Farscape (No Spoilers)

[reveal]

And Rackhir asked if Felon was living in a cabin in Montana playing Telephone, he didn't say he was. In short, you do realize that your argument that saying someone "sounded" like a raving fanboy is somehow qualitatively different from calling someone a raving fanboy effectively nullifies your claim that Rackhir made a personal insult in his post, don't you. If you don't, then you need to sit back and think about this for a while.

I admit "raving fanboy" was not the correct term to use. I attempted to convey a message but, as I have seen too many times, "tone" is something that cannot be coneyed vying typing.

 

[reveal]

Wow... back off, guys! It's not as if there is only one show to watch. We can all find something that hits the right spot. Nobody's going to prove anyone wrong.

Which is what I tried to get at in my first post asking why someone was getting so worked up about a television show and my attempt to defend myself went horribly awry.

 

[Psion]

Another reason I dig Farscape: It's (usually) funny, when the right author is writing at least. And beleiveably funny.

I mean stuff like "Nebari mental cleansing doesn't get the really tough stains out" is gold to me. Crichton rocks.

 

[Crothian]

Another reason I dig Farscape: It's (usually) funny, when the right author is writing at least. And beleiveably funny.

I mean stuff like "Nebari mental cleansing doesn't get the really tough stains out" is gold to me. Crichton rocks.

Ya, the writting for the most part is pretty good.

 

[Henry]

Ladies and Gents, if we could please keep the discourse to a civil level, I'd appreciate it. I'm glad it seems back on track, but there's no reason to get worked up over a TV show to a hostile extent, cancelled or otherwise.

Thanks.

 

[sniffles]

Its more then just that, they never catch a break. 3+ years I've watched and nothing. It wears on me. I don't see what people keep trying to compaire it to trek or B5, it isn't like those shows. The closest thing I can see to Farscape is actually Thieves World. But I'd think by now Farscape doesn't need to be compaired to anything, it is its own thing.

You're absolutely right, there, Crothian. It doesn't need to be compared to other shows. Those of us who like it do so because it isn't like those other shows (which I also like), but that doesn't mean you have to like it. Kudos for giving it a try though. I hope you find it more enjoyable as the series goes on, if you choose to continue watching. If you don't, that's too bad, but we can't all like the same stuff or the world would be a very dull place.

 

[Crothian]

You're absolutely right, there, Crothian. It doesn't need to be compared to other shows. Those of us who like it do so because it isn't like those other shows (which I also like), but that doesn't mean you have to like it. Kudos for giving it a try though. I hope you find it more enjoyable as the series goes on, if you choose to continue watching. If you don't, that's too bad, but we can't all like the same stuff or the world would be a very dull place.

I have every intention of watching it the whole way through. It is entertaining enough and I 'm asci fi fan so I like to watch the different kinds of shows as I can. It is not a show I see myself wanting to watch over and over, though. It has some very good parts and they did great with some aspects of the show, I don't want it to seem like I'm focusing on the negatives all the time. It is not a show that was forced upon me, I went out and found a friend who had it so I could see it. It is just with all the people around here practically screaming at me that it is great, I tend to to focus more on the negatives in my responses to try to counter balance all of it.

 

[Simplicity]

At the end of the second season did they mess up the DVDs? The second to last disk had characters on it that didn't reappear or were introduced till the last disk. It seems that the first of the three parter and the episode before that were reversed.

Yes, they messed up the episode order. If I remember right, there's a three part bunch (can't remember the name) that they put the first two episodes on one disk, and the last episode on a LATER disk. Stupid. Seriously, seriously stupid.

The series is great right up until the last season. And then, it starts to suck really badly, I think.

 

[John Crichton]

Another reason I dig Farscape: It's (usually) funny, when the right author is writing at least. And beleiveably funny.

I mean stuff like "Nebari mental cleansing doesn't get the really tough stains out" is gold to me. Crichton rocks.

Ya know, thinking back...

There were some really excellent eps of Farscape. Most of them in the second half of each season and all the 3-parters. However, there were some stinkers as well. But John's quips and general attitude (and pop-genre references) always made the show watchable. After a while, all the characters got into the act.

I can't see anyone comparing the show to anything else except maybe to say that it was something that Voyager should have been (stranded from home premise, not the tone/humor/direction). The show could have easily been very heavy handed as many of the factions were blatant mirrors of Earth history counterparts but it always kept things light and got serious when it needed to be.

I applaud Crothian for sticking with it even though he doesn't completely love it. I don't know if I could do the same.

 

[takyris]

I don't necessarily know that I applaud him. I'm glad he did, because that lets us talk about Farscape some more, but I don't think people should continue to watch stuff that doesn't do it for them. Don't get me wrong: I don't want Crothian to stop if he's enjoying it and just pointing out flaws. But watching stuff you don't like because other people think it's good is never going to make you happy. (This explains why I don't go to movies very often. I vote with my dollar, and I vote hard.)

I think that the reason I loved Farscape was that it was the anti-Trek -- at least, anti-Modern Trek. I remember seeing the episode... blanking on the name, but it was early second season, when the guy comes onto the ship and causes all kinds of weird light-effects that make everyone crazy and homicidal except Zhaan, who gets, uh, 300+ happy personal moments? (If I recall correctly, it also marks an early apperance of Harvey, passed off as a hallucination because we don't know about the chip yet in the show.)

Anyway, in that episode, which Crothian has seen by now, so no spoiler worries, everyone has figured out that it's the alien's fault they're crazy, and John, the sanest of the group because of his poor eyesight ("Hey! I've got 20/20 eyesight, and they're blue!"), is chosen to go in and defeat the alien, who has laser-beams and some kind of heat wave.

As I recall correctly, he gets D'Argo's sword, Aryn's prowler-plating-shield, a cloaking field from some other source, a heat resistant goo that Zhaan regurgitates for John, and a goofy helmet. He dashes into the room humming "The Ride of the Valkyries" runs around hacking up the alien's devices, and finally runs the creepy bastard through.

I looked at the screen and said, "If this were one of today's Star Trek episodes, the alien device would be uncovered, the alien would be stunned by some kind of feedback, and he'd end up surrounded by a force field. And then the captain of the show would say, 'We're onto you. We're putting you back in your ship and leaving a warning beacon in this region of space so that nobody else falls for your schemes.' And the alien would stalk off, growling."

And that was when I fell in love with Farscape. The show doesn't pretend to have a civilized morality when it's set in an uncivilized world. It ain't Deadwood, but if someone tries to kill one of the crew, that someone is probably going to end up dead unless they're truly incompetent or have a really good explanation.

I remember watching Stargate:Atlantis, one of the first season episodes, the one where some group of humans has found a serum that they can inject into themselves that makes them poison for the Wraith. Or at least, they think so. And they spend 40 minutes of the hour talking about whether it's ethical to use their Wraith prisoner as a test subject, whether it's ethical to use a volunteer as a victim for the Wraith's attack, and whether this will really work and should we I don't know it's not very nice this isn't the polite way to do it... and I looked over at my wife and said "If this were Farscape, they'd have fed the volunteer to the alien about twenty minutes ago." And she nodded and sighed. I ended up watching the rest of the episode with captions on at x4 fast-forwarding -- slow enough to read captions and follow actions easily, fast enough to get through a dull episode faster.

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.