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Farscape Signs for 2 More Years
Dimes noted that the scifi channel has signed Farscape for 2 more seasons. 44 more episodes of my favorite sci-fi on TV (Well, maybe Lexx gives it a run for its money ;). New episodes start in January, and I'm a happy camper. Related ramblings: TNN is doing a marathon rerun of all of ST:TNG all this week. And I finally watched Enterprise- that theme song really has gotta go. But I'd like to see more, if only I could get it in my area. So much potential if they don't screw it up.
Am I the only person in the civilized world who DOESN'T like Farscape? I mean, maybe it's just me, but it just seemed kinda ...weak? How about some network picks up the Critic?
---
evel aka matt
"we got a might convoy, rockin' through the night"
yeah, lets see... canned ratings. Take sex, add some purposely off humor, mix in some scifi, add more sex. Sure, no one here is without substance. I guess that is why politicians suceed here. It doesn't matter what they are selling as long as they sell it good? How pathetic.
It will really give a lot of the newer Science Fiction TV show a run for their money. I know at the beginning I was unimpressed with Farscape, but it has been developing, and the audience it has gained has acquired its taste. The Soap Opera-tic style combined with the comedic mannerisms really give the show a uniqueness that you don't really find in a lot of today's Science Fiction shows.
Sorry, I think it fits. 2151 is still a time of military rule, and exploration is just starting, not well underway.
I like it.
Y'know, from what I read on /. the day the show premiered (And thanks to the morons at DirecTV I don't get UPN), I expected something that was a total disaster.
I was pleasantly surprised. I have to say I actually like it, a lot. It conveys the theme and mood of the series quite well - we're explorers, and tired of being held back. In a way, I think the music as much sets the pace for the entire series as well as it does for this incarnation of The Franchise itself. Humanity finally coming into it's own.
I expect the series will have it's ups and downs, but really, how much stagnation do we -want- in Star Trek? Same Theme, Different Stereotypes?
My own pointless vanity vintage computing page
Lexx started sucking with the whole "Fire and Water" bit. Farscape gets better and better, but the Lexx on Earth bit just sucks more every episode. Can we please blow up Sol-3 and move on?
Is Farscape going to still be produced in Australia? Are the commercial networks going to run it here?
"Dark Wings, Dark Words"
Lexx owns you...
What I really like about Lexx is how each episode starts off dull, but gradually gets weirder and weirder until you're asking "What the FUCK were the writers smoking?!"
Oh, and the sex is good. Yes, I'm shallow, but dammit, I like it, so bug off.
*sniff* Makes me proud to be a Maritimer.
3 simple words that describe Farscape. I don't think I've seen a Scifi show ever that is like Farscape. ST:TNG was good, but it was never as interesting as Farscape. I think it's partly because everyone can relate to John Crichton. Just a semi-regular guy who was in the space industry sucked into a wormhole and into the middle of another part of the universe. Completely stupidified by everything. It makes you think man what is he going to find out next. And it's the simple stuff, like the second episode of the series he finds out how the people he's with brush their teeth. There are plenty of unanswered questions, like why do Peace Keepers look so much like humans, why is Jool's DNA related to Crichton's, ton's of stuff. They haven't even really elborated on the characters in the show very much at all. Mostly basic stuff and a little extra here and there, there are worlds of ideas and topics they've yet to cover, and thats what makes this show so good and fresh in my opinion. Now I'll click Submit and check back for a fresh amount of flames because I said it was better than ST:TNG.
..There's a-dooin's a-transpirin'
I have watched both this and Lexx a couple of times and they don't stand up to any of the classic sci-fi shows such as ST:TNG, The Outer Limits, Babylon 5, etc. I would even have to say DS9 was better (and I didn't care for that show too much either). The acting, stories, and characters are bad, boring, and weird. I sure won't be celebrating this announcement.
Ashrael
...And this has to do with Lexx, Farscape, and Enterprise in what way? No wonder you posted anonymously, you idiot. I'm not even going to go into the fact that a non-academic, religious study is going to be incredibly biased in their research and how they display it.
Perhaps it is just a throw-back to those days in my youth watching McGyver, but this is a good show, scientifically plausable, interesting plot, and compelling characters.
Not actually on any more, but recent enough to be interesting. Amazing special effects, and an interesting plot where you never really know whether the aliens are good guys, bad guys, or somewhere in between (the reality being the latter). In that sense, it mirrors the complexity of real life.
While the last season got somewhat depressing in places, the people behind "The Onion" have consistently provided a tongue-in-cheek, very funny dialog which, until recently didn't take itself too seriously. Also, new season just starting, can't talk long.
One of the few ways to watch TV News which actually talks about that insignificant part of the world outside the US.
There is just something about the consistent style, interesting plots, and slightly sick humor that makes this the best Cop show since "The Bill" (it's a Brit thing - Yanks need not worry).
Chrichton, a man lost
Uncharted territories
His doom, two more years
someone please explain the draw to this show? it was a bad movie made into a bad show.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
> So much potential if they don't screw it up.
And even if they do screw it up, it'll still be on the air for at least five years.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
Sucks! I saw one episode. It had a really stupid plot about one stupid version of him and one really smart version of him. Anyway the smart version of him was of course sterotypically evil and the stupid version of him was savage but sterotypically good at heart. Anyway to make a dumb story short the stupid version and the smart version were taken away by some probe because the stupid self forced the smart self and himself on board the probe and that was the end of it. Back to one mediocre self. Sort of like the show. Actually, real dumb. Dumber than his stupid self.
