I will die on this hill.

Okay, yes, in the first five minutes of the first episode, we have annoying sideburns and a lengthy boring conversation by two of the most American dudes who have ever lived. The episode gets much better after John goes off on his little adventure.

Almost all of the animation is dated. The puppets look cool but they're clearly puppets.

John Crichton can be annoying. He is basically the smart jock, which is kind of an interesting combination. He can barely open his mouth without referencing pop culture. Yes, Farscape influenced Guardians of the Galaxy.

D'Argo is just a Klingon. The actor definitely eases into the role though as the show progresses.

Toward the end of the series, the show pulls a Jon Stewart and basically just uses magical powers to make everyone see the other side and get along. This is ridiculous. (Yes, they weren't allowed to finish the show because the SciFi channel was in the process of becoming like the discount HGTV or whatever at the time.)

The show struggles at times to not be just Star Trek with sex.

The show misses opportunities for social commentary, which are abundant when your story is basically about a bunch of criminals getting chased across the galaxy by imperialists (who are called Peacekeepers!). There's a lot of strong female leads but some misogyny as well. I could have sworn that the anarchist plant Zhaan said at some point that she has no gender, but I can't find any reference to that.

Almost everyone is Australian or a Kiwi.

All this being said, it's a great, fun, entertaining, and visually rich show, and worth checking out. Plus, if you really get into it, everyone, even people obsessed with Star Trek, will think you're a nerd.

Sorry I put this in c/movies, since there's no c/television.

I will not regret posting this.

  • AFineWayToDie [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Farscape was a refreshing change from Star Trek in how it didn't take itself too seriously. It's interesting having aliens that are truly alien , but using puppets allows the actors to still interact with them, and give a more convincing performance.

    My favourite part of the show is how it didn't really feel the need to stop and explain everything to the viewer. Like, Crichton steps into a time blip and it creates evolved and de-evolved versions of him, and we don't need a Star-Trek style technobabble scene about what happened and why. Farscape was aimed at long-time sci-fi fans who'd understand this sort of thing because we'd seen it a dozen times already, which was refreshing.

  • Hoyt [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    The thing I really like about Farscape is that after the first two seasons, it really felt like the plot was always moving somewhere. Five seasons of great serialized storytelling that never felt like it was spinning its wheels like The Walking Dead did. But I do have to give a shoutout to the Farscape parody that was on Stargate : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCNDdlCo4rA made even better because both of the leads of Farscape went to Stargate

  • bayezid [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    At the time the Puppets seemed too silly. Now I realise that it fostered a creativity that CGI can't match.

    • duderium [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      lol yes except I have never been able to talk about Farscape for that long with anyone in person or even online. I never got into SG-1 but I honestly liked the movie despite its many many many faults.

      edit: that guy makes a lot of interesting points about Farscape too

    • Cummunism [they/them, he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      i also thought of this first. And i do like Stargate more until the main guy left. Its a cool show, you just have to ignore how peaceful they are trying to be with other planets. Like that shit would happen. We'd just be sending nukes through that thing if it existed.

      • Leon_Grotsky [comrade/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        I really liked the tone it sets of "Humans dipping their toes into the void and ending up in way over their head" especially in SG-1, you don't get this too often from sci-fi settings from my experience.

        I am less fond of the other stargate shows because they progressively lean further and further away from this sentiment.

        • duderium [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          A novel of mine with this premise just got published. If you’d like an amazon link PM me.

        • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Atlantis was alright for a bit until they just started mcguffining their way out of everything.

          "Oh look! A secret button that solves all our problems!"

        • Mardoniush [she/her]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Even towards the end of SG1 it was like "we have our own battlefleet now"

      • duderium [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Pretty sure Stargate the movie ends with the Americans nuking the aliens.

  • Mardoniush [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I do like Crichton as the prime example of the sort of "dumb smart person" you need to be to make it as an astronaut.

  • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Almost everyone is Australian or a Kiwi.

    I consider this by itself enough to classify Farscape as dystopian Sci fi.

  • Frank [he/him, he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Isn't Star Trek with Sex basically just Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism? I would watch the hell out of that show. Like the L-word but they're on an research outpost studying a black hole or something.