Farscape

[adfegg]

I've been watching the reruns on BBC2. I'd forgotten how good it was, I guess Peacekeeper Wars spoiled my perception. Anyway, was anyone else reminded of Beyond Good and Evil by the serpent in Self-inflicted Wounds?

[Roderick]

Hmm, can't really remember. Wait, now I remember. Yes, they do have some touching points.

In other fantastisc Farscape news: SCIFI.com has ordered... (wait for it) Farscape WEBISODES to be made! Don't know when they'll air them yet, but there's NEW Farscape material coming! Not much is known further, but I do hope

they'll give Scorpius a reprise after the really disappointing way they ended his arc in Peacekeeper Wars. What the hell. Were we supposed to accept that his life's struggle is over simply because he's smiling gleefully now that the Scarrans and Peacekeepers have signed a half-assed peace treaty under threat of destruction? The man deserves something more awesome!

[adfegg]

I think it's more

a perverse glee that his twin nemesises(nemesi?) are having to be chummy

But yeah, that's great news. Got a link?

[Roderick]

The link would be nothing more than a petite news blurb on scifi.com. Probably still somewhere on the front page.

As regards Scorpius,

he was definitely beaming. Would be weird for him to end his arc with some bit of random mania. Naw, this was a time-constraint thing, most likely. They didn't have enough room to deal with him satisfactorily. I say it's time for a spin-off series!

[adfegg]

Farscape prequel, 'Farscape: The Rise of Scorpius'

[Roderick]

Well, there already is such an episode of course, in season 3. Quality stuff.

[adfegg]

Heh. I sometimes wonder if that Scarran felt maternal pride for Scorpy, for killing her. I know she might have been a bit distracted by her eyes being gouged out and everything, but that happened because he was as strong as she brought him up to be.

[Roderick]

Yes, he was her little bundle of joy.

[brkl]

Oh man, I'd like to see the whole series again, but for the love of god, it's 370 euros at Play.com.

[Roderick]

That's a trifle expensive. I got my German DVD boxset for respectively 80, 80 and 55 Euros. That's right, the bastards never released the fourth season because it wasn't dubbed in German. And I don't even care for the dub! I was just excited there were boxsets available! Now I have to get the fourth season in a different format and box, which sucks.

[adfegg]

Did you change you're avatar? Or has it always been like that?

[Roderick]

'Always' being a relative term, it has been like this for the past few months, yes. Surely Scorpy's grin did not go unnoticed for so long?

[adfegg]

I guess I just got used to it, and only noticed it again when we started talking about Farscape.

[Bjorn]

Hey, whaddya know, we already have a Farscape thread!

 

We started watching it this week, have got 4 episodes into Season 1.  I haven't seen any episodes since around the time it was airing new.  This is a trip.  Is that a fucking spray painted trackball they are using for manual steering in a couple of episodes?  Also, I swear I heard a sampling of a 2NU song towards the end of episode 3, that or 2NU sampled a song from Farscape for their second album that came out around that time.  I'm going to have to listen to those albums tomorrow and see. 

[Ben X]

Did Danielle post her skip list(?) anywhere? It's pretty much skip the first ten then watch everything, right?

[Bjorn]

It's in the episode thread of whenever they talked about Farscape in (the one with Anita in it?).  I'll try to track it down and quote it here later on.  We're just watching the whole thing, not skipping anything.  My wife was a huge fan of it back when it ran, and she wants to see all the glory and trainwrecks from Season 1. 

[SecretAsianMan]

This is her list from the Episode 176 thread.  There's also a mini series that wraps up the show called the Peacekeeper Wars which as of right now Danielle hasn't seen but I'd suggest watching if you need closure.

 

 

Ok! I shared this on twitter a few moments ago, but here it is. The DEFINITIVE Farscape skip list. The first season, I've highlighted what to actually watch - skip everything else.

 

Farscape is my favorite sci-fi series of all time. It's creative and weird, it does interesting, progressive things with gender and sci-fi tropes, it's colorful and funny and sometimes incredibly dark. Star Trek, it is not (though, John, the central human character, LOVES Star Trek).

But! The show really fumbled around to find its footing early on. So here are my recommendations for Watching the 1st season. Skip everything not listed here.