I've been hearing a lot about Farscape, but never watched it because I didn't want to jump in in the middle.
Thankfully SciFi started re-airing it and this time I caught it. I think Season 2 just started on the reruns. Can anyone tell me what they're up to in the 'real' ones? I want to start watching those but I don't know where exactly they're at (Season 3 somewhere?)
I'd have taken notice of Farscape a LOT earlier if someone had told me Jim Hanson's Creature Shop was involved. The look & feel of the alien muppets beats the living daylights out of the "Nose Of The Day Department" who seems to do Star Trek. Then again when Farscape does have Human-Like aliens it's usually "Different Skin Colour" aliens.
I also love how everyone except Crichton has an Australian accent. And how badly they're trying to hide it. Yes, I know it's because the show's filmed there.
Plotwise, it's ok. The first season did have quite a few "Standard SciFi Plot #42" episodes, and some corny stuff (Scorpius? I mean... come on...), but I still like it. The characters are a lot more real than in Trek.
It's still not Babylon 5, but hey.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
Taco seems to be watching a lot of TV nowadays, in addition to the 12 hours/day of Anime. All he has left to do when VA closes is add his fat ass to the bottom of the welfare rolls...
yhbt,yhl,hand.
If you happen to be unlucky enough to live in an area where you can't get Enterprise at all (no UPN, no WB) how can you see it? I heard the pilot is online somewhere, but heck if I can find it...
Sure would be nice to see it for myself!
Hi... I'm Larry... the shivering chipmunk... brrrrr!... I'm cold... I need a sweater...
I am so happy to hear about the farscape renewal.. I think people generally like it because they seem to connect with John. There are not many "crew members" 5?6? so I think viewers seem to follow the show a bit better than say star trek.. when that unknown guy in engineering walks by or that guy in the yellow shirt that gets killed every episode... ;)
Farscape keeps me wondering what's next... The show rocks... One of the better shows Tivo decided to record..
ChiefArcher
The best Sci-Fi since Mad Max (Road Warrior for you Yanks). Only problem is, we don't get to see it here. Season 1 is currently showing on Cable on the FoxKids channel, but that's it. It ran for about 4 weeks on free to air, on Channel 9, who incidentally are co-produces of the show, but they pulled it.
LEXX is becoming more popular here, but still is only shown on Cable. Again, it was on late Sunday nights on Free to Air on Channel 7 here, but only for the first season.
I wish I could think of a witty Sig. Sigh!
I agree!
For me, I enjoy watching LEXX alot more than i do Farscape, the nudity and sexual situations is put in there on purpose, as opposed to tossing it in as a ratings stunt. Getting really tired of the helium fart joke, and the use of the word Frell is so lame, I see l33t kids use it often in chat rooms and forums.
Farscape is a unique take on a space-exploring sci-fi show. Crichton is thrust into a completely alien environment, with no other humans. (although Sebatians don't really require makeup). Each of the other main characters are different species, a couple of them are non-humanoid, and are therefore puppets. The other planets and races they run into are strange and bizarre, and you never know what to expect.
The ship itself, which the pilot is connected to biologically, is itself a living being, and sometimes makes decisions on its own. The show seems to have explored the living-ship aspect quite well.
The show's main focus is usually on Crichton, who is confused from the start. He doesn't understand anything, much less how he got there. Of course, he learns quickly (Humans have to be good for something.) but is still considered by the rest of the crew to be inferior.
The crew, being made of excaped prisoners, is always on the run, but they don't start off by trusting each other, except by necessity. On more than one occasion, one member has betrayed the rest. Each different species has their own quirks, and biological differences, from D'Argo's self-poisonous blood to Rigel farting helium.
The language-barrier is tacked by implanted microbes, which, while something that has to be tackled by the type of show, doesn't immediately take effect on Crichton. The different languages also cause problems with other non-implanted beings later. But at least it's not the 'magic auto-translating badge' or other methods used elsewhere.
The plots are good, the episodes are well-written and interesting, and the acting is great. While watching it, I forget that Rigel and Pilot are puppets. I recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction, just watch a couple episodes. It's not for everybody, but what is?
p24t
How does that make the theme song fit?
Like the first person who replied clearly pointed out, the Trek franchise HAS a theme-- why they ditched it (and any instant recognition it had) is beyond ANYONE..
Well, it looks like they'll have two episodes of new ideas, and then they start redoing old Star Trek plot lines. (Mind-controlling flowers? Hello!? Didn't that happen to Spock, and didn't Kirk have to "beat the crap out of him"? :)
--
Beryllium
The Critic is on Comedy Central.
And Farscape is incomprehensible in the middle of a multi-episode story arc. But watch a few episodes in a row and you'll fall in love.
btw, I just watched the Buffy season opener and now understand why people are such big fans. Now all I need is a TIVO and my few last hours of free time will be gone.
There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes. -- Dr. Who
Scorpius, Claudia Black, and frilling hot grits.
Did Babylon 5 set a standard form Sci-Fi that all new series try to go for?
Uh. Otherwise it seems OK
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
Slashdot is archiving -1 posts... wtf?
Only a cock gobbling fag would moderate this down.
TV sucks
When farscape started I really liked it. But lately it doesnt seem to be as good. I'm not sure why.
I am sad to hear that this is probably the last season of LEXX.
"sweet dreams are made of this..."
at mightybigtv.com The link is slow, as they have been having really nasty server problems lately. But, when the server works this is one of my favorite sites (Ok, I watch a lot of TV). Sorry for the blatant plug, but I thought this was something that everyone might enjoy. Ahh, who am I kidding, this is just going to overload the server more. Don't click the link. There will be no clicking. You are getting sleepy..... Pete
The sole purpose of the Internet is to get porn and bomb making plans into the hands of children.
