What's up with Farscape?

[shannon_a]

As part of our evolving Thanksgiving tradition, kimberly_nlts and I spent part of today watching a mini-marathon of SF shows--the last 2 episodes of Stargate SG-1 Season 1 and the first three episodes of Farscape season 1.

I've heard a lot of acclaim for Farscape and after seeing these first three episodes, I gotta say, "What's up with that?"


Overall Farscape reminds me a lot of Babylon Five. There's the same stilting of the plot, characters, and dialogue to serve the purpose of talking about big issues. The heavy use of CGI and of strange aliens also seems to show the Babylon Five influence.

Influence is a fine and expected thing as TV slowly evolves, but what struck me a lot more was the fact that Farscape was soooo derivative. Basically it squishes together two classic, overused SF tropes.

First, you have the man flung far across the universe who's stated goal is to get home. Can we say Lost in Space, Star Trek: Voyager, Quantum Leap, and Buck Rogers in the Twenty-Fifth Century? (The last seems the closest in flavor.)

Second we have the group of miscreants on the run from the law. This was the basis of the classic BBC show, Blake's Seven and oddly enough Farscape also has a group of seven rebels, one of whom is the ship. Hmmm ... The trope is also a part of everything from Star Wars to The Fugitive. Or, looking to more recent shows, Firefly.

After watching the first three episodes I kind of half to wonder if Farscape's only purpose is to pay homage to every science-fiction show or movie ever produced. Episode Two was E.T. with a little Starman thrown in for flavor; episode three was an alternative take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

So, for anyone with an opinion and a guilty liking for bad SF, what's the appeal? Does Farscape get a lot better down the road? Or is it just about homages? Is there a big picture I haven't seen yet, and a great episodic story?

Well, it's got one more episode to win me over for sure, since episode four is also on the DVD we rented from Reel.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I think it gets better as it goes along. The DVD ordering is different from the original airing order, and I actually prefer some of the original ordering better. As the series goes on teh characters become deeper (you get to see new aspects of them), and some of the longer running plot threads pick up. Now, its also possible that it isn't your cup of tea either. If only there was an easier way, I'd send you the dvd's from my collection to try.

-=- Matt

[shannon_a]

'Sokay, Netflix has just released DVD #3 to ship to us. The fourth episode was enough better than the first three to keep me going ...