Farscape (No Spoilers)

[Captain Tagon]

I'm not saying that such a moral dilemna couldn't be interesting. I'm saying that in such a situation -- aliens that suck the life out of you for food, with your group cut off from the rest of your country and planet, desperately looking for friends and help against the life-sucking aliens... that kind of moral whinging did not feel realistic. Or, if it was realistic, it was realistic for people who aren't going to survive.

Or maybe people who actually hold themselves to a strict moral standard? Who believe in something higher than their own survival?

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Easy there, chaps. It's just TV.

That's what you think.

 

[takyris]

Or maybe people who actually hold themselves to a strict moral standard? Who believe in something higher than their own survival?

That's certainly possible. In which case, I think their strict moral standard is stupid, shortsighted, and massively intolerant of the moral standards of other cultures. These are classic ugly Americans who go to Rome and shout at people to stop wearing togas.

Everywhere the SG:A team went, they just ground their morals into the carpets of anybody they didn't agree with. "Hey, a society in which people commit ritual suicide when they reach adulthood! Well, that must be a load of garbage. Let's get 'em to stop!" At some point, I anticipated seeing them run into a planet with nothing but a giant machine and one guy in a booth, and the guy in the booth would say, "Hey, if you press that big red button there, it's going to kill all the Wraith in the universe, but also it's going to execute me for crimes against the state, and my crime against the state was refusing to release a plague that was created by the state to keep the population in check." And then there'd be half an hour of "We can kill the Wraith!" and "But we're not executioners!" and "But we'll be just like they are!" and stuff, and then finally the guy would end up dying of the plague he himself had created before they could press the big red button, and there'd be a long slow stare-at-each-other moment with apparently emotional music playing before the fade to black.

 

[reveal]

Everywhere the SG:A team went, they just ground their morals into the carpets of anybody they didn't agree with. "Hey, a society in which people commit ritual suicide when they reach adulthood! Well, that must be a load of garbage. Let's get 'em to stop!" At some point, I anticipated seeing them run into a planet with nothing but a giant machine and one guy in a booth, and the guy in the booth would say, "Hey, if you press that big red button there, it's going to kill all the Wraith in the universe, but also it's going to execute me for crimes against the state, and my crime against the state was refusing to release a plague that was created by the state to keep the population in check." And then there'd be half an hour of "We can kill the Wraith!" and "But we're not executioners!" and "But we'll be just like they are!" and stuff, and then finally the guy would end up dying of the plague he himself had created before they could press the big red button, and there'd be a long slow stare-at-each-other moment with apparently emotional music playing before the fade to black.

I think that's the premier episode of Season 2.

 

[LightPhoenix]

By far my favorite Farscape moment is in Season 3, the episode I-Yensch, You-Yesnch (spoilers hidden for Crothian's sake)

Spoiler

where Rygel and Scorpius are negotiating in the diner while it gets taken over. Absolutely brilliant writing for both characters, and they play off of each other so well.

 

[Captain Tagon]

That's certainly possible. In which case, I think their strict moral standard is stupid, shortsighted, and massively intolerant of the moral standards of other cultures.

::shrug::

Your opinion. Not mine. Which is why I enjoy the show I guess.

 

[takyris]

::shrug::

Your opinion. Not mine. Which is why I enjoy the show I guess.

I don't hate the show. I stopped watching when I couldn't find it after moving to Canada. I just dislike that particular part of the show. The episodes where they aren't moralizing are generally stronger, and the episodes where it's more action-oriented seem stronger to me as well -- which is not to say that I only like action, just that it seems to be the stronger suit in this show.

I liked the, um, summer season finale -- Die Hard:Atlantis with the male lead and the scar-faced character actor bad guy talking over walkie-talkies. Good stuff. I liked the one where the male lead has to go toe-to-toe with the single Wraith in a mano-a-mano kind of deal. Those both worked.

The time-travel episode with Extremely Old Weir? Ech. It's like it was written by people who hadn't been watching in science fiction shows for the last thirty years and thought that this was something completely new and original that they had to explain at great length. At risk of hijacking the thread, this isn't something that Farscape in particular does better than SG:A. This is something that SG1 even does better than SG:A. This is something that almost every show I've seen and continued to watch does better than SG:A. I don't know if their writers have been watching Law & Order or Dawson's Creek or what, but they either don't know the conventions of science fiction well enough to know what can be taken for granted, or they've been told (by producers, by Sci-Fi, by someone) that they have to spell it out in more detail -- a level of detail that is painfully slow for me.

So, when they stop spending half the episode talking about how they a) shrank, b) got sent into a parallel dimension, c) were tweaked out of phase and are now walking through walls and invisible to everyone but somehow not falling through the floor, d) are repeating the same moment in time over and over again, or e) switched bodies, I actually enjoy the show -- although I still have a problem with their moralizing, which seems overly simplistic and black-and-white for me.

That all sounds really negative. Seriously: the military stuff? Lots of fun. Cranky scientist guy (Rodney?)? Lots of sun. Killing off Robert Patrick in the pilot? Loved it.

 

[John Crichton]

By far my favorite Farscape moment is in Season 3, the episode I-Yensch, You-Yesnch (spoilers hidden for Crothian's sake)

Spoiler

where Rygel and Scorpius are negotiating in the diner while it gets taken over. Absolutely brilliant writing for both characters, and they play off of each other so well.

The wind-down to that ep was great. The cool thing is that it was only a prelude to the awesomeness that was to come on later in the trilogy. That trilogy of eps may just be the finest 2 hours the show has ever paid off. I always felt that they were building to that point for almost the entire run. Just look at the characters involved.

 

[Crothian]

And it is done. I watched all 4 seasons plus the Peacekeeper Wars. Fine series, I'm happy to see they brought it to a good conclusion as the writers habits for "To be continued" got a little annoying. Farscape made for some good episodes and a nice addition tom the sci fi genre.

 

[Fast Learner]

So a month later, has this (quoted from your OP) changed?

They are good so far but I'm not seeing what causes the fanticism that so many people have for the series.

Not that you necessarily feels such fanaticism, but is it more obvious why someone might feel that way? Just curious.