Haven’t seen one yet, but did anyone catch that Farscape minisieries on Sci Fi channel Sunday? Aside from what seemed like a plethora of commercials and some truly improbable plot elements (even for Farscape), what were people’s thoughts.
I watched it.
Not bad, it started off rather deus ex machina but I can forgive that, they did have to explain how the pair that ended the series disintegrated managed to pop up again 
Tech quality is good, they had a few minor improvements but that is due to newer computer tricks being worked out, and I liked the costuming overall.
Can’t wait to see tonights episode=)
I never really saw the original, but liked the show enough to stay up later than I planned.
It seemed they did a decent job of filling me in on the backstory.
Is there anything they missed that would help a newbie appreciate the second half?
Hell, my husband can’t wait for tonight - to be over 
. I’m the Farscape nut in the house, and he’s only watching it to placate me. However, it got one of the highest praises from him last night, which was “This looks like it’s a theatrical release, not a tv show.”.
I’m thoroughly enjoying it. And I’ll put the rest in a spoiler box for those who have yet to see the first part:
[spoiler]Surprise, surprise - Jool returns, and I actually like her, unlike the third season, where her screaming made me want to gouge out my eardrums with a screwdriver. Then they kill her off. Good plot device, actually. And Jothy returns? I’ve been dying to see them wrap that up since the first season. I’m still hoping to see a quick cameo from Virginia Hey, but I’m not holding my breath.
Rygel’s ‘pregnancy’ was absolutely hysterical. I love how they’re playing on Aeryn’s fears of motherhood - the quick exchange with D’Argo was fantastic, and I should have recognized it for the foreshadowing it was with Jothy - and I haven’t read any spoilers for PW, so I’m assuming that Grayza’s baby will play into this somehow? And what the hell is up with Sikozu and Chiana turning into Angelina Jolie x2 when the mercenaries arrived? That was great, but I was extremely unprepared for it. And Crichton…damn, I’ve missed that t-shirt and leather pants. Day-um. [/Spoiler]
Needless to say, I am waiting with bated breath until tonight.
[Edited upon preview: Quercus, they really did do a great job with the backstory. I guess a few of the only things you really need to know that I don’t think they covered - Jothy, the kid who picked up D’Argo and Chiana out of space - D’Argo’s son, who ended up having an affair with Chiana after his dad et all rescued him from a Peacekeeper slave ship (Or was it a Scarran ship? Can someone confirm?). So things ended with them on a pretty bad note. If you’re not sure what’s going on with the ‘fantasy’ scenes, Scorpius had a chip implanted into Chrichton’s head - so now a ‘fantasy’ Scorpy appears every so often and we get treated to scenes of Crichton and his Harvey (the big pink rabbit). If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask, and we’ll try to answer them.]
Ava
I think it’s probably a good sign that the only things that bugged me were the hair and makeup changes. How the frell did Aeryn’s hair grow longer and thicker while she was in crystallized form? Don’t like Chiana’s new eyes - her eyes used to be her most expressive feature, and the most identifiable. Now they’re silly contacts. And um, did Jool eat Christina Aguilera or something?
I was also bugged by the voice changes that Chiana is once again undergoing. My goodness, woman! Pick an accent and pitch already! I really liked her breathy-sex kitten with an American accent voice. This new one is too squeaky. They also modulated another tone on top of Pilot’s voice that kept bugging me.
So, considering my only complaints are truly mundane and pointless, and that the whole family was going the happy dance when Moya starburst(ed?), I’d have to say it was successful. Then again, we’re not real strict taskmasters in this case. It could have been a four hour tour of Moya and we’d have been grinning from ear to ear.
OK, here’s a couple questions:
How did Chrichton get his wormhole power to begin with (Though if unravelling this mystery is key to enjoying the original series, don’t tell me, as I might catch it sometime. Is it on DVD yet?) ? It seems the being manifested in a business suit gave it to Chrichton, but was there some reason given?
Chrichton’s motivations seem clear: stay away from the guys hunting him, and if he can, help other people along the way. What about the rest of the crew, do they have any cross motivations? (though I doubt that there are any that matter, otherwise they probably would have been highlighted in the first half).
Are braided-beard guy and silver girl a couple? I’m not sure why else bearded guy would be upset that his son had an affair with her.