Disguised Aussie accents in Farscape ? Lister's accent sure beats the smeg out of it. Food replicators in Star Trek ? small potatoes compared to cow vindaloo. Data the android ? how about Kryten the 3000 series mechanoid ? and 790 the robot head is really ugly compared to Holly.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
If you really want to see Enterprise, every episode may be found (in VCD or DivX format) within 1 day of airing (sometimes even sooner) in #startrek-central on DALnet (you need a registered nick to get in the chan).
Obviously an American did not post this message, for that poster knows nothing of the US or of being an American.
Wherever you may be, here is some advice: read a book, learn the alphabet, become educated...
It's ironic that Farscape is filmed in Sydney, Australia where I live, but Channel 9, co-sponsor of the show isn't showing it since season 1 finished last year. In the regular sci-fi timeslot of Tuesday and Wednesday nights they are showing ST:TNG (again) and Roswell. They aren't even repeating B5 yet!
The I hear runours that it's showing in other cities in Australia, but still not Sydney. What's the story? It's even been taken off the Channel 9 web site, which makes it even harder to work out what is happening.
It's quite surreal to see Sydney bush scenes, with the plants spray painted blue or something similar, or Sydney beach scenes (remember, I've only seen season 1) for what is primarily an American show.
Oh, of course. How silly of me, it's on cable. Unlike the US, cable TV doesn't have the same market penetration over here yet. Well, I can always go over to my mum and dad's place and watc them ... at 3:30am!
-- Huh, what?
I know for a fact that Farscape is keeping several production/post prod facilities afloat down here whilst our local industry is in a fairly bad slump at the moment. Don't know if the CG is done here though, probably not.
They might also have been encouraged by the recent anouncement of hefty tax breaks for produtions worth more than AUS$15 (US$8)million.
Yeah, almost there big fella. Better luck next time buddy.
buddy? yeah, BUTT buddy hehehehehe
Sort of a spoiler, but not really...
regarding the name "Scorpius", in a later
(current/last season) episode you learn
the origin of his name, within the Farscape
"universe." It makes sense, from that perspective,
_with_ the corn factor. They didn't fabricate
his character out of thin air... I though that
too when it first came on, but after they
develop his character further in the show,
you come to (retroactively) realize the deliberate
intent of a number of things about him and
his character which seemed corny at the time.
trust me. I was worried too, when they introduced
him.
premiers of ST:TNG and of DS9; but not TOS. But it'll take two+ seasons to get it together, if past is any guide.
BTW, why don't series creators have crew members of eg. TNG's Enterprise just rotate off + replace with new characters as season goes past 5 seasons? One at a time (a la Kes or Dr. Crusher) or en masse. This way new characters (a la 7 o' 9) can come in, old ones who didn't work out/cost too much can leave, and the fan base wouldn't need to re-adjust their mind-sets every seven years. This jumping around between future time frames is so...pointless. DS9, while of some interest wasn't a true "Trek" series, IMHO. I mean, look up the word "trek" - DS9 just orbited a fixed point and was doomed to become the serialized soap opera that it became (altho I really did like it quite a bit).
Seems to be the big thing to do. Kill off the main character, and see how to return them from the dead. Note Buffy of all things, which is pretty lame in this respect.
At least in Bab5, dead was dead, and was pretty permanent for most characters.
maybe it is all just a bad dream.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
That theme song is unbelievably gay.
I think new audiences is right, but i dont think its at all a "Younger Audience" their aiming for, I would think its a small part of a broad strategy they seem to have with the whole season (im guessing from what i have seen / read) too relate to more people, and not just all the sci-fi geeks.
:])
In my opinion (a sci-fi geek) thats a damn good thing, the *worst* thing that could happen (already sooo close) is for it to turn into a
'virtual' b-grade show appealling to only the most diehard geeks. Say like Babylon 5. =)
(Sorry for that flame-bait, i cant stand b5. Please ignore.
Suck onto my penis and I'll suck onto yours.
...and speaking of things that have got to go, what about that damn black bar on TNN? Who's the genius that cooked that up? I'd actually like that channel if that thing weren't there, especially since TNG looks better than it has in years, but I just can't stomach that bar, cutting off the bottom of the picture.
And to lump a totally unrelated topic into this post, did anyone catch the season premiere of Andromeda last weekend? I think my local station accidentally ran it a week early. I really want to like that show (as someone here said once, it's all about the ladies, and yes, it is), and I keep waiting for it to improve, but it never seems to get better. Too many implausible plot twists to keep the story on the right track. If you saw the season opener, you'll recall a huge one, but I won't post that big of a spoiler.
That light you see at the end of the tunnel might be from an oncoming train.
Amen bro! I was happy that courttv picked up all 7 seasons and ran the episodes in order. Although I didn't like the last 2 seasons after the mahoney shoot out. Falzone and those two chicks didn't seem like real cops.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Ahhh i cant stand TV down here!?!!@$ Damn the govt supported free-to-air monopoly! Jesus even now with digital tv, thanks to one media owner (aka Kerry Packer, Channel 9) we have digital tv in the 'more of the same' format!!@$# Ie no, new channels (except govt chan), and NO FSCKEN digital cable! ARGH!
:(
No wonder the best we see right now on tv, DS9 and Voyager, seasons 6 and 5 respectivly, at that prime-time once a week spot of midnight!!@$ Not to mention Farscape getting axed after such a short time!
