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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.
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.
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?
I wrote it off because of the "damn muppets", and only eventually and very reluctantly sat down to watch an episode at the insistence of a long suffering friend, who just kept patiently plugging it while I teased him mercilessly.
Oh my. Oh my.
For those who haven't seen it, here's a taster of how slick and knowing it is. Picture our protagonists fighting off an attack by evil space pirates armed with powerful strap-on bracer weapons. Our ersatz-Klingon protagonist picks up a discarded weapon and straps it on. It injects some glowing green goo into him. After the pirates are beaten off, ersatz-Klingon is still angry and bellowing, and declares that he should lead the ship in this crisis.
How would Star Trek handle this? Fifteen minutes of hammering the point home, while he cackles maniacally and the crew go "Gee, Dargo seems a little out of sorts today. Is he wearing black eye liner?" and we shout "He's evil! Get the weapon off of him! You idiots!"
On Farscape, his companions exchange one subtle glance - and no words - and jump him the instant his back is turned. The writers expect us to know the genre and to have figured it out. No patronising exposition is required, no frustrating and uncharacteristic period of ignorance by the crew. I really appreciate that.
This theme continues through most of the episodes. When the characters can't figure something out, it's not made obvious to us the viewer either. Sometimes the characters figure situations out before the viewer does. Often, there are no obvious solutions to their problems, and the solution is rarely if ever a Particle of the Week or a Deus Ex Machine.
Farscape treats its characters and its viewers with equal respect. The characters never get conveniently dumb, and the viewers aren't expected to either. I really appreciate that.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.