Can someone give me one more paragraph on the chip in his head? Is he just talking to an AI embedded in the chip, programmed to act like Scorpius?
Thanks, all.
You don’t want to know if you may watch the series
The rest of the original crew were all prisoners of the Peacekeepers - except for Aeryn Sun. Aeryn Sun was a peacekeeper, but found herself for various reasons, trapped into helping Crichton, which made her a traitor and enemy of the Peacekeepers.
D’Argo - framed for the murder of his Sebacean wife. The “Ka” before his name is a military title (which he doesn’t exactly deserve, in fact.)
Zhaan (no longer on the show, but we’re hoping!) - murdered her lover who was siding with the Peacekeepers in a planetary war.
**Rygel ** - I don’t know if we’re ever told why he was in prison. He was double-crossed by his cousin during a royal coup.
**Moya ** herself was captured and used by the Peacekeepers, who put basically an IUD on her to prevent her from giving birth to Talyn, her son.
Later, **Chiana ** joined them. She was a runaway from a very restrictive society who wanted to subject her to electro-shock and chemical therapy to get her to behave herself.
**Jothee ** - (D’Argo’s son) was a half Luxan, half Sebacian slave. He was freed when Crichton traded himself to Scorpius in exchange for Jothee.
**Jool ** - became a member of the gang when Crichton and the others found her a prisoner in a medical lab, frozen in cryrogenic stasis. They freed her and she joined them until they found the Arneskkans (also frozen) whom she thawed out and decided to stay with.
They were. A very cute, sweet, beauty and the beast couple. Until she started gettin’ jiggy with his son.
heh. Good luck here. OK, the chip was embedded by Scorpius to contain another Scorpius (whom Crichton refers to as “Harvey”) Harvey has some amount of access to Crichton’s thoughts and memories. Scorpius’ intent was to have Harvey root out the secret of wormhole technology, save it on the chip, which Scorpius could then remove - thus gaining the secrets. Unfortunately, it didn’t exactly work. IIRC, the chip was removed, but Harvey remained with Crichton (for reasons unknown even to Scorpius, it seemed.) Now it seems as if Scorpius has some psychic link with Harvey and can track Crichton through it. This is new, as far as I remember.
No problem. 
Quercus:
Crichton’s wormhole knowledge was a gift from the race of aliens represented by the guy in the suit. (Perhaps needless to say, they don’t actually look like guys in suits.) They gave it to him because…they felt he was worthy of the gift. More than that would spoil the episode (and yes, they’re all on DVD). His struggle to master what was a tentative initial understanding, and the intense political fallout once he wraps his head around it, is a major theme of the show’s later seasons.
D’Argo (braid-bearded guy) and Chiana (silvery Cats escapee) were a couple. Chiana has committment issues, and rather than tell D’Argo about them she had an affair with his son so as to torpedo the relationship. They seem to be getting over that little hiccup nicely, though.
Crichton/Scorpius/Harvey: Scorpius put a chip in Crichton’s head which set a ‘neural clone’ of Scorpius free inside Crichton’s consciousness. The point of this was to gather information about wormhole technology. Eventually, the chip was removed—giving Scorpius and the Peacekeepers access to some aspects of wormhole theory—but Harvey stayed, for reasons unclear even to Harvey. This has been a brilliant subplot, and given us all sorts of insight into the mind of a major villain that you’d never get from other shows. Harvey is Scorpius, ruthless and clever, but as much as he and Crichton have their friction Harvey’s continued existence depends on Crichton’s survival. So Harvey often finds himself trying to persuade Crichton that the only way keep himself and his loved ones alive is to be a little bit more ruthless and calculating. Even if that puts Harvey and Scorpius at opposite sides of the board.
How’s that?
Moving on…I’m really disappointed that the “what’s going on with Chiana’s eyes” subplot got tossed out the airlock, but there’s no way they could have made that accessible to new viewers with all the other stuff going on. I was also sorry to see Jool 2.0 get blowed up (boy, has her time on that planet done odd things to her personality)…but I’m not convinced that everything is what we’ve been led to believe on that front. I mean, c’mon, it’s Farscape. When is everything what it seems?
Yes, Chiana’s first 20 seconds of screen time was bizarre. I got the feeling that it was Gigi Edgley’s first scene of the shoot–that she was still trying to find her way into the character again. Certainly, the vocal and physical stuff she was doing there didn’t show up anywhere else in the episode.