Grr!! (insert !^inf)
*ah-hem* as you were..
They need to bring here back, quick. If there's no Xev, who's going to be having the sex?
Kai? Nope, "The dead do not get hard."
Stanley? He wishes.
Bunny? She can't get into it unless it's that dorky president guy.
WE NEED XEV!
Dude, it was Diane Warren who wrote the theme song.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Doh! this sucks, and its offtopic. My nameserver is smoking crack, the only thing it will resolve is slashdot.org (no I dont have root). Can someone
spout off a quick nameserver that I could temporarily.
Farscape completely nails the space opera genre. Period. While nailing it, the characters are very well developed, and you actually care about them. The plots are incredible because:
1. They don't always come out on top, or completely walk away supreme victors in conflict.
2. A lot of the time (much like in cowboy bebop) they don't come out ahead in the end because of something they did, they do because of weird luck, or the source of conflict making a huge mistake. So it's not predictable.
3. They focus a lot on things that happen in the past to season plots without overdoing flashback sequences (also like cowboy bebop)
4. Their technical voodoo bullshit sounds reasonable.
5. They will kill a character off.
6. They have the soap opera feel, and the cliffhanger crafting completely nailed also.
So basically, it's done intelligently. I hate watching a show and having my intelligence insulted. There's only been once episode (that crappy dance club, people milking episode) that truly sucked ass. I swear they accidentally let some brain dead shitty 60's movie director man the helm for some unknown reason. The only scifi I watch on TV at this point is Farscape, Outer Limits, cowboy bebop, outlaw star (more to see where they are going with it) and Stargate SG1 reruns. Even though Stargate SG1 is pretty predictable most of the time, it still has a big screen feel to it that I like. The characters are better than the plot, but good enough that watching it is still fun. I initially caught the first episode of farscape on scifi by accident at a friends house (Hey Dave) around the time it first aired, and they were playing it 3 times a day. I was hooked from then on. I had just grown completely sick of X-Files, and it completely replaced it. I can't wait for the new episodes. The awesome thing is that as the show matures, it gets better. My girlfriend and I were really worried that they'd apply the LEXX treatment to the show to try to push the ratings, or keep it on top. Then they brought the annoying big titted redhead on the show, and it really looked like it was going that way. I swear they must have changed directors or something for a little bit. Either way, things improved and it's me and my girlfriends favorite show at this point.
The most important thing any republican needs to know.
If you're new to Farscape, there is some hope.
:-) Hironimo also ripped up to 209 (season 2, episode 9) so be sure to get those too. From there, the quality is questionable, there are some DVD rips past 209, but nothing like the good work Hironimo did. You can get some pretty okay DTV caps, they'll get you through at least. 318 was the last episode, that's uh... 4 short of the end of Season 3? Not sure how that works exactly, but they're all easily available online if you have some patience.
1. #farscape-central (DALnet)
2. alt.binaries.tv.farscape
3. Kazaa/Gnutella/P2P*
For Season 1, get "hironimo" rips, they're the best quality I've seen. DVD rips, they burn nicely.
Blame the accent on the Microbes :)
why is this modded as a troll? its not his fault that taco is an idiot.
Until recently I'd never seen more than ten seconds of Farscape. They don't run it on any of the free-to-air channels in Sydney, much to the ire of many. I'm not much of a TV watcher myself, but I don't mind the odd episode of ST:TNG and happily admit to having been hooked by Babylon 5 when they were playing it on late night timeslots four years ago here in Sydney. I only knew about Farscape because my brother once played a bit part in an alien bodysuit for one episode. But now I've seen three whole minutes, and what's more, most of them not yet seen by the public, because last night I sang in the soundtrack recording for the penultimate episode (21) of the 3rd season at the Sony studios in Sydney. The production company contracted us (the Sydney Chamber Choir) to provide sixteen male voices for a couple of hours. The music was dark and Mozart-Requiem-like with lots of low notes, and we had to make it sound as much like a Russian choir as possible (for the choral iliterati, that means cavernous and subsonic).
SPOILER FOLLOWS
In the scenes we accompanied, an immense spaceship was being destroyed, water everywhere, and there was a tense meeting between some human bloke and a mean-looking alien commander in a black leather headpiece with a shrivelled face and pointy teeth (seems it was his ship being pounded). They both wore identical technological amulets which they discarded while talking. This seemed to be significant. There was no dialogue track, so all we had to go on were the visuals. Does any of this make sense to you diehards out there?
you could actually purchase the ones you can get on DvD, and watch them every night at 8pm on scifi. Not to be a dick about getting something for nothing, but I'd actually feel guilty about getting pirated copies of this show. This is not your father's scifi.
The most important thing any republican needs to know.
I'm serious.
Get the VCD, turn the volume right down, then play the intro to the tune of Sabrosa.
All you need is a clip from the 'decontamination' in the start and you're set.
That singing is really, really bad. I'm sorry. The rest of the show ROX. But it's a real letdown.
The makers of enterprise really should have a listen to the following, then keep the trend up:
Star Trek TOS Theme
Star Trek TNG Theme
Star Trek Voyager Theme
Star Trek DS9 Theme
Lexx Theme - start of series 1 "I am the lexx"
Babylon 5, series 3 theme.
If they're intent on having lyrics, They should refer to Red Dwarf. They had lyrics, they did it well. (IMHO)
Thanks, I have programmed my Tivo accordingly
No confusion, no shame.
... who never gets laid.
... but controls the Lexx, thus is the most powerful man in existance.
