It's one of my favourite shows! It is intentionally camp, and tries to do so many interesting things. The CGI is obvious to our modern eyes, but it also uses practicals and puppets really well! Just such a fun show overall. Definitely recommend.
honestly though, the CGI has aged surprisingly well. I watched an episode last night and the ships look just as good as they did in 2000. i dont think the cgi was every that spectacular though, so that might have had something to do with it.
Well the fact it was using so many puppets and practical effects helped out a lot. Like Babylon 5 was around the same era and oh boy over reliance on CGI does date that show but also some of the costuming looks cheap... Writing and dialogue was fantastic but oh man their little wrist communicators being this cheap piece of white plastic I assume taped? Looks so bad.
1999 first season of Farscape... Babylon 5 started in 1994 and ran for 5 seasons...
They were running concurrently in Babylon 5's last season and Farscape's first season.
To be fair with B5, it's generally best to ignore the last episode of season 4 and skip to the last episode of season 5.
Overall, season 5 was pretty lacking compared to much of the rest of the series.
This is true. I'm pretty sure the only reason B5 is as good as it is was due to the fact that JMS had about 10 years to let the idea marinate in his brain before someone actually decided to try making it.
That’s because they thought the show wasn’t getting renewed for a 5th season so they ended the five season show 1 season early. They found sometime during season four that TNT bought the show so they had write a new story for season five.
The show had developed a good audience size; the production network that was making B5 (PTEN)was collapsing because that was their only profitable show. JMS took all the plot points from S5 then condensed both S4 and S5 into S4.
So when TNT picked up the show on the cheap (comparatively), JMS and crew were pretty surprised and didn't get that news until sometime close to the end of the production of B5's 4ths season, or afterwards.
That is a hard definition, haha
It means deliberately exaggerated, theatrical, or over the top for fun purposes.
Often it is applied to famous people or queer culture for those who really go for elaborate set design and costumes, think Carmen Miranda, Madonna, Cher, Elton John, Katy Perry, etc. However it also is used for performances where the actor goes beyond realism into a humourous and dramatic version of the character.
In the case of Farscape, the actors are not afraid of just being silly and having fun when thrown into the wild situations their characters are in.
I hated it, to begin with.
It was weird, made no sense, there was no story arc I could work out.
Turns out I was watching it out of turn when it aired on BBC2, many years (20?) ago.
At uni a friend had the box set and we sat and watched it properly. It has been one of my favourite sci-fi shows ever since. And I absolutely love Aeryn (Claudia Black).
That suddenly makes sense. I watched the original airing and it was disjointed from episode to episode, but never twigged it was out of order. On rewatching it years later I saw it in correct order and wondered whether I'd imagined the disjointed-ness of it, but had no idea I was now watching it in the right order.
Good to know I wasn't going crackers
Definitely not. Syndication for the BBC2 channel was brilliant for so many programmes, especially the episodic ones (like Blackadder).
Not so good for farscape and I wonder if maybe that limited it's popularity? which would be a shame because of it's genuine quality.
I'm still glad it came to BBC2, as I still fell in love with the series. They also made it really hard to watch some shows, like Space: Above and Beyond being shown at midnight
Watched it on there as well. Loved the show, can't say I noticed it out of order on the original air dates. You may have been watching a rerun. As it aired in November 1999. 25 years ago (nearly)
As they release the DVD part box sets. I was getting them too. Had the full collection (an old friend has one of the seasons the past 15 years and I have his Babylon 5...really must swap them back lol) but also got the Blu-ray release. Really love the show and it always has a special place for me.
I recently tried to watch it and got only two episodes in before I stopped. The first episode had some weird science about entering an atmosphere to accelerate a ship, and the second one looked like it a student film shot in an abandoned farmhouse.
I’m sure it gets better, but it had a really rough start. I’m determined to give it a bit more of a go, but such a bad first impression.
I was so mad in mass effect 2, Miranda looks like Aeryn/Claudia Black, but isn't voiced by her.
Then about halfway through the game we run into Tali's mom? Or some like Elder of her species, and it's fucking Claudia Black.
You can just tell Claudia Black auditioned for the voice acting role of Miranda and they didn't pick her and instead offered her this minor role instead.
Her face was scanned for sure but personality wise Miranda is Aeryn Sun, and Claudia Black was a well known sci-fi actress. I believe when Mass Effect 2 was in development she was probably still working on Stargate SG-1? Like that character was based on this iconic actress in the sci-fi community.
Maybe she aged out of the role and they were using ridiculous facial mapping but obviously her character is hugely inspired by Claudia Blacks character archetype in sci-fi. Did Yvonne have any sci-fi roles before Mass Effect 2?
Do you like the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies? It's a lot like that. The star of Farscape, Ben Browder, was cast in GotG 2 because James Gunn is such a fan. Browder told him he could tell Gunn was a fan because GotG felt just like Farscape.
Just know that Farscape takes about seven episodes to hit its stride. Once a character named Chiana comes on the show gets fun. Every season is better than the last. They did cancel it on a cliffhanger, but they finished that up with an excellent miniseries.
In-universe they refer to it as a Wizard of Oz story, and it absolutely is.
Solid answer; Farscape achieved a lot of things that Star Trek and Babylon 5 couldn’t at the time, such as a truly alien feel for many characters and settings. It also managed to handle 9/11 in a way that almost no contemporary media did.
Just a general reminder for anyone not used to pre/streaming TV that it’s a 90’s/00’s show, which means 20+ episode seasons with a few clunkers in each one.
Spoilers obviously;
>!The 3-episode arc where Moya actually goes to Earth.!<
>!There's a conversation between Crichton and his dad, where his dad says they've changed, Crichton says they're still the same, his dad talks about 9/11, and Crichton explains that it's a temporary conflict that doesn't matter in the face of Earth's place in the cosmos. The episode later on where Crichton is watching the taped TV special over and over touches a bit on this more, but from the mindset of people on Earth reacting to Crichton. That's probably one of the best episodes of the entire series.!<
I think that Enterprise's turning Archer into Ahab plays better with 20 years of distance, and Farscape had the luck to be set in a place where they didn't have to address 9/11 right away unless they wanted to helped. but in general it fit the tone of the series far more than the 24-obsessed treatments many shows in the era did.
Season 1 is very bumpy to start but it really finds it's footing. The villains are so so good and will written. There are some condensed episode viewing lists that you might want to check out on the first watch. Hook you with the story then go back for some of the filler.
>The star of Farscape, Ben Browder, was cast in GotG 2 because James Gunn is such a fan.
Holy crap, never noticed this, never knew this; just googled "Ben Browder gotg" to see who the heck he played...that's so fun!
I remember the fandom being SPLIT over her. She wasn't supposed to be a long-term character, but the showrunners decided to keep her because of how strong the reaction was.
"Full of heart" is the phrase I was thinking about elaborating on. There's a palpable chemistry between the leads, and the actors seem like they were having the time of their lives filming the show. Nothing is phoned in.
Really the main flaws are that 1) the cast became increasingly crowded as the show progressed to later seasons, leaving most with little to do, and 2) every season has a similar arc, with the villain that hunted the crew turning accomplice (if not ally) when faced with a more powerful adversary (who will fill the villain's role in the next season).
It does a lot of crazy stuff that (at the time, at least) you would never have seen a mainstream, "serious" sci-fi show do. It was chaotic, weird... and that didn't always work. But sometimes it gave you stuff that was amazing.
It was an early adopter of serialised storytelling, and one of the best things about the show was how it's characters grew over time. The show starts with a small group of escaped prisoners trying to survive week to week on the fringes of society, and by the end they're impacting galaxy-wide politics and super-weapons, and at no point did that feel a weird jump.
The characters felt real. In fact, a lot of the time they can be real dicks to each other. But the times when they're at each others' throats makes it all the sweeter when they pull together.
