Farscape
- Thread starter Bluce Ree
- Start date
blazedandconfused
GateFans Noob
Farscape is one of my favorites too. It gets pretty insane in the later seasons, as much as I love one and two, three and four blow me away.
The comics follow up the story nicely, they are easy enough to find on amazon and torrent sites.
The comics follow up the story nicely, they are easy enough to find on amazon and torrent sites.
Vanb
GateFans Noob
Congratulations on finding your way to this great series. It's one of my all-time favorites. I think that I've watched all 4 seasons straight through at least 5 or 6 times by now, and I've seen some individual episodes even more than that. My favorite seasons are 2 & 4.
I think that it's probably a case where they don't want to put in the time, effort or money. I agree that the puppets on the show work much better than most CGI that I've seen. They have a much more organic feel to them, in part because the actors are able to actually put their hands on them and interact with them as real entities instead of pretending to interact with something on a green screen. However, that's much more work on the front end of production. It's faster and cheaper to just hand over footage to a CGI company to add everything afterward. The Hensons are masters of puppetry (Brian & his late father Jim). It's a real labor of love in that family, but I'm pretty sure that The Jim Henson Company does not come cheap. Original puppets have to be created. Trained and experienced puppeteers have to be kept on the payroll, and then they often hire/pay a completely separate set of people to do the voice work for the puppets.
I don't mean to ramble on, but I really appreciate all the work that went into making that show. Even if someone didn't care for the show, they at least would have to admit to the high quality of craftsmanship that was invested in creating it. I honestly don't think that we're going to see anything quite like it any time in the near future, particularly with budgets being as tight as they are for studios/production companies across the board.
Firecracker
GateFans Noob
My favourite series also. Each episode is rollicking entertainment and you have to pay attention to even throwaway lines 'cause later on they are revealed to be hugely important for the season and often the series.
Excellent series.
My favourite seasons are 3 and 4. Four because it is so complex and intriguing and three because the season long storyline was supported by brilliant writers.
Excellent series.
My favourite seasons are 3 and 4. Four because it is so complex and intriguing and three because the season long storyline was supported by brilliant writers.
R
Robbie_Rocket_Pants
Guest
So very much unlike SGU I guess. In case you haven't already been, I would like to welcome you to our humble forum Firecracker
Lilith
GateFans Noob
Welcome firecracker. Farscape is my kindva drama. Ben was so good in this series and so was Claudia.
I once read an interview with Brad Wright where he said that whilst he loved BB and CB because they were great actors, that he never really watched Farscape because of the muppets. And that is when I started to loose respect for him. Because, dude? Much as Stargate used to be awesome and I'm not arguing with that: The two shows had way less believable plotlines and rubber aliens than Farscape, where Frelling Rygel is a much better rounded character than even Rush could currently hope to be. The actors sold the **** out of their "muppet" scenes always.
Farscape does everything you said you wanted SGU to do, (realistic Americans lost in space) and does it 1000x better than you could ever hope. Even in S1, which many fans call "Farscape-Lite" has world building and situations you've never even considered putting your characters in. And yes these are characters who don't trust each other yet, who would happily kill each other if it meant and end to their current lives. but they are also compelling and amazing on screen together. Crhicton was literally Earth's "best and brightest" but couldn't even clean his teeth. And I would bet money you would ever do anything like "Terra Firma" et al where John realises his home is no longer his home and has to leave. Farscape remains one of the only "cult" shows to achieve near univeral love
Farscape does everything you said you wanted SGU to do, (realistic Americans lost in space) and does it 1000x better than you could ever hope. Even in S1, which many fans call "Farscape-Lite" has world building and situations you've never even considered putting your characters in. And yes these are characters who don't trust each other yet, who would happily kill each other if it meant and end to their current lives. but they are also compelling and amazing on screen together. Crhicton was literally Earth's "best and brightest" but couldn't even clean his teeth. And I would bet money you would ever do anything like "Terra Firma" et al where John realises his home is no longer his home and has to leave. Farscape remains one of the only "cult" shows to achieve near univeral love
I really don't remember where it's from, around the time of SG-1 S9 I think, but yes. I distinctly recall an interview where he basically rubbished Pilot and Rygel (apparently never having watched the show) because it was associated with Henson. How effing stupid can you be? Especially when you never care to explain the obvious (adorable) puppet that is Thor among many other things on your own frelling show.
