Battlestar Galactica commentary on Farscape

[Dagger75]

I watched the first season for Farscape religiously. It was cool. Missed a lot of the third season. Then I remeber Sci Fi ran all the episodes in order for the season premier. It just got to wierd for me, forgive me but I was like WTF is this a lot and stopped watching.

Angel on the other hand I only saw like 3 episodes then season 5 started. I watched them all, I may not have understood everything or who everbody was but I was able to keep up and was entertained. Farscape unfortuantly didn't have this quality.

 

[frandelgearslip]

I would have to agree with the comments that farscape wasn't easy to watch coming into the middle of it. I watched episodes here and there, but they just were not that interesting or understandable for somebody who hasn't watched every single episode. I watched it when I did for the same reason I watched firefly it could be really funny at times. (The only difference is that farscape was great sci-fi if one watched every single episode, firefly wasn't).

As for battlestar gallactica this originality complaints are ridiculous. Farscape was original, but its one of the few science fiction series that I can think of that was, star wars wasn't, star trek wasn't, DS9 sure in the hell wasn't, firefly wasn't, x files wan't... I mean there are very few totally original shows out there.

On continuity I would say the difference between farscape and BSG is that BSG rewards you for watching every episode while farscape punished you for skipping episodes. In BSG S2 E2 a viewer doesn't need to know that random away team casualty (to use star trek terms) Socinus who dies, covered for Tyrol in a previous episode and was stripped of rank and thrown in the brig for it. But it makes things more enjoyable and meaningful especially in later episodes when Tyrol finds out Sharon was a cylon.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

As for battlestar gallactica this originality complaints are ridiculous. Farscape was original, but its one of the few science fiction series that I can think of that was, star wars wasn't, star trek wasn't, DS9 sure in the hell wasn't, firefly wasn't, x files wan't... I mean there are very few totally original shows out there.

Farscape was orriginal? I mean, it was nice and all but "Virile earth man from aproximately now is throw into futuristic space setting with hot alien babes and becomes hero..." All the classic space opera elements were nicely put together, but I find it hard to believe that you consider it more orriginal than the others on your list.

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

Originality doesn't really ring true for me as a commentary on stories. Every story has been told before.

Battlestar Galactica: Machines turn on their creators. Antagonists engage the protagonists in a long chase. Conflict in the military vs. civilian mindset. Post-apocalypse survival of the race. Rooting out the hidden agents of the enemy. Hotshot fighter pilots versus the enemy horde.

Farscape: Journey of odd companions. Quest for redemption. Lost man searching for a way home. Reckless pursuit of a doomsday weapon. Romance between a seemingly incompatible couple from different worlds. Advanced biotechnology with a living ship.

Good sci-fi IS rare, but so is good television in general. Attention to plot and character and respect for the genre is a hard combination to keep going. Those qualities matter more than any perceived originality, which is highly subjective.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Little is original. All tales have been told and there are no new sins. Battlestar is a kind of redux of Aeneid, in much the same way Watership Down is also a kind of redux of the same story. Farscape is a kind of redux of Buck Rodger, itself a kind of redux of the Odyssey. In any event, BSG v 2.0 is increasingly hard to get into.

 

[Storm Raven]

Farscape was orriginal? I mean, it was nice and all but "Virile earth man from aproximately now is throw into futuristic space setting with hot alien babes and becomes hero..." All the classic space opera elements were nicely put together, but I find it hard to believe that you consider it more orriginal than the others on your list.

Well, I'd hardly call John the "virile earth man". Just about every alien in Farscape is stronger, faster, and generally better than he is at most things. And most of them have a lot more sex than he does. If anyone on Moya's crew is "virile", it would be D'Argo.

One of the original elements of Farscape was that Crichton wasn't very good at much, and certainly not as good at a lot of things as the rest of the crew. Aeryn was a better pilot, and a better "action hero". D'Argo was stronger, and tougher. Rigel was craftier. And so on. About the only thing John had going for him most of the time was that he wasn't burdened by the prejudices and preconceptions his crewmates carried around.

As for plot originality - there's really only four dramatic plots: (1) man against man, (2) man against nature, (3) man against god, and (4) man against himself.

 

[LightPhoenix]

About the only thing John had going for him most of the time was that he wasn't burdened by the prejudices and preconceptions his crewmates carried around.

John was always "the brains" - he was the only scientist-like person they had, and they establish that pretty quickly. Sure, there's Pilot, but since he can't really leave the ship and is more concerned with Moya than abstracts, he counts a lot less.

Also, he's by far the most creative of the bunch, everyone else is sort of mired in their role. Chiana and Rygel will always "Rogue" their way out of situations, Aeryn and D'Argo will always fight, Zhaan always picks the zen path. Only John has the creativity to be flexible, and it's that quality that lets them stay on the run for so long.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Don't you know nothing is truly original anymore...

Someone mentioned that BSG uses its female characters as sex objects... But so does Farscape as well, I'm especially thinking of that episode with Chiana and Jool and that club-owner/drug-lord who ends up using them to make more drugs, about every episode Chiana and the rest of the crew went crazy, not to mention a bunch of other things involving all of the younger non-sebaccean female characters (and maybe a bit with Aeryn).

I'm not favouring one series over the other as I happen to like both of them, but a lot of the things that fans of one series accuse the other series of doing, also happen in their respective series as well.

I don't know if it's been mentioned on this thread, but the new BSG does owe a lot of its asthetic to Firefly. I even remember Ron Moore mentioning that about the mixture of old retro tech with newer tech. In fact you can even see the Serenity in the background of the Miniseries in the scene on Caprica where Roslyn gets diagnosed for breast cancer....

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Don't you know nothing is truly original anymore...

Someone mentioned that BSG uses its female characters as sex objects... But so does Farscape as well, I'm especially thinking of that episode with Chiana and Jool and that club-owner/drug-lord who ends up using them to make more drugs, about every episode Chiana and the rest of the crew went crazy, not to mention a bunch of other things involving all of the younger non-sebaccean female characters (and maybe a bit with Aeryn).

I'm not favouring one series over the other as I happen to like both of them, but a lot of the things that fans of one series accuse the other series of doing, also happen in their respective series as well.

I don't know if it's been mentioned on this thread, but the new BSG does owe a lot of its asthetic to Firefly. I even remember Ron Moore mentioning that about the mixture of old retro tech with newer tech. In fact you can even see the Serenity in the background of the Miniseries in the scene on Caprica where Roslyn gets diagnosed for breast cancer....

It certainly helps that Battlestar Galactica and Firefly both use "Zoic" for their visual effect shots.

About Originality:
The plot lines probably aren't that original, since there are only a few basic plotlines.
But both shows (all 3 if we add Firefly) have their own, unique appearence. Sure there might be other series that have done the dirty, documentary style look - but none of them were Sci-Fi shows. Though this unique appearence is probably natural for most shows...

 

[Staffan]

John was always "the brains" - he was the only scientist-like person they had, and they establish that pretty quickly. Sure, there's Pilot, but since he can't really leave the ship and is more concerned with Moya than abstracts, he counts a lot less.

Zhaan also has a scientist vibe, though more focused on medicine/biology.