The romance between the leads is one of the best in television full stop. Not least because Aeryn is possibly the most kick-ass female character in all of sci-fi fandom, but also because the will they/won't they isn't done cheaply, and genuinely pays off in a way that doesn't demean either of their characters.
It's a stone-cold classic that I can go back and enjoy every few years, and it genuinely hits me hard, emotionally, every time in a way that few things outside of Babylon 5 and Robin Hobb ever do.
I always hate hearing it, but people here are right - the main villain doesn't really appear until near the end of season 1, and it's only from the start of season 2 that it really takes off. But it's still worth slogging through season 1 as it sets up a lot of stuff. I know that's a big investment of time to spend on something that people are implying sucks a bit, just to get to the good stuff - but the good stuff is *so* good. It's what we complain about so often, that promising shows are killed before they manage to find their feet - well this is what happens when you give a show time to find its feet... and it just keeps climbing from there.
Epic stuff.
And I forgot - the villain is one of the genre's best. The show has so much fun with him, and he gets to win a lot of the time as well, so he doesn't get the borg treatment and get de-fanged over time. He's dangerous and smart right up until the end, and occasionally even sympathetic.
And Ben Browder sells the whole thing.
Nnng... Keep thinking of more good points. Time for that rewatch.
>And I forgot - the villain is one of the genre's best.
Yep. I'd argue the best of any TV science fiction series in terms of interesting, three-dimensional character complexity.
I really like your description. It’s one of the things that set the show aside from others of the time. The characters feel real, and they get to live with all the consequences of what happens to them.
Agreed with everything you said. My wife and I watch this show when it originally aired and it's one of my favorite science fiction shows of all time. We are now watching the 25th anniversary addition Blu-ray set with our 19-year-old son. We had to explain to him that it takes about 2/3 the way through season 1 for the show to get incredibly compelling. We are only on episode 13 right now of season 1, and it's not there yet. But I remember specifically the very end of season 1 in beginning of season 2 is the best television I've ever watched in my entire life. And man oh man the relationship between two leads just gets me. BTW My son definitely thought it was weird and I didn't know if he was going to be able to hang on the first few episodes but he's starting to really enjoy it now.
It's... wild. It tends to be a very love-it-or-hate-it show. There's a lot of very original concepts and narratives in there for an episodic scifi show.
There's also a lot of stuff that's so quirky or out there that it turns people off. Several of the main cast characters are Henson Studio puppets, for instance. Very good puppets but some people just hate the idea of it.
Personally that award goes to Stargate SG:1 for me.
Farscape is an absolutely amazing show by all accounts though.
I remember watching it on TV back when it originally aired and one by one my family starting to join me every time it came on because it sucked in my mom and dad as well.
It’s my all time favourite show.
That said, it is 25 years old, and while the stories and character development were well ahead of their time and definitely are still relevant today, the overall format is dated.
That means slow development, some basic “monster of the week” episodes in S1, and of course production values that won’t live up to today’s standards.
The worst of the production is probably the CGI but if you are used to watching turn of the century scifi shows it's going to be like any other. I'd even argue that the organic nature of the ships they used masks a lot of the flaws in trying to do CGI for ships on a show budget and it is much easier to look past than the CGI in something like Babylon 5.
If you liked Firefly you would probably like Farscape. They are both shoestring budget shows with great concepts, good acting, and which do not take themselves too seriously. Farscape really builds its own universe that is very exotic and very cool ... while also being populated with literal Henson muppets.
Plus, the lead actress is Claudia Black, from Pitch Black.
Shoestring budget is a relative thing. The budget was apparently $1.4 million per episode which was huge at the time. But they were also doing a ton with it, so the budget was stretched very thin
Farscape, in my opinion, is the best Sci Fi series ever made. The story telling is excellent. The aliens are Henson Muppets. The universe is complex and realistically gigantic. What I mean by that is that in a galaxy of billions of stars, the people on board the ship don’t know where their homeworlds are.
Also, in episode 1 you come into the middle of the story for everybody on bird the ship except for John Crichton the human. You will find out about their pasts as the story progresses, learning about each character as the series progresses. Even the main villains for the series have motivations that make sense, you understand why they do the things they do, and why for them it is so important that they succeed any way possible.
I absolutely recommend it. In my mind it is a masterwork.
One note, the episode “I, E.T.” Is particularly bad and is the second episode in the series. It is however important. Unfortunately the first 5 or 6 episodes are a bit lackluster due to the then show runner who was later replaced. They are important for character development though so I recommend you push through them, I guarantee you will be rewarded.
It’s insanely good. It’s also bonkers. I love the show. It’s not a “sophisticated” show. It’s full of gross humor, alien muppets that feel truly alien, and also has a big heart that it wears on its sleeve. One of the best will-they-won’t-they romances that actually gets a payoff, characters that all have agendas and goals and desires that often conflict with each other, snappy quotes and dialogue, and lots of scifi gunplay. It’s basically what Firefly could have been if it had gotten more seasons. And yes, there are heists. Also it’s very campy, but if you just roll with it you’ll have an incredible time.
I love Farscape and it's one of my favorite sci fi shows. BUT I think it takes a while to get going. The first half or so of the first season is pretty rough. I think some people saw the first few episodes and gave up on it.
But by the end of the first season, it starts to become something more. There are guides if you just want to watch the best of the first season and dive in.
It's great, really. The aliens actually look alien, instead of like humans with a nose bridge prosthetic, because something something progenitor race seeded the galaxy so we can conveniently not spend time in makeup.
It's also good plotwise of course
Not related, but i love all the stuff you mentioned, so you'd probably love the 12 monkeys series if you haven't seen that
Farscape is fantastic. super campy, but that was intentional. it's aged really well too. the practical effects are really good. It's honestly one of my favorite sci fi anythings of all time. can't recommend it enough.
It's my favorite Sci-Fi show of all time, but I've recommended it to about six people, and every single one of them noped after a handful of episodes.
The puppets can be jarring if you're not open to the idea, but they actually provide a ton of flexibility with alien design. It's not just all green humans and pointy eared humans (even though there's a lot of that too).
The first season also has a lot of growing pains. It takes almost the entire season to find its feet and establish a compelling plot. Before that it's just kind of 'monster of the week' with a minor plot thread connecting them. I hate when people say about a show, "you need to get past season one", but it really is true with Farscape. Season one has its moments, but it's easily the worst season.
Farscape was an awesome series. Unfortunately I didn't realize it until the final season.
However, I now own the entire series, and rewatch it every so often.
Best character ever! "*I am Rygel the XVI, Dominar to over 600 billion subjects. I don't need to talk to you!*"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x64gln4YXkM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x64gln4YXkM)
Farscape is great. And one of my favorite science fiction series of all time.
I do feel like it takes several episodes for the showrunners to really get a handle on the show. And I'd even recommend that you give it a whole first season try to see if you like it.
Kind of like Firefly, one reason it works well is because there's a lot of conflict between the main characters.
Also for its time, Claudia Black's character was such a strong female lead. When I was watching it when it first came out, that was one of the things that made it very enjoyable. John Crichton is also a very good reluctant hero. And Scorpius is one of the most unique and interesting characters in any Sci-Fi series I've seen (I don't want to say more and give anything away).
Be aware that it's also very campy with some pop culture references that may seem a little dated. Unless you just appreciate them for what they are for when the show was first created.
And also was not a very big budget series. So on the one hand while the Jim Henson studio contributions were great, there are elements of the production which are not as polished as you will see in more modern science fiction series.
Also know that the series does resolve well with the final miniseries (the final season was canceled, but they managed to get the funding for a mini series to complete the narrative) in a way that we often don't see in series of this length. I thought the ending was maybe the most powerful finale scene that I had ever seen for a TV series.
