Some Thoughts on Farscape Season One
Farscape was a show that I constantly had memories about watching when I was a kid. I was crazy about sci-fi in general, but everything from the weird theme song to the aliens and villains made it stick with me- and I wasn’t even into double digits in my age at that point. I remembered snapshots of the show in my mind for a long time, although the name of the show eluded me.
I’m glad I rediscovered it. I can’t remember what triggered it, but I finally remembered the name ‘Farscape’ and found the full boxset on Amazon and promptly snapped it up, remembering next to nothing about the show. It was a full on impulse buy, sparked on by some kind of strange nostalgia I had for the show despite knowing next to nothing about it.
The chances are that you might be in a similar position to myself, or that you may have heard the name of the series passed around in a similar vein to other cult sci-fi shows of the 90s and early 00’s. What I’m going to write about is solely based off of the first season of the show, but from how I’m going to eulogise about it, it should be enough to spark you to watch this excellent show. I mean, hopefully. I’ve known enough Firefly fans in my life to know that enthusiasm for a show can sometimes have the polar opposite effect of inspiring people to watch it.
So, what is Farscape?
Farscape is an Australian sci-fi show made by the Jim Henson Company and Hallmark. From the dropping of the name ‘Jim Henson’ alone, you can already get a picture as to what some of the more alien elements of the show are going to look like, and your image is probably pretty damn accurate. It’s no secret to anybody who knows me that I love puppetry and clever non-CGI use of special effects, and Farscape has this in spades. It’s actually made the show far less dated than some others during this time, as the puppets are so damn well crafted you often find yourself forgetting that they are, in fact, puppets.
The most succinct way I can think of describing Farscape is a mix of Lost in Space, Star Trek: Voyager and Firefly, though that in no way does the show justice. In truth, it does have a lot of sci-fi tropes, and reading through the list of some of the earlier episodes, the show uses a fair few of them. This isn’t to say they’re not enjoyable tropes- who doesn’t love a good evil space empire?- and what Farscape does so well is to take something that might be so cliche and turn it into something unique.
The general thrust of the show is behind the main character, John Crichton (though he’s mostly referred to, often disparagingly, just as ‘Crichton’ in the same way your mum told you off for coming into the house covered in mud). He’s an American astronaut who’s been flung to the crazy part of the universe where the show takes part. Unfortunately, he had the luck of landing in a prison ship with some highly volatile prisoners of different species and philosophy: Zhaan, a priest, D’argo, a proud and aggressive warrior, and Rygel, a cowardly ex-king who’s basically looking for any opportunity to sell everybody out. There’s also Aeryn Sun, who’s part of the previously alluded to ‘evil space empire’ of the Peacekeepers, a hyper-militaristic race who spend most of their time just pushing everybody’s shit in. The problem with these Peacekeepers? They’re almost identical to humans. The makeup team just couldn’t stand having another crazy alien to deal with, probably.
Of course, with that summary of the characters, you can see the familiar archetypes coming into play: noble warrior/Klingon, wise priest/Vulcan, cowardly materialistic arsehole/Ferengi… and, like I said before, it’s a perfectly natural assumption.
The only problem with archetypes is when you employ them and nothing comes of them; when the audience has a character all figured out, a show can quickly get very boring. Not only does Farscape deftly avoid this pigeon-holing of its characters, it completely blows your assumptions out of the water. Mysteries are laid bare and characters change opinions of one another. They do bad things to each other- often. They have things they want, and lines that they will cross to get it. Without wanting to spoil anything, prepare to be surprised with this show. Anything and everything can change within a few episodes.
The show, much like Firefly, can gleefully skip between comedy and drama at any given point. There’s nothing more admirable than a show that, confident in its own style, isn’t afraid to throw humour into the mix and see if it sticks. The characters creatively banter with each other, insulting each other, and the show isn’t afraid to be outright ridiculous at points.
Must-watch Episodes
There’s so much quality TV out there these days that it’s almost intimidating how much gets churned out. I know that, when somebody tells me to watch a new show, it seems like a Herculean task when I’ve got such a huge backlog of other things that I want to watch looming over the horizon. I wholeheartedly recommend starting from the first episode and watching all the way to the end, as you would, but these are my absolute favourite episodes of the season and ones you should either watch individually to see the show at its best, or if you’re being completionist, look forward to with absolute relish because god damn it’s good.
Episode 1x7- PK Tech Girl
Not only an episode of great importance, but the first episode to really kick the show up a gear. Every character has a good showing in this episode, which has a dark tone- the crew happen upon the crew of a grand Peacekeeper battleship, the Zelbinion, where Rygel- usually our comic relief- was tortured. Simultaneously, there’s a ticking time bomb of an impending attack on Moya. This episode is highly referred to later on, but it’s also absolute quality, making it a both-watch on two accounts.
Episode 1x9 — DNA Mad Scientist
You know how I said Pilot was adorable and you want to protect him? This episode will have you spitting blood. This episode has some exceptional make-up and costume design throughout, and some extraordinary character development. After several episodes of heroics and characters downplaying their flaws, we have an episode where nearly everybody is at their absolute worst.
Episode 1x15 — Durka Returns
This episode is highly referential on PK Tech Girl. An old nemesis of one of Moya’s crew, thought dead, turns out to be alive. This episode asks some interesting questions- can somebody be forgiven for unspeakable crimes? Do people who are trying to reform deserve pity and understanding? Do you have a right to tell other cultures how they should act? An eventual new member of the crew is also introduced in this episode (one that my brother hates, and I’m indifferent to)- as of my progress through the show, she’s not had much impact, but time will tell if that changes.
The Entire F’n Finale — Episodes 1x18–1x22
The first season goes out on an absolute bang. I was on the edge of my seat throughout all these last few episodes. The tension and problems just ramp up and up and up. I honestly can’t spoil any of it. Just trust me.