1. Premiere (note: this episode sucks. But you should probably watch just because it does, however clumsily, set up the entire premise of the show.)

2. P.K. Tech Girl

3. DNA Mad Scientist

4. They've Got A Secret

5. The Flax

And then, from episode 15 -- Durka Returns -- on through the end of the first season.

Alternatives! If you are enjoying yourself, and can stomach some season 1 goofiness, there are a couple of episodes that have *some* importance for later events, and they aren't bad. Add episodes 11: Till The Blood Runs Clear and 12: Rhapsody in Blue back in if you think you can handle some intense goofiness and are starting to actually like these characters as you go along.

Season 2 has a few clunkers, notably Vitas Mortis, Picture If You Will, Home on the Remains and Dream a Little Dream. Feel free to skip the hell out of them, but the show is remarkably strong outside of those outliers.

Don't skip a second of season 3. Season 3 of Farscape is my favorite sustained sequence of entertainment/art in the universe. I'm completely serious.

Season 4 has some rough patches, though by this point, you'll know exactly what you love and hate about Farscape. If you *must* know, A Prefect Murder was the only Farscape episode to bore me, and while I find Coup By Clam campy and entertaining, it's not the show's finest hour. 

[Bjorn]

This is her list from the Episode 176 thread.  There's also a mini series that wraps up the show called the Peacekeeper Wars which as of right now Danielle hasn't seen but I'd suggest watching if you need closure.

 

Thanks!  And yes, answering my own question, that was a spray painted Logitech Trackball (image courtesy of this page):

 

[Dewar]

The Peacekeeper Wars is excellent, though it can be hard to find streaming. I had to buy the DVD.

[Roderick]

You know what? You know what? Lemme just lay it out here for you, I don't care. I like goofy season 1. I like weird ass space vampires. It's a throwback to the silliness of Star Trek TOS. Put those guys in a goddamn labyrinth and have kooky vampires hunt them down.

 

But Danielle's right of course, things get interesting as soon as the aurora chamber hits and Scorpius gets his claws into Crighton's brain. Season 3 IS a stellar run of ideas, concepts and execution. Notably once the three-parter about the heist hits, and the two-parter in the Peacekeeper flagship... holeeeeeey shit.

[Ben X]

I watched the first six episodes a while ago, and just watched PK Tech Girl. I think I'll stick to Danielle's skip list because while there are lots of interesting ideas being thrown around, it's a bit of a brash, loud mess at the moment. Not very sophisticated or sharp. I did like the conversation between John and Aeryn, although it was ruined a little by the Sad Music blaring over it.

 

EDIT: I don't have anything against goofiness either - not everything has to be BSG - as long as it's well done.

[SecretAsianMan]

I actually like a good amount of Season 1 as well.  I totally recognize that its not as good as the later seasons but I still had fun with it.

 

As for the Peacekeeper Wars, I thought it was fun too but not as good as the series proper.  It felt like an entertaining TV sci-fi flick, which is exactly what it was.  There's nothing wrong with that but I would have preferred a series continuation to the movie finisher.  But at least they wrapped up the MASSIVE cliffhanger the regular series ended on.

[Roderick]

I cannot get over how bad they messed up Scorpius' look in Peacekeeper Wars. There was apparently no time in the run-up to production to create new molds for actor Wayne Pygram, so they had to wing it by othe rmeans. The result is that he looks thoroughly different, and a lot less scary and authentic. It's kind of a bummer =(

[Bjorn]

Season 1 is really growing on me. We've made it through episode 9, and I'd be tempted to say that eps 8 and 9 would be required watching. 8 because it features a mothu-fuckin SPACE WIZARD!  It also sets up what looks like a pretty significant story arc for Zhaan (I don't know this for sure, as I've only ever watched a handful of episodes before). 

 

9 is interesting as it resets your expectations of the characters.  You might be starting to think that they are becoming a unified crew, or even friends, but this episode makes sure to dispel that idea. 

[seamus2389]

Both the av club and Tor.com have pretty good rewatches of the shows that are worth a read

 

http://www.avclub.com/tv/farscape/

 

http://www.tor.com/features/series/farscape-rewatch-on-torcom