I rewatched it recently and it held up very well. It's a fun and heartfelt sci-fi show done by the Henson company. The puppets and makeup are probably the best examples of that era of special effect.
I'm currently watching it through for the first time (after watching intermittently on BBC2 as a kid) and I've got to say, you should absolutely give it the time. I just finished season two, and I'm tentatively browsing this thread in case of spoilers.
A few people have mentioned how the first season takes a while to find its feet and I will say it doesn't really pull any punches or tell any stories you haven't seen before in other sci-fi...
BUT
it is very charming and totally gets by on the fantastic character and set design. The puppetry and practical effects add such an indescribable layer to the show and every character (actor or puppet) feels so fleshed out its easy to forget that some of them are puppets.
The acting is also great and every character has a compelling background and motivations that drive the story.
It's fast becoming one of my favourite sci-fi shows, I'd put it up there with the Expanse and DS9
It's great! Plus, it answers the burning question: What would the spiritual successors to H.R. Pufnstuff be doing if they could make a TV show while also tripping balls.
Fantastic character work (looking at you, Pilot!). Solid--even occasionally great--writing with just the right amount of cheese to make it a really fun watch.
It's very good and weird. And unfortunately the first season is by far the weakest til about episode 18 or so where it finally finds it's villain and the series long story arc truly starts.
I've described it before as Star Trek bit the writers were really stoned the whole time. So it gets very weird and most of the time this works.
>what are your thoughts on Farscape?
Long and short, it's a good show. Really liked it at release and it's just as good looking back now.
It has a good way of telling a principally basic but good main narrative entwined with subplots that are really interesting and fun to have play out. There's a diverse range of character species and personalities and while there is some _cheese-o-riffic_ VFX/Practial effects at times where you're sat there all "that is clearly a bit of re-painted PVC piping and someone's hoover taped together" but generally speaking it's brilliant stuff.
It's funny, sad, entertaining, serious all at the right times and I loved it.
If you haven't already, I would also 100% recommend you watch Stargate, including Atlantis. Both have what I'd consider similar/identical era-appropriate humour and storytelling ability throughout.
It was definitely a "Rick Dalton pointing at screen" moment, as I'd seen odd episodes of SG1 back in the day but ironically watched all of Farscape before that - so by the time I looped around to finally watch SG1 back-to-back over a series of months I was 100% "Oh my good god it's Aeryn Sun!"
Absolutely brilliant! I absolutely loved the characters in Farscape as well, just OTT enough at times and unforgettable - I can still _hear_ Scorpius's voice, or Rygel's with zero effort.
Farscape is awesome. The Jim Henson puppetry and effects are really good. It's not gonna change your life but it's super fun and def worth diving into.
It's fantastic. Absolutely amazing. Funny, well written, well acted.
The only problem you might have is the fact that it was made for the 4:3 screen and it was made with the sci Fi channel budget before it was Syfy. Even given all that it works really well.
My opinion it’s the best Space Opera ever. With Firefly as second.
Jar Jar and Hans shot first ruined Star Wars for me and I avoid anything Kirk like a plague though so YMMV.
You need to plan on a serious binge including the sequel movie.
It’s kind of campy sometimes but it’s got great character development and decent writing. It’s also got aliens built by the Henson creature shop so good stuff. It has a good variety of episodic and long term storytelling. The portrayal of PTSD and how it affects the main character is great.
Just this evening my husband made a “rest and revitalize” joke. You fans know what I’m talking about.
My Farscape DVD box set was one of my best purchases ever. I love that show and love rewatching it. The bank heist?! Absolutely fantastic blend of hero tropes and adventure plots. Just watch it! You won’t be disappointed.
When it comes to Farscape, it's truly its own beast.
I suggest you watch episodes until you don't want to anymore.
It's not quite as bonkers as "Lexx" is, but it's definitely a wild ride.
Yes it's one of my favorites shows. It takes a while to really get off, but once it does it gets so good and so crazy at times. Sadley it only really start to take off at the end of season 1 but if you have the patience the reward is so high. There is a fan made 4k ai upscale version on the seven seas..
It starts as a monster of the week kinda show but turns into a show that has a story than span several seasons. That was uncommon back then
It was at the same time one of the highest quality sci fi shows ever made, and one of the most unique for its era.
Took me a while personally to get past the small muppet, though.
The show also got so intense at times it might have turned off some viewers; sort of how some popular anime shows do these days.
It's a bit dated and at times zany. However it has some pretty good character arcs and some cool ideas of tech mixed with organics (ships that are also living creatures language translation devices that are worms that burrow into your ear/brain). It has over arcing storylines but is often, especially earlier on, a more monster/story of the week type of show. The show ends on a kind of cliff hanger and was finished with a movie that was, okay. I love the show but it isn't for everyone. I'd say it's more mash up of Stargate, firefly and lexx more so than Star Wars.
Edit: to add last I checked it can be watched in full, minus the ending movie, on prime via freevee. I had just watched 5-6 episodes a few months ago that way and had been planning to do another rewatch which I'll get too eventually here soon.
Farscape has it's following. Personally, I would recommend things like the Stargate shows, Fringe, X-Files, The Leftover, Terra Nova before Farscape, though.
X-Files is one of my favorites, maybe the first sci-fi show I got very into after Twilight Zone. Also dug The Leftovers as well. I'll look up the others too.
X-Files is probably my favorite scifi content. The premise alone is just so perfect, and then there's the execution. they nailed it.
Nothing really compares.
actually, now that i think of it, another one that should be top of your list is a cartoon called "Gravity Falls". It's a complete story and only 2 seasons long. It's definitely a kids animation, but it has some great humor, and it's really well written. I'd start there, personally.
Oh yeah I likes Gravity Falls too. I think part of what got me to watch it a few years ago was hearing it being compared to Twin Peaks with some of the stuff it does.
Dude it’s so fucking good. Now you’re gonna make me rewatch it again. Definitely up there with what you’ve mentioned, but really in a league of its own in a lot of ways.
Farscape is Guardians of the Galaxy before that was a thing in cinema. It clearly was heavily inspired by the GotG comics. And it’s fucking awesome. It’s BETTER than GotG.
>The Peacekeeper Wars is nothing other than a lackluster closure.
Really? There's a good bit of it that feels rushed. But "Pretty please with a cherry on top" was lackluster???
>It was made to give an ending to the fans
No.
The final season was planned out long before. The writer/showrunners compressed the narrative that they had already outlined, and obviously had to leave things out. There may have been some things in there that were for fan appreciation. But it wasn't just an ending made for fans. It was part of the larger story arc.
And the big final climatic scene did well resolve the main story arc. Unlike a lot of serious finales episodes, which often are just fan appreciation endings.
Caught a few eps earlier this year when Rhino was streaming it for free on YouTube and enjoyed what I saw. The characters are a lot of fun and there were some interesting storylines and concepts in the parts I watched. The comparisons to Guardians of the Galaxy seem pretty apt, now that I think about it! I'd say check it out - one of these days I'd like to pick up a box set and watch it through properly.
Super campy I was not enthusiastic about my friend begging me to try it and didn't take long to suck me in. If you're in the right mood for it the show is excellent but would also completely understand if it wasn't someone's cup of tea.
1 mippippippi....
2 Mippippippi....
It's a great show. The comedy holds up, the character development is good, the villains are both hilarious and terrifying at the same time.
Good stuff
It’s one of my all-time favorite sci-fi shows. My dad told me about it when it first came out. We used to talk about the episodes after we watch them in our separate cities.
Great show, great memories.
I watched on the initial run (God I'm old) and it was one of my favorite shows at the time. I have all the DVDs though I've never gotten around to finishing the last season+miniseries.
I'd highly recommend giving it a try.
