Remember Trek Trek? Yeah, that is still A Thing. It simply went on hiatus for a while as I worked my way through Farscape; and now I am done with that show, so it’s on to Season 2 of Enterprise and other, savorier pursuits at a later time.
Farscape was an interesting show. It gradually evolved from “cheesy TV sci-fi with an edge” to “edgy TV sci-fi with a heart.” It managed to subvert a lot of bad TV writing habits (for instance, the lead character hooked up with his romantic interest fairly early on but they didn’t immediately become an item) while succumbing to plenty of others (the writers’ obsession with making Crichton a “relatable everyman” by having him reel off pop culture references the viewers would enjoy never ceased to grate, though the 2001 payoff at the very, very end of the show was pretty great). The CG special effects were uniformly terrible, while the old-school animatronics were often quite remarkable (though just as often not on the monsters of the week).
On the whole, not bad! I don’t know that I’ll ever watch the series again, if only because I’ve seen enough of that half-lizard alien overlord in bondage gear to last a lifetime. But it was fun while it lasted.
Just to double check- You DID watch the miniseries, right? And did so with the understanding that the incredibly rushed nature of it was that it was a crazy last minute attempt to condense the plot of the 5th and 6th seasons the writers were originally promised down into 4 hours?
Of course. The only significant problem I had with the mini-series was who the Scarran mole turned out to be. Didn’t make no damn sense given that character’s actions in some of the episodes toward the end of season four.
Really, the show got a lot stronger the longer it ran. Seasons 1 & 2 were pretty spotty, sometimes downright dreadful, while I can’t think of any Season 3 & 4 episodes I disliked. On the other hand, Seasons 1 & 2 had Zhaan and Crais, whose voids in the ensemble were never really filled.
Season 3 had a good bit of Crais, too!
I thought this show was overall pretty awesome including the ending movie, “the war for peace” or something. Aerin Sun rocks because British accents rock.
Claudia Black is Australian. Most people on the show were Australian or New Zealander.
When Australians attempt to make themselves properly understandable, we tend to skew towards British. Also ‘Australians in Spaaaace!’ is probably not an easy sell to the world.
Maybe I’m just being too forgiving over here, but I felt Crichton’s pop culture references were less “See, audience, I’m relatable because we like the same things!” and more “Trapped in an incomprehensible alien universe and growing more unhinged by the day, I’m desperately clinging to my only souvenir of Earth: my encyclopedic knowledge of Scooby-Doo.”
I wish I could be that kind, but it all felt so forced.