A Final Farewell to Farscape

Yes, I know the series ended a few years ago, but this year is the very last Farscape Convention. The Farscape site run by the Henson Company still lists webisodes as "In Production", but the absence of some of the key cast members (namely Anthony Simcoe, Gigi Edgley, and Claudia Black) at this final convention doesn't really bode well. Even Ben Browder will only be appearing for one day.

I actually miss Farscape. It was an extremely well done series and, in my opinion, far outshines most of the other Sci-Fi series we have seen, including Star Trek. The characters were so much more rich and well-developed than in most Sci-Fi series.

If you are a Sci-Fi fan and haven't seen this series before, I highly recommend. All four of the regular seasons are available on Netflix streaming. What would have been the fifth, and final, season of the show, had it not been cut short, was later released as a mini-series, "The Peacekeeper Wars". It was abbreviated to make it fit into a mini-series format, and is not available through Netflix streaming, but is available on DVD.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frosty_Femme I said "ur" which is not a word. It's a sound dumb people make when you ask them to spell out "you are".

They were still having conventions for it? Huh.

The show was good, but I wouldn't call it better than Star Trek myself. I'd call it different. The show's take on alien physiology was definitely superior, though (but then what isn't superior to bumpy foreheads?)

I felt the show ended at a good time. The last season was, IMVHO, not good at all compared to what came before it. And at times there was a bit too much conflict between the shipmates, making me feel like there was no one to root for. Only at times, though.

The mini-series that capped the show off was really good.

WARNING: I bold names.

I dunno, to some extent it was the conflict between the characters that made the show more interesting. It gave the characters more depth, in my opinion, than what you typically see in a Sci-Fi series. Babylon 5 was a good series for this same reason.

Don't get me wrong, there were times when I definitely think the story moved in the wrong direction and made me go, "What? No. I can't quite see the crew of Moya doing that." Such as the whole befriending Scorpius thing. Okay, he saved Aeryn, and I know they are grateful, and they probably wouldn't just execute him, but I can't see them keeping him around either. I can much easier see them doing something like, "Thanks a lot Scorpi! Now, where can we drop you off?" There was just way too much bad blood there. I also think they dragged the whole "Neural Clone" thing out for a bit too long, but that's just me.

Also, like you, I think the 4th season was definitely inferior to the seasons before it. I didn't really care for Sikozu and couldn't really see why the rest of the crew even kept her around. The way they introduced Noranti was also a bit...off, even for Farscape. She just sort of appeared at the end of Season 3 and they never really clarified where she came from. On a few occasions, the crew even ask where she came from, and no answer is ever really given. You assume she was on the Scorpius' Peacekeeper Command Ship, but beyond that...nothing. Even that is questionable as even the Peacekeepers don't really seem to know anything about her.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frosty_Femme I said "ur" which is not a word. It's a sound dumb people make when you ask them to spell out "you are".

I guess it's a testament to its first few seasons that they could still keep a whole convention dedicated to just Farscape going this long after the end. I enjoyed Farscape for what it was. It brought some interesting sci-fi concepts and stories to the table and it definitely deserves to be mentioned along with other shows like Babylon 5 and Star Trek. The best episodes of Farscape were better than much of Star Trek for instance.

But sadly the series did in fact spiral off into the weeds after the third season. I think it tried to keep outdoing itself with the "quaint weirdness" that in moderate doses made the first few seasons enjoyable. The storyline simply couldn't keep up and it lost its way. If you can overlook the unfortunate ending to the series the first few seasons are definitely worth seeing. The strength of the characters and initial stories are obviously strong enough to ensure that there will always be a following for it.

I think part of the issue started with the death of Zhaan. She was the medic, a fairly critical role to fill, and when her character was killed off they had to come up with something to fill that void. They added Jool for a bit, and then when she is finally starting to bond with the rest of the crew and stop acting like a princess, they write her character out and give us Sikozu and Norandi.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frosty_Femme I said "ur" which is not a word. It's a sound dumb people make when you ask them to spell out "you are".

As far as I'm concerned the last Farscape convention was in 2003, in Chicago. That was the fourth and final Scapercon. Though the last one I attended was in 2002 in Cincinnati.


Now get off my lawn.

Doesn't far scape still have a comic >.>

Yep. The Boom! Studios Farscape comic, written/directed by series co-creator Rockne S. O'Bannon is still in production. Like most series transfers to a different medium YMMV on how well it works for you. I think it started off well, but was put off by all the different one-shots and mini-series comics which they surrounded the primary series.

I agree, the whole Harvey thing went on way, way too long.

The Scarrens are some of the very best sci-fi antagonists, and the threat they represent to the Peacekeepers always added a very interesting atmosphere to the situation presented in the show. The Peacekeepers may be bad, but they are all that stands between humanity and the Scarren hordes.

WARNING: I bold names.

I never liked Farscape, but I'm sad for those of you that did like it. I miss many of the shows that didn't get a chance. I wish someone would start a 2nd Chance network or something.

I still have hard time getting a mental image of Lani Tupu (Captain Crais) doing the voice of Pilot. I did read that he said in an interview that he always had to record his lines as Pilot first, and then shoot the scenes where he was Commander Crais because Crais' voice was in a register that was so much lower, after he did those lines he couldn't reach the register to voice Pilot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frosty_Femme I said "ur" which is not a word. It's a sound dumb people make when you ask them to spell out "you are".