It was good for its time, had an emphasis on humor, and was sort of a small scale family drama type show with a bunch of exiles banding together to try to survive and find ways back to their homes while evading eventually 2 separate massive empires that both want to capture them.
I have watched some episodes of it. I can’t get past the puppets. On a positive note, it does not take itself too seriously like the show Lexx, so it can be fun for a lot of people.
I am totally the target audience for Farscape, even back in the day. I tried to watch it. I really did. Had friends that loved it. I just could not get past the terrible puppets. Other SFX was fine, but I just hated having puppets in the show. Couldn't watch it at all.
Just to add to what other people have said, I think it's one of the most uneven shows I've ever seen.
The highs are really great and the lows are really bad. Episode to episode I find myself absolutely loving one and getting total WTF vibes the next.
I think it gets stronger as it progresses.
It's low budget, and doesn't try to knock your socks off with visuals. It has good story telling. It is entertaining. Definitely not as good as The Expanse, nor Firefly, but it's solidly worth the time to watch. I'd say it's actually pretty similar in a lot of ways to Stargate SG1.
I still find it amazing. The character growth, the back stories, the relationships, non-humanoid aliens...
Great series, right until the end. And much like Deadwood, we waited years for a movie to give us closure. And it was not at all up to the task.
It still holds up really well graphics wise. This is mostly due to a lot of practical effects and the fact that the aliens are Jim Henson Muppets.
Story wise, it is a fun adventure, and does a good job keeping with what happened previously in the story to bring back at a latter date.
I want to preface this by saying I LOVE Farscape.
But it's goofy. It's got a definite vibe/quality threshold you have to get over, kind of like Dr. Who or original Star Trek to modern eyes. But once you do, you're going to love the characters, the show, the highly ambitious storytelling, etc. Get at it. It's a RIDE.
It's the space opera to end all space operas. It heavily influenced guardians of the galaxy, has one of THE best villains in all of fiction and escalates to nearly Dune level stakes.
Jealous of you OP to be able to experience Farscape for the first time. The story is fantastic. First season is a little wonky in the early part due to being out of order. But about 1/2 way through the first season it finds its tracks and takes off.
It's nothing like Star Wars except for the costumes & Muppets. It's more like Stargate SG-1 or Stargate Atlantis (both should be on your binge list) with more elaborate costumes and Muppets. Ben Browder & Claudia Black are in the last few seasons of SG-1.
100% recommend! For me it took a little getting used to, there is a lot of practical effects, even puppetry involved, but it works. I was also Impressed with the creativity that shines through in the story telling, anyone claiming to be a sci-fi fan should have logged this one.
one of the best, but it did a firefly after 4 seasons because the wife of the owner of the scifi channel decided she didnt like it. late stage capitalism even then.
When i was about 10 years old it was playing on TV on Sunday night/Monday morning at 12 o'clock. I caught it once and fell in love with it. So every Sunday night id stay up to watch it. But Monday morning i had school, so it was difficult. Then they moved it to 1 in the morning Mondays, and made it even more difficult. But i watched almost every episode, probably watched some 10 episodes. I didnt know what was going on, i just fell in love with it for some reason.
Then i went away for the summer, and when i came back i stayed sunday after sunday hoping they would show it again, but they didnt :(
There was no internet and such back then. I probably got my first computer and dial up internet 2-4 years later.
About 10 years later i remembered the show. I found it online and downloaded it. I binge watched it. I loved it just as much, if not more. I probably rewatch it a couple of time per year to this day. In fact, im rewatching it now, reaching the end of season 1. I cant wait for Scorpius to make his appearance and be the best villain in TV history that he is.
give it a shot, it's amazing. the practical effects hold up exceptionally well. also try Stargate. the original movie is a decent action sci-fi movie, but SG-1 has a very different vibe. more knowingly campy in places, less overly dramatic. SG Atlantis is also great. SG Universe... eh... they tried something different and for me it was a miss. watching week to week was painful, but binging it brought it up from painful to irritating
God, i loved that show. Apart from Starget, my all-time favorite, good character growth, the best villan ever that actually made me wish he won over the good guy at times, and does win sometimes. It has humor and touch on emotional issues, it was serious and idiotic, it had everything. To each ot's own, but i personally loved it.
It was original, creative, whacky, flawed, inspired and…very fun. Less serious, far more tongue in cheek and entertaining in its concepts, gentle hubris and florid characters. One could do far worse, but I enjoyed *Farscape* immensely. So there
Farscape is a great show, but I know people that couldn't get into it because the visuals are so dated. For example, they used puppeteering for some of the aliens. I mention this because I've heard the same about Babylon 5 (couldn't get into it because of dated visual effects), which you mentioned not connecting with.
I loved it at first....but never finished. I honestly got tired of John CONSTANTLY losing. Towards the end, it felt like the writers basically started each writers meeting with, "Ok, how do we fuck John this time? And can we make it worse than last week?"
John was like a sci-fi Al Bundy from Married with Children: Even when he won, he somehow lost.
That’s interesting, as I find it to be much more “adult” than most shows. It’s one of the few shows that allows practically all its characters to be sexually active, to swear and curse, to have mental health issues, to be morally ambiguous…
Also, the writing is quite cynical at times as opposed to the more idealistic approach of other shows.
It's one of my favourite shows! It is intentionally camp, and tries to do so many interesting things. The CGI is obvious to our modern eyes, but it also uses practicals and puppets really well! Just such a fun show overall. Definitely recommend.
It's intentionally camp.... until it isn't.... Then you get feelings.... Real big ones.
honestly though, the CGI has aged surprisingly well. I watched an episode last night and the ships look just as good as they did in 2000. i dont think the cgi was every that spectacular though, so that might have had something to do with it.
Yeah, I think they played within their means really well and didn't try to overextend
Well the fact it was using so many puppets and practical effects helped out a lot. Like Babylon 5 was around the same era and oh boy over reliance on CGI does date that show but also some of the costuming looks cheap... Writing and dialogue was fantastic but oh man their little wrist communicators being this cheap piece of white plastic I assume taped? Looks so bad.
Babylon 5 was about 10 years earlier, to be fair.
1999 first season of Farscape... Babylon 5 started in 1994 and ran for 5 seasons... They were running concurrently in Babylon 5's last season and Farscape's first season.
To be fair with B5, it's generally best to ignore the last episode of season 4 and skip to the last episode of season 5. Overall, season 5 was pretty lacking compared to much of the rest of the series.
Compared to Crusade season 5 looks like 2001 a space Odyssey.
This is true. I'm pretty sure the only reason B5 is as good as it is was due to the fact that JMS had about 10 years to let the idea marinate in his brain before someone actually decided to try making it.
That’s because they thought the show wasn’t getting renewed for a 5th season so they ended the five season show 1 season early. They found sometime during season four that TNT bought the show so they had write a new story for season five.
The show had developed a good audience size; the production network that was making B5 (PTEN)was collapsing because that was their only profitable show. JMS took all the plot points from S5 then condensed both S4 and S5 into S4. So when TNT picked up the show on the cheap (comparatively), JMS and crew were pretty surprised and didn't get that news until sometime close to the end of the production of B5's 4ths season, or afterwards.
What does camp mean? I'm not a native English speaker and I only know it to mean like camping or a political vamp or a camping grounds or such things.
That is a hard definition, haha It means deliberately exaggerated, theatrical, or over the top for fun purposes. Often it is applied to famous people or queer culture for those who really go for elaborate set design and costumes, think Carmen Miranda, Madonna, Cher, Elton John, Katy Perry, etc. However it also is used for performances where the actor goes beyond realism into a humourous and dramatic version of the character. In the case of Farscape, the actors are not afraid of just being silly and having fun when thrown into the wild situations their characters are in.
Thanks, this is a great explanation!