I definitely agree that Farscape did all these things that BW advertised about SGU, but 100 times better. What I really hoping for is for another show like Farscape to be made, most preferably in a well recieved network than shitty syfy.
Not one show did 3-dimensional, realistic alien characters that Farscape. Some aliens in Star Trek series were kind of used as props, and this is coming from a Star Trek fan.
Not one show did 3-dimensional, realistic alien characters that Farscape. Some aliens in Star Trek series were kind of used as props, and this is coming from a Star Trek fan.
Farscape was awesome. One of the things I liked about it is it took one of the old premises from sci-fi, fantasy and adventure stories i.e. take the contemporary human and thrust them in to another in this case futuristic alien environment. That stuff dates back at least to John Carter.
Unlike the John Carter, Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers formula, John wasn't the instant hero when he showed up, he had to learn his way around. It wasn't until a few years later that he was the man wielding wormhole weapons and brokering peace through the galaxy. I call it the real story behind the legend, like the Clive Owen version of King Arthur. They didn't tell a fantasy or the later legends, they tried to tell the story as if Arthur had been a real guy.
Of course another similarity to some of the older tales was the John/Aeryn kyrumption storyline, and that dates back in sci fi at least to John Carter stories as well.
There was much to like about the show. Not liking the puppets didn't make sense to me, I thought they were well done, and well developed characters. At the time getting really different aliens was something special, and Hensons company was able to do that quite well. A nice change of pace from the bumpy headed alien formula.
Unlike the John Carter, Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers formula, John wasn't the instant hero when he showed up, he had to learn his way around. It wasn't until a few years later that he was the man wielding wormhole weapons and brokering peace through the galaxy. I call it the real story behind the legend, like the Clive Owen version of King Arthur. They didn't tell a fantasy or the later legends, they tried to tell the story as if Arthur had been a real guy.
Of course another similarity to some of the older tales was the John/Aeryn kyrumption storyline, and that dates back in sci fi at least to John Carter stories as well.
There was much to like about the show. Not liking the puppets didn't make sense to me, I thought they were well done, and well developed characters. At the time getting really different aliens was something special, and Hensons company was able to do that quite well. A nice change of pace from the bumpy headed alien formula.
Lilith
GateFans Noob
I didn't like that either or the one that Ben wrote with all the fairy tales.
stclare
Moderator & Mckay Super Fan
Yes, i think as with sga the more i like a show the more im willing to put up with elements i dont like in order to get to the bits i do like!
i would have loved more Rygel. he was a fantastic character and when he killed that bad guy who had descimated rygels kingdom it was a real "moment" for me.
Non Farscape watchers don't read, because I'm going to talk about stuff that happens. spoiler alert, et cetera.
The two Crichton situation, all part of the difference of this show when compared to others. Heh. John (temporarily) lost his girl to the loving memory of his own corpse.
Crichton had some bad luck.Another thing I liked was that time travel episode. In just about every show that does one of those the heroes fix the problem and save the day. Didn't work out for them that day. I recall them saying more than once that our plans never work.
Great show.
SciphonicStranger
Objects may be closer than they appear
I never really watched this show when it originally aired, but I just found it on NetFlix so I'm gonna give it a shot. We'll see how it goes.
I never really watched this show when it originally aired, but I just found it on NetFlix so I'm gonna give it a shot. We'll see how it goes.
Its....unique.
You will most likely like it if you give it a couple of episodes. The chemistry between Claudia Black and Ben Browder became amazing.