And finally, Avabeth, as to your pining for that particular cameo: I am so with you on that one.
Man, I love this show.
“You are *ruining *my wedding.”
As you might guess, I pretty much loved it, and can’t wait for tonight. I particularly liked the explanation of where the Peacekeepers came from, and why they look human.
Oh, and for those who want to be spoiled, there is a canon story by Rockne O’Bannon that reveals the ultimate fate of many characters, including:that Jool somehow survives, and that John & Aeryn don’t name the baby . . . whatever that was
I did like one scene in particular:
Crighton is talking wormholes or something with the Scorpius in his head (Harvey I think he calls him and I think he is connected with the real Scorpius). Anyhow, he writes some stuff on the blackboard and says “give him this message”
F 
K OFF!
Interesting though how in all science fiction series, profanities and units of measure never translate.
Now wait just a microt, dren-for-brains! What the hess is all this draz talk? Either you’ve gone completely fahrbot or you just need to watch another arn or two of the best frelling non-Whedon show ever!
Oh, for frell’s sake…what the hezmana is your problem? :rolleyes:
Although, I would love to see the Buffy-bot pitted against Scorpy. That’d be a hell of a WWF match.
Ava
Dang, “hezmana”! Good one, Avabeth.
Just tryin’ to see how many I could fit in one expletive-laden rant.
You beat me to it. I’m impressed with your talent, though 
.
Picture me spending ten minutes trying to explain Farscape curse words to my husband last night. That was fun. :dubious:
Ava
For some reason, I thought this was on next week! 
:mad: :mad: :smack:
Okay folks, I’m a Farscape fan, and I’ve seen ALL of the episodes except last night.
Someone please (prettypleaseprettypleasewithsugarontop) fill me in. E-Mail or box-spoiler, I don’t care. Get me the 4-11.
Is Sci-Fi talking about an encore presentation?
Rejoice! They’re re-broadcasting Ep 1 TONIGHT before Ep 2. (7pm for the first; 9pm for second.)
It was mediocre – I had to force myself to keep watching it (during the first hour, I kept switching back and forth between it and Desperate Houswives; Farscape really paled in comparison). It was pretty much a sop to the fans to pull out one character after another and say “Look, he’s back!”
Still, that’s a step up from the steaming pile of horsecrap the show had become at the end. Only one or two obvious flights of preposterousness (the show doesn’t require a suspension of disbelief – it requires that you suspend disbelief from a gallows and led it strangle to death).
I have GOT to go to bed, but I just finished watching this and I have to get some thoughts down. In spoilers for two or three items (when can we stop using spoilers? I’m doing it out of respect for those who may not have seen it yet, but when can we stop?):
[spoiler]One word: BRILLIANT. I have been crying for the past 45 minutes, and not just teary-eyed, I have been sitting here, shoulders shaking, tears streaming down my face. That was hands-down, the best ending to a show I have ever seen. It was worth waiting almost two years for that. If they never do another Farscape ever, I can be happy with what we got. I know not all will agree, but to me, that was beautiful writing. Any show that can make me cry not just for the death of a major character, but for the sheer emotion involved in the story, deserves all the accolades I can heap on it.
D’Argo is DEAD. D’ARGO IS DEAD! I sat watching that scene in total disbelief. I can’t believe D’Argo is gone. I really expected to get through this whole thing without losing a major character. And I can’t believe it’s D’Argo.
Note to Joss Whedon - THAT is how you end a fking show. You go out with a fking bang.[/spoiler]
I’ll post more of my thoughts tomorrow, but in the meantime, my bed is calling me.
Ava
You can catch the whole thing Sunday.
Overall, I found the series mediocre but the ending was really cool. You really got a sense of the Scarrans and Peacekeepers shitting their pants.
My initial thought was that the ending would have involved killing John Crighton and friends, then decapiating them, then buring the bodies in acid and rocket fuel and then scattering the ashes into a sun and then sending the sun down a black hole thus ensuring that the show never ever has another encore.
Frankly I’m sick and tired of
“bold” and “shocking” character deaths at the ends of series
because we can all see them coming from a mile away now. Try something else to shock us. Make an effort. Put some work into it.
Also, no more Nazis, but that’s a different thread.