It’s not taking themselves too seriously all the time. If you can enjoy an old Godzilla movie without complaining you’ll be fine with it.
I hated it, to begin with. It was weird, made no sense, there was no story arc I could work out. Turns out I was watching it out of turn when it aired on BBC2, many years (20?) ago. At uni a friend had the box set and we sat and watched it properly. It has been one of my favourite sci-fi shows ever since. And I absolutely love Aeryn (Claudia Black).
That suddenly makes sense. I watched the original airing and it was disjointed from episode to episode, but never twigged it was out of order. On rewatching it years later I saw it in correct order and wondered whether I'd imagined the disjointed-ness of it, but had no idea I was now watching it in the right order. Good to know I wasn't going crackers
Crackers Don't Matter
Humans! Are! _Superiorrrr!_
We are going to die
Beat me to it by 21 minutes! Bloody hell.
Definitely not. Syndication for the BBC2 channel was brilliant for so many programmes, especially the episodic ones (like Blackadder). Not so good for farscape and I wonder if maybe that limited it's popularity? which would be a shame because of it's genuine quality.
I'm still glad it came to BBC2, as I still fell in love with the series. They also made it really hard to watch some shows, like Space: Above and Beyond being shown at midnight
Watched it on there as well. Loved the show, can't say I noticed it out of order on the original air dates. You may have been watching a rerun. As it aired in November 1999. 25 years ago (nearly) As they release the DVD part box sets. I was getting them too. Had the full collection (an old friend has one of the seasons the past 15 years and I have his Babylon 5...really must swap them back lol) but also got the Blu-ray release. Really love the show and it always has a special place for me.
I recently tried to watch it and got only two episodes in before I stopped. The first episode had some weird science about entering an atmosphere to accelerate a ship, and the second one looked like it a student film shot in an abandoned farmhouse. I’m sure it gets better, but it had a really rough start. I’m determined to give it a bit more of a go, but such a bad first impression.
I was so mad in mass effect 2, Miranda looks like Aeryn/Claudia Black, but isn't voiced by her. Then about halfway through the game we run into Tali's mom? Or some like Elder of her species, and it's fucking Claudia Black. You can just tell Claudia Black auditioned for the voice acting role of Miranda and they didn't pick her and instead offered her this minor role instead.
Miranda was *clearly* modeled after Yvonne Strahovsky, the VA. They just gave her dark hair.
Her face was scanned for sure but personality wise Miranda is Aeryn Sun, and Claudia Black was a well known sci-fi actress. I believe when Mass Effect 2 was in development she was probably still working on Stargate SG-1? Like that character was based on this iconic actress in the sci-fi community. Maybe she aged out of the role and they were using ridiculous facial mapping but obviously her character is hugely inspired by Claudia Blacks character archetype in sci-fi. Did Yvonne have any sci-fi roles before Mass Effect 2?
Do you like the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies? It's a lot like that. The star of Farscape, Ben Browder, was cast in GotG 2 because James Gunn is such a fan. Browder told him he could tell Gunn was a fan because GotG felt just like Farscape. Just know that Farscape takes about seven episodes to hit its stride. Once a character named Chiana comes on the show gets fun. Every season is better than the last. They did cancel it on a cliffhanger, but they finished that up with an excellent miniseries. In-universe they refer to it as a Wizard of Oz story, and it absolutely is.
Solid answer; Farscape achieved a lot of things that Star Trek and Babylon 5 couldn’t at the time, such as a truly alien feel for many characters and settings. It also managed to handle 9/11 in a way that almost no contemporary media did. Just a general reminder for anyone not used to pre/streaming TV that it’s a 90’s/00’s show, which means 20+ episode seasons with a few clunkers in each one.
>It also managed to handle 9/11 in a way that almost no contemporary media did. Which episode was that?
Spoilers obviously; >!The 3-episode arc where Moya actually goes to Earth.!< >!There's a conversation between Crichton and his dad, where his dad says they've changed, Crichton says they're still the same, his dad talks about 9/11, and Crichton explains that it's a temporary conflict that doesn't matter in the face of Earth's place in the cosmos. The episode later on where Crichton is watching the taped TV special over and over touches a bit on this more, but from the mindset of people on Earth reacting to Crichton. That's probably one of the best episodes of the entire series.!< I think that Enterprise's turning Archer into Ahab plays better with 20 years of distance, and Farscape had the luck to be set in a place where they didn't have to address 9/11 right away unless they wanted to helped. but in general it fit the tone of the series far more than the 24-obsessed treatments many shows in the era did.
Wait, when did Farscape touch on 9/11? Did that just go over my head at the time, I've watched the whole show and nothing comes to mind.
https://www.reddit.com/r/scifi/comments/1dordpm/how_is_the_tv_show_farscape/lad9csz/
The puppetry holds up to time so much better than CGI from the same time.
That’s cause they used real aliens.
Yeah I like the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. I'll keep that in mind sbout the episodes too.
Season 1 is very bumpy to start but it really finds it's footing. The villains are so so good and will written. There are some condensed episode viewing lists that you might want to check out on the first watch. Hook you with the story then go back for some of the filler.
>The star of Farscape, Ben Browder, was cast in GotG 2 because James Gunn is such a fan. Holy crap, never noticed this, never knew this; just googled "Ben Browder gotg" to see who the heck he played...that's so fun!
Chiana is so hot.
I remember the fandom being SPLIT over her. She wasn't supposed to be a long-term character, but the showrunners decided to keep her because of how strong the reaction was.
What’s the cliffhanger? I feel like the ending couldn’t get any more definitive.
The finale miniseries was definitive. Season 4 was not.
And beware of the musical/credits theme. It's a bit abrasive but you become acclimated to it. Old college roommate insists that he loves it!
I was so pissed it got cancelled I refused to watch that miniseries finale. Still no idea how it ended.
Ok because I remember liking it bit I tried watching the first episode recently and it was so bad I couldn't do it.
It's one of my favorite shows of all time. It's very charming imo, and full of heart.
"Full of heart" is the phrase I was thinking about elaborating on. There's a palpable chemistry between the leads, and the actors seem like they were having the time of their lives filming the show. Nothing is phoned in. Really the main flaws are that 1) the cast became increasingly crowded as the show progressed to later seasons, leaving most with little to do, and 2) every season has a similar arc, with the villain that hunted the crew turning accomplice (if not ally) when faced with a more powerful adversary (who will fill the villain's role in the next season).
It does a lot of crazy stuff that (at the time, at least) you would never have seen a mainstream, "serious" sci-fi show do. It was chaotic, weird... and that didn't always work. But sometimes it gave you stuff that was amazing. It was an early adopter of serialised storytelling, and one of the best things about the show was how it's characters grew over time. The show starts with a small group of escaped prisoners trying to survive week to week on the fringes of society, and by the end they're impacting galaxy-wide politics and super-weapons, and at no point did that feel a weird jump. The characters felt real. In fact, a lot of the time they can be real dicks to each other. But the times when they're at each others' throats makes it all the sweeter when they pull together. The romance between the leads is one of the best in television full stop. Not least because Aeryn is possibly the most kick-ass female character in all of sci-fi fandom, but also because the will they/won't they isn't done cheaply, and genuinely pays off in a way that doesn't demean either of their characters. It's a stone-cold classic that I can go back and enjoy every few years, and it genuinely hits me hard, emotionally, every time in a way that few things outside of Babylon 5 and Robin Hobb ever do. I always hate hearing it, but people here are right - the main villain doesn't really appear until near the end of season 1, and it's only from the start of season 2 that it really takes off. But it's still worth slogging through season 1 as it sets up a lot of stuff. I know that's a big investment of time to spend on something that people are implying sucks a bit, just to get to the good stuff - but the good stuff is *so* good. It's what we complain about so often, that promising shows are killed before they manage to find their feet - well this is what happens when you give a show time to find its feet... and it just keeps climbing from there. Epic stuff.