... Travel around in the universe trying to get stanley tweedle laid, because he's the captain, and Xev refuses to fuck him.
:)
All it takes is a look at the lexx its self to see what the show's based around.
What are the main charactures in less:
- A huge organic space ship, with a long extrusion, and two 'ocular perabola' which are so powerful they can blow up planets.
Additional notes:
- The lexx talks, but has an IQ of about 3
- It is capable of sustaning life within it, 'replicating' food for the crew, so it tastes how they want it, but always comes out in an ooze, from some equilly attactive extrusion in the cabin.
- The dunny's have no paper, the lexx 'licks' you clean.
Then there's Xev (formally Zev)
- Part sex slave, so she'll fuck anything that walks... except stanley tweedle
- Part cluster lizard, so she can stand up for herself, put up with the heat... and eat flesh.
- Because she was turned into a sex slave, she is drop dead gorgeous.
Kai. A dead guy.
- Also pretty good looking.
- Dead, so he's (basically) invincable
- Is an ex-assasin, with no feelings.
Robot Head
- A head, of a robot, that is madly in love with Xev, except for season 3, when it's madly in love with Kai.
Stanley Tweedle
- A real geek. Has been a geek all his life.
- A wimp, if it wasn't for Xev, he'd be dead long ago.
-
-
Right, thats a pretty good crew workup there, a great chick, a dead guy, a geek, a robot and a planet destoryer.
What do they do?
I don't know what it is about lexx, but there's no shame or confusion about what it's based around.
Lexx has got to take the cake, as the most F*cked up, sex oriantated cult sci fi series out ther.
I don't know how anyone can not love it
I don't know if I like your tone.
Channel 9 have always treated us sci-fi lovers well.
I tuned in keenly at 10pm for my series 1 bab5.
10:15pm for series2
10:30 for series3
11:00 for series4
I switched on at 11:00pm every night through season 5 so I'd be ready to watch the show at it's airing time of 'Any radom time between 11pm and 1am'
I liked the way channel 9 gave Deep Space 9 a post-modern feel by playing their series completely out of order on tuesday or thursday nights randomly between 11pm and 3am
And now, I tune in routenely at 2am every friday morning to catch my beloved series 6 Voyager.
I'm waiting for the adds (in a year or two) when they pick up enterprise:
"Tonight, or tomorrow night, We might start series 1 of the new science fiction series "Enterprise". Tune in. We'll play it at around 4am... maybe 5am, it depends on how long the important issues of the day take to spell out in NightLine so our audience understands them"
It's just part of the great service our wonderful, loving and caring government spends the revinue raised our 52% petrol tax on.
Well, I've read far more about Buffy than is healthy, and I've never heard of an Onion connection. What the #&^%#$& are you talking about?
Farscape I like. Lexx seems stupid to me though. I haven't got a chance to see Enterprise yet, but, I already see a flaw in it. The Klingons. In the original series Klingons looked human, it wasn't until the first movie that they had bumpy heads. Enterprise is set before the original series. So logically Klingons would look human. This flaw in the story line wouldn't be a big deal, but the writers have already addressed the fact that somewhere in the fictional history the Klingons went through some type of change. In the DS9 episode trials and tribble-ations the DS9 crew look at Warf in disbelief when he tells them that the human like beings at the other table are indead Klingons. Of couse we don't know exactly what happened (other than an increase in the makeup artists' budget) because Warf explains to the crew, "We do not discuss it with outsiders". The point is, they've already accepted in the story line that something happened in the history of the Klingons that changed their appearance forever. And now the Klingons in Star Trek Enterprise look like the new Klingons. Major flaw in the story line.
---- "Excuse me. Where's the children's gun section?"
I love Farscape - it's made more of an impression on me than any SF show since I first saw ST:TOS. Great characters, actors that can actually act, interesting plots, continuing story arcs (no Trek reset button), no inconsistent gaping tech holes, and, of course,
BABES
Claudia Black. Gigi Edgly. Oh my.
I can't think of any other show I've seen where my favorite character is the *ship* and my second is a puppet (Pilot). Or where the women kick such ass, or the main character screws things up as often as he saves the day.
Trek you can predict in the first two minutes of any ep. In Farscape you never know what's going to happen. Except, of course, that there'll be at least one or two hilarious moments, and that someone is bound to act like an asshole in a most unheroic - but most human - way.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
Get DishNetwork (and satellite TV) and the superstation package. Enterprise is being shown on 3 different channels.
is another season of TOS. Can someone please give Shatner a call?
Try out fish, the friendly interactive shell.
Pirated Farscape episodes are easily available on Gnutelle with a good client like Xolox.
Anssi Porttikivi / app@iki.fi
What I like about Farscape is that it is a retelling of the classic Edgar Rice Burroughs books, particularly the John Carter, Warlord of Mars series. These are pure escapist stories--literally. It is about escaping from familiar into the bizzare--into a land of danger, beautiful women, capture, rescue, and battles against evil. It is well done, has good eye candy, has a mishmash of appealing characters, and the plot twists are interesting enough to keep me involved. I like it.
The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
It took me a good while to give it a chance, but damn is it good. Space opera is back with a vengeance! Farscape often tells stories better than any show I've on television. From the writting to visual effects, this show has it all. I think it's one of the best kept secrets on TV. It's not exactly the televised novel that B5 was, but many shows are connected and the series feels like it's going somewhere. Here's a few reasons to give Farscape a chance:
Farscape is not being shown in Canada, so the only way I can get it is via edonkey. Works out quite well. The shows are about 350MB, which doesn't really take that long to download. And I have a laptop with TV-out, so I can watch the show on the big screen with the rest of the family.
