Return to the Uncharted Territories (Rewatching Farscape)

Cafe Society
#1

It’s been a while since I sat down and watched my Farscape DVD collection (Season 1-4 and PK Wars), and since I just discovered that Farscape is also on Netflix, I figured it’d be fun to start a “Rewatching Farscape” thread where we 'Scapers (lapsed and current) could rewatch this great, offbeat, and unique show, Farscape was killed before it’s time, may Bonnie Hammer and the rest of the “suits” of the Sci-Fi channel rot in the gullet of a Budong (after Scorpy takes then for a spin in his Aurora Chair):mad::mad: for their “Scapicide”

I figured I’d watch one (or two) eps a week and both review and reminisce about them, anyone else willing to play along is more than welcome to join me in touring the Uncharted Territories again…

So without further ado…

Season 1, Episode 1; “Pilot” (no, not the transparent purple guy, the first episode of the series)

Memorable Crichtonisms;
“Boy was Spielberg ever wrong, Close Encounters my ass”
“Don’t Move!, or I’ll fill you full of …little…yellow…bolts…of light?!?”
“Can you get me off this rock, away from these over-amped rent-a-cops?”
“There’s life out here, Dad, weird, amazing, psychotic life, and in Technicolor”

Initially the show started slow, but it had to set up the premise of the show, the relationship with his father Jack and with his cow-orker “D.K.”, but once in space, and through the Wormhole things pick up, once onboard Moya, it was nice to see the “Universal Translator” situation handled so practically (John unable to understand “D”, Blue and Sparky until he was injected with TM’s, TM’s work similar to the Babel Fish from HHGTTG)

It was also nice to have the crew of Moya NOT be all happy-happy-joy-joy-let’s-all-get-along-in-this-nice-utopia (ahem Trek ahem), and in fact dislike, hate and distrust each other, it’ll be nice to watch their relationships grow and change as the motley collection of disparate lifeforms begin to work together as a functional crew and later, friends… and more…

Remember, at the time of S1 Farscape, the other “competing” sci-fi shows were mainly Trek (Voy?/DS9) Lexx, and Bab5, IIRC

Welcome on board, my fellow travelers, pull up a bar stool and knock back a cold Fellip Nectar, or Raslak, grab a plate of Crackers (or food cubes, or Hynerian Marjules) and relive the journey of Moya and her crew with me
…I got 'dibs on Chiana though, so back the frell off :wink:

#2

I still haven’t watched quite all of it.
I got into it because there was a two hour special on sci-fi channel a number of years ago, and I thought it was awesome!
I thought it was the pilot-It was the final episode-movie-thingy, the opposite of a pilot. /facepalm

I spent too much money trying to purchase all the episodes on DVD, and now I just am going to find other ways to fill in the gap. Pretty sure I’m only through maybe the third season.
Thanks for the topic, as I will now throw in Farscape into my usual hour-before-sleep-watching-a-series-on-my-computer, as I finally finished BSG.

#3

This might make you cry. I refused to buy the show on DVD because the price was just ridiculous, Luckily, my library had the whole thing! Then some new people got the rights and put the whole thing out at a decent price late 2009.

I’ve seen all of seasons one and two and dropped the show somewhere in season three, but now that I own the series, I’m working my way through again. I’m surprised how much of the latter part of the show I caught way back when it was in re-runs on Fox.

#4

Just a heads uP, the S1 eps on Netflix are presented out of order, the second ep is actually “I E.T.”

#5

My wife and I re-watched it just over a year ago.

What an amazing show. It does not get enough credit for how amazing it is, really. The first season is probably the weakest until they visit Scorpius for the first time, but the rest is amazing.

#6

IMO, the last 4-5 eps. of S1 is where the show really hits it stride and starts to “go somewhere” with the intoduction of Scorpius during the infiltration of the Gammak Base.

I still think Scorpius is one of the bestest, most complete villain. Ever. Wayne Pygram should’ve gotten a LOTS more props for his acting than he did.

I recently (XMas holidays) re-watched select episodes (Farscape’s no exception in that they had some real stinkers every now and then, but much less so in S2 and none in S3; S4 suffers only by comparison to the paramount S3!) and rekindled my love affair with this show.

#7

My wife and I loved this show when we watched it a few years ago as well. I remember seeing it once or twice when it was running on Sci Fi and liking it, yet thinking “What the heck is this? What’s with the skunk lady and the frog puppet?” We finally saw it later in syndication and we got bounced around a bit on the seasons, but we watched most of them.

With the characters not getting along so well, it’s a great antithesis to The Next Generation where everyone seemed to get along on the Enterprise so well. That seems to be something that Ron Moore took and cranked up to 11 on BSG.

Some of it was goofy and a little over the top, but the characters were also remarkably engaging. Pilot was a puppet, but damn if you didn’t feel for that guy sometimes. Talon and Moya were also great characters, Dargo was pretty cool, and Chiana was hotter than Winona after a gunfight. I just couldn’t figure out why she was the only one from her race who walked sideways like that, though.

I remember finally seeing PK Wars after working ourselves to the end of the last season. It was good, but I wish they could have spread it out over a season, it feels like everyone is bounced around to different places too much.

I think I may have to take you up on this. I wanted to start watching these again, and now is as good of a time as ever. Whatever happened to that online series that they were supposedly working on?