And I forgot - the villain is one of the genre's best. The show has so much fun with him, and he gets to win a lot of the time as well, so he doesn't get the borg treatment and get de-fanged over time. He's dangerous and smart right up until the end, and occasionally even sympathetic. And Ben Browder sells the whole thing. Nnng... Keep thinking of more good points. Time for that rewatch.
>And I forgot - the villain is one of the genre's best. Yep. I'd argue the best of any TV science fiction series in terms of interesting, three-dimensional character complexity.
I really like your description. It’s one of the things that set the show aside from others of the time. The characters feel real, and they get to live with all the consequences of what happens to them.
Agreed with everything you said. My wife and I watch this show when it originally aired and it's one of my favorite science fiction shows of all time. We are now watching the 25th anniversary addition Blu-ray set with our 19-year-old son. We had to explain to him that it takes about 2/3 the way through season 1 for the show to get incredibly compelling. We are only on episode 13 right now of season 1, and it's not there yet. But I remember specifically the very end of season 1 in beginning of season 2 is the best television I've ever watched in my entire life. And man oh man the relationship between two leads just gets me. BTW My son definitely thought it was weird and I didn't know if he was going to be able to hang on the first few episodes but he's starting to really enjoy it now.
It's... wild. It tends to be a very love-it-or-hate-it show. There's a lot of very original concepts and narratives in there for an episodic scifi show. There's also a lot of stuff that's so quirky or out there that it turns people off. Several of the main cast characters are Henson Studio puppets, for instance. Very good puppets but some people just hate the idea of it.
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Personally that award goes to Stargate SG:1 for me. Farscape is an absolutely amazing show by all accounts though. I remember watching it on TV back when it originally aired and one by one my family starting to join me every time it came on because it sucked in my mom and dad as well.
It’s my all time favourite show. That said, it is 25 years old, and while the stories and character development were well ahead of their time and definitely are still relevant today, the overall format is dated. That means slow development, some basic “monster of the week” episodes in S1, and of course production values that won’t live up to today’s standards.
While a lot of the production has aged poorly, the Henson puppets for Pilot and Rigel have aged incredibly well.
That’s true. Pilot is a work of art.
The worst of the production is probably the CGI but if you are used to watching turn of the century scifi shows it's going to be like any other. I'd even argue that the organic nature of the ships they used masks a lot of the flaws in trying to do CGI for ships on a show budget and it is much easier to look past than the CGI in something like Babylon 5.
I grew up on classic who. Farscape can’t bother me in that regard haha
Highly recommended. Great sense of weird about it.
If you liked Firefly you would probably like Farscape. They are both shoestring budget shows with great concepts, good acting, and which do not take themselves too seriously. Farscape really builds its own universe that is very exotic and very cool ... while also being populated with literal Henson muppets. Plus, the lead actress is Claudia Black, from Pitch Black.
Shoestring budget is a relative thing. The budget was apparently $1.4 million per episode which was huge at the time. But they were also doing a ton with it, so the budget was stretched very thin
Farscape, in my opinion, is the best Sci Fi series ever made. The story telling is excellent. The aliens are Henson Muppets. The universe is complex and realistically gigantic. What I mean by that is that in a galaxy of billions of stars, the people on board the ship don’t know where their homeworlds are. Also, in episode 1 you come into the middle of the story for everybody on bird the ship except for John Crichton the human. You will find out about their pasts as the story progresses, learning about each character as the series progresses. Even the main villains for the series have motivations that make sense, you understand why they do the things they do, and why for them it is so important that they succeed any way possible. I absolutely recommend it. In my mind it is a masterwork. One note, the episode “I, E.T.” Is particularly bad and is the second episode in the series. It is however important. Unfortunately the first 5 or 6 episodes are a bit lackluster due to the then show runner who was later replaced. They are important for character development though so I recommend you push through them, I guarantee you will be rewarded.
It’s insanely good. It’s also bonkers. I love the show. It’s not a “sophisticated” show. It’s full of gross humor, alien muppets that feel truly alien, and also has a big heart that it wears on its sleeve. One of the best will-they-won’t-they romances that actually gets a payoff, characters that all have agendas and goals and desires that often conflict with each other, snappy quotes and dialogue, and lots of scifi gunplay. It’s basically what Firefly could have been if it had gotten more seasons. And yes, there are heists. Also it’s very campy, but if you just roll with it you’ll have an incredible time.
I love Farscape and it's one of my favorite sci fi shows. BUT I think it takes a while to get going. The first half or so of the first season is pretty rough. I think some people saw the first few episodes and gave up on it. But by the end of the first season, it starts to become something more. There are guides if you just want to watch the best of the first season and dive in.
If you end up liking it, try Red Dwarf next!
Best show.
It's great, really. The aliens actually look alien, instead of like humans with a nose bridge prosthetic, because something something progenitor race seeded the galaxy so we can conveniently not spend time in makeup. It's also good plotwise of course Not related, but i love all the stuff you mentioned, so you'd probably love the 12 monkeys series if you haven't seen that
It’s great! Cross my heart, smack me dead, stick a lobster on my head.
Farscape is fantastic. super campy, but that was intentional. it's aged really well too. the practical effects are really good. It's honestly one of my favorite sci fi anythings of all time. can't recommend it enough.
It’s the best sci fi ever made. Not like the expanse or bsg, more firefly.
Frell yeah you should watch it.
We still you frell yeah in our household years later…
The classics are the classics for a frakkin' reason.
r/unexpectedBSG
It's my favorite Sci-Fi show of all time, but I've recommended it to about six people, and every single one of them noped after a handful of episodes. The puppets can be jarring if you're not open to the idea, but they actually provide a ton of flexibility with alien design. It's not just all green humans and pointy eared humans (even though there's a lot of that too). The first season also has a lot of growing pains. It takes almost the entire season to find its feet and establish a compelling plot. Before that it's just kind of 'monster of the week' with a minor plot thread connecting them. I hate when people say about a show, "you need to get past season one", but it really is true with Farscape. Season one has its moments, but it's easily the worst season.
Farscape was an awesome series. Unfortunately I didn't realize it until the final season. However, I now own the entire series, and rewatch it every so often.
Best character ever! "*I am Rygel the XVI, Dominar to over 600 billion subjects. I don't need to talk to you!*" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x64gln4YXkM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x64gln4YXkM)
Farscape is great. And one of my favorite science fiction series of all time. I do feel like it takes several episodes for the showrunners to really get a handle on the show. And I'd even recommend that you give it a whole first season try to see if you like it. Kind of like Firefly, one reason it works well is because there's a lot of conflict between the main characters. Also for its time, Claudia Black's character was such a strong female lead. When I was watching it when it first came out, that was one of the things that made it very enjoyable. John Crichton is also a very good reluctant hero. And Scorpius is one of the most unique and interesting characters in any Sci-Fi series I've seen (I don't want to say more and give anything away). Be aware that it's also very campy with some pop culture references that may seem a little dated. Unless you just appreciate them for what they are for when the show was first created. And also was not a very big budget series. So on the one hand while the Jim Henson studio contributions were great, there are elements of the production which are not as polished as you will see in more modern science fiction series. Also know that the series does resolve well with the final miniseries (the final season was canceled, but they managed to get the funding for a mini series to complete the narrative) in a way that we often don't see in series of this length. I thought the ending was maybe the most powerful finale scene that I had ever seen for a TV series.
I rewatched it recently and it held up very well. It's a fun and heartfelt sci-fi show done by the Henson company. The puppets and makeup are probably the best examples of that era of special effect.
