rygel). Instead, we get the woman who walks/moves like shes having a seizure, while doing nothing to help and, frequently, being the cause of the trouble. She's usually irrational ("No, Zhaan, you can't look at my dangerous future predicting picture, its mine", or "No, we can't sacrifice caveman Chricton, I don't care if we all die. sacrifice the evolved one instead"), and just makes situations worse. I refused to watch Taking the Stone, but summaries I've read of it just support my opinion of her. Home on the Remains would have been a pretty good episode, if half of it hadn't been about her (her parts could have been completely written out and the story would have worked fine).

    I really have never hated a character in sci Fi like I hate her, she makes everything worse. The only episode of Farscape season two she wasn't able to even partially ruin is the Way We Weren't, and even then her minute or so of screen time was bad. Besides that, even the other episodes I've enjoyed a lot (like Out of their Minds) has been atleast a little less enjoyable just because of her presence. If others like her, fine, to me she just has no redeeming qualities. I never thought I'd see a character who'd make me rather watch Jar Jar or Short Round, but she makes those characters seem like well thought out, well developed, entertaining characters.
     
  14. Ar-Pharazon

    Ar-Pharazon Admiral Premium Member

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    Chianna's head movements were due to those contacts she wore, she couldn't see directly out of them.

    Not sure about the body movements. Probably just trying to seem alien.

    I find her slightly annoying at times, but that's about it.
     
  15. kirk55555

    kirk55555 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Her weird movements weren't a huge deal. If her character was entertaining and didn't make me want to smash my TV, I probably wouldn't even think about it. At this point, its just one more annoying trait of a character I really hate.

    Also, the next farscape episodes I have to watch are Look at the Princess Parts 1-3. I'm dreading these episodes, I may just skip them. The premise is really bad, according to wikipedia John has to marry a princess to escape scorpius. Now, he's obviously not going to end up getting married, and its just to cause problems for John and aeryn for a few episodes. It just seems like a waste of almost 3 hours of my life. Then, the next two episodes after that are a Chiana episode (Beware of Dog) and Won't Get Fooled Again, an episode that seems to be in the same vein as A Human Reaction, which I hated. So, I might just skip to The Locket.

    Still, 5 episodes is a lot to skip. I'm definately going to be skipping Beware of Dog, and I'm fairly sure I'll be skipping Won't Get fooled Again, but I'm wondering if there is any real reason to watch the Look At the Princess episodes? I mean real reasons, like things that effect the rest of the season/series/
     
  16. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

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    If you're not even interested in the Princess Trilogy, I don't think this show is for you, I think you're just going to get more and more miserable.

    First Human Reaction you couldn't stomach, and now the Princess Trilogy, you're not going to get any of the Arc setup introductions at this rate.
     
  17. Lindley

    Lindley Moderator with a Soul Premium Member

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    I had the same reaction when I heard about the Princess trilogy. It really is quite good, though, and it introduces a new race who become very important later.
     
  18. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    You really shouldn't prejudice yourself like this. It's honestly best to just take the episodes as they come. If they're bad, then that's part of the experience. If there are too many bad ones in a row, well then it's time to find another show. Personally I have a "three strikes and out" rule. That is to say if I'm watching a new show and there are three episodes in a row that I don't enjoy, then bye-bye new show. I know some people don't even wait that long, but I like to give things a chance to improve. It's served me OK over the years, though some shows just barely squeaked through at times.

    Anyway, yeah I seriously urge you to refrain from reading even a synopsis of upcoming B5 episodes because you *will* be spoiled. Big time.
     
  19. Lindley

    Lindley Moderator with a Soul Premium Member

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    I actually think the Princess trilogy are some of my favorite season 2 episodes, with the possible exception of the Liars, Guns, and Money trilogy.
     
  20. kirk55555

    kirk55555 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Well, I don't know if I'd dislike the princess episodes, just that the premise is really stupid and unoriginal. I don't see how it has any appeal at all, the story has been done to death. I don't think it could be more cliche if the writers had tried. I still like the main plot of the show, the main characters (besides Chiana, obviously), and other things.

    At this point, I still think it can be a decent show, reguardless of Chiana or the fact that the bad episodes are becoming more common. When Farscape is good, I really like it. When its bad, its horrible. I'm willing to keep watching it because when its good, it is very enjoyable, and I really like most of the characters, and I want to see what happens to them. If that means I have to deal with Chiana and the show being very hit or miss, I'll deal with it.

    Its weird, I have never seen a show with such a hit or miss quality. Every show has bad episodes, but Farscape seems to be going through a rough patch where the good to bad ration is almost 50/50. I'm just hoping that more good episodes start happening, and that the show decides that it doesn't need to do every cliche in existence.
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2012