Apparently there was supposed to be a deal with YTV in Canada, but it never happened. And this way I can watch the shows at my leisure, and in order (very important).
-W
Has anybody noticed how TNN has chopped fights out of TNG? Last night in the "Worf the Traitor" edisode, the sounds and video of slaps were cut out and Picard's fight with the Duras assassins was completely gone. Has anyone else noticed other violence being censored?
Cpt_Kirks
Farscape started shakey and then as season 2 rolled in it got tight. The story arc was slow (in a good way). Season 3 is crap. Over done melodrama. Character's so convulted in layers that they seem like 3rd gen copies of the orginial. Lexx on the other hand, improves season too season. It is low budget but the characters have progressed and not to the point of becoming archtypes like Farscape. Lexx got a bum wrap from SciFi channels treatement of Season 2 (out of order and shuffled around) and it's euro-art season 3. Season 4 Lexx is far and away more controled and centered than the spastic s3 of Farscape. The Farscape DVDs are a rip off as well.
Lexx is crap. Not Andromeda crap (i.e. sketchy scifi/science) which is still fun. Lexx is crap-crap. Utterly iredeemable. It is the TV equivalent of Battlefield Earth.
"Doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs." -- Switchfoot, Ode to Chin
If it's a time of miltary rule, why are they so friggin non-military? Maybe it is just Scott Bakula having no spine and horrible line delivery, but with that rub down scene it seems more like Love Boat meets soft pr0n than Star Trek or SciFi. Ayn Rand says "Show, don't Tell". Regardless of what you think of her books or ideologies, just saying "it's a time of military rule" doesn't cut it. You have to show it for the audience to feel it.
That said, I accidently saw the pilot and it wasn't too bad, but it was typical ST schlock. You would think geeks would be smart enough and get tired of recycled plot lines, but they don't (or they did long enough to get Voyager off the air).
Every episode of Farscape impresses me more than any other show I've ever seen. I put off watching Farscape because of the puppets and the usual SciFi lineup was horrible, but I'm glad I gave it a chance. Pilot still looks like a puppet but is rarely shown, but Rigel, unless I focus on him, blends in pretty well.
"The area of penetration will no doubt be sensitive." ~ Spock
They managed it.
...when you think its a totally pathetic piece of brain dead crap, which is almost entirly unoriginal and totally non inventive with the sole exception of the totally over the top far out visuals, which appear to be aimed at the bubblegum generation.
The only thing i really liked was the intro to season 1
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
It reminds me of the them song to the TV show from the early 80s.
"The Greatest American Hero (Believe it Or Not)" by Mike Post and Stephen Geyer, sung by Joey Scarbury
Believe it or not
I'm walking on air
I never thought I could feel so free-ee-ee
Flying away
On a wing and a prayer
Who could it be?
Believe it or not, it's just me
Ummm, Jon, aren't you supposed to be dead...? - Otter(3800)
What's the deal that the only problem people have with Enterprise is a theme song. Considering that this series is closer to us than Kirk it makes much more sense. Consider that Cochran was a Steppenwolf fan. It makes sense to have a 20th/21st type song accompaning this show. These people are us not in the distant future but in the soon and now - 100 years is not that far. With the advent of Warp technology 200 years becomes even closer.
Save Pangaea!! Stop Continental Drift!!
In the scenes we accompanied, an immense spaceship was being destroyed, water everywhere, and there was a tense meeting between some human bloke and a mean-looking alien commander in a black leather headpiece with a shrivelled face and pointy teeth (seems it was his ship being pounded).
Haven't seent the episode (yet), but the black leather guy was almost certainly Scorpious (brilliant villain - really nasty piece of work).
I really dig Farscape and think it's the best SF on tv at the moment. Why?
* It's exciting and unpredictable. You can never be sure that our heroes are going to win or, if they are, if it'll go as planned.
* There is a strong and effective story arc. The story truly does move forward; this isn't just a story about some people wandering around in space. (DS9 was good like this, but TNG, alas, was not.)
* The technology is at a good level for story purposes; it's high enough to make this clearly SF, but there's a lot of room for things to fail. The ship isn't nigh indestructible like the Enterprise D.
* The aliens really are alien, not just humans with funny noses. Even the human looking ones have key physiological differences (Sebacean heat death), and plenty of aliens are just bizarre.
* Finally, there are far more realistic levels of good and evil than you see in much commercial SF. The villians tend to be bad _individuals_, not giant evil empires. The heroes are all somewhat self interested and will do unprincipled things at time (cutting off Pilot's arm to give to NamTar in exchange for a map home). The largest and most powerful military organization in the area are, for most intents and purposes, a high-grade rent-a-cop outfit. The Peacekeepers aren't good or evil, they're lawful, and have members who can be either.
Overally, I think it's an exciting, dynamic, believable show, and I'm thrilled that the SF channel is recognizing this and giving us more of it. They'll certainly have my eyeballs for the next couple of years.
-michael-
... until a friend of mine is collecting the episodes on DVD. Combine that with Farscape replaying the entire series since episode 1 and it gave me a chance to watch it.
Not only does Farscape prevents me from watch sci-fi crap such as Lexx and the entire Star Trek franchise, but my tolerance for crappy shows in general is lessen.
Farscape is beyond just a great sci-fi show, it is a great show. I do not spend a lot of time watching tv but I will stop down for three things:
1. Hockey and NHL2Night
2. The Sopranos (and half the HBO lineup include Sex & The City, 6 Feet Under and Band of Brothers).
3. Farscape
Farscape is so greatness in fact my wife likes it. That would not be so impressive however she hates sci-fi so much that she will go out of her way to tease me about it. But she loves Farscape!