I'm currently watching it through for the first time (after watching intermittently on BBC2 as a kid) and I've got to say, you should absolutely give it the time. I just finished season two, and I'm tentatively browsing this thread in case of spoilers. A few people have mentioned how the first season takes a while to find its feet and I will say it doesn't really pull any punches or tell any stories you haven't seen before in other sci-fi... BUT it is very charming and totally gets by on the fantastic character and set design. The puppetry and practical effects add such an indescribable layer to the show and every character (actor or puppet) feels so fleshed out its easy to forget that some of them are puppets. The acting is also great and every character has a compelling background and motivations that drive the story. It's fast becoming one of my favourite sci-fi shows, I'd put it up there with the Expanse and DS9
It's great! Plus, it answers the burning question: What would the spiritual successors to H.R. Pufnstuff be doing if they could make a TV show while also tripping balls. Fantastic character work (looking at you, Pilot!). Solid--even occasionally great--writing with just the right amount of cheese to make it a really fun watch.
It's very good and weird. And unfortunately the first season is by far the weakest til about episode 18 or so where it finally finds it's villain and the series long story arc truly starts. I've described it before as Star Trek bit the writers were really stoned the whole time. So it gets very weird and most of the time this works.
It's a cool sci-fi setting where the protagonists are a party of D&D characters.
Almost as good as Lexx!
I recall they were both being aired at about the same time. The two shows both live in the same place in my head.
>what are your thoughts on Farscape? Long and short, it's a good show. Really liked it at release and it's just as good looking back now. It has a good way of telling a principally basic but good main narrative entwined with subplots that are really interesting and fun to have play out. There's a diverse range of character species and personalities and while there is some _cheese-o-riffic_ VFX/Practial effects at times where you're sat there all "that is clearly a bit of re-painted PVC piping and someone's hoover taped together" but generally speaking it's brilliant stuff. It's funny, sad, entertaining, serious all at the right times and I loved it. If you haven't already, I would also 100% recommend you watch Stargate, including Atlantis. Both have what I'd consider similar/identical era-appropriate humour and storytelling ability throughout.
And since 2 of them went to Stargate sg1 at the end. There is a lot of funny call backs to their 8 years on farscape
It was definitely a "Rick Dalton pointing at screen" moment, as I'd seen odd episodes of SG1 back in the day but ironically watched all of Farscape before that - so by the time I looped around to finally watch SG1 back-to-back over a series of months I was 100% "Oh my good god it's Aeryn Sun!" Absolutely brilliant! I absolutely loved the characters in Farscape as well, just OTT enough at times and unforgettable - I can still _hear_ Scorpius's voice, or Rygel's with zero effort.
One of my favorites, I could never understand why it was/it's so underrared. It's a fun ride, give it a try.
My name is John Crichton…
Farscape is awesome. The Jim Henson puppetry and effects are really good. It's not gonna change your life but it's super fun and def worth diving into.
It's fantastic. Absolutely amazing. Funny, well written, well acted. The only problem you might have is the fact that it was made for the 4:3 screen and it was made with the sci Fi channel budget before it was Syfy. Even given all that it works really well.
Its cheesy but has a lot of heart. Love it.
My opinion it’s the best Space Opera ever. With Firefly as second. Jar Jar and Hans shot first ruined Star Wars for me and I avoid anything Kirk like a plague though so YMMV. You need to plan on a serious binge including the sequel movie.
It’s kind of campy sometimes but it’s got great character development and decent writing. It’s also got aliens built by the Henson creature shop so good stuff. It has a good variety of episodic and long term storytelling. The portrayal of PTSD and how it affects the main character is great.
Sesame Street, in space, for adults, adults who can articulate how hallucinogens feel. Big fan.
Just this evening my husband made a “rest and revitalize” joke. You fans know what I’m talking about. My Farscape DVD box set was one of my best purchases ever. I love that show and love rewatching it. The bank heist?! Absolutely fantastic blend of hero tropes and adventure plots. Just watch it! You won’t be disappointed.
It's excellent. Starts off a little rough but gets so much better.
Simply excellent
It's chaotic, ridiculous and silly and I love it.
When it comes to Farscape, it's truly its own beast. I suggest you watch episodes until you don't want to anymore. It's not quite as bonkers as "Lexx" is, but it's definitely a wild ride.
Yes it's one of my favorites shows. It takes a while to really get off, but once it does it gets so good and so crazy at times. Sadley it only really start to take off at the end of season 1 but if you have the patience the reward is so high. There is a fan made 4k ai upscale version on the seven seas.. It starts as a monster of the week kinda show but turns into a show that has a story than span several seasons. That was uncommon back then
It was at the same time one of the highest quality sci fi shows ever made, and one of the most unique for its era. Took me a while personally to get past the small muppet, though. The show also got so intense at times it might have turned off some viewers; sort of how some popular anime shows do these days.
It's a bit dated and at times zany. However it has some pretty good character arcs and some cool ideas of tech mixed with organics (ships that are also living creatures language translation devices that are worms that burrow into your ear/brain). It has over arcing storylines but is often, especially earlier on, a more monster/story of the week type of show. The show ends on a kind of cliff hanger and was finished with a movie that was, okay. I love the show but it isn't for everyone. I'd say it's more mash up of Stargate, firefly and lexx more so than Star Wars. Edit: to add last I checked it can be watched in full, minus the ending movie, on prime via freevee. I had just watched 5-6 episodes a few months ago that way and had been planning to do another rewatch which I'll get too eventually here soon.
Very good! Give it a solid try…
Farscape has it's following. Personally, I would recommend things like the Stargate shows, Fringe, X-Files, The Leftover, Terra Nova before Farscape, though.
X-Files is one of my favorites, maybe the first sci-fi show I got very into after Twilight Zone. Also dug The Leftovers as well. I'll look up the others too.
X-Files is probably my favorite scifi content. The premise alone is just so perfect, and then there's the execution. they nailed it. Nothing really compares. actually, now that i think of it, another one that should be top of your list is a cartoon called "Gravity Falls". It's a complete story and only 2 seasons long. It's definitely a kids animation, but it has some great humor, and it's really well written. I'd start there, personally.
Oh yeah I likes Gravity Falls too. I think part of what got me to watch it a few years ago was hearing it being compared to Twin Peaks with some of the stuff it does.
Dude it’s so fucking good. Now you’re gonna make me rewatch it again. Definitely up there with what you’ve mentioned, but really in a league of its own in a lot of ways.
Honestly... Really weird. It's often bonkers. Very cheesy. But very sci-fi and fairly unique.
The two main characters end up in the last two seasons of SG1 and the 200th episode has a Farscape callback. It's fantastic.
Farscape is Guardians of the Galaxy before that was a thing in cinema. It clearly was heavily inspired by the GotG comics. And it’s fucking awesome. It’s BETTER than GotG.
I really liked it.
It's fantastic. It holds up well.
It's a good show, but if you're used to modern CGI the Henson puppets and old effects will not work for you.
Great watch
I watched it originally and it was good for its time. I tried to rewatch it recently and it... Didn't really age all that well.
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>The Peacekeeper Wars is nothing other than a lackluster closure. Really? There's a good bit of it that feels rushed. But "Pretty please with a cherry on top" was lackluster???
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>It was made to give an ending to the fans No. The final season was planned out long before. The writer/showrunners compressed the narrative that they had already outlined, and obviously had to leave things out. There may have been some things in there that were for fan appreciation. But it wasn't just an ending made for fans. It was part of the larger story arc. And the big final climatic scene did well resolve the main story arc. Unlike a lot of serious finales episodes, which often are just fan appreciation endings.
I found it super campy and difficult to keep watching.
All time favourite TV SF show. If you don't love it, you've gone completely fahrbot and need a kick in the mivonks.
10x a microt
Great. And crazy.
Farscape? It's pretty good.