#8

Agreed on that. Scorpius was a cool villain who also had a lot of personality, motivation, and a compelling backstory. Pygram was great as Scorpous and as the neural clone.

#9

The brilliant thing about Scorpy was his character arc and development, at the start he seemed totally, unabashedly evil, but as you got to know him, you started to think “maybe he’s not completely bad and irredemable” and by S4, I found myself sympathizing with him a bit

Some noteworthy eps for the supporting cast;
The way we weren’t; Pilot
Incubator; Scorpy

#10

Simple: She walked that way because it was sexy, and none of the rest of her race did because they were all repressed prudes.

#11

True, and Crais deserves a lot of credit as being a good bad guy too. Eventually(when Maldus hunts them), he fully knows that Crichton did not intend to kill his brother. Knowing this, he still wants to kill Crichton. Later, he develops a good relationship with Talyn and eventually dies with him.

And the same actor voices Pilot, too. Lani Tupu.

Pilot is especially easy to feel for when you see how they ripped out the previous Pilot and quickly installed him into Moya with great pain.

China walked that way and tilted her head that way because originally, Gigi Edgley’s contacts limited her view and she had to tilt her head around to see anything. It turned into the character’s gait, basically.

#12

I’ve never actually seen Farscape. But my friend lent me his DVD set so this would be perfect for me. I’ve intentionally not read past the first post because I’m hoping for some structure. Let’s do this for real OP - set up a more specific schedule, and we can keep in sync!

#13

The thing about Farscape is the scenario was great, the characters were awesome, the plots were terrible. Fortunately for me I love a good character-driven story, so I could note the truck-tunnels and then ignore them, but there were many many episodes where I found myself thinking “but they could just do XYZ and that problem would be solved” - and then that possibility would either never be addressed or brushed aside with a transparent figleaf.

For me the height and depth was the Season 2 story “Look at the Princess”. The inconsistencies and incoherences in the plot were monumental - and yet it has some of the best moments of the series for Aeryn, Crighton and D’Argo

[spoiler] Aeryn: It’s not you, it’s me. I don’t like you

…

D’Argo: The bad news is that you’re married and you must endure as a statue for 80 cycles on a strange world. The good news is … Chiana and I are having fantastic sex.

…

Aeryn: (with much sympathy). I know. It hurts doesn’t it.
Annoying Dude: Nggggggh!
Aeryn: You want it to stop hurting.
Annoying Dude: NggggGGGGggh!
Aeryn: Well then. Next time … HANG ON TO THE FRELLING WALL!
[/spoiler].

I finally stopped watching in Series 3 when

Zhan died and was apparently replaced by the teeth-gnashingly annoying Jool. I realised that I couldn’t bear such an enormous change for the worse, but I equally couldn’t bear it if they let yet another character come back from the dead - they were already way WAY over quota on that.

But I might possibly start again if you get so far :wink:

#14

Aspidistra, regarding Jool:

They get rid of Jool eventually. She just wasn’t working as a character. Zhaan never comes back full time, but they kind of find someone new who is nowhere near as annoying and far more interesting. Worth watching season 4 if you haven’t.

#15

Sounds good, I was thinking either doing it every Friday or every Monday, that way we have a full 7 days (if needed) to discuss/remember/argue about the episode

the format I’ll be following (more or less) is like I did in my OP, title, memorable “Crichtonisms” and then general observations/memories/likes/dislikes, etc…

Preview from the next recap;
Crichtonism;
J; This reminds me of Kansas…or Dagobah…
A; Dagobah?
J; yeah, Dagobah, where Yoda lives
A; Who’s Yoda?
J; Just a little green guy, trains warriors…

#16

What episode was it in which the crew members have exchanged bodies? Aeryn’s body has Chricton in it, and so he takes the opportunity to examine it VERY closely!

#17

I have the entire series on DVD, so I’d like in on this. I loved this series, though I hated the last 30 seconds of the series finale.

I never sympathized with Scorpius, though. Liked the character growth, but always enjoyed seeing him get stomped (when it did happen).

#18

It was “Out of their Minds”, Season 2, Episode 9, and a frelling great episode it was, the cast got each other’s mannerisms down pat…

[spoiler]I found Anthony Simcoe’s portrayal of Chiana’s-mind-in-D’argo’s-Body quite amusing, actually, Anth. did great work as “D’argo-in-Pilot” too, and John-in-Aeryn was also hillarious…

A-i-R; you are deranged
J-i-A; No, I’m a GUY, guys dream about this stuff
A-i-R; Fine, if I find you’ve done anything else with my body, I’ll break your hands, even if they are mine…[/spoiler]

#19

One of the great WTF??? moments in television history.

#20

More like “why the hell didn’t you cut that?” Then it would have been a great ending.

For those watching anew, the show was canceled after the season finale was in the can but before it was shown. This made the season finale, with a cliffhanger in the last 30 seconds, the series finale. The creator, likely pissed at being canceled, didn’t cut the last 30 seconds and the network didn’t care. This was after the sets were struck and Moya destroyed, so the follow-up TV movie (The Peacekeeper Wars) was in no way a sure thing. The worst part of the decision was that the episode and the series could have ended on a great high note as the cliffhanger was really just tagged on at the end with no build.