ChozSun
ChozSun.com
I know conclude that despite all of CmdrTaco's talk about anime and such, he is clearly a sci-fi poser. Lexx is the bottom of the barrel, below even all those bad Mark Hamill movies (which at least have the fact that they document the plummeting career of a scifi beloved going for them).
Lexx is crap. Not Andromeda crap (i.e. sketchy scifi/science) which is still fun. Lexx is crap-crap. Utterly iredeemable. It is the TV equivalent of Battlefield Earth.
Why was this inane comment moderated informative? The only thing the poster said was "Lexx is crap". That tells us nothing. For this to be informative, tell us why you think Lexx is crap; that would (possibly) be informative, or at least interesting. Are the characters unbelieveable? Do the plots have internal or external consistency? Is the writing poor? Are the sets so badly constructed that they wobble when an actor walks by?
And some examples to back up your claims would be good.
But just saying "Lexx is crap" is worthless. It is certainly not informative.
Sailing over the event horizon
Now, I started watching Farscape, as It had been recommended by people who had told me about B5.
I wanted to like this show, if only to maintain my high regard for some of my friends. But... after 2 weeks, I realized this was nothing other than Buck Rogers meets Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, with some left-over Fraggle Rock puppets thrown in.
Sorry Farscape just isn't worth the time. The story line wasn't engaging, the caracters were flat, and the whole structure was trite, and had been done better, other places.
I'm glad it appeals to some, but, I've got code to write.
(Lexx is by far, the worst program I've ever seen, except for ALF. And Andromeda. And Earth:Final Conflict.)
How is this connected, even slightly, with a discussion of Farscape?
Like we fucking care.
Does anyone know where I can buy Farscape Season 1 on DVD? All I have seen is the individual shows sold separately. I want the whole season ala The Sopranos Entire First Season.
Stalin's Death squads (multi million civilians)
Hitlers SS... well ALL NAZI's
African tribal death squads. (hey buddy! we've been friends for what... 50 years, well I have a machete that says I kill you because you're from a different tribe... and your kids)
Lister and Holly(Craig Charles and Hattie Hayridge) where the husband and wife prison wardens in the episode P4X
TNN has been showing alot of Star Trek lately. A few weeks ago they had a marathon of the movies (but only the first five). I didn't realize there was such a demand for sci-fi in the hillbilly demographic.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
OK, so I sort of made that last term up. But Farscape is the first SF television show I've seen that I wasn't in some way squeamish about mentioning to people I know who aren't big SF fans. It's got a quality that sets it apart from most of the rest of television, and just about all of the rest of SF TV. I am also overjoyed that Farscape doesn't avoid subjects which other SF shows either ignore completely or "wink" at in a very pubescent fashion, such as bodily functions and sexuality. It's a fine line between "not avoiding" and "wallowing in," and the show does a great job of walking that line to maximize dramatic impact and character exposition. Anyway, in my opinion, there are three hallmarks of Farscape that, when taken together, differentiate it from other SF TV shows.
1. Continuity. This is, to me, the difference between crappy money-makers like the Star Trek franchise and good SF TV like Babylon 5. It also happens to be one of the virtues that the Farscape writers/producers were smart enough to seize on as well. The things that happen in our lives determine and affect our later behavior.
I remember hearing someone else say the following once about ST:TNG, and it stuck with me because it really epitomized the problems I had with that show. I always thought it was somewhat juvenile (although I understood the need to appeal to the 12 to 18 demographic), and this drove it home. In one of the episodes, the android officer, Data, knifed one of his fellow officers (I think it was Yar) pretty seriously, due to some malfunction. The very next week they were chatting and sharing an elevator normally as if it had never happened. I'm sorry, but higher consciousness be damned; if someone sticks a blade in your gut, you're going to be a little uneasy being alone with that person for the foreseeable future. Farscape never suffers from this problem.
It's important to remember that the reason that ST series were never big on continuity (in more than a general background way) was because the producers and script supervisors have to work a lot harder to keep control of story and character arc to enforce it. (Meaning you have to have story and character arcs to begin with.) To me, this why the film ST:Generations was pretty good; despite the silly plotline with bringing back Kirk, it was the first time we really saw something awful happen to one of the characters (Picard), something he couldn't fix and which would deeply affect him for the rest of the story arc. In this case, it was a little easier to do since the story arc was only two hours long, but it was a great leap forward for a character who was basically nothing more than a one-dimensional metaphor for good judgement up to that point. It also gave the later story emotional resonance, something also usually lacking in ST shows. (There were a few exceptions; the one that comes to mind immediately is the excellent ST:DS9 episode where the station commander is forced into some sort of time warp which causes him to only be able to see his son periodically through the rest of his life as he matures, grows old, has his own family, etc. That was a script and show which stacked up favorably against some of the best West Wing and ER episodes.)
2. Character. I like my characters three dimensional. I just started watching at the beginning of season 2, and I've enjoyed immensely discovering the very rich backstories of all the characters. I had been content with seeing them only as the two-dimensional constructs I had assumed they were, but what I am finding is that as I see older episodes and see more of each character's personal arc, I can watch a later episode and see actual growth and motivation that I had simply missed or ignored before. Plus the acting is really quite good for the most part.
