Farscape went off the air before TV Squad even materialized into existence. Being the prompt person I am (note the sarcasm), I finally had the chance to watch the complete series right before the new year. What struck me most about the show was its spiritualism and fantasy elements.The science behind it was crap. Even the scientist character of Jool made note of this in one of the episodes. Farscape was more of a fantasy with some scientific window dressing, much like the Star Wars movies. It speaks volumes when the central hero has the initials "J.C." like some religious icons we know.
Unfortunately, the show suffered poor ratings and its fifth season was cut short to a min-series called The Peacekeeper Wars. While the show suffered from minor character and plot inconsistencies (such as all the super-powers that Chiana seemed to acquire at certain moments), the narrative was pretty solid. In fact, it was the most well put-together science fiction show since Babylon 5 and didn't even have for the most part a single writer like that one did.
I'm sure more deep and meaningful analyses exist for this program elsewhere, as I was going for brevity. Did you watch this program while it was on? What did you think of it?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
1-02-2010 @ 5:16PM
Leroy said...
Watched it. Loved it. Wish there was more.
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1-03-2010 @ 2:57AM
ToZ said...
Watched it religiously when it aired. I really miss it :-(
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1-02-2010 @ 5:40PM
Allyson said...
I LOVE Farscape. I own the entire series and the Peacekeeper Wars. It was one of the better science fiction shows ever made in my opinion. Wish they had not cut it short as the story deserved more than the Peacekeeper Wars to wrap up the story.
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1-02-2010 @ 5:39PM
Claire said...
Caught it this summer. Watch it all in maybe a month. Yeah...science was crap but it's a space opera. And no one was watching for the science. This show was about the character drama. I highly recommend it to most people who are into space-set stories. I think it's brilliant and worth it's cult status. Though I disagree with the Christ imagery you're bringing up.
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1-03-2010 @ 6:23PM
EM said...
"No one was watching for the science..."
True. The show never let itself get bogged down in explaining scientific stuff (warp drives?) that didn't actually exist. Definitely character driven, great dialog, could go from comedy to tragedy one episode to the next (see season 3's The Choice and Revenging Angel)
Loved it, miss it and there has been nothing like it since.
1-02-2010 @ 5:42PM
Ken said...
Love the show but hate when reviewers are misinformed. The show was cancelled and we were extremely lucky to get The Peacekeeper Wars as a fitting conclusion, not as a 5th season miniseries like Torchwood.
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1-02-2010 @ 5:43PM
Lee said...
Watch the entire series last month thanks to Netflix streaming. Loved it and want more! I read they wanted to bring it back with new webisodes, but that seemed to stall.
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1-02-2010 @ 5:54PM
Allyson said...
Yes, Ken, we were lucky they decided to give us the Peacekeeper Wars...
There is a comic book available from Boom Comics
http://www.boom-studios.net/catalogsearch/result/?q=farscape&x=0&y=0
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1-02-2010 @ 6:33PM
chrissthomas said...
It has been so long since I watched it last that a rerun or two would be very welcomed. i watched most of it while it was on the air but also watched it all after the show was canceled and the peacekeeper wars were finished. It was a very great show and like all truly great sci-fi shows it must be canceled before its time.
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1-02-2010 @ 7:10PM
Raven said...
I've been a big fan for a few years now. I tend to re-watch the whole series one season at a time. It never gets old. Nor does the "science", such as it isn't, bug me. It's a love story. And so much more.
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1-02-2010 @ 7:22PM
Mike said...
Very strange you posted this. I just started watching this show over Christmas to see if it was any good and Now Love it.
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1-02-2010 @ 9:58PM
Mikey M said...
Love this show. Much better than Trek.
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1-02-2010 @ 10:05PM
jaerisk said...
Farscape is one of my favorite shows of all time. When it was canceled I didn't watch Syfi for years in protest (except for the Peacekeeper wars). The show was awesome, season one started a tad slow but season two took off and didn't slow down until stupid idiot dillweed execs at Universal dumped it.
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1-02-2010 @ 10:34PM
James Sparks said...
Great show. Never realized the "science was crap". Never realized that science fiction had to adhere to science fact. Ben Browder and Claudia Black were great together and I loved the muppets. The show was killed in it's prime.
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1-02-2010 @ 10:57PM
winfolife said...
Farscape was an hour of good sci-fi programming. The Syfy(sci-fi) board has numerous devout old and new fans of this creative show.
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1-03-2010 @ 2:42AM
RAB said...
I'm not sure why you'd feel the need to single out the science of Farscape in particular as "crap" -- really, it wasn't any more or less unrealistic than the science of any incarnation of Star Trek, Stargate, or Doctor Who. For that matter, it was a fair bit more internally consistent and logical than Star Wars ever was! There are a lot of problems with the science in television SF, but Farscape was by no means a worse offender.
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1-03-2010 @ 9:41AM
Discosis said...
Farscape was all about the mayhem, the chaotic nature of life in the uncharted territories. And god, was it fun. Season 1 did take a while to find its feet, but from the final 3 episodes onward ... wow.
Look At The Pricess, Liars Guns and Money, Die Me Dichotomy, Infinite Possibilities and Into The Lions Den are all epic episodes. Crackers Don't Matter is probably one of the most "fun" episodes of any series I've ever seen, and Different Destinations tugs at the heart strings masterfully. Unrealized Reality is brilliant (as is the rest of the trilogy it kicks off).
I don't think it's fair to dismiss the science as "crap". It's fantastic and alien and weird and out there and FUN.
The show *did* have one writer overseeing it, if not writing all the episodes - David Kemper. Seems he's mainly working on SciFi Saturday night movies at the moment (ugh, what a waste).
Scorpius remains one of the best realised scifi villains of all time (even if he did lose his teeth somewhat in season 4).
And the soundtrack was brilliant. Season 1 and a bit of 2 with Subvision's tribal, pounding score and season 2 and beyond with Guy Gross' engaging scores. The reorchestrated theme used for seasons 3+4 was brilliant. Some soundtracks are available from La La Land Records, too.
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1-03-2010 @ 2:04PM
bc said...
"And the soundtrack was brilliant."
And fun. I particularly remember one episode where Chrichton was sneaking around the ship during some crisis and Browder was humming and making little na-na-na sounds. Then I realized he was humming Chrichton's leitmotif, which the orchestra was also playing in the background.
1-03-2010 @ 11:42AM
eric f. said...
Let's not forget the brilliant, witty dialogue. I've never laughed as much with a Sci-fi show as I did with Farscape... and then at the same time it could get very serious.
It's also the only program I've ever seen where I truly thought of a Jim Henson Muppet as a real character. Rygel was hilarious.
Big Fan.
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1-03-2010 @ 1:35PM
Kat said...
Loved the show. Very good lead actors, good writing as the series went on, imaginative, creative...what more can you ask for. Good to see in continueing to find fans.
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