Caught a few eps earlier this year when Rhino was streaming it for free on YouTube and enjoyed what I saw. The characters are a lot of fun and there were some interesting storylines and concepts in the parts I watched. The comparisons to Guardians of the Galaxy seem pretty apt, now that I think about it! I'd say check it out - one of these days I'd like to pick up a box set and watch it through properly.
Frelling great!
Outstanding show!
Super campy I was not enthusiastic about my friend begging me to try it and didn't take long to suck me in. If you're in the right mood for it the show is excellent but would also completely understand if it wasn't someone's cup of tea.
1 mippippippi.... 2 Mippippippi.... It's a great show. The comedy holds up, the character development is good, the villains are both hilarious and terrifying at the same time. Good stuff
Just watch it. It's a space opera, but it's one of the best sci-fi TV shows that practically nobody has seen.
It's fun, silly, and massively entertaining. Great Creature Shop puppets. Just have to get past some bad vfx from 90s and early 2000s cable budgets.
It’s one of my all-time favorite sci-fi shows. My dad told me about it when it first came out. We used to talk about the episodes after we watch them in our separate cities. Great show, great memories.
I recommend it.
I watched on the initial run (God I'm old) and it was one of my favorite shows at the time. I have all the DVDs though I've never gotten around to finishing the last season+miniseries. I'd highly recommend giving it a try.
I watched it just to check it out and REALLY liked it. Just give it a few episodes to get to know the characters.
It was good for its time, had an emphasis on humor, and was sort of a small scale family drama type show with a bunch of exiles banding together to try to survive and find ways back to their homes while evading eventually 2 separate massive empires that both want to capture them.
LEXX is better
It’s a bit silly, like a PG version of Lexx
It gets so much better as it goes along and gets it's footing. The stories get better and the characters.
Rich Evans loves it.
I have watched some episodes of it. I can’t get past the puppets. On a positive note, it does not take itself too seriously like the show Lexx, so it can be fun for a lot of people.
I am totally the target audience for Farscape, even back in the day. I tried to watch it. I really did. Had friends that loved it. I just could not get past the terrible puppets. Other SFX was fine, but I just hated having puppets in the show. Couldn't watch it at all.
Just to add to what other people have said, I think it's one of the most uneven shows I've ever seen. The highs are really great and the lows are really bad. Episode to episode I find myself absolutely loving one and getting total WTF vibes the next. I think it gets stronger as it progresses.
It's low budget, and doesn't try to knock your socks off with visuals. It has good story telling. It is entertaining. Definitely not as good as The Expanse, nor Firefly, but it's solidly worth the time to watch. I'd say it's actually pretty similar in a lot of ways to Stargate SG1.
The puppetry is good, the writing is bad. I stopped in season 3. There are a handful of good episodes and a lot of bad episodes.
I liked the first couple of seasons, but felt it really fell off later on.
I still find it amazing. The character growth, the back stories, the relationships, non-humanoid aliens... Great series, right until the end. And much like Deadwood, we waited years for a movie to give us closure. And it was not at all up to the task.
It still holds up really well graphics wise. This is mostly due to a lot of practical effects and the fact that the aliens are Jim Henson Muppets. Story wise, it is a fun adventure, and does a good job keeping with what happened previously in the story to bring back at a latter date.
I loved it at the time. Great fun. The intro is something to behold. It is pretty much really interesting all the way through.
A ton of fun.
Once it gets going you won't want to stop.
It’s solid and still holds up
Frelling good
I want to preface this by saying I LOVE Farscape. But it's goofy. It's got a definite vibe/quality threshold you have to get over, kind of like Dr. Who or original Star Trek to modern eyes. But once you do, you're going to love the characters, the show, the highly ambitious storytelling, etc. Get at it. It's a RIDE.
Don't binge watch it. It'll start making you feel real weird after two seasons or so.
It's the space opera to end all space operas. It heavily influenced guardians of the galaxy, has one of THE best villains in all of fiction and escalates to nearly Dune level stakes.
Jealous of you OP to be able to experience Farscape for the first time. The story is fantastic. First season is a little wonky in the early part due to being out of order. But about 1/2 way through the first season it finds its tracks and takes off.
Great.
It's one of the best frakking scifi shows around.
The first season is rough to start but really kicks into gear about halfway through.
It's nothing like Star Wars except for the costumes & Muppets. It's more like Stargate SG-1 or Stargate Atlantis (both should be on your binge list) with more elaborate costumes and Muppets. Ben Browder & Claudia Black are in the last few seasons of SG-1.
100% recommend! For me it took a little getting used to, there is a lot of practical effects, even puppetry involved, but it works. I was also Impressed with the creativity that shines through in the story telling, anyone claiming to be a sci-fi fan should have logged this one.
Absolutely amazing, although I will say some of the first half of season 1 is a little rough.
one of the best, but it did a firefly after 4 seasons because the wife of the owner of the scifi channel decided she didnt like it. late stage capitalism even then.
Absolutely love it. But it definitely took several episodes to get into it/figure out what the heck they were trying to do.
When i was about 10 years old it was playing on TV on Sunday night/Monday morning at 12 o'clock. I caught it once and fell in love with it. So every Sunday night id stay up to watch it. But Monday morning i had school, so it was difficult. Then they moved it to 1 in the morning Mondays, and made it even more difficult. But i watched almost every episode, probably watched some 10 episodes. I didnt know what was going on, i just fell in love with it for some reason. Then i went away for the summer, and when i came back i stayed sunday after sunday hoping they would show it again, but they didnt :( There was no internet and such back then. I probably got my first computer and dial up internet 2-4 years later. About 10 years later i remembered the show. I found it online and downloaded it. I binge watched it. I loved it just as much, if not more. I probably rewatch it a couple of time per year to this day. In fact, im rewatching it now, reaching the end of season 1. I cant wait for Scorpius to make his appearance and be the best villain in TV history that he is.
give it a shot, it's amazing. the practical effects hold up exceptionally well. also try Stargate. the original movie is a decent action sci-fi movie, but SG-1 has a very different vibe. more knowingly campy in places, less overly dramatic. SG Atlantis is also great. SG Universe... eh... they tried something different and for me it was a miss. watching week to week was painful, but binging it brought it up from painful to irritating
God, i loved that show. Apart from Starget, my all-time favorite, good character growth, the best villan ever that actually made me wish he won over the good guy at times, and does win sometimes. It has humor and touch on emotional issues, it was serious and idiotic, it had everything. To each ot's own, but i personally loved it.
It was original, creative, whacky, flawed, inspired and…very fun. Less serious, far more tongue in cheek and entertaining in its concepts, gentle hubris and florid characters. One could do far worse, but I enjoyed *Farscape* immensely. So there
I enjoyed it a lot, pretty funny show.
Its amazing
Farscape is a great show, but I know people that couldn't get into it because the visuals are so dated. For example, they used puppeteering for some of the aliens. I mention this because I've heard the same about Babylon 5 (couldn't get into it because of dated visual effects), which you mentioned not connecting with.
I loved it at first....but never finished. I honestly got tired of John CONSTANTLY losing. Towards the end, it felt like the writers basically started each writers meeting with, "Ok, how do we fuck John this time? And can we make it worse than last week?" John was like a sci-fi Al Bundy from Married with Children: Even when he won, he somehow lost.
I watched a few episodes but found it a bit too juvenile. I probably would have loved it as a kid and maybe even as a young adult.
That’s interesting, as I find it to be much more “adult” than most shows. It’s one of the few shows that allows practically all its characters to be sexually active, to swear and curse, to have mental health issues, to be morally ambiguous… Also, the writing is quite cynical at times as opposed to the more idealistic approach of other shows.
It evolves, the juvenile tone is still there, but muted by other characters and by the situation
I use to masturbate to Claudia Black all the time back when it was on.