It is clear as you see more and more of the episodes, and place them in chronology, that the producers have a very clear understanding of where each character is going. It is very rare that they pass up the opportunity to have a character take action which furthers his/her own personal goals because of some "higher" or "altruistic" motive. These motives may be good for morality tales, but they don't necessarily equate to either good drama or illuminating the human condition. (And yes, I believe that at its heart that is still what Farscape and other good SF is about. The only way to illuminate some invented alien condition is through a work like LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness. And anyone insane enough to want to make an hourly episodic series of something like that is not likely to find anyone else even more insane who would put up the money for it, not to mention air it, put up commercial time, etc....)
3. Clichelessness. This is what separates Farscape from B5 in my opinion. B5 did an excellent job of having both story and character arc on the large scale -- which one would expect of a writer of J. Michael Straczynski's [sp?] stature and credentials. On the small scale, however, it frequently suffered from problems of tired, worn-out humor; overwrought and/or clumsy dialogue; and contrived situations and character simplification to achieve plot points. And although my hat is certainly off to Mr. Straczynski for his landmark work at pulling off a five-year series of this scope, I think the writing itself fell victim to that scope by being stretched too thin.
While Farscape certainly has its moments as well in this regard, they are much fewer and farther between than in any other SF series. Although some of the plot devices are not wholly novel in the SF realm, they are well-integrated (the warrior race, the living ship) and never reduced to two dimensions even to temporarily serve the needs of poor writing. What I see in Farscape is, above all, the evidence that the producers and script supervisors are more than willing to say to a writer, "No. Go back and do it again," until they see something that serves the motivation of these fleshed-out characters.
What separates the good SF like Farscape from the crappy 90% (to paraphrase Theodore Sturgeon) is the unwillingness to settle for less than something that looks, smells, and tastes like Truth (in the dramatic and literary sense). That's a hard vintage to come by, and once you've drunk from that cup, it's very hard to settle for the kind that comes with a screw-top. Farscape has raised the bar for SF television, and I for one say it's about time.
Yeah, it's certainly original. The characters are more interesting than those on most TV shows (never mind other SF shows!). And it's the first space opera I've seen that admits that the future will be a messy place -- rather like the present.
But if it's the Best SF Show Ever, it's only because the competition is so laughable. I'm most bothered by the weak science. (Helium farts? A very mammalian-looking alien who's supposed to be a walking plant?) I never miss an episode, but it's not the kind of show I enjoy watching over and over.
What really bugs me is SciFi Channel's stupid scheduling. I don't mind that they counter-schedule, so their TV season begins when the regular networks' are ending. But couldn't they find a way to do it without a 4 month hiatis every fall? It means that Farscape and Lexx get cut off in mid arc. By the time the shows return, you've lost all your sense of continuity. Not the way to build viewer loyalty!
I would just like to use this space to say, FARSCAPE SUCKS!!!!!!!! Thank you.
It would seem so. And rightfully so, Babylon 5 being (IMHO) one of the best examples of quality televised science fiction to date. Enterprise has almost zero chance of being as great as Babylon 5 was, but it's a good goal to shoot for.
I felt it was a nice change from the trumpets and sweeping chord changes of all the previous shows. Worst ST theme: Deep Space 9
Kind Regards, Phillip
I agree, Clever, about the Theme Song. It sounds so "80s Hair Band rock ballad"...
(Yes, I didn't bother registering... I hate registering for every damned thing I want to do on the internet... too many people have my info as it stands... So I'll put up with the "Anonymous Coward" monicker for now...)
Anyway, if you are indeed Wil Wheaton, (I'm new here, so I don't know that to be a fact) I just wanted to drop you a line to tell you that I actually liked Wesley after a while. I thought he was a bit abused as a plot device in early episodes, which is hardly the fault of the actor, so I'd be the last one to disparage the man for the writing... but then the first season or so of TNG are still painful to watch anyway... with characters still being developed, and plots kind of weak.
I recently saw the episode where Wesley ran off with the Traveler again, and I still consider that a very good episode.
Anyway, more to my main point. Do you still use Lightwave?
I read several years ago that you were getting into Lightwave production. I started using it at version 1.0, I believe. Or 1.2... On an Amiga 2500, shipped with the Video Toaster system.
I use it all the time now, working on "Asheron's Call", a computer game I've been working on for 5 years or more. It's written and developed by Turbine Entertainment Software. I am the lead artist on the project, and I animated all the creatures in Lightwave. My co-worker, Joe Angell, animated the human avatar completely in Lightwave. All the models are modeled in Lightwave.
It's a MMORPG. Thousands are playing at any one time. If you want to check it out, I'll send you a box. (No random e-mails from anyone else... I won't send it without some reasonable assurance of identity!)
We just finished an expansion which contains the full game, and all the monthly content we've added in the past two years, plus lots of new goodies. Ships Oct 25.
And your system should be able to manage it, too. It was intended to be very scalable depending on the system you use. A P2 with a graphics adaptor will work fine. That's all I have at home. A P2 450, with a GeForce (not even a GeForce 2!) and it works perfectly, and looks great!. I upgraded my own system from a very old 486 to a P133, eventually up to a P2 450... it's a Frankenbox...
Anyway, ignore this as spam if you like, but if you're interested in trying out the game, or even discussing Lightwave a bit, contact me at: seanhuxter@juno.com
Sorry, I won't give my work address out publicly, as I already get enough random mail from players as it is... but if you would like to check it out, contact me at the Juno address, and I'll ship you a box. (I'll probably not check back here to see how the thread is going.)
(And thanks for "Stand By Me!")
Sean Huxter
Lead Artist - Asheron's Call
Turbine Entertainment Software Corporation