Farscape Question

[Bonzo the Fifth]

I liked the double-John act... obviously, you knew from the get-go that one was dead... after Talyn-John hooked up with Aeryn full-time you DEFINITELY knew he was dead, but still, managing to draw it out for most of an entire season isn't something most series would do... an episode or two parter sure, but most series don't have the creative capacity...

Yeah, it was ballsy. Interestingly though, Crichton was only split for about eight or nine episodes, but the repercussions from that lasted even until early season 4. I'm not sure many shows could pull 'that' off.

I guess kudos are in order for Browder for acting the part so well...

It's good too, that the writers managed to simultaneously not forget about it, but not let it dominate the story by incessantly calling back on it. It just managed to hang there, unspoken, like a pall, only occasionally mentioned, as a true tragedy should be.

 

[Freman]

I just wish they'd rerelease this series in some new Season Boxsets that are affordable.

I would LOVE to own the series, but I really don't feel like spending 10,000 dollars trying to get the previous releases.

 

[tomalak301]

Agreed, with the sentiments about Dog with Two Bones, but it wasn't as good as the two parter that came before it. Into the Lions Den was some of the best work Farscape has ever done, both in an action sense and emotional drama. Talyn's demise might be the best death scene I've ever watched.

As with the original question, at first I didn't like the whole Chrichton split up. But after watching Season 3 last year, I realized how great it was and what it did to the overall scope of the season. I haven't watched this series in a long time and I lost the downloads I had of it earlier this year. That sucked.

 

[Trubinator]

I'm kind of hoping Sony will re-release the entire series in Blu-ray format soon. Amazon has an auto-notify feature for when it becomes available, so I think it would be awesome to have individual season sets and a PKW one.

 

[Bonzo the Fifth]

I'm kind of hoping Sony will re-release the entire series in Blu-ray format soon. Amazon has an auto-notify feature for when it becomes available, so I think it would be awesome to have individual season sets and a PKW one.

Sony? I didn't think they had the rights to the show...

Come to think of it, who does have the rights? Syfy and the Jim Henson Company made it, but who handled the distribution side of things?

 

[RoJoHen]

Used to be ADV, but I'm pretty sure Sony has the rights these days.

 

[Starbreaker]

We got all excited about Blu-Ray when Sony picked up the rights... but noooooo....

 

[Harvey]

Perhaps there's a similar problem with the effects not being rendered at 1080p resolution--the same problem that exists with Babylon 5 and all of Star Trek (outside of Enterprise and the remastered Star Trek).

 

[Trubinator]

I believe seasons 1-3 were filmed at standard TV resolution, whereas season 4 and PKW miniseries were filmed in HD. I'm sure the VFX transfer would be awful, so re-releasing would be a time-consuming process. But they 'should' do it eventually...

 

[Bonzo the Fifth]

For what it's worth, one of the guys from The Digital Bits (who usually are in the know on such things) says:

Farscape was shot on 35mm film at 25fps, and season 4 was shot on HD video cameras

So season 4 is no problem for Blu-Ray... I know if it'd been shot on video, we'd have the same problem as TNG, but I don't' know anything about 35mm as far as HD transfers go. Anyone know?

 

[Harvey]

Were the effects prepared in HD, though? That's the real issue. Transfering from 35mm to HD isn't cheap, but since 35mm has many times the level of detail as HD, it's not the problem. The problem is the resolution the visual effects were prepared in.

The same exists for TNG--it was shot on 35mm throughout the entire run, but the effects were produced on video and the episodes were mastered on video. So even if they returned to the original elements, the effects would still be at NTSC resolution.

 

[DS9Continuing]

As Mirrorball pointed out, this question was cleared up right at the very beginning, in the very same episode the situation was introduced. So, not to be rude or anything, but frankly you just weren't paying attention.

I grasp what the guy said. I just had a hard time wrapping my brain around the concept until another poster mentioned cellular mitosis ... then it clicked.

Yeah, sorry if I came off harsh. I just think that it's vital to understand that the two Crichtons are exactly the same, equal in every way. You have to know that either thing could have happened to either one of them, that it is a real Crichton that dies, but that a real Crichton is left behind too, for the drama to work as effectively as it does.

Another thing I love about the whole thing is that it is reflected right there in the opening credits from the beginning of the third season, even though the twinning doesn't happen till the sixth episode. In the credits voiceover, there are two parallel Crichtons delivering parallel descriptions of his life - one focused on his love and his friends, the other focused on the science of wormholes. Aeryn vs Earth, his twin obsessions, right there in plain sight from the start. Crichton is the Dog With Two Bones throughout the season.

Talyn's demise might be the best death scene I've ever watched.

How insane is it that you can say such a thing - not that I disagree, because I absolutely agree - about a character who never says a word, but is portrayed exclusively by sets and lighting rigs?

It is amazing how Farscape managed to make us feel for those two characters - Moya and Talyn - is if they were as real as any other. Hell, forget Pilot and Rygel - Moya had more character development that